There is a serenity about the music of Gavin Bryars, thoughtful, reflective and resonant. Bryars is both master of the deep-down double bass, from radical 60s jazz and further afield, and a composer of engaging and often meticulously researched works, sharing the qualities of resonance in range, temperament and sonority.
At the invitation of the director of Handel Street Projects, Fedja Klikovac, who had previously staged a Gavin Bryars Ensemble quartet performance, a chamber ensemble of similar scale took root for the evening in a high ceilinged, white-walled, minimalist space designed by architects, Pawson and Silvestrin.
With the capacity audience seated and in the presence of three of artist Jeff McMillan’s raw-textured, weather-exposed oil paintings from his Texas series, the quintet took their place at one end of the space to lead through a programme which included works which Bryars enjoys exploring anew each time they are performed.
James Woodrow’s guitar, shimmering with ‘its grainy sustains colouring the sound of the viola and cello’, as Bryars wrote in the programme notes, was the perfect complement to the strings, with Bryars on string bass, and his son, Yuri Bryars, taking over on occasion when he moved to electric keyboard.
Several of the pieces played had haunting qualities, with James Woodrow’s guitar adding an other-worldly dimension, echoed silently by McMillan’s large, wall-mounted paintings, notably the birthday tributes to Evelyn Glennie, Added Time, which had its premiere at Handel Street Projects in 2018, and to his publisher, Peter Hanser-Strecker at Schott Music, Dancing with Pannonica.
Bryars’ bass, which has seen service at the 60s cutting edge with guitarist, Derek Bailey and drummer, Tony Oxley, set down drone reverberations as the understated foundation to the group and solo peregrinations.
The four Laude, were from a large body of works by Bryars based on single line Mediaeval song manuscripts, all sung, in the day, outside churches, as he explained. Laude Dolce I was written for Audrey Riley whose lightly dextrous solo cello playing opened the concert. Following the ‘simple, little ditty’, It Never Rains, Morgan Goff followed in a similar vein, clearly enjoying the nimble viola finger work demanded by the composition. Laude Dolce II featured Woodrow’s solo guitar, flooding the room with elusive, ethereal insinuations.
The Thelonious Monk connection to Dancing with Pannonica refers to Baroness ‘Pannonica’ Rothschild who took in Monk in hard times and was a softly-toned ramble with Woodrow’s guitar gently bringing out the melodic line alongside the acoustic string harmonies.
The Flower of Friendship, on which the concert closed, was a commission from a Canadian lawyer as a gift to his wife. Bryars was about to write a set of songs, only to find out that the dedicatee disliked the sound of the human singing voice, so it became a purely instrumental composition with his close group of musicians in mind, which gave each a chance to shine as the baton was passed around the ensemble.
I shall leave the last words to Fedja Klikovac, as he put it so well. ‘It was a very special evening. All musicians agreed that this was their best performance in years! The sound was remarkably and unexpectedly good considering the high ceiling and glass roof, and the raised wooden floor made a big difference.’
Musicians
Morgan Goff: viola
Audrey Riley: cello
James Woodrow: electric guitar
Yuri Bryars: double bass / keyboard
Gavin Bryars: double bass / keyboard
Programme
1 – Laude Dolce I
2 – It Never Rains
3 – Laude Dolce II
4 – Laude Con Sordino
5 – Laude Dolce III
6 – Added Time
7 – Dancing With Pannonica
8 – Flower of Friendship
