Colin Currie Quartet
Tomorrow evening, the Colin Currie Quartet is set to deliver a evening of contemporary percussion music at London's renowned Wigmore Hall. Central to the concert is the world premiere of Freya Waley-Cohen's Stone Fruit.
Co-commissioned by the Wigmore Hall and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Stone Fruit draws its inspiration from the nuanced rhythms of everyday household activities. At its core, this piece features a distinct percussion instrument made from teacups. Through the work, Waley-Cohen draws parallels between the delicateness of the teacups and the surprising intensity of their sound, similar to the hardness of stones inside stone fruits, hidden by their soft exterior flesh.
The quartet also presents the London premiere of Amy Beth Kirsten’s may the devil take me. This work for four triangles delves into the enchantment of sound and the dichotomy between the true and the false, mirroring the interplay between reality and fiction seen in Cervantes' Don Quixote.
In addition to the two premieres, the quartet showcases works by other contemporary composers. These include Andy Akiho, whose rhythmic complexity and use of unconventional materials set him apart in the contemporary music scene; Dave Maric, known for his genre-blending compositions that often incorporate electronic and acoustic elements; Steve Reich, a pioneer in minimalism whose influence on contemporary music is profound.