Hebrides Ensemble

St Mary’s Church, Whitekirk 11/9/25

Hebrides Ensemble, William Conway (director, cello), David Alberman (violin), Rebecca Afonwy-Jones (mezzo soprano)

 St Mary's Church in Whitekirk was the venue for the afternoon programme of 11th September in this year’s  Lammermuir Festival, with an eclectic programme from vibrant innovative chamber collective, the Hebrides Ensemble, directed by their cellist,  William Conway.  Ravel’s 150th anniversary was celebrated with two of his loveliest masterpieces, but the programme also marked the centenaries of two late 20th century greats, Boulez and Berio.   A new dramatic song cycle, commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society from young British composer Jasper Dommett, also featured.  Welsh mezzo-soprano Rebecca Afonwy-Jones was the vocalist in the Dommett and the Berio.  The ensemble for this concert comprised string quartet, double bass, flute, clarinet, harp and two percussionists.

In the August of the glorious summer of 1976, an RTÉ film cameraman filmed the Irish landscape from the air in a helicopter.  The footage was collated into a 7-part documentary series dubbed with a concise informative script and lots of beautiful music.  The series aired the following spring under the title ‘As the Crow Flies’, part travelogue, part celebration of the beauty of landscape, both natural and man-made, and especially to illuminate Irish culture and heritage in a modern setting.  Ravel’s ‘Introduction and Allegro’ for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet was one of the pieces of music used.  If memory serves me correctly, it coincided with panoramic aerial views of the 6th century monastic ruins of Clonmacnoise and other remarkable sights on the banks of the Shannon.  Ever since, the music has been a favourite and conjures up nostalgic images of sultry summer afternoons and a deep sense of well-being.  In Whitekirk, it did again for me.  The piece was commissioned as a commercial to showcase the capabilities of the Érard pedal harp, which it does admirably.  Harpist Sharron Griffiths afforded it all of the dreamy shimmering elegance that her quasi-concertante part deserves, most memorably in the virtuosic cadenza with bell-like harmonics.

Exit the harpist and enter the bassist.  Jasper Dommett was present and invited to introduce his song cycle ‘Folds on Folds’, confirming (as I had warily surmised) that it was inspired by Boulez’ ‘Pli selon pli’.  And here I must make a confession.  For most of my life as a listener, I have had a pathological aversion, bordering on allergy, to anything associated with the Darmstadt School.  Boulez the conductor, I worship.  Boulez the composer, not so much.  My predilections may have mellowed somewhat with age, but some old habits die hard.  As it happens, I needn’t have worried.  Unfortunately, with the long reverb in St. Mary’s barrel vault and the microphone held close to Jasper’s lips, I deciphered little of what he said, but I can piece together the following.  For relaxation, de-stressing and general self-care, he likes to sew with a sewing machine.  The nursery song ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’ and the text of a sewing machine manual provide the bulk of the lyrics.  The spirit-calming comforting influence of the sounds of the machine is emulated by the instruments.  The voice of Rebecca Afonwy-Jones is the human element.  So far so idyllic.  But human-machine interfaces are prone to going awry.  And it does.  The situation is rescued, but not before some drama.  Now there were elements of plinky-plonk in the music.  But there was so much more.   Rebecca’s phenomenal vocal palette drew the listener into the drama.  There was humour and whimsy, including solo violin singing the nursery tune out of metre.  In short, I was very glad to have been there – it was well worth the candle.

Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, in a reduction of the full orchestral version made for the whole ensemble by Inverness-born composer Alasdair Nicolson. furnished (as I have remarked before with other arrangements for the ensemble by Brett Dean et al.) a perfect example of the adage “less is more”.  The challenge of finding alternative instrumentation to realise the spirit of the original was fully and ingeniously met, almost always enhancing the transparency of the texture, and allowing the audience to appreciate detail hitherto often concealed.  Particularly delightful was the orientalism of ‘Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas’, with harp, glockenspiel, xylophone and tam-tam in the mix and glorious flute playing from Cormac Henry.  Edging the trophy, though, was my absolute favourite part in the penultimate movement, where a harp glissando depicts the transformation of the Beast and he and Beauty are united at last, chromatic violin harmonics, shimmering muted strings and a whole tone harp arpeggio resolve magically to a perfect cadence, in every sense of the word perfect.  Not that there’s anything wrong with the happy ending of the ‘Enchanted Garden’, of course.  Super.

After the interval, violinist David Alberman introduced (wittily) and played Boulez’ ‘Anthèmes I’ for solo violin.  It is a theatrical piece of incidental music for a 9-minute scene, in which four characters, three of whom are brusque and aggressive, while 1 is calm and conciliatory, have a blazing argument.  And the music definitely depicts exactly that.  There are lots of trills and glissandi, and also very fast pizzicato.  The verdict?  Well, I found it strangely compelling and surprisingly enjoyable.  Not suggesting for a moment that I would travel a large distance to hear it or its like ever again.  But the playing was phenomenal and the sound was entirely bearable.  And not unlike music.

We were on surer ground with Berio’s set of ‘Folk Songs’, dating from 1964 when they were written for Cathy Berberian, and they do exactly “what it says on the tin”.  A varied set of 11 folk songs from around the world, with accompaniments that vary enormously from stark and austere to melodious and gleeful.  I had always considered ‘Black is the Colour’ to be an Irish song, but in fact it was collected by English ethnomusicologist Cecil Sharp in the Appalachians in America, credited to the songwriter John Jacob Niles, as is ‘I Wonder as I Wander’, which I have dung in an arrangement with my choir.  Next and last are two Armenian folk songs, both absolutely delightful.  French, Auvergnois (at least one of which Canteloube also set), Sicilian and Sardinian songs are featured, as well as two original Italian songs by Berio himself.  Rebecca’s warm and engaging mezzo is perfect for this repertoire   I kept thinking “I’ve heard this before”, and maybe I have, though it is the kind of music that we have always known, even if we’ve never heard it before.  Excellent.