Recording: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Artist: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Song: Ennea's Domein (2nd mvt) [composer: Robin De Raaff]

Recorded at Temerty Theatre (If:Iff - works for chamber orchestra and electronics), December 14, 2017.

The GGS New Music Ensemble - Ennea's Domein (2nd mvt)

Another night of intriguing works from the New Music Ensemble of the Royal Conservatory's Glenn Gould School, steered by the genial Brian Current. As always, the material was confidently tackled by the younger musicians, enhanced with some familiar faces from the wider New Music community (Darren Creech was on piano throughout, for example).

This concert saw a couple works incorporating live electronic elements: Kotoka Suzuki's "Dreams and Wandering" had some tasty ambient washes (added live by the composer) under parts of the score (a pleasing effect that could have been pushed even further), while James O'Callaghan's "IF:IFF" deployed electroacoustic misdirection in a manner that transcended cheesy over-the-topness with its dedication to dramatic performativity. This piece from Robin De Raaff, meanwhile, didn't use any electronic sounds but still had an algorithmic feeling, thanks to its rigourous three movements with three sections each, with the labour spread out amongst three times three musicians — the piece was "brought you by the number nine," joked De Raaff in his introduction.

Recording: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Artist: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Songs: Gran Turismo [composer: Andrew Norman] + Dérive II [excerpt] [composer: Pierre Boulez]

Recorded at The Royal Conservatory of Music's Conservatory Theatre, May 5, 2016.

The GGS New Music Ensemble - Gran Turismo

The GGS New Music Ensemble - Dérive II [excerpt]

Under the leadership of Brian Current, the Glenn Gould School's New Music Ensemble continues to thrive, challenging young musicians to tackle intricate works. That was especially evident in the presentation of the sprawling "Derive II", which took up more than half of the programme. "The elementary phenomena of pulsation and repetition are often blurred," the notes mentioned — they seemed to be at a pain to find fancy ways of saying "this has a lot of notes". That fact made this fully satisfying as a technical exercise, in watching the students (plus the inestimable Wesley Shen on piano) hang on to the raft as they shot the rapids, so to speak.

Things were somewhat less frenzied earlier on with Ana Sokolović's Carl Stalling-meets-John Cage "…and I need a room to receive five thousand people with raised glasses", which included some fun extra-musical dramatic flourishes like a twirling conductor and a series of players popping up in their chairs like figures in a Whac-A-Mole game. Andrew Norman's videogame-inspired opener saw eight violin players arranged in a crescent in a piece which spacialized the sound quite nicely in the room, with musical phrases being passed down the line in a musical car chase.

Recording: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Artist: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Songs: Behind the Sound of Music [edited fragments] (composer: Nicole Lizée) + 3 Movements for Chamber Orchestra [2nd movement] (composer: Scott Good)

Recorded at the Conservatory Theatre, April 10, 2014.

The GGS New Music Ensemble - Behind the Sound of Music [edited fragments]

The GGS New Music Ensemble - 3 Movements for Chamber Orchestra [2nd mvt]

As I've said before, Brian Current is leading the New Music Ensemble at the Royal Conservatory's Glenn Gould School down some very interesting roads. The chance to present the World Premiere of this new Nicole Lizée piece was used as a springboard to present a couple other pieces that were based in sound and vision, including Martin Matalon's Les siete vidas se un gato (a new score to Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou) and Louis Andriessen's The New Math(s) (a soundtrack to an arthouse kung-fu slapstick flick). But it was Lizée's work that captivated the most.

Following on her Hitchcock Etudes, Behind the Sound of Music applies glitchy cut-and-paste techniques to the beloved musical to create a slightly hallucinatory trip. Known for playing off pop culture tropes, this piece could be a true crossover hit — someone just needs to get it in front of the cult film/midnite movie/420 crowd.

With the composer on hand to conduct, the night also saw a performance of Scott Good's piece, which had been commissioned by the Glenn Gould School. Starting from a strictly defined set of musical tools, the piece aims to employ those ingredients in different ways — ranging here from lithe and melodic to dirge-y drones. A work in progress, there are more movements yet to be added.

Recording: The GGS New Music Ensemble

Artist: The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble

Songs: Triple Riffing [excerpt] (Tim Brady, composer) + Chamber Concerto: I. Corrente (Fließend) (György Ligeti, composer)

Recorded at The Royal Conservatory of Music (Conservatory Theatre), April 18, 2013.

The GGS New Music Ensemble - Triple Riffing [excerpt]

The GGS New Music Ensemble - Chamber Concerto - I. Corrente

Full review to follow. A night of top-notch performances from these students at the Royal Conservatory. The evening started with Tim Brady appearing in two roles, first playing improvised electric guitar alongside the ensemble on a Steven Mackey piece, pitting free will and determinism in a head-to-head battle. That set the stage nicely for the moto perpetuo of his own "Triple Riffing", performed by a trio of students on piano, clarinet and violin. The building layers featured plenty violin sawing and some clarinet squawks that put the composer's guitar shredding and feedback squeals at the top of the mind.

The second half featured Alexina Louie's "Imaginary Opera", which vivdly set the scene for a tale of nefarious deeds by the foggy riverside and a chase scene with ghosts just somewhere outside the edges of the frame. And the night closed with with a meticulous reading of Ligeti's "Chamber Concerto" with many different sonic densities bubbling together. The quick pizzicato strings and deconstructed stereophonic chord-blasts brought some elements of electronic music to mind, and the inclusion of some creamy synth textures hinted that this piece (from 1970) could be read as being as much a contemporary of, say, Silver Apples as of Górecki or music of that ilk.

This wasn't the first time that I've seen this ensemble play, and I've always been impressed by the calibre of performance and the energy brought by the students and director Brian Current. These shows are about the joy of discovery for both the performers and audience, and they're quite reasonably priced. Just as I'd rather go see a band at the 'Shoe than at the ACC, there's a real delight in seeing these musicians close up at this stage of their performing careers. At this last concert of the year for the group there were a few more empty seats in the theatre than there should have been, so once the ensemble gets started in the next season, expect me to be hectoring you to come out and join me in discovering something new.