In the paradise of composers

When Yvonne Loriod once played the first of his bird pieces on the piano for Olivier Messiaen, he said to her disappointment: she had done everything right, but something was missing; the next morning he took her out into nature, where she could listen to the birds herself and understand their songs. This perhaps only small, but decisive difference remained noticeable when the Percussion Art Ensemble Bern performed the piece in Basel's Gare du Nord. Nri/mimicri by Charles Uzor. In it, the St. Gallen composer transposed bird songs down eight octaves, making them playable on instruments. Now the four percussionists and the ondes martenot player Caroline Ehret were to imitate these songs. This peculiar sound jungle, a juxtaposition, a jumble of voices, connected by nothing but the whole, a wild ritual space, sounded very colorful in places, but the piece could blossom even more wonderfully if this sonic imagination were really brought to bear by the musicians. Here it seemed more played than lived through.

That was characteristic of the evening: one last bit of care was missing. Perhaps the musicians should perform barefoot like Evelyn Glennie after all, because even shoe heels can easily become percussion instruments, even if unfortunately mostly unintentionally. And in small noises when putting down mallets, picking up the bow or switching from one instrument to another, it was also audible that there is simply a lack of sensitivity and imagination at times. This was particularly distracting in the more difficult, fragile pieces of the program, in Uzor, whose music is strong enough in itself and yet remains comprehensible, and in Floraison by the Belgian Jacqueline Fontyn, which thus frayed even more into arbitrariness.

The Bernese percussion ensemble with Simon Forster, Ferdinand Heiniger, Oliver Schär and founder Daniel Scheidegger celebrates its twentieth birthday in November with a tour of Switzerland (Uettligen, Basel, Biel, Burgdorf, Bern, St. Gallen). Four world premieres were performed under the title "Dialogues", with the piece by Uzor being the richest and longest. The quartet has rendered many services to new music in the federal capital, presenting the sound repertoire in a wide variety of facets and performing valuable mediation work. It was therefore awarded the Canton of Bern's prize for innovative music education in 2012 for its "Alltagsmusik" project.

Perhaps the Percussion Art Ensemble simply needs somewhat more robust compositions that are primarily rhythmic and straightforward. The other two pieces of the evening were birthday presents (those by Uzor and Fontyn were commissioned by the quartet) and suited the qualities of the musicians far better. Urs Peter Schneider's new piece Heard for five percussionists playing in two voices (with Karin Jampen on electric piano) "translates" an Aramaic text into sound processes. The two vibraphones, two marimbas and two pianos move along constantly in pulse and volume, effortlessly, but interrupted by pauses in the gradually changing chords. Above this, however, the spectral range begins to vibrate "audibly" - each time differently, explorable with the ear. And this showed that even today, percussion music is a magic bag from which countless shades of color can be conjured up. This is why the Bernese composer Jean-Luc Darbellay calls it a "composer's paradise", and he for his part roamed through it in a suggestive way with his Dialogues. The music glided through the minutes, shimmering, buzzing, with a few surprises and effects that were clearly set, just right for this ensemble. The pithy stirring drum will remain in my memory.