“The Manchester Collective’s Fever concert was a captivating blend of bold programming, virtuosic performance, and rich emotional contrasts that left the audience spellbound.”
The Manchester Collective’s Fever concert was an arresting showcase of bold programming and virtuosity, weaving a tapestry of both familiar and avant-garde compositions. The ensemble, known for its innovative approach, delivered a night full of vibrant contrasts, each piece a landscape of emotion, technique, and sonic experimentation.
The evening began with Grażyna Bacewicz’s Concerto for String Orchestra, a 15-minute whirlwind that left the audience on edge, alive with the energy of a piece that seemed to morph through stages of raw pain and joy. The opening struck with intense power, setting a tone of tension, as angular rhythms and folk influences began to surface. The first section felt emotionally charged at times anxious, with the orchestra creating a dialogue so fragmented it seemed almost divided. Yet as the piece progressed, this sombre mood gave way to a more playful, almost fantastical section, like a fevered dream dissolving into a cheery, light-hearted fantasy. The virtuosic playing and jazz-like angularity made it a dynamic opener, one that balanced complex emotions with a rhythmic, folk-inspired vitality.
Next came the world premiere of Laurence Osborn’s Schiller’s Piano, co-comissioned by Zubin Kanga and the Manchester Collective, an exploration of sound and texture that brought the audience into a bizarre, yet captivating, auditory realm. Osborn created a piece centred around the piano and MIDI keyboard, featuring manipulated recordings of physical piano components—wood, brass, felt, and wire. The work was inspired by the haunting story of a counterfeit piano, an empty shell made to preserve furniture from bombing, and Osborn translated this hollow existence into a vivid auditory experience. The result was dissonant, yet compelling, with layers of birdsong, rain, and familiar instruments fusing to create a disorienting soundscape. The piano emerged intermittently like a breath of fresh air amid brash, abrasive sounds, reminding us of its poetic power, while traditional instruments helped anchor the strangeness into something comprehensible. It was exhilarating, though perhaps slightly overextended, but it left a profound sense of the musicality embedded in even the most unexpected sounds.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings followed, lending a heartwarming and romantic respite to the experimental edge of the previous works. The first and third movements were full of expansive and contracting musical phrases, as if portraying an internal struggle before resolving into a harmonious, glassy, and hopeful conclusion. Tchaikovsky’s signature emotional warmth enveloped the hall, offering a serene contrast to the frenetic energy of the earlier pieces. The work felt like a return to something deeply familiar, and it carried a welcoming, almost intimate charm.
Caroline Shaw’s Evergreen, the fourth piece, brought another organic, nature-inspired exploration to the evening. Shaw’s music flowed with airiness, lightness, and a tactile sense of green leaves fluttering in the wind. The sound seemed to capture how wind moves through the limbs of a tree, or how birds build their nests in high branches. The glistening string lines, airy arpeggios, and spiralling rhythms gave the impression of a delicate psalm, gradually gaining energy and momentum as the piece unfolded. Shaw’s music, a gift to a single tree, managed to feel both fragile and sacred, building layers of beauty with gentle freedom.
Finally, the concert closed with Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa, a piece that used rhythm as its central musical force. Kilar’s lyrical lines painted landscapes of mountains and rivers, with peaks and valleys emerging vividly through the undulating melodies. The dissonance within the piece mimicked nature’s rough edges, and the steady rhythmic pulse created a sense of both motion and stillness—like the act of climbing a mountain, only to jump and land at the summit with an exhilarating finality. The ending, with its sudden “jump and land,” brought a jolt of excitement, leaving the audience breathless.
Throughout the evening, the Manchester Collective proved once again why they are one of the most innovative ensembles on the scene today. Each piece in Fever offered something unexpected, whether it was the virtuosic dialogue in Bacewicz’s work, the dissonant adventure of Osborn’s Schiller’s Piano, or the lyrical expansiveness of Kilar’s Orawa. The Collective’s ability to balance the unexpected with the familiar made the entire performance a thrilling journey into soundscapes both new and beloved.
This concert was not merely a showcase of musical prowess—it was an adventure, an exploration of sound, rhythm, and texture that kept the audience engaged from start to finish. Once again, the Manchester Collective delivered an ingenious, inspiring program that felt fresh, bold, and deeply satisfying.