“Manchester Collective put on a very good show and are impressive performers”
The staging for the Manchester Collective’s performance of John Adams’ ‘Shaker Loops’ at the RNCM is very simple. Seven lights stand in a semi-circle around the collective, with eight more above them, all orange or yellow and reinforced by a cloud from the haze machine behind the performers.
In the first half of the performance, Manchester Collective play three other pieces: Dobrinka Tabakova’s ‘Such Different Paths’, Kaija Saariaho’s ‘Terra Memoria’, and a composition by Rakhi Singh, ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’.
These opening pieces are all good, and of course played beautifully, but each one seems to fizzle out by the end, despite good moments. Furthermore, the speeches and introductions between them, despite being interesting and important, did take me out of the performance and probably could have been placed elsewhere for a bigger impact.
I particularly enjoyed the transitions between different passages and sections in ‘Such Different Paths’, along with the harmonies and interplay between the seven players. I found it easy to get lost in all the different layers, picking out different instruments and focusing on how they related to each other.
The second piece, a pizzicato-filled ode to the dead, gradually builds up. The overhead lights are now pink, creating a softer atmosphere. The textures are more minimal, with only four members of the collective onstage. Instead of the harmonies of the first, ‘Terra Memoria’ relies on changing dynamics, with urgent moments played against more tender ones.
Between the second and third pieces, thanks to a request from a helpful audience member, the haze machine is turned off because of all the noise it was making. ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’ is based around a Latin hymn, and swells and drones accordingly and appropriately. 16 Manchester Collective performers join for this one, some of them singing as well as playing their instruments, giving it a complex texture similar to the opening piece.
‘Shaker Loops’ is easily the best piece of the four. It’s like listening to all of the best parts of the pieces from the first half, without any of the weaker moments. Its mutating rhythms are captivating and exciting, and it’s the only piece with a strong ending. All 16 players perform impressively tightly throughout. Their interactions and harmonies are beautiful. Christ Bryan’s poetry is evocative and has a strong sense of mood and place, taking listeners on a journey from industrial smog and darkness to sunlight. If anything, he’s underused. His poetry works really well with the music, and I could have listened for hours. The delivery of his final line, ‘Where beameth forever a beautiful day’, with the end of ‘Shaker Loops’, is just great.