Prescot audiences wowed by a taste of
modern music
17/4/05 Concert-goers in
Prescot were treated to something just a little bit different when
northwest-based chamber group
COMA
filled Prescot Parish Church
with
the sounds of clashing harmonies and eccentric rhythms on Saturday
night.
An evening of innovative modern music
showcased the works of a number of composers from the region,
including Prescotians Dave Forshaw and
Robert Howard.
For those not accustomed to the avant-garde style, however, the
concert was broken up with contributions from the ever-talented
Prescot Parish Church Choir, who delighted the audience with sacred
music from Bach and Schubert, among others.
COMA, which stands for Contemporary
Music-Making for Amateurs, is a national charity, whose decade-old
local group features a wealth of composing and performing talent.
Fifteen accomplished musicians infused the vast, gothic interior of
the Parish Church with an unusual and penetrating ambience.
The ensemble ended their programme in a grand
and fitting manner with a piece by Dr Robert Howard, a stirring and
hypnotic march based on the crescendoing, whirling sounds and motions
of the fairground carousel. While strikingly original, an unmistakable
influence was the British composer Malcolm Arnold, whose quirky fusion
of jazz, popular, folk and classical styles Howard grew up playing in
youth orchestras around Merseyside.
This also marked the last
concert of retiring conductor John Thornecroft, to whom flautist Anna
Claydon dedicated her performance of one of his own pieces.
