70. Crespo Series

The adventurous Sonoro continue with two short contemporary pieces by women. Annelies Van Parys is one of Belgium’s leading composers. She wrote Tsunami for Sonoro’s Rising Stars tour. Vinthaya Perinpathan is a very promising Sri Lankan violinist-composer based in Manchester doing a Masters in composition. Flight UL505 is the flight number for the regular scheduled flight from Columbo to London, make of that what you will. Earlier in the Festival, Nightingale Quartet will have performed Holmboe’s five movement Second Quartet (Event 36) based on Bartók’s Fifth Quartet, Sonoro is giving us the opportunity to hear the original. Bartók's Fifth Quartet has a pleasing symmetrical, five-movement arch structure, whose cornerstone was the third movement Scherzo - itself in symmetrical ABA form but based on asymmetrical Bulgarian rhythms - flanked on both sides by slow movements which in turn are flanked by interrelated outer movements. This magnificent and eminently approachable Quartet opens with powerful, at times triumphant, chords, a clear emphatic statement, here I am, Bartók the composer, you need to listen to me.