Introducing the 2010/11 Season

The season for 2010/11 sees some very exciting programming and many adventures, which I thought I'd shed some light on before it all kicks off! As ever, the focus is on the premieres and the repeat performances of recent premieres, and this season really has this as its theme. Dutch whizz Joey Roukens has his concerto premiere in Rotterdam in May 2011 and in an interesting conceit it will be programmed with Milhaud's Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone(my first time playing that piece) so that the evening will effectively include the world's newest mallet concerto alongside its oldest. The duo with Hakan Hardenberger gets a makeover, with three world premieres to spruce up its programme too; new works by Lukas Ligeti, Tobias Brostrom and Christian Muthspiel will get rehearsed in a residency in Aldeburgh before concerts in Germany and the Far East. Simon Holt, Jennifer Higdon, Kurt Schwertsik, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Alexander Goehr all see repeat renditions of their works written for me in recent seasons, and the Rautavaara will also be committed to a CD recording with The Helsinki Philharmonic for Ondine. No season is really a season without a go at HK Gruber's majestic and boisterous  "Rough Music" either, so I look forward to the Canadian Premiere of that work in Edmonton, alongside a percussion-focus presented there by the Edmonton Symphony. Chamber music collaborations see happy development too, with my first tour with The Miro Quartet in Austin and Washington DC, another tour of Harrison Birtwistle's "The Axe manual" (paired with Maxwell Davies' "Vesalii Icones") in Scotland,  and the continuation of The Colin Currie Group's work building on the elation of last year's success at London's South Bank Centre. Further adding to repertoire for percussion and string quartet,  I will premiere a new work by Michael Torke at the TROMP Festival in Eindhoven, "Mojave", which will also exist in a version for marimba and orchestra. I'm also looking forward to various Bartok Sonata performances, with Martha Argerich and Stephen Kovacevich in London's Wigmore Hall, and a special event in Graz conceived by long-standing colleague Pierre-Laurent Aimard in which the Sonata will be aired alongside capricious adaptations of works by Eotvos, Ligeti, Reich and Kurtag.

September sees my debut with The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (as well as a holiday there with my father!) and I'm also very excited to be visiting The Grand Teton Music Festival for the first time too. My re-visit to The Cabrillo Festival will mean alot to me personally, having made my US debut there a full fourteen years ago. I can now count exactly 100 professional orchestras that I have collaborated with so far, and would like to thank Marin Alsop especially, for that debut all those years ago that led little by little to all these wonderful opportunities which I cherish so very much.

Enjoy!!

Colin.

Meeting Steve Reich and announcing my new band!

On Tuesday 16th February, The Colin Currie Group with Synergy Vocals gave their first official concert at London's South Bank Centre. The event was part of the International Chamber Music Series presented there and as such it was most refreshing and rewarding to be performing alongside the great string quartets and chamber musicians of our day. The group itself has been assembled, and now given an official name, as a statement of intent by its members to perform the music of Steve Reich at the highest level. Originally put together by me to perform a 70th birthday concert for the composer at the BBC Proms in 2006, I decided that the whole thing was just way too much fun and far too exciting to only do as a one-off. So, in discussion with my management at Intermusica, we have now pushed the project on to become a touring ensemble that will play various Reich works, but very often centred around the masterpiece from 1971 "Drumming". On this occasion in London, we were thrilled to have Steve Reich present, and to offer him the (as it turned out) rare chance for him to hear the work from the audience's perspective as he usually is up on stage himself taking part, playing with his own musicians. I'll never forget his ecstatic reaction to our version and his generosity in going round each individual on stage during  the ovation to thank them in person - just a fantastic moment for us all. In Birmingham's Town Hall on the 20th, we repeated "Drumming" and also added in "Clapping Music", "Nagoya Marimbas" and the glorious "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ". The ensemble sounded brilliant - it is an amazing line-up of players and an honour for me to have such fantastic percussion colleagues who are so dedicated and enthusiastic. We also tend to have rather a good time, with the just the right amount of jocularity - Sam Walton is always at the ready with that groan-worthy pun...and we give him plenty of material to work with!

As for Steve Reich and the chance to work on his repertoire, this really is a dream come true for me. I adore his music and have endless admiration for his unique creativity. His sense of timbre and harmony unite for something that is out of this world, and to perform "Drumming" especially really taps into something very deep and at the root of what it is to be a percussionist. We look forward to many more outings playing this and more of his works, truly one of the most special opportunities one can have as a performer of new music.

Thanks to everyone who made this launch so memorable - there are and will be many more concerts to follow as a result!

Unveiling Rautavaara's new Percussion Concerto...

Season 09/10 sees the world premire of a percussion concerto by one of the most well established composers ever to approach the medium - Einojuhani Rautavaara. The concerto came to exist as the result of my interest in this composer's mesmeric and expansive  style, which combines immediately discernible romanticism with an air of adventure and the mysterious. Such works as "Cantus Arcticus" and "Angels and Visitations" were at the forefront of my mind in approaching him about the idea of a symphonic work for percussion and orchestra. I felt that the repertoire could benefit hugely from his  reflective dynamic, and whilst I have enjoyed recent success with the boisterous and the clamorous, it would be interesting to invest in a less obvious and in many ways more experimental collaboration. The result, to be debuted in London, Rotterdam, Tampere and Baltimore this season in a collection of premieres is a concerto of very great intensity and scope. The opening orchestral tutti, which returns twice more in the work at key moments, has a wonderful Sibelius-like sweep and sets up what remains throughout to be a harmonic language that is rich, exotic and evocative. Working at the piano with the full score at present, I am constantly charmed by the unexpected, the glowing chord substitutions and the tenacious bass notes which so pull at the superficially simple 7th chords perched atop. I'm very excited too by his ambitious use of the percussion; I have spent weeks getting to grips with the closing section of the first movement which requires me to play in constant alteration tubular bells, crotales and marimba, which will result in one of the strongest and most sonorous passages yet to feature in a percussion concerto.

I'm also thrilled to be presenting my own cadenza in this concerto; about two minutes in duration it takes a variety of harmonic and thematic elements from the concerto and develops them as best this percussionist can, having some fun en route and finally some reflection of his own at the end to link the music back to the final minute or so of the piece. (Studying the score also left me with an interesting observation, in that Rautavaara's harmonies occasionally take on those of Balinese Gamelan music, so my cadenza also reflects that overlap too).

I urge all those in proximity to come along to these concerts and engage in what will be a fascinating re-thinking of the percussion concerto; this is am extremely stirring piece of music and one not to be missed at this, its very first stages of presentation where the excitement will be especially keen.

I look forward to meeting you at London's Royal Festival Hall as well as any of the other venues in question throughout the course of this season...

Best wishes, Colin.

My debut with The National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and Azultrabuco!

Last month saw my first visit to South America, a tour which had long excited me as I have always harboured a keen desire to see that part of the world. Colombia, Bogota specifically, was a wonderful place to make that arrival. My work was with The National Symphony Orchstra of Colombia, one of the most exciting ensembles I have ever played with. There was a true sense of occasion to the project I was involved with, which daringly presented Jennifer Higdon's "Percussion Concerto" to an audience largely unfamiliar with contemporary music. The media really picked up on the event though, and I was kept busy with numerous television and radio interviews, whilst flattered by a whole page in El Pais! Struggling earlier in the season to get 1/3rd attendance for certain classics of the repertoire, we were thrilled to sell the concert out and I was overjoyed with the reception the work received. Further amusement and satisfaction came at the interval when I sold out of the 50 Cds I brought with me to "maybe" sell - Colombia has numerous new Dave Maric fans now!! After the concert I was invited by one of the bass players to join his band Azultrabuco and have a shot on the timbales!! Now, timbales are truly one of the great percussion instruments, and I have always wanted to play them in a salsa band of any ilk, so to get that chance "Live in Bogota" was one of my life's most exciting moments. The guys in the band were brilliant at keeping me right and very generous to allow me to be part of their amazing music. So infectious and so brilliant - please preserve me from every hearing the generic dull throb of bland pop music ever again, which seems to be everywhere now, but gorgeously absent in places like Bogota.

The city itself was a spectacular place to visit, with terrific, humble and energetic people, amazing culture, and delicious food and fruit juices at every corner. A career highlight on every level. Thanks to all...

Colin.

Did you just say "right up in my grill"?

Ha-ha. Caught! Red-handed. Recently, whilst showing two splendid friends from the Minnesota Orchstra round London during their European tour, I am asked to clarify my position upon using the phrase "right up in my grill". With teasing incredulity, they question the authenticity, perhaps one could even say the veracity behind my use of this phrase in their company, indeed in that location. Much merriment ensues. However, upon reflection, I feel compelled to share this learning experience, by publishing the following caveat: "My fellow Britishers - 20p's worth of advice for 10...Do not seek to casually absorb the American vernacular. It will come back and bite you on the ass."

That aside, adventures continue apace, with a searingly and subtle world premiere in Kurt Schwertsik's new marimba concerto. "Now you hear me, Now you don't" is the modest title behind this most charming yet capricious of pieces. Gorgeous melodic lines scamper along, whilst the harmonic language rears its pointed, rebellious fangs. A true treat for the ears, ear candy - dare we mention that word...fun!?! And as ever the beloved and beautiful Scottish Ensemble in full flow - one of life's greatest rewards, and world champion interpreters of Stravinsky's "Apollo" as well!

Preparation has also begun for Einojuhani Rautavaara's new concerto, for premiere in the Autumn with the London Philharmonic. Robust and thrilling, this concerto will be a very intense and absorbing work. My continued good wishes and respect to Mr Rautavaara, who, having just turned 80 continues to compose such generous and great music.

But now, gearing up for a long US trip, I travel there with re-newed caution as to what extent I should/can hope to integrate into their spoken-word culture. Yessir, this Limey is mighty proud to be returning to your home soil!

Or something...

Colin.

Iceland is hot!

I've always been fascinated by Iceland. The very name, more than many, does appeal to the pictorial imagination. As a young boy I had a giant jigsaw of the map of Europe, each segment an entire country, and I would always put Iceland into position last(with all due reverence I hope), carefully, into its oceanic surroundings. In reality, the country had me stunned this week; curiously enough, an initial observation recalled my visit to the(also volcanic) Hawaiian  island of Kaua'i. In my more exaggerated moments I even pictured myself, most romantically, as having stumbled into some gloriously powerful Nordic point of re-connection. By the sea once more, among the elements, gripped by some ascending ancestral instinct!! Furthermore, I was surrounded by the most striking looking people I had ever seen, who with breezy confidence often choose to accentuate their already intoxicating features with eyewear of near-radical obscurity. Kindness too, on display, mingled with a real sense of fun and some of the healthiest kind of civic pride I have ever encountered(UK - please oh please take note).

It is, of course, troubling to see a citizenry have recourse to surround its own Parliament building, hammering out a "Rough Music" of protestation with the implied naming and shaming of the politicians within. In this context then, let the country take further inspiration from its own Symphony Orchestra, whose full-throttled strategy to battle the ecconomic crisis includes, next week,  their first ever performance of Messiaen's "Turangalila-Symphony".

The highest rewards of my working life come about through the invigoration of cultural exchange. As such, it was very fine to re-connect with Icelandic composer Askell Masson, whom I last saw when I was only just old enough to meet him in the appointed London pub. It was an especial thrill to join forces with Portugese percussion magician Pedro Carniero for the first time too, as we put together Askell's double concerto "Crossings". With the orchestra refering to us as "The Twins", the percussion section had us firmly under thier wing, and being largely Dutch, suitable quantaties of Jenever were seen to in lovely homely surroundings - gezellig. The excitement peaked perfectly for our concert, with the orchestra's enthusiasm for the music re-inforcing the vitality of the moment.

Certain readers will also be pleased to know that I've also had a right good bath this week! Not least of all at the Blue Lagoon; and it really is very blue by the way! As stomach-chruring as this image will be to yet others, do take the time required to picture me wallowing in the white mud and steam, a harmless back-stroke in occasional operation...

"The inevitable night-out", a fait accompli according to even "Lonely Planet" did also occur, and my thanks to the good people of Hotel 101 who chipped in for a very merry time of it! Their Mojito Royale(a regular Mojito enlivened by a sloosh of champagne!) is indeed a splendid thing. And yes, I did order the Whale meat with Fois-Gras at The Fish Market, and yes, it was excellent!

My thanks and best wishes once again to all for such great times - further visits to your beautiful country are already much craved, and intended...

Best, Colin.

Samuel Johnson tells it like it is...

I have just finished  Samuel Johnson's  "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland", a book I read with great gusto. The style is  brilliant! I am not equipped to attempt any kind of elucidation on how it can be that such collected understatement can project such abject eccentricity, but thought at any rate that the following extract would be useful to share... "The Scots, with a vigilance of jealousy which never goes to sleep, always suspect that an Englishman despises them for their poverty, and that to convince him that they are not less rich than their neighbours, are sure to tell him a price higher than the true. When Lesley, two hundred years ago, related so punctiliously, that a hundred hen eggs, new laid, were sold in the islands for a peny, he supposed that no inference could possibly follow, but that eggs were in great abundance. Posterity has since grown wiser; and having learned, that nominal and real value may differ, they now tell no such stories, lest the foreigner should happen to collect, not that eggs are many, but that pence are few."

I'm sorry, but that is just a riot!

Apologies also,  to a highly tolerant group of air passengers who recently put up with my transatlantic guffawing, the source of which is now revealed...

Colin.