about the “Six songs for the Unquiet Traveller” (Guardian)
Paul Kildea
About the “Six songs…” in The Guardian
By Tom Service, London 12 October 2004
Paul Kildea must be very proud of the Wigmore Hall. Not only is he the venue’s artistic director; he also conducted the opening concert of the autumn season, in which the newly renovated hall was unveiled to the public. It was a risky move, showing Kildea’s brazen confidence in his abilities as programme-builder and musician, but with the Nash Ensemble and a programme of music by Mahler and Oscar Strasnoy, he created a palpable sense of occasion.
Strasnoy’s Six Songs for the Unquiet Traveller, sung by soprano Ann Murray, christened the subtly altered auditorium, with its plush new seats and posh lighting. It was music of deft originality, setting Alberto Manguel’s rich, strange texts. Each song was based on the simplest of musical ideas – a tiny melodic figure, a string glissando, a catchy piccolo line – but from this limited material Strasnoy conjured music of delicate poetry.
The third song evoked the inner life of a statue of a lion with meditative sighs for the string and woodwind players, and in the final number Murray became the coquettish voice of a nude portrait, surrounded by the rhythmic games of Strasnoy’s music.