Richter/Pärt
I still haven't posted about the Richter/Pärt event at the Manchester International Festival, which I went to see after my council leader tweeted that "Richter/Pärt at the Whitworth one of the best things MIF has done. Ever!"
Don't think I'd put it ahead of Maxine declaiming the Masque of Anarchy two years ago, but I did enjoy it. Several works by Gerhard Richter are hanging in a room at the Whitworth Art Gallery (Double Grey, plain panels in various shades of grey, and Birkenau, abstract works relating to the Holocaust) while at regular intervals a choir sings Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátima by Arvo Pärt (Aus dem Munde der Kinder und Säuglinge...) The song lasts a couple of minutes, then they stop for a few minutes. Then they sing it again. Sometimes they go off for refreshments for half an hour, and then come back and sing again. The audience can walk among the singers, and chat to them between the bursts of song; I took the photos from the edges of the room, but sometimes I stood in the centre, and some of the people in the photos are listening not singing. I spent about an hour there, with a break to look at another exhibition while the singers were in the cafe, and by the end felt almost ready to join in. The choir I heard was a local one, the King Edward Musical Society, but you can hear it sung by the original choir, Vox Clamantis, at 14.35 of this performance on Youtube, recorded at another gallery earlier in the year.
It ends tomorrow (Sunday).
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
Don't think I'd put it ahead of Maxine declaiming the Masque of Anarchy two years ago, but I did enjoy it. Several works by Gerhard Richter are hanging in a room at the Whitworth Art Gallery (Double Grey, plain panels in various shades of grey, and Birkenau, abstract works relating to the Holocaust) while at regular intervals a choir sings Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fátima by Arvo Pärt (Aus dem Munde der Kinder und Säuglinge...) The song lasts a couple of minutes, then they stop for a few minutes. Then they sing it again. Sometimes they go off for refreshments for half an hour, and then come back and sing again. The audience can walk among the singers, and chat to them between the bursts of song; I took the photos from the edges of the room, but sometimes I stood in the centre, and some of the people in the photos are listening not singing. I spent about an hour there, with a break to look at another exhibition while the singers were in the cafe, and by the end felt almost ready to join in. The choir I heard was a local one, the King Edward Musical Society, but you can hear it sung by the original choir, Vox Clamantis, at 14.35 of this performance on Youtube, recorded at another gallery earlier in the year.
It ends tomorrow (Sunday).
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.