‘Intercessions’

May 13^th  2011 ,  8.00 pm 

Shoreditch (St Leonard’s) Church, Shoreditch High St, London /E1 6JN

 We speak not of the archaic theological doctrine, whereby prayers are offered to dead saints who may then intercede directly to God on our behalf. We do, however, seek to steal a little of that image. Our Intercessions are of a far more earthly nature, and occur not in heaven, but in the austerely beautiful surroundings of St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch.

 Neither do we come to pray, but to make sound. Sound surrounded by little pools of silence. Sound from many ages, transplanted into strange and unfamiliar contexts. The ghostly beauty of Johann Sebastian Bach interceded by Free Improvisation: how strange…  and short Bartok duets for violin and viola, each interceded by new music that is freshly created in the moment; music from Eugène Ysaÿe and contemporary work by Christian Wolff, all  spliced up with the silence , noise and unpredictable flutter of free improvisation. The result : a complex fabric of musical interactions, stitched loosely together and fused into two movements of experimental juxtaposition.

 Intercessions – those who play on the side of the angels:

 Classical & contemporary works performed by: Noura Sanatian, violin /Benedict Taylor, viola

‘3 pieces for Violin and Viola’ – Christian Wolff
plus short pieces by J S Bach and Bella Bartok

 Satoko Fukuda, violin

‘Obsession’  for solo violin,  Eugène Ysaÿe

Intercessions- the petitioners  Free Improvisations & extemporised responses performed by:

 Niko Meinhold, grand piano / Noel Taylor, clarinet / Guillaume Viltard, contrabass /Mark Sanders, percussion

 Plus additional intercessions from: Satoko Fukuda, violin / Noura Sanatian, violin /Benedict Taylor, viola