Written by: Colin Anderson
Jonathan Cole has a new oboe quartet for the Nash Ensemble. Its first performance forms part of a Nash Inventions concert at the Wigmore Hall of premieres and revivals…
In the Wigmore Hall on March 22, the “very loyal” Nash Ensemble brings the intrigue of the new and the welcome chance to hear again some notable Nash commissions including Elliott Carter’s “fantastic” Mosaic. I quote Jonathan Cole and he has written one of the premieres, Scrawling Out, an oboe quartet. “I wanted to write something for Gareth Hulse and the string trio is a perfect backing. I’ve separated the strings from the oboe, which are a shadow of the oboe line and they distort in the same way that shadows distort. It’s a strange relationship; the string trio sits towards the back of the stage and the oboe is in the front corner.”
Jonathan has had “the tone of Gareth’s oboe in mind: controlled and refined, elegant and precise. The idea of the shadow creating a counterpoint with the main oboe line creates a hierarchy, a foreground and a background, so there is always a reference point for the strings to move to and away from.” Scrawling Out lasts 10 minutes and is of “light textures with a lot of silence, a slow delicate line supported by the strings; it’s simple and straightforward.” The Nash concert also includes a premiere and a revival from Mark-Anthony Turnage and music by Simon Holt. There’s a free pre-concert event at 6 o’clock.
- Wigmore Hall
- The Nash Ensemble
- The above article was published in “What’s On in London” on 16 March 2006 and is reproduced here with permission