Review: Ossian Ensemble; Unitarian Church, St Saviourgate, York (From York Press)

Review: Ossian Ensemble; Unitarian Church, St Saviourgate, York

York’s Late Music Festival has changed its name and its activities. Under the snappier title of Late Music, it has become a concert series spread through the winter months and concentrating entirely on music by living composers.

What makes such events so exciting is the thrill of the unexpected. More or less. Two works by the venerable American George Crumb, 80 last month, formed the backbone of Saturday’s outing by the young London-based Ossians – but proved just as engaging as when first written 30 years ago.

Vox Balaenae (Voice Of The Whale) has masked players on flute, cello and piano representing the singing of the humpback whale.

The music settles into a lovely serenity in the final Sea-Nocturne.

The Ossian allowed the score to speak in crystalline, transparent tones.

Evenly more delicately voiced was Dream Sequence (Images II), holding the audience rapt despite being the finale. The playing eloquently matched the trademark refinement of Crumb’s score.

Matt Rogers’s vivid Shoulder To The Wheel raised the curtain, its frenetic cross-rhythms brilliantly tackled by violinist David Worswick and cellist Brian O’Kane. Sarah Cresswell’s solo percussion was more than equal to the tricky rhythms of Darren Bloom’s absorbing Pull.

Steve Crowther’s Kiszko proved a very attractive case of minimalism with attitude, its early vivacity tapering into something gentler but no less magnetic. Edd Caine’s duo, Tous les Matins du Monde, fizzing like a firework, and Charlie Piper’s Nightingale, closely linking flute and vibraphone, completed a menu whose every course struck home.