Double Portrait Concert: Patricia Alessandrini and Rebecca Saunders

Edinburgh College of Art - 06/02/24

Stephanie Lamprea, soprano | Richard Craig, flutes and contrabass | Patricia Alessandrini, electronics

In an era where digital devices can generate any sound we can possibly imagine (and many we may not yet conceive), where do the boundaries and possibilities lie between noise and music, acoustic and electronic styles, and natural and processed effects? These questions were among those addressed in short but mesmerising performances by Stephanie Lamprea, Richard Craig and Patricia Alessandrini at Edinburgh College of Art.

Three works by Alessandrini, written between 2006 and 2020, were framed by two from Rebecca Saunders (2017/18). The first two Alessandrini pieces were punctuated by an early twentieth century intervention from Schoenberg (1912), illustrating the history of the Sprechstimme style of speak-singing which soprano Stephanie Lamprea deployed and varied so artfully and imaginatively, along with many other voice techniques, throughout the concert.

Saunders’ ‘O’ for solo soprano, like the concluding ‘Oh Yes & I’ for soprano and bass flute, is based on Molly Bloom’s extraordinary monologue in the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses. In these two works, and especially the first, the singer evokes the text with a continuous and restless stream of songs, speech, whisper, trills, sighs and other in- and out-breath vocal techniques across a wide dynamic and octave range.  Words emerge and disappear, some audible, some not. It is an evocative, stirring and yearning concoction, demanding careful control and dexterity from Lamprea, as well as serious expressive energy.

Flutes made their first appearance in Alessandrini’s ‘Spento è già in me l'ardore’, using short texts derived from two settings of the Don Juan myth, the first fragment from Molière and the second from Giovanni Bertati’s libretto for Giuseppe Gazzaninga’s opera, ‘Don Giovanni Tenorio’. Here voice and instrument blend and morph intriguingly, with moments of contrast and elevation, too. This piece is, curiously enough, an excerpt from a ballet commissioned in France in 2004. Knowing that aids recognition of the dance flow in its rising and falling sonic moments.

Lamprea and Craig segued Schoenberg’s ‘Der kranke Monde’ for voice and flute, from ‘Pierrot Lunaire’, on to the Alessandrini, with the shift barely showing, but with a distinct change of colour and feel brought about by Albert Giraud’s poem: “You nightly deathward sinking moon/Draped upon Heaven’s blackened bed” (translation by Roger Marsh). Here we heard the early twentieth century roots of a vocal practice through which electro-acoustic resources can create fresh space for “the rapture of instrumental and vocal sound in all of its spellbinding illusions and granular detail” (as the concert’s publicity note appropriately expressed it).

A cleverly crafted Patricia Alessandrini radiophonic piece (originally for voice alongside contrabass flute and electronics) followed. ‘Il y a plus d’eau que prévu sur la lune’ was given a new instrumental treatment for this performance, with Craig using his imposing contrabass – almost didgeridoo-like in its sound at times – and a series of clipped vocal interventions to conjure up (for this listener, at least) ghosts, forests, water and mysterious voices. 

Lamprea returned for Alessandrini’s ‘Esquisse d'après Artaud’ for voice, alto flute, and electronics managed by the composer from the sound desk throughout the evening. This piece is based on short texts from Antonin Artaud rendered into English through ‘homophonic translations’ which match the sound rather than the semantics of the original. Here both voice and flute employed the speech-song style, with Craig using close-miking techniques alongside electronic processing to control the intensity of the modified voice.

The last work, ‘O Yes & I’, exploring further portions of Molly Bloom’s speech from ‘Ulysses’, is part of a lengthy performance work written for the Louth Contemporary Music Festival. Here it was given an expanded and reworked treatment, providing a concluding showcase for the dexterity and range of both Stephanie Lamprea and Richard Craig. 

This brief concert, lasting a little short of a full hour, provided a dense, demanding and fascinating taste of contemporary art music both inhabiting and transcending (some would say bypassing) traditional forms and modes of musical production. These are performance pieces which require the physical and visceral presence of live concert performance to make their full impact. This evening they did just that.