Trinity Apse, Edinburgh until August 26th
Five stars
Absence and loss are everything in this ongoing
collaboration between Ross Birrell and David Harding, which forms part of
Edinburgh Art Festival’s 2018 Commissions Programme. It’s there in the epic
sweep of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1976), a
filmed performance of which forms the show’s heart. Shown across three screens,
the film, Lento, features a collaboration between the Athens State Orchestra
and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra. With the orchestras filmed from
the back of the central screen, Syrian soprano Rasha Rizk eventually comes into
view on the two either side to sing a haunting fifteenth-century lament on loss
through war.
The resonances of enforced migration are lent even
more intensity by the washes of blue and red that cover the windows of Trinity
Apse. The different shades are derived from another music rooted in the words
of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, and lend the film and performance fire as
they reflect the slow-burning sombreness of the music. The piece was originally
conceived for documenta 14, which moved between Athens and Kassel, along with a
new piece, Fugue, developed in collaboration with Syrian composer and violinist
Ali Moraly. Transposed to such a dramatic context as it travels the globe, its
over-riding sense of a world in endless exile makes for an essential
experience.
The List, August 2018
ends
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