An evening of chamber works by the celebrated maverick English composer Laurence Crane, performed by Apartment House. The concert marks the release of a double CD of Crane’s music on the Another Timbre label.


LAURENCE CRANE

Laurence Crane has slowly built a reputation as a unique and mysterious figure in contemporary composition. He works with familiar, almost clichéd tonal elements, arranging them in ways that appear ridiculously straightforward, but with results that are unexpected and often achingly beautiful.



As Michael Pisaro has said: “One of the several mysteries of Laurence Crane’s music is how its apparently normalised structure subverts itself. This is often music of tonal harmony and four bar phrases. It never goes on too long. It is hardly ever abrupt or unexpected. Logical. Clear. Orderly. Quiet. Yet it is also, to my ears, quietly crazy, even absurd in its extremely understated way….If I have learned anything from Laurence’s music it is that “the ordinary is not.” I’ve also never run into anyone who knew his music who thought it was as simple as it appeared.”



“A metaphor for thinking about my work is the idea of walking through a landscape, where the landscape remains essentially the same, but little details in it change, or come into and out of focus as you walk through it. So your experience when you’ve got to the endpoint will have changed, but the landscape itself has not changed much.” - Laurence Crane


APARTMENT HOUSE

Apartment House are one of the world’s premier ensembles for experimental music, and have championed Laurence Crane’s work since the mid-90’s. In 2011 Apartment House received the Royal Philharmonic Society award for outstanding contribution to Chamber Music and Song 2011, when they were described as “one of the most innovative and exciting chamber ensembles in Europe”.

For tonight’s performance the musicians will be:
Anton Lukoszevieze / cello
Philip Thomas / piano
Andrew Sparling / clarinet
Nancy Ruffer / flute
Gordon MacKay / violin

The programme will consist of several pieces from the new CD, including ‘Sparling’, ‘Ethiopian Distance Runners’, ‘Seven Short Pieces’, ‘Estonia’ and ‘Come back to the Old Specimen Cabinet, John Vigani, John Vigani’.