George Crumb’s Black Angels is about as close as you’ll get to an acid trip without breaking the law. Subtitled ‘Thirteen Images from the Dark Land’, it’s a cult work for a reason – once you hear it, you’ll never forget it.
The notoriously difficult piece makes extraordinary demands of any string quartet who dare to attempt it. Musicians are instructed to chant in foreign languages, play their instruments upside down, incessantly tap the strings with thimbles and glass rods, scream, shout, beat, count and pray. It’s a roast.
Themes of death, destiny and obsessive spirituality prevail in Crumb’s avant-garde masterpiece – performed here alongside Death and the Maiden by Schubert. Elsewhere, the Manchester Collective present a brand-new commission by New York hip-hop artist, activist, poet and composer Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother). The set is completed by Edmund Finnis’ transcendent 2nd string quartet and Gabriella Smith’s fast and furious ‘Carrot Revolution’.
This is not music for the faint of heart. Come, journey into the black of the night.
