Uproar review – shimmering premieres showcase the dynamism of Welsh new music ensemble

The Guardian

16-03-2025

In the context of a diminishing Welsh landscape – about which there needs to be a concerted uproar – the success of Wales's new music ensemble, which happens to call itself Uproar, is all the more important. Under conductor and artistic director Michael Rafferty, their presentation of György Ligeti's Chamber Concerto – a piece described by the composer as one for 13 concertante soloists – underlined just what a dynamic force they have become.
Their programme opened with Hrím, written by Anna Thorvaldsdottir as a companion piece to the Ligeti: it unfolded with Thorvaldsdottir's customary poise, its crystalline textures comparable to the hoarfrost of the old Icelandic title, the celeste giving glistening touches.
By contrast, Floating Theatre by Kiko Liteng Shao, the first of three premieres by Welsh or Wales-based composers, was inspired by the ebb and flow of waves and her perception of the musicality of water. Chinese cymbals were among the percussion instruments sharpening the palette, with the greatest theatricality coming in the last section where the audience, using their mobile phones, added the sounds of birds. This final aerial dimension permitted the piece its necessary lift.
David John Roche's Harm Reduction was buoyant and energetic, indulging memories of his own rock and metal beginnings, with Ben Smith's piano solos emerging from the melee – at first slightly Elton John and later just schmaltzy, helping to convey unselfconscious hedonism. Imagin'd Games by Ashley John Long, the ensemble's double bassist, revisited the Iron Age hill fort that was his childhood stamping ground. Reflecting on time and history, it was fluent and had moments of strange beauty.
Ligeti's concerto – getting its Welsh premiere, as was the Thorvaldsdottir – was the culminating glory of this concert. The fluttering, fluctuating shimmer of its opening established the aura that makes this a seminal work of the later part of the 20th century. The quiet vibrancy of the second movement, its flurry of urgency then returning to stillness, achieved another mesmerising atmosphere, with the precision and brilliance of the last two movements setting the seal on a fine performance. Ligeti's instrumentation somehow managed to sound densely fabricated yet translucent, all expressively realised, the clarity of the Dora Stoutzker hall's acoustic allowing the Uproar players' virtuosity to be heard and warmly appreciated.
At Soar theatre, Merthyr Tydfil, on 22 March, and Rhosygilwen, Cilgerran, on 23 March