Sonica festival review: RSNO & Gavin Bryars, Tramway, Glasgow

With experimental composer and conductor Gavin Bryars forced to contribute via video link due to a positive Covid test, a concert devoted to his music suffered from a strange sense of restlessness, writes David Kettle

Gavin Bryars

RSNO & Gavin Bryars, Sonica 2022, Tramway, Glasgow ****

It might have been joy at Glasgow’s international festival of sound art and visual music finally returning in live form, but there was a sense of childlike wonder to some of the opening events of Sonica 2022.

It was there, undeniably, among the festival’s installations – certainly the interactive cone of light that visitors caressed sound from in Louis-Philippe Rondeau’s Dan Flavin-like Lux aeterna at the Lighthouse, and also the playful, touch-triggered explosions of music and colour in Mathieu Le Sourd’s Bloom at the CCA.

More monumental, though, was Guillaume Cousin’s Soudain toujours, also at the CCA, a vast contraption devoted to emitting wisps of smoke in a mesmerising display that playfully contrasts its ephemeral product with its vast, buzzing machinery.

One of Sonica’s live events, though, was a bit less successful. It didn’t help that iconic English experimental composer and advertised conductor Gavin Bryars was self-isolating after a positive Covid test, contributing instead over a video link.

But there was a strange sense of restlessness at the RSNO’s concert devoted to his music. Even though last-minute stand-in conductor Robert Baxter did a more than creditable job with the UK premiere of Bryars’ viola concerto A Hut in Toyama – with its dedicatee Morgan Goff as soloist – the performance took a while to settle, lacking the kind of calm, unhurried unfolding that makes Bryars’ music so eloquent. Video artist Alba G Corral’s live contributions were beguilingly complex, but a stronger connection with the music would have made them feel more relevant.

By contrast, the concert opened with a visual-less, conductor-less account of Bryars’ 1970s classic Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, that demonstrated why it’s such an enduring masterpiece. Played with exquisite restraint, balanced but beautifully detailed, it was as much a masterclass in orchestral richness and precision from the RSNO as a moving tribute to age, experience and hardship. And as such, a thing of no little wonder.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription at https://www.scotsman.com/subscriptions