“I have seen the future of orchestral music. And boy, is it good,” writes Tom Service in Monday’s (6/13) Guardian (London). “Spira Mirabilis are an un-conducted ensemble drawn from some of Europe’s best young orchestral players, most of them under 30. In residence at the Aldeburgh festival this week, they’ll be playing two concerts, with just a single, short symphony in each: the fourth symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert.” In a recent rehearsal the Italy-based group, which sits in a spiral formation and performs without a conductor, “spent three and a half hours working on the first movement of [the Beethoven], music that plays for about 10 minutes in performance. And every detail of phrasing, articulation, speed and loudness was argued over by everyone from the back desk of the second violins to the first oboe, before the group decided on a collective vision. … As violinist Lorenza Borrani, one of Spira’s founders, told me, each musician has to fight to convince the group why their vision is right; the players can only win their case through rigorous argument. Yet, as well as all these individual ideas, there’s a collective energy at work. Whatever their personal feelings, the players arrive at a scintillating result because of the closeness of their relationships.”
Posted June 14, 2011
