Classical Review: Squares, Circles, Labyrinths at Q Club, Birmingham

Mar 26 2010 By Christopher Morley

To be honest, the Birmingham University Department of Music could easily have mounted this concert, involving huge forces, within the Great Hall back at base – but I’m glad they didn’t.

I can’t remember having been within the Methodist Central Hall in Corporation Street ever before, and certainly not since its reincarnation as the Q Club, but what a find it is! It is a magnificent venue with a totally natural acoustic; a neglected organ looms loweringly at one end, opposite which the steeply-raked gallery begins its impressive sweep right and left.

And on Thursday the team behind this brave juxtaposition of late-Renaissance and swinging 60s music exploited the resources of this space to the full. Stockhausen’s Carre for four orchestras and vocal ensembles swung resonantly around the audience – but outstayed its welcome. Never mind – this was a fascinating re-exploration of a musical cul-de-sac.

As was the brilliant staging of Luciano Berio’s Laborintus II, this Dante-derived work assuredly directed by Jonty Harrison, and with Philip Curtis the convincingly Italianate narrator.

But, ironically, it was the Allegri Miserere and Thomas Tallis’ 40-part Spem in Alium which spoke to us across many centuries and reminded us that they are the works which are really going to stay.

Rating: 5/5