(3 / 5)

They’ve been on my bucket list for a while…Apartment House have had alluring concerts in what is now their 30th year. I was upset to miss a whole Saturday of three gigs filled with John Cage, what was a few years ago at Wigmore.

This celebration concert came as quite demanding in a Philip Glass heavy programme. The first half featured Glass’ Music in Similar Motion and Music in Contrary Motion. Whilst easy on the ear, the attention required to engage is considerable. People have thrown the word “minimalist” around, over what exactly it is and who is defined as such. This combination of synths, flutes and strings has an air of period piece about it now, both from 1969. The lapping of notes return and additions are made, only to return snap back to the starting bars. Unsurprisingly, the Contrary Motion work is much more interesting, as its unfolds with a sense of motion and decadence.

I was happy to attend thanks to Erik Satie and his Socrates. John Cage had a bad time trying to use one of his musical heroes in performances, so he found a way to write a double piano arrangement of Socrates. Through this, you do lose Plato’s vivid recollections of Socrates, the latter philosopher known for not writing down his teachings. I’ve had difficulties trying to acquire an English language version of the Sorate, but that’s another thing. In their own arrangement, via Cage, Apartment House still clasp onto the refined eloquence and unabashed serenity throughout its 30 odd minutes. The flutes and strings are still here, there have been after all few versions of this work starting with Satie’s himself. It’s very gentile, the keyboards are soft and lightly perfumed. The Death of Socrates is one of the best work Satie ever wrote, his late academic studies enhanced with highly eccentric method creation. Sweet and a dollop of emotion too boot.

Glass’ Music in Eight Parts has a curious back story: he sold some of the autograph manuscripts of the piece back in 1970s. One of which would turn up at a Christie’s auction in 2017. It sold for over $43,000. Glass actually bought it back for this figure and tonight’s European premiere is one of the versions from his original. Though no saxophones or voice, we get the alto flutes. This was undoubtedly the most difficult of the night. Less attractive in scope, its cycles never quite enthralling. Drops of more notes followed, the six part harmony would dictate our ears. These delightful keyboards from Mark Knoop (who I recall from a Queen Elizabeth Hall gig few years back), Eliza McCarthy and Kerry Yong, lead entirely. You get a feel of the range they can offer up in timbre, distortion and much more.

With no encore nor intro to the last Glass (which is a cool little story), this celebration felt a little flat. A wider choice of composers on the programme would have fared much better.