In 1969, George Crumb heard a tape recording of undersea sounds emitted by a humpback whale. The experience never left him, and eventually inspired one of his most enigmatic pieces of music: Vox Balaenae, or, Voice of the Whale.
Alongside Vox Balaenae, our Ensemble in Residence Manchester Collective perform newly commissioned music by Alex Groves, Molly Joyce’s exuberant High and Low for solo piano, electro-acoustic madness from Andrew Hamilton, and Toru Takemitsu’s magical piano trio, Between Tides.
“It’s a perfect Manchester Collective piece, performed under blue light by anonymous, masked musicians, on instruments that are amplified and modified. It’s music from a hidden, undersea world.” – Manchester Collective
