The Bridgewater Hall's Pulse festival is a celebration of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games, and it reflects the Commonwealth's diverse cultural base. American composer Michael Daugherty has achieved fame in the US with Dead Elvis, in which a bassoon soloist is dressed up as Elvis, and the quadruple concerto Hell's Angels in which four soloists wear bandannas and bikers' gear. Percussionist Evelyn Glennie chose to revive Michael Daugherty's UFO, so it was not surprising to see her emerge from the rear of the stalls wearing a silver outfit resembling a space suit.
Daugherty's music defies contemporary classical trends: it is melodic, even rhapsodic, firmly tonal, fun, and totally accessible. Abundant hints of jazz were mixed with contrasting soundscapes that could be rasping and sinister or evocations of incandescent shimmering. The subsequent portrayal of the inner mechanical workings of a UFO sounded suspiciously like an epic drum solo one would have expected from King Crimson 30 years ago. The Hallé performed vibrant accompaniments with relish and theatrical flair, although conductor Kristjan Jarvi seemed more at ease in the remainder of the programme.
The contemporary strand was continued with Slonimsky's Earbox by John Adams, and the jazz strand was developed with Gershwin's An American in Paris and Ravel's Bolero. Gershwin's car-siren effects sound more like New York more than France, but Jarvi brought out the maximum contrast between the exuberance and melancholy in Gershwin's score.
Ravel's Bolero usually makes one think of either ice skating or Dudley Moore in the film 10. It can also be a boring and empty piece of music, as even Ravel himself considered. This performance was enhanced by Glennie performing the repetitive side-drum part. Bolero is a huge challenge for conductors due to the desperate need for it to sound regulated yet spontaneous, jazzy and Spanish. In a programme of UFOs and aliens, the greatest phenomenon of all was a Bolero without a dull moment, and one that brought to mind the Iberian peninsula rather than Torvill and Dean.
