In his latest piece, Michael Finnissy took Kant’s The Critique of Pure Judgement as the basis for a
tripartite work called Kritik Der Urteilskraft. In order of appearance he depicted pleasing, beautiful and
good music/art. This intended sharp dialectic was roundly – and perhaps accidentally – avoided.
Whether for better or worse, it was scuppered.

Finnissy ran the risk of reducing Kant’s ideas to the level of caricature. He presented three segments
of musical thought devoted wholly to one “concept”, and concluded with a synthetic resolution. He did
not, however, write a caricature: due to a badinage of indistinct and meandering quotes from
Schubert’s Octet, Beethoven’s Ninth, and Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, and the ill-focused
pacing of the piece any sense of argument was side-stepped with ease.

Finnissy is an articulate and impassioned composer, and his music betrays a voraciously inquisitive
intellect, vertiginous in its inspiration. Often his music serves generously the purpose of his thought but
sadly, this time, it fell short of its goal.

The New Music Players also brought lean and incisive performances of two scores to accompany the
same film: Joris Ivens’ Regen (Rain) of 1929. This gave a rare opportunity to consider the symbiotic
relationship between image and sound when placed side by side.

Curiously, Eisler's Fourteen Ways of Describing Rain (1941) isn’t heard much anymore – odd, given
its subtlety of expression and cogence of thought. This music takes an ambiguous and approach to the
rôle of cinematic accompaniment, and is uncompromising if not compelling. The odd wiff of
Neo-classicism and Jazz is to be heard in an otherwise melancholic soundworld suffused with the
name, and melodic line, of his teacher – Schoenberg.

Edward Dudley Hughes’ Light Cuts Through Dark Skies - intended also to accompany Ivens’ film -
brought the concert to an end. Indebted to a variety of composers, Hughes’ agile and kaleidoscopic
score brought a playful and sensuous air to Ivens’ objectivity that differed from, and entered into an
indirect dialogue with, the Eisler. This work was given an authoritative performance that communicated
the enthusiasm and commitment of this engaging ensemble, and concluded an intriguing and unusual
programme.

Douglas Bertram