A solo violin and viola lament in ghostly harmonics, sounds skimming and slipping glassily off one another. Christ’s sinews snap in the explosive pizzicato of two double basses, before a vibraphone takes over: counterpoint suspended like drops of blood in a bowl of water, harmony smudging into cloudy new shapes. It’s Pergolesi – his famous Stabat Mater – as only Lera Auerbach could hear it, her 2005 Sogno di Stabat Mater a concert-opener that’s O/Modernt in microcosm.
Violinist Hugo Ticciati’s flexible Stockholm-based chamber ensemble (whose name translates to “Un/Modern”) has spent well over a decade expanding our ears and minds, making the old new and the new old through unexpected musical juxtapositions, arrangements and dialogues.
