Manchester Collective: Voice of the Whale

In their first major touring project of the year, Manchester Collective bring together a strange and unsettling set of otherworldly music. Expect a unique line up of violin, cello, flute, piano, and live electronics.

Molly Joyce: High and Low
Alex Groves: Curved Form (St Endellion) – World Premiere
Andrew Hamilton: In Beautiful May
George Crumb: Vox Balaenae

In the dark and lonely depths of the Pacific Ocean, the whales are singing. Listen closely. Can you hear them?

Molly Joyce’s ecstatic ‘High and Low’ opens the programme – solo piano presented as a celestial, supercharged, percussive force of nature. ‘Curved Form (St Endellion)’ by Alex Groves, performed live for the first time, conjures up a meditative seascape for live electronics and strings. Listeners are submerged in cascading tides and layered textures, contrasting sharply with Andrew Hamilton’s energetic ‘In Beautiful May’.

In the end though, it’s back to the sea. Down, down, down. The night finishes with George Crumb’s enigmatic ‘Vox Balaenae’, performed on instruments that are amplified and modified. It truly is music from another world.

Thrilling, inspiring and uplifting

★★★★ The Yorkshire Post

One of the most engaging and theatrical performing groups right now

Elizabeth Alker, BBC Radio 3