Two tonnes of percussion from France

Press, 28 February 1978, Page 10

Two tonnes of percussion from France

When it appears in the Christchurch Town Hail on Sunday as part of the Christchurch Arts Festival, the French percussion group. Les Percussions de Strasbourg, will have with it some instruments which have not been seen in this country since its last visit in 1971. The performance will open the New Zealand chamber music season for 1978. The six-man group, which will perform for the Christchurch Chamber Music Society and the Christchurch Arts Festival Committee, will have with it more than 200 musical instruments, including some special-effects electronic gear. Together they weigh more than two tonnes, and the Music Federation, which organised Les Percussions de Strasbourg’s three-centre tour of the country as a precursor of a more extensive Australian itinerary, chartered a freight aircraft to fly the instruments from Christchurch to Wellington and Auckland for the group’s two other New Zealand performances. Conventional percussion instruments — timpani, xvlophone, bass drum, vibraphones, and side drurn — are its backbone, but its more unusual instruments include Hindu tablas, Thai gongs, Japanese mokoubos, and

African drums. No other group has brought such a wide variety of instruments here for so few concerts. The group, which has been together since 1961, has French Government backing which has enabled it to travel widely and commission its own works. It has been the representative of French music at a number of important international events, including the 1968 Mexico Olympics festival. In Christchurch, Le Percussions de Strasbourg will play the world premieres of two works-commissioned for by Australian arts organisations. The Music Federation’s sister organisation across the Tasman, Musica Viva Australia, asked the Australian composer, Moya Henderson, to write a'piece which depicts the sounds of an ancient liquor still. With the Adelaide Festival of the Arts organisation, Musica Viva commissioned the French composer, Claude Ballif, to write another item featuring various sounds, including some Australian bird calls. During its Christchurch performance it will also play works by the French composer. Francois Bernard Mache, and by Harrison Birtwistle. Members of the group are Jean Paul Batigne, Gabriel Bouchet. Olivier Dejours. Jean Paul Finkbeiner, Claude Ricou and Georges van Gueht.