Manchester Collective: Fever Dreams

Reawaken the past. Reach into the future.

Experience the full force of the string orchestra as Manchester Collective revive old classics and summon futuristic sounds alongside ‘cyborg pianist’ Zubin Kanga.

Tchaikovsky said his Serenade for Strings was ‘a piece from the heart’. Beloved by the composer and audiences alike, it’s a technicolour, opulent romance. Here, it’s given a Collective twist, blurring into music that lives closer to the present day.

There’s more muscle to the brisk Concerto for String Orchestra by Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz. It’s a real workout for the players. Feverishly paced, it will leave you catching your breath.

In these two works, the composers take inspiration from their heritage to create something new. But what happens when a retreat into history turns violent? It’s an auditory hallucination where Zubin conjures ghostly samples of piano construction with his keyboard: handsaws, sandpaper, drills.

Time is an illusion. Let’s dispel it.

Programme

Grażyna Bacewicz Concerto for Strings
Laurence Osborn Schiller’s Piano (world première) *
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings (movements one and three)
Caroline Shaw Evergreen (movements one and two)
Wojciech Kilar Orawa

Performers

Zubin Kanga piano, keyboard, live electronics *
Aaron Holloway-Nahum conductor *
Rakhi Singh violin, director
Manchester Collective