Royal Albert Hall, London
Anna Clyne’s The Gorgeous Nothings was fleetingly spellbinding, borne by the Swingles’ singing, and Nicholas Collon ensured Messaien’s Turangalila was light on its feet
Is it bad etiquette to give an encore that upstages the main work? The a cappella vocal group the Swingles raised the question by following The Gorgeous Nothings, the work they had co-commissioned from the composer Anna Clyne for this Prom, with their whirling, beatboxing arrangement of a Bulgarian folk tune, Bučimiš.
This party piece made one wish The Gorgeous Nothings had more consistently taken flight. In seven, harmonically rooted short movements plus a framing prologue and epilogue, it sets some of Emily Dickinson’s envelope poems – fragments jotted on paper scraps, unformed yet offering fertile imagery. A reference to birds in one text brought an idyllic passage with the three female singers almost resembling Disney songbirds; meanwhile, a percussionist spun a bicycle wheel with a playing card clipped to one of its spokes, making a noise like the wings of a giant hummingbird.
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