Music from the Sirinu Ensemble

The concert on Friday evening was supposed to be at St Mary's Church, but the heating system failed, so this became the very first concert to take place in the new school building! It was organised by Hay Music.
The sub-title for the evening was "The Man Hurdy-gurdy and Me" - and it was the Hurdy-gurdy that got my attention, that and the medieval harp (and it was a gorgeous harp!).
Although the Ensemble were playing medieval instruments, though, the music was modern and, as the poster said, eclectic. The composer, Howard Skempton, was there, and talked about his work before the music started. This included a concerto for accordion and oboe which opened the concert, and which the Young Man said sounded like the sound track to a 1960s low budget SF movie crossed with a 1970s children's series.
There were also pieces by Satie and Stravinsky. One of these was a French/English piece for children, with lines like "The dog has smoked all my cigars, and now he has tummy trouble"! We thought they were quite brave to do that when there was a real French couple in the audience!
Another piece in the first half featured an Indonesian gamelan, or about one eighth of one - in Indonesia these instruments are an orchestra in themselves, and all percussion, with gongs and so on, which was fun to see played. There was also a vibraphone - a sort of xylophone, and a long necked stringed instrument called a theorbo.
Howard Skempton had also set Feste's Song from Twelfth Night to music (recorder and guitar), which reminded me of an open air performance I went to at Kinnersley Castle back in the early 1990s. The rain poured down, but the actors kept going, and the audience kept sitting there, getting soaking wet - the actors' makeup was running down their faces - and at the end, Feste sang The Rain it Raineth Every Day, to huge applause!
The Man, Hurdy-Gurdy and Me was interesting - all about looking up at the stars throughout history - it was written for a touring exhibition about space in 2011.
And they finished off with the folk song Bring Us In Good Ale.
In the interval, wine and other drinks were served in what will soon become the new library, at present an empty room, so it also gave people who hadn't been to the school open evenings a chance to see where the new library and "community space" will be when they open.
So, it was interesting to see and hear the instruments, but I don't think contemporary experimental music is quite my glass of tea.