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O/Modernt review – from Auerbach to Mahler, the fires of love bruise, batter and delight

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A solo violin and viola lament in ghostly harmonics, sounds skimming and slipping glassily off one another. Christ’s sinews snap in the explosive pizzicato of two double basses, before a vibraphone takes over: counterpoint suspended like drops of blood in a bowl of water, harmony smudging into cloudy new shapes. It’s Pergolesi – his famous Stabat Mater – as only Lera Auerbach could hear it, her 2005 Sogno di Stabat Mater a concert-opener that’s O/Modernt in microcosm. Violinist Hugo Ticciati’s flexible Stockholm-based chamber ensemble (whose name translates to “Un/Modern”) has spent well over a decade expanding our ears and minds, making the old new and the new old through unexpected musical juxtapositions, arrangements and dialogues. Over the past six months and a three-concert residency at the Wigmore Hall, they’ve roamed from Hildegard of Bingen to Lennon and McCartney (via Ligeti, Brahms and Arvo Pärt): intense musical conversations all, propelled by the energy of playing that’s evangelical in its zeal.…

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