The Comedy of Change Tour with Rambert Dance Company 2009 - 2010
The Comedy of Change is Julian Anderson's new work for twelve instruments. Rambert's artistic director Mark Baldwin and Julian have created work together before, with Mark's own company and at the Royal Ballet. Inventive, quirky and virtuosic, this is the kind of music which makes you think, wonder, and marvel at how 12 musicians seem to be creating the calls of exotic birds, mysterious species and imaginary worlds.
The Comedy of Change was created in Darwin Year (2009), and is the second ballet that Mark has created with a scientific impetus (after the Einstein-inspired Constant Speed). Julian and Mark had many discussions about how to respond to the work of the great scientist, and various Darwinian themes have influenced the creative process.
Tim Murray is our guest conductor throughout the Comedy of Change Tour 2010. Tim's biography »
The rest of the current repertoire is as varied as ever. A Linha Curva, our Brazilian piece by Israeli choreographer Itzik Galili opened in May 2009 to great acclaim. This piece has involved the sourcing (and in some cases making) of dozens of percussion instruments, played by four. The score requires skill and energy, not only in playing, but also singing, chanting and playing body percussion (where the players drum their hands on their legs, chest, and face). The extremely intricate lighting design has to synchronize perfectly with the music and the dance, and this involved an arrangement in which all four players have a click track (an electronic pulse) playing in their headphones, linked to a computer which also triggers the lighting changes.
Henri Oguike 's new piece Tread Softly is be set to one of the real masterpieces of chamber music, Schubert's String Quartet "Death and the Maiden". This wonderful music infuses dance rhythms emotional intensity.
For 2010 we are presenting a revival of Siobhan Davies' The Art of Touch, which will feature a solo harpsichordist in the 18th-century music of Scarlatti and the 20th-century Matteo Fargion. Harpsichordists' biographies »
Christopher Bruce 's Hush is set to the recorded folk tunes and classical arrangements of Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma: at Rambert we cannot be accused of skimping on variety, or quality.