George Benjamin Ensemble Modern Into the Little Hill

Ensemble Modern

George Benjamin and Ensemble Modern at the Wigmore Hall with Anu Komsi and Helena Rasker in Benjamin's Into The Little Hill. There have been many George Benjamin Days at the Wigmore Hall (also featuring this piece) and  Ensemble Modern are welcome regulars in London   But this was a historic occasion since Benjamin's Into the Little Hill was written for Ensemble Modern, who gave the world premiere in Frankfurt in November 2006, conducted by Franck Ollu, with Anu Komsi and Hilary Summers.  For me, the highlight was hearing Anu Komsi singing it live.  Though other singers, have done the part well, Komsi is much more than just a singer.  She's a phenomenom, a true coloratura with an unusually wide range and the agility to use her voice in the service of Benjamin's fiendishly tricky score, where extreme changes of register and technique continuously contort and challenge. That, in essence, is what Into the Little Hill is about. The tale predicates on the idea that nothing is safe, or can be what it might seem.  It is a horror story so surreal that it invades your subconscious.  It represents a turning point in Benjamin's career : after years of writing meticulous, near pointillist miniatures, Into the Little Hill surged into life in a matter of months.  Benjamin's collaboration with Martin Crimp unleashed a rich new vein of creativity which has led to Written on Skin, the biggest hit in modern opera, and Lessons in Love and Violence.  To my mind, though, Into the Little Hill, with its deliberately claustrophobic atmosphere, remains the masterpiece. It needs to be heard in cramped spaces like the Wigmore Hall for full effect.

Into the Little Hill starts before it begins, with almost inaudible rustlings before the screaming starts "Kill them ! They bite". At this point, the singers are together, representing a mob. Thus the chilling "Kill, and you have our vote". Into the Little Hill is much more than nursery tale. As we know now, Pied Pipers are running the world.  Rasker's monologue (describing the Minister) is undercut by ominous rustlings in the orchestra.  "Kill them ! They bite" screamed Komsi, Rasker joining in.  Pairings develop and change throughout the piece : two violins (one doubling mandolin), two violas (one doubling banjo), two cellos, two horns, two trombones, a prominent bass flute, alternating piccolo, sometimes paired with double bass, a cimbalom and an array of exotic percussion.  Instruments and singers trapped in schizoid lockstep, clouded by opaque non-harmony.  Balances shift. The contralto dominates at first, but the soprano (as The Stranger) sings a seductive tune "I charmed my way in...  with music I can open a heart as easily as you can open a door... with music I can make death stop, or rats scream"  Komsi stretched the word "rats", drawing out the vowel so it moved swiftly, as rats do, at once suggesting innocence and malevolence. "But the world - says the Minister - is round" sang Rasker, but Komsi's lines continued to fragment, perfectly pitched shards of sound that ripped any illusions of comfort: strings became weapons, bows beaten against wood, plucking, tense sounds, the winds gasping in outbursts.  

Anu Komsi , photo : Uupi Tirronen

The First Interlude is a transition, the bass flute a sorcerer pulling the strings behind the dialogue between The Mother and Child.  The depth of Rasker's voice suggests authority, subtly undermined by the flute and by Komsi's lines that stretch like unanswerable questions, syllables twisting and shattering   Komsi's personality also contributes : her child-like innocence convinces, yet her high pitches carry a whiff of dangers to come. Her voice also takes on the colourings of the instruments in the orchestra : suggesting a descent into a world where nothing can be what it seems.  The Second Interlude is even more noctunal, quiet horns and trombones muted, suddenly exhaling when the mutes are pulled away.  "Each cradle rocks empty - each cage-like cot":  sounds rock back and forth,  more dirge than lullaby.  Komsi's voice now glowed with almost surreal brightness.  "Streams of hot metal, ribbons of magnesium, particles, particles of light".  The Mother doesn't get it, but the Child delights . "Our home is under the Earth, with the angel under the earth, and the deeper we burrow the brighter his music burns".  In the past, I've enjoyed performances where the soprano and contralto are relatively close, but Komsi shows how the soprano part defies easy interpretation : Is the child purer than the adults around her ? Or a force of something much less easy to pin down. What is this "music" that seduces people from where they think they belong and what lies ahead ?  Komsi's part and her singing suggest that her role represents something elemental: a force almost beyond mortal comprehension.  The depth in Rasker's singing presented a perfect foil.  In the very elusiveness of Crimp's text lies its depth, and inspires the wonder of Benjamin's setting.

The programme began with Cathy Milliken's Bright Ring, a lively piece with much incident, and Christian Mason's Layers of Love, very well structured and designed - very interesting instrumental pairings. a good choice in the overall programme. Even more pointedly in the context of  Into the Little Hill.  Luigi Dallapiccola's Piccola musica notturna (1954/1961), a lyrical nocturne, where sinister shadows hover, almost imperceptibly.