Ensemble Variances recently visited Seattle as featured guest artists on Joshua Roman‘s Town Music at Town Hall series. Before the show, the musicians gave Second Inversion an exclusive performance of a piece that was not on the program – Thierry Pécou’s Manoa – featuring the low, lush sounds of the bass flue, bass clarinet, and violoncello. Not only did the musicians play their instruments brilliantly, they swirled around the stage in beautiful, barefoot motion. We hope that you enjoy this special performance!

Notes on Manoa, courtesy Continuum Contemporary Music:

“For centuries, the mythic Amazonian city of Manoa has kept its secrets hidden from the many explorers who have zealously sought to find even a trace of its existence. Running throughout the work, there is one musical phrase the instrumental trio plays in unison to symbolize the ideal splendour of Manoa and its golden King  – El Dorado. On several occasions this phrase moves toward its own disappearance as its slowly fades and finally winks out, like a mirage. Built upon the question-and-answer motif of the songs of the Goahibo, an indigenous culture of the Oronoco, the score calls for the instrumentalists to move, particularly the flutist and clarinetist, linking the intertwined instrumental game with the body game of the native cultures. Anchor to the earth, beacon from space, spiral movements, alternating steps, the piece is a dance whose music unfolds like the undulating leaves of a Mayan codez.”