Classical 20th century music

So I went to a concert last tuesday, free-gratis, and it was with works of 20-century composers. Errrr...

Parts of it I really liked. The last piece was In-Schrift by Wolfgang Rihm and they had percussion bigtime, with five musicians lining up in the back clinging and clonging and giving a good whollop at the Gongs. And lots and lots of Brass, tuba, trombones.. And more Double Basses than I have ever seen in one place ever. And a thingy I have never seen before that not only looked pretty but gave off some serious deep tones. Contrabasson! (thank you wikipedia!) All together! I was in instrument heaven. And a Harp! The piece was modern and difficult at times, but I liked it overall. I did mention the Harp, and the contrabasson?

I am seriously impressed by the musicians, all students at the conservatory. And they must have had lots of nightmares about these pieces. The first piece was by Alannis Xenakis "A l'ile de Goree" and is about entrophy..For me it sounded like noise. Harpiscord and strings and clarinetts all playing their own tune at their own rythm and sometimes no tune, no rythm, only sounds. Supposedly there were sections inspired by wind and slavery in Africa and..eh? How on earth do they start practicing for something like that? The first times playing together must be horrible.

Then the middle piece was Eight Lines by Steve Reich. It was based on to pianos playing a tune each one at the same time, over and over and over, and strings doing some other tune over and over. At a quick rythm. With a piccolo also doing its tune, over and over. Really loud. It is supposed to be almost meditative, but quite frankly: it ended up annoying.

But it was worth it. I got to hear and see a Contrabasson.