Richard Barrett’s CONSTRUCTION, performed by the ELISION ensemble, was a major highlight of the 2011 Huddersfield Festival. I’ve tried to write about it twice before (1, 2) and I’m still unsatisfied with these efforts. Today, five months later, I remember it as an immersive, far-reaching experience with surprising juxtapositions of delicacy and power. The compositional, technical, and performative resources that were brought into play were, in a word, overwhelming. Over at The Rambler, Tim Rutherford-Johnson wrote up a response to the live radio broadcast. Here’s another view: a video produced by Sound and Music, with generous performance footage and commentary from Barrett. Follow the link to Vimeo to see what Daryl Buckley and Richard Barrett have written about the piece.

CONSTRUCTION from Daryl Buckley on Vimeo.