music review

Andrew Cronshaw and Tigran Aleksanyan

Brighton Festival

After surprising the audience by appearing from the back of the auditorium on one of his many pipes multi-instrumentalist Cronshaw takes to the stage and strums sweet Finnish tunes on his intricate 74-string electrified zither. Armenian Aleksanyan accompanies him with the breathy resonance of his double-reeded duduk. The pair jump around the globe with music for Finnish weddings and recounting Irish drownings, with a wry commentary. Cronshaw's demonstration of the Slovakian shepherd's flute creates a ridiculously priapic profile, but the sound is well-worth the struggle with this 6ft-long monster. Both an exhibition of some of the world's most fascinating looking musical instruments and a concert to show that the sound outshines their mere visual eccentricity, with haunting and inspiring beauty.

Pavilion Theatre, 6 May, 1:00pm (2:00pm), £7.50, fpp 28

tw rating: 3/5

published: Aug-2008

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