My Mixtape: Manchester Collective

A new kind of arts organisation, one built for a fresh and diverse musical world, Manchester Collective does more than pull together concerts, they create intimate and intense experiences, inspired by the music they love.

With an aim to open up classical music to everyone, they’ve commissioned major works by artists including Edmund Finnis, Hannah Peel, Lyra Pramuk, and Laurence Osborn, and performed not only in concert halls, but also in warehouses and factory spaces.

In 2021 the Southbank Centre was added to that list as Manchester Collective joined forces with us for a residency which has grown and blossomed, bringing an eclectic range of events to our venues.

Hopefully, you were lucky enough to be in our audience for at least one of their performances thus far, but if not you can get a flavour of what they’re about from this mixtape, put together for us in 2021 by their co-founder, Adam Szabo, who breaks down his selections below.

‘One of the real delights of programming is allowing your mind to draw strange connections between pieces of music that really don’t have that much in common, at least, on the surface. This playlist really started out with George Crumb’s ‘Vox Balaenae’, and then grew out into all sorts of gnarly directions.

‘We have water music: Alex Grove’s ‘Curved Form: St Endellion’, inspired by a rainy view of the sea from the top of a Cornish cliff-edge; Debussy’s enduring ‘Sunken Cathedral’; and of course, Crumb’s own ‘Sea Nocturne’ from Voice of the Whale.

‘There’s nature music – our own ‘Prelude’ from Manchester Collective’s debut EP Recreation, featuring a very seasonal violin concerto by Vivaldi, as well as some Bach that somehow found its way into the recording.

‘And of course, there’s music that explores the kind of darkness that George Crumb is so obsessed by, from his ‘Black Angels’ for electric string quartet, through to some very nocturnal music by Kelly Moran and Clark. We even snuck some Schubert in there (‘Death and the Maiden’… how could we not?). Enjoy. It’s all good stuff.’