Arts Diary: MUSIC Ensemble 10/10: Eleanor Rathbone Theatre, Liverpool.

Byline: GLYN MON HUGHES

ANYONE who arrives at a contemporary music concert at 7.29pm can usually be guaranteed a seat. Hundreds will usually be empty.

Not so the latest 10/10 concert where a virtually full hall heard world premieres and some playing of an exemplary character.

Ensemble 10/10, the new music group formed out of players from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, has been steadily building up a loyal - and large - following.

They opened with a performance of Luciano Berio's Sequenza XII for solo bassoon. In this piece, Pascal Gallois showed that he is a true master of the instrument, since Berio calls for considerable technique and places huge pressure on the performer. The sound is continuous, meaning that the performer has to perfect circular breathing, exhaling at the same time as inhaling. There's much fluttertonguing - making the instrument almost purr - as well as chordal sequences. A really virtuoso piece performed by someone who rose excellently to the role.

The world premiere of Emily Howard's Dualities, written this year for 10/10, was a momentous occasion. It's at times allempowering, almost violent, at other times quiet and contemplative, a testing piece for a relatively large ensemble.

The other world premiere was Simon Bainbridge's Voiles, another piece which stretched the ensemble but proved to be a fascinating study of associated sounds and themes.

Bainbridge's Guitar concerto, with Craig Ogden as soloist, took the instruments to the extremes of its limits, again producing a complex web of musical ideas. Bainbridge's stylish For Miles and Gary Carpenter's Da Capo, a wildly enthusiastic piece, concluded the concert which was conducted by 10/10's newly installed music director Clark Rundell.

And, to underline the importance of this group, the piece was recorded by BBC Radio 3