If you were making your first disc, what would its centrepiece be? You could go the popular route – something safe and universally loved that would guarantee you an audience – or you could opt for the urgent, keening sounds of Lutosławski’s Musique funèbre, the Polish composer’s homage to Bartók, completed in 1958. UK-based string group 12 Ensemble opted for the latter for their debut disc, Resurrection, in 2018, and that choice exemplifies the ambition and confidence of their music making. They do things entirely their own way and, at a time when classical music often feels battered and defensive, prefer to go on the attack.
I meet their joint artistic directors Max Ruisi and Eloisa-Fleur Thom at the offices of their record label, Platoon, in the middle of a hipsterish set of studios in north London. Platoon is owned by Apple Music (which also recently bought Swedish label BIS), and a lot of the confidence of this enterprise comes from the fact that cash is not in short supply. Money doesn’t just talk, it can also help you explore less well-trodden areas of the
