Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 26 Apr 2023
Musica Viva can be relied upon to present the uncommon, and the combination of flute, viola and harp is about as uncommon as it gets. Put together three young international artists who are at the very top of their game, throw in infrequently performed repertoire, and you have the makings of an evening of exceptional music making; and remarkable it was.
Tonight’s concert is the opening night of Musica Viva’s current national tour featuring virtuoso artists Adam Walker (flute), Timothy Ridout (viola), and Anneleen Lenaerts (harp). Titled Among the Birds and the Trees, the program featured diverse compositions that channelled the natural world and explored the human response as mystical appreciation.
The three artists laid bare their impressive musical credentials with solo performances that included George Benjamin’s challenging Flight for Solo Flute (written in 1979), Debussy’s Estampes (1903) arranged for solo harp, and Telemann’s Fantasia No.7 in E-flat major for solo viola (1735). The three compositions are starkly contrasted, with the uber atonality of the Benjamin, the ethereal delicateness of the Debussy, and the warmth and nobility of the Telemann. The soloists imparted a sense of theatre to their performances. Walker performed in a single spot of light on far stage left, which underlined the sense of loneliness of the Benjamin; the light faded on him and Lenaerts took to stage centre with the Debussy, and when the last ripple of sound disappeared into the expanse of the Town Hall (too big for a solo harp), the lights came up on Ridout on stage right.
With the final note of the Telemann, and with Ridout’s final bow, the three join each other at stage centre and give an impassioned performance of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Garden of Joy and Sorrow (1980, 1993). As Ridout remarked from the stage, the piece “forcefully juxtaposes” both western and eastern musical traditions, and the sound world of the work is quite astonishing. The harp is played to produce sounds that are quite at odds with what we would normally expect (can you imagine the drone sounds produced as the harp’s tuning key is drawn across the strings?), and the flute and viola combine to heighten our emotional response to what is an exotic and poignant piece. For this reviewer, it was the highlight of the evening.
After the interval, the trio performed Messiaen, Takemitsu, and finished with Debussy, who essentially provided the backbone for the entire program.
Messiaen ‘s Le Merle noir (The Blackbird) (1952) is a prime example of Messiaen’s preoccupation with spirituality. The piece is infused with lightness and eerily evocative sounds (particularly from the flute) that almost induce a meditative state. As ones’ eyes involuntarily close, one briefly drifts away in a state of contemplation.
Takemitsu’s And then I knew ‘twas Wind (1992) was originally composed as a companion piece for Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, which finished the program. The harp provides its backbone, with fragments of diverse melodies always gravitating back to the harp, which is exquisitely played by Lenaerts. The piece is, for obvious reasons, infused with eastern sounds, and ‘fits’ with being performed alongside of the Messiaen. This is no accident of programming.
Lenaerts then performs Debussy’s most recognisable composition Clair de Lune arranged for solo harp, for which it works especially well.
And then to Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (1915), which was revolutionary when it was written and a testimony to Debussy’s genius for combining three diverse instruments. Again, it all fits. The finale highlights superb partnerships between the viola and the harp in particular.
The sizeable audience left the Town Hall well satisfied by three extremely talented artists and an unusual program.
Bravo Musica Viva, again.
Kym Clayton
When: 26 Apr
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 21 Apr 2023
Dubbed Wild, the second concert in the ASO’s Symphony Series, was an exciting, exuberant, and animated ride. The drawcard for concert goers was undoubtedly Saint-Saëns’ mighty Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op. 78 – the so-called Organ Symphony – but the real surprise of the program was a world première performance of a new Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Fantasie im Wintergarten) commissioned by the ASO, composed by Elena Kats-Chernin, and written for and performed by Emily Sun.
Kats-Chernin is a prolific composer, and her music is well known. Her compositions frequently overturn conventional musical approaches and are exemplified by strong and unexpected contrasts. Kats-Chernin authored her own notes for the printed program and describes the concerto as providing “…Emily a great vehicle to showcase virtuosity, and edgy sounds, as well as heartbreakingly poetic suspended lines”, and this is precisely what we got. At the start, the audience was confronted with seemingly out-of-place latin rhythms and sounds coming from instruments as diverse as strings, castanets, tuba, and harp, as they weaved in and out of tightly constructed but emotive melodies. Sun’s playing was sure and confident, and she was equally at home with the piece’s gritty technical challenges, dissonance and contrasting harmonies, as she was with the aching tenderness of its soaring melodies. Kats-Chernin has a rare insight into how to marry musical forces that are essentially in conflict, and how to lay bare opposites that are different faces of the same thing. As the piece unfolded, the audience increasingly warmed to it and became absorbed. There was sustained and exuberant applause at its finale, and Kats-Chernin, who was present for the performance, graciously accepted her accolades on stage alongside of Sun and conductor Benjamin Northey.
The concerto was bookended by a thrilling performance of Berlioz’s overture Le Corsair, and of course the Organ Symphony, and what a pair of bookends they were! Northey gave a snappy and sprightly reading of Le Corsair and allowed its panache and style to come through clearly. The violins and brass were especially fine with crisp articulation.
The Organ Symphony never ceases to appeal, and performing it is a knife’s-edge experience, for both the orchestra and the audience. It is written for a very large orchestra, with expanded woodwind, brass and percussion sections, as well as piano (for both two and four hands) as well as pipe organ. The stage in the Adelaide Town Hall was full to overflowing, and it was a wonderous sight to behold. Northey allowed the agitation and disquiet in the opening movement to come through clearly, but it wasn’t always as well articulated as it might be, with woodwinds being overshadowed by the more ebullient brass. Similarly, later in the work, after the mighty Walker & Sons pipe organ had well and truly announced itself, the lush and sweeping melody played on the grand piano was all but overwhelmed by the rest of the orchestra. But these are minor grumbles, and the vastness and majesty of the symphony consumed all in its stride and the ride was exhilarating.
The very large audience left very satisfied, and with many ear worms to cope with for hours to come!
Kym Clayton
When: 21 Apr
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Elder Hall. 5 Apr 2023
Presented in the recently refurbished Elder Hall, radiant with comfortable new seating and carpets, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 matinee series was launched with a program that highlighted the artistry of violinist Elizabeth Layton. Dubbed Radiance, the program included Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G, Hob.VIIa:4 (usually listed as Violin Concerto No.4), and Suk’s Serenade for Strings in E-flat Major, Op.6, which proved to be the audience’s favourite.
On a perfect autumn morning, the sun shone through the windows and the hall glowed as the string orchestra tuned not to an oboe but to the harpsichord. Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G is a bright, sunny, and generally unfussy composition. Its emotional heart is the adagio middle movement which is lyrical and intimate. Layton’s clean and almost sparse lines in the first movement gave way to warmth and sunniness in the adagio, and to playful and gently spirited playing in the final allegro.
Josef Suk’s four-movement Serenade is a different proposition altogether. It marks a change in Suk’s compositional style as he stepped away from the melancholy influence of Dvořák (who became his father-in-law) and started to infuse his writing with less heft and more grace and vitality. The second and third movements of the Serenade are fine examples of that, and Layton’s direction draws out the elegance and refinement inherent in the piece. The warmth of the celli and basses is particularly rich, and Layton’s light and gentle treatment of the closing ornaments in the adagio movement are deeply satisfying. This all gives way to the fun and shifting temperament in the final allegro.
The ASO preserved the elegance, simplicity, and serenity of both the Haydn and the Suk, and the audience left more cheery for the experience.
Kym Clayton
When: 5 Apr
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 31 Mar 2023
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s signature Symphony Series exploded out of the blocks with an emotion charged program that was like a caged beast desperate for release. After what has become the ASO’s traditional musical Acknowledgement of Country, Pudnanthi Padninthi (The Coming and the Going) – a haunting and prescient musical presage specially commissioned and composed by Jack Buckskin – we heard the first performance by the ASO of seldom-heard French romantic composer Louise Farrenc’s Overture No.2 in E flat, Op.24, followed by Grieg’s iconic Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16, featuring audience-favourite Konstantin Shamray at the piano. The concert finished with Elgar’s expansive Symphony No.1 in A flat, Op.55. Watching carefully over and nurturing the proceedings were ASO Conductor Laureate Nicholas Braithwaite and newly installed concertmaster Kate Suther. Both had big nights!
Everything about the program was big, imposing and oh-so-impressive.
In her day, Farrenc was better known as a pianist than as a composer, but her Overture No.2 – a concert overture as distinct from one that precedes and introduces a major stage work such as an opera – has the hallmarks of someone who knows exactly how to corral the assembled forces of a symphony orchestra. This reviewer had not heard Overture No.2 before and was struck by the rush of musical ideas in it, especially in the violas, cellos, and basses. Melodies, however, were transitory and the piece begs to be listened to again to fully appreciate it.
When the overture was concluded, Shamray briskly took to the stage, gave his customary brief and no-nonsense bow to the audience, and sat down at the Steinway. With no delay, Braithwaite summoned the timpani into action and Grieg’s famous concerto was under way. Seconds later, Shamray summoned the familiar and crashing A-minor chords from the upper register of the piano with enormous strength and uninhibited passion. From then on, it was clear this was going to be no ordinary reading of one of the most popular and well-known piano concertos ever written. It’s risky for a musician to stray too far from what is ‘expected’ from a composition, but Shamray is all class and the sustained strength and pace with which he performed the concerto seemed, by the end, the norm. Braithwaite was of course ‘in on it’, and the ASO was equally robust. The woodwinds in the final movement had some difficulty in being heard clearly, however, and some of the more delicate melodies were overshadowed.
Elgar’s first symphony is a monumental piece, coming in at around fifty minutes. The sizeable first movement unfolds at a languid pace and radiates both strength and graciousness. The main theme becomes an ear worm and is heard often right until the end of the symphony. The nobility of the first movement segues into what almost seems a mélange of forms, but Braithwaite holds a firm line with pace and dynamics, and it makes sense. The third movement is sublime, with superb playing from the strings, and the final movement restates the main theme to round it all out. It is almost exhausting taking it all in – it's big – but the panoramic pomp and circumstance is deeply satisfying!
Kym Clayton
When: 31 Mar
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. St Peter’s Cathedral. 15 Mar 2023
The Adelaide Chamber Singers is one of the brightest lights on our cultural landscape. Indeed, they are world class and have commendations to prove it. They are outstanding, and their latest concert – interestingly titled Celestial – is out of this world. Conductor and Artistic Director Christie Anderson’s informative program notes state that the concert “… is about looking up and out, to the natural harmony of the heavens, and its relationship to our earthly lives.” This theme is evident in a number of the sung texts, and just as ancients would wonder at the stars in awe, so do we gaze into the infinity of the heavens and contemplate our relative insignificance, and even with our modern scientific knowledge of the natural world, we too marvel about our place in the wider scheme of things.
Celestial is a sung through event – no pauses, no applause until the end. As the lighting in the cathedral is dimmed, the choir enters from all corners and the pinpoint reading lamps on their scores light their way as they process to the front. Anderson joins them and begins the concert with the medieval Dou Way Robyn/Sancta Mater Gratiae. The bass and tenor gentle drone suffused the vast space of the cathedral with a sense of expectancy. The choir moves up into the quire and sings Ubi caritas that was commissioned for William and Catherine’s royal wedding in 2011. The sung text is medieval, but Paul Mealor’s music is fresh with modern harmonic language. The softest softs gently drift upwards into the cosmos.
Stars, with century old text by Sara Teasdale and music by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds composed barely a decade ago, is accompanied by water-tuned wine glasses that produce long sounds almost like a delicate chamber organ. The marriage of voices and tuned glasses produces a sound colour that is quite ethereal. Z Randall Stroope’s We Beheld Once Again The Stars is an apt segue and the gentleness of Stars is replaced by sonorous intonations that become a little blurry as the reverberation inherent in the expanse of the cathedral’s interior puts itself on notice.
Rhonda Sandberg’s arrangement of Bach (again) Come Sweet Death is sung by the choir without direction from the conductor. Singing from memory and without books, the choristers gesture with their hands and add meaning to particular words in the text. Some beseech and beckon (‘come sweet death’), others gently rest their hands on their chests (‘come blessed rest’). The effect is soothing and transporting.
Grammy Award-winning composer Eric Whiteacre’s Sleep is captivating, and like many of his compositions, the music embellishes individual words. With the closing line ‘…I surrender unto sleep’, the music gently floated away, soft and pure.
Videte Miraculum by sixteenth century Tudor composer Thomas Tallis features tenor David Hamer. The choir sings with controlled intensity, especially the basses, and Hamer responds with excellent articulation and gentleness, but also with unassuming authority.
The familiar poem Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep is sung by the choir from the behind the audience at the back of the filled cathedral. Many turned to view the choir, but most gazed forward and appreciated Anderson’s artistic decision to allow Joe Twist’s arrangements to gently wash over them as if from a seemingly familiar but in reality an unknown and mysterious place. The words felt like silk being tenderly drawn across our necks and faces.
Immortal Bach arranged by Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt is another re-imagining of Bach’s Come Sweet Death. It is complex and features sections of the choir singing various texts at different tempi. It is vaguely unsettling to listen to, and the audience seeks resolution. Indeed it comes with a wonderful performance of a choral arrangements of the iconic Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma variations sung to the Lux Aeterna text from the catholic Requiem Mass.
Silence followed, and then thunderous applause as the large audience rose to its feet and expressed great joy and appreciation for what was a wonderful concert.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: St Peter’s Cathedral
Bookings: Closed