Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Elder Hall, University of Adelaide. 30 May 2022
Jayson Gillham is the complete romantic at the piano. Whether it be the comparative simplicity of Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze or the thundering complexity his Chaconne, or indeed the exhilaration of Chopin’s Fantaisie -Impromptu in C sharp minor or his rousing Heroic Polonaise in A flat, Gillham has all bases covered as he solicits the most beautiful sounds from the Steinway concert grand.
In this concert Gillham presented a program of Bach and Chopin, all played from memory. His Bach selections were, with one exception, transcriptions by other composers, and they gave him scope to not only display his considerable technique but also to perform them with what might be described as an ‘uncommon freedom’. Yes, the notes were played as written, of course, but there was also a palpable feeling of Gillham taking the music right to the edge of liberating it into a different sound world in which freer forms abound. Gillham never went over that edge. Instead, he found a freshness in all that he played, and he looked as free and nimble at the keyboard as anyone could be.
There was a gradation in his sequencing of the Bach selections, and they all pointed to him preparing himself (and the audience) for the mighty Chaconne. He began with Egon Petri’s arrangement of Sheep May Safely Graze and played it with grace and delicate detached notes when needed. The pace of the recital picked up with the Partita No.1 in B flat BWV825, and Gillham displayed technical prowess with the difficult but exciting hand crossing in the final Giga section. Next followed Wilhelm Kempff’s transcription of the Siciliano from Flute Sonata No.2 BWV1031, and Gillham drew out and distinguished the voice of the flute from the keyboard. Dame Myra Hess’ transcription of Jesu Joy of man’s Desiring is a masterpiece and demands great sensitivity to ensure it doesn’t sound merely ‘sweet’. Gillham came up trumps. Frederico Busoni was an Italian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, and teacher, and despite having written over 300 compositions he is probably better remembered for his transcriptions, especially of the music of Bach and Liszt. Gillham first performed Busoni’s transcriptions of the Chorale Prelude Rejoice, Beloved Christians BWV734 and received cheers from the audience. But the first half of the concert was always building to the Busoni’s transcription of the monumental Chaconne from Partita No 2 in D minor for solo violin BWV1004, and Gillham excelled. For the first time in the concert, he was more animated at the keyboard as he arched his back and dealt with the physicality and virtuosity of the piece. It ended on a long sustained D, that gradually became an eery silence before the audience erupted into exuberant applause.
The all-Chopin second half began with two etudes: the so-called Aeolian Harp étude (in A flat, Op25 No.1), and the Cello étude (in C sharp minor, Op.25 No.7). The first demands rapidity and lightness with clear voicing of the melody, and the second demands strength and composure. These led into an exhilarating performance of the much loved Fantaisie -Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op.66. Gillham produced extraordinary bell-like tones in the upper register and gentility when needed. Next followed the three Opus 34 waltzes and the Nocturne in E flat, Op.55 No.2, which were played with precision, passion, and lightness. The dance was evident. The concert finished with a bravura performance of the Polonaise in A flat, Op.53 – the so-called Heroic. Like in the Chaconne that finished the first half, Gillham’s full prowess was on display with the Polonaise. It was beautifully articulated with a crisp but delicate opening before the temperament and relentless momentum of the piece demands total physical and spiritual commitment form the pianist. And here we see that Gillham is truly at one with the music of the romantics. The great Polish-American pianist Arthur Rubinstein reportedly referred to the Heroic Polonaise as "the composition which is the closest to my heart”. It could well be that for Gillham, and with the final crashing fortissimo chord, the audience stood, cheered, and loudly applauded, and left no doubt in Gillham’s mind that he has a legion of fans in Adelaide.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. The Adelaide Town Hall. 28 May 2022
The third concert in the ASO’s current Symphony Series is entitled Joy, and it is awash with lush melodies that stay on the lips long after the concert is over. It is indeed a joyous occasion, and features rising stars Australian pianist Jayson Gillham (to be fair, his star has already substantially risen!) and Russian conductor Dmitry Matvienko. Gillham excels in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K.488, and Matvienko extracts everything on offer, and some, in Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.27.
The concert coincides with National Reconciliation Week and it is a joy to again hear the musical Acknowledgment of Country titled Pudnanthi Padninthi (The Coming and the Going) composed by Kaurna Narungga musicians and composers Jack Buckskin and Jamie Goldsmith. It was arranged for orchestra by Mark Simeon Ferguson, who is head of Jazz at the Elder Conservatorium. It now prefaces every ASO concert and won’t it be something when someday it opens a concert that is performed hot on the heels of Constitutional recognition of First Australians!
In stark musical contrast to Pudnanthi Padninthi, the concert opens with subito con forza by Korean composer Unsuk Chin. She wrote it to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. It is an eclectic sequence of ‘miniatures’ that are cleverly stitched together to create a whole that is typified by aggression, verve, invention, thrust, surprise and abruptness. Everything that Beethoven’s music is. It includes sweeping strings, dreamy piano, and tubular bells! Throughout, Matvienko ensures the momentum never flags and individual instruments can be easily heard when needed.
In many respects subito con forza is unsettling – one’s equilibrium is given a good shake – and the perfect antidote is Jayson Gillham playing Mozart’s delightful Piano Concerto No.23 in A. Despite his boyish good looks and moderate frame, Gillham deploys significant forearm strength to produce commanding and sonorous tones from the piano when needed, but at the very next second he can pivot and play with much tenderness and delicacy. His flirtations up and down the keyboard are accomplished with speed, and exactitude, and it seems his fingers barely touch the keys. Throughout, and especially during the beautiful adagio second movement, there is a gentle smile on his face that tells us he really understands what he is playing. When he is not playing, he is clearly ‘with’ the orchestra and ‘with’ Matvienko – almost as a co-conductor. Following rapturous applause, that seemed to surprise him (but it shouldn’t have) Gillham plays Rachmaninov’s How fair is this Spot as an encore. In announcing the piece he tells the audience that the Adelaide Town Hall is indeed just that. Understandably that comment goes down a treat! This young man’s star shines bright indeed.
Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.2 in E minor is an interesting beast. Rachmaninov reportedly did not really like it, at least initially, but it was successful with the public. It is ‘interesting’ insomuch as it has almost too much musical content to absorb. It has a surfeit of melodies that are developed and re-worked, but they somehow all link together. Just when you think the symphony may have lost its way, in the space of a bar or two Rachmaninov brings the threads together and the path forward is again clear. It is a huge piece and comes in at around sixty minutes. At times Matvienko takes it at a very brisk tempo but the members of the ASO never falter. Phrasing is especially articulate and sharp, and dynamics are well planned and executed particularly in the largo first movement. The allegro second movement features fine voicing in the brass and woodwind, and the gorgeous adagio third movement contrasts dreamy and sweeping love themes. The playing is spirited in the more full-bodied sections, which saw shocks of hair being loosened and tossed around as members of the orchestra arched their backs and were swept along by Matvienko’s unyielding call for passion.
This concert is about more than joy alone - there are also sounds of amusement, hope, passion, relief, peace, and zeal. A veritable A to Z, and it is excellent. Bravo ASO.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 13 May 2022
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra has an amazingly comprehensive program in 2022 broken into bite-size attendable chunks with enigmatic appellations like Jubilation and Beauty. On offer this warm May weekend in Town Hall is Affirmation – an eclectic and joyous two hours of the familiar and the new.
The concert was preceded by a half-hour Q & A with Australian composer Joe Chindamo hosted by the ASO’s Director of Artistic Planning Simon Lord. Soon we will hear the world premiere of Chindamo’s Ligeia – Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra commissioned by the ASO. Chindamo is an easygoing and charming son of Italian migrants. In Ligeia, he channels the spiritualism of early 19th century American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Chindamo explains he was drawn to Poe by his use of the macabre, and old European symbols of aristocracy, castles, and Gothic bleakness from which the will of the human spirit yet still prevails. He describes himself as a polystylist whereby he “takes components [of musical styles] at the atomic level” to create new work, as distinct from “the process of cross-genre in which fully gestated genres are combined.” Chindamo is a legendary jazz pianist who realised that his full expression of music could only be accomplished through orchestral composition. With this fascinating pedigree, the anticipation of his new work was palpable.
Conductor Brad Cohen began the concert with a haunting musical version of Acknowledgement of Country. Then follows Ottorino Respighi’s Fountains of Rome. One aurally tours the eternal city – the Fountain of Valle Guilia at dawn, the Triton Fountain in the morning, the Fountain of Trevi at midday and the Villa Medici Fountain at sunset. Respighi evokes both the legendary symbolism of the statuary and the sublime experience of actually being there – nearby tolling church bells, the splashing and dancing water and the rush of air like its breath upon you. These fountains are now immortalised.
Joe Chindamo’s Ligeia was a huge success. Joe said there are very few orchestral pieces featuring trombone, so he held full sway. To ensure the piece was challenging and innovative but indeed playable, he consulted with the soloist Colin Prichard. Poe’s duality “is expressed by oscillating between the tonal and atonal, and between full symphonic romanticism and angular minimalism.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Colin Prichard has been Principal Trombone with the ASO since 2018 after winning major international music competitions in Europe. His expressions while blowing the trombone and waiting his cues from Maestro Cohen were delightful. Prichard and Cohen were a little embarrassed by the three curtain calls demanded of them. The composer briefly took applause graciously not wanting to take away from the players. Bravo!
After interval, the ASO played Lisa Illean’s Land’s End which was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and first performed in 2016. Illean is known for her mesmerising and tranquil tonal transitions with an exquisite anticipatory edge. Land’s End is inspired by Latvian-American, Vija Celmins’s renderings of windswept choppy waters. The orchestra, much reduced in size, nimbly mute their motions. Like the sea, change is constantly occurring but has no boundaries. It is a wonderful interlude between the robust Ligeia and what followed, Sibelius’s Symphony No.5 in E flat, Op.82.
No.5 is now one of his most popular for its variations. Sibelius (1865-1957) himself conducted the world premiere on his 50th birthday in 1915. Yet the composition was not finished until 1919 after several changes - it took longer than the war to complete. The audience reveled in its masculinity - the lady beside me fist-pumped the air with glee on each of the six punchy chords that end the symphony.
A wonderful program of two compositions by Australians in their prime including a new work, an Italian invested in his operatic tradition and love of his eternal city, and the Finnish hero, thus alternating between the romantic and modern and the transition between. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 13 to 14 May
Where: Town Hall
Bookings: aso.com.au
Anya Anastasia. 2 Apr 2022
Fans of Anya Anastasia - wild, intense, questioning cabaret theatre artist - prepare to meet a new incarnation and be mesmerised and challenged in a whole new way.
This incarnation’s origins can be safely traced back to Anastasia’s last cabaret production in 2018, The Executioners. It was a production in which her songs probed the messy contradictions of star ‘activism’ and the reality of pressing social issues.
The pressing issue of Dissenter is climate change.
Anya Anastasia is not playing a character anymore to accentuate flights of thought and probing, questioning imaginings in her lyrics.
The new incarnation is purely herself, reflected in a five track EP in which she displays an incredible development in song writing post cabaret and a profoundly powerful self-possession, her uncompromising stance in the tradition of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
How beautiful the result is in live performance.
Losing Wild is a delicate plea to recognise the rapidly occurring extinction of species. No angry push in voice or musical arrangements offered. No, a poetic cry of recognising it, as Anastasia sings, “…The hourglass drains, no Noah’s Ark in the desert, so they’re going away.”
This simple understated observational stand point continues most strongly in Goes Untold, in which Anastasia mourns the loss of indigenous knowledge of the land - particularly held by the women - heart breakingly expressed in simple sorrowful words, “…The whole truth held in a drop rain, but we decline to taste it.”
Spinning Around tackles the very state of a fast paced world which is truly confusing us all, as the world itself is indeed in danger, “…Is it I’m dizzy or is the world just spinning the wrong way around today?”
Supporting the power of Anastasia’s subtle prowess are a crew of musicians who more than capably give gentle nuance to the strength within the apparent softness of Anastasia’s art.
Gareth Chin’s keyboard, along with Anastasia’s lead guitar form the strong core to the songs, but Satomi Ohnishi on drums/percussion and Clara Gillam Grant on Cello work gently beneath this core, proffering balanced, subtly developed warmth and power to every single song.
The crafting of these songs’ innate gentleness with power is exquisite.
Dissenter EP is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Soundcloud
David O’Brien
When: 2 Apr
Where: Nexus Arts
Season: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 16 Mar 2022
The Chineke! Orchestra was founded in 2015 in the UK by double bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE to provide career opportunities for young Black and ethnically diverse musicians in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. What a profound and major advance for Reconciliation it would be if something similar was established in Australia, noting that this evening’s program features a world première performance of The Rising of the Mother Country by composer, singer and leading didgeridoo player William Barton.
Chineke!’s mission is to champion change and to celebrate diversity in classical music, and this evening’s concert delivered on that promise in spades. The full orchestra has not travelled to Australia for the Festival, but rather a smaller ensemble of ten musicians, featuring the orchestra’s strings, woodwind, horn, and piano principal players. There is just one of each featured instrument, and so the configuration is ripe for significant chamber works.
The ensemble arranges itself in a semicircle with Chi-chi Nwanoku standing centrally upstage. The ensemble’s diversity is apparent, right down to their attire. Absent is strict conventional suiting and long dresses. Rather there is a more relaxed feel that is underlined with the occasional item of ‘national dress. There is however nothing ‘cosy’ about the quality of the music making – it is tight and terrific, with controlled passion tempered with evident joy – and Nwanoku keeps a lid on it with watchful direction to which the ensemble respects and responds.
Nwanoku’s programming choices include Bohuslav Martinů’s Nonet No. 2, Sergei Prokofiev’s Quintet in G minor, Op.39, Valerie Coleman’s Red Clay and Mississippi Delta, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet in F minor, Op.2, and of course Barton’s The Rising of the Mother Country, which was the clear highlight of the program.
The Martinů Nonet was composed in 1959 and is eclectic in style, with pleasing melodies and jaunty rhythms. It is a satisfying composition and the Chineke! easily draw out its fun and vibrance. The Prokofiev quintet was originally commissioned by a ballet troupe, but proved too difficult for them, and it eventually became ‘pure music’. Not unlike the Martinů, it includes jagged harmonies and rhythms at which the Chineke! clearly excel, and enjoy. Coleman is a living composer, and her Red Clay and Mississippi Delta is jazz infused. The audience willingly join in with rhythmic finger clicking when invited to do so by the ensemble, but soon give over to an appreciation of Meera Maharaj’s excellent work on flute. Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet is ‘big sounding’ and, like the Martinů, is eclectic in style with fine examples of tonal lyricism.
But Barton’s composition stole the show. It is an expansive piece that traverses mystery, deep introspection, wonderment, joy and even frivolity. It begins with almost ominous rumblings from Nwanoku’s expertly played double bass under which Barton’s pleasing vibrato-free tenor voice emerges and bathes us in clean vocal tones. This gives way to simple but affecting melodies from the strings and horn, and the piano provides a robust accompaniment to hold it together. And of course Barton performs on his didgeridoo and ominous-sounding clapsticks, and he coaxes the most remarkable collection of sounds and effects from the ancient instruments. The appealing juxtaposition against the instruments of the ensemble produces a remarkable soundscape that allows one to become lost in the moment and at one with something else that is quite enigmatic. In the programme notes, Barton says The Rising of Mother Country represents the power of our shared histories that are a part of healing, strength, and determination. And couldn’t our fractured world do with some of that?
This was a truly remarkable and deeply satisfying concert. It was a triumph of programming by the Adelaide Festival.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed