Australian Stories

Australian Stories Adelaide Wind Orchestra 2016Adelaide Wind Orchestra. Concordia College Chapel. 9 Jul 2016

 

Programming is everything, and this concert by the superb Adelaide Wind Orchestra didn’t quite cut it. It’s very encouraging when an audience goes into the interval eagerly looking forward to the second half of the concert, but in this case they were simply looking forward to a second half that was different. And that is exactly what they got, and it was fabulous.

 

It almost grieves me to be critical of this concert, because, as its title suggests, it was an all-Australian affair. It exclusively featured compositions by Australian composers – six of them – and all are still living except one (Percy Grainger). It was a celebration of contemporary serious concert music from the land down under, but the two opening pieces appealed more to the intellect than to the heart. Nigel Butterly’s 1968 composition Pentad is not something to open a concert with. Its difficult timing and phrasing demands the ensemble to be at the top of its game, right from the very start of the programme, which the AWO was not. In the depths of an unusually cold winter, the Concordia College Chapel takes time to warm up, and so do those who inhabit it.

 

Going on a Lion Hunt, by Adelaide’s very own David John Lang, does not have a strong narrative. It is minimalist in style with a central thematic motif being varied (but not as dramatically as it could have been) and shared across three mini-bands that also play as a full ensemble at times.

 

The first two pieces stood in stark contrast to Percy Grainger’s Colonial Song but the juxtaposition almost imbued it with comedy. The first half of the programme just didn’t hang together – it lacked a ‘gestalt’ – but then came the second half and the AWO was at its best.

 

Conductor Bryan Griffiths appeared to have an affinity for Natalie William’s Pendulum, which is a wonderfully optimistic composition with a rich orchestration. He ensured that every musical idea sounded fresh, and the repetitive rhythmic structure was never boring. The clarinets were superb.

And the very best was left to last.

 

Matthew Hindson and Paul Mac’s Requiem for a City is a fabulous composition that surely has a long and bright future, and it begs to be arranged for a full orchestra. Griffiths and the AWO handled the syncopated dance-like rhythms with grace and precision. It has a driving momentum and is at times reminiscent of the minimalist traditions of Terry Riley and Philip Glass. It finishes with a sequence that is almost a musical Morse code, and when it finally dashes itself out the audience is very quick to burst into applause.

Again, some very fine and sharp playing from the AWO, but the sequencing of the programme was a bit flat.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 9 Jul

Where: Concordia College

Bookings: Closed

Shuan Hern Lee

Shuan Hern Lee Adelaide 2016Recitals Australia. Elder Hall. 26 Jun 2016

 

In his post-concert interview/Q&A with wunderkind Shuarn Hern Lee, the inestimable Graham Abbott suggested Lee’s playing was “sublime”. High praise indeed, and much deserved. Lee is only thirteen years old and already has an impressive diary of international engagements and a repertoire that traverses major works from the baroque, classical, romantic and twentieth century periods.

 

His generous Elder Hall recital programme included Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Balakirev, and every piece demonstrated his exceptional technical expertise and astonishing musicianship for someone so young. It is one thing to get the notes right, but quite a different thing to communicate a strong sense of the music and what makes it ‘tick’. Lee achieved both, in buckets!

 

In interview Shuarn Hern Lee quipped that he treats concert programming as if planning a dinner menu. Following that metaphor, Balakirev’s phenomenally difficult Islamey – fantasie orientale was relegated to a mere dessert! Islamey puts most pianists to the sword; it is not often performed in recital because of its near impenetrability, and to play it at the end of a programme that is already demanding in many respects, and play it exceptionally well, is a testament to Lee’s pianistic prowess.

 

He prefaced each piece with a long pause – as much as twenty seconds – which was almost uncomfortable from an audience perspective, as if we were intruding on a private communion. After each silence was over Lee gave himself over to a driving force that released him, and us, into quite a different place.

 

Lee gave each movement of Haydn’s Sonata No. 60 a distinct personality; lightness where it was needed, and strength where the piece demanded it, but perhaps a little too much on the forte side of the ledger, which was also the case in the sotto voce section of Chopin’s Ballade No. 2 in F. Lee imbued the Ballade with a degree of anguish and hurt that was commensurate with the piece supposedly being Chopin’s homage to Polish ‘national martyrdom’.

 

Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole, which is perhaps better known in the form of Ferruccio Busoni’s orchestral arrangement, is a show piece because of the technical ordeals it presents to the pianist. Lee handled the rapid octaves and chords with apparent ease and achieved a bell-like effect on the Steinway.

 

Beethoven’s Sonata No 16. in G, Op. 31/1, is somewhat quixotic and transitional in nature: it sits between more well-known Pastorale (No.15) and Tempest (No. 17). Shuarn Hern Lee perhaps stressed too much of the humor in the piece and took it a pace that overshadowed its expressivity. His handling of the ornamentation in the adagio second movement was superb.

 

With Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse we started to get a deeper insight into Lee’s emerging sophistication as an interpreter of music. Just stopping short of being a little heavy handed, Lee relished the exuberance of the piece and extracted every nuance.

 

And then to the Islamey. It almost defies description – it is a brute of a piece. I am not aware whether Lee used some of the easier alternative passages that are available, but whether he did or not, his performance was visually and aurally spectacular.

And that he should have enough energy left to deliver a Chopin nocturne for an encore.

 

This young man is a remarkable musician. Technically he is awesome, and musically he is on a very rapid path to something quite special.

Congratulations to Mark de Raad and Recitals Australia for bringing this musical sensation to Adelaide.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 26 Jun

Where: Elder Hall

Bookings: Closed

Master Series 4: Dazzling Prokofiev

ASO Master Series 4 Dazzling Prokofiev 2016Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 24 Jun 2016

 

The programming for this concert had a ‘gala’ feel about it and the audience loved it. The Adelaide Town Hall stage was stuffed to overflowing with an expanded orchestra that tapped the full range of the audio spectrum, including piano and celeste as rank and file instruments, harp, and expanded percussion and woodwind. The program allowed additional attention to be given to every section of the orchestra and the ASO was in fine form under the impassioned but tight control of Principal Conductor Nicholas Carter.

 

The ASO’s artistic team assembled a ‘masterful’ program, comprising Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (that achieved household popularity through the Disney animated 1940 film Fantasia), Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3, White Ghost Dancing by contemporary Australian composer Ross Edwards, and Stravinsky’s exciting Petrushka.

 

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice highlighted the mesmerizing beauty of the bassoon and contrabassoon. Carter and the ASO gave White Ghost Dancing an almost whimsical feel and allowed the mix of dance rhythms to come to the fore. It is a sweet evocative piece and comes in at around 10 minutes, which is nowhere near long enough! More Ross Edwards please! He is a national treasure.

 

Petrushka is a strong, bold and dramatic piece and it saw two string instruments ‘die on stage’! (Well, they suffered broken strings mid-performance!). Ewan Bramble (Associate Principal cello) has to be one of the unluckiest members of the ASO, for this is (at least) the second time he has had to swap his instrument with a colleague because of a broken string. Petrushka is of course a ballet and it is one of the liveliest in the repertoire. The music has everything and its opposite: it is both lyrical and harshly mocking; noisy and delicate; toe-tappingly ordered, and then messy; dissonant and then harmonious. It is exciting, it is Stravinsky at his best and the ASO nailed it.

 

The star of the evening was thirty-one year old Russian pianist Konstantin Shamray who put the Prokofiev ‘to the sword’ in a dazzling display of technical expertise and musical brilliance. Shamray was so self-assured in his mastery over what is probably one of Prokofiev’s most difficult and best loved compositions, that he almost came across as being nonchalant during his performance. The first movement saw extended passages with his two hands interlocked as they played intricately dense passages at a blistering pace, and with astonishing accuracy and precise dynamics. It’s all poised on a knife’s edge ready to crash apart should there be any miscalculation, but it was safe in his hands. In the third there is opportunity for histrionics at the keyboard, but Shamray had none of it. He sat confidently and in command at the piano, and with seasoned forearm strength he rarely leaned into the keyboard and there was no display of emotion or affectation. At the end he took his bows and almost seemed bemused at the thunderous applause. He even had energy in reserve to offer a Chopin encore!

 

During the final bows of the evening carter took time to single out every section of the orchestra, and they thoroughly deserved it, especially those who calmly dealt with broken instruments as if it was nothing.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 24 Jun

Where: Adelaide Town Hall

Bookings: Closed

Great Classics Series 2 - Tchaikovsky 6

Tchaikovsky 6 Adelaide Symphony OrchestraAdelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 4 Jun 2016

 

Following a standard format – an overture (of sorts), a concerto and then a symphony – this programme dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’. It had the audience applauding at every opportunity, with some cheering and wolf-whistling, including between the third and fourth movements of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony Pathétique where there isn’t really a break!

 

Throughout the evening feet were tapping, and hands were discretely conducting along with guest conductor Alexandre Bloch, who was making his debut with the ASO. Born in 1985, Bloch is a young up-and-coming conductor who already has a very respectable CV. In tonight’s programme he excelled in eliciting the gentle and mellifluous melody lines that were a feature of all three works.

 

The Enchanted Lake, Anatoly Liadov’s gorgeous ‘tone painting’, was beautifully conducted and Bloch and the ASO gently lifted the weight of worldly cares from the audience’s shoulders. Any feelings of sweet repose however were soon sent south with an emotion-charged performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.1 by virtuoso Alexander Gavrylyuk. The large audience was thrilled by his outstanding technique and evocative interpretation. Frequently throughout the concerto Gavrylyuk and Bloch intently locked each other’s gaze and exchanged whatever it is that exceptional musicians intuitively share when creating music together. Gavrylyuk beautifully executed Rachmaninov’s extremes: moments of great delicacy and lilting melody were contrasted with athletic displays of intensely vehement romanticism.

 

The same extremes were acutely demonstrated by Bloch and the ASO in a ‘take no prisoners’ reading of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique. The symphony is celebrated for its agonizing poignancy and harsh climaxes and Bloch ensured that all sections of the orchestra gave their all without resorting to self-indulgence. The whole thing was beautifully controlled.

 

Vincent Ciccarello, Managing Director of the ASO, addressed the audience from the stage just before the concert commenced, as he often does on gala and other ‘big’ ASO occasions in the Festival Theatre. With trademark light humor he encouraged concertgoers to donate to the ASO (and enjoy the tax deductibility!). He noted that even though funding from government sources was greatly valued the quantum only partially covered the orchestra’s costs. Ciccarello didn’t say it, but the fact remains that if ticket prices were calculated on a full cost recovery basis, they would be generally unaffordable and our concert halls would be much quieter!

 

So, donate to the orchestra’s 2016 Annual Appeal if you can at www.aso.com.au/support/annual-appeal-2016. No amount is too small, and in these pre-election days you might also ponder which political party/ies offer the best support for the arts and your entertainment!

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 4 June

Where: Festival Theatre

Bookings: Closed

Cloudstreet!

Cloudstreet State Opera of SA 2016State Opera of South Australia. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 12 May 2016

 

Cloudstreet! is a new opera, its Australian, it has just had its world première in li’l ol’ Adelaide and the whole package is … well, it’s bloody exciting, that’s what it is, and you should take a gander!

 

Cloudstreet! is based on Tim Winton’s award-winning Australian 1998 novel of the same name. First a novel, then an immense stage play and then a TV series, it was only a matter of time before it became an opera. Musical director Tim Sexton, director Gale Edwards and composer George Palmer collaborated for five solid years to create Cloudstreet the opera. It was a labor of love driven by a mutually shared and heart-felt rock solid belief that the touching and quintessentially Australianess of the story was robust enough and worth re-telling on the operatic stage.

 

The result speaks for itself. It is magnificent and impresses on so many levels.

 

The story traverses some 20-30 years in the lives of two working-class Australian families – the Lambs and the Pickles - who are down on their luck and find themselves sharing a large run down house in Perth at No. 1 Cloud Street. Unknown to the two families, the house has some secret and shameful history relating to the Stolen Generation. Both families have suffered tragedies at various times, the most poignant of which is the drowning and subsequent revival of Samson (nicknamed ‘Fish’), the favorite son of the Lamb family. Tragically, Fish, who in many ways is the central character of the opera, is left with an acquired brain injury and is never again the ‘full quid’.

 

The story is a busy one, and a long one. Lots happens, possibly too much, and it takes some effort to keep pace with it, especially towards the end of the performance that lasts for over two and one-half hours. The scenic design includes a revolve stage, which allows rapid change of settings and keeps the action flowing smoothly. The opera is sung in English and the diction of the entire cast is excellent (well done Tim Sexton!) so one is almost never in doubt about what is happening and surtitles are not needed! The libretto preserves the vernacular and rhythm of the broad Aussie accent – which some purists might find jarring – and Palmer’s music allows it to be sung freely and naturally.

 

The score is predominantly tonal, which is not altogether common in modern opera, and Palmer’s use of woodwind and the mellow strings of the cello gives a homely, comforting and earthy feel to the setting. Having said that it is doubtful whether any audience member left humming a memorable tune or two. Sexton provided clear direction in his conducting and the aural balance between orchestra and singers was never in doubt.

 

The ensemble cast is uniformly excellent.

 

Pelham Andrews’ resonant bass voice imbued Lester Lamb with the warmth and compassion of a caring father who unreservedly loves his wife and children. Antoinette Halloran’s lyrical soprano voice gave Oriel, Lester’s wife, dignity in the face of adversity. Her aria in Act 2, in which she describes the bush fire tragedy that left Oriel as the sole survivor of her family when she was a child, was just heartbreaking.

 

Joanna McWaters was brilliant as Dolly Pickles, the wanton wife who drunkenly rolls from one bloke in a bar to another and leaves her family uncared for. Her acting was first rate and you could almost smell the sex and alcohol about her. Her wonderfully strong soprano voice added incisiveness to a ‘sexciting’ performance!

 

Berry Ryan’s portrayal of the addicted gambler Sam Pickles was a highlight of the production. His rich, strong baritone voice commanded attention at all times, from moments of extreme vulnerability to periods of amiable knockabout cockiness posing as confidence.

 

Desiree Frahn gives a break-out performance as Rose Pickles, the resentful daughter who despises her mother and chides her father for not standing up to her shameless ways. Frahn convincingly handles the transformation of Rose from an anorexic angry child to a beautiful young woman, and her versatile voice adds to the conviction.

 

Nicholas Cannon plays Quick, one of Lester and Oriel’s two sons, and his performance is another highlight of the show. We are left in no doubt, through Cannon’s fine tenor singing and strong acting, that Quick is a selfless young man whose devotion to his disabled brother almost leaves him a broken young man himself.

 

Don Bemrose brought dream-time mystery to the role of Bob Crab, the Aboriginal man who seemed to be a guardian spirit to Fish and Quick Lamb boys. He did well in his opening aria to overcome the initially untidy sound engineering.

 

Jeremy Kleeman was convincing as the wannabe poet Toby and was variously both likeable as Rose’s young lover and despised when he cruelly rejected her. His rich baritone voice gets better and better with each outing.

 

The strong ensemble is rounded out by Kristen Hardy, Karina Jay, Courtney Turner, Ben Francis, Hew Wagner, and Beau Sandford. With limited opportunities they all created memorable characters, which is a testimony to Edward’s fine direction.

 

The star of the show is Fish lamb, and Nicholas Jones’ performance was nothing short of astounding. His portrayal of a brain damaged young man who is forever trapped in a malfunctioning body was deeply affecting. It was disciplined, honest and never offensive or mawkish. Jones’ vocal lyricism and controlled strength allowed him to sing convincingly with the awkwardness of someone who struggles with a speech impediment as well as sing with a soaring and unleashed voice of a young man who, in brief and private moments, finds himself at peace and at one with his true inner self. The impact is immense. Jones’ art is a joy.

 

The production also impresses with its look and feel. Victoria Lamb (no relation to the on-stage Lambs!) has created a versatile open design that shouts the rough and readiness of outback Australia. It’s unmistakable, yet it all doubles to become No. 1 Cloud Street as well. Craig Williams’ fabulous video projections, when cast onto the set, transform the scene instantly to raging bushfires, the outback, suburbia, the Margaret River, and elsewhere. The images of three Aboriginal girls who ‘shared history’ with No. 1 Cloud Street were as unsettling as they were beautiful. Ailsa Paterson’s costumes suited the passage of the years, and Nigel Levings’ lighting was the cream on the cake. The effects and colors were remarkable.

 

The stage was one immense, devastatingly evocative canvas, and the cast played out a roller coaster of emotions.

 

This opera has a bright future.

 

Bravo State Opera.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 12 to 21 May

Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre

Bookings: bass.net.au

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