Laughing Stock and Shortwalk. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - The Factory. 24 Feb 2015
I could wax lyrical about the structure of the music, and how there have been significant attempts to ‘freshen’ it by giving it orchestral makeovers, but I shan’t.
Everyone knows the music and dare I say, loves it, but this performance is not just a musical feast, it is also a visual tour de force and should not be missed.
Picture two musicians (Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts, both Aussies by the way) on stage with four electronic keyboards, samplers, loop pedals, a mix of six or seven eclectic and acoustic guitars at various tunings, a mandolin, drum kits, glockenspiel, mouth whistles, their own voices, and, you guessed it, tubular bells.
The instruments are carefully and strategically located around the stage and Holdsworth and Roberts move swiftly between them with awesome dexterity as they recreate Mike Oldfield’s iconic score with the occasional minor improvisation as it takes their mood!
It is enthralling to watch as much as it is to hear. It is a breath of sweet air to witness two very accomplished modern musicians playing a substantial through-composed piece of contemporary music rather than a collection of three-minute sound grabs of uninspiring popular tunes.
Their musicality is only eclipsed by their exhausting athleticism. This is remarkable stuff.
Over many years of Fringe-ing, I cannot recall a show where an entire audience (of amazing diversity) rose simultaneously to its feet and erupted into a wolf-whistling standing ovation that lasted fully three minutes.
This is compulsory viewing, and sales are heavy. Buy a ticket if you can.
Kym Clayton
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Factory, Garden of Unearthly Delights
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Mark De Raad. Radford Auditorium, Art gallery of SA. 22 Feb 2015
“Brahms, what a gift-less bastard!” Tchaikovsky once uttered, apparently.
I first came across this quotation in Frank Muir’s excellent book ‘An Irreverent Companion to Social History’ and almost squealed with delight when the same sentiment was expressed in local entrepreneur Mark de Raad’s latest musical presentation of ‘Brahms: The Violin Sonatas’.
This concert delivered much more that expected. Not only did we hear some of Brahm’s most enjoyable works – three of his Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Opp. 78, 100 & 108) – but we also gained insights into his life and motivations for writing these works through several monologues that were creative reconstructions and dramatisations of his relationship with other composers and musicians – notably Tchaikovsky and Clara Schumann.
The monologues were delivered by Martin Penhale in the role of Joseph Widmann, and internationally recognised soprano Emma Horwood, who also beautifully sang Brahms’ uber moody and contemplative Regenleid and closed (fittingly) the concert with a haunting rendering of Wiegenlied (i.e. the famous lullaby).
As if the monologues and lieder were not a sufficient treat, but to have three of Brahms’ seldom performed violin sonatas positively spoiled the capacity audience. Shirin Lim (violin) and Kenan Henderson (piano, who was also the inspiration and creative force behind the conception and design of the concert) gave confident and personal interpretations of the three sonatas. The acoustics of the Radford auditorium sometimes blurred the subtleties of the essential dialogue between the two instruments, and Lim and Henderson took a little time to adjust to this at the start (in the Op.100) but they soon hit their straps and the effect was electric, especially in the adagio third movement of the Op.78, which Clara Schumann especially enjoyed, as told to us through Horwood’s superlative dramatisation.
This was a concert with a difference, and perfect classical fare for the Fringe. There are some tickets available for the second and final performance scheduled for Monday 9 March, but you will need to get in quick! Not to be missed.
Kym Clayton
When: 22 Feb & 9 Mar
Where: Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
BBC. Adelaide Entertainment Centre. 24 Jan 2015
The very fabric of space and time is torn asunder at the Entertainment Centre when Murray Gold’s stirring music from the inter-galactically popular BBC TV series Dr Who is unleashed by the mighty Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Under the expert baton of maestro Ben Foster, employed with the precision and devastating impact of a sonic screwdriver, Gold’s music summons forth the dreaded Daleks, Cybermen, Silents, Oods, Judoons, Mummies and Silurians! With so much evil beckoned to the same space-time coordinates, the potential for universal chaos is palpable, but Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, exploited his gentle wit to defuse a situation that might have seen the extermination, eradication and annihilation of an extremely large and enthusiastic audience of die-hard Whovians.
So what makes good film music? Notable American composer Aaron Copeland maintained there are five aspects to film scores, and they hold equally true for TV scores. Apart from simply ‘being there’ as an underscore, the music must set time and place, warn that something significant is imminent, make more obvious something that might not be noticed, and underline the connections between events and characters. Murray Gold clearly understands this, and although his compositions for Dr Who are necessarily episodic comprising sporadic melodies and ever-changing rhythms and meters to fit with the ‘three minute’ grabs that contemporary pop-culture seemingly demands, the music has an expanse and earnestness that fits the weightiness of the adventures of the Doctor.
The program features thirteen compositions that come from previous seasons and which hint at what is to come in Peter Capadi’s second season as the Timelord. The second half brings out the big numbers, and some of them feature the glorious soprano voice of Opera Australia’s Antoinette Halloran (especially in ‘Abigail’s Song’, a high point of the concert) and the choral delights of Adelaide’s Gradate Singers and The Elder Conservatorium Choral. Other highlights included ‘The Pandorica Suite’ and ‘Death in Heaven Suite’.
This is the first time the Dr Who Symphonic Spectacular has come to Adelaide, but not the first time to Australia. If the show is to continue to have a future, then producers need to refresh the show’s concept, otherwise it runs the very real risk of becoming boring and not attracting Whovians for return visits.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Entertainment Centre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Wind Orchestra. Concordia College Chapel. 12 Dec 2014
The local fine music scene is extensive, but Adelaide hides many of its lights hidden under bushels, and the Adelaide Wind Orchestra is one of them.
Many more music lovers need to experience the AWO. They are a class outfit. Their 2015 program kicks off on March 7 in the Elder Hall as part of the Adelaide Fringe with a fabulous program that includes Saint-Saën’s ‘Danse Macabre’, Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Piazolla’s ‘Libertango’, and Bernstein’s ‘Symphonic Dances from West Side Story’.
Wow!
And so to tonight’s thoughtful, varied and exciting program, which is played by an enthusiastic ensemble of talented musicians. The AWO was only established in 2012, which saw one inaugural concert. This was followed by a full subscription series in 2013 and again in 2014 under the continuing leadership of Musical Director Peter Handsworth. The AWO comprises around forty expert musicians and is supplemented by others (to fill out sections or add percussion etc) as may be required by the various programs.
Charles Gounod’s ‘Petite Symphony’ tentatively opens the program. Written for nine wind instruments, the ensemble really hit its straps under Handsworth’s firm direction in the fourth movement and handles the persistent staccato and changing meters with great style. Joshua Oates is superb on oboe.
The ensemble quadruples for ‘Zion’ by contemporary American composer Dan Welcher. The piece quotes two American hymns and has a distinct Aaron Copland feel about it. Again, the changing meters are exciting and well managed. The five percussionists are a joy to watch. They are busy, very busy, as they move precisely around the stage in what is almost a choreographed dance ensuring they are at the right instrument at just the right time. Watching them is worth the price of admission alone!
A programming first is the inclusion of three compositions by Austrian composer Alfred Uhl. Being a modern composer – he died in 1992 – it is unsurprising that his music is at times atonal and discordant. Under Handsford’s expert direction at the clarinet, the octet finds and explores both the pastoral qualities and rampant humour and wit that ‘Eine Vergnugliche Musik’ (trans. A joyous music) has to offer. A gentleman behind me chuckled and commented to his partner at the end of the second movement, that it oozed Alfred Hitchcock. Humour aside, the piece is a sophisticated fusion of classical tonalities and modern serialism. It is the highlight of the concert.
This is followed by two much shorter pieces by Uhl, and then Gershwin’s iconic ‘An American in Paris’. The original score calls for strings as well, but the AWO’s version uses an expanded wind orchestra and a solitary double bass. The strings can temper the winds and in my view are needed to give a more elegant and nuanced feel to the bouncy rhythms, especially in the first section, but the result is bold and brassy and the audience loved it.
And during the interval, as he ‘privately’ readied himself for the second half of the program, percussionist Jamie Adam (on loan from the ASO) teased from the xylophone a version of the theme from the TV series Game of Thrones, and the opening theme to Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
Lesson: there is always someone watching and listening!
Entreaty: go to the next AWO concert and experience them for yourself!
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Concordia College Chapel
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 27 Nov 2014
It’s over 250 years old, it’s iconic and we never tire of listening to it at Christmas time. Occasionally there’s an attempt to freshen it up using soloists who are more accustomed to the popular stage, but it is mostly left alone, thankfully. Its power and beauty is a total triumph of human creativity. It is of course Handel’s sacred oratorio ‘The Messiah’.
This particular performance is especially pleasing, and we will need to wait a very long time before it is surpassed. Guest conductor Matthew Halls knows the score by heart and conducts the performance from memory. No book in evidence. His almost intimate knowledge and understanding of the score means he is able to extract everything Handel has on offer, and it is superb. Conducting a choir is a somewhat different craft to conducting an orchestra. Singers come in exactly on the conductor’s beat, whereas musicians often delay a little (for which there is a range of technical reasons). Therefore, conducting a choir and orchestra together requires discipline and precision, and Matthew Halls is completely successful.
The Adelaide Chamber Singers and the four solo vocalists are at one with the mighty ASO. The performance has precision, warmth, pathos and jubilation. It is exciting and uplifting. And it has theatre. Halls positioned the soloists at the sides of the stage and when required they purposely strode to the center, set themselves in front of the podium, take the audience in, and sing.
Following the introductory ‘Sinfony’, tenor Richard Butler gives an illuminating performance of ‘Comfort Ye’. He is charismatic, almost mesmerizing, and I am completely taken in by him. His steely gaze throughout ‘All They That See Him’ is almost unnerving.
Countertenor, Christopher Field sings the alto line. His tonal production is superb, and with strength at the lower end of the register he is ideally suited to the baroque. Using his body expressively, he is captivating to watch.
Soprano, Siobhan Stagg has a delightfully true voice with a relaxed, almost imperceptible vibrato. Her performance of ‘I Know That My Redeemer Liveth’ has a joyous simplicity that won the audience over and put a gentle smile on the faces of many.
Bass, Christopher Purvis’s performance of ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ is impressive. With principal trumpet Matt Dempsey, who retreats upstage and plays commandingly as if a herald, forming an imposing tableau; the result is almost terrifying. Great theatre!
Of course, the evening belongs to the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, as it always does. The audience rose to its feet, as custom now dictates, and the world famous and internationally decorated Adelaide harmony Choir erupts to the famous strains of what is surely the most loved and recognisable chorus in history. The applause is thunderous.
The choir’s founder, artistic director and conductor Carl Crossin, has again rung his magic. The sound production in all sections is first rate. From the first choral entrance to the very last release in the final Amen, there is studied precision and maximum clarity.
Matthew Halls knows he is conducting a class outfit, and at its conclusion the performance deserved the lengthy standing ovation from a rapt audience.
Deeply satisfying, and uplifting.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed