Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 24 Jun 2022
Serenity is the fourth concert in the ASO’s current Symphony Series, and that is certainly what we received for much of the program. However, serenity gave way to rampant exuberance in a blistering reading of Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition to finish the concert.
As is now the norm, the ASO begins the concert with a performance of Pudnanthi Padninthi (The Coming and the Going) composed by Jack Buckskin and Jamie Goldsmith arranged by Mark Simeon Ferguson. It is presented as an Acknowledgement of Country, and it has the effect of wakening our senses to wider possibilities.
The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams is an achingly beautiful piece that is so well named. One can almost visualise a skylark on wing – rising and hovering, circling, descending, and all the time warbling its evocative song. Emily Sun on violin is mesmerising. Her playing is articulate, crystal clear, and emulates the skylark to perfection. Her dynamics are astute, with pianissimo moments that are barely audible, and exquisitely controlled. Minimal vibrato, maximum impact. Thirteen minutes of transporting tranquillity that was enabled by unaffected playing from the orchestra under the calculated direction of Benjamin Northey.
And then to a world première no less. Cathy Milliken’s Ediacaran Fields is the fifth component of her orchestral cycle Earth Plays, and it is a noteworthy piece. It is not a composition that requires explanation through detailed program notes in order to be enjoyed. It stands alone as ‘pure music’, and if wanting to own a recording of it is a testimony to its quality and enjoyability, then this reviewer cannot wait until it is released on CD or similar. Milliken was in attendance and prefaced the performance with some words of explanation about the piece. This added to the enjoyment.
Ediacaran Fields is a musical response to Milliken’s musings about the nature of the existence of certain soft-bodied creatures that existed in what was the watery environment of South Australia’s Flinders Ranges some 550 million years ago. (Fossilised remains of these animals can be found in the world famous Ediacara fields at Nilpena Station.) The composition uses the full resources of the orchestra, with a broad dynamic and melodic palette. Having been told by Milliken that the piece “begins seven times over” as a reference to the biblical stories of creation allows the audience to understand the piece better, but, as has been said above, the pure music stands by itself.
A highlight of Ediacaran Fields is audience participation! About one-hundred audience members were supplied with small stones to ‘click’ together at various times during the performance under the direction of members of the percussion section of the orchestra and the conductor. The effect is remarkable. The sound is hypnotic. Our imaginations entertain all manner of interpretations as to the purpose of the ‘clicks’. Do they represent random changes in the evolution of species? Whatever they represent, the audience is enthusiastic in its applause. Ediacaran Fields deserves a place in concert programs around the world for many years to come.
Emily Sun re-joins the orchestra after the interval for a technically assured performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, which is a piece originally composed for the legendary violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. It is melodic, difficult to play, and it gets the pulse racing. Sun’s performance demonstrates in spades her virtuosity and technical mastery of her instrument, but her approach perhaps errs on the side of being restrained, such as in the double and triple stopped passages that were executed sweetly rather than played with strident passion. The audience are clearly delighted with Sun’s performance, and the wolf whistling that ensues is almost akin to the reception a pop star receives!
Northey was at the top of his game with a spirited and passionate interpretation of Ravels’ orchestrated arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition. The orchestration places a sharp focus on almost every section of the orchestra. There is a moment in the sun for everyone, and for example, it is such a joy to see the timpanist in full flight relishing every drum roll, and the tuba taking the lead, and the strings savagely bowing in unison. It’s stirring stuff: sometimes zealous and impassioned, and sometimes serene.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 23 Jun 2022
What is the Cabaret Festival really about? If it’s truly about showcasing excellence in the ‘cabaret genre’ – which traditionally has been a purposeful fusion of musical theatre and satirical comedy with a healthy dose of subversion – then shows like Animal in Hiding performed by Lior Attar (more commonly known simply as Lior) and Domini Forster don’t really fit that description. Animal in Hiding is therefore more likely to appeal to those who are already acquainted with the artist rather than to someone who is looking for something ‘edgy’. However, Lior & Domini: Animal in Hiding is a pleasing, entertaining and comfortable show.
Animal in Hiding is the name of Lior and Domini’s latest collaborative album that was conceived and produced during lockdown, and the concert was essentially a heart-felt performance of its song list held together by a warm and friendly conversation with the appreciative (and clearly devoted) audience. As a Cabaret Festival event, perhaps the song list could have been more risk-taking and varied to reveal the wider musical personalities of the artists.
Lior and Domini’s voices combine and complement each other beautifully. There is a purity in the vocal and instrumental (mainly guitar and some ukulele) sounds they produce that is so harmonically stylish that it sounds beguilingly simple. Such is the art of singer-songwriters who are at the top of their games, as are Lior and Domini. Their style is essentially of the folk tradition, but, refreshingly, their diction is crystal clear and unaffected, and not a word of their sophisticated story telling is lost.
A highlight of the concert was Lior’s performance of Gloria, which is a song he wrote about a chance meeting with an older woman while he was out walking his dog at dusk. She asked whether he would kindly walk her to her home, because she was apprehensive about making her way home in the dark alone. As they walked, a conversation struck up, as you’d expect, and Lior learned much about Gloria’s incredible life. The song beautifully captures ‘the moment’.
This reviewer would rather have enjoyed the performance in the intimacy of a much smaller venue in a true cabaret setting. Perhaps Lior and Domini might feel the same?
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed in Adelaide.
Touring Nationally: lior.com.au
Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 15 Jun 2022
In this intriguing concert, classical pianist Andrea Lam performs JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations followed by an improvised version ‘composed’ and performed by jazz musician Paul Grabowsky. However, such programming is not unique: in the 2008 Adelaide Fringe Festival Grabowsky joined forces with Clemens Leske Jnr to present the same program. This reviewer was fortunate enough to also see that concert and noted in a review that “…Leske used a standard umpteen-paged score, and Grabowsky relied on a few tattered pieces of paper that precariously balanced on the piano’s music stand!”
Wind the clock forward fourteen years and there are differences in the performances: no scores (or scraps of paper) are used; Lam’s performance is truly heartfelt, with suggestions of spontaneity that are not usually evident in a ‘read’ performance; and Grabowsky’s extemporisation plumbs new depths of sophistication that derive from focussed enquiry into the score over an extended time period.
Bach’s Goldberg Variations (often simply referred to as ‘the Goldbergs’) comprise an ‘aria’ followed by thirty diverse variations, and then a repeat of the aria. The whole composition clocks in at around forty minutes, and is almost solely in the key of G. Unlike other sets of variations (such as Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations) the Goldbergs are based on the bass line of the aria rather than its delicate and beautiful melody line. The Goldbergs were originally written for a two-manual harpsichord, but the set is better known and appreciated when played on piano. Famed Canadian pianist Glenn Gould shot to fame with his iconic 1955 recording. Since then, the Goldbergs have been re-expressed in many different instrumental arrangements – some work, others don’t – but those that do keep the counterpoint clear and unfussed. In 2018, the Australian Chamber Orchestra performed an arrangement in the Adelaide Town Hall by Bernard Labadie for a baroque ensemble (including a theorbo!). That arrangement worked well.
The Goldbergs are special – audiences never tire of hearing them – and tonight’s double presentation was a treat. At the beginning, Lam walks on stage in near darkness and sits at the Steinway. An ethereal light gradually wells up and reveals her in silent contemplation. She places her hands on the keyboard and then charms the familiar and well-loved melody of the Aria out of the piano. Lam perhaps uses more sustaining pedal than is needed, but the sound remains precise, especially in the ornamentation and rhythmic changes. The dynamic shifts are exhilarating. The individual voices in the canons and fugues are crystal clear, and seemingly in the blink of an eye the Aria is repeated and it’s all over.
After a substantial adjustment to the piano’s fine-tuning during the interval, which earned some cheeky applause by the audience that was rewarded by a flashing smile from the resident piano technician, it is Grabowsky’s turn. He begins with a faithful reading of the Aria, but this soon gives way to improvisation. After all, that’s his trade, and he excels at it. He is extreme with the changing dynamics, and clearly enjoys not being constrained by the score. His improvised variations to the Aria’s bass line are often more apparent than what occurs in a literal reading, and at other times they slip into the mists of musical reverie as he seemingly invokes Gould and mutters silently away to himself. At the half-way point of his performance, his version becomes sparse, but this soon gives way to untrammelled enthusiasm. We try and bring the ‘original’ to mind, but it’s not easy. Our mind plays tricks: is Grabowsky channelling other composers as well? Occasionally we hear something and arrogantly think it seems derivative, but then it’s gone in a flash. Such is Grabowsky’s genius. Out of this the Aria re-emerges, but this time in a gently improvised form, and his response to the Goldbergs is over. Never to be heard like that again, ever.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed in Adelaide, touring interstate
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: musicaviva.com.au
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