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
Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 8 Mar 2022
Famed Russian-born pianist Konstantin Shamray tentatively raised the microphone and carefully enunciated to the near-capacity audience in the Town Hall: “I feel great shame today.”
The applause was instant, prolonged, and heartfelt. It not only came from the audience, but also from the members of the Australian String Quartet onstage with him. It almost became uncomfortable – not only for Shamray, but also for the members of the ASQ onstage with him; though not as uncomfortable and perilous as life currently is for the people of the Ukraine.
This was the start of a memorable evening of music-making that people will talk about for years, as indeed they should.
The concert itself was never actually programmed to happen at all, but was a late addition to the Festival program because of the unavailability of Karin Schaupp and the Flinders Quartet. As they say, every grey cloud has a silver lining, and the concert delivered by Shamray and the ASQ was sterling.
The concert featured Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.47, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No.9 in C, Op. 59 No. 3 known as the ‘Razumovsky’. When Shamray and the ASQ were asked to put the program together, never did they realise their Russian infused program would be so pertinent. Shostakovich lived and composed during World War II – the quintet was written in 1940 – and he was for a time resistant to bend to the dictates of Stalin and the Russian leadership and he fell so completely out-of-favour that his own life was in real danger. Again , how apt that Shostakovich should be performed at this time and by an eminent Russian musician again calling out despotic political leaders.
The performance of the quintet was vital and passionate, but high emotion never gave way to mawkishness. At the piano, Shamray was crisp, articulated and consummately musical in everything that he did. His right hand work was spectacular with percussive treble notes having the semblance of a lone voice railing against the madness that thundered from the crashing bass chords coming from his left hand. The momentum Shamray generated was almost too much to bear. It was exciting, and the ASQ stayed with him all the way as they plumbed the introspective second fugal movement and gave way to the well-known jauntiness of the third. The dreamy violin work of Dale Barltrop and Francesca Hiew in the fourth movement, along with the warm yet delicate viola playing of Chris Cartlidge, and the teasing pizzicato of the sartorially ever-stylish Michael Dahlenburg, was transporting. The finale was spirited and resolved into something more contemplative.
This was a world class performance made all the more memorable by its juxtaposition with current world politics.
The Beethoven quartet was an altogether different affair. The Razumovsky doesn’t have the same firepower or impact of the Shostakovich, but the ASQ played it with an abundance of style and controlled vigour. They ensured the labyrinthine second movement – the backbone of the composition – remained lucid yet driven. Full marks to Barltrop for setting the direction and continually reminding us of the structure with thoughtful dynamics and wonderfully precise phrasing.
The Beethoven in many respects was the perfect foil for the Shostakovich, and the audience left not only with something deep to ponder, but also with a song on their lips, and a smile on their faces.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Ayers House. 9 Mar 2022
Anna Goldsworthy and Andrew Haveron’s performance of Beethoven’s highly popular Violin Sonata No. 9, Op.47 – the so-called Kreutzer Sonata – was decidedly idiosyncratic. From the first edgy bowing of the violin to the first crashing chords on the piano it was clear that Goldsworthy and Haveron had something different to say.
The first movement was intensely passionate, bordering on restrained violence, but it was understandable because this performance was not just about the music. Each movement of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata was prefaced by a recitation from Goldsworthy inspired by extracts from Tolstoy’s novella of the same name. Despite the disturbing nature of the chosen text, with topics that covered misogyny and sexual disfunction in marriage, her recitations were delivered with a cold detachment that bordered on being menacing. When would she lash out? Who would bear the brunt of it: the audience, or Haveron who played a silent character looking on knowingly? With such poisoned text, the fury that was injected into the music was understandable, and … satisfying. All of a sudden, such an iconic (and possibly over-performed) sonata had new life breathed into it, and it was electric.
The second and third movements were prefaced with more carefully chosen text and, like the first movement, they yielded a different response from Goldsworthy and Haveron, and from the audience.
Goldsworthy and Haveron are both exceptional musicians and their playing was a masterclass in style, technique, and deep musical understanding.
Empathetic lighting was chosen to add to the overall ambience of the concert room in Ayers House, leaving the audience in no doubt that classical music can be reinterpreted – it doesn’t just have to be about the music. It should be about reinvention and interpretation for new understanding if it is to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world.
This is an outstanding and unusual event.
Kym Clayton
When: 9 to 11 Mar
Where: Ayers House
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au