Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall.16 June 2025
Musica Vivia’s latest concert tour features the Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene joining forces with Australian pianist Jennifer Marten-Smith in an action-packed program featuring compositions by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, (Lili) Boulanger, Rautavaara, Ravel, and a new composition by Australian composer Jack Frerer.
This is the first time Dalene has toured Australia, and we fervently hope it is not his last. He is only 24 years old, but he plays with the musicality and wisdom of someone much older. His performance is typified by lightness of touch, elegant phrasing, and crystal-clear articulation. His pianississimo is breathtakingly pure of tone, and he lulls the audience to hold its collective breath every time he played such. Astonishing. Marten-Smith shows herself to be an exceptional pianist and, importantly, an outstanding collaborative pianist. Separately, Dalene and Marten-Smith demonstrate deep understanding of everything they play, but together they create something greater than the sum of their parts.
The concert opens with a luminous performance of Beethoven’s Sonata No.8 in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op.30 No.3. Marten-Smith avoids insistent percussiveness that can often plague performances of Beethoven’s sonatas and instead delivers a light and brisk interpretation that suited Dalene ‘to a T’. Although Dalene has the sheet music on a stand, he barely looks at it and rather looks directly at the audience. However, one suspects he doesn’t really see us, because he is somewhere deep inside Beethoven’s gorgeous melodies.
The Beethoven is followed by Jack Frerer’s new composition Tilted Scales, which was commissioned by Musica Viva for Dalene and Marten-Smith. Frerer took time out from his duties as a composition lecturer at Rutgers University, New Jersey, to join the tour, and the audience was delighted to hear him speak about his composition and describe it as “neurotic”! It is difficult to describe the piece, but it is something that needs to be watched as well as heard. At the interval, one member of other audience opined that it conjured visions of frenetic black-and-white silent movies! Its duration is around 8 minutes, and it is composed in several distinct sections, each of which demands decidedly different things from the violin and piano. Some sections are violent and strident and traverse tricky rhythmic structures, while others are more harmonic and become havens from the surrounding anxiousness. The ending is short and so abrupt that it shocks audience members out of the on-edge state into which they have been temporarily dropped. The audience was enthusiastic in congratulating Frerer, who was clearly enamoured with how Dalene and Marten-Smith performed the work.
The Frerer is followed by two substantial works: Tchaikovsky’s Memory of a Beloved Place, Op.42, and Grieg’s Sonata No.2 in G major, Op.13. In both works, the composers celebrate ‘being’ in particular milieus. The Tchaikovsky rejoices in the comfort afforded by a physical location, and the Grieg revels in the joie de vivre of nationalist folk tunes. Again, Dalene plays much of the repertoire from memory, and he wows the audience with the tonal perfection he brings to pianissimo notes played at the very upper range of the violin. The notes gently float upwards and disappear into the elegant expanse of the Adelaide Town Hall. Dalene and Marten-Smith rarely looked at each other, but when they do, their eyes speak of heartfelt appreciation and understanding of what the other is doing.
With the longer major works finished, the duo then performs three shorter compositions that allow them to further showcase their individual and collective artistry: A Spring Morning by Boulanger, Nocturne for Violin and Piano by Rautavaara, and Tzigane by Ravel.
A Spring Morning is impressionistic and pastoral. It evokes nature with Debussy-like harmonic colour but is tinged with fragility that is underscored by an impressive glissando on the piano at its conclusion.
Rautavaara’s Nocturne is contemplative and spiritual, and its lyrical nature makes it easily more accessible than many of his other compositions that are frequently more experimental in their texture. Again, the empathy between Dalene and Marten-Smith allows the intimacy of the work to shine through without any fuss.
Tzigane is virtuosic and flamboyant and showcases everything that the violin can do with gypsy flair and drive but all the time maintaining French refinement. It is one of Ravels’ most technically demanding violin works, and its sheer bravura and theatricality stands in stark contrast to the introspective restraint of the Boulanger and Rautavaara.
Throughout the concert, Johan Dalene wows the audience with his technical brilliance, and Jennifer Marten-Smith is the perfect ‘music conversationalist’ as she works with Dalene to shape the performances.
Kym Clayton
When: 16 Jun
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
