Musica Viva. Adelaide Town Hall. 7 Mar 2019
Natalie Clein (cello) and Katya Apekisheva (piano) have a shared and deep understanding of each other and of the music they play together. A nod or tilt of the head here, a knowing smile at each other there – it all adds up to one artist voicing with the other to produce a sound that is finely balanced and completely aligned to the emotional structure of the music. This is in evidence throughout the performance, and especially so in the two pieces by Ernest Bloch.
The program comprises compositions by composers who are well-known – Vaughan Williams, Bloch and Beethoven – and less well known – Rebecca Clarke and Natalie Williams, and it is a testimony to the enduring nature of the string quartet combination that the less well-known is as vital and enjoyable as the well-known. Although every composition is separately enjoyed in its own right, together they weave some special magic.
Six Studies in English Folk Song by Vaughan Williams and From Jewish Life by Bloch – composed within two years of each other – both celebrate the passion each composer had for their cultural heritage. The Dreaming Land by Williams celebrates the connection one has with the physical world and the relationship with others who are similarity connected. The physical world inevitably shapes the human world, and our response in turn influences the physical. Arguably, the Vaughan Williams and the Bloch celebrate the same: how we emotionally connect with what is around us. Williams paints a fictitious and imagined world, but we are drawn into it as if it were our own.
The alchemy of the programming deepens when one realises there is a connection between Clarke and Bloch, for Clarke’s Sonata for Viola (or Cello) and Piano came second to Bloch’s Suite for Viola in a composing competition in 1919.
And then, out by itself is Beethoven’s Sonata for Cello and Piano no 4 in C, op 102 no 1, composed more than one hundred years earlier than anything else on the program. Clein produces seductively creamy sounds in the tranquil and meditative opening, and they are razor sharp in their treatment of the fiercely rhythmic octaves in the transition to the allegro vivace.
The clarity of their playing is on fine display in The Dreaming Land, which is a highlight of the program. Not only is this Musica Viva tour giving the world première of the composition, and Clarke was born and bred in South Australia, but she is also present at the concert and addresses the audience from the stage. This is always special, and particularly when the composition is a significant one and is likely to become an enduring work in the cello repertoire. Apekisheva produces delicate but incisive accompaniment on the piano, and Clein’s melody lines are firm and declamatory without detracting from the partnership with the piano.
Natalie Clein reportedly loves music that tells a story. This is abundantly clear in her playing and this program is a masterful display of how the sonic world can represent the corporal and spiritual.
Kym Clayton
When: 7 Mar 2019
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Australian String Quartet. Adelaide Town Hall. 21 Feb 2019
The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is a world class chamber ensemble and they can be relied upon for out-of-the box programming and thrilling performances. Tonight’s concert, the first of their 2019 National Season tour, is a case in point. The only sadness is that their concerts are one-offs: if you miss their performance in Adelaide, you’ve missed it for good or you need to travel interstate to hear it elsewhere. And the ASQ should not be missed. An ASQ concert is an exceptional music experience.
The programme includes Haydn’s String Quartet op 33 no 3 ‘The Bird’, Helena Winkelman’s Papa Haydn’s Parrot, and String Quartet op 56 ‘Voces Intimae’ by Sibelius.
One has enjoyed a very fine recording of the Sibelius for years but this performance exposed afresh the vitality of the quartet and laid bare its earnestness and the anxiety Sibelius was experiencing in his life at the time he composed it. The simple and brief opening dialogue between the violin and cello is delicately performed and hung in the air for some time as a contrasting backdrop to what is soon to unfold, especially the disquieting double-stopped chords at the end of the first movement. The central adagio di molto movement has the ASQ playing at their best with refined rubato, silky control of mixed and wavering rhythms, and clearly stated themes.
Like the adagio movement of the Sibelius, the ASQ’s reading of the slow movement of the Haydn is also outstanding in its tenderness. The opening interchange between the violins at the start of the composition is played with lightness and playfulness and with unflawed balance between the voices. The inherent comedy in the work comes through strongly, especially in the rondo final movement.
Composed in 2016, the Winkelman represents bold programming because it has a completely modern feel and wanders into new territory. However, because it is Winkelman’s homage to Haydn and is a ‘paraphrase’ of the Haydn quartet heard earlier, its inclusion in the program is genius. The connections between it and the Haydn are more obvious in the later movements, but there are enough ‘radicalisms’ early on to put one entirely off the scent! For example: quarter tones are used; strings are played at the very extreme upper ends of their ranges for extended periods creating unusual overtones; and knitting needles (!) are wedged between strings to create metallic zither-type sounds when tapped. The piece is exciting and has so much momentum that it is over before you know it. The seventh and eight movements are ‘closest’ to the Haydn and nicely bring us back to where the evening started.
The Winkelman would not have been to everyone’s taste, and it was astute of the ASQ to let the audience go home with the Sibelius and their enthusiastic response to it - wolf whistles and cheers – fresh in their minds rather than the Winkelman, which for this reviewer, was the true highlight of the evening.
Kym Clayton
When: 21 Feb
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Australian Chamber Orchestra. Adelaide Town Hall. 12 Feb 2019
Apart from displays of superb musicianship and technical ability, the Australian Chamber Orchestra can also be relied upon for bold, innovative programming and a sense of theatre. Their concerts are as much to be seen as to be heard.
Arvo Pärt and Johann Sebastian Bach is not an obvious pairing, but Artistic Director Richard Tognetti’s programming for the opening concert of the ACO’s 2019 season is quite inspired and is all the more surprising because he, a confirmed atheist, has selected a program of mostly religious or at least spiritual music. The glue that holds the program together is the 26 strong Estonian Choir that sings its way through most of the program all the way to heaven in the wonderful aesthetic of the Adelaide Town Hall.
It’s almost impossible to read the printed programme during the concert, which is probably a good thing, because the auditorium and stage is often in semi-darkness. Tognetti uses lighting to create a chiaroscuro effect when needed to underline the mood of the music and to draw us into an induced state to better appreciate the intentions of the composer.
With the choir arranged shoulder to shoulder across the stage in two tight ranks, the concert begins with a moody performance of Pärt’s Da pacem Domine. At its conclusion, the choir peels off to the sides to reveal a reduced ACO as they form two choirs in preparation for Bach’s Komm, Jesu, Komm, BWV229. The choreographed movement of the choir is accompanied by a lighting change which marks a movement some 200 years back in time. The vibrancy of Komm gives way to Pärt’s Summa which is an early expression of his so-called ‘tintinnabuli’ style. In it there is mathematical precision which, strangely, imbues a sense of liberation.
To round out the first half of the programme there is a swift and abrupt transition to four Bach motets: BWV225, 226, 229 and 230. These motets employ two standard SATB choirs which show the Estonian Choir at its very best. Precision, articulation, and finely tuned balance – especially in the alto and bass sections – allow the inherent joy of the four pieces to shine forth. All the time Tognetti’s conducting is precise and clear.
The linkage between Bach and Pärt is made more evident with an almost robust performance of Pärt’s Toccata from Collage on B-A-C-H. The mostly period instruments of the orchestra seem a perfect platform for the contrasting blend of baroque and modern minimalist styles that characterise the piece. Two more Bach motets (BWV 226 and 230) give way to Peter Sculthorpe’s Djilile, which was inspired by Indigenous song, and Estonian composer Galina Grigorjeva’s In Paradisum. The honeyed solo cello work of Timo-Veikko Valve in Djilile is spectacular, and the astounding clarity of the vocal lines in In Paradisum almost makes it sound as if we are listing to just a handful of voices.
The highlight of the eventing is an uplifting performance of Pärt’s Berliner Messe that highlights not only the musicality, passion and technical excellence of the musicians – singers and instrumentalists alike – but also reminds us of the genius of Arvo Pärt and how important a composer he is. In lesser hands, the exactitude in the composition might be perceived as pleasant but thin and tending to weariness, but Pärt instead invokes a heightened response from the audience that traverses tranquillity, entrancement, as well as moments of focussed passion. Noting that the composition was originally scored for choir and organ, the drone of the cello and bass in the exquisite Gloria very much imitates an organ, which is testimony to the appropriateness of the orchestration and to the skill of the players. The solo tenor and baritone vocalists in the Erster Alleluiavers produce some beautiful sounds, and the ‘tintinabuli’ effect of the altos and tenors in the Credo is a vocal highlight of the evening.
Bravo ACO!
Kym Clayton
When: 12 Feb
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Ensemble Galante. Adelaide Fringe Festival. La Bohème. 15 Feb 2019
What would a group of musicians from across Europe do if they occasioned upon each other in a tavern (called The Flying Dutchman) in The Hague in the year 1730 with little else to do? They’d jam, that’s what they’d do. It’s an eternal truth – they (almost) certainly did it in the baroque era as well! And that’s the conceit of this show: use the concept of a jam session to link together otherwise diverse pieces of music that probably don’t really ‘go together’, and it works a treat, with the exception of the patter in between most pieces which comes across as under-scripted and under-rehearsed.
Tim Nott on flute, Shane Lestideau and Ben Dollman on violin, Krishna Nagaraja on viola, Natasha Kraemer on cello, and Glenys March on harpsichord are all classy musicians, and their instruments of choice are baroque. Together they work their way through traditional airs, songs and dances from Finland, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and Wales. The program has a distinct ‘folk’ flavour to it and has the audience (quietly) toe and finger tapping throughout.
The violins capture the rhythm of a cantering horse in The Horseman’s Port, and the fingerboard work of Lestideau, Dollman and Nagaraja in The Follies Set is exciting with its pace and accuracy.
Nagaraja’s arrangement of Polska after Someone in Värmland wanders a little, but his own composition Rikki Tai Tikki bristles with interest and character.
Nott’s work on flute throughout the performance is superb, and often the backbone of the show. In Sonata ‘Fy, gar rub her o’er wi strae’ the flute announces a number of themes which are then taken up by the strings and varied. It is the highlight of the program.
The program finishes with a performance of Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto in G Minor Op.10 No.2 “La Notte” RV 439. It is the sort of the thing that Ensemble Galante is best known for – standard baroque repertoire, and Nott again steals the show.
Ensemble Galante is class musical outfit that is well known for its novel approach to baroque music, but this performance is one right of ‘out of the box’. Recommended!
There are two more performances: Saturday 16 Feb, 4pm & 6pm.
Kym Clayton
When: 15 to 16 Feb
Where: La Bohème
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Festival Theatre. 2 Feb 2019
If a gala concert is meant to be something special, then the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 season opening concert is that and more.
The stage of the Festival theatre is enormous, but the mighty ASO fill it to capacity. There are instruments infrequently seen, such as the tenor tuba, bass oboe and celeste, and infrequently see or hear, such as the Adelaide Festival Theatre Silver Jubilee Organ (which is played off stage). There are two harps, two sets of timpani, and an extended percussion section. And…..concertmaster Natsuko Yoshimoto plays for the first time on stage the million-dollar Adelaide Guadagnini violin! (She was recently named the next custodian of the coveted instrument.)
The program is a complete crowd pleaser, and includes Finlandia by Sibelius, Piano Concerto in A minor by Grieg, and The Planets by Holst. It is deliberately a populist program and one that some might look down on as being a little ‘low brow’, but it is full of interest and proves the point that live music always pulls something out of the bag.
Guest conductor Benjamin Northey is in blistering form and shows exactly why he was the winner of Limelight Magazine’s Australian Artist of the Year: People's Choice award. His reading of Finlandia is spirited and almost visceral. Northey wondrously contrasts the composition’s sweeping melodies with its spiky sonorities and jagged rhythms. He unrelentingly breathes new life into the ever popular work horse that is Finlandia and overcomes the uncompromising acoustic of the Festival Theatre.
Simon Tedeschi tosses off the Grieg piano concerto almost with abandon, as if it is his play thing, and it very nearly is. His treatment of the closing cadenza in the first movement elicits a spontaneous outpouring of appreciation from the sell-out audience – yes, a sell-out, and that’s nearly 2000 people – and Tedeschi flashes a smile by way of acknowledgement and thanks, and perhaps recognising that he has done well, very well. His pedal work in the beautiful middle adagio movement is just perfect, and he coaxes the most exquisite tones from the Steinway grand. Northey clearly enjoys what he is hearing and the two glint and smile at each other throughout. No sooner has the last crashing chord sounded at the concerto’s conclusion and the audience is wolf whistling and cheering. It is rock star stuff, and to cap it off Tedeschi gives an encore that is a jazz-inflected mash up of themes from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite finished off with a nod at the A minor Concerto’s opening theme. He cheekily gives every impression that he is improvising at the start but this is bravura performance with brazen leaps in the left hand played at dizzying speed and with mind numbing accuracy. It is sassy, it is brilliant, and the crowd lap it up.
The Planets is a show stopper, and even though Holst apparently was surprised, even bemused at how popular the piece became, it is surely one of the most spectacular orchestral pieces to both see and hear. Where the Sibelius and the Grieg don’t employ the full force of the orchestra, the Holst does. It is an awesome sight to behold. There are many highlights and at the conclusion Northey acknowledges every principal player and every section. Yoshimoto’s solo violin work in the second movement (Venus, the Bringer of Peace) is sublime. Adrian Uren is particularly impressive on French Horn, as is Simon Cobcroft on cello, and Peter Kelsall on organ is not seen but is certainly heard! The Aurora Young Adelaide Voices under the direction of artistic director Christie Anderson are faultless and serene in the closing movement Neptune, the Mystic.
The only downer in the whole evening is a pesky flood light that keeps fading in and out on the horn section, but they don’t care and just get on with it!
A fabulous concert! If this is the standard one can expect for the rest of the season, it’s going to be a fabulous ride. Got your subscription tickets yet? Better not delay, apparently they’re selling fast.
Bravo ASO!
Kym Clayton
When: 2 Feb
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed