Category Archives: Live Performance

Baroque Masterpieces

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Stabat Mater (Pergolesi)
Jane Davidson (dir.)

UWA School of Music
Winthrop Hall

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

In many years of attending concerts at Eastertide, I cannot recall a performance as powerfully communicative as Jane Davidson’s production of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater. Her sure feel for what works in theatrical terms brought both music and play into vivid perspective.

Presented in the style of a Passion play, it featured an eleven-strong cast of women, all dressed in drab, russet shades, except for Mary who wore a pale blue sash over her garment. The women sang, often beautifully, the anguish of Cavalry reflected both in facial expression and choreographed movement.

Davidson’s directorial touch, otherwise sure and experienced, wavered briefly towards the close of the work when the corps, dancing ring-a-roses-style around the risen, smiling Christ bordered on the twee in visual terms. Its antithesis was David Jones’ first appearance as Jesus, almost buckling under the weight of the cross as he staggered towards the stage along the hall’s centre aisle in the company of two guards who were made up to appear the apotheosis of brutality and coarseness. And Jesus’ agonies groans as his hands and feet were nailed to the cross was an horrific counterpoint to the accompanying music.

Earlier, we heard Nicole Jordan and Filipa La in stark and sober black as soloists in Monteverdi’s Cantate Domino, their finely sung lines quite overshadowed by aerial artist Theaker von Ziarno who, clad in a white body stocking, made a sensational entrance from an opening in the ceiling, twisting and turning her slow way down two lengths of white cloth which reached to the floor. She returned towards the end of the program as the closing measures of Schutz’s Es steh Gott auf were sung, again by Jordan and La.

Paul Wright led an instrumental ensemble with his usual disciplined artistry although positioning the players to one side of the hall may have been the main factor robbing instrumental sound of some of its bloom. As ever, Stewart Smith was discreet and musicianly at both harpsichord and organ.

In passing: I imagine I’m speaking for many in saying that, having for years endured Winthrop Hall’s uncomfortable seating, the new arrangements are very much a change for the better. Certainly, it will ensure that attending concerts there will be as comfortable for rears as ears.

Copyright 2006 Neville Cohn


Faith Court Orchestra

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Conservatorium Auditorium

 

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

During her long life as violinist, Faith Court did much to enhance the music life of Western Australia. Even at the venerable age of 90 years, the Court matriarch kept her fingers in trim by daily practice on her violin. And her philanthropy and that of her family continues to support the arts, with contributions to scholarships of $100,000 over the last decade.

At the weekend, we heard the chamber orchestra made up of Conservatorium students and named after Mrs Court in works by Mozart, Sculthorpe and Shostakovich. A number of members of the Court family were present in the audience.

It was in the second movement of Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony that the Faith Court Chamber Orchestra was heard to best advantage. Here, there was splendid attack and follow-through as the youthful string players’ bows bit the strings of their instruments to reveal the essence of some of the most anguished writing in the canon. Certainly, the emotional intensity that informed the playing here augurs well for this youthful ensemble as the musicians were taken through their paces by conductor Jon Tooby.

In the slower movements that open and close the work, though, one felt a need for a more uniform tonal sheen, especially from the higher strings – and a more smoothly fluent unfolding of the piece, tricky, of course, at slow speed but not impossible. On the evidence of the evening’s offerings, however, there’s good reason to believe that with commitment and focussed rehearsal this is a realisable goal.

Jonathan Paget was soloist in Peter Sculthorpes’s Nourlangie for guitar, strings and percussion. Paget brings way-above-average understanding to this work, his doctoral thesis having been an exploration of the language of Sculthorpe’s music for guitar.

It’s a many-facetted work that calls for high musicianship on the part of all concerned and Paget acquitted himself admirably here in a performance that was in the best sense tonally satisfying, intonationally exact and interpretatively probing.

There are small but crucially important parts for percussion and Daniel Hall, in particular, rose to the occasion in his skilled use of the mallets on a set of bongo drums, in the process providing excellent rhythmic underpinning. And Elizabeth Lyon skilfully conjured up simulations of thunder from a suspended metal sheet.

In his concerto, Sculthorpe was much influenced by the swarming bird life around Nourlangie in Kakadu National Park – and accompanying players were much on their mettle in glissando swoops up and down the strings of their instruments as they simulated the cries of Kakadu birds.

In the outer movements of Mozart’s Divertimento in D, Tooby set a blistering pace, so much so that there was little opportunity for the music to breathe at phrase endings. As well, at so rapid a tempo, note streams lacked clear definition. And rather more lift to the phrase might well have enhanced listening pleasure in the central andante.

Faith Court grew up in England in a home full of music. Her father – Sydney Wardley – was a piano tuner and cellist. When Faith was very young, she would sometimes accompany her father to Portsmouth to visit Nelson’s flagship Victory to tune the keyboard instrument in the famed admiral’s cabin.

Later, the family migrated to Australia where Faith’s evolving career saw her playing the violin in cafes, accompanying silent movies or in orchestral pits for musicals. She also played in the WASO under the direction of conducting greats such as Malcolm Sargent and Thomas Beecham. And during the war years, Faith Court worked tirelessly as a member of concert parties or orchestral ensembles to bring music to the troops.

Copyright 2006 Neville Cohn


Defying Gravity Percussion Ensemble

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Conservatorium Auditorium

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

For those coming new to an ensemble such as Defying Gravity, it would probably be fair to say that a prime expectation would be an encounter with music offered at significant decibel levels. And while this would certainly be true of the opening work – Prime by Askell Masson – much of what followed carressed rather than assaulted the ear.defgrav

Prime is a solo for snare drum. Abrupt, peremptory, loud outbursts figure prominently in a short work which Daniel Hall presented with authoritative confidence.

After this assault on the ears, one turned, as if to a refuge, to the gentle murmurings which Callum Moncrieff coaxed from the marimba. His account of Prelude to the Dawning Day by Takayoshi Yoshioka was balm to the ears, its gentle pianissimo shadings calling Debussy’s Gardens in the Rain to mind. It was a fine foil to Dreams of Foreign Shores by the same composer, music marked by emphatically stated rhythms.

 

More often than not, Defying Gravity offers ensemble pieces. This program – aptly called Defying Gravity Flies Solo – was a departure from that practice; four of the eight works on offer were solos with another calling for two marimba players. It was a compilation that gave regular followers of Defying Gravity an opportunity to hear what its members are capable of in a solo role. There’s a lot to be said for this: percussion groups usually devote all or most of their time to ensemble pieces so it’s rare to encounter ensemble members in a solo role – which is a shame as, on the basis of this presentation, there’s a world of often fascinating music that remains largely under wraps.

This was glowingly apparent in Catherine Betts’ account of Mark Glenworth’s Blues for Gilbert. Written in homage to the composer’s teacher, it requires a soloist of refined musicianship to give point and meaning to its gentle ideas. This young musician was clearly up to the challenge as she clothed the work’s arabesques in a nimbus of glowing tone.

In a program almost entirely free of mishap, we also heard Joshua Webster in Emmanuel Sejourne’s Nancy, which came across as a little essay in wistfulness, the more satisfying for the care lavished on phrasing of the most musical kind.

It is difficult to imagine a greater contrast between these discreet musings and the explosion of sound that is Manfred Menke’s Dinnertime.

Rosie Halsmith, Kaylie Melville, Holly Norman and Ella Mack were perfectly cast as the exceedingly bad mannered diners, who rush on stage noisily to seat themselves at table as they cook up a rowdy storm by impatiently and vey rudely banging their wooden spoons on the table as they wait for a dinner that, like Godot, never arrives – and on the evidence of their boorish table manners (which included bumping the underside of the table with their knees) it’s just as well. One shudders to think of what might have happened if the meal failed to win their approval. The quartet rushed off stage as abruptly as they had made their entry, leaving behind more than a few broken spoons under and around the table and an audience that burst into vociferous applause.

Tango Suite was a disappointment, though. This reworking for two marimbas and bongos of Piazzolla’s music while beyond reproach notationally, revealed little of its interior mood.

Holly Norman played Matthias Schmitt’s Ghanaia on the marimba to most effective accompaniments by a quartet playing, inter alia, jingle bells, a cow bell and a jemba drum.

All these works were played from memory with the exception of the opening snare drum solo.

Thirteen players were mustered for the finale – Nigel Westlake’s Penguin Circus, an engagingly extrovert affair with, inter alia, parping hooters and simulations of steam train whistles adding to the fun.

Copyright 2006 Neville Cohn


John Chen (piano)

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Conservatorium Auditorium

reviewed by Neville Cohn

At his recital on Sunday, John Chen, the youngest ever laureate of the Sydney International Piano Competition, would have left no-one in any doubt of the form that netted him the top prize in 2004, aged a mere 18 years.

Drawing on a seemingly invincible memory, Chen took the listener through a notationally flawless reading of Ravel’s Miroirs. Few pianists, even the most virtuosic, are game to traverse this ferociously treacherous musical terrain in public. Chen, however, with the nonchalance of mastery, gave us a deeply probing performance that yielded musical wonders at every turn.

Whether calling up sound pictures of fluttering moths, evoking images of ocean-going ships or the Spanish-flavoured gestures of a juggler, Chen was immaculate in interpretative terms. It called to mind his glittering reading of Ravel’s Ondine that had made his previous Perth recital so memorable just after his Sydney win. Throughout Miroirs, one marvelled at Chen’s ability to draw on a seemingly limitless palette of tonal colours. It was a tour de force.

In Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brillante, Chen was at his persuasive best. The velvet-smooth left-hand accompaniment in the Andante – and the solemn, mellow-toned tranquillity of the chorale section – could hardly have been bettered. And the skill with which Chen conveyed the hauteur that lies at the heart of every one of Chopin’s polonaises – and the diamond brightness which informed even the most rapid and complicated note streams – would surely have lifted the spirits of the most jaded listener as Chen conjured up one massive climax after another.

Since Chen gave his first recital in Perth shortly after his contest win, he has featured in innumerable recitals and concerto performances – but there was no hint at all here of familiarity breeding indifference. In fact, the sense of adventure that was such an appealing aspect of that recital was again very much in evidence at the weekend – and that augurs well for a career which is very likely to take young Chen to the forefront of fellow-pianists on the international concert circuit.

Later this month, incidentally, Chen will give a performance, broadcast by the ABC, of a new piano concerto by Roger Smalley who was in the audience to hear Chen’s keyboard wizardry.

An account of Mozart’s Sonata in C minor, K457 was less consistently meaningful. While his account of the notes was blameless and tone invariably pleasing, this curtain raiser did not yield the listening dividends one had hoped to experience. But in Schumann’s Carnaval – and after a quite routine account of Preambule – this young pianist surrendered to the Muse in the most passionately intense and virtuosic way. In section 13, which is Schumann’s tribute to Chopin, the playing in all its romantic sensitivity could hardly have been bettered. And the extraordinary agility and accuracy at whirlwind speed brought to bear on the Intermezzo was irrefutable proof of a rare musical gift which has clearly been guided by first rate instructors.

Chen, incidentally, is Malaysian-born. He was brought to New Zealand by his parents when he was eleven months old.

As encore, we heard more Ravel in the form of Pavane for a Dead Princess.

Copyright 2006 Neville Cohn


OPERA IN THE PARK

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OPERA IN THE PARK

Samson and Delilah (Saint Saens)
W.A.Opera Company and Chorus
W.A.Symphony Orchestra

Supreme Court Gardens

 

Reviewed by Neville Cohn

Despite competing events such as a concert at Leeuwin Estate and the Western Force versus Chiefs rugby match, some fifteen thousand spectators turned up for what has become one of the most loved Perth institutions: the annual Opera in the Park presentation in Supreme Court Gardens.

Seated on rugs or lawn, mums and dads with kiddies in arms or prams, surrounded by an agreeable clutter of eskies, picnic baskets, chicken salad and chardonnay bottles, were an exemplarily well behaved audience experiencing what for most would probably have been a first encounter with Saint Saens’ operatic treatment of the biblical story of Samson.

In passing, it’s worth mentioning that, despite the immense inherent drama of this ancient story (which, prior to Saint Saens’ work, was given at least eleven operatic treatments including one by Rameau to a libretto by none other than Voltaire) no one has so far succeeded in creating a setting that is fully worthy of it.

Seldom heard anywhere in the antipodes, the ancient story of the Bible’s muscle man and the faithless temptress Delilah is, for much of the work and especially in Acts 1 and 2 – dare one whisper it? – as arid and featureless as the desert sands that surround Gaza where the opera is set. Thousands of years later, Gaza is still very much in the news – and for all the worst reasons.

Stuart Skelton in the eponymous role was star of the evening, a tenor ideally suited to the role. For much of the performance, he produced the most agreeable stream of mellow sound in phrasing that was the hallmark of refined musicianship. Certainly, he adapted chameleon-like to the many interpretative nuances of the part. The closing moments of the opera were particularly affecting as Samson – his locks shorn by Delilah (an event that, oddly, is not mentioned in the work), his strength dissipated as a result and, in Milton’s chilling phrase ‘eyeless in Gaza’ – calls on the Lord who gives back Samson’s strength to bring Dagon’s temple crashing down on the Philistines.

Bernadette Cullen sang Delilah. Some occasional hardness of tone aside, she presented her arias with considerable expressiveness – but in Softly Awakes My heart, that most famous excerpt from the opera, strings sounded rather too thin and scrappy, the semiquaver accompaniment lacking that pulsing quality that is so crucial an interpretative requirement.

Acts 3 and 4 yielded some of the most satisfying listening dividends of the evening. The fake-Middle Eastern Bacchanale dance sequence – imitated again and again down the years by composers for trashy, Arabian Nights-type movies – came across in fine style. Laurels to Joel Marangella; his sinuous oboe line was heard to excellent advantage here.

Under Brian Castles-Onion’s direction, the W.A.Opera Chorus and vocal soloists did sterling work in making the listener aware of the cauldron of seething emotion that makes the closing Acts such compelling listening. Very much earlier in the piece, it was much to the credit of the choristers that they made the frankly tedious declamations that the composer gave to them sound better than they in fact are in operatic terms. Indeed, most of the choral work in Act I supports the argument, often put forward, that Saint Saens’ biblical epic might have had greater acceptance as an oratorio than as an opera.

But there are most certainly moments that make for the grandest of grand operatic effects. This is most powerfully the case with Delilah, towards the close of the work, relishing her moment of triumph after cutting Samson’s locks, with the High Priest (Bruce Martin) gloating over the muscle man’s downfall, only to have their comeuppance in the ruins of the temple.

For many an older member of the audience, this may well recall the closing moments of Cecil B. de Mille’s 1950’s movie epic starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the film’s eponymous roles.

Smaller roles were taken by David Dockery (Abimelech) and Robert Hoffmann (Old Hebrew).

 

 

Adding to the pleasure of the evening was an unexpected bonus for all during the interval: a white-clad, gracefully gyrating gymnast held aloft by a big, illuminated helium balloon sailing to and fro above the gathered, fascinated throng, the balloon’s track path controlled by ropes gripped by two hefty young fellows on the ground. (The previous night, this delight sailed across PIAF goings-on at Kalgoorlie, with Port Hedland next on the list.)

I cannot readily recall an Opera in the Park presentation that scored so well on so many counts. Presenting Samson and Delilah would have been a calculated risk. That so many attended suggests that it is not necessarily the case that only safe, top-ten operas should be presented at these events. Let’s have more works that are less frequently encountered here. What about Tchaikowsky’s Eugene Onegin, Donizetti’s Elisir d’amore or Smetana’s The Bartered Bride?

Copyright 2006 Neville Cohn