The 2002 Perth Festival features a series of chamber music concerts held in
various places within the landmark-designated grounds of the University of
Western Australia. There are morning coffee concerts, lunchtime concerts,
evening concerts and late night concerts, along with pre-concert talks and
master classes; patrons are encouraged to picnic on the campus before or after
their concerts, depending on the time of day. These "Picnic Proms" are a rather
multinational affair, with performers from England, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland
and Norway as well as Australia; featured composers range from Bach through
Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert up to the present day. Two contemporary
composers, Michael Berkeley (son of Lennox) from London and Brett Dean from
Brisbane, have been on hand to introduce their own works and join in the fun,
Dean being a noted violist.
Picnic Proms Concert 3
Sunday 3 February 2002
Winthrop Hall, University of Western Australia, Perth
Presented by the Perth International Arts Festival 2002
Dvorák: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op.
87
Bengt Forsberg (piano)
members of the Petersen String Quartet:
Conrad Muck
(violin)
Friedemann
Weigle (viola)
Jonas
Krejci (cello)
Berkeley: For the Savage
Messiah
Bengt Forsberg (piano)
Priya Mitchell (violin)
Brett Dean (viola)
Christian Poltera (cello)
Joan
Wright (bass, courtesy West Australian Symphony Orchestra)
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op.
111
Petersen String Quartet
Conrad
Muck and Daniel Bell (violins)
Friedemann
Weigle (viola)
Jonas
Krejci (cello)
Brett
Dean (viola)
This was quite a polyglot affair: Forsberg is Swedish; the Petersen Quartet hails from Germany, but not all its members are German; Krejci introduced the Dvorák quartet in Czech, clearly his native language. Their approach to this piece was wonderfully lyrical, drawing out the romantic (and Romantic) aspects of the work. While the string players displayed (not surprisingly) an instant rapport, Forsberg seemed rather removed from the proceedings, though he blended in more as the work progressed. In the Lento movement, for example, the cellist produced a yearning tone followed by a rolling crescendo, with the theme being picked up less romantically by the piano. Intensity tapered off in the third movement, which sounded rather like a tea dance at times, developing almost into a waltz. There were more dance-like effects in the last movement, though the players' stronger attack gave this section the flavor of a gypsy encampment rather than a nice afternoon's entertainment.
When the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska is invoked under the rubric "savage messiah," it is hard not to think of Ken Russell's flamboyant film of the same title — and to worry that the weight of that association would lend the wrong shading to a work in the sculptor's honor. In fact, composer Michael Berkeley himself invoked that connection in his introduction to the piece, commenting particularly on the unforgettable scene where the young artist takes a pneumatic drill to a city footpath to create a sculpture.
Described in the program notes as commencing with "a large boulder of sound," For the Savage Messiah evokes Gaudier's "manic energy" with crashing chords on the piano, joined in turn by the bass, cello, viola and violin, which together build up a pulsing energy somewhat reminiscent of Britten's Night Mail. More delicate, reflective passages from the strings alternate with crashing piano effects; there is also a recognizable pneumatic drill effect led by the violin. All this well reflects the short, productive life of Gaudier (who died in the trenches in 1915 at the appalling age of 24). In this performance the piano dominated, with Forsberg seeming at times as if he would demolish his instrument.
The Brahms (introduced by Weigle in German) inevitably seemed a bit cobwebby after all that freshness and excitement, though the opening Allegro non troppo managed to sound vigorous nevertheless. The group showed a fluent delicacy in the Adagio and brought a cantabile quality to the third movement. Dean blended in with the established quartet as though he had always played with them. This eclectic program showed in miniature the breadth of the chamber music program and its performers.
Picnic Proms Concert 4
Monday 4 February 2002
Winthrop Hall, University of Western Australia, Perth
Presented by the Perth International Arts Festival 2002
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 18
Petersen String
Quartet
Cage: The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs
Barber: Hermit Songs
Nicole Tibbels (soprano)
Julius Drake (piano)
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op.
127
Petersen
Quartet
Early Beethoven and late Beethoven bookending 20th-century song — another surprising combination in the Picnic Proms series. The first work, one of Beethoven's first string quartets, was played with great delicacy, with the effect somewhat spoiled by an outburst of applause after the second movement. The musicians moved into the Allegro with only a raised eyebrow, and delivered it withpastoral sprightliness.
Nicole Tibbels was a replacement for soprano Deborah York, who was apparently too ill to travel; it would have been interesting to hear what York, who is mostly known in the Baroque repertoire, would have made of these modern songs. Tibbels has a completely different kind of voice, heavier and more highly colored; while having done work in earlier music, she seems to have specialized in compositions of recent times. Cage's Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs is based on an evocative text from Joyce's Finnegans Wake, set for soprano and pianist ... but, naturally, with a difference. In this case, the pianist is required to rap on the piano, not actually strike the keys. Apparently the score specifies rapping on different parts of the instrument, but Drake clearly wasn't up to this, limiting himself to the covered keyboard. Tibbels, however, was more than equal to her part, displaying great messa di voce and expressive sensitivity. This was followed immediately (with, happily, no clapping) by four of Barber's Hermit Songs, based on the informal writings of medieval monks. "The monk and his cat," with its odd rhythms and charming text, was an especial delight.
After the interval, the Petersen Quartet really came into its own, living up
to its publicity as "one of the most exciting quartets to have emerged from
Germany in recent years". The fabulous four gave a rip-roaring account of the
Beethoven Quartet No. 12, one of the last he wrote. The range and scale of this
work is enormous, and these young men, who look as though they could hardly
muster 80 years amongst them, traversed every hill and valley with passionate
commitment, carrying the entranced audience along to the blistering
finale.
