Adelaide Festival 2002: the Chamber Music
Series
south /
red
John Harding (violin)
David Pereira
(cello)
Ian Munro (piano)
Saturday 2 March 2002
Bethlehem
Lutheran Church, Adelaide, Australia
Presented as part of the 2002 Adelaide
Festival
Edwards: Piano Trio
Sculthorpe:
Night Song
Djilile
Kats-Chernin:
Three Rags for Solo Piano
Gypsy Ramble
The program looked promising: five short works by three leading Australian composers, kicking off the
chamber music series of the 2002 Adelaide Festival, which was not otherwise
notable for its classical music content. Of course it is not unusual for chamber
music concerts to be held in churches, particularly here in the City
of Churches. What was unusual was to enter the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in central
Adelaide to find, as well as a not insubstantial audience in the nave,
seven people seated in a circle around a red fluorescent light source under
the elevated south pulpit. Recourse to the program revealed that this was
all part of the hidden plan behind the concert series:
Seven events taking place in three
Adelaide churches, over a period of nine days. Each event defines itself through
a combination of sound and colored light, and this combination is amplified and
mediated through an amplification circle of seven energy modality workers. The
sound is manifested by accomplished musicians ...
Each piece has been chosen as both equivalent and support
of the colored light that accompanies it. This light is manifested through a
cluster of fluorescents placed at the centre of the Amplification Circle of
seven, who sit facing each other. For each event its location has been
identified by each of the Circle members as constituting the principal
energy-point within the dynamic of the church's sacred architecture. The
emanating color changes from event to event, corresponding to
the incremental increase in the vibratory rate of matter, manifesting as the
colored light-waves of the spectrum ...
The
purpose of the Series is to maximize the harmonization of a member of
interrelated micro-macro bodies ...
As the divine Anna Russell said, I'm not making this up, you know ...
And there's lots more in this vein, including mention of a chakra-system, which gets us into the realm of Asian religions, lending a nice syncretic touch to a series of concerts in churches.
While the energy modality workers were bending their powers of concentration on the forthcoming harmonization process, the concert was introduced at great length by a clean-cut young man in an appropriately color-coded (red) shirt. It was a relief to finally get to what was a surprisingly enjoyable performance by expert and talented sound manifesters, er, musicians. The subtitle of the event, after south / red, was "this is a concert about here ... the singing of our land ... of our time ... of our songs."
There is an on-going effort among Australian composers to establish an Australian style of contemporary music, and this event (presentation notwithstanding) was clearly intended to demonstrate it. How successful it was at this task, at least without extensive program notes to provide hints, is arguable. There is a definite similarity in the works of Ross Edwards and Peter Sculthorpe, as one might expect given that the former is a student of the latter; the work of Elena Kats-Chernin is quite distinct from that of the others.
The concert began with Edwards' Piano Trio, a highly melodic piece in three movements, wistful and elegiac in mood but quite sinewy. It is almost in the Romantic idiom, and at times recalls some of Dvorák's chamber music. The first movement is quite slow and the second even slower; both are very similar in mood, with the composer providing a distinct voice for each instrument. The third movement is livelier in tempo and quite spiky, picking up themes from the first two movements but with the writing for the individual instruments more unified. Overall it was a beautiful piece, and beautifully played.
The two Sculthorpe works were also rather wistful, and similarly melodic. Night Song is appropriately gentle and peaceful. Djilile , for cello and piano in this instance (it exists in other forms, including a piano-only version), is based on an Aboriginal tune from Arnhem Land in northern Australia (although the program did not reveal this); it is rather contemplative and melancholy, like much of Sculthorpe's work.
The Kats-Chernin pieces are much jauntier works, as might be expected from rags and rambles. The Three Rags in question are part of a much larger work apparently still in progress. The first is perhaps closest to a traditional Joplin-style rag, especially the left hand, while the right hand throws in some surprises. The second rag, entitled "get well" and written for Kats-Chernin's son, is a slow and gentle rag that gradually accelerates. The third, "zoom and zip," has quite a barrelhouse effect, building up a head of steam and then slowing down, but with a pounce at the end.
The trio reassembled for the final work, Kats-Chernin's Gypsy Ramble — and quite a ramble it is. Kicking off in lively tempo, the piano leads the melodic way with the string players rapping on their instruments with their bows. After a brief slow interlude, the piano picks up the speed again, with the others this time playing pizzicato . This alternation of tempos continues throughout as the piece rambles on its gypsy way, with some curious sliding notes from the cello like a Hawaiian guitar and some dance-like sections resembling tango. The piece culminated in some highly syncopated piano passages, with bows tapping once again.
The
audience reacted with great enthusiasm throughout. Indeed, one could say a great time was had
by all, although the energy modality workers seemed to get through it with
their eyes tightly shut. One must wonder whether the attendant nuttiness was
inspired by Peter Sellars (he is from California, after all) or whether it was
all — like the music — Australian-made.
