Concert as education and more

Monash University made an appearance this month at St Albans. Robert Chamberlain, lecturer, and Daniel Liston, masters student at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music performed on piano. Unsurprisingly, given their connections, this was also an educative experience. They performed music of Haydn, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Bartok, but they also introduced each with a description of key themes and structures of each work, so we understood and associated more easily with each. So this was both learned and artistically satisfying.

Robert started with Haydn’s Andante variations in F minor. This is a dark key, but it modulates back and forth three times to F major, each time becoming busier and more embellished, to then finish on another key. It’s a mature work, written in 1793. I was also enjoying the confident playing of someone who works with music every day: not showy, but steady and wonderfully competent. Then tow prelude by Rachmaninov. The C minor Op.23 no.7 which Robert described as “swirly” and I heard as busy with not much dynamics, but lots of notes in slow arpeggio-like sequences that rose and fell and mutated against a slow upper melody, and the B minor Op.32 no.10 which was more sombre and a “gorgeous buildup” and with a restrained start developing into full-handed chords, but with space and some tentativeness.

Daniel played a Ravel piece with a title translated as the “Gallows”. This was a work in 3/4 time with a constant bell-like high note pair that runs throughout. I mentioned in another post that gondolas are not lugubrious (despite Liszt’s tune of that title) but gallows are. This did seem lugubrious to me with chordal melodies and that ringing boll over all. This impressed me as a knowing response to a ghastly activity. This is an aware humanity, not an ignorant ideology with just a touch of major tonality for hope. Then Daniel introduced Bartok’s piano sonata. He’s writing his thesis on folk influences in this piece, so his introduction was particularly relevant. He spoke of 3 note themes in several movements and motifs and clashes in the second movement, and obvious folk references in the third, imitating flute and fiddle, and a Colinda rhythm (from Romanian carols). I liked this, all staccato chords dissonant, unyielding and slow and sparse in the second movement.

The Haydn was perfectly good lunch-time music. The rest was a much bigger challenge for the ears of this audience, but I liked it immensely and especially liked what I took to be an intellectual, unfussy take on the music: not too emotionally charged, but deeply investigative and informative. I think that’s why baroque is popular these days rather than the emotional swirls of romanticism. We live in a free and rational world these days even if our anger can be easily and ideologically channelled. The good side is the freedom and rationality, as in this concert; the bad side is the two minute of hate. We are well past 1984.

Robert Chamberlain (piano) and Daniel Liston (paino), both of Monash University, performed at St Albans.

A performer’s thinking

We get comments from the classical stage these days, but Robert Chamberlains’s concert was more than that. This was short but specific exposure to his thinking on a work in progress. The work in progress was Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier Book 1 which he will perform in recital later this year. He didn’t play all the works – that’s about 90 minutes of performance – but he did play several and he did outline his impressions, even how he had changed his approach after discussions with other performers. One work, I think it was the toccata in Ab major, changed from solid and dignified to softer and conversational. He played a snippet of the first then the work as the second. Fascinating. I assume this is an ongoing process, and the decisions for his recital could change further in future performances. The dots are all written, but of course there are many opportunities for personality and approach. (My mate Asanka told me later that Bach has no dynamics or pedal markings, so it’s open house). I was surprised by a truncated, not quite staccato, approach to many melodies and a bit less so by a malleable tempo, but I shouldn’t be. These are all parts of the individuality of that performer working with those dots. I also loved feeling the movement of focus on the melody as it moved from right to left to right hand. And I surprised by the firm and very voluminous playing. Who says classical isn’t loud: a grand piano can certainly be loud in a limited space. So what did he play? Preludes and fugues in Cmaj/Cmin, C#maj, G#maj/Abmin and Bbmin/Bbmaj. There were some very well known themes here and presented with very different feelings: sadness in a few; dignity, conversation, delicacy, good nature. And technical variation, too: close voices in many parts; toccata sounding string-like parts; layers and registers and intervals; a modulation to E#min(!). But always both attractive and satisfying. Perhaps the piano was heavy, but that’s the nature of these newer, more powerful instruments, but what intellectual clarity. Robert ended with three preludes from Gershwin that he likened to Bach through its rhythmic drive. The first seemed bitsy to my ear, the second bluesy in AABA structure, the third excitable and bouncy with a call-and-response melody. This was a wonderful exposure to a musician’s thought and preparation and attractive and intelligent music to boot.

Robert Chamberlain performed a lunchtime concert of selections from Bach’s Well Tempered Klavier Bk 1 and three Gershwin preludes at St Alban’s.