Bass and beyond

Pippa Macmillan was coming to play with John and Marie in Apeiron Baroque and I was in.  Pippa is now in Australia but is quite and international, with degrees for the Royal Academy of Music and Juilliard and appointed Professor of baroque double bass at the RSM, that school next to that other Albert Hall, and performing with Tapfelmusik, Florilegium, Austn Brandenburg Orch, Austn Haydn Ens and the rest.  She was playing violone with the gut strings and those gut frets and a big Dragonetti period bow.  But how lithe and quick and unrelenting in her drive.  No slowing down with this rhythm section!  Otherwise, this was a joy of baroque historical overview with a program called Something old, something new.  Thirteen composers, mostly C15th, some C16th and just two contemporaries.  Ariosti and Albinoni and a string of lesser known names, seldom encountered.  All held together with backgrounds and stories from the ever-engaging John Ma, himself of considerable European history, and Marie Searles on harpsichord, again of Euro-connections.  The group would move through tunes, with Matt Greco, again a Euro-aligned and Aussie-busy concertmaster and soprano Susannah Lawergren up front for a series of tunes, not least a fabulous modern work but Michael Bakrncev who was in the audience, and if I remember right, was listening to the world premiere of this composition, a touching song of a mother laying in bed with her new child while her partner rings updates downstairs.  The text was by Cate Kennedy and the work was called Thank You.  Just glorious music.  Otherwise, the modern works were Allemande from the Jorn Borsen Harpsichord sonata and Spring from Dominick Argento Elizabethan songs.  And several Canberra advanced students invited by John and Marie, Brad Tham, Alex Monro and Dante Costa, all well known in local circles.  Just wonderful playing with that stellar bottom end, a varied and intriguing program from the ages and some delightful, welcoming patter.  Another great outing.

Apeiron Baroque performed at Wesley Church.  AB was led by John Ma (violin, MD) and Marie Searles (harpsichord, MD) with Susannah Lawergren (soprano), Matt Greco (violin), Pippa Macmillan (violone), Michael Bakrncev (composer), Dante Costa (flute), Brad Tham (violin) and Alex Munro (viola).

Rustic folk

Of faeries and fools was the title of this concert and I could see the reference clearly in at least 3 pieces.  The sounds were different as the musical combinations were different and to some degree as the styles were different, but the performances were consistently impressive.  The works dated from after Grimm's Fairy tales (1812) and carried on some of the influences.  First up as Schumann with a clarinet trio (Oliver Shermacher, James Wannan nad Roland Peelman on clarinet, viola and piano) just stunningly sharply played all round.  Then piano (Roland again)and two vocals (sopranos Susannah Lawergren and Anna Fraser ) for Dvorak Moravian duets.  Now this reminded me of Schubert songs and that's a strange style to my ears, dated both in musical form and lyrical themes.  The lyrics were translated to English and projected behind.  I could only chuckle at the dated love songs.  But that's that style.  The singing and piano were great though.  Perhaps better without the meanings?  Then an interval and a ridiculously funny Janacek Nursery rhymes in Czech language.  Again lyrics translated and projected and and the absurdity was a delight.  Luminescence played this with James Wannan and Ronan Apcar.  Then to finish, a much larger ensemble playing Katz-Chernin Village idiot, a work in 5/4 variously 3-2 and 2-3 and a collapse of time at the end.  This was a much larger group with a Alma Moodie string quartet and Jacques Emery on bass and others including e-pno and e-guitar and piano accordion and percussion.  So a very different , more modern and humourous take.  A great finish.

Schumann, Dvořák, Janáček and Kats-Chernin were performed at the Fitters Workshop variously by James Wannan (viola), Oliver Shermacher (clarinet), Susannah Lawergren and Anna Fraser (soprano), Roland Peelman and Ronan Apcar (pianos), Theo Carbo (electric guitar), Fletcher Cox (trumpet), Jackson Bankovic (trombone), Aidan Gabriels (horn), Veronica Bailey (percussion), Alister Price (accordion), Jacques Emery (double bass), Luminescence Chamber Choir and Alma Moodie Quartet.

Romantics

I find Art Song is its own world and oddly outside our modern experience.  I don't feel that with Beethoven or Bach or with choral music and I love the voices and the accompanists can be superb.  I heard some today, a fabulous pairing of Susannah Lawergren and Maciej Pawela: her great voice that singes the atmosphere, strong and broad and high; his detailed and delicate piano that told stories that matched her lyrics.  I think it's the lyrics determining the music that presumably makes art song.  (It's something I think also of the Beatles and how they wrote music).  So Susannah at one stage sang of lapping waves and I could hear it in the accompaniment.  Quite a feat.  But the lyrics can be so much of the romantic era, so much of love or nature or passion.  In fact, these four works spoke of the Australian sky, the Norwegian sky, the Australian beach and the Swedish spring (with a tragic love story thrown in).  Apparently the Swedes have an obsession with Spring which doesn't surprise me given their northerly climate.  So told us Susannah, apparently she with Nordic ancestry.  So the singing and the accompaniment were to die for, if the themes were strangely romantic.  So, I enjoyed it but it dumbfounded me in some ways.  But I learnt a few words of Swedish while following the lyrics.  So good.

Susannah Lawergren (soprano) sang with Maciej Pawela (piano) as accompanist at Wesley.

Again to move on

National Capital Orchestra performed Carmina Burana and more last night in Llewellyn with the Canberra Choral Society, Canberra Brass, Turner Trebles and a string of solo singers. It as a mammoth effort that had the stage packed. Two Steinways swapped places with the brass band; the fourteen children in the trebles choir fitted where they could, at one stage off stage; the basses arranged themselves so the singers could walk on and off. Never seen so many timpanis on one orchestral stage. So this was big and deliciously exciting. The Llewellyn stalls were pretty much sold out. The buzz was infectious. This is hugely popular and thrilling music, even if it's one of those pieces that experienced choristers are hark less for. Carmina B was the star of the night, deservedly, but Sean O'Boyle's River Symphony was also big and flowing and I enjoyed it immensely, and a little intro of Wagner Prelude to Lohengrin Act 3 was a blast. I was amused to hear someone say recently that Wagner has loads of ideas and uses them all at once. I could feel that. It's very attractive but a surprisingly tricky piece. The River Symph was pretty much that, flowing, big and lyrical, a tone poem at times with images of waves of strings and beauteous soprano paens. It's another that's big and no doubt expensive to stage. CB is a counting challenge. One conductor I know jokes that everyone can count to four, but these counts were all over with frequent changes of time signature written in an unusual format. This was a counting trial. But again, hugely satisfying, oddly unique and satisfying lyrical. Everyone knows it but not as you know it by playing it. Which brings me back to how strange this classical performance world can be. We work intensely on something for months (professionals, perhaps less time), but suddenly it's over, and on to the next. Over time, I expect you develop a repertoire with opportunities to return to old friends, but in the meantime, that's it. Like theatre but not like jazz, where a tune will be called frequently, so goes through ongoing development never to be finalised. And the development is different: classical is all interpretation and technical correctness; jazz is more harmonic and lyrical development and exploration. Both are valid, of course, but they are very different. I'm elated after the considerable success of CB but also slightly disoriented to leave it as a recent companion. Strange, this. But congratulations to excellent performances all round, by NCO and CCS and soloists and others and not least by my capable basso profundo colleagues, Roger, Juliet and Matthew.


National Capital Orchestra, Canberra Choral Society, Canberra Brass, Turner Trebles and soloists Sarahlouise Owens (soprano), Susannah Lawergren (soprano), Tobias Cole (tenor) and Jeremy Tatchell (baritone) under Leonard Weiss (conductor) performed Carmina Burana, Sean O'Boyle and Wagner in Llewellyn Hall. The bass section comprised Juliet Flook, Matthew Gambrill, Roger Grime and Eric Pozza.

Music for my funeral

People have music at their funerals and I've often thought what I might wish to have at mine. We heard Mozart's Requiem tonight at the Albert Hall for the CIMF and it's profoundly melancholy and touching, but who would have the self-regard to think they justified it? Who could deserve it? We've heard a performance before. Everyone knows it. It was played here on period instruments (A430Mhz). It's tragic; it's truthful; it's redemptive and ecstatic. How can you respond to the choir singing ever-rising sequences? With tears or with unhinged laughter? It's just too profound. It's mostly choral, but there are passages of four solo voices: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass. They sometimes sing individually, but mostly with entwined voices, perhaps the tenor appearing through, or the soprano soaring, or the two women in harmony. This version was shortened from the commonly performed one. It was a version by Richard Maunder that's missing three passages (Sanctus, Hosanna and Benedictus) that appear to be Süssmayr not Mozart. Süssmayr was the student of Mozart who was supposed to have completed the work when Mozart died. I'll check our CD later to hear the missing passages, but there were more than enough renowned and deeply affecting passages here. This is music that you wish won't end. I heard it as a little rough in the orchestra at times but very nicely performed by both choir and soloists. The string sections were led by seasoned performers, but these were young players and they were apparently playing on gut strings for the first time. I know gut on a double bass and it is a very different experience so I feel for them; a baptism of fire. Mozart's Requiem was performed by Simone Riksman (soprano), Hannah Fraser (mezzo-soprano), Christopher Saunders (tenor), Andrew Fysh (bass), the Wallfisch Band with ACO2, Elisabeth LeGuin (cello), Albert-Jan Roelofs (organ), Song company with the Sprogis Woods Smith Young Artists and Roland Peelman (conductor).

Preceding the Requiem was another work of death and immense sadness, a Stabat Mater. Stabat Mater is a 13th Century Catholic hymn of Maria dolorosa standing under the Cross of Jesus. You can only imagine the depth of sorrow in this image. Stabat Maters have been written by many composers. Pergolesi's is the famous one; this was by Luigi Boccherini of Lucca. This version was a new edition by Elisabeth Le Guin for three voices. Elisabeth ventured from the US to play cello for this performance. I enjoyed this performance but was a little non-plussed by Boccherini's work. The first notes are appropriately mournful, but then the music becomes merely dignified, then perhaps dramatic, sometimes almost light and danceable and not sufficiently pathetic to my ears. None-the-less it's a worthy work, Elisabeth's work is admirable and I loved the three voices, tenor and two sopranos. I particularly enjoyed the tenor, although intertwined sopranos were also luxurious. Boccherini Stabat Mater was performed by Susannah Lawergren and Anna Fraser (sopranos), Christopher Saunders (tenor), the Wallfisch Band with ACO2 and Roland Peelman (conductor).

The painting is Pietro Perugino, Mary at the Cross (1482) National Gallery, Washington DC, USA. Click on pic to view larger

Marion’s very many children

The theme of this year’s Canberra International Music Festival is Canberra, in its 100th birthday year, and the renowned Walter Burley Griffin and wife and partner is planning, Marion Mahoney Griffin. Marion, or her dramatic alter-ego, introduced he concert, Marion’s child by explaining that, although she had no children, she’s proud of their creation, Canberra, and she thinks of all its inhabitants as her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren… I’ve now seen Walter once and Marion twice, and it’s obviously fabulous (as in fables) but also a delightful pretense. For today, there were very many of her great,great grandchildren on stage doing a wonderful job of singing the song of Canberra, for virtually all the compositions had a Canberra theme.

Firstly, Sally Greenaway’s Auróra Musis Amica: fanfare for Canberra. It’s hard for a fanfare not to stir the emotions and the senses and this one did it with aplomb. I was smiling at the beauty of the dawn soundscape to start then lifted by the fanfare and let down gently by the final bars of colour. A wonderful, short piece of considerable success performed by the Combined Grammar Schools Orchestra. Next was Earth song by Frank Ticheli performed by the choirs of Canberra combined Grammar schools and Burgmann School. These are young voices: not powerful but sweet and pure and high, with just the start of male depth. Lovely sounds. Then Canberra by Stephen Leek sung by the Woden Valley Youth Choir (all girls) accompanied by piano. This comprised two pieces: Where to build a city and Canberra Anthem. This was story-telling in music. Amusing chatter led to discussion of Where to build the city (this was an issue just over 100 years back). They ended with the decision “Canberra / the meeting place of ancient times / Where, where where, where / There”. An effective piece of story telling. Then another by Stephen Leek called Landmarks. This sang of Murrumbidgee flows, Lake Ginninderra and The Brindabellas in three movements that was ancient and expansive and spoke to Aboriginal awareness with glockenspiel providing structure, bass drums providing thunder, congas providing rhythm interspersed with harmonised vocal lines in eight note melodies.

Then the big forces were arrayed for two works by Karl Jenkins. I’d arrived earlier to find many schoolkids in uniform on Sunday, mostly eating sausage sandwiches, not expecting a massed kids performance. This is a wonderful little music hall with a large stage and it was packed. About 200 players, including Canberra Camerata and Song Company for the professional guidance, and a raft of school choirs and orchestral players. Chris Latham introduced Karl Jenkins as a Mozart of music for youth”. I could only concur. These were not massively difficult pieces, but they were serious and interesting. Chris had also added words about Canberra in place of most of the nonsense phonemes of the original, so ti was also historically educative. I wondered what the Sydney-siders of the Song Company thought as they sang of Canberra as the Shimmering City, and I felt uncomfortable with the “great city” reference later, but these were very satisfying and even engrossing works done with surprising maturity. The first was The Shimmering city, a major work in 100-or-so movements including the fabulous voices of Susannah Lawergren, Anna Fraser (sopranos) and Tobias Cole (counter-tenor) with Riley Lee (Shakuhachi) and Ji Won Kim (solo violin) with Woden Valley Youth Choir, Canberra Girls Grammar and Canberra Grammar School Combined Choirs and Orchestra and Radford College Choir and Orchestra, and Burgmann College Choir conducted by Chris Latham. The second was shorter, the Song of the Limestone Plains, with introductory voices then claps for the birthday of Canberra the choir then shakuhachi and brass and more, all against what seemed to me to be a cut-time outback groove. Very nice stuff.