Anya Anastasia. 2 Apr 2022
Fans of Anya Anastasia - wild, intense, questioning cabaret theatre artist - prepare to meet a new incarnation and be mesmerised and challenged in a whole new way.
This incarnation’s origins can be safely traced back to Anastasia’s last cabaret production in 2018, The Executioners. It was a production in which her songs probed the messy contradictions of star ‘activism’ and the reality of pressing social issues.
The pressing issue of Dissenter is climate change.
Anya Anastasia is not playing a character anymore to accentuate flights of thought and probing, questioning imaginings in her lyrics.
The new incarnation is purely herself, reflected in a five track EP in which she displays an incredible development in song writing post cabaret and a profoundly powerful self-possession, her uncompromising stance in the tradition of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
How beautiful the result is in live performance.
Losing Wild is a delicate plea to recognise the rapidly occurring extinction of species. No angry push in voice or musical arrangements offered. No, a poetic cry of recognising it, as Anastasia sings, “…The hourglass drains, no Noah’s Ark in the desert, so they’re going away.”
This simple understated observational stand point continues most strongly in Goes Untold, in which Anastasia mourns the loss of indigenous knowledge of the land - particularly held by the women - heart breakingly expressed in simple sorrowful words, “…The whole truth held in a drop rain, but we decline to taste it.”
Spinning Around tackles the very state of a fast paced world which is truly confusing us all, as the world itself is indeed in danger, “…Is it I’m dizzy or is the world just spinning the wrong way around today?”
Supporting the power of Anastasia’s subtle prowess are a crew of musicians who more than capably give gentle nuance to the strength within the apparent softness of Anastasia’s art.
Gareth Chin’s keyboard, along with Anastasia’s lead guitar form the strong core to the songs, but Satomi Ohnishi on drums/percussion and Clara Gillam Grant on Cello work gently beneath this core, proffering balanced, subtly developed warmth and power to every single song.
The crafting of these songs’ innate gentleness with power is exquisite.
Dissenter EP is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Soundcloud
David O’Brien
When: 2 Apr
Where: Nexus Arts
Season: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 16 Mar 2022
The Chineke! Orchestra was founded in 2015 in the UK by double bass player Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE to provide career opportunities for young Black and ethnically diverse musicians in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. What a profound and major advance for Reconciliation it would be if something similar was established in Australia, noting that this evening’s program features a world première performance of The Rising of the Mother Country by composer, singer and leading didgeridoo player William Barton.
Chineke!’s mission is to champion change and to celebrate diversity in classical music, and this evening’s concert delivered on that promise in spades. The full orchestra has not travelled to Australia for the Festival, but rather a smaller ensemble of ten musicians, featuring the orchestra’s strings, woodwind, horn, and piano principal players. There is just one of each featured instrument, and so the configuration is ripe for significant chamber works.
The ensemble arranges itself in a semicircle with Chi-chi Nwanoku standing centrally upstage. The ensemble’s diversity is apparent, right down to their attire. Absent is strict conventional suiting and long dresses. Rather there is a more relaxed feel that is underlined with the occasional item of ‘national dress. There is however nothing ‘cosy’ about the quality of the music making – it is tight and terrific, with controlled passion tempered with evident joy – and Nwanoku keeps a lid on it with watchful direction to which the ensemble respects and responds.
Nwanoku’s programming choices include Bohuslav Martinů’s Nonet No. 2, Sergei Prokofiev’s Quintet in G minor, Op.39, Valerie Coleman’s Red Clay and Mississippi Delta, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet in F minor, Op.2, and of course Barton’s The Rising of the Mother Country, which was the clear highlight of the program.
The Martinů Nonet was composed in 1959 and is eclectic in style, with pleasing melodies and jaunty rhythms. It is a satisfying composition and the Chineke! easily draw out its fun and vibrance. The Prokofiev quintet was originally commissioned by a ballet troupe, but proved too difficult for them, and it eventually became ‘pure music’. Not unlike the Martinů, it includes jagged harmonies and rhythms at which the Chineke! clearly excel, and enjoy. Coleman is a living composer, and her Red Clay and Mississippi Delta is jazz infused. The audience willingly join in with rhythmic finger clicking when invited to do so by the ensemble, but soon give over to an appreciation of Meera Maharaj’s excellent work on flute. Coleridge-Taylor’s Nonet is ‘big sounding’ and, like the Martinů, is eclectic in style with fine examples of tonal lyricism.
But Barton’s composition stole the show. It is an expansive piece that traverses mystery, deep introspection, wonderment, joy and even frivolity. It begins with almost ominous rumblings from Nwanoku’s expertly played double bass under which Barton’s pleasing vibrato-free tenor voice emerges and bathes us in clean vocal tones. This gives way to simple but affecting melodies from the strings and horn, and the piano provides a robust accompaniment to hold it together. And of course Barton performs on his didgeridoo and ominous-sounding clapsticks, and he coaxes the most remarkable collection of sounds and effects from the ancient instruments. The appealing juxtaposition against the instruments of the ensemble produces a remarkable soundscape that allows one to become lost in the moment and at one with something else that is quite enigmatic. In the programme notes, Barton says The Rising of Mother Country represents the power of our shared histories that are a part of healing, strength, and determination. And couldn’t our fractured world do with some of that?
This was a truly remarkable and deeply satisfying concert. It was a triumph of programming by the Adelaide Festival.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 8 Mar 2022
Famed Russian-born pianist Konstantin Shamray tentatively raised the microphone and carefully enunciated to the near-capacity audience in the Town Hall: “I feel great shame today.”
The applause was instant, prolonged, and heartfelt. It not only came from the audience, but also from the members of the Australian String Quartet onstage with him. It almost became uncomfortable – not only for Shamray, but also for the members of the ASQ onstage with him; though not as uncomfortable and perilous as life currently is for the people of the Ukraine.
This was the start of a memorable evening of music-making that people will talk about for years, as indeed they should.
The concert itself was never actually programmed to happen at all, but was a late addition to the Festival program because of the unavailability of Karin Schaupp and the Flinders Quartet. As they say, every grey cloud has a silver lining, and the concert delivered by Shamray and the ASQ was sterling.
The concert featured Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.47, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No.9 in C, Op. 59 No. 3 known as the ‘Razumovsky’. When Shamray and the ASQ were asked to put the program together, never did they realise their Russian infused program would be so pertinent. Shostakovich lived and composed during World War II – the quintet was written in 1940 – and he was for a time resistant to bend to the dictates of Stalin and the Russian leadership and he fell so completely out-of-favour that his own life was in real danger. Again , how apt that Shostakovich should be performed at this time and by an eminent Russian musician again calling out despotic political leaders.
The performance of the quintet was vital and passionate, but high emotion never gave way to mawkishness. At the piano, Shamray was crisp, articulated and consummately musical in everything that he did. His right hand work was spectacular with percussive treble notes having the semblance of a lone voice railing against the madness that thundered from the crashing bass chords coming from his left hand. The momentum Shamray generated was almost too much to bear. It was exciting, and the ASQ stayed with him all the way as they plumbed the introspective second fugal movement and gave way to the well-known jauntiness of the third. The dreamy violin work of Dale Barltrop and Francesca Hiew in the fourth movement, along with the warm yet delicate viola playing of Chris Cartlidge, and the teasing pizzicato of the sartorially ever-stylish Michael Dahlenburg, was transporting. The finale was spirited and resolved into something more contemplative.
This was a world class performance made all the more memorable by its juxtaposition with current world politics.
The Beethoven quartet was an altogether different affair. The Razumovsky doesn’t have the same firepower or impact of the Shostakovich, but the ASQ played it with an abundance of style and controlled vigour. They ensured the labyrinthine second movement – the backbone of the composition – remained lucid yet driven. Full marks to Barltrop for setting the direction and continually reminding us of the structure with thoughtful dynamics and wonderfully precise phrasing.
The Beethoven in many respects was the perfect foil for the Shostakovich, and the audience left not only with something deep to ponder, but also with a song on their lips, and a smile on their faces.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Ayers House. 9 Mar 2022
Anna Goldsworthy and Andrew Haveron’s performance of Beethoven’s highly popular Violin Sonata No. 9, Op.47 – the so-called Kreutzer Sonata – was decidedly idiosyncratic. From the first edgy bowing of the violin to the first crashing chords on the piano it was clear that Goldsworthy and Haveron had something different to say.
The first movement was intensely passionate, bordering on restrained violence, but it was understandable because this performance was not just about the music. Each movement of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata was prefaced by a recitation from Goldsworthy inspired by extracts from Tolstoy’s novella of the same name. Despite the disturbing nature of the chosen text, with topics that covered misogyny and sexual disfunction in marriage, her recitations were delivered with a cold detachment that bordered on being menacing. When would she lash out? Who would bear the brunt of it: the audience, or Haveron who played a silent character looking on knowingly? With such poisoned text, the fury that was injected into the music was understandable, and … satisfying. All of a sudden, such an iconic (and possibly over-performed) sonata had new life breathed into it, and it was electric.
The second and third movements were prefaced with more carefully chosen text and, like the first movement, they yielded a different response from Goldsworthy and Haveron, and from the audience.
Goldsworthy and Haveron are both exceptional musicians and their playing was a masterclass in style, technique, and deep musical understanding.
Empathetic lighting was chosen to add to the overall ambience of the concert room in Ayers House, leaving the audience in no doubt that classical music can be reinterpreted – it doesn’t just have to be about the music. It should be about reinvention and interpretation for new understanding if it is to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world.
This is an outstanding and unusual event.
Kym Clayton
When: 9 to 11 Mar
Where: Ayers House
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 5 Mar 2022
Haydn was commissioned by his royal patron and employer to compose many works and amongst the first were the so-called ‘time of day’ symphonies. There are three of them: Le Matin (The Morning), Le Midi (The Afternoon), and Le Soir (The Evening). It is thought they were written to not only impress Haydn’s employer, but also to curry favour with influential musicians who would be performing them by incorporating instrumental solo passages that were almost virtuosic. This was revolutionary at the time in a symphony – to foreground so many instruments – and it is unusual even today. The symphonies are relatively short in duration, and are not frequently included in standard orchestral repertoire. So, what a delight to be able to hear them all, and performed at the time of day appropriate to their names.
Performed over three hour-long concerts on a single day in the wonderful acoustic and ‘old-world’ ambience of the Adelaide Town Hall, the Australian Haydn Ensemble presents a wonderful program featuring Haydn’s three ‘time of day’ symphonies, three of his keyboard concerti, the very first keyboard compositions by Mozart for keyboard, and three sinfonias by CPE Bach. Threes abound!
Played expertly on mostly period instruments (or modern ones crafted in period style), the three programs provide a wonderful musical survey of the music of the late 18th century.
The Australian Haydn Ensemble’s playing is typified by clarity and precision, but never devoid of passion and apparent impulse. Energetically conducted by Erin Helyard from the keyboard – also a genuine instrument from the period lovingly and expertly refurbished by Australian craftsman Carey Beebe – and skilfully led by violinist Skye McIntosh, the Ensemble impresses with every note and every phrase. The clarity and precision is not coldly clinical – it is a living thing that is impatient to evolve and continually strive for flawlessness. It’s really quite astonishing, and the audience applauded enthusiastically whenever it got the chance.
Individual musicians (including violin, violone, viola, bass, cello, flute, bassoon, and horn) excel in their performances of the challenging lyrical passages that provide the spice of the Haydn symphonies. Haydn’s orchestration is perfect, and allows the solos to be clearly heard, as well as the harpsichord, and Helyard and McIntosh ensure this happens.
The Ensemble’s performances of the CPE Bach sinfonias are as good as you will hear anywhere in the world. They are played with brightness, and the occasional adventurous harmony and rhythm sound instantly fresh.
Helyard’s expertise at the harpsichord is palpable. His performance of the Mozart keyboard pieces allows them to be heard with fresh ears. Yes, they are ‘youthful’ and ‘immature’ compositions, but Helyard is not dismissive and allows the fledgling genius to shine through.
These three programs are the true stuff of major festivals. Hearty thanks and congratulations to the Adelaide Festival for bringing the Australian Haydn Ensemble to Adelaide for the first time ever, and for programming such an enthralling musical event.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed