Adelaide Festival. Heath Quartet. Ukaria Cultural Centre. 9 Mar 2020.
The third and final concert in the Adelaide Festival’s Composer & Citizen mini-series again contrasts the old with the new: the last string quartet by Beethoven, and the last by Michael Tippett.
Tippett’s String Quartet No.5 lacks a formal structure and comprises two broad movements each comprising sections of varying pace and colour. In both movements, the slower sections are almost agonising, and the award winning Heath Quartet (Oliver Heath, violin, Sara Wolstenholme, violin, Gary Pomeroy, viola, and Christopher Murray on cello) dug deep to bring Tippett’s taut but refined composition to life. The composition only yields its subtly constructed melodies in the hands of great technicians, which the Heath’s most certainly are.
By contrast, Beethoven’s String Quartet No.16 in F, Op.135 is more accessible but demands no lesser technique: it is lively and at times feels instinctive as it strives towards resolution and a natural end point. The Heath’s allow the music to do the talking and do not push the emotional content beyond its core, especially in the final allegro movement.
The conversation between the cello and other instruments is beautifully articulated, including the more muscular passages in the finale, and nothing is lost. Questions are posed, and answers are suggested.
The Heath’s are a class ensemble, and they handle the individuality of Tippett and the authority of Beethoven incisively.
The Composer & Citizen series has been a masterstroke of programming.
Kym Clayton
When: 9 Mar
Where: Ukaria Cultural Centre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Heath Quartet. Ukaria Cultural Centre. 8 Mar 2020.
Composer and Citizen 2 is the second in a three concert series that explores the relationship between old and new music, and how the practise of one composer has influenced the other. In this concert Michael Tippett’s String Quartet No.2 is juxtaposed with Beethoven’s String Quartet No.3. Both are early works by the respective composers in the string quartet form.
In today’s concert, both compositions are performed by the celebrated Heath Quartet (Oliver Heath, violin, Sara Wolstenholme, violin, Gary Pomeroy, viola, and Christopher Murray, cello). The Heath Quartet won the 2016 Gramophone Chamber Music Award for its recording of the complete string quartets of Tippett, and it is clear to see why.
The rhythmic structure of Tippett’s second quartet is complex with accents that often occur in unexpected places. This establishes a sense of conflict and resolution, which the Heath’s clearly enunciate. Their playing is precise – informed by deep understanding of the music – but it is also ardent, and has impetus and dash. The final movement is especially memorable for the clarity with which the heath’s expose the ‘echos’ of thematic material and the lightness of the first violin’s statements and restatements.
Tippett’s second quartet stands in stark contrast to Beethoven’s third, and the Heath’s perform the Beethoven with unforced elegance but vibrant muscularity when needed. As an ensemble they play with sublime communication and when the four instruments appear to be playing independently with no conversation, the Heath’s – through a gesture, a smile, a nod, a repositioning of body weight – convince us they are together implementing a higher plan that will become clear to the listener. This same impression was also evident in the Tippet.
Marshall Maguire, who curated the program, could not have chosen better.
Kym Clayton
When: 8 Mar
Where: Ukaria Cultural Centre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Hill, Macfarlane, Dundas & Ludovico’s Band and Chorus. Ukaria Cultural Centre. 9 Mar 2020.
Sometimes festivals throw up real gems, and this concert is one of them. Brava to all who had anything to do with bringing Hidden Secrets to the stage.
Monteverdi’s operatic ‘scena’ for three voices Il combattimento di Tancredie e Clorinda, dating from 1624, is contrasted with Lembit Beecher’s contemporary chamber opera I Have No Stories to Tell You (2014). Both works are about war, or more precisely about the impact of war on the human condition. Monteverdi’s work looks at how war and choosing sides can split relationships, while Beecher explores a rupturing relationship because she is emotionally incapable of venting the horrors she confronted while on deployment. How refreshing that both stories have female warriors at their centres!
Bethany Hill (soprano) sings the female protagonist in both works, and she sells and sings both roles with absolute conviction. One can almost see the brandishing sword she mimes in the Monteverdi, and we can almost hear the voices in her head as she agonises, trying to come to terms with her wartime experiences. Hill is nearing the top of her game. Her performance was stunning.
Robert Macfarlane (tenor) plays a ‘chorus’ role in both works, and his acting skills are also first rate. In the Monteverdi he has the lion’s share of the vocal work and his warm tenor voice is well suited to the obliging acoustic of the Ukaria Cultural Centre. He pitches accurately and sings with a beautifully relaxed vibrato. He is equally strong across his range.
Samuel Dundas (baritone) sings the male protagonist in the Monteverdi, and the anguishing husband in the Beecher. Again, his stage craft is totally convincing, and he uses his powerful, rich and strikingly clear voice to extract every essential nuance from his characters.
The Beecher also includes a trio chorus of three soprano voices who provide an ethereal reminder of tormented minds.
Ludovico’s Band, a baroque ensemble directed by celebrated Australian harpist Marshall McGuire, provides the musical ensemble for both works, with just a few alterations in the instrumental line-up for the Beecher, such as the harpsichord almost being played as a prepared instrument, the baroque cello (violine) being replaced by a modern cello, and the addition of a (baroque) cello. The Band is exquisite and plays with a deep appreciation of every one elses role in the music making. The use of essentially the same ensemble is clever, and has the effect of connecting the past to the present and reminding us that war is an unfortunate constant in human affairs.
The performance of Beecher’s I Have No Stories to Tell You is an Australian premiere, and Beecher, who was present at the performance, received a standing ovation from the large appreciative audience.
Kym Clayton
When: 9 Mar
Where: Ukaria Cultural Centre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Festival. Marwood, Valve & Cassomenos. Ukaria Cultural Centre. 8 Mar 2020.
The combination of Anthony Marwood (violin), Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Stefan Cassomenos (piano) has been brought together just for this concert, and will likely never be repeated. This is lamentable, because they produced a world class performance that even established trios would struggle to match.
The program comprised Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op. 67, and Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat, Op.97 ‘Archduke’. The two works contrast spectacularly: the Shostakovich has the characteristic dissonance and spikey rhythms often found in the Russian master’s writing, whereas the Beethoven is most often lyrical with soaring melodies.
The opening andante movement of the Shostakovich begins with the gentlest of crescendos, and then soars into near chaos with a multiplicity of thematic material and aggressive dynamics. It is exciting to both watch and listen to, and the members of the trio are constantly observing each other as if to check on their well-being! Cassomenos is effusive at the keyboard, and he elicits the dreamiest sounds from the Bosendorfer in the largo movement.
They are so much in sync as an ensemble that Valve assisted Marwood with a page-turn that was going horribly wrong. Marwood tried to use his foot while still fervently playing, but Valve used a brief pause in his part to help out!
The performance of the Archduke is a tour de force. The trio laid out a clear dynamical plan from the outset and prosecuted it compellingly. The opening allegro moderato features beatifical lyrical lines from the cello, and the legato in the opening of the third andante cantabile movement produced by Marwood and Valve was silky smooth. The final presto is simply thrilling and the audience erupts into enthusiastic applause at the conclusion.
A thrilling concert, and such a pity that we are never likely to hear this combination of artists again. Ah, such is the stuff of festivals!
Kym Clayton
When: 8 Mar
Where: Ukaria Cultural Centre
Bookings: Closed
Musica Viva & Adelaide Festival. Adelaide Town Hall. 2 Mar 2020.
Garrick Ohlsson is an authoritative presence on the concert stage and one of the greatest pianists alive. He sits close to the piano and infrequently raises his arms above the rim. He has strong arms and hands and achieves fortissimo sounds with apparently little effort. When he does raise his arms higher, as he does in his first encore – Rachmaninoff’s mighty Prelude in C sharp minor Op.3 No.2 – the impact on the audience is almost overwhelming: for a while one stops breathing and blinking one’s eyes. But Ohlsson also plays the softest and gentlest of melodies with sublime skill, and his second encore sends the audience home with a dreamy performance of Debussy’s ever popular Clair de Lune: perfect legato, nothing percussive, gentleness in strength. A massage for the psyche.
Ohlsson’s playing is a force of nature, and it is simply to be marvelled at and held in awe.
Ohlsson’s program is varied and includes Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.11 in B flat major, Op.22, and Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No.6 in A, Op.82 before the interval. The second half of the program is entirely devoted to Chopin and includes Impromptu No.2 in F sharp, Op.36, Etudes, Op 25, Nos. 5-10, the exquisitely beautiful Berceuse, Op. 57, and the Scherzo in C sharp minor, Op 39.
The diverse program allowed Ohlsson to demonstrate his technical brilliance and profound musicianship, but the Adelaide Festival audience likely would have appreciated a program that had a little more ‘fire power’ in it. Although neither Beethoven’s Op.22 nor the Chopin Etudes are frequently heard performed by a virtuoso on the concert platform, at least in Adelaide, the Prokofiev piano sonatas are heard too infrequently.
Ohlsson’s performance of Prokofiev’s Op.82 is the highlight of the evening. Music should stand on its own merits, and knowing the ‘back story’ to a composition should not be necessary for one to enjoy it. However, knowing something of Prokofiev’s context at the time the sonata was written adds to the enjoyment. It was written during WWII and Prokofiev, like many other composers, was deeply impacted and not just artistically. Ohlsson manages the sonata’s discordance, abrupt changes of meter, rhythm and dynamics with consummate skill and allows Prokofiev’s feelings about the contradictions of a world at war to break through.
Ohlsson is a recognised Chopin expert, and has recorded Chopin’s entire piano oeuvre. Ohlsson’s performances of the six selected Etudes are an object lesson in technique and demonstrate precisely how trills and arpeggios should be played with evenness of touch even at speed. Etude No.7 was especially beautiful: perhaps there is something about Ohlsson and the key of C sharp minor, for the Scherzo that finished the program and the Rachmaninoff encore were also high moments of the concert. The Berceuse was extraordinary: such delicacy, feeling and controlled strength from a man capable of the most bravura performance.
Musica Viva has again curated a superb concert, and the large audience left the Town Hall knowing it had experienced greatness in action.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Adelaide Town Hall
Bookings: Closed