Adelaide Festival. Elder Hall. 28 Feb 2025
Ensemble Lumen is a newly mined ensemble and comprises members of the faculty of the iconic Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide. In fact, today’s concert entitled Towards the Light, which is a nod to the university’s motto ‘Sub Cruce lumen’ (translating roughly as "the light (of learning) under the (Southern) Cross"), was the very first concert given by the ensemble.
The ensemble comprises Lloyd Van’t Hoff, clarinet, Emma Gregan, French horn, Lucinda Collins, piano, Anna Goldsworthy, piano, Elizabeth Layton, violin, Stephen King, viola, and Edith Salzmann, cello. It goes without saying – but let’s say it anyway – that they are all excellent musicians at the top of their game, and together they are even better.
The program notes provide a rationale for the title of the program and state that “…Ensemble Lumen explores facets of light in all its radiant forms. The program will illuminate the rarely heard music of William Shield, whose melodies once charmed the ears of Mozart and Beethoven. Dai Fujikura brings the solo horn to life in Yurayura, conjuring the mesmerising dance of a candle-lit flame. The Australian première of Libby Larsen’s Trio Noir draws a shimmering sonic parallel between music and the mystery of film noir, while Dohnányi’s sweeping Sextet embarks on a dramatic journey through light and shadow.”
It is not self-evident that the chosen compositions flesh out the rationale, and it’s arguable from the perspective of an audience member whether a program needs such a logical framework to ‘make it work’, but presumably it helps the musicians to design and perform a coherent performance. After all, the human mind constantly seeks patterns and structure in order to make sense of things.
William Shield’s String Trio No.8 in F major is an absolute light, but his music is not often heard in concert halls, except perhaps at the Elder hall. It was performed there in 2021 by The Dorrit Ensemble at a lunchtime concert, which included two of the members of Ensemble Lumen, namely Elizabeth Layton and Edith Salzmann. In today’s performance, Layton, King and Salzmann exposed the joy, lightness and humour inherent in the piece. It’s uncomplicated music, but it demands finesse and meticulousness, which the three performers provided in spades!
Yurayura for solo horn by contemporary Japanese composer Dai Fujikura requires the performer to produce a throng of interesting sounds that sound anything like a horn. At its very start, the half-depressed valves make it sound like a gently playing clarinet, and later like a small string ensemble reaching a crescendo and then waning into breathlessness. Perhaps the likening of the piece to a dancing candle flame is apt after all.
Libby Larsen is a contemporary American composer and her composition Trio Noir for clarinet, cello, piano received its Australian première at today’s concert. Collins begins the piece with a foreboding sequence of rising chords before Salzmann enters with a sustained rising two note phrase that reaches higher and encourages Van’t Hoff to settle the feelings of presentiment. But the colour changes and the mood constantly shifts; variously ominous, portentous, spirited, optimistic.
And then to the major work of the program. Erno Dohnányi’s Sextet in C Major Op. 37 is a substantial composition and involves all members of the ensemble, except for Goldsworthy. The instrumentation is uncommon and therefore the piece does not find its way into concert halls all that often. (Maybe Ensemble Lumen was created with Dohnányi’s Sextet in mind?) The aural effects are diverse, lush and jazz infused at times. The writing is both dramatic and introspective. The composition is infused with enjoyable melodies, but none are destined to become ear worms: they are light, humorous and interesting. There is a strong sense of development throughout the four movements as various instruments take the lead, and the sound seems bigger than it should be because of the interesting and commanding horn line. And then comes the final movement: it’s jazzy, fun, chaotic, and climaxes with a false finish (which trapped this reviewer!) before finally ending in a tutti flourish.
Ensemble Lumen are a tight outfit and have shone a probing light onto some seldom played gems of the repertoire. Long may their light burn brightly.
Kym Clayton
When: 28 Feb
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
