Recitals Australia. Elder Hall. 7 April 2014
For this performance two celebrated Australian musicians – composer/pianist Elena Kats-Chernin and pianist Tamara-Anna Cislowska – gave a recital with a refreshing difference to a substantial audience at Elder Hall. Anyone looking for standard fare would have been disappointed as Kats-Chernin and Cislowska shook off the archetypal image of straight-laced concert musicians and gave a relaxed but deeply satisfying kaleidoscopic survey of Kat-Chernin’s oeuvre through the two lenses of improvisation and transcription. Both artists sat at the one piano on separate benches, occasionally swapping registers. The consummate Cislowska took the more difficult part on most occasions, and played with fire, precision and clarity, while Kats-Chernin extemporised at will but always stayed true to the composition and never injected random suspect material. Of course she would not do anything different – after all, she wrote all the material – and our appreciation was enhanced by her brief spoken, and often humorous, introductions about each of the dozen miniatures that comprised the seventy-five minute program. This was the first time that both artists had performed a concert such as this in South Australia.
Some pieces were written for string quartet, others for baroque orchestra and choir, and some for the piano, but they were all transcribed for four hands at the piano and arranged to encourage improvisation.
The program commenced with ‘Two Stolen Pieces for Richard’ that began their lives as part of a string quartet. There was an insistence in the first piece – a sense of always moving forward – which contrasted with the lightly stepping melody of the second that gradually moved into darker and more textured harmonies but gave way to a gentle end. Kats-Chernin informed us that Richard was a talented emerging musician who had lost his life in a tragic accident. Knowing this took one’s appreciation to a different level that transcended the music.
In ‘April Code’ Kats-Chernin accompanied Cislowska who played a harmonica, which gave the piece a distinctive Parisian feel. Although ‘Prelude’ was written for orchestra plus choir, nothing was lost in the arrangement and the piece took on a new existence. ‘Russian Rag’ was a fascinating clash of cultures as the rag demonstrated tango rhythms and motifs from Russian liturgical music, all spiced up with dizzying arpeggios from Cislowska and a resounding clap of hands at the final beat that was quickly echoed by the diverse audience!
‘Russian Toccata’ was only premiered last year and was originally written for two hands but for this show was performed with four, while ‘Dance of the Paper Umbrellas’ sounded as if there were even more as Kats-Chernin and Cislowska expertly tossed off an object lesson in crisp staccato.
‘Vocalise’ was a highlight for me. Kats-Chernin explained she was inspired to write it on learning that one of her sons was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The word vocalise usually conjures up images of beautifully sung music, but in this case it is about the troubling voices that a schizophrenic imagines inhabit their mind. The piece features an ever-present droning motif in the lower register of the piano over which is written several extemporised melodies that are developed almost in the style of Philip Glass until they become dense and forceful. Then quite abruptly they cheerily fade away, but the insistent droning voice remains and thwarts any real sense of peace. An affecting piece.
‘Marcato’ was a transcription of a piece for orchestra and four saxophones and it was highly successful in imitating their distinctive timbre. ‘Waltz of Things Past’ was the most conventional and lyrical piece of the program, and the popular ‘Eliza Aria’ was another transcription that successfully imitated the human voice.
The concert finished with a bang, and allowed both artists to demonstrate their pianistic flair with Cislowska shouldering most of the heavy lifting. ‘Scherzino’ was improvised to the max, and it caused me to recall a concert given by Paul Grabowsky and Clemens Leske Jnr in the 2008 Fringe Festival when they presented an intriguing concert in the Elder Hall. Leske, a distinguished Australian pianist, performed Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations in the first half and after the interval Grabowsky gave a masterful display of his improvisatory skills. He endlessly and inventively improvised the ‘aria’, which is first of the variations in the Goldberg. Leske used a standard umpteen-paged score, and Grabowsky relied on a few tattered pieces of paper that precariously balanced on the piano’s music stand! In ‘Scherzino’, Kats-Chernin and Cislowska did the same. Their score, which they showed to the audience, appeared to be scraps stuck to together but it sounded anything but. It had clear form and a driving purpose. It was toe tapping and almost edge-of-your seat stuff, and it finished abruptly leaving you wanting more.
Yes, a concert with a difference and one that Mark De Raad, President of Recitals Australia, his board and sponsors can be justly proud they entrepreneured. Brava!
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Elder Hall
Bookings: Closed
