Once again, 3MBS are to be highly praised for bringing us an awesome’ program of 5 engaging concerts for one day in the life of lovers of live music. Artistic Director Wilma Smith brought us some of Melbourne’s most-loved musicians, and intriguing, well-balanced and varied programs, all in the truly elite acoustic and intimate atmosphere of the Primrose Potter Salon. 3MBS General Manager Gail Southwell welcomed us to the opening morning Concert 1: Discover, sharing and celebrating the importance of and belief that live music makes us feel alive.
The colourful quintet, Arcadia Winds, gave us a vibrant and most stimulating opener with New York-based composer Valerie Coleman’s Tzigane. It was a classy performance displaying a contemporary approach to traditional folk music, and at times a theatrical description of the Hungarian gypsy soul transformed into a New York lifestyle. Almost an exotic fanfare, strong tight ensemble dance rhythms, virtuosic solos, Klezmer style clarinet glissandos and sensuous phrasing made this an uplifting experience. Arcadia Winds then performed the magical and sophisticated piece Honeybee (2023) by Adelaide’s award-winning composer Anna Cawrse. Dedicated to a friend as a memorial, the work began with gentle trills and close chromatic colours in the accompaniment supporting poignant oboe melodic phrases. Fine musical rapport was shown as smooth crescendos and fully blended layers and blocks of colour celebrated an energetic life. This finely structured thematic work explored a wide instrumental voice range, particularly high oboe themes being most compelling and beautifully expressed.
New fresh colours kept coming to us when Aaron Wyatt, a Western Australian Noongar man, viola player, composer and conductor, performed his new work Viola Concerto, leading an accompanying string quintet. Shimmering tremolos first hovered above low sustained pitches, and rising motifs built a momentum into irregular and changing meters in a variety of short portraits of suggestive lyrical, romantic and impressionistic scenes. There were glimpses of folk music, pastoral scenes, a passing storm and a circular waltz, sweet melodies and harmonic congeniality.
There was no better way to end this morning concert than with Ensemble Liaison’s perfectly played Brahms’ Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114. From this experienced and popular trio, a passionate first movement Allegro evoked dark and stormy moods and contemplative soul searching moments leading to a magical ending. The second movement Adagio produced the finest of conversations between cello and clarinet, with perfectly shaped phrases and rubatos leading to a grand introspective silence at the close of this breath-taking movement. The third movement Andantino was full of optimistic contours, singing tones from the piano and a fresh spirit. Sheer delight was built to a broader passion in an extended romantic waltz to close this movement, while the final Allegro was a new story with impressive individual solos and virtuosic teamwork. Very satisfying.
Concert 2: Transfigured flagged the 150th birthday anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg, and featured his significant masterpiece Transfigured Night. First on stage though, were three creative Baroque musicians from Latitude 37, with organ, baroque violin and viola da gamba transforming themes and manuscripts from the past into a contemporary and improvised design. Composed around 1676, Biber’s Rosary Sonatas are a fascinating set of 16 short works for violin and continuo. We heard No 4, The Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, a Chaconne with 12 variations. Very secular in nature, the rich gorgeous opening melody was typical of a forward moving dance style, with strong dynamics and much virtuosic variation. A pleasing tone quality came from softer organ orchestrations and gentler counter melodies between da gamba and violin.
Two further sets of Variations came with improvisatory flourishes, unusual rhythmic accents and re-shaped phrasing in Playford’s Greensleeves Variations. A succeeding folk tune was given a witty transformation with a slow and stately beginning, lively increases in tempo and meter changes, and a swift acceleration and crescendo to end these transformed song-forms.
There was a buzz of audience expectation as the stage was set for Schoenberg’s popular work Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night) a work composed in 1899 in just three weeks. In the dark, a Reader walked through the Salon, voicing the opening lines of Richard Dehmel’s deeply affecting poem, Verklarte Night, adding a brief atmospheric narrative before the musical tone-poem followed. Unfortunately the six-piece string ensemble was required to move into seating positions during this reading, which was not possible to do in silence. Footfalls and positioning of instruments did distract from the reader’s delivery. The Transfigured String Sextet of 2 violins, 2 violas, and 2 celli drew us in immediately with their embracing of Schoenberg’s new atonal musical paths, powerfully celebrating one of the composer’s most often performed work with assertive teamwork. Tremolos, glissandos and frenetic pizzicato sections were dramatic and exhilarating, with some harsh upper tones piercing and challenging us to go to a higher place, while silences and softnesses took our souls to a darker space and strident violin tones asked the questions, stirring our imaginations. A final hymn-like setting with sweetness and light allowed a rising repeated motif to suggest affirmation and resolve in a quasi Romantic setting, leading to a stunning close with gentle high violin tones over soft pizzicato accompaniment. The unexpected final chord completed this fine concert.
Photo credit: Laura Manariti
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Julie McErlain reviewed Concert 1: “Discover” and Concert 2: “Transfigured”, presented as part of the 3MBS 2024 Marathon “Transfigured” at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Primrose Potter Salon on February 24, 2024.
