Many people are to be congratulated for this terrific collaboration, conceived by Musica Viva Australia’s Artistic Director, Paul Kildea, which brought a truly Australian and original cultural concept to the stage. Always supporting new artistic projects, MVA timed this special event for NAIDOC week, especially celebrating the success of female composers and contemporary music by First Nations people, re-defining the boundaries of contemporary classical genres.
Very warm applause and excited expectations welcomed vocalist and prolific songwriter, Jess Hitchcock, and the Penny Quartet (Glenn Christensen, Madeleine Jevons, Anthony Chataway and Jack Ward) to the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall of the Melbourne Recital Centre. The stage was fittingly gently lit up with shining shrubbery – a dozen small festive fairy light “trees” – and a touch of greenery, bringing a buzzing expectation for this highly praised young musician. Having performed and recorded with some of Australia’s most successful festival artists across popular, country and folk music platforms, Hitchcock’s classical training from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music has taken her to performing with Short Black Opera, Victorian Opera, Opera Queensland and national orchestras and festivals galore. But tonight was a “classical” re-invention of the arrangements of her best 12 songs (2019 – 2023), with 11 Australian composers (Iain Grandage, Isaac Hayward, Nicole Murphy, Harry Sdraulig, Ben Robinson, May Lyon, Holly Harrison, James Mountain, Christine Pan, Matthew Laing and Alex Turley) commissioned by MVA to collaborate in a unique “re-orchestration” project.
How impressive was Hitchcock’s beauty, stage charisma and a most appealing voice quality with even strength and golden warmth across her wide vocal range. Her superb vocal purity in both speech and song, hinted at her musical “roots” and cultural traditions – the melodic warmth and the ease of both traditional and contemporary folk and country music styles. The melodies of folk-songs are so connecting with people of all ages, across times and cultures, with an appealing and warming “simplicity” of line and structure, sentimental lyrics and the honesty of personal experience with a global human message: shared faith, hope and human spirit. The Penny Quartet’s collaboration with contemporary classical composers took the song framework and design to a new musical platform.
With the main program coming from Hitchcock’s two Albums, Bloodline and Unbreakable, it must have been so enjoyable for each composer to have the original studio ingredients in their hands to create newly coloured rhythms and timbres with the exciting and vibrant Penny Quartet. The result for every song was a new art form, at times suggesting a classical ballad from a musical, at times a contemporary folk song, musically personal and gently satisfying. Amplification added a touch of reverb and depth to the warm acoustic and balance, but sometimes Hitchcock’s gentle vocal conversation with the audience between songs was lost in the softer storytelling.
The lyrics of the opening song Days are Long typified the poetic “simplicity” and direct sincerity of the language of the original folk song styles – “So many hours, we have the time”, “There’s always the time to remember the stories we’re told”. By The Sea suggested Jess’s Pacific Ocean and Torres Strait Island heritage, and the verses hinted at the traditional rhythms of Island music: “My heart it belongs to the waves and the breeze”. Syncopated rhythms and a soft-pop percussive accompaniment added delightful colour and movement.
What a difference the new setting became for the most sensitive and creative accompaniment by Penny Quartet for Homeward Bound. “The memories of the home I had, were tainted by a love gone bad, nothing ever feels the same” – lyrics originally recorded with a foot-tapping folk-rock groove, now re-designed with classical imaginings in this new song cycle. Jess spoke of her strong involvement with The Voice campaign: “This is our time, we must stand together”, and now a broader and more majestic tempo for Together gave a personal and connecting resonance with power and strength in beautiful unaccompanied phrases of this new vocalise. Moving then to the keyboard, Hitchcock led Unbreakable, a touching personal ballad, with the moving affecting lyrics: “I will fight for what’s true, I am unbreakable, I will shine through”.
A second part to the program followed with the Penny Quartet performing five movements of Plan & Elevation: The Grounds of Dumbarton Oaks for string quartet (2015) by American composer Caroline Shaw. Between movements Jess connected the flow with her own short musical arrangements, rounding off MVA’s promotion and support of female voices as song-writers and composers. With accomplished piano and guitar skills, tonight we had just a small hearing of this most talented and special song-writer with a glorious voice.
A “curtain call” was to be expected, with Hitchcock and the Penny Quartet responding to the love in the audience, with Iain Grandage’s arrangement of “My True Love Hath My Heart”, a hymn-like finale, melodically rising with wide melodic intervals in a most satisfying finale.
Photo supplied.
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Julie McErlain reviewed “Jess Hitchcock and Penny Quartet”, presented by Musica Viva Australia and the Melbourne Recital Centre at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on July 7, 2025.
