How wonderful it is to have fortyfivedownstairs gallery and performing space, a most active and dedicated venue for visual exhibitions and live theatre productions. Established in 2007, it is now expanding hugely into innovative music performances under the direction of remarkable pianist and curator, Coady Green. His programming for no less than 13 concerts in the 2024 Chamber Music Festival is an exciting and remarkable achievement, with diverse and stimulating content, many world premiers, and star quality musicians and composers.
With most concerts sold out, Duo Eclettico were featured on Opening Night, and partners-in-art Green and Justin Kenealy were joined by percussionist Brent Miller for a vibrant and well-loved premier of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Sarglos (1999/2020). Her distinctive colorfully rhythmic structures, percussive piano chords and tight melodic conversations with multi-timbred punctuations from wood blocks, vibes and xylophone, was, as always, engaging and refreshing.
Tonight was a celebration of first performances, and Melbourne composer Gulliver Poole presented his piece, Disunion, By Design (2024), sharing his inner heartache and dissent with the times we share, but also sharing hope in his music. Opening with soft chordal piano clusters with a low ominous and inevitable repeated ostinato rhythm, soprano sax and percussive violin bow on vibraphone keys and cymbal edge created an early eeriness before growing crescendos furthered the composer’s burning feelings in loud atonal chords. Resonance and harmonic overtones were clearly effective in the clear acoustic of this venue, where silences combined with dark and subdued lightning that added to the intimacy of the basement space.
Recurring themes in many of the works of Australian poet and librettist Gwen Harwood (1920 -1995) are themes of motherhood and women’s roles, music, the Tasmanian landscape, Aboriginal dispossession of that landscape, biblical references and religious allusions. Composer Linda Kouvaras has been inspired to write A Gwen Harwood Cycle, for soprano sax, piano and narrator. Tonight, two movements were performed: O Could One Write as One Makes Love, and a second powerful piece, Dialogue – a sensitive, gently questioning and reflective response to the death of a still born child. How fine was the choice of actor Helen Morse as narrator, whose expressive phrases and sincere presentation were so effective in a performance where the music was not merely background, sometimes hinting at word-painting, but always weaving effectively with its own distinguished colourful textures and melodic structure. Green and Kenealy responded with perfectly balanced solos, weaving around the dialogue and adding thoughtful questioning phrases on soprano sax. In Dialogue, a build up of upper piano chords and bell-sounds was an effective association with angels in heaven, in a nuanced and touching blend of word and music.
With Barry Conyngham’s Images (2024), we heard seven short musical portraits, truly original and Australian in nature, and enjoyed matching the music to their titles: Fish, Geckos, Mists, Parrots, Rocks, Sand Dunes, Sunset. At times atonal and arrhythmic, at times textures and silence were spacious, extreme pitches on piano or sax were forthright, fleeting shapes hinted at movement or visual suggestions, exploitation of trills and a panoramic grandness in denser textures – all demonstrated technical virtuosity and superb teamwork from Duo Eclettico.
The Finale was magnificent. In 2017, Japanese independent animator Koji Yamamura made a wonderful 14-minute animation of Parade. Inspired by Jean Cocteau’s scenario for the ballet of 1917, it timed beautifully with Eric Satie’s score, arranged in 1997 by Norbert Sterk for saxophones, piano and a highly imaginative array of percussion- orchestral, theatrical and home grown. Green, Kenealy and Miller changed concert apparel for black t-shirts with Picasso inspired designs, which drew a few smiles of approval. What a delight this was – so quirky and very “French”. It rounded off an excellent night of Australian premier performances and a celebration of innovative composers and performers.
This Chamber Music Festival continues until 24th March, with unorthodox and rarely heard works such as Richard Strauss’ setting of Tennyson’s epic poem Enoch Arden for narrator (with actor Paul English) and piano. Songmakers Australia present passionate poetry in songs of Berg and Wagner, and Divisi Chamber Singers celebrate Australian premiers. The Unknown Swimmer brings spoken word and an immersive digital environment to audiences in a multi-media song cycle by Kevin March. Lyric Opera will bring new performances of three song cycles by Australian composers Stuart Greenbaum, Linda Kouvaras and Kevin March, and an evening of art song and cabaret with soprano Antoinette Halloran celebrates Kouvaras’ new song cycle She Should Have Been Queen. Celebrated experimental composer-performer James Rushford and legendary Australian pianist Michael Leslie offer two hugely contrasting experiences, and an eight-hands at one piano spectacular will excite and please lovers of the piano shown in many moods. Tenor Michael Petruccelli presents “Tosti & Rubinstein” to end the Festival.
We congratulate fortyfivedownstairs and Festival Director Coady Green for this splendid program.
Image supplied.
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