Last Saturday, two consummate musicians gave a flawless performance called TENERA at the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre. Jasper Ly and Peter Dumsday have honed a formidable partnership for oboe/cor anglais and piano. The word “tenera” means tenderly, and the mood of the music met this brief with a concert focusing on works all written by women composers.
Jasper Ly gave a generous and lyrical performance, interspersing each work with a relaxed and chatty introduction. Peter Dumsday is one of Melbourne’s most sought-after associate pianists. His experience as an accomplished choral singer gives him the insight into breathing with Jasper Ly, resulting in seamless musical connections. They played as one, not needing to give each cues on entries or cadences. This was charisma, uniqueness and talent warmly offered to an appreciative, packed-out audience.
The program was bookended by two major historical composers, beginning with the first of Clara Schumann’s Three Romances, Op.22 (1853). Originally written for violin and piano, the Romance in A minor set the tone for the concert, with passages of descending, complex harmonies that eerily foreshadow Richard Strauss. The transcription from violin to oboe worked beautifully.
The next work was Sati (2016) by Australian composer Jessica Wells. The word “sati” is a Sanskrit word for mindfulness. In Jasper Ly’s hands the oboe sang like a human voice, a register that was maintained by most of the works on the program.
Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne was composed in 1911 when she was 17 — a work of hushed lyricism with a hint of youthful passion bubbling underneath.
Laura Abraham is another celebrated local composer. She wrote Hazy Memory in 2018 in memory of her beloved nanna who succumbed to cancer when Laura Abraham was herself 19. The work continued the languid, cantabile writing already established by the previous composers. Jasper Ly performed on the cor anglais, showcasing the instrument’s haunting sonorities.
This somewhat dreamy mood was shattered by Peter Dumsday giving us Helen Gifford’s solo tour de force Shiva, the auspicious one (2012). Shiva is the Hindu deity who is both destroyer and creator in the cycle of life. Helen Gifford has written an eight-minute account of apocalyptic and cataclysmic pianism that Peter Dumsday relished playing. It proved a very marked and clever pivot point in the overall concert. We sat up and took notice.
Then followed Poem (1953) by Russian/Soviet composer Marina Dranishnikova. Jasper Ly spoke a little about how this is Dranishnikova’s only known published work. It was written for the then principal oboist of the Leningrad State Philharmonic and charts what was probably a tragic love affair between them. The musical language was quite conventional, as one would expect in most Soviet composers of the time, yet original in its ideas and compelling to listen to.
Nat Bartsch is no stranger to Melbourne Recital Centre audiences. Forever and No Time at All (2018) is a kind of lullaby — soothing and absorbing, performed on the cor anglais, allowing some of Nat Bartsch’s quiet quirkiness to come through without ever sounding like a duck.
The three composers: Nat Bartsch, Laura Abraham and Jessica Wells, were present and were generously acknowledged by the performers and the audience. Each of their works had individual character and worked convincingly for the instruments, but all felt a little unfinished, as if there was quite a lot more each could have said.
The same can’t be said of Julie Potter’s 21/30 (a fragment). Written this year, Jasper Ly and Peter Dumsday gave the premiere performance and, for a work written in apparent haste, it felt the most substantially worked through.
The final work was Amy Beach’s Romance, Op.23 (1893). Originally written for violin and piano, the oboe brought out the vocal qualities of the piece, perhaps even more than a violin might.
An added complement to the music was the lighting design of Henry Paulet. With a simple floor rig he “composed” colour sequences and changes that were really effective in matching the mood of the concert and never distracted from the performances.
There were a lot of younger people in the audience who clearly knew the calibre of the performance they were expecting and were not disappointed. It is encouraging to see that there is strong support among upcoming generations of concertgoers for new music. More so, it is extremely reassuring we have performers such as Jasper Ly and Peter Dumsday to provide the music.
Photo credit: Tan Yoowang
__________________________________________________________
NicholasTolhurst reviewed “Jasper Ly and Peter Dumsday – TENERA”, presented at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Primrose Potter Salon on August 9, 2025.
