Kristian Chong has been described as being “known for his thoughtful pianism and collaborative excellence”, which summed up the beginning of his 12th season of chamber music recitals performed in the Primrose Potter Salon. With a friendship formed from earlier days at London’s Royal Academy of Music, tonight’s artists have achieved wide international success and popularity, significantly in our national festivals where Liebeck this year will be Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music for the fourth time.
Schubert’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A, D 574, brought much classical grace and refinement in its opening Allegro Moderato, where a pianissimo piano introduction with a lyrical melodic bass line against “simple” chordal accompaniment set the scene for echoing themes and patterns in familiar Schubertian song style. Liebeck impressed immediately with his powerful timbre, his clean and authoritative delivery, most colourful low notes and superb technical fluidity as wide legato melodies climbed or fell with ease. Most heartfelt were soft descending phrases, which faded like a sigh of sadness and resignation. There were delightful melodic echoes between the two musicians, with the ensuing Scherzo movement carefully punctuated, energetic and dynamic, with contrasting gentle chromatic lines in the Trio, perfectly pitched phrases sweeping across wide extremes of depths and heights, and, again, many effective pianissimos. Most heart-touching were Liebeck’s descending flowing patterns mirroring the piano’s voice and beautifully connecting composer and audience. The Andantino movement furthered romantic conversational patterns of trills and a spectrum of colours, ending as beautifully as it had begun with a calming pianissimo. Schubert’s closing Allegro Vivace was scherzo-like in character, buoyant in feeling and togetherness, a most pleasing opening work.
Warmly addressing the audience and introducing his associate artist and friend: “Jack from London”, Chong introduced Poème élégiaque in D minor, Op. 12 as a work which has a rich tapestry of emotions, is quite dark and broody but is just beautiful”. Composed by Belgian virtuoso violinist Eugen Ysaÿe and inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the work was successfully written for violin and orchestra or piano, and Liebeck spoke of the need to lower the violin’s fourth string down a tone, producing a more intense dark and sonorous but sometimes a “slightly strange sound”. Perhaps so, but definitely heart wrenching.
As Liebeck led the way with forthright expressions of sorrow, pain and despair, Chong showed a most sensitive partnership in an early flowing then surging accompaniment, sharing the violin’s intensity of soulful despair, increasing power and emotion through virtuosic, almost Wagnerian climaxes. Sonorous, almost funereal piano chords touched our hearts as intense feelings peaked through crescendos, then eased with soft resignation in the finality of low piano chords and a single sustained violin tone. Nobody moved or spoke for a full ten seconds of complete silence following this performance; a gentle “Bravo!” joined the applause.
Tonight’s World Premiere was by Queensland clarinettist/composer Paul Dean. His Sonatina for Violin and Piano was composed “as a gift of friendship to my dear mate Jack [Liebeck].” Chong humorously described the first movement, Allegro – Homage to Bartok, as a piece with sharp, crazy and exciting rhythms that “put the musicians in their place” but one they love to play. Having a fascination for Bartok’s piano works, Dean was inspired by Mikrokosmos in particular, to compose this sparsely textured, rhythmically challenging, energetic and captivating piece. Both instruments raced together in a frantic kind of united purpose, pointillistic in design with emphatic repeated single notes, a controlled helter-skelter at times, but with repetition and echoing patterns all heading in the same direction. Brilliantly structured, challenging, it was engaging for the audience as well as the performers.
The second movement, Adagio – After the Fires, asked us to imagine the darkness and desolation of a burnt and blackened environment. Sparse, slow, resonating pedalled pulses on the piano sensitively described the feeling of a bleak earth; long held violin monotones climbed heavily from low to high with increasing piano activity forcing a weighty despair onto us; growing fortissimos felt the destroyed landscape – then there was the silence, when everything is gone.
Dedicated to friend and national treasure Michael Leunig, the third movement embodied the character of his famous cartoon “hero”, Mr Curly. Quirky, flighty, short patterns and contradictions in rhythmic time and space, seemed to describe the short, stumpy character with his own problems with everyone against him. So musically apt, finely constructed and alluring, this new and spirited Australian work was highly captivating and evocative, fresh, relevant, stimulating and very well-liked by this audience.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in F major, No. 3 closed the program, its final Vivace movement being most uplifting and dynamic, a sharing of the brilliance of this outstanding musical partnership. We had come full circle in the program, back to classical tonalities and a warm romantic spirit in a robust and beautiful work. The encore of Mendelssohn’s gently flowing Song Without Words completed a very substantial menu.
Image supplied.
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Julie McErlain reviewed the recital given by Jack Liebeck and Kristian Chong as part of the Kristian Chong & Friends series in the Primrose Potter Salon of the Melbourne Recital Centre on March 15, 2025.
