How many concerts have we attended where a fascinating new work has been played, never or seldom to be heard again? Unfortunately, far too often. Thanks to the indefatigable curator and über-talented pianist Coady Green, and Toccata Classics, we have a project that documents the output of one of Australia’s foremost composers. But Volume 2 of Linda Kouvaras’s piano music, chamber works and songs is much more than a worthy enterprise. Comprising two significant works that have immediate appeal, this volume yields even richer rewards with repeated listening.
As acknowledged in the material accompanying this release, the music of Linda Kouvaras is noted for “a strong sense of space, expressed in lyrical elegiac melodic lines that soar over freewheeling piano textures”. Kouvaras herself describes her musical language as being centred on “postmodernist neo-tonal explorations, often inflected by popular music idioms and minimalism”. In this volume, we hear the music responding to and illuminating the sentiments in texts that form an integral part of both works.
The title of the first work, Herring Island Piano Sonata (2022), is slightly deceptive as the spoken component extends beyond that particular landmark. Composed at the invitation of Coady Green, the work is dedicated to a collection of “lost” and “contemporary” landmarks and histories within a five-kilometre radius of Herring Island – reflecting the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions at the time when Kouvaris was working on this composition. Underpinning the piece is concern for human desecration and threat to the environment, which she describes in terms of “intertwining movements representing endangered wildlife in the area”. Two versions of the work exist: one for solo piano and this one, which uses Roger Alsop’s soundscape, recorded from the region, plus text by Boon Warrung senior elder, Dr. Carolyn Briggs AM narrated by Yorta Yorta man Tiriki Onus.
Kouvaras describes the first two movements of the piano sonata, “Introit” and “Spiritus,” as representing “a space beyond-the-human, a cosmos always-already-there”. Movement three, “Heartbeat”, “presents the concept that the First Nations inhabitants gave the place its living pulse”, while the final movement, “Life Force”, “acknowledges the enduring strength of our First Peoples and of the land”.
What is immediately striking about this second version is Roger Alsop’s in situ recorded soundscape, which establishes a sense of place as the sound of the natural environment of birds and other creatures create an atmosphere of immersive timelessness and connection with nature.
Four narrative sections begin with unaccompanied “There’s a tree in St Kilda”, the “Ngargee Tree”, the corroboree tree speaks of constellations and connections created by waterways. There is a pause before grand chords and bass reverberation are interspersed between more urgent sections and delicate passages. A rumbling piano suggesting thunder precedes the words “Come with purpose… “, as the text of “Long Island” (a section of the land around the Royal Botanic Gardens) is accompanied by deep rumblings and a succession of sparse, slow crystalline piano chords, repeated notes and flourishes as we hear how the landscape has changed and what responsibilities we have in respecting culture. It ends with a loud “pay attention” chord – a warning to us all.
“Waterways”, “the lifeblood of the Kulin nation”, concerns the movement of waters through Country, how flows have been changed in dramatic ways and what impact these changes have wrought regarding physical and social interactions. Concluding this section with the words “My heart beats there”, the piano develops the idea in the “Heartbeat” movement with an insistent lower pulse throughout the movement beneath expressive chordal progressions and sentiments varying in tempo and intensity.
In “Tanderrum” the concept of law and commitment and harm are considered. The rituals of coming onto country and the subtler resonances of the word Wominjeka: Come with a purpose – as opposed to Welcome, are explained. The final piano movement, “Life Force” is more virtuosic in nature, contrasting a range of emphatic expression with melodious lyricism.
Coady Green displays great command of all aspects of pianism, playing with persuasive conviction within a world of shifting emotions.
It would be impossible to choose a more appropriate pianist than Georgina Lewis for second work, Winter Came Early: Song-Cycle for Two Female Voices and Piano (2021 – 2022). Kouvaras was commissioned by Green and Lewis to write this song cycle, setting the poetry of Catherine Lewis and her daughter Georgina – five by Catherine and one by Georgina – with two female voices (mezzo-soprano and soprano) representing mother and daughter. A deeply personal work, it conveys much of the anguish of a life cut short prematurely by a rare form of cancer in 2020 – an experience in which grief mingles with a celebration of a life filled with grace and hope.
As can be seen from the title of the first song, “The World is so Beautiful”, this song cycle is as much uplifting as it is poignant. Lewis calls this song “an expression of … love, brought about by the experience of being in the natural world”. Using modal progressions, Kouvaras aims “to capture a sense of awe tinged with poignancy and grief as … Cate knows she is not long for this world”. Voices are briefly unaccompanied at times or given sparse accompaniment, highlighting the text sung in shining voice by Jane Magão with Karen Van Spall’s rich, more mature voice joining her as Cate.
“In the Garden of Makomp” is about Cate’s life with her family in Sierra Leone from 1989 to 1993. The happiness of listening to music is reflected in Kouvaras’ use of a Celtic-flavoured idiom with dark strummed chords in a solo for the mother, while the daughter joins her in happy memories until the savagery that tore the country apart is recounted in a horrified stillness, but ending on a note of hope for a better future for those people.
With a text written by Georgina, “Winter Came Early”, the soprano becomes the author’s voice as she recalls a conversation with her mother a few days before she died as they read a work describing the Celtic notion of seasons of the heart – Autumn being a time to harvest of both experiences and the soul. The music is sparse and allows the listener to focus on the exquisitely tender sentiments expressed in the vocal line, sung with wonderful purity of tone and emotional sincerity by Magão, who delivers even the highest notes with ease.
The mood of “Anger, My Friend” is in marked contrast to this, involving what Kouvaras calls “virtuosic churning piano arpeggios” to reflect the sense of outrage experienced by mother and daughter. “I rage; therefore I am!” insists Cate.
Then we have the “golden thread” of “Hope” – a family name – beginning with an upward scale. The high tessitura is managed without strain, with the two voices blending particularly well.
In the poem that inspired this song cycle, “Coming Home”, the mother’s voice is more predominant with Cate’s Christian faith brings her solace. The final song, “Epilogue: To David”, is offered just from Cate’s point of view, Van Spall’s mezzo-soprano voice warm and full in this tribute to Cate’s husband.
You can treat yourself to these gems via a range of formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, HD WAV. Highly recommended.
Image supplied.
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Heather Leviston reviewed the CD version of Linda Kouvaras: Piano Music, Chamber Works and Songs, Volume 2, released in January, 2025.
