Love was in the air when Ensemble Q and William Barton took the stage at Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. They had come down south with the world premiere of William Barton’s Journey to the edge of the horizon and a concerto by Q’s co-artistic director Paul Dean for his beloved partner, cellist and co-director, Trish Dean.
Melbourne has been home to both Dean (ANAM Director, 2010-15) and Barton (MRC Artist-in-Residence, 2019), and their return to the MRC with Ensemble Q had something of the quality of a family reunion.
The program opened with an explosion of energy, aka Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet. These vibrant miniatures are Ligeti’s own arrangement of a selection of bagatelles from the larger Musica ricercata for solo piano. The Musica ricercata was crafted around a compositional challenge: Ligeti wanted to pare down his music to the bare essentials, so he specified the “pitch classes” he could use in each bagatelle, gradually expanding the pitch palette until the final bagatelle employed all twelve.
The Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet are exciting, despite – or perhaps due to – their brevity. Ligeti frequently uses an insistent upbeat ostinato rhythm, and it was exciting to watch the frenzy of activity as these passages were passed from one part to another until suddenly, a strong but ambiguous harmony would arrest the movement. There were also some sensationally sweet, lyrical moments, particularly in the second and fifth bagatelles.
Dean introduced his Concerto for Cello and Wind Quintet (2018) by saying he had long admired Hindemith’s Kammermusik series of chamber concertos and wanted to write one of his own. That it should be a cello concerto was a “no brainer” Dean wrote in the program notes, the cello being his favourite instrument and played by his favourite person.
Dean’s concerto has three movements: New paths – literally the new paths they walked around their home in Brisbane; Under the canopy – inspired by the light shining through the canopy of leopard trees in a distinctively Brisbane park scene; and Homage to Les Six – a nod to a coterie of like-minded twentieth century composers headquartered in Paris between the wars. Dean’s concerto, literally a labour of love, has drama (a turbulent, grumbling tension in the opening movement), gorgeous lyrical passages, excitement and a compelling energy. The score, and the performances, render the contrast between the string and wind sounds beautifully, leaving you to wonder why there are not more works for this combination.
Trish Dean’s glorious cello playing came to the fore again in Brahms’ Cello Sonata, No. 1 Opus 38. Brahms himself described it as a sonata for “piano and cello”, reportedly advising that under no circumstances should the piano play “a purely accompanying role”. In this performance, however, the piano was nowhere to be seen, its part having been brilliantly arranged for wind quintet and double bass by German organist, conductor and composer Heribert Breuer.
The sonata is a staple of the cello repertoire, but this arrangement is rarely – all too rarely – heard. Sonically, it has a kaleidoscopic effect, splintering out each of the parts in the dense piano score, giving each one a distinctive tone and colour. This orchestration brought out the elegant musical dialogue between the parts in the minuet and trio and clarified the part-writing in the fugal third movement. Ensemble-wise it was galvanising, because it created a musical relationship between the soloist and each of the parts comprising the original piano score, making for a truly engaging chamber music experience.
William Barton is charismatic, and his involvement in a musical experience guarantees it will be a memorable one. In Journey to the Edge of the Horizon, Barton’s vision is to bring listeners “to a space and time”, “a sacred magic place” upon the horizon where his “cultural heritage and the legacy of the landscape are aligned with the modern world”. While the stage was being set, Barton took the audience to the site for this journey, the rocky outcrops of Kalkadungu, the Selwyn and Argylla ranges in far north Queensland.
The journey was, as expected, a transformational experience. It was as if he was breathing life into his soundscape. Barton’s Journey evokes the many moods and colours of the landscape, exploiting the extreme musicianship of this Ensemble and the elemental purity of his own voice. The rapturous applause made an encore inevitable, and the audience was treated to another work by Barton, again accompanied by the Ensemble.
Those who caught the pre-concert talk by Arcadia Winds bassoonist, Matthew Kneale, were treated to some fascinating insights, making the concert experience all the more rewarding.
Individually these musicians are all exceptional and collectively they are magic in the making.
Photo credit: Tony McDonough
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Sue Kaufmann reviewed “Ensemble Q and William Barton”, presented by Musica Viva Australia at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on October 8, 2024.
