Ongoing commitment to fine music concerts has been shown by the Peninsula Music Society, which, since 1962 has brought internationally recognised Australian musicians to perform to a local regional audience, and encouraged young Peninsula musicians to achieve success through annual Bursary winners’ concerts.
“Home-grown” Peninsula violinist Louise Turnbull was the young star today, flying in from London less than 48 hours earlier, allowing little real-time rehearsal with her regular accompanist, concert pianist Elyane Laussade. Just 20 years old, Turnbull graduated from Melbourne’s Australian National Academy of Music, has performed extensively with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and is now a scholarship student at London’s Royal Academy of Music.
Introduced to the stage by Society President Megan Smithies, both musicians dazzled our eyes in their shimmering, sparkling copper-coloured gowns, warming the stage where the “John Tallis Beleura (Schimmel) Piano” made a strong presence. The audience was also excited to see Turnbull’s instrument: a 1775 Gragnani violin on loan from Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5, “Spring”, was a joyful and vibrant work to open with, Turnbull establishing a convincing maturity and exceptional technical mastery of her instrument. The duo made an immediate impression with their united articulation and shaping of phrases, dynamic changes and connection with the composer’s intent. At times, the experience and strength of Laussade placed her in the driver’s seat, with the venue itself seeming to amplify accents and fortissimos, but Beethoven’s strength was certainly felt from the Gragnani’s richly felt lowest notes. Laussade always strengthened the gorgeous lyrical themes, so beautifully brought to the foreground by both players in the Adagio molto espressivo, although the pace was a little forward moving – there was a big program to get through today. The third movement Scherzo is possibly one of Beethoven’s shortest pieces, with explosive accents and staccato syncopation leading into a delightfully pleasing and energetic Rondo – a fine way to show Turnbull’s big sound production and Laussade’s clean and clear bell-like tonal contrast from the high keys of the brightly toned Schimmel grand.
Composed in 1911, Lili Boulanger’s finely written Nocturne, while marked as Assez lent, opens with quite a forward, flowing motion, developing into quite a surging climax, only then closing to calm and dreaming. Most enjoyable, and sensitively played.
Brahms’ Sonatensatz Op. 5 in C minor – known as a “collaborative musical work” with movements by other composers – is best known for its Scherzo movement by Brahms himself. This was an ideal piece to allow Laussade to lay an exciting foundation with driving orchestral piano chords supporting the wide range of tonal breadth coming from wide melodic flights to extreme pitch levels on the violin. This was an emotional, virtuosic and showy piece, proving the technical excellence of both musicians in a balanced and united performance.
We returned to the hall after interval, following the Society’s traditional conviviality and generous afternoon tea, to hear probably Eugene Ysaÿe’s most famous work, Poème Elégiaque, which requires the violin’s lowest string to be tuned down to give it a darker, warmer timbre. This very gorgeous work gave the soloist the opportunity to show romantic passion and lyricism in melodic lines, strength and emotional range in passionate double stopping. Grief, anxiety, contemplation, sorrow, came with resignation in softer, fading tones coloured by Laussade’s funereal and bell-like sonorous chords. There was much pathos in this work, with an exceptionally touching sad ending.
Giving Turnbull space to retune the violin off-stage, Laussade shared her personal love of Gershwin’s music, in “Musings on Summertime”, her own innovative and original arrangement in four variations of the classic song. The first, in a lightly staccato Scarlatti style perhaps, the second, a clever minor key setting in the tempo, harmonic flow and style of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, the third, a waltz, and a grand finale with touches of Beethoven/Albeniz in orchestral dance style.
Well placed in this program, we were set for Turnbull’s return to the stage for Pablo de Sarasate’s well-known Carmen Fantasy. Laussade placed a long-stemmed red rose on the piano to “set the mood”, but our eyes were fixed on Turnbull’s narrative as she showed her huge technical vocabulary through each section. This was not a re-take on the sensual Spanish-styled operatic songs as we know them, but an admirable étude-like classical performance, with an exhausting and full range of technical demands. This violin piece is widely regarded as highly challenging, featuring glissandos, pizzicato, trills, rapid arpeggios and special harmonics that build to an intense and accelerating finale.
Here indeed was a fine recital by an outstanding young performer, a violinist with exceptional musicality, already working with the best musicians in Australia, today impressing us in every piece.
(Louise Turnbull and Elyane Laussade can be heard at the Kelvin Club on Friday, March 28 at 7pm)
Photo supplied.
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Julie McErlain reviewed the recital given by Louise Turnbull and Elyane Laussade, presented by the Peninsula Music Society at the Peninsula Community Hall, Mornington on March 22, 2026.
