Owens and Tkachenko pay outstanding tribute to female composers

by Tony Magee

Sarahlouise Owens in full flight. Photo - Peter Hislop

Knowledge of female composers has somewhat been secreted away by music scholars and some performers over the years, but the general public’s awareness was generated with the release of the 1985 recording on the Hyperion label, “A Feather on the Breath of God”, which showcased the music of Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th Century female composer of plainchant.

In the male dominated setting of monks as composers from the time of Pope Gregory to recognised individuals like Léonin and Perotin of Hildegard’s time and everything since, the world suddenly wanted to know more and the great Romantic composers Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann were thrust into the public spotlight.

We know that Maria Anna Mozart, elder sister of Wolfgang, affectionately known as Nannerl within the family, composed for the piano prolifically, through the volumes of surviving correspondence between the two:

Dearest most loving sister of mine, the pieces you have sent me are of great beauty. I’ve played them over and over. I have sent you back these which I have written just for you. Please send me more of yours the moment you can. Your ever faithful and loving brother, Amadeus. PS: I send you one thousand kisses.

How much of Nannerl’s music survives for us to enjoy? Not one single sheet.

Such was the research and magnitude of work that soprano Sarahlouise Owens and pianist Natalia Tkachenko put into their superb recital Sunday last (June 23) at Wesley, where one beautiful captivating piece after another poured forth from their gifted musical talents.

Pianist Natalia Tkachenko

Tkachenko’s accompaniments are of the highest calibre and almost formed a concert presentation in their own right. I think the piano should have been on the short stick, rather than fully raised, as at times Owens was overwhelmed by Tkachenko’s outstanding and brilliant accompaniments.

Never-the-less this was a concert of great depth which captivated and enthralled the audience from start to finish.

Owens began well, but as the concert progressed her voice was noticeably warming up and reached a high point of warmth, depth and powerful projection that filled the auditorium voluminously.

Her diction was excellent and she shines most brightly when singing French and German, with impeccable accuracy of pronunciation and delivery. In addition, she is a theatrical performer and her body language, facial expressions and gestures served to enhance an already intriguing and engaging repertoire of song.

The period represented was female composers of the Romantic and early 20th century eras, and was extensive. Besides Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann, it included Maria Malibran, Cecile Chaminade, sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Gladys Rich, Germaine Tailleferre, Pauline Viardot, Josephine Lang, Augusta Holmes, Lady Dean Paul, Louise Reichardt and Canberra’s own Sally Greenaway whose piece “Look to This Day” was complex in its piano accompaniment, having a melody which somehow never seemed to match the piano chordal structure yet was in perfect compliment to it. A very clever piece of writing.

To close, Owens and Tkachenko chose the comedic “There are Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden” by Liza Lehmann, which at the time of writing also accidentally served to perpetuate the infamous Cottingley Fairies photographic hoax of 1917.

9 year old Francis Alice Griffiths with fairies at Cottingley Village,
Yorkshire. Photo taken by her 16 year old cousin Elsie Wright in 1917.

This concert was one of the most enjoyable, thoroughly well researched and rehearsed Artsong presentations I’ve had the delight in attending for some time. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.

First published in City News Digital Edition, June 24 2019

Grigoryan Brothers Rodrigo concerto highlight of the evening

by Tony Magee

Slava (left) and Leonard Grigoryan. Photo courtesy ABC RN

Maestro Paul Kildea has an eclectic conducting style, some of which is very reminiscent of the great Fritz Reiner. Tiny, almost imperceptible movements of the stick somehow coax his players into life with total precision. At other times, he explodes into body language and gestures of almost Bernsteinesque proportions.

These combined skills served to sweep the Canberra Symphony Orchestra through a concert of great enjoyment opening with a joyous performance of the overture to Mozart’s Opera “The Marriage of Figaro”, through a captivating performance of Rodrigo’s “Concerto Madrigal”, a new work by Kenneth and Kirsten Lampl in memory of cellist Nelson Cooke and a majestic and powerful rendition of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 8”.

Brother’s Slava and Leonard Grigoryan were the guitar soloists in the Rodrigo and played with everything required to make this work a performance of true delight. Sensitive and delicate at times, powerful and commanding Spanish rhythms at other times and duets of such grace and beauty, combined with their almost telepathic mode of musical communication, served to make this work the highlight of the evening.

The orchestral playing to support them was beautiful, often delicate. The wind section were called upon in the first three movements of the piece in intimate interplay with the soloists, the strings just delicately playing pizzicato in support. At one point I noticed the viola section just tapping their bows on a string - such is the delicacy of the writing at certain points during this piece.

Later in the work, the string section expanded the sound into a lush orchestral wash, supporting the soloists with great style - almost as if a vast ocean was keeping them afloat and safe.

The Grigoryan’s had several really special moments which stood out for me. At the end of the Pastoral movement they finished with tender harmonics. The Fandango movement opened with stirring high intensity strumming. In the two sections marked “Andante nostalgico”  there was a fascinating question and answer dialogue between the two guitars as well as an extended cadenza in which they both displayed their world class skills, at one point quoting from the composer’s other great concerto, “Aranjuez”.

The Lampl’s “Elegy for two Cellos and Orchestra” (incorrectly titled in the program as “cello and orchestra”) was given its world premiere. It is simple in chord construction, beautiful and quite reminiscent of a Hollywood film score style of composing. Lush, but reserved strings backed the quietly respectful duet cello melodies played by the seasoned and highly professional David Pereira and astonishing new comer, 15 year old Benett Tsai, who was once a student of Pereira’s. In the fine tradition of the old adage “never perform with animals or children” young Tsai came through with a tone projection and intensity in his playing that shone through so brightly and was emotional, heartfelt and very moving.

To finish, Beethoven made a triumphant conclusion to this excellent evening of music. Beethoven has been featured a great deal on Classic FM over the last two weeks, due to his being voted most favourite composer by the Australian listening public in the recent ABC Countdown. Kildea once again demonstrated his considerable conducting skills in manipulating and guiding his orchestra through the massive range of dynamics, tempos and orchestral textures to make this symphony the great work that it is.

First published in City News Digital Edition, June 20 2019 and also on Canberra Critics Circle Blog, June 22 2019

DOOLEY PIANO CONCERTO GIVEN TRIUMPHANT PREMIERE

By Tony Magee

Photo by Peter Hislop

Michael Dooley’s Piano Concerto No.1 received a triumphant premiere performance at yesterday’s concert at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre.

Played by the National Capital Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Weiss, with piano soloist Andrew Rumsey, the work came across as a serious piece for the symphonic and concerto repertoire and deserves to be placed as something that can and should be performed again and again. 

The opening of the first movement contained melodies and rhythms of almost a folk music idiom, not unlike some of the folk song suites by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Eric Coates.

The other influence I hear in Dooley’s composing style, at least for this work and particularly in the piano part, is that of Michel Legrand. The program notes also mentioned influences from Camille Saint-Saëns and one could hear glimpses of this in the piano scoring, particularly influenced by the introduction to his Piano Concerto No. 2, which pays homage to both Sebastian Bach and Scarlatti.

Rumsey played the piano solo part with authority, accuracy and confidence. There was an extended cadenza section towards the end of the first movement in which he played with lyric beauty.

Both the orchestra and the soloist have now set their own bench-mark on how this work can be played. There are no other performances to compare it to. It stands alone and waiting to be interpreted by others. I feel more could be made of the piano solo part, not in the writing, but in the playing. Rumsey and others could explore this to a much greater extent, in terms of passion, dynamics, poise, rubato and drama.

Michael Dooley has arrived at a composing style that he can call his own. It doesn’t copy anything or anyone, or draw from any one particular influence. 

The other work on the program was the Symphony No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninov.

Astonishingly, this work was only catapulted into the standard symphonic repertoire and public arena as late as 1973, with the release of Andre Previn’s ground-breaking recording for EMI with the London Symphony Orchestra. This recording established the practice more than any other that the work should be played absolutely complete, without the disfiguring cuts that even Rachmaninov himself had sanctioned.

I see from my records, that I reviewed a performance of this symphony in 1996 for Muse Arts Monthly, given by the Canberra Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Braithwaite. There was a great deal of pre-publicity at the time about CSO tackling such a monumental work. They did it brilliantly and were nominated for a Canberra Critics Circle Award at the time. You can read my review of that concert here.

National Capital Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Weiss did a fine job in their performance. 

Whilst there were a few blemishes here and there, the over-arching state of the playing was excellent, full of dynamics, drama and intensity. In the slow movement, some of the lush Rachmaninov Romantic sound for which his orchestral scoring is famous came through, however I felt more could have been done with this movement to enhance the beauty of the writing and the lushness of the sound, particularly from the strings.

The infamous tricky entry of the second and fourth movements were handled extremely well by the orchestra and their conductor. Many world famous conductors have commented on the difficulty of getting these introductory passages actually started without major mishaps. The work was clearly very well rehearsed. The French Horns in particular were a stand-out for me. In addition, the percussion section added great weight and substance to the many crescendo points in the work.

Weiss’ conducting was authoritative and commanding and he had clearly prepared his vision of how the performance should be heard with great detail and confidence.

This concert was the best I’ve heard from this orchestra and they are to be congratulated on presenting both a brand new work of substance and quality and a monumental symphonic piece of difficulty with great success.

This review also published in Canberra Critics Circle Blog, June 17 2019