BY ANGUS DAVISON
Allison Bell + Members of the TSO
Dark Mofo Festival
The Farrall Centre, 20 June
Australian soprano Allison Bell is gaining a reputation as a leading interpreter of contemporary and avant-garde music. For this concert she was joined by members of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kwame Ryan. Four works were presented – all composed in the last 40 years – two purely instrumental and two for accompanied voice.
‘Greeting Music’ by Claude Vivier opened the concert. Scored for piano, flute, oboe and percussion, it’s a very theatrical work. As the lights were dimmed, the pianist entered the stage and began to play – just a single pitch but across several octaves and using constantly varying rhythms. The remaining players gradually entered the stage one by one, heads down and walking deliberately slow. The music was sparse and delicate – often an extended section consisted of a single line doubled by multiple instruments. At times, the players were called on to produce vocal effects such as laughing and whistling. The players executed all these effects with accuracy and commitment.
Allison Bell came to the stage for ‘Three Melodies for an Imaginary Opera’, also by Vivier. Both the piece and the performance were absolutely stunning, especially the first section. All instruments carried independent and constantly moving lines, which created a swirling soundscape. The melody was fairly angular, but Bell drew out its lyrical qualities in a extremely moving rendition. The cohort of instrumentalists, though small, created a rich and full-bodied sound. Kwame conducted with assurance and finesse.
Allison was also impressive in Unsuk Chin’s ‘Acrostic Wordplay’. Composed in 1991, each of the seven sections draw their text from different sources. The sixth section, for instance, uses simply the letters of the alphabet. The fifth uses solfege syllables (do, re, mi, etc). This section was particularly beautiful. Perhaps 20 times in this section, Allison returned to a high ‘la’ syllable before tumbling downward, like a film of water cresting a waterfall on loop.
Scarcely a note didn’t employ an extended technique in Salvatore Sciarrino’s ‘Introduction to Darkness’. The bassoonist and clarinettists were required to used a special playing technique that produce a ‘thuddy’, percussive tone. All the wind instruments were also asked to breathe rhythmically through their instrument. The strings most often played sul ponticello, and functioned as a unit to create scurrying flourishes that emerged from the texture and disappeared, leaving the listener unsettled. The brass played only infrequently, and when they did they used harmon mutes. This composition was certainly intriguing. However, given the absence of significant development I found it unnecessarily protracted.
Quality performances of contemporary and avant-garde music are a rarity in Tasmania, which is why this concert was such a treat. Judging by the size and enthusiasm of the crowd, if the TSO and others programmed music like this more often, there would certainly be an audience for it.
Image supplied.
