BY UMA MUTHIA
anon.
‘The Other Side’ featuring works by Bottesini, Piazzolla, and Milhaud
Wysleskie Auditorium, Centre for Theology and Ministry, Parkville, 21 November 2014
You know a concert’s going to be good when the audience is made up of mostly young students who could have been hitting up the town on a balmy Friday night. As we crossed over to the ‘other side’ of classical performance, Melbourne ensemble anon. challenged our expectations of a traditional live concert.
There is always something alluring about venturing into the unknown, and a performance that begins without a musician in sight is exactly that. The first five minutes was spent trying to interpret anon.’s ambiguous wooden slotted structure around the stage. Each ply of wood in the Charles Eames influenced ‘House of Cards’ was striped with colours and I came to the astounding realisation that the five colours were representative of the five Olympic rings!
Yep, that was the best I could come up with.
Suddenly, the side door swung open and out walked the group; violin, piano, double bass and…accordion! Necks were craning to get a glimpse at the unusual combination of instruments that would perform an arrangement of Milhaud’s surrealist ballet ‘Le boeuf sur le toit’.
The familiar sound of the piano opened the night with a jovial, upbeat folk tune before being harmonically joined by the double bass and accordion. The dissonance of the work was realised with the confident entry of the violin, together painting scenes of Rio’s cobbled streets in the 1920s. The influence of Brazil’s popular music genre choros is evident throughout the piece with the style effectively communicated by the ensemble. The explosion of colour, passion and romanticism was emphasised by the blend of unique instrumentation and smooth transitions across juxtaposing moods.
Giovanni Bottesini’s ‘Grand Duo Concertante for Double Bass and Violin’ was just as engaging, showcasing the virtuosity of the double bass intertwined with the voicing of the violin. The young musicians performed with maturity and skill beyond their years, easing into each theme with fluidity as the lyrical sounds resonated across the hall.
After an intermission and rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for co-founder Nicole Tj, the musicians positioned themselves for the finale. Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Silfo y Ondina’ is a three-movement work evoking images of the tango in the Argentinean town squares. Adopted for piano, violin, cello, double bass and accordion, the ensemble gave an energetic performance of this work that fuses jazz, classical and the passionate tango in the tango nuevo style. The distinctive instruments together created a warm tonal quality as the musicians showed off their ability to weave in and out of the musical conversation seamlessly. Every member knew exactly what mood they were creating, controlling our every emotion with the stroke of a bow or press of a key.
Undeniably, this performance was characterised by their talent to hold our undivided attention for the duration of the performance. It was not simply the high calibre of playing that made this concert a delight; the combination of instruments was a key ingredient in breaking down those traditional barriers, in addition to the choice of repertoire which was well-suited to the modern audience. The five individual colours painted within the larger context of Naomi’s architectural design suddenly made much more sense.
anon. recognises that live concerts are as much visual as they are audio, and created a refreshing spin on what you might expect from a classical music performance.
Image supplied. Credit: Stephane Spatafora.
