BY ANNI KALCO
Berceuse
Forest Collective
Church of All Nations, Carlton, 6 July
It’s a cold Melbourne night, and we are inside a chilly church to hear Forest Collective perform a diverse program of contemporary classical music. There is wine and cheese and chatter and the whole affair is comfortably casual.
The collective enters and bows, all dressed to their own expression: some musicians are colourful, others in sparkly blacks, and some had thrown on a pair of jeans. The individualistic dress code works so well, because what follows is so cohesive.
Forest Collective artistic director Evan Lawson leads a busy hive of talented musicians and composers, makes podcasts, and invites emerging and established composers to send in their works for consideration. Evan has composed two of the works in tonight’s program, and they are some of the highlights.
The theme of the concert is gender parity and, in their podcasts, Evan and various musicians from the ensemble speak about this focus on female composers and musicians within the contemporary classical music scene. Most of tonight’s works are composed by women, and performed entirely by women. Classical music education and concert programs are notorious for excluding female composers, and so this program is refreshing.
The concert is in two halves and featured some solo, duo, and small and large ensemble works. The opening piece is a world premiere of Alex Morris’ Turning Point for Ensemble. It is playful and sounds like the circus – fragments of musical ideas are thrown around the different timbers of the ensemble: flute, saxophone, and when the strings play together it is dark and mellow pierced by high piccolo lines.
I particularly enjoy Caroline Louise Miller’s Berceuse et Jeux (‘Lullaby and Games’) for voice, cello, and double bass. It is a terrifying lullaby with quiet whispers and scratchy strings then bumpy dissonances and clattering. When melody comes in, it is strangely beautiful and feels like you could only hold on to it for a moment.
Evan’s Triambus for solo harp has been years in the making. Jessica Michelle Todd plays with such focus and passion that I get aural glimpses of church bells, delays, and distorted overtones. The composition possesses an attention to detail that is astounding, transforming the often-saccharine sounds of harp into an instrument capable of being dark, epic, and ecstatic.
Forest Collective performs new works in a Call for Scores initiative, and tonight we hear works from May Lyon and Charles Peck. May’s Ode to Damascus for ensemble is eerie; like we wae soaring above mountainous peaks through the use of long held textures. There is plenty of unconventional scoring, too, with moments of prepared piano and dissonant bends from the strings. I think the second movement of Charles’ Sunburst for ensemble is stunning. It is like a film score set in outer space exploring the unknown. It is rich and loud and then so very quiet; and when the violin melody appears at the end, it’s like the sun is appearing from behind clouds.
Another standout moment in tonight’s program is Evan’s Part III from Orpheus for two voices and ensemble. The story is about Orpheus and Eurydice and is full of drama, lamentation, and stretto passages. The powerful climax is frightening and when Daniel Todd (Tenor) utters Eurydice’s name for the first time, I think about how thankful I am for this poignant moment to remember Eurydice Dixon. Tonight’s performance is dedicated to her memory. There was shuffling of paper and tiny, quiet gestures up to huge washy cymbals.
Forest Collective is doing important things. The musicians appear committed to presenting diverse works and under Evan’s leadership, it feels like no composition, style, or concept is off-limits. Forest Collective make contemporary music sound, look, and feel exciting. The musicians are right on the pulse, and offer audiences a diverse and thoughtfully curated experience.
Image supplied.
