BY MIRANDA ILCHEF
Imaginations
Matt Withers and the Acacia Quartet
Independent Theatre, 2 September
Seeing the Imaginations concert by Acacia Quartet and guitarist Matt Withers ended up being a lovely end to a drizzly Sunday. The concert took place in the delightfully art deco Independent Theatre in North Sydney; gold-trimmed faux-Classical Greek columns and thick, red velvet curtains make it a charming venue in which to step back in time. Yet, the music we heard, featuring all Australian composers (most of whom attended the concert), was anything but retrospective.
A passion for Australian music was clearly shown by the quartet and Withers, the latter of whose Australian Music Composition Competition has produced three wonderful first, second, and third place works – all of which were premiered at the concert.
The program was a seamless and collaborative celebration of the natural world. Up first was Rob Davidson’s Landscape, which was a rustic and expansive portrayal of the Glasshouse Mountains in southeast Queensland. The musicians produced a rich and earthy rhythmic base, over which we heard a languishing violin melody and at other times the delicate and ethereal guitar. The communication between the violinists in particular was faultless.
The three Matt Withers Australian Music Composition Competition winners were inspired by Queensland artist Sue Needham’s trilogy of paintings, Stormy Seashore. In cool, hazy greys, the paintings effectively portrayed a moody coastal storm, which was heard in third-place Nava Ryan’s Solitude. A nostalgic guitar line dominated the piece, but just when the strings were in danger of becoming merely background decoration, a line of interest would emerge in the form of a warm viola or cello solo.
In second place, Rick Alexander’s Storming came somewhat as a surprise, as I was expecting an aggressive work that might mirror a violent storm. However, the rollicking accompaniment escorting a charming guitar melody was, for me, reminiscent not of the storm itself, but of the calm after a storm or the resurfacing of the sun.
Water Music by winner Wade Gregory was considerably more exotic than the Handel piece of the same name. With a distinct Latin flavour, the first section Clouds had all the Flamenco dramatism of sullen storm clouds; while the River movement was a contrastingly gentle lullaby suggestive of a meandering stream. The final movement Ocean was a passionate samba in which I almost forgot the inspiration was in fact the ocean, as I was instead thinking about how it perhaps would not have been out of place at a very groovy Brazilian-themed bar.
In all three movements of Richard Charlton’s Shorelines, Withers was a pleasure to watch. Most of all the musicians on stage, he conveyed a pure joy for the music he played, and the care with which he produced each note was impressive. Dark Horizon showed the quartet imitating guitar techniques by chord strumming and speedy pizzicato. Lonely Shore was a meditative elegy-like piece in which the muted quartet sat underneath a warm guitar melody. In Storm Dance, the independence of each line was clear, yet they also merged together cohesively for an energetic delivery of the folky movement.
This segued nicely into the first movement of In Amber by the late Philip Houghton, which was also a dance. It proved to be an energetic movement, showing off the technical capabilities of all the instruments and ended with a hauntingly dissonant chord, an effective foreshadowing of the second movement, Dream.
Dream had the slow, sloth-like quality of a dream yet the eerie harmonies made the movement feel in constant danger of slipping into a more ominous nightmare – though, it never did, creating remarkable tension. In the final movement Initiation, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was being initiated into, but I knew I was interested. With aggressive violin parts, bow hairs went flying and Withers strummed relentlessly. As the movement faded into the silence, the audience erupted into applause for what had proven to be a fulfilling and accessible concert.
READ NEXT: Carissa Dyall interviews the winner of the Matt Withers Australian Music Composition Competition.
Image supplied.
