BY MIRANDA ILCHEF, LEAD WRITER (NSW)
Next Chapters
Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Legs On the Wall
The Concourse, 22 May
There were many paths my Saturday night could have taken, but a dancer flying over my head representing the journey of the sun against the backdrop of Australian sacred choral music was not one I’d necessarily envisaged.
Presented by Willoughby City Council’s Cultural Bites Program and under the baton of Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith, Next Chapters saw the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra work with the phenomenal physical theatre company Legs on the Wall, saxophone ensemble Nexus Quartet, and young Australian composers Alice Chance and Joseph Newton to produce an evening of beautiful music and stunning aerial dance.
The first piece Holy Dreaming (2018) by Alice Chance was set to text by Revered Lenore Parker from A Prayer Book for Australia and sung by the Willoughby Symphony Choir. The lone dancer (renowned contemporary artist Jana Castillo) first appeared almost unnoticed amongst the somber music but soon made her presence felt by writhing on the ground in a manner that almost suggested a demonic possession. As the choir and orchestra struck a loud and powerful chord, Jana took flight, trailing orange and black silks behind her. She swept across the hall and was greeted by audible gasps from the audience. It was quite literally breathtaking.
With such a stunning opening, it was a hard act to follow for the second work: Elena Kats-Chernin’s Five Chapters. However, Nexus Quartet proved itself worthy of the task with impeccably tight ensemble, at times leaving the orchestra trailing behind. The five movements ranged from playful to reflective to childlike to eerie, but all of them maintained a drive that propelled the music forward.
Much of the third work, Joseph Newton’s The Phoenix, felt like a powerful sweeping film score, making the use of some extended techniques slightly incongruous, but it was certainly an interesting effect nonetheless. Overall it was a very well-orchestrated piece, featuring much musical variety in only nine minutes and it was clear why Newtown had been chosen as the winner of the 2021 Young Composer Award.
The final piece, Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony, was where the woodwind section really shone with some particularly stunning bassoon and piccolo solos. In the second movement, Jana returned with Todd Sutherland as her dance partner and they performed a sort of drawn-out fight scene with huge frog-like leaps across the stage. They left for the third movement and made a reappearance for the culminative movement where the pair swung above the orchestra as comical pendulum figurines, perfectly matched in character to the tongue-in-cheek music.
It was refreshing to see a large-scale symphonic program with not just one but multiple living composers, who were not only having their works performed but actually in the audience and mingling with those who had come to hear their art. Next Chapters proved to be a thoughtfully curated example of what orchestral collaboration can look like.
Images supplied. Credit Robert Catto.
