BY WENDY ZHANG
Musica Viva Festival Sydney
Concert 6 – Finale
Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 28 April
The 2019 Musica Viva Festival Finale concert presented an interesting program of solo and chamber music pieces, including standout performances by flautist Adam Walker, pianist Andrew Tyson, and a world premiere performance of Nicole Murphy’s Anamnesis performed by the Dover Quartet and Goldner String Quartet.
Walker climbed up the stairs to the top left corner stage to open the concert with Debussy’s Syrinx – a stylish entrance followed by an atmospheric performance. The opening melody sounded similar to the flute opening of Debussy’s famous Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune, and both pieces were inspired by symbolist poems and featured mythical characters (the demi-god Pan in the former, and the faun in the latter). Walker presented the piece confidently, and played chromatic descending scales beautifully. He captured the sensuous and evocative atmosphere – intended as the distant sound of the demi-god Pan playing his dying lament as the water nymph transformed herself into a bunch of rushes to escape Pan’s amorous advances, according to Philip Murray’s accompanying program note.
Later on in the program, Walker presented his second solo piece of the evening –Edgard Varese’s Density 21.5. This time he once again climbed the stairs, but played from the top right corner stage. It was a challenging work from a technical perspective; the note revealed constantly changing registers linked with contrasts in dynamics. But Walker played with competence, and hit high notes several times with style and ease. After the piece had concluded, a number of people around me gasped and commented on how high the notes and how well Walker played them.
Between Walker’s performances, pianist Andrew Tyson played a series of short, contrasting solo piano pieces, and he brought his own style to the performance. Even though the pieces were from different composers, he played them all in one go without any breaks in between, and it was interesting to witness his change of style instantly from one piece to the other. His interpretation of the Chopin prelude was distinctive, as he hit the middle section with a sense of richness and power that contrasted greatly with the opening section and made it sound uniquely different to how a nocturne is normally played. His playing of Ravel’s Miroirs excerpts was clean and expressive – with lower, middle and higher registered all sounding quite different, almost like mirrors reflecting each other. In the Jester’s Morning Song, the glissandos up and down the keyboard were particularly impressive.
In this concert, I had the pleasure to hear two pieces written for string octet – a chamber music format I’ve rarely witnessed that involved four violins, two violas, and two cellos. The first was the world premiere performance of Nicole Murphy’s Anamnesis, this year commissioned by Musica Viva Australia and played by the Dover Quartet and Goldner String Quartet. The composer went up on stage to introduce this piece, and explained the concept of anamnesis, which was a process of remembering or recovering old knowledge from past lives.
This concept was reflected in the opening movement, as each string entered and re-entered the theme like a Bach fugue. When everyone played together, it was powerful and in sync. The cellos provided strong base for the violins and violas. The third movement was dark and mysterious; strings played one after the other, sounding like questions and answers. I was impressed to see everyone and had strong chemistry, despite the fact that they were members of two chamber music groups.
The final piece was String Octet in B flat major by late-Romantic composer Max Bruch, performed by Goldner String Quartet, members of the Dover Quartet, and Meyer. It had a bold introductory section, as everyone played a recurring motif at different times. I felt it would be quite difficult to keep in speed when there were 10 strings instruments playing together, but the octet was tight and everyone very much involved. An intense group section with fast running passages lasted for close to seven minutes, but sounded focused and together. The second movement was slow and cantabile, and I felt like listening to a whole orchestra playing instead of just the strings. Each individual member played their part expressively and the performance was brilliant.
It was an outstanding concert and a terrific ending to the 2019 Musica Viva Festival. What impressed me most was Tyson and Walker’s solo performances, as well as the combined effort of the strings octet.
Images supplied.
