BY EMMA SULLIVAN
The latest offering from the Benaud Trio – The Aussie Album – provides fascinating insight into the diversity and richness of homegrown chamber music. Using Percy Grainger as a natural starting point, the album features world premiere recordings of works by Paul Stanhope, Nicole Murphy, Carl Vine, Iain Grandage, and Matthew Hindson.
The selected works draw inspiration from popular music to a commentary on what community means in modern society. (And, of course, the cricket legend after whom the trio is named, Richie Benaud.)
The album celebrates one of the country’s finest performance venues, the Melbourne Recital Centre. It also features soprano Greta Bradman, whose own newly released album Home is currently topping the ARIA classical charts.
We catch up with violinist Lachlan Bramble to hear his thoughts on the recording process, his passion for championing new music, and what he is looking forward to in the Benaud Trio’s upcoming concert series.
Congratulations on the new album! This is the first time you’ve recorded with a guest artist – soprano Greta Bradman joins you for Paul Stanhope’s Three Lorca Songs. How did this collaboration affect your recording process?
One of the most important lessons I learnt at university was that our job as instrumentalists is to try as best as we can to emulate the most powerfully expressive instrument of all – the human voice. So, in that sense, having Greta’s voice on The Aussie Album has brought another dimension of humanity to the record.
Greta’s vocal range is absolutely incredible. I won’t easily forget the moment when she let out her first real notes into the hall during warm-up, and our poor photographer nearly dropped his camera in shock and awe at the sound produced.
The album was recorded in the Melbourne Recital Centre, which is a stunning performance space, especially for string players. Do you think the MRC acoustic has significantly impacted the finished product?
With the abundance of modern recording technology, I think musicians often underestimate the importance of having a great acoustic space to track an album. Adding some nice studio reverb after the fact might sound okay, but in no way does it replicate the way in which musicians will interact or ‘commune’ with the acoustic space in the moment.
We were very lucky to be able to use the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall for The Aussie Album. It not only provides luscious ear candy on the record, but it also coaxed out the very best performances from us.
The featured repertoire is diverse, from the richness of Percy Grainger’s Colonial Song to the vibrant dance rhythms of Matthew Hindson’s Rush. Is there a work on the album that particularly speaks to you?
I’d like to make special mention of Carl Vine’s piano trio The Village, partly because it is the most substantial of the pieces on the record and might not get as much radio airplay as the other shorter pieces.
The Village is a work of great depth with a fascinating through-composed structure without the usual musical landmarks that usually guide a listener through a piece. It also has very few instructions to the performers with regard to mood or intended atmosphere giving us a somewhat blank canvas to fill.
There is much to discover on repeated listening, including some tough questions about the way we currently live and also the way in which we relate to our fellow human beings.
With six world premiere recordings and four newly commissioned works, this project has made a significant contribution to the piano trio repertoire. What challenges do you face when approaching a completely new work, and why is championing new music a priority for the Benaud Trio?
Championing new music and recording it is important to us because we feel it will add something tangible to the musical ecosystem that will hopefully outlast our little ensemble.
Concerts are wonderful in the way that they exist in the moment, and then in the memory. But a groundbreaking new work that enters the repertoire, or a record that is enjoyed over and over, can have real longevity. There are lots of Australian ensembles doing fantastic work in this area, and we are happy to add our modest contribution.
Performing new music can be an especially liberating experience in the sense that one is free of traditions and expectations, which are often attached to more established repertoire. It can be daunting at first not being able to reference 50+ available recordings of something like Beethoven’s Ghost trio, but you soon find your own two feet and the process becomes highly creative, empowering, and a lot of fun.
Benaud pianist Amir Farid, cellist Ewen Bramble, and you – as violinist (and Ewen’s brother!) have played together for more than a decade. How have you evolved as a group over that time?
We’ve probably become a bit more serious in our approach over the years, perhaps as a byproduct of getting older!
As we relearn some pieces for perhaps the second or third time, our interpretations have become a bit more literal with less of the idiosyncrasies that we may have indulged in in the past. Hopefully this is for the better!
And as our lives have taken us to different parts of the world, we are bringing a more diverse range of musical experiences to the group when we are able to get together.
Your Melbourne concert series is about to start, with concerts in Hawthorn Arts Centre and Melbourne Recital Centre in July and August. What are you most looking forward to with these new programs?
Between our concerts at the Hawthorn Arts Centre and Melbourne Recital Centre, we are covering a huge range of repertoire from the deeply serious to the real toe-tapping, pop-inspired stuff.
I think what could be most exciting, though, is the premiere of Jakub Jankowski’s Second Piano Trio on August 11. Jakub’s musical voice has a profundity that transcends his years. Seraphim Trio recently premiered his first Piano Trio in Sydney; and his second, darker one promises to be something special.
The Aussie Album is released with ABC Classics – have a listen on Spotify. The Benaud Trio will perform on July 20 at Hawthorn Arts Centre, and July 21 and August 11 at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Full details online.
Images supplied, courtesy Benaud Trio.
