BY EMMA SULLIVAN
Since it was formed in 2008, the Strelitzia Piano Trio has been making its mark on the Sydney chamber music landscape. From presenting its regular concert series in Sydney, to undertaking recording projects for ABC Classic FM and touring across regional New South Wales, Lucy Warren (violin), Eleanor Betts (cello), and Michael Curtain (piano) are passionate about celebrating the great works for piano trio, as well as exploring the some of the undiscovered gems.
Now that Lucy is one of the newest members of Orchestra Victoria, the trio has extended its concert series to Victoria and will perform soon at the Benalla Art Gallery and the Melbourne Recital Centre.
The upcoming program draws together works by Joseph Haydn, Elena Kats-Chernin, and Dmitri Shostakovich that were all conceived as tributes to important figures in each composer’s life, and is aptly titled Dedications. We catch up with violinist Lucy Warren to hear her thoughts on the music.
Strelitzia has been a fixture in the Sydney chamber music scene throughout the past decade, but this will be your first Melbourne concert. Why have you decided to expand your concert series to Victoria, and what made you choose the MRC’s Primrose Potter Salon as your venue?
We are so excited to be performing in Melbourne at the Primrose Potter Salon. Previously, we were a Sydney-based ensemble but last year I moved to Melbourne to take up a full-time position with Orchestra Victoria.
Michael’s job as chorus master at Opera Australia also regularly brings him to Melbourne for their opera seasons, so we loved the idea of branching out and doing concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne.
We have such a great time playing together and seize any opportunity we can between our busy professional and family lives to keep doing so. We can’t wait to play in the beautiful Salon — such a beautiful space and the perfect acoustic and setting for our trio.
Your program features piano trios by Haydn, Kats-Chernin, and Shostakovich that all were composed as dedications. Is there a sense that each work reflects its dedicatee? In what ways does understanding the background of each work inform your approach to preparing and performing the music?
Each of these works is a very different kind of dedication, which ultimately has a major effect on how we understand and perform them. Haydn’s piano trio in C is a joyous celebration of his dear friend and accomplished pianist Therese Bartolozzi, and was written in the wake of her wedding festivities. C major is a pure and joyful key, and we feel this trio is Haydn at his very best — clever, brilliant and effervescent — which is why we love performing it so much!
Calliope Dreaming by Elena Kats-Chernin was written as a commission for a festival celebrating the music of Haydn, and shares a lot of the sparkling qualities of the Haydn trio we are performing.
The epic piano trio of Dmitri Shostakovich is a dedication of a different kind altogether. It’s a profound letter of loss, and reflects the horror of the time in which it was written. He dedicated this work to his beloved and loyal friend Ivan Sollertinsky, whose death was a terrible blow to Shostakovich. This trio requires major emotional and mental stamina.
Kats-Chernin has described her tribute to Haydn, Calliope Dreaming, as a fantasy on themes from Haydn’s Symphony 44, often referred to as the Mourning symphony. Is the writing similar to that of Haydn? What can audience members expect with this work?
Elena Kats-Chernin was one of a handful of composers worldwide commissioned to write a piece for the D2H (Dedicated to Haydn) festival in Austria marking the bicentenary of Haydn’s death. I suppose the fact that Haydn is considered the father of the piano trio played no small part in her decision to write this particular work. Even though some of the thematic material is drawn from his Mourning symphony, one of the things that Kats-Chernin learnt in her research for this piece was that the slow movement was something he treasured and wished to have played at his own funeral. It was this connection that she found meaningful in writing this ‘dedication’.
I would not say that the prevailing character is solemn or melancholy (as ‘Mourning‘ symphony might suggest) but that she employs more of the edgy, rhythmic aspects of Haydn’s style. Expect energy and highly catchy melodies — Elena Kats-Chernin’s distinct voice remains clear.
What other exciting projects does Strelitzia have planned for 2019?
We are excited to perform again at the MRC in October, where we’ll be celebrating the music of some wonderful female composers. From the evocative Pale Yellow/Fiery Red by Jennifer Higdon; the formidable and stormy trio of Fanny Mendelssohn, which beautifully complements the Lighthouse Trio of Sydney composer Alicia Grant; to the playful and dramatic trio of 20th-Century Armenian composer Gayane Tchebodarian, this program will explore some lesser-known gems and powerful music that is special to us.
We will also present concerts in Sydney, Benalla, Nowra, and Katoomba and are excited to be planning an album of Australian music so stay tuned!
You can catch Strelitzia’s performance of Dedications on 31 March at the Benalla Art Gallery, or on 1 April at the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre.
READ NEXT: Our writer Emma Sullivan, who put together this story, is hosting a massive double bass day for the students of Victoria.
Images supplied.
