BY CUTCOMMON
It’s spring! As we usher in a new season, the Melbourne Recital Centre’s program of live music continues — and this month they’re honouring a violinist-turned-spy, sharing personal stories of love and family, and asking the ultimate question: Where can we find happiness?
We had a chat with the team hosting these live music events in Melbourne, and asked them what you can listen out for this month. Here’s what the Melbourne Recital Centre recommends for you, all performed by Australia’s extraordinary community of live musicians — artists who specialise in classical, jazz, Eastern European music, you name it.
Claire Patti Trio with Tony Gould – Moments & Recollections
Three musicians will open their hearts in this deeply personal performance from the Claire Patti Trio (above). Award-winning Celtic musician Claire Patti will use her voice (and harp!) to play Old Soul, a piece of music she wrote for her husband. Then jazz and classical pianist Tony Gould AM will perform his own touching composition, Recollections of My Mother. This work stems from an album called At the End of the Day in which Tony played jazzy Irish folk tunes that recalled his childhood.
Cellist Louise Godwin ties this program together as the trio performs traditional Scottish and Irish music alongside works from Carl Sigman and Jay Livingstone.
Watch a preview below of the Claire Patti Trio featuring Tony Gould before you listen to their Melbourne Recital Centre event about love and loss.
Kristian Chong & Friends – The Trout Quintet with a Twist!
If you’re not yet mates with Kristian Chong, there’s still time to get to know him. The pianist has been performing with his friends in Melbourne Recital Centre (did you hear him with violinist Ike See and cellist Richard Narroway earlier this year?). Now, he’s inviting you to spend time with him and enjoy a classic piece of music — Schubert’s Trout Quintet.
Stevie Newton plays double bass, and he also doubles on tenor. You’ll hear him take on both roles in this September event. Then there’s Sophie Rowell, who you’d recognise as the artistic director of the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. She’s a lead educator at the Australian National Academy of Music, too — and has performed with every major symphony orchestra across the country.
Kristian’s collective also boasts cellist Elina Faskhi, assistant principal with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; and Caroline Henbest, a violist and educator with an international performance career.
Make friends through music when you hear them perform the Trout with a twist alongside Schubert’s Piano Sonata No.14 in A minor.
Syzygy Ensemble – Divine Inspiration
What does happiness mean to you? The musicians of Helpmann Award-nominated Syzygy Ensemble reckon you can find it in music, and they have created a program to take you on a journey of your own to inner peace.
It begins with Gubaidulina’s atmospheric Your Joy No Man Can Taketh From You. Then these players shine the spotlight on Robin Henry whose bass clarinet will guide you through Ziporyn’s Tsmindao Ghmerto. It’s based on a hymn, but uses this single woodwind instrument to imitate a three-part harmony!
Contemplate your source of happiness in works from Vasks, Rorem, Tabakova, and Toensing on their program that explores ritual and transcendence. You’ll be in the expert musical hands of Syzygy’s co-artistic director and contemporary music advocate Laila Engle, Freedman Classical Fellowship winner Kyla Matsuura-Miller, cellist and writer Campbell Banks, and widely recorded pianist Leigh Harrold.
Vardos – Music to Spy To
Vardos will present a musical story you wouldn’t believe. This ensemble (in our featured image), which focuses on bringing Eastern European rhythms to Australia, has designed a concert based on the life of a guy called Ion Petre Stoican.
Ion was born in Romania. He played violin. He also caught a spy. His reward? The chance to record his own EP. Granted, it was a flop — but it wasn’t his last recording attempt and about a decade on, he released an LP with some hit musicians from Bucharest.
That was in 1977, and in 2023 Vardos is sharing this unusual life story through music that “echoes of the Ceausescu regime” under which Ion lived. The musicians of Vardos (violinist Alana Hunt, accordionist and vocalist Sofia Chapman, and double bassist Maxine Sutcliffe) are based in Naarm/Melbourne but have travelled across Europe and learnt first-hand from Romanian and Hungarian musicians. You can get a sense of their music in the video below before they play in the Primrose Potter Salon.
Duo Kirsanova-Lewis – On the Pavements Grey
It’s certainly a big month of music at the Melbourne Recital Centre. So it seems appropriate to tail this string of live performances with a concert that strips things back to focus on the simple beauty of minimalism.
This duo features violinist Sophia Kirsanova and pianist Georgina Lewis, and they’re performing a highly curated program featuring some rarely performed works. Heartbreaker was composed by America’s Missy Mazzoli, who says it’s “virtuosic in subtle, unusual ways…striking a balance between rhythmic precision and the free-wheeling abandon the piece requires”. Then John Adams’ Road Movies examines minimalism and its departure in three meditative movements.
Arvo Pärt’s delicate and sparsely textured piano music in Für Alina reflects his style of composition known as tintinnabuli, which translates as “bell”. Australian composer Andrea Keller’s Life is Brut[if]al also takes its inspiration from Pärt’s music.
You’ll also hear an Australian premiere of Pēteris Vasks’ Sonata estiva, and a performance of Platon Buravicky’s Eņģeļa skatiens that reflects the crisis in Ukraine.
Support live music in Australia when you hear these events, and explore the full September program at the Melbourne Recital Centre featuring further events from artists such as Ensemble Liaison, Pinchgut Opera, Stephen McIntyre, and more.
Images supplied.
