The Song Company | Vespers for Mother Earth
June 23, City Recital Hall, Sydney
THE SONG COMPANY
Susannah Lawergren, Annika Hinrichs, Anna Fraser – Sopranos
Jessica O’Donoghue & Hannah Fraser – Mezzo Sopranos
Timothy Reynolds & Louis Hurley – Tenors
Hayden Barrington & Andrew O’Connor – Baritone & Bass
Guest Director: Roland Peelman
Ensemble Offspring & Guest Instrumentalists
Lamorna Nightingale, Flute
James Nightingale, Alto Saxophone
Fletcher Cox, Trumpet
Nigel Crocker, Trombone
Claire Edwardes & Josh Hill, Percussion
Lindsay Dugan, Shakuhachi
Matthew Doyle, Didjeridu
Lu Liu, Pipa
Genevieve Lang, Harp
Julian Smiles, Cello
What a joy and privilege it was to join a sell out crowd to celebrate 40 years of Song Company excellence and spend a couple of hours reflecting on this ensemble’s massively rich legacy.
The concert unfolded in two distinct halves: The first was a whirlwind tour of Australian vocal chamber music commissioned by the ensemble in the last 4 decades and in the second we witnessed a true master of the genre, with the world premiere of Ross Edwards’ monumental work Vespers for Mother Earth, a reflection on ecological themes and humanity’s connection to the natural world.
As The Song Company is credited with over 120 commissions I did not envy co-artistic directors’ Amy Moore and Jessica O’Donoghue’s task in programming the first half. They succeeded in presenting a beautiful snapshot of quirky, humorous, poignant, emotive, as well as harmonically and technically challenging vocal sextets – quintessentially “The Song Company”.
Beginning with Peter Sculthorpe’s well-known and much loved The Stars Turn (1970 arr 1985) and including songs from Martin Wesley-Smith (1990), Stuart Greenbaum (1991), Raffaele Marcellino (1995), Elena Kat-Chernin (2000), Andrew Ford (2012/13) and Katy Abbott (2015), the program read like a who’s who of renowned local composers, all of whom were performed with great relish and arranged into four elegantly themed sets, however I felt the true stars of this half were the three most recent works.
Alice Chance’s Untitled (2019), commissioned for O’Donoghue, explores the idea of vocal fry, characterised by a low, crackling, croaky sound produced by fluttering or vibrating the vocal folds irregularly. With no title and no words, and only the sound and performance to convey emotion, the soloists’ guttural sounds formed a deep expression of anguish resonating in and out of a lilting melody – hugely successful.
Sonya Holowell’s Become like Children (2022) magnifies the compelling plea of the Uluru Statement From The Heart, employing diverse modes of composition and conceptual exploration to challenge its performers to navigate between adult resilience and childhood innocence, blending assertive notated refrains with improvised ‘playground’ soundscapes. I still recall this work when it premiered and was very glad to have the opportunity hear it again.
Angus Davison’s Lime Song, a world premiere commissioned by Penny Le Couteur and Greg Dickson, was my highlight of this half. Davison has an uncanny ability to musically capture the sweetness of small things – the perfume from scratching the skin of a lime, the sound of an ant’s footstep… he asks us to “lean in, squint, and open ourselves to the beauty of something small…. to draw attention, just for a moment, to tiny experiences that seemed to fill a universe.” I felt like this song was a rare and generous gift from the composer.
To my ear, all of these works were performed faultlessly by the current Song Company crew Susannah Lawergren, Jessica O’Donoghue, Timothy Reynolds, Hayden Barrington and Andrew O’Connor. Wait, that’s only five voices – we sadly were missing Amy Moore due to illness but the amazing Song Company Emerging Artist, Brisbane based Annika Hinrichs (in her Sydney debut) stepped in at the 11th hour to replace Moore for this part of the concert, her fresh zesty soprano perfectly complimenting the more experienced singers. Well done indeed!
In the second half the singers were augmented by Anna Fraser, Hannah Fraser and Louis Hurley, alongside a stellar ensemble of guest instrumentalists and it was a delight to see Roland Peelman back on the conductor’s podium for the concert’s centrepiece, Ross Edwards’ Vespers for Mother Earth. This was an epic premiere of ambitious scope with profound ecological themes. Inspired by natural sounds and Monteverdi’s iconic Vespro della Beata Vergine, it unfolded in seven movements, each a reflection on nature’s beauty and the urgent need for its preservation. Edwards’ distinctive musical language, rooted deeply in Australia’s cultural and environmental heritage, resonates powerfully.
It starts gently, with just the sound of water, then a lone Shakuhachi invoking the morning ceremoniously breathes light and life into the void. Birdsong fills the space as the solo is passed to the didjeridu. From within this soundscape the ecstatic soprano of Susannah Lawergren emerges with only Genevieve Lang’s stunning harp accompaniment in the Flame of the Sun aria.
The choir and various instruments join in Bird and Flower Chants and continue to build to Zenith, the music rising from a stillness to shrill intensity. There is at times a particularly eastern flavour to the music with the unusual instrumentation pairing shakuhachi with flute, and pipa (a traditional plucked Chinese instrument) with harp and then cello.
Orison an extended cello solo described as ‘ruminative, sometimes unquiet’ had a yearning feeling and was beautifully articulated by Julian Smiles. The hymn-like Canticle of the Earth was inspired by the universal dance of life acknowledging a Buddhist Deity, who is known as the embodiment of compassion, beginning a cappella with winds, percussion and plucked strings taking the dance to it’s close. A truly stellar cast of musicians.
Ross Edwards’ musical homage to Mother Earth transcended its ecological message to become a profound meditation on humanity’s place in the natural order. The final movement, O Magnum Mysterium, a gentle a cappella contemplation, derived it’s text from the commentary of astronomer Professor Fred Watson and offered us a reflection on the mysteries of existence. In a kind of cyclic return to the beginning of things, the work ends as it began, with the sound of water and finally, deep silence.
A huge roar from an appreciative crowd closed The Song Company’s 40th anniversary gala, an outstanding showcase of some of Australia’s finest, many of whom were in the audience to join in the celebration. A triumphant concert marking a massive milestone in Australian musical history. Here’s to another 40 years!
