Ensemble Offspring | Lone Hemispheres
December 9, 2023, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
Guest reviewer: Tristan Coelho
New music concerts can be thrilling in many ways. You never quite know what to expect, especially if freshly written works are on the program. These concerts invariably push audiences to see and hear the world in rich, new ways, even if the music is occasionally challenging or outside one’s comfort zone. Ensemble Offspring’s fourth instalment of their Lone Hemispheres project offered a diverse program of solo works in the intimate performance space within the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. The concert paired existing pieces by modernist heavy hitters with new works by Australian composers that act as companions and are related in some way.
First up was Holly Harrison’s new solo violin work, “Ice Giants,” performed by Véronique Serret. In this work, the composer explores a fascination with the planet Neptune, the physical properties of which are used as a frame through which musical ideas are manipulated. This highly arresting, edgy, and virtuosic work blends bluegrass-style fiddle playing with metal-like distortion to a wonderful effect. This work was paired with Liza Lim’s 2017 piece, “The Su Song Star Map,” a work of great beauty where melodies break through from a backdrop of gritty, noisy textures.
We visited the transcendental, enigmatic world of Kaija Saariaho’s music through her work “NoaNoa” (1992) for solo flute and electronics, performed by Lamorna Nightingale. The immersive nature of this music cannot be understated, and composer Jane Sheldon beautifully captured this spirit in her own new work, “Spectre: three attempts to summon her.” After initially planning a quite different piece, the recent death of Saariaho immediately set her off on a new course of meditation and reflection. An even broader and still sound world than Saariaho’s, Sheldon crafts a lush and captivating dreamscape that conjures up the late composer’s spirit.
American composer Jacob Druckman’s “Reflections on the Nature of Water” (1991) is considered a classic in the solo marimba repertoire, and Artistic Director and percussionist of Ensemble Offspring, Claire Edwardes, presented two movements from the work. It was the musical evocations of water by Debussy that inspired Druckman, and this, in turn, helped inform Lachlan Skipworth in his new work, “Ocean Pulse.” Skipworth, who grew up near the beach, infuses his work with a melodically driven and ever-unfolding quality that effortlessly dances across the full range of the marimba with irregularly lengthened phrases, much like the peaks and troughs felt through the play of ocean waves.
Huw Belling’s “Music in Sweatpants” was a work of focus, intensity, repetition, and resilience – features of any good workout. Clarinetist Jason Noble was certainly dressed for the occasion, emerging in full workout attire complete with a sweatband. This fun, frantic work immediately grabbed attention through the obsessive, blisteringly fast ascending lines that eventually gave way to a central moment of respite with the creative use of heavy breathing. Belling’s work was paired with Magnus Lindberg’s “Ablauf” (1983). Here, Noble was joined by Claire Edwardes and Niki Johnson on two separate bass drums, each positioned on either side of the stage. This epic and elemental work involved the dramatic ducking and weaving of clarinet figures between huge, resounding bass drum strikes. When it reaches its peak intensity, Noble is tasked with unleashing wild, untamed vocalisations, a link exploited through the exhausted breaths in Belling’s work, albeit with the opposite effect.
An intriguing yet successful programming tactic was not to place paired works back-to-back. More than just providing a breather for performers, this approach enabled audiences to make connections across the concert and hear works in a unique light.
Throughout the program, we really got to know each of the performers as we witnessed them negotiate fiendishly virtuosic music with total flair. This was all through an extremely varied repertoire that redefines our own understandings and sense of possibilities of each instrument. The big takeaway from Lone Hemispheres was how clearly the personality of composers and performers shone through, and perhaps this is the true joy of such intimate, solo repertoire concerts.
Photo Credit: Connor Malanos
Guest Reviewer: Tristan Coelho is a Sydney-based composer who writes music largely inspired by the natural environment or our digital, data-driven world. Recent project highlights include “Hokusai Mixtape” performed by the Australian Debussy Trio, winner of the 2022 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Award for Work of the Year: Chamber Music, “Ice Monuments” for pianist Kristian Chong, and works for Inventi Ensemble, Tambuco Percussion, Ensemble Offspring, Zubin Kanga, Emily Granger and Andrew Blanch. As an active arranger and orchestrator, he has collaborated with Japanese video game composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, Australian composers Brenda Gifford and Matthew Hindson, oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros, UK electronic music producer Clark, Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
