Laura Vaughan | Wanderings
26 September, 2024, Tempo Rubato, Brunswick, VIC
Laura Vaughan is one of Australia’s leading performers on the viola da gamba and its relative, the baryton, and a solo artist at the peak of her technical and expressive abilities.
Held in Brunswick’s cool and trendy Tempo Rubato, this solo program entitled ‘Wanderings’ was billed by the performer as a ‘gentle journey’ ‘through time, through space, through style.’ So let’s you and I, dear reader, go on that journey now, as I try and capture things using Laura’s own descriptions as places to start….
‘Elegant pieces fit for the fanciest of parlours’
Using an instrument from the high baroque, a 7-string, 17th century replica bass viol we danced and fantasia-ed around intimate chambers in Paris, Hamburg and for the purposes of our ‘tour’ let’s say, Weimar, for the Bach.
The Suite in G major by Le Sieur de Machy, transcription for viol of the violin Partita No 2 (BWV1004) and (my personal favourite and from the manuscript that only just resurfaced in 2015!) the Fantasia No 6 by Georg Philipp Telemann, which took us to a time and place in the Baroque where the bass viol flourished and was the pinnacle of sophistication and fashion.
These are mainstay composers for the period and Laura delivered with all the nuance of style and luscious depth of sound the full range of the instrument could deliver.
‘Around tankards of ale’
William Corkine was an English player and a wanderer who ended up in Poland. Tobias Hume, a Scotsman, was a professional soldier and no doubt also traveled to bawdy pubs across Europe.
Laura poured her own spirit into Hume’s I am Melancholy, A Pill to Purge Melancholy and This Sport is Ended, and the greatest hits of Corkine, including Walsingham and Puncke’s Delight. For these Laura used a 6 string bass viol and Alfonso-way and Lyra-way tunings.
‘Taking in ancient chant’ and ‘new music’
It was refreshing and exciting to hear new works for the grande dame of bowed basses, such as Paolo Panndolfo’s technically challenging and quite ‘macho’, Violatango, with echoes of jazz chords.
But the great moments for me for the night were in Brooke Green’s The Spirit of Daphne and the world premiere of The Velvet Deep composed by the performer herself and inspired by the illustration you can see here.
From The Wanderer, by Peter Van den Ende
Laura used the ancient chant much loved by travellers, Ave Maris Stellis, ‘Hail, star of the sea’ as the basis for her composition, which was performed on the baryton, a unique and rare instrument which incorporates a harp like, plucked string board, hidden behind the fingerboard. This means the performer can pluck as well as bow some unfettered strings which also resonate in harmony with the bowed notes. It’s so hard to describe in words, but the effect is magical. I think this may be the only instrument in Australia and honestly, the sound is transportative.
Like Miriam Morris and Ruth Wilkinson before her, Laura is making her mark as a leading lady of the viola da gamba in Australia, and this solo concert was further evidence of this. How wonderful for us that the viola da gamba in its many forms continues to resonate across the centuries and has a new life of its own in the modern world.
Photo credit: Albert Comper Photography
