Bendigo Chamber Music Festival Mayor’s Gala – Summer Nights Series 4
Saturday 6th February 2021
Co-Director of the Bendigo Chamber Music Festival Chris Howlett introduced the Mayor’s Gala evening concert as a token of sincere appreciation of the musicians to the City of Bendigo, its population and beautiful venues. The performance took place in the auditorium of The Capital Theatre, with atmospheric purple lighting of the stage, and the first three healthy rows of audience showing on my screen.
So little exists by way of chamber music and solo pieces for the oboe by J S Bach that the various reconstructed concertos are more than welcome contributions to the instrument’s repertoire. The Concerto in F major BWV 1053R (a personal favourite of mine) is plausibly reconstructed from various sources – a harpsichord concerto, and cantata movements which Bach composed in Leipzig. As such, the piece is perfectly suited in terms of range, key and fluidity both to the baroque oboe and its modern counterpart. Tonight’s chamber-sized version opened with an agreeably poised yet ebullient Allegro. The movement in da-capo form furnished solo oboist Thomas Hutchinson and first violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto with a substantial proportion of the thematic material. Thomas was beautifully expressive in the long and elaborate phrases, piquing one’s interest with changes of articulation, frequently to light continuo accompaniment provided by Howard Penny on ‘cello. Oboe, strings and pizzicato ‘cello performed the Siciliano with restrained grace and lilt, fully capturing the vocal quality and melancholic sentiments embodied in its derivative aria. Thomas deftly handled the prolonged and snaking melodic contours of the final buoyant Allegro.
From the Baroque we moved to the 19th-century Viennese drawing room for Schubert’s The Shepherd on the Rock, perhaps the most famous of his masterful art songs, performed by soprano Jacqueline Porter, clarinettist David Griffiths and pianist Daniel de Borah. Written for an opera singer friend of Schubert’s to German lyric poetry by his contemporaries, this Lied constitutes a dramatic episode rather than accompanied song, especially with the addition of clarinet as an obbligato instrument. The music is brilliantly descriptive of a desolate mountain shepherd isolated from his lover. The opening minor-key piano pulsations (a constant motif) set the mood before the clarinet entered on a long high note, and then unfolded into a vertiginously shaped melody including a yodelling figure. This was followed by similar material in the voice. Both Jacqueline and David imparted an appropriate melancholy, and managed a wide tonal compass with drops down to rich low notes suggestive of nature’s deep dark chasms. Jacqueline’s yodel was like a sad cry, and I enjoyed the choice and subtle portamenti. David’s echoing phrases on the clarinet to represent the shepherd’s resounding voice were engagingly and effectively illustrated. In a slower section, considerable control and a moving depiction of loneliness was communicated by Jacqueline, with palpitating piano quavers. To conclude, the clarinet ushered in bright and happy thoughts of spring. Jacqueline displayed impressive technical agility for the operatic writing, and David’s final virtuosic runs were truly euphoric.
The performance was so involving, that I forgot to take a screen shot!
Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E Flat Major is his most famous teenage masterpiece, composed at the age of 16. The piece is impressively well-wrought, and shows astonishing maturity for one so young. The Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco involved a mix of vivacity, deep passion and tendernesss, with music featuring tutti syncopated passages and diverting changes of texture such as solos for one or two violas, episodes without ‘celli, and a significant part for first violinist Natsuko Yoshimoto. Members of the octet brought out all the romantic expressiveness and dynamic levels of the score. So intensely assertive was the ending of this marvellous movement, that it elicited well-deserved audience applause! The Andante was performed with great poignancy, followed by a soft and stirring Scherzo, featuring lively trills and the quick exchange of musical motifs. To open the final Presto, a solo cello whisked along, with each instrument making a fugal entry from the lowest upwards.
This powerfully moving concert concluded with roars and claps from the appreciative audience, and as their excited conversation warmed up, digital viewers were treated to a short interview with Adele Schonhardt from the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, and soprano Jacqueline Porter who discussed, among other things, the rewards of being back on stage to share music.
The Bendigo Chamber Music Festival will run again from 2nd – 6th February 2022:
http://bendigochambermusicfestival.com.au/festival/future-festival-dates/
As I look from my screen to the outside English shrouding mist, it is comforting to evoke Schubert’s jolly thoughts of spring……
Jane
