River City Voices | Songs of Destiny
May 22, 2022, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta
On May 15th 2022 Willoughby Symphony Orchestra unveiled the winner of the Young Composer Award in an exciting concert conducted by Associate Conductor Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith. The Young Composer Award is an annual national competition providing young Australian composers the rare opportunity to compose for a full orchestra then have their new work performed, and recorded live, by the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Thanks to benefactor Mark Wakely’s generous support of the award in memory of Steven Alward the recipient receives a cash prize and gains valuable experience refining their original score alongside a respected conductor and accomplished orchestra. This year, in a collaboration between Willoughby Symphony and River City Voices (of whom Penicka-Smith is also conductor and Artistic Director), audiences were lucky enough to hear a repeat performance of the winning composition Korrowall by Emma Greenhill one week after its offical world premiere. It’s a sweeping cinematic work dedicated to the Blue Mountains’ Korrowall (or Mount Solitary as it’s more commonly known). I was struck by the sounds of nature which Greenhill has managed to capture so vividly, both its ‘beauty and the terrifying enormity of the landscape’ as she describes in her program notes. Her use of punctuating percussion, trumpet and flute solos was very effective and brought to mind, for me at least, a myriad of birdlife. Greenhill has never composed for orchestra prior to this work, I hope she finds opportunities to flex this talent more in the future.
In the Chatswood performance Willoughby Symphony Orchestra took the lead and performed 2 works by Bedřich Smetana and then both the Willoughby and River City choirs joined for Brahms’ Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) and Schicksalslied (Songs of Destiny). However here at Riverside Theatres, in Parramatta, Penicka-Smith allowed the local choir River City Voices to shine as they showcased two world premiere choral works in place of the Smetana alongside an Australian premiere by New York based Alla Pavlova. It made for an interesting, and ultimately very enjoyable, mixture of styles across various combinations of the three ensembles.
Pavlova’s lush Monolog featured WSO Concertmaster Maria Lindsay who delivered a heart-felt and passionate solo in the Ukrainian-born composer’s short work. We then heard from two Australian composers, members of the award winning Ngarra-Burria First Nations Composers program, who both worked directly with River City Voices who commissioned the two works with support from JBS&G.
Troy Russell’s The Chant, a haunting mother’s lament for her son, was inspired by Jimmy Governor’s life (which also formed the basis for Thomas Keneally’s 1972 novel The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith). Russell introduced the work explaining that this was his first four part choral work and how his working with the choir to prepare for the performance had been integral to the process, Penicka-Smith agreed, and the choir performed their mournful heart breaking calls and gripping crowd scenes in this tragedy with real feeling for the storytelling. A striking work, which shows a great potential for future choral works from Troy Russell.
Elizabeth Sheppard’s Gandangarragal: Blue Mountains Dreaming was composed soon after the devastating bushfires of 2020. She says, “I know the power of song, and I wanted to give myself, and other mourners the opportunity to sing hope, life and beauty back into Gandangarragal country…”. For me the work evoked new green tendrils bursting forth into the worlds of the two animals the song draws attention to, the water dragon and glow worms. There was a great joy and spirit of optimism as the choir did their part in ‘singing our country back to life’.
Next we heard another Australian work which the River City Voices know intimately as their regular vocal and aural warm up. Sung from memory and accompanied by a deep drone from the lower strings Andrew Schultz’s Music is a Gentle Hammer was a great display of modern Australian choral writing which is freely notated with the singers tracking their path through the slow moving and gentle notes of the music in an improvisatory and collaborative manner. As Schultz’s notes explain, “…the words of the piece speak to the idea of collaboration: ‘music is a gentle hammer for breaking down walls.’” And this concert was indeed a wonderful artistic collaboration between the ensembles, composers (four of whom were present in the audience) and artists.
A change of pace now, as all the ensembles came together for the final Brahms with over 80 singers taking to the stage. The two works are quite different yet deal with similar themes around destiny and fate, ‘one lush and soulful, the other brutal and despairing’. In Angus McPherson’s excellent program notes he draws attention to the chorus and orchestra portraying both the divinity of the Gods and the suffering of humanity, and under the expert baton of Penicka-Smith they brought this concept to life with energy and accuracy. The concert ended serenely, offering the listener ‘a modicum of peace’ in the gentle final bars.
Photo credit – Grant Leslie Photography
