Bowral Autumn Music Festival
24 – 27 March 2022
I must say up front… Three cheers to the organisers of BAMF for their sheer tenacity and agility last weekend! As is the case for many musical performances at this time, BAMF was plagued by presenters having to cancel due to covid isolation rules, but each of the planned eight concerts in the four day program went ahead, albeit at times with a few slight amendments to musicians and repertoire. Bravi tutti!…and what a wonderful venue for this weekend of top quality music. St Jude’s is situated on a large property which includes a beautiful Church building constructed in 1886 on extensive grounds incorporating an historic cemetery and a sensitively designed multipurpose auditorium with modern facilities and a central lounge and reception area which provided a meeting hub and focal point of the whole festival, with a welcoming stone gas fireplace to gather around. The whole building, manned capably by festival volunteers providing directions and delicious refreshments had a genuinely welcoming atmosphere and the venue managed the large audience numbers very efficiently.
I attended the festival primarily as a performer, I sing alto in the Sydney-based chamber choir Bel a cappella, but after seeing the world class line up I couldn’t go past adding a couple of additional concerts to my schedule, this time as an audience member. I particularly wanted to catch Acacia Quartet on the Friday evening performing a world premiere by Jessica Wells, a work commissioned by BAMF especially for the 2022 festival. Her work, Dancing in St Petersburg was designed to draw a connection to the other two pieces in the program (Borodin’s String Quartet no.2 in D Major and Shostakovich’s String Quartet no. 8 in C Minor). Wells’ new work was a highlight, and her pre-concert interview with festival Artistic Director (and Acacia Quartet violinist) Myee Clohessy was both entertaining and informative. Wells takes her inspiration from Borodin’s Prince Igor and a lesser known Shostakovich ballet, The Bolt, which both premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg (though 41 years apart), a neat connection. Wells’ composition gave ample opportunity to showcase the quartet’s musicianship including ‘bent’ Turkish notes and a drunken viola. Acacia Quartet were superb, visually exciting to watch, often bringing the music to life with dance-like movements and expressive communication between players which added to the diverse mood of the various movements of each of the three works.
I won’t officially review my own performance with Bel a cappella except to say that this was a long awaited concert, two years in the planning due to various covid related shut downs, and it was a true pleasure to be back on stage presenting a program of diverse a cappella choral works from William Byrd to modern Australian works. A highlight was the Pie Jesu from Faure’s Requiem arranged by VOCES 8 for chorus and soloist. Young local treble Michael Alsop-Orchard gave a stand out performance to rousing applause. Throughout the concert Bel a cappella drew on a number of other soloists from within the chorus with one, soprano Catherine Borchock, ending the concert with a spine tingling performance of Ella Macens Ar Dievinu.
Saturday’s afternoon concert was a family affair, filling the larger auditorium at St Jude’s, Ensemble Offspring presented a delightful hour of quirky, humorous musical storytelling with narrator extraordinaire Katia Molino. Donning appropriate headgear for Holly Harrison’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party each musician brought to life the characters of Lewis Carrol’s famous scene beautifully. Violinist Veronique Serret’s misbehaving March Hare ears added an extra element of visual humour as she ably tackled frantic bowed passages with ears akimbo! I was particularly engrossed by this concert that successfully introduced incredibly complex modern music from composers such as Ross Edwards and Ned McGowan to a younger audience.
One of the many remarkable aspects about this festival (alongside world class musicians, a welcoming community and top quality organisation) was its dedication to programming Australian works alongside traditional popular composers such as Bach, Haydn and Mozart. Alice Chance, Ross Edwards, Holly Harrison, Andrew Ford, Ella Macens and Joseph Twist were all represented in the program by various artists. It’s refreshing to see this sort of diverse programming by Myee Clohessy who is no doubt supported by the St. Jude’s Music Association in her endeavours. I look forward to the release of the 2023 program in the coming months and am already looking at booking my 2023 autumn weekend away!
