NEXT CHAPTERS II: ABOVE BELOW
The Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and Legs On The Wall
Saturday 19th March | 7.00pm
The Concourse Concert Hall, Chatswood
On a warm, and thankfully rain-free Saturday night, we took the train to Chatswood for a new experience: an orchestral concert with aerialists. What to expect? This was the second time that the Willoughby Symphony had collaborated with Legs On The Wall, with a previous review calling it ‘Quite literally breathtaking’. But how would it work?
After a short stroll from the station to the Concourse, and a glass of wine, we settled back in our seats to find out. The program had three short works by Arvo Pärt, Matthew Hindson and Graeme Koehne, but the majority of the program was by Elena Kats-Chernin, with her 12 movement Wild Swans Suite (broken up into three brackets) and her well-known piece 1990’s Rag (also known as Russian Rag).
As the orchestra tuned and we waited for the conductor, Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith, we noticed that there was a large number of children in the audience. What would they make of this experience?
The concert began with Pärt’s Mein Weg, (‘My Path’), originally written in 1989 for organ, but arranged by Pärt in 1995 for 14 strings and percussion. Like most of Pärt’s works, it is a rather static piece, with the percussionist occasionally sounding the bass drum and striking an ‘E’ ostinato on the tubular bells while the strings (in pairs) went their own way, each pair sticking to their own rhythmic figures. It was enlivened by the appearance of two of the Legs On The Wall performers, a young couple, moving to the music in an acrobatic dance suggesting the ebb and flow of their relationship.
The first bracket of five movements of the Wild Swans Suite followed. The ballet music for the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale was originally written for Meryl Tankard and the Australian Ballet and I was wondering how it would stand up as concert music. Very well, I think, though the contribution of the Legs On The Wall aerialists (Romain Hassanin, Isabella Estrella and Anna McCulla) certainly helped to sustain audience interest!
Soprano Susannah Lawergren ably negotiated the wordless vocal solos which were threaded through the Wild Swans Suite, and even took to the air as a singing aerialist in the fifth movement: Magic Spell Tango. The haunting second movement, Eliza Aria, is the most well-known, and has appeared in many settings, including in an ad for Lloyds Bank and as the theme music for the ABC radio program Late Night Live. Another piece by Kats-Chernin, which was also used as theme music for Late Night Live is 1990’s Rag. When the orchestra played this catchy piece, Isabella Estrella from Legs On The Wall revealed a talent for comedy by prowling around the orchestra, mimicking the musicians and the conductor.
Both Hindson’s piece The Stars Above Us All and Koehne’s Just Walk Beside Me were written for the Hush Music Foundation’s 2012 recordings of music intended for children in stressful care environments such as hospitals. For me, one of the high points of the evening came during the Hindson piece The Stars Above Us All. As the lovely piece began, the lights dimmed and the two female aerialists appeared from opposite balconies above the stage in costumes draped with twinkling lights to swing gracefully across the auditorium. A truly magical moment, producing oohs and aahs from the children around us (and also, I admit, from myself!). The posse of young girls sitting near us declared this their favourite piece.
Dressed in black and climbing swiftly up and down a metal tower unlit at the back of the orchestra were the two male Legs ‘counterweights’, roped to the aerialists and providing the magic that made them appear to leap and float almost as if unaided. The stories told by their acrobatic dancing and aerial twists and turns kept the audience engaged.
The evening was rounded off by the last five movements of the Wild Swans Suite played, like all the program, with great sensitivity and élan by the Willoughby Symphony, culminating with some spectacular aerial work in the final movement, and leading to a standing ovation for the conductor, all the performers, and for a surprise guest: Elena Kats-Chernin herself.
Photo credit @shanerozaro
