June Gig Guide

June is a rich month of music for all the ages; dive in and enjoy! 

It is particularly action-packed  for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra who will present four mainstage orchestral concerts plus the explosive energy of Education Week with its multiple concerts for children and their families. 

On June 2/3rd WASO have a colourful program planned with Stravinsky's Firebird Suite and Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun plus winner of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition Ayako Uehara  making her WASO debut performing Bartók’s Piano Concerto No.3. On the 9/10th the guest artist is Stefan Dohr, principal horn from the Berlin Philharmonic, performing Strauss' Horn Concerto - WOW! Then the world of jazz takes over with concerts on the 16/17th with leading Australian stage and screen stars in a modern and audacious take on all-time swing classics from Sinatra to Bublé. On the 30/1st Chopin expert Louis Lortie Plays Chopin’s Concerto no 1 in a program which also includes Dvorak's Seventh Symphony 

This year for Education Week (19-25th) WASO has invited award winning British composer and music educationist Paul Rissmann us for a week-long musical adventure exploring gorgeous children's books across a variety of  interactive programs. The concerts include school shows Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants, The Beat of Your Feet and The Lion Who Loved  plus a Conductor Masterclass with Ben Northey. The Rusty Orchestra is also back with a concert on the 24th June featuring community musicians playing alongside WASO players in a concert with the biggest amount of heart you're likely to hear.

If you have children come with us on Sunday 25th - we will be checking out the family concert The Beat of Your Feet, about a music-loving dog and cat and their musical adventure to find the Greatest Orchestra in the World. The concert is a mix of music, illustrated projections and audience participation, based on the book Stan and Mabel by Jason Chapman with vocals by Libby Hammer. 

Meanwhile the rest of the music community has some lovely offerings this month, including two particularly stunning vocal concerts: the Giovanni Consort singing French Chansons on the 4th, and   Voyces on the 10th celebrating their fifth anniversary with a concert of all-Australian music and the launch of their debut album Hush.

On the 11th there is a a triple whammy with the Darlington Trio offering Brahms, Musica Viva launching their national tour of the Pacifica Trio (including a world premiere by Nigel Westlake) and the experimental trio The Necks presented by Tura New Music.

Perth Chamber Orchestra (the little sister of Perth Symphony) is performing an intriguing concert in Midland on the 14th called Steampunk Mozart, which promises industrial-inspired music, food, wine, a sound installation and the magic of Mozart conducted by Jessica Gethin. Then in larger form the Perth Symphony Orchestra will also perform on the 27th with the WA Academy of Performing Arts Gospel Choir in a concert dedicated to the music of George Michael.

Also on at WAAPA this month is the second and third year students performance of 42nd Street opening on the 17th. 

Musica Viva champions music for today

Last night's concert ticked so many musical boxes I'm not sure where to start!

Eighth Blackbird

The premiere of a work by a young woman composer was always going to grab the attention of the author of a book on Australian women composers. Holly Harrison's Lobster Tails and Turtle Soup was premiered by Eighth Blackbird, America's rockstars of classical music. Clarinetist Michael Maccaferri from the sextet described the work as extremely difficult, (even for them!) but it exploded off the page with a quirky energy that had the audience in raptures. Harrison drew inspiration from the nonsensical writing of Lewis Carol and her music captured the whimsy and madness incredibly well in a mash of extended techniques, experimental rock and blues.

with Holly Harrison shortly before her world premiere

Harrison's work sat alongside works written in the past four years by American composers Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Timo Andres and Ted Hearnes. These are composers born in the 70's and 80's and young enough to be freer than previous generations of the style-police of modernist ideology - free in other words to be the composers they want to be. Yes there were plenty of modernist extended techniques and nods to minimalist composers but there were also hip hop vibes and musical conversations about contemporary art and politics.

Eighth Blackbird played with professionalism and high octane energy. As an ensemble they were tightly coordinated but also able to relax into a groove.

There was a sense of an international family, drawn together under the umbrella of the organisation Musica Viva, (with support from the Perth Festival). American performers rocking out to music by an Australian composer, with program notes by UK critic Jessica Duchen and an audience of very enthusiastic new music appreciators.

Setting up for Pre-concert talk

I admit to being pleasantly surprised at the full chairs for my pre-concert talk and the large concert hall crowd. There was an atmosphere of enthusiasm and curiosity. The questions in the post show Meet the Artist interview came from mostly elderly audience members (exploding my sterotypes!) who were keen to clarify and learn more.  Musica Viva has educated and grown an audience who do not fear the unknown.

This concert was a gift: music written today, for us, for our time.  Thank you Musica Viva for being one of the few Australian organisations brave enough to champion this repertoire.

Working with Musica Viva

On Monday night I had the privilege of presenting the pre-concert talk at the launch of Musica Viva's national Beilman & Tyson tour. I've often thought it would be a lot of fun to give a pre-concert talk, and I was right!

Selling books at Perth Concert Hall

I enjoyed preparing by reading scores and listening to violin sonatas by Mozart, Janacek, Saint Saens and Jane Stanley, and I enjoyed sharing my discoveries with the audience. The sonatas essentially chartered the development of the violin sonata genre from the 18th century to present day. They were well-crafted in their different ways. Each was built around a motif or pool of notes that generated the structure of the entire work. My goal was to highlight those themes so the audience could recognise them in performance. It makes such a huge difference to the listening experience if the audience feels they are following the musical conversation.

One of the pieces on the program was by Australian composer Jane Stanley, so I was also invited to sell copies of Women of Note at interval. What a fabulous opportunity! It's nights like these where I really love my job!

It is always hard to know whether these public speaking gigs have been a success or not, but I received overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses from the audience, including from a self-described 'concert virgin' who said I was his life-saver and had been very interesting. I was also told I was difficult to hear, a serious issue given most in the audience were elderly and probably struggling with hearing complications. I will have to project my voice more in the future!


My greatest challenge was to present the music of  Jane Stanley in a way that was going to help open the ears of the audience to a musical language they were less familiar with. Stanley's music is unique and incredibly beautiful. Here is an excerpt of what I shared:

JANE STANLEY b Sydney 1976 Cerulean Orbits

Stanley follows a tradition of female Australian composers who have made significant contributions to Australian music. 25% of Australian composers are women, more than almost any other western country. Women began being recognised as composers at the beginning of the 20th century. Margaret Sutherland was the mother of women composers in Australia and her impact was huge – she almost single-handedly pioneered Australian new music in the first half of the century.  She was one of the first composers to develop a uniquely Australian musical voice. She had a hard life, married to a psychiatrist who thought a woman wanting to compose music was a sign of mental illness! She once said 

“My musical life has been a frustration of half promises, then bad performances, followed by no more performances. The world at large thinks a woman can’t be creative. A woman can contribute in a special way. I don’t think that women want to write the same thing as men, but their contribution is no less important.”

I share that with you as an example of the difficulties women have had and in some cases are still having trying to find equal footing in the male dominated world of composition. Research done in the last few years shows there are still visibility issues for women composers who are under represented in commissioning, concert programs, radio programs and as staff in music education faculties. Which is why the Hildegard project and its commissioning of women composers is so important.  Because there are SO MANY fabulous women composers out there, particularly in Australia, where as I mentioned 25% of our composers are women, far more than for example the UK and Finland who clock in at 13% and the US which has 20%.  It really is our best kept secret and I am delighted to see Musica Viva celebrating this with the Hildegard commissioning project.

So where does Jane Stanley fit into this?

Jane fits into what I would call the emerging 4^th generation of Australian women composers. She was born in the 70’s when the definition of classical music had broadened considerably since the days of Sutherland.  Jane is a fairly traditional composer in that she writes for traditional instruments as distinct from electronics or noise or performance installations. Jane has studied her craft very deeply - studied with the greats of Australian composers: Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and Bernard Rands in the US. She has participated at the Wellesley Composers Conference, Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festival. She also completed a PhD in composition at University of Sydney under Ann Boyd, from whom she learned an appreciation for space and silence.

 Ensemble Offspring perform Stanley's Helix Reflection

Stanley is now Lecturer in music at University of Glasgow where the Scots have embraced her and aren’t letting go – she has been there 10 years. Jane tells me she is very sad she is unable to return to Australia for the premiere of this work. The reason is because has a two month old baby who is still a little small for flying.

As a composer she has established very distinctive voice. In most of her works there is an absence of recognisable time signature or pulse. Which gives a floating, drifting, stasis. It has a hazy weightlessness. It is beautiful and otherworldly but also sometimes wild.

The composer indicates in the program notes of Cerulean Orbits that the two instruments are orbiting around each other. Their music is drawn from the same pool of notes and the composer allows them sometimes to blend, sometimes to antagonise each other.

You will notice the piano is emancipated from being a purely accompaniment instrument; both instruments are complete equals. In fact the piano often treated like violin – as a single line shared between the two hands rather than block chords.

Analysis:

The music is very carefully crafted – it is not just random notes! Piano begins with a sextuplet of semiquavers which is the thematic core of the work. (Play sample on piano). This is the pool of notes getting introduced that will be the core of the piece. Then the violin enters and hovers on B for 6 bars. In the score the piano part is marked ‘smeared’ and the violin par ‘featherlike’.  Jane’s textural style is coming through - it is very tactile; the composer wants us to experience this like it is coming into contact with our skin! There are huge variation of dynamics and articulation the composer has written into the score giving it an instant intensity even though it is flowing and gentle.

The piano part is typical Stanley - scattered notes over a sustained pedal, sounding like droplets. Notes are grouped in 3's, 5's, 6's, spread across the beat so the effect is unpredictable, ungrounded, pulseless, a bit of a nod to Luciano Berio’s piano writing.

The middle section is where it gets wild, the score is marked "pulsating... hammered... propulsive... fff "  It is excited and busy, the sort of music that causes audiences to say  “It’s not music, its too noisy.”  Did you know Mozart’s music was criticised for the same thing? Archduke Ferdinand criticised one of Mozart’s pieces for having "too many notes”! Mozart’s ideas exploded beyond the perimeters of what was usual or predictable and people found it hard to digest. It sounds so elegant and simple to us now. So don’t be put off by the ‘noise’, instead recognise it as fresh thinking that our ears aren’t yet accustomed to.

The sense of calm returns at the end of Cerulean Orbits, and the sextuplet from the opening is heard again. This time the piano gets the repeated B’s.  it is a floating, spacious ending.

The challenge with contemporary music like this is how to make the ideas and phrases clear even when the usual signposts that our ears are used to from traditional music aren’t there?

Two Tips:

Listen to the texture. Some of Jane’s music is sparse so you get to listen to the beauty and colour of each note as it passes. There are also great washes of sound and the contrast between the textures is like listening to a trickling stream compared to the crashing waves of the ocean.

Watch the performers - they help with this: it is their job to bring out the different colours in each phrase, to make each note extremely beautiful. Their body language will hopefully cue the mood changes, to draw us in so we are enthralled.