Every half decade the WA Symphony Orchestra celebrates their relationship with guest conductor laureate Vladimir Verbitsky with a gala concert. And why not; it’s a partnership of deep mutual respect and Verbitsky’s passionate conducting is much-beloved by audiences.
Since becoming guest conductor in 1987 Verbitsky has conducted the jewels of Russian repertoire, introduced countless Russian soloists and witnessed many changes at WASO including the tenures of four chief conductors. There has also been a huge growth in musicianship. For the 25th anniversary celebrations in 2012 Verbitsky described the orchestra as a ‘really fantastic orchestra, professional on the world stage’. In a recent interview he went one step further and declared them to be ‘the best orchestra in Australia at the moment.’
For the 30th anniversary gala concert Verbitsky programmed two large-scale Russians works: Rachmaninov’s The Bells and Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony. Both programmatic works were inspired by 19th century poetry and quote the Dies irae from the Catholic mass for the dead. The Bells also provided an opportunity to profile the WASO chorus who are currently in top form.
Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony depicts Byron’s tortured, guilt-stricken hero Manfred and is one of the great program symphonies of the 19th century. Verbitsky established a rugged foundation from the first appearance of Manfred’s restless wandering idée fixe. His immaculate precision as a conductor was balanced by idiosyncratic heart-on-sleeve entreaties; an imploring stare at the violins drew out raw intensity while a chopping gesture provoked an incisive attack from cellos and basses.
Tchaikovsky’s colourful caricature of the Witch and her waterfall in the second movement was reminiscent of The Nutcracker’s glittering magic. Verbitsky conducted without a baton and the woodwind players were receptive, responding to his relaxed contouring with bubbling, fluid sextuplets.
The expansive lyricism of the third movement built via a folk dance into a moment of throbbing passion and then the blistering aggression of the finale unfolded with the percussion section pounding a dark descent into the underworld.
The struggle of the individual versus the universe underpins much romantic ideology. Tchaikovsky doesn’t have the sarcasm of Mahler, the decadence of Wagner or the word painting of Berlioz; instead his Manfred Symphony has the gripping energy of a tempest with rare glimmers of light.
Rachmaninov dwells closer to the psyche of the hero; deep emotions pour from his pen. And this is where Verbitsky reached full stride, unleashing the humanity in the music. He extracted the essence of the sweetly naive The Silver Sleigh Bells, the troubled tranquility of The Mellow Wedding Bells and the terrifying energy of The Alarm Bells. The culmination was the deep lament of the final movement, lifted only at the very end by the hint of twinkling sleigh bells and a return to tonality with gentle clarinet arpeggios. And then the final testament where Verbitsky summed up the entire symphony in the last two bars, floating a lingering chord that swelled darkly and floated like an exhalation. A small contour from Verbitsky’s hands extracted a hint of brass chorale warmth, the last sound echoing through the hall.
The WASO Chorus sang with a dark, smoothly blended sonority. Credit to director Christopher van Tuinen and vocal coach Andrew Foote for the way the chorus navigated comfortably through the daring harmonies and tricky rhythms of The Alarm Bells. Paul O’Neill was a last minute replacement for Bradley Daley and his gleaming voice shone through as he navigated the tenor part. Antoinette Halloran captured the languorous soprano part and baritone Warwick Fyfe lamented The Mournful Iron Bells with impeccable Russian diction and utter conviction.
The concert was a revealing insight into the intuitive connection between the orchestra and Verbitsky, leaving a lingering impression of glittering, honeyed sound and impressive coherence.
This review first published in Limelight Magazine.
“Would you like to join the orchestra?” Stan and Mabel asked the rabbit.
“Yes!!!!” cried a voice from the front row.
The enraptured child was one of 6355 audience members (young and old) who attended performances and events last week as part of the WA Symphony Orchestra’s Education Week.
The Beat of Your Feet on Sunday was one of 15 concerts WASO performed during the week. It featured the enthusiastic educator and composer Paul Rissmann who introduced the orchestral instruments, taught the audience some songs and then narrated Jason Chapman’s book Stan and Mabel, a story of two animals who travel to Italy to audition for the orchestra. The illustrations were projected on screens, vocalist Libby Hammer helped with the songs and Benjamin Northey conducted the 50 plus orchestra.
The child in the front row wasn’t the only person getting swept up with the excitement. Children and adults were singing, doing actions, delighting in the instrumental solos and completely enthralled. There’s something so decadent about having literature, art and music brought to life by such talented professionals!
The day before we attended a Cushion Concert where the story of The Lion of Loved was brought to life in a similar manner by Rissmann and the11-piece EChO ensemble.
Paul Rissmann and the EChO musicians
This smaller scale concert was held in the more intimate Wardle Room of the concert hall. Even in the back row we were close enough to feel the reverberations in our chests from Andrew Sinclair’s marvelous double bass evocation of an elephant. Again Rissmann’s warm welcome and lively interaction with the music had the children captivated. The advantage of the back row was that my four year old daughter could dance her heart out. Or snuggle up when things got a bit tense as the jungle animals tried to rescue Leo the lion from the raging river.
Libby Hammer’s bubbly personality and warm vocals were an asset to both shows. And the "have-a-go" on the instruments at the end is always popular. But the real success lay in Rissmann’s compositions, which captured the zesty energy of the picture books and also the moments of sweet pathos while featuring specific instruments and some very singable tunes.
A few nights later my children randomly began singing “We’re going to Italy to audition in a competition”.
It was a busy week for the orchestra who performed The Lion Who Loved and The Beat of Your Feet during the week to school children, along with Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants. There was also a conducting masterclass, the Rusty Orchestra concert, Harmony Music performances for children with special needs, the Hospital Orchestra Project at PMH and the Composition Project Final Showing.
WASO's next children’s concerts is November 5th when ABC favourites Lah-Lah and Buzz join the orchestra.
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.
It's Friday morning and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra are in rehearsal. Principal conductor Asher Fisch arrives at the podium and picks up his baton, which has been accessorised with a ping pong ball. He holds it up for the orchestra to see and joins in the general laughter.
It is four years into the maestro's contract with the orchestra and the relationship has produced quite incredible results. Fisch has an obvious camaraderie with the orchestra, but there's also a marked improvement in the string blending, a more cohesive warmth from the winds and brass and profound detail in the musical interpretation. In a recent Limelight review Fisch was credited with transforming the orchestra into the best interpreters of German romantic repertoire this side of Germany. How has he done it?
WASO tuning up for their Friday rehearsal.
I sat in on a rehearsal this week to discover the magical formula. The concert this weekend includes Mozart, Stravinsky and Sibelius, a welcome relief for those of us who have found Fisch's programming focus on Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner a little conservative. It was the final rehearsal but there was still time for Fisch to relate the last time he was on the receiving end of an orchestral prank: his baton was substituted with a sausage during a performance of Manon and he used the sausage to conduct the remainder of the opera. More laughter from the orchestra and then the rehearsal began.
Mozart's Symphony No 29 took up most of the session. Much of it was nuts and bolts; correcting bowing and articulation, checking balance. Fisch often deferred to assistant conductor Elena Schwarz who was sitting in the auditorium following the score. The assistant conductor position was created under Fisch's tenure and the Swiss/Australian Schwarz is the second recipient following on from Christopher Dragon. Fisch turned often to look for her nod of confirmation: "Can you hear the violas?"; "How is the volume here?"
assistant Elena Schwarz
Fisch's direction was energised and even-handed, leaping lightly from his rehearsal stool to give direction to a phrase. At times he would try out an articulation with the orchestra before marking it in their parts and there was a sense of working it out together. "Yes that is better don't you think? Write it in." He used words sparingly and effectively: "Don't take this personally but it (the andante movement) sounds like Versailles and the nobility are eating chicken. Too relaxed. Which is how it was back then, but I want more."
Fisch listened to the opening of the symphony from the auditorium before asking for two-thirds less volume from the second violins, viola and cellos. The tempo was already quite moderate and the softer tone gave a hushed expectancy before erupting into the fully fledged theme, exploiting the pristine acoustics of the Perth Concert Hall.
The opening eight bars of the Minuet and Trio were worked over in detail to get the exact rise and fall. At bar 26 he stopped again: the violins needed to take time on the dotted rhythm before landing on the trill. They played it again and this time it had lift and elegance. "Perfect". Gradually the often lightweight minuet movement was transformed into a deftly elegant dance. Again in the fourth movement a simple request for a more energetic upbeat from the violins meant the whole phrase bristled with energy.
Slowly the symphony took on a distinct shape. The clean simplicity of Mozart can be unforgiving but FIsch's attention to detail was paying off. This was Mozart so distilled so that, like a miniature painting, the impact was compact and vivid.
Rehearsing Sibelius Symphony No 2
During the break I chatted with assistant concertmaster Semra Lee-Smith who confirmed that the orchestral players are just as delighted as the audience.
"I've been here 14 years and the last six or so years have been amazing. Now the emphasis is more on the music."
She describes Fisch's opening concert with the orchestra when he performed as a soloist in a Mozart piano concerto as a turning point.
"He started as one of us. I have so much respect that he performed as a pianist with us first. It feels like he is one of us. And he allows us to make mistakes and will laugh with us. That is really important."
After the break the rehearsal continued with a
top-and-tail of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto featuring concertmaster Laurence Jackson as soloist (a little hard to recognise casually attired in jeans and sneakers!). Jackson's incisive rhythm and bright sound gave a shining clarity to the rarely heard concerto. The ex-Birmingham Symphony Orchestra concertmaster joined the orchestra in 2016 and is no small part of WASO's transformation. Quietly spoken, unassuming and with faultless musical intuition he is respected and admired by the players. They warmly applauded him at the end of the rehearsal.
There was just time for a few touch ups to Sibelius' Symphony No 2. This is the first time Fisch has performed a Sibelius symphony and it marks a departure away from standard German romantic repertoire. Fisch has often commented about the chemistry he felt with WASO from the beginning and the more adventurous programming makes it is clear that now there is also trust.
His approach to rehearsing Sibelius showed the same detailed faithfulness to the score with an instinctive ear for balance and dynamic contrasts. Nothing that magical then. But combined with a world class concertmaster, orchestral players who feel like they are integral to the team and an organisational structure that puts the emphasis on the music the results are consistently outstanding. Later in the year the focus will be on Wagner's symphonic repertoire and there is a Tristan und Isolde planned for 2018. But I hope Fisch continues to expand his repertoire choices because as far as I can see the sky is the limit.
WASO will give their final performance of the Sibelius, Mozart and Stravinsky program tonight at the Perth Concert Hall.
Kate Miller-Heidke’s national orchestral tour is a polished package. The tour (which includes Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart and Canberra) features Miller-Heidke’s guitarist husband Keir Nuttall, classy orchestral arrangements, a slick sound and lighting team and visuals by video artist Amy Gebhardt.
The WA Symphony Orchestra was the first to sign up for a show with the classically trained opera turned indie pop singer after her Helpmann Award-winning orchestral debut with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra last year. WASO has sizable experience in the crossover genre from collaborations with the likes of The Whitlams, Katie Noonan, Tim Minchin, Chick Corea and many others over the decades. Under conductor Benjamin Northey the components came together seamlessly with the versatile Miller-Heidke at the epicentre, part pop princess and part operatic diva.
The concert attracted a sold-out audience of fans to the Perth Concert hall and Miller-Heidke walked on stage to rapturous applause. The opening number Bliss was unsettled - a rushed beginning and balance issues between orchestra and an overly amplified soloist – but as the orchestra melted from pizzicato to lush chords and Gebhardt’s cloud images floated by Miller-Heidke’s voice softened into ethereal shades.
Benjamin Northey ran a tight ship steering a sympathetic orchestra. The songlist spanned the breadth of Miller-Heidke’s output and her theatrical writing style was enhanced further by the orchestral accompaniment. In O Vertigo the bird-like coloratura vocal line was echoed joyfully by the flute while the strings and percussion rocked along with Nuttall on guitar. Mama, arranged by Northey, had echoes of Queen with vocal screams, heavy rock drumming and dense string backing. In contrast the acoustic version of Caught in the Crowd had a folk narrative style that brought to mind The Waifs. The lilting arrangement of In The Dark was particularly effective with a brass chorale creating a moody lullaby.
Two songs from The Rabbits, an opera written in collaboration with Iain Grandage, revealed the immaculate vocal technique underpinning Miller-Heidke’s spinto soprano with feather-light scale passages, an earthy low range, steely top notes and a wide vibrato. The arrangement of Where was particularly stunning with pastoral woodwind, strings and moments of cinematic vastness.
Gebhardt’s videography included slow motion images of nude bodies and Andalusian horses, evocations of beauty, power, gentleness and freedom that worked particularly well with more spacious numbers like Bliss and Last Day on Earth.
Miller-Heidke’s irreverent sense of humour, expressed musically in songs like You Underestimated Me, Dude and Are you F*cking Kidding Me manifested onstage in banter with the orchestra - who apparently party harder than rock n roll artists - and droll stories about touring and family life (their son Ernie was described as their latest release arriving ten months ago). Miller-Heidke’s wit will be put to the test later in the year with the debut of her first musical Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical.
Nuttall delivered several generous guitar solos, including an extended improvisation in Johannes Luebber’s jazz-inflected arrangement of Words revealing impressive guitar chops. Jazz licks morphed into heavy rock grooves and even flamenco theatrics, laden with effects from the mixing desk. In fact the sound engineers were busy all night adding often overt effects to both the vocal and guitar parts.
It was a night richly laden with artistry and entertainment. Miller-Heidke can add another feather to the proverbial
cap, although she would probably prefer a flamboyant headdress.
This article first published in Limelight magazine 2017.
The WA Academy of Performing Arts is in full swing this month. Concerts include Clocked Out Duo percussion stars Vanessa Tomlinson and Erik Griswold performing on the 4th and renowned English conductor Nicholas Cleobury leading vocal students in a performance featuring Tippett's Negro Spirituals on the 6th.
The school of music at UWA is also hitting full steam with a Mainstage Concert on the 9th featuring Shaun Lee-Chen and the student orchestra performing a world premiere by jazz composer Joe Chindamo. On the 28th the Schoenberg Project will feature student arrangements of Schoenberg's Six Little Piano Pieces plus an arrangement by Brett Dean from when he was a student - it could be very revealing!
Thank you Louise Devenish for this update: On April 10-11th an unusual gig at PICA called Never Tilt Your Chair Back on Two Legs brings together three of Australia's leading female percussionists for Maurice Kagel's music theatre piece Dressur. Set at a formal dinner table, the theme of dinner time etiquette will also be explored in a new work by Kate Neal.
The Australian String Quartet take over Margaret River from the 21-23rd for a Chamber Music weekend - what's not to love?!
The WA Symphony Orchestra go retro with The Best of British on the 7th before a Sibelius fest on 20/21/22 with Asher Fisch conducting the second symphony and concert master Laurence Jackson in Stravinsky's Violin Concerto. On the 28/29th the Zuckerman Trio join the orchestra for Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman also featuring in Berg's Violin Concerto.
Let me know if I've missed anything. See you at a concert soon!
On
Friday 2nd December a 25 piece orchestra and the WASO chorus joined
with Layton and four English vocalists for a Messiah that, despite some untidy
moments, had enthralling dramatic clarity.
From
the opening Sinfony Layton revealed his flair for crafting through dynamics,
particularly the use of restraint. Repeated phrases became whisper soft echoes while
exciting crescendos were built from repeated sequences. Layton’s sense of
dramatic direction was applied to the megastructure of Messiah too. The outer
sections were performed with joyful vigour (although the fugues revealed a
vulnerable chorus tenor section) while Part Two was the dramatic epicentre with
pianissimo fragility and drawn out harmonic suspensions.
The
soloists sang with the purity of the English choral tradition, sometimes barely
audible over the orchestra but effective in their use of light and shade. Mezzo
soprano Helen Charlston’s langorous ‘He was despised’ had stillness and
intimacy while Tenor Gwilym Bowen’s tremulous performance of ‘Thy rebuke has
broken His heart’ over extremely soft string accompaniment brought to the
foreground a section of Messiah I’d never previously given much attention to. Robert
Davies sang with a clean, smooth baritone bringing stateliness to ‘The trumpet
shall sound’ with resplendent trumpet contributions from Brent Grapes. Soprano
Eleanor Dennis ushered in Part Three with a shimmering ‘I know that my Redeemer
liveth’ although her wide vibrato clouded her diction.
The
dramatic clarity was interrupted by moments of disparity between the chorus,
who were following the precise downbeat of Layton’s conducting, and the
orchestra who tended to play behind the beat. Stewart Smith’s crisp
contributions on harpsichord were an important anchor.
The
work moved into hope and resurrection helped by the chorus’s assertive, agile
fugue ‘Let us break their bonds’. The Amen, perhaps the greatest ever composed,
was an unleashing of radiant splendour helped by the dense organ chords from
Jonathon Bradley who had moved from the orchestral keyboard to the pipe organ
loft for the finale.
In
the program notes Layton, who will soon notch up 200 performances of Messiah,
described the final moments of the work as a ‘vision of what heaven may be
like’. His dramatic conviction made Handel’s musical centrepiece of the
Christian faith a powerful testimony. It’s no wonder that a work of such
intense spirituality remains banned in places like China. The enthusiastic
response of the capacity audience indicated the ongoing appeal of Handel’s Messiah
– perhaps especially during a season that can be so easily overwhelmed by
consumer chaos.
This review was first published in Limelight magazine.
Asher
Fisch’s three years as principal conductor with the WA Symphony Orchestra seem to have been building - via a series of Beethoven and Brahms festivals –
towards a Wagnerian goal. The orchestra’s recent international tour included an
all-Wagner program in Abu Dhabi and the 2017 season has two programs dedicatedto Wagner with concert performances of Tristan
und Isolde planned for 2018. The concert on the weekend featured what was
billed as the Wagnerian dream team: heldentenor Stuart Skelton and conductor
Asher Fisch in a program of Wagner opera excerpts.
Asher Fisch and Stuart Skelton
So
what does Asher Fisch and WASO’s version of Wagner sound like? On Friday 26th
WASO was sounding the most Germanic I’ve heard with vibrato-less woodwind
embedded in the strings and warmed by a thick glossy brass sound. There was also - somewhat surprisingly - a sense
of restraint, of lingering until the last moment so that when the swells of
volume finally arrived they were simply sublime. And thirdly Fisch created a
smooth roundedness through his restful contouring and carefully placed phrase
ends.
With
these aspects at work the Prelude to Parsifal was an exquisitely tailored
masterpiece. The operatic excerpts were also excellent although given the
through-composed nature of Wagner’s operas it was problematic expecting small
excerpts to stand alone; the endings were abrupt and the motivic development
only just underway.
It
was worth it though to hear Stuart Skelton’s artistry. In the orchestral
introduction to Allmacht’ger Vater (Rienzi)
the melody was introduced in the cello section with some gold dust from harps and
horns and when Skelton joined his tenor gleamed like a ray of light. He sang with
rounded vowels, a centred glow throughout his range and seemingly endless
streams of cushioned air. In Nur eine Waffe taugt (Parsifal) he moved easily between Wagner’s lyrical writing and more
animated Sprechstimme, while in Wintersturme (Walkure) his portamentos had an ardent fervour. The dream team was
most evident in Parsifal where the orchestra played equal partner to Skelton
with Fisch and Skelton dovetailing with great attentiveness.
The
second half of the program was taken up with Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, a
weighty sixty minute work even with the fourth incomplete movement left
off. Bruckner’s love of counterpoint was
manifest everywhere with his long melodies supported and sometimes overrun by
countermelodies and various permutations of the theme. From the opening bars
with the languorous climbing phrases Fisch brought a breadth and vehemence to
the orchestral dialogue.
Bruckner’s
organist background was also evident in his sectional treatment of the
orchestra. Fisch emphasised Bruckner’s different ‘organ manual’ approach to
orchestration, allowing space for intimate cameos within the sprawling
landscape. The contrasts between the
pizzicato dance and the pounding chase of the third movement were thrilling. When
the full contingent of blazing brass (including the Wagner tubas) was unleashed
you could hear Bruckner literally pulling out all the stops.
In
the third movement Fisch built a dark intensity into the slow descending
phrases but Bruckner’s wintry Romanticism was starting to wear thin and heads
were nodding in the audience. A full program of late-German romanticism may
have been a bit too much on a hot Perth evening. Still the memory of the
magnificent blended orchestral sound and Skelton’s gleaming tenor will stay
with me a long time.
He has terrible tusks and terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws... and he was being dragged up the steps of the Perth Concert Hall by a toddler.
It was the WA Symphony Orchestra's Gruffalo concert and one boy had brought his stuffed Gruffalo teddy along for the show. The concert hall was buzzing with children flocking to see Julia Donaldson's best-selling book The Gruffalo brought to life on a big screen with live music by the orchestra.
The story follows a little mouse walking through the forest and deflecting a fox, an owl and other predators with descriptions of a terrifying monster. Turns out the Gruffalo of his imagining is real and the quick-thinking mouse has to find a way of tricking him too. The animated version of the book includes a squirrel family as narrators, and the sequel Gruffalo's Child flips the tables and tells the story from the point of view of a small Gruffalo girl.
My family embarked on the trip with great excitement. They love getting a taste of the concerts mum is always going to for work, and WASO's kids concerts are a great place to start. Conductor and orchestrator Terry Davies introduced the sections of the orchestra and the musical motifs associated with the different animals: the flute for the owl, the percussion for the fox, the tuba for the Gruffalo. And then the film began, projected on screens around the hall.
There is something special about live concerts; there was far more participation that would be generated from watching the movie at home. The young audience members soon recognised the familiar lines and began to join in:"I'm going to have lunch with a Gruff-a-lo".
Matthew laughed uproariously at the slapstick moments: the fox getting snow on his head, the owl crashing into the trees. Once Tahlia realised the Gruffalo wasn't going to appear on stage and the snake and fox etc weren't real, she started to relax and enjoy the show too.
Of course with the antics happening on screen there wasn't much focus on the orchestra, but they played well under Davies, who used a monitor on his podium to coordinate the timing with the movie. The concert finished in under an hour before the kids had time to get squirmy and then we headed home to read the book just one more time!
The WA Symphony Orchestra heads off on an international tour next week and I am feeling a pang of pride!
It is the orchestra's first tour in ten years. Asher Fisch is conducting three concerts this weekend to showcase the tour repertoire: Mahler 5, Sulthorpe's Kakadu, assorted Wagner repertoire and Saint-Saens.
Fisch conducts tour repertoire at the morning concert today.
The tour begins October 6th in the United Arab Emirates where WASO has been invited to open the Abu Dhabi Classics Season, the first Australian major arts organisation to perform in the UAE. The tour continues to Beijing and Shanghai and is reminiscent of the 2006 trip to China when I accompanied the orchestra as a critic. Jean Yves Thibaudet is obviously still popular with Chinese audiences and will be soloist again in Saint Saens' Piano Concert No 5. The Chinese publicity folk have again been prescriptive with their repertoire advice; Shostakovich 10 has been swapped for the more traditional Mahler 5 which the orchestra performed last tour. And again a film crew is travelling with the orchestra, but this time the focus of the documentary seems to be the cultural rather than the business exchange.
The China leg also includes two school concerts and a masterclass. The tour is expected to build on the growing partnership between WASO, the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Australia China Business Council. I am relieved to see the emphasis this time round on the cultural aspects of the tour, over and above the business and trade relationships which were the overriding focus in 2006.
Colin Barnett and Asher Fisch, with three Chinese musicians in WASO
The 2016 tour seems like a good fit for an orchestra who boasts less these days about their enviable sponsorship and business foundation and more about the quality of the music making. It's been a subtle shift over the past few years with the gradual change of administrative staff and under the leadership of Paul Daniel and now especially Asher Fisch. For people like me who love their orchestra it has been welcomed with a sigh of relief.
In 2006 the cracks in the orchestra showed as administration fired conductor Matthias Bamert at the commencement of the tour, overlooked basic musician requirements like access to safe drinking water, and where the musicians played to empty concert halls.
I believe the orchestra is the strongest and most balanced it has ever been musically, administratively and financially. I don't envisage any of the dramas of the last trip. I wish them well and look forward to hearing of their international success.
It’s
a strange mix of excruciating and exquisite watching aerial artists contort
into back breaking poses while suspended many metres above you. Add the splendour
of a 70 piece live orchestra and the plush environs of a concert hall and the
effect was a circus experience of majestic proportions.
A
sell-out crowd packed the Perth Concert Hall to witness the world-wide
phenomenon of Cirque de la Symphonie collaborating with the WA Symphony Orchestra. Irina Burdetsky spun hoops from her toes, knees and hair to the
thrilling Spanish sounds of Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance. Vladimir Tsarkov’s mime
and juggling tricks provided comic relief. Elena Tsarkov swapped frocks at
impossible speeds, danced slow contortions on top of bar stools and delivered a high-kicking ribbon dance to Offenbach’s famous Can-Can.
Irina Burdetsky
Even
the most devout WASO supporter would have to admit the orchestra receded into
the shadows behind the jaw-dropping circus stunts. In fact it’s a tribute to
the players’ immense discipline that they weren’t completely distracted! Guy Noble
conducted several orchestral interludes with spirit (showy excerpts from Glinka’s
Russlan and Ludmilla, Smetana’s The Bartered Bride and Dvorak’s Carnival Overture) but
to be honest the playing was often untidy and the orchestral settings seemed
locked on loud and fast.
Soaring to John Williams Flight to Neverland
The
most engaging dialogue between the music and the cirque artists occurred in the
aerial acrobatics. In the aerial silks dance Christine Van Loo rose and fell according
to the contour of Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre, demonstrating impressive muscularity,
flexibility and daring as she hung suspended by a foot
or elbow. Vitalii Buza used aerial straps to literally fly over the audience in
John Williams’ Flight to Neverland. The Valse from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake was bewitching
as two swans (Alexander Streltsov and Chirstine Van Loo) dived, twirled and
courted while suspended from red silks.
Dancing swans in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
The
highlight was Sibelius’ Finlandia where the ponderous grandeur of the brass playing
was matched by the magnificent gold-painted strongmen Jarek and Darek. As the serene
Finlandia hymn filled the hall one of the men executed a handstand on the other’s
head slowly twisting and turning with incredible balance and strength, made even more breath-taking by Sibelius’ haunting music.
The set is built from corrugated iron dotted with sheep and when love-sick Nemorino sets eyes on Adina he declares “She’s a corker”. Previous productions of Donizetti’s 1832 opera The Elixir of Love have been set in the wild west or at the beach but now it has arrived in the outback.
Rachelle Durkin as Adina and Aldo di Toro as Nemorino
Simon Phillips’ popular 2001 production has finally made it to Perth and it bubbles with the laugh-out-loud immediacy of a musical. The West Australian Opera’s revival by Cathy Dadd features a starry cast led by Rachelle Durkin as station owner Adina and Aldo di Toro as the local shearer Nemorino. Set designer Michael Scott-Mitchell’s corrugated red hills, windmill and vibrant blue sky are brightly lit by Nick Schlieper while Gabriela Tylesova’s frocks, suits and hats (dusted with ochre colours) place the action in pre-World War One.
Marco Nistico is Dr Dulcamara
Dr Dulcamara (a pompous Marco Nistico) arrives as the Rawleigh’s Ready Relief man and the love potion he sells the gullible Nemorino is a bottle of Coca-Cola, apparently introduced to Australia around this time. With new confidence Nemorino pretends to ignore Adina, who responds cattily that his love for her will “stick like a dag to a sheep”.
Sergeant Belcore (a gallant Jose Carbo) arrives with troops and almost convinces Adina to marry him despite a groin strain as he goes on bended knee. The resourceful set converts to a cow shed for the wedding scene between Adina and Belcore and then a chook house where the farm girls cluck over Nemorino’s windfall inheritance. Nemorino can’t believe the rapid effectiveness of the potion as the girls suddenly clamour for his attention, led by a hilariously over the top Jennifer Barrington as Giannetta.
Filled with hope Nemorino sings his big showstopper A Furtive Tear. On opening night the dreamy-eyed and big hearted di Toro delivered a spacious, simple and achingly sweet aria. It was the icing on the cake of a career-highlight performance where di Toro’s Nemorino won over the audience even as he was shunned by Adina, stealing hearts with his mix of stumbling shyness and boyish exuberance.
Durkin, reprising the role with di Toro for the third time, gave the most multi-hued performance I’ve seen from her. Her strawberries and cream coloratura was marvellously expressive and after her robust flirtations the sotto voce timidity with which she declared her true feelings for Nemorino were breath taking.
It was one of many moments where the opera cut through the clanging clichés and ribald humour and went straight to the heart. An energetic chorus under new head of music Thomas Johnson and a tight sparkling WA Symphony Orchestra under Stuart Stratford completed the picture. The Elixir is the second sensational theatre season this year from a company which appears to be thriving under director Brad Cohen. Whatever the magic potion is I hope WA Opera can keep it coming.
“It’s the Wolf!” the children clamour. A masked actor is sneaking past the orchestra as they warm up onstage. The concert hasn’t even begun but the fun is already underway.
Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf was the concluding concert in the WA Symphony Orchestra’s Education Week program which included a birthday party for the education ensemble EChO, the world premiere of student compositions, the popular amateur Rusty Orchestra concert and a hospital concert.
Tahlia's first visit to the Perth Concert Hall
The fresh take on Peter and the Wolf was presented by Platypus Theatre (from Canada) who were a resounding success at WASO’s inaugural Education Week last year. Artistic director Peter Duschenes demonstrated the concept of musical characterisation with WASO and conductor Chris van Tuinen performing excerpts including Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee and Schumann’s Traumerei. The musical themes for Prokofiev’s ‘symphony for children’ were introduced and the story unfolded with the help of masks, puppets and mime plus a few minor plot adjustments for modern sensibilities: the wolf stuffed the duck in a sack rather than swallowing it and the huntsmen were police who ran out of ammunition allowing Peter and the help of a dozen audience volunteers to net the wolf.
Platypus Theatre kept the music central, drawing all their theatrics from the musical gestures from the bird reluctant to help Peter distract the wolf to the tug of war over the wolf’s tail. The antics were well-pitched with stock-in-trade pantomime gestures prompting shrieks of “He’s over there” from the thrilled young audience.
My three year old loved the cat because of its music (kudos to the clarinettists!) while my five year old thought it was hilarious when the wolf couldn’t spot Peter and friends hiding right behind him: “He must’ve thought the person who woke him up was invisible!”
It was fabulous to see WASO investing so wholeheartedly in the vital job of reaching a young audience. The high demand for tickets during Education Week indicates there is no shortage of parents and children keen to give the adventure of classical music a go.
There were smiles all round when Laurence Jackson signed on last year as concertmaster for the WA Symphony Orchestra. Jackson left a prestigious position as concertmaster of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to relocate to Perth - an indication of WASO's growing international reputation as a hard-working and progressive orchestra. The violinist has impeccable pedigree, studying first at the elite Chethams School of Music then the Royal Academy of Music before making his Royal Festival Hall debut in 1990. Since Jackson joined WASO the players and administration have been talking with warm appreciation about both his innate musical instincts and his friendly manner.
What music gets your heart racing?
That could be almost anything! From a Mozart piano concerto to a Strauss tone poem like Ein Heldenleben to Earth,Wind and Fire! It's probably more about how I feel at that particular time, than the musical genre itself.
What calms you down?
I love to listen to jazz, at the moment I am revisiting Stephane Grappelli, who has always been a hero of mine on the violin and I am enjoying his collaborations with Django Reinhardt, both absolute geniuses in my book.
What do you sing along to?
Well, I cannot sing to save my life but I always have music swirling around in my head, often I come off stage and I'm humming the piece the orchestra has just played....I think I might be alone in that amongst many of my colleagues! Last year you signed a three year contract as concertmaster with the WA Symphony Orchestra. It is now six months into your first year with the orchestra – how are things going?
It is going very well, I have had the privilege directing my colleagues for a week in a series of concerts at Perth Concert Hall as well as appearing as soloist with them. The amount of support I have had from everyone has been amazing; a very refreshing experience for me. WASO is a very dynamic, forward-thinking orchestra, there is a real "can do" attitude here in Perth and there is also a real willingness from the players to constantly improve as an ensemble and to develop our role within the Perth community.
Jackson and his Vuilaume violin.
In April you performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with WASO. How did it feel fronting the orchestra as soloist? (Read a review from Limelight magazine here.)
Personally, I always find it a real thrill to stand up in front of an orchestra and play a concerto. The freedom you have is amazing and coupled with a good orchestra and equally importantly, a good conductor, you can really define a piece in your own way. That's not to say that it's easy in any way! Particularly standing in front of your colleagues can be both positive in terms of the support and good will etc that you receive, but also possibly less than positive if you feel you have to prove yourself as a player. In my case, I was the 'new boy', so I felt I had to play my best!
Western Australia seems particularly attractive to European musicians for the life-style change as much as the music! How is Perth comparing to Birmingham, or Warrington where you grew up?
Well it may be a cliche, but it's true, the lifestyle is fantastic in Perth and I am reminded of that every time I drive into work along Mounts Bay road and see the river and the park... it doesn't get much better! The contrast to working in the UK is striking in terms of hours and sheer volume of repertoire covered in any one particular week. This was one of the main draws for me making the move to Perth: finding a better balance in my life and having time to enjoy and develop new interests.
Your successful leadership of the Maggini String Quartet from 1994-2006 produced 23 albums, a Gramophone Award, the Cannes Classic Award and the Diapason d’Or of the Year. Do you miss your chamber music days? Will you be pursuing small ensemble work in Perth?
I do miss the quartet a lot and probably more now than ten years ago. I particularly miss the fabulous repertoire for string quartet and also working in minute detail on pieces and general housekeeping, like intonation, rhythm etc. However, I don't feel the urge to start another quartet, I feel that I have learned much from that chapter in my career and I now would very much like to explore the violin sonata repertoire, which is something I did much of when I left college and joined the Young Concert Artists Trust back in 1989.
Listen to the Maggini String Quartet performing Three Idylls for string Quartet by Frank Bridge
You play on a violin made around 1850 by J.B. Vuilaume. How did the instrument come to make its home with you?
This is a remarkable violin....it originally made its way to the UK from Russia and was in a truly terrible state! I think it had five large holes in the body for a start and it took many years of restoration by my good friends at Oxford Violins, to enable it to be played professionally and sound amazing. I have had the violin for about 16 years now and I've not been tempted so far by anything more exotic.
What drew you to music initially? Why are you still playing?
Music was always being played around the house and encouraged by my parents, and I began the violin when I was a little boy aged about 6. They were not musicians but that environment, plus the lack of any distractions in that little part of rural England, meant that I would play all day long quite literally! I simply loved the violin and never wanted to do anything else with my life.
You have a soft spot for several English contemporary composers. You recorded the John Jeffreys Violin Concerto for Meridian and the complete repertoire for violin and piano by Sir Arnold Bax on Naxos. Are there any Australian composers that you have a particular interest in?
Not yet but I'm sure that will change of course.
The role of a concertmaster is somewhat paradoxical – it requires leadership and soloistic charisma but also empathy and behind-the-scenes skills to build relationships with conductors and artistic management. Where did you learn the skills to be a concert master?
That's a hard question....I think the skills you mention in the question are absolutely what you need, unfortunately there is no handbook and no further education available (that I know about) and you tend to learn from trusting your instincts as well as from your mistakes. Perhaps the most important quality required, is the ability both as a violinist and a person, to be yourself and not to try to be anything other than that. I think you get appointed not just because you can play the violin but also because your colleagues feel they can work with you and that you will become their musical ally, so to speak.
Laurence and his wife Sarah
Did you bring family or pets to Perth with you?
Just myself and my wife, Sarah, plus 5 suitcases and 126 boxes!
What is your favourite place in Perth?
I don't think we have one favourite place, we love Kings Park and walks down by the river and we do love going to the beach and having breakfast overlooking the ocean....you certainly can't do that in Birmingham!
Black bear, Minnesota c Laurence Jackson
Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music and the family?
I love nature and wildlife and I love to indulge my hobby of photography. Those that know me are aware that I am passionate about bears and I am looking forward to volunteering at the Animals Asia Chengdu Asiatic Bear Centre later this year. I have photographed brown and black bears in the USA and Finland, sometimes at surprisingly close quarters....but that's another story! Thank you Laurence Jackson for being involved in the Celebrity Soft Spot series. To see Laurence in action choose a concert from the WASO website.
Janet Holmes à Court is a true renaissance woman. She has a background in science teaching, a career
as an extremely successful business woman and an interest in art which spans
music (Chairman of WASO board), fine art (Holmes a Court collection), architecture
(Ambassador to Venice Biennale) and theatre (founding patron of Black Swan Theatre). She is an
advocate in the community for health, conservation and education and is also a devoted
grandmother.
What music can bring you to tears?
Anything!
Beethoven can bring me to tears. His works always remind me of my mother who
thought he was the greatest! One of my earliest memories was seeing my mother
weeping into the kitchen sink as she listened to the final movements of a
Beethoven piano concerto. I realised then the power of music to move. Richard
Tognetti playing The Lark Ascending by Benjamin Britten certainly can bring
me to tears.
What music gets your heart racing?
Hearing the orchestra tuning up. This is a very exciting
time for me. Hearing and seeing 84 or 100 musicians – or however many are
needed for tonight’s concert - settling down and preparing to perform for us,
the audience. I love the excitement of this – then the arrival of the Conductor
to take charge. Let the music begin!
What do you sing along to?
Me singing along would not be pleasant for anyone.
I’m more of a finger tapper. Having studied piano for many years, I tend to
“arrange” the music I am listening to for piano, and play silently on my knee.
I find it extremely difficult to sit still in concerts.
Your
highly successful business Heytesbury (now owned and run by your son, Paul) has
had interests in horse breeding cattle, wine production and engineering
contracting. For decades you were known as the richest woman in Australia. But
perhaps your greatest legacy is your involvement with the arts world. Where did
your love of arts come from?
The “richest woman” tag was always a ridiculous
statement and was never made by me.
Because Robert died without a will, his estate
(which included masses of debt) was divided in intestate proportions i.e. ⅓ to
me ⅔ to my 4 children. I was never the richest woman in Australia! My love for the arts was fostered by my parents.
This
month (May) the Holmes à Court Gallery at Vasse Felix is opening a new
exhibition titled Rachel Coad – RETROspective. What motivated you to open the
gallery initially? And what is the appeal of Rachel Coad’s work to inspire this
new exhibition and residency?
Almost ever since Robert and I started to collect
art, I dreamt of having a gallery. We always considered the collection to be
private/ public; that it was something to be shared. A public gallery such as
LWAG and AGWA cannot possibly show all its works. Neither can it show its works
in spaces that are not perfectly climate controlled. Their duty is to preserve,
as well as educate, stimulate, amuse and display.
We are never careless with our works of art, but we
are able to share them with others in spaces NOT environmentally perfect for
the purpose. This enables people in many more places to enjoy the works. For example
years ago we had an exhibition of works in the old Masonic Hall in Dalwallinu. There are now works on loan to King Edward Memorial Hospital, Government House in
both Perth and Hobart, Perth Modern School, Kings Park, John Holland Offices,
the Art Gallery of Western Australia and so on. These are all places where a broad
audience can see and appreciate them.
Holmes a Court Gallery Vasse Felix
In 2000 I opened a gallery in East Perth. For ten years
we held exhibitions and hosted Artist in Residence programmes, Day of Ideas
discussions, artist’s lunches, seminars, etc. In 2010 I enjoyed hosting six 300th
Birthday parties for a Cappa violin I own which was made in 1710. In the East
Perth gallery we exhibited works from the Holmes à Court Collection and works
by artists from elsewhere who were NOT represented by galleries here in WA. The
gallery in East Perth was complemented by the gallery at Vasse Felix. When the East
Perth building was sold the gallery at the winery became the sole space for
exhibiting and running residencies. It also happens to have pretty wonderful
acoustics, so serves as an excellent venue for musical performances for example
the Australian Chamber Orchestra Festival in December each year.
Many
artists whose works I admire have been Artist in Residence during the time I
have operated galleries: Brian McKay, Stuart Elliot, Helen Britton, Leslie
Meaney, John Parkes, Clyde McGill, Ben Pushman, Thomas Hoareau. Next on the
agenda is Rachel Coad. I have become a great fan of Rachel and her work ever
since seeing and purchasing a painting at Perth Galleries several years ago.
She and her partner Chris have become great friends. Rachel’s portraits are
exceptional descriptions of their subjects. One feels one is looking into the
souls of the people she paints – capturing their inner selves. I love her
technique, her palette, her empathy with the subjects. Apart from the Harrier JumpJet her subjects are ordinary Australians, many of whom are deceased.
ABC interviews Janet about her interest in Aboriginal art.
Also
this month in Venice you will be involved in la Biennale di Venezia as part of
the International Architecture Exhibition. What will be your participation
here?
I have the great privilege of being the Commissioner
for Australia for the Venice Architecture Biennale. This will be my 4th
Biennale. It is a wonderful role. I sometimes joke that I am Commissioner for
parties and thankyous, but that is to diminish the role. The Commissioner is a
member of the committee which sifts through the many applications and chooses
the Creative Director of the Australian Exhibition and then oversees the
development of the exhibit. As there is no funding from Australia Council for
the Architecture Biennale – they don’t consider Architecture to be art - the
funds for Australia to be represented in Venice must be raised by the
Australian Institute of Architects. The Commissioner is intimately involved in
this fundraising. Funds come from various governments (sadly NOT that of WA),
philanthropists, sponsors and the profession. In Venice itself, the “thankyous”
and parties and opening speeches begin!!
You are a member of the boards of nine
different organisations including chairman of two. (Centenary Trust for Women, Australian Major Performing
Arts Group, Australian National Academy of Music, Australian Urban Design
Research Centre, Chamber of Arts and Culture WA, New York Philharmonic
International Advisory Board, Rio Tinto Community Investment Fund, Chairman -
Australian Children’s Television Foundation, Chairman - West Australian
Symphony Orchestra.) Where
did you learn the leadership (diplomatic, political, psychology!) skills to work
with diverse groups of people toward a common goal?
Possibly my three years as a high school
science teacher helped.
You are the
recipient of multiple awards including being made in 2007 a Companion of the
Order of Australia in recognition of your “service to business, particularly as
a leader in the construction, wine and cattle industries, to the advancement of
Western Australia's musical and theatre culture, to the visual arts, and to the
community.”
What part of
your life are you most proud of?
I
don’t sit around thinking about what I’m proud of – but I am delighted and
relieved that all four of my children are happily married, are not on drugs, and
haven’t killed themselves or anyone else in a car accident. And that they are
all useful contributing members of the communities in which they live.
So much of your time and money goes into championing
the arts. Why do you believe the world of the arts is so important?
This is the worst question to ask me. To me,
the Arts are as important as breathing – essential for life and a big part of
it. I once asked my great, and sadly now deceased, friend Brian McKay what
Art was. “Something that moves you in a way you can’t explain,” was his reply.
A work of art which captures our attention may
be extraordinarily complex – as is the response it evokes. There are so many
possibilities that we might decide that the mystery is after all unfathomable
and had best be left alone. Or we may ask – what is it in us as humans that
leads us so insistently to seek out encounters with paintings, plays, poems,
novels, works of sculpture, dance, music? What is it in them that so engages
us, brings us so much satisfaction, and what is the nature of our satisfaction?
Research
shows us that people in hospital rooms with a window onto a view have faster
rates of recovery. If there is no window, a painting can have the same effect. Children
who are exposed to classical music in utero and in their childhood develop
better and faster neuron connections than those who are not. The Venezuelan El
Sistema project (a version of which WASO is operating in two schools in the
Kwinana region) which exposes children to orchestral music performance, has had
a remarkable effect on reducing crime and antisocial behaviour throughout
Venezuela.
There has been some crippling government funding cuts recently to the
Australia Council resulting in
the demise of the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers, an award you have
supported with your patronage for many years. What are your thoughts on this?
Naturally I am very disappointed that this has been discontinued.
What is
your perspective on the health of the arts scene currently in Australia and WA
in particular?
There is music in Perth 365 days of the year. Think
of it. We have the WASO, ACO, UWA, Musica Viva, Fremantle Chamber Orchestra,
WAAPA, Ellingtons, Fremantle Arts Centre, St George’s Cathedral, etc, etc. Sadly,
the theatres in Perth are dark a great deal of the time. The State Theatre
Centre was built by the Government at a cost of more than $100m, but the theatre
companies are not funded sufficiently to occupy the spaces for much of the year.
You have a soft spot for the WA Symphony Orchestra,
where you have been chair of the board since 1998 – when did you first discover
our state orchestra?
My
parents took me to concerts of WASO from age about 8 or 9. I remember hearing Sir John Barbirolli
conduct, the
violinist David Oistrakh,
pianist Claudio Arrau, etc. I am privileged
to have started my association when I was so young.
Janet shares her memories of WASO on YouTube.
I know you have four children –
are there any grandchildren?
Four
children and seventeen grandchildren. Fortunately
my youngest son, Paul and his wife Zara have chosen to live and bring up their
5 children in Perth. That is a blessing for which I am truly grateful.
What is
your favourite place in Perth?
Wherever I happen to be is my favourite. If I’m
home, it’s here. If I’m at a concert – it’s Perth Concert Hall. If I’m at the
Heytesbury Stud – it’s there. If in Kings Park – it’s there. If in Boranup
Forest – it’s there. I have a passion for Darlington, the Sunken Garden in
UWA and Gnaraloo on the Ningaloo Reef.
Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or
is it all about the arts?
I
have a soft spot or many things – family and friends, music, theatre, visual
arts, architecture, the environment, the bush, construction, wildflowers, the
night sky in the southern hemisphere, colours of the ocean, good food and wine.
Richard Tognetti plays The Lark Ascending
Thank you Janet Holmes à
Court for making the time for Celebrity Soft Spot. For more information
go to the Holmes a Court Vasse Felix gallery website or to Heytesbury. Or keep an eye out for Janet at a concert or theatre show in Perth!
The WASO Chorus sang with a dark, smoothly blended sonority. Credit to director Christopher van Tuinen and vocal coach Andrew Foote for the way the chorus navigated comfortably through the daring harmonies and tricky rhythms of The Alarm Bells. Paul O’Neill was a last minute replacement for Bradley Daley and his gleaming voice shone through as he navigated the tenor part. Antoinette Halloran captured the languorous soprano part and baritone Warwick Fyfe lamented The Mournful Iron Bells with impeccable Russian diction and utter conviction.
