On the 24th of March, myself and a few other musicians in the WA youth orchestra were privelledged with the opportunity to play alongside some of Perth’s most talented musicians from WASO. The concert consisted of three pieces: Roger Smalley’s Diptych: (Homage to Brian Blanchflower), Debussy’s La Mer and the infamous Pictures at an exhhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (arr.Ravel). Our conductor for the performance was the QSO Cheif Conductor Umberto Clerici. It was incredibly exciting to follow under his baton, as he conducted with fresh and exuberant playing which we could translate into our playing.
It was an honour to play alongside renowned musician Alexandra Isted, whom I performed next to in 2nd desk of the 1st violin section. Alex was very helpful and welcoming, sharing thoughts and tips on violin playing. Hopefully, I am able to lay alongside her again in the future.
(The West Australian Article)
(LimeLight Magazine Article)
Roger Smalley’s Diptych was based on a set of paintings created by British artist Brian Blanchfower
Roger Smalley writes:
“The British-born artist Brian Blanchflower came to live in Perth, as I did, in the mid-70s and the course of his artistic development has, like my own, been deeply affected by this move. I have always been attracted to his work, with its combination of deep structure and surface allure, and he, in his turn, has been significantly influenced by the work of several contemporary composers (notably Varése, Ligeti and Xenakis). It was seeing a large quantity of his output at one time (in the retrospective exhibition held at the Art Gallery of Western Australia during the 1990 Festival of Perth) which gave me the idea of composing a piece of music based on certain aspects of his work. I was particularly struck by the contrast between the extremely sombre series of paintings generically entitled Nocturne and the sculptural installation Tursiops (both dating from the early 80s) and the brilliant explosions of colour in his more recent work, typified by the painting Glimpses (An Earth History) of 1986-7. I envisaged a pair of orchestral pieces which would similarly embody this contrast between dark and light – contrasts which could be further extended in the musical domain to encompass polarities such as low/high, loud/soft, slow/fast, and stasis/motion. It seemed obvious to give such a work the painterly title of Diptych”
Playing Roger Smalley’s piece felt very interesting as their is much freedom surrounding the composition. It is exceptionally hard to keep count throughout the piece as you can very easily fall into traps within subtle time signature changes. The piece itself embodies a certain emotion which I felt while playing it. Some parts sound frantic, some tranquil. It was a new experience to play a piece by Roger Smalley, seeing as he was also a Perth artist/musician.
La Mer – Three Symphonic Sketches
‘Never before had that marvellous music La Mer appeared so seductive and yet mysterious at the same time, so imbued with the enigmatic life of the Cosmos, than on that evening when her great creator, with a gentle hand, was ruling over her waves.’
Debussy does a wonderful job at painting images about the ideas of the sea. Based on the Japanese artist’s Hosukai’s work (The Great Wave). Debussy drew inspiration from many paintings and artworks he saw depicting the sea, (really spending time near the sea himself). When playing the piece, it is interesting and exciting to see how the orchestra really does create the sound of the ocean without utilising recent 20th century techniques, such as (blowing through brass instruments to mimic waves crashing, droning notes in the strings, over-used glisses with Sul tasto playing). It feels like a fresh new way of playing and interpreting music. It was interesting to see how the piece evoked much of Debussy’s impressionist style, contrasting frantic runs with delicate overtones to create the sense/feeling of the sea, painting a picture in one’s mind.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition :
Mussorgsky was a Russian pianist from (1839-1881). Taking inspiration from a set of paintings by his architect/painter and friend Viktor Hartmann, Mussorgsky chose ten artworks to compose music for, calling the set of works the Pictures at an Exhibition. The piece was later orchestrated by composer Ravel in 1992, who brought widespread public attention to the remarkable piece of music.
The pictures at an exhibition follow/showcase Hartmann’s imagination and travels, placing the listener in the exhibition itself, promenading from picture to picture in ‘Russian Style’, (with a lopsided alteration of five -and six beat groupings ). Then pausing between each artwork, he takes us into each world.
My favourite movement, is the first art piece : The Gnome (Gnomus). The piece depicts an earth-dweller used to label a diminutive ageless spirit – usually in the appearance of a vert small, old wrinkled figure, (typically male) – who lives underground and guards treasure. Mussorgsky’s Gnomus brings forth a little agile and grotesque creature. The creature jumps quickly in a spiralling motion, leaps up several octaves and ten sneaks back down using darker sounding syncopated chords. The trill-like moments in the bass-line are rushing quickly from one place to another, similar to something like a fly that already has moved away from the spot where you just located it. He is fierce and a tricky, uncatchable figure. Even the tonality is evasive and weaves through poly-modal structures, and Mussorgsky chose to have him presented in a key with six flats (for non-music-readers: flats lower a note by a half tone) with tempo descriptions changing from the extremes of vivo (lively) and pesante (heavy). Gnomus leaves the movement in a hurried, acrobatic way up. He seems witty, somewhat weird, light, and like someone who definitely avoids contact.
(A website talking more about Gnomus and the later Baba Yaga Movement in deeper depth.)
(A website talking about the collection of Hartmann’s paintings)