Metropolis 2: A Matter of Life and Death
I have to say up front that during the past week my life has been taken over the Metropolis series. Having regretfully missed the first concert to attend the opera (a slight letdown as it turned out) I spent much of the last week talking about Metropolis, attending rehearsals and afternoon teas, having many of the composers generously sponsored by the Cybec Foundation to dinner, and generally launching back into music after a few years away from composition.
This concert, then, comprised of a piece by Elena Kats-Chernin, two world premieres, by composers Tristan Coelho and Nicholas Ng, and the Australian premiere of Schnittke’s Symphony No. 7. As has been the case for the past several years, the Metropolis concerts took place at the Malthouse: both an exciting venue for new music in the inclusiveness and general lack of snobbery fostered by the general admission seating and the mingling afterwards, and also a slightly difficult space: acoustically the Malthouse is very dry.
Kats-Chernin’s work suffered from this dryness: “Cadencces, Deviations and Scarlatti”, she notes, evokes the atmosphere of the fairground. The problem was, even with a very small ensemble, the dissonances didn’t come out sharp: instead it was as though the music thudded along. The first half of the piece didn’t seem particularly successful. Structurally it seemed too boxy: the music wasn’t transforming, instead simply turning to the next arrangement of sounds. As it went on, though, it improved, and the players relationship with the music also seemed to improve.
Tristan Coehlo is twenty-one. Now I’ve met a number of talented young musicians, but only one I believe is capable of pulling off a similarly accomplished composition. “Glass Canvas”, he tells us, is about the relationship between foreground and background sounds. What struck me was how beautifully the music mimics the thought process, how much it drew on the way attention shifts: and what a schizophrenic experience, then, it was to listen to a piece about the very process of listening. In the first half of the program this piece was the most successfully realised: and the players themselves seemed to have a real affinity with the work. This piece was more rewarding for me that some of the big-name Australian composer commissions of recent years: there was no attempt toward the populist or accessible. Instead the piece was written with certain aims, and it achieved those aims. At twenty-one Coehlo is a composer of great sophistication and integrity. I hope this premiere launches a successful career for him.
The third piece of the Australian half of the program was Nicholas Ng’s “Secret of the Golden Flowers: Spirals”. In this piece, Ng attempted to explore his heritage, both in the world of Chinese and Western musical sounds, and the fusion of acoustic and electronic elements. More ambitious than Coehlo’s piece, I feel it was not completely successful—but this is in no way meant to undermine what was achieved.
The first thing that struck me about this piece was that it is the first time for a number of years I’ve heard of any of Australia’s Symphony orchestras undertaking a piece that involved live electronics. If it’s a repertoire piece, such as some of Olivier Messiaen’s works, then they will use the electronic instruments called for, but there is very little work by established artistic bodies that is exploring this area. In this sense, it doesn’t surprise me that Ng’s piece was not completely successful: there has been so little done here that as a composer he could learn from. At the same time, there was so much of interest in the work, and the acoustic elements, spiralling between Western and Chinese musical styles was fascinating in itself. The sound levels of the electronic elements wasn’t always right, but it was a rich experience, and this richness certainly wasn’t lost on the audience, who appeared fascinated by the presence of electro performer Warwick Lynch and his table of gadgets,
The second half of the program consisted entirely of Schnittke’s Symphony no. 7. It seemed shocking to me that this extraordinary piece of music, by one of the twentieth century’s big names, hadn’t been played in Australia before when it was written over ten years ago. Under twenty five minutes in length, it was incredibly compressed, a piece that required more than one hearing. Some beautiful solo work, from the concertmaster and from the double bass in particular, when it finished I admit I was waiting to hear more. This is not through any fault of the music, just that it is not a piece one understands the pace of upon a first listening. I hope this is not the last opportunity I get to hear one of our finest orchestras playing this composer’s work.
This concert, then, comprised of a piece by Elena Kats-Chernin, two world premieres, by composers Tristan Coelho and Nicholas Ng, and the Australian premiere of Schnittke’s Symphony No. 7. As has been the case for the past several years, the Metropolis concerts took place at the Malthouse: both an exciting venue for new music in the inclusiveness and general lack of snobbery fostered by the general admission seating and the mingling afterwards, and also a slightly difficult space: acoustically the Malthouse is very dry.
Kats-Chernin’s work suffered from this dryness: “Cadencces, Deviations and Scarlatti”, she notes, evokes the atmosphere of the fairground. The problem was, even with a very small ensemble, the dissonances didn’t come out sharp: instead it was as though the music thudded along. The first half of the piece didn’t seem particularly successful. Structurally it seemed too boxy: the music wasn’t transforming, instead simply turning to the next arrangement of sounds. As it went on, though, it improved, and the players relationship with the music also seemed to improve.
Tristan Coehlo is twenty-one. Now I’ve met a number of talented young musicians, but only one I believe is capable of pulling off a similarly accomplished composition. “Glass Canvas”, he tells us, is about the relationship between foreground and background sounds. What struck me was how beautifully the music mimics the thought process, how much it drew on the way attention shifts: and what a schizophrenic experience, then, it was to listen to a piece about the very process of listening. In the first half of the program this piece was the most successfully realised: and the players themselves seemed to have a real affinity with the work. This piece was more rewarding for me that some of the big-name Australian composer commissions of recent years: there was no attempt toward the populist or accessible. Instead the piece was written with certain aims, and it achieved those aims. At twenty-one Coehlo is a composer of great sophistication and integrity. I hope this premiere launches a successful career for him.
The third piece of the Australian half of the program was Nicholas Ng’s “Secret of the Golden Flowers: Spirals”. In this piece, Ng attempted to explore his heritage, both in the world of Chinese and Western musical sounds, and the fusion of acoustic and electronic elements. More ambitious than Coehlo’s piece, I feel it was not completely successful—but this is in no way meant to undermine what was achieved.
The first thing that struck me about this piece was that it is the first time for a number of years I’ve heard of any of Australia’s Symphony orchestras undertaking a piece that involved live electronics. If it’s a repertoire piece, such as some of Olivier Messiaen’s works, then they will use the electronic instruments called for, but there is very little work by established artistic bodies that is exploring this area. In this sense, it doesn’t surprise me that Ng’s piece was not completely successful: there has been so little done here that as a composer he could learn from. At the same time, there was so much of interest in the work, and the acoustic elements, spiralling between Western and Chinese musical styles was fascinating in itself. The sound levels of the electronic elements wasn’t always right, but it was a rich experience, and this richness certainly wasn’t lost on the audience, who appeared fascinated by the presence of electro performer Warwick Lynch and his table of gadgets,
The second half of the program consisted entirely of Schnittke’s Symphony no. 7. It seemed shocking to me that this extraordinary piece of music, by one of the twentieth century’s big names, hadn’t been played in Australia before when it was written over ten years ago. Under twenty five minutes in length, it was incredibly compressed, a piece that required more than one hearing. Some beautiful solo work, from the concertmaster and from the double bass in particular, when it finished I admit I was waiting to hear more. This is not through any fault of the music, just that it is not a piece one understands the pace of upon a first listening. I hope this is not the last opportunity I get to hear one of our finest orchestras playing this composer’s work.
posted by Kate Middleton at 12:43 AM
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