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William Blake once
commented that "You never know what is enough, until you know what
is more than enough." Most audiences, without a doubt, would admit
they've had "more than enough" of modern composers and their
wretched tuneless constructs. A fair enough sentiment, but as this
new series devoted to the music of Australian composers shows, ABC
Classics and the Tasmanian Symphony have not given up hope, and
classical listeners might yet find something worthwhile and
rewarding what composers from the Antipodes have to say.
This disc showcases
the orchestral works of Gordon Kerry (picture), whose heart-on-sleeve writing
is at the same time sensual and spiritual. David Porcelijn, who
completed a notable Beethoven cycle in 2002 with the Tasmanian
Symphony Orchestra, is a more than worthy advocate for such music,
and one will find meticulous workmanship in these pieces, from both
composer and performers. Take for instance, the opening work on the
album, the classically-titled Nocturne, written for a pair of
chamber-sized groups each comprising string octet and wind quartet,
joined by a piano obbligato. Obviously, a CD cannot fully
capture the horizontal stereophonic effects of the intricate musical
dialogue possible from a live performance, yet one cannot fail to
appreciate the quality of focus which the players bring to Kerry's
writing.
Or how about the
Concerto for cello, strings and percussion, originally written for
Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk, but performed here by TSO Principal
Cello, Sue-Ellen Paulsen. She delivers a persuasive reading,
reacting with some dexterity and puissance to Kerry's wickedly
virtuosic demands. What emerges from this material is full of
roiling polyphonic gestures, accentuated by percussive bursts, an
intriguing interweaving of soli parts tossed back and forth
between soloist, strings and percussion.
The other three
works on the disc take their titles from poetry, and indeed, in
another time and place, might have been described as "tone poems"
(less the Romanticized connotations.) From Gerard Hopkins's That
Nature is an Heraclitean Fire, and of the Comfort of the
Resurrection comes Heart's-Clarion, a sideways reference
to its instrumentation for trumpet solo and strings. The soloist
Geoffrey Payne gives a remarkable account, playing with imagination
and intelligence, alternating between moments of disquiet and
quietitude, underlined by energetic string playing which Porcelijn
does not allow to descend into banality.
Bright Meniscus
is borrowed from a line in JR Rowland's April in Canberra...,
with Kerry's musical soundscape abstracted (in both meanings of the
word) after Rowland's poetic landscapes. One also cannot fail to
appreciate the apposite use of "meniscus" to describe a form of
surface tension under which an intricate interaction of forces are
at work. On its veneer, Bright Meniscus is not a million
miles removed from the generous Straussian brand of Romanticism -
even if there are also deeper undercurrents of tortuous
chromaticisms. Under Porcelijn's revealing advocacy, this piece has
genuine celebratory moments, especially in the final third of the
work, and a joy it is to savour the music as it evolves and advances
from start to end.
The title work of
this album harvesting the solstice thunders was taken from a
maritime-inspired Voyages cycle by Hart Crane, a constellated
heterophony which, in the composer's own words, "(finds) a
satisfying abstract form." Undeniably, Kerry has a certain penchant
for coups de théâtre, which the performers seize upon with
much relish. Behind this stream of music-making, one can perhaps
sense the wellspring of a liberated, boundless music with a desire
and consciousness of its own, or what the German composer Wolfgang
Rihm describes as Triebleben der Klänge: the "life force of
sounds".
These works were written in the relatively short interval between
1993 and 1998, giving a certain window of insight into Kerry's
artisanship. One can recognize the common denominators of his
musical language through these works; nevertheless, like the way
that man-made diamond, cubic zirconium, is created in a crucible of
its own material because no other substance is robust enough to
withstand the forge, these formidable pieces do not necessarily
present easy pleasures, but richly rewarding ones.
Benjamin Chee
prefers his music tortuous than torturous.
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365: 12.12.1998 © Chia Han-Leon
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