CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
CROSSING THE THRESHOLD, Sydney Symphony at Carriageworks Bay 17, 13 March 2016. Photography by Keith Saunders: above - the band, right - David Robertson.
“PICK THIS if you have a taste for the contemporary,” advises the SSO’s website. That’s good advice and rather more positive than: “Don’t choose this if you’re only interested in the same old same old.”
This concert was the first in a new collaboration between the orchestra and the venue and on the evidence of these 90 minutes, it’s a winner. If you missed it, the second in the series is on November 20 and will feature works by Anderson, Norman, Dean, Garsden, Reich and Rzewski. Meanwhile, on a sultry Sunday afternoon in March, members of the SSO under Chief Conductor David Robertson performed a program of four very different yet linked works co-curated with Artist in Residence Brett Dean.
First was Dérive 1 (1984), programmed as a tribute to its composer Pierre Boulez who died in January. His place as a trailblazer in 20th century music set out the direction and foundation for the concert and also – in the acoustically precise warmth of Bay 17 – referenced the composer’s famously sensitive ear and fondness for unorthodox locations. In just eight minutes, with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the heart of an ensemble of five, the piece is a fascinating combination of soft colour and sharp rigour.
Next, Brett Dean’s very Australian Pastoral Symphony (2000) for chamber orchestra. Opening with the pre-recorded and unmistakeable sounds of the bush – birdsong including and especially carolling magpies – and deceptively into impressionistic depictions of rural colour and light. However, these idyllic ideas were gradually intruded upon by the sounds of timber cutting: saws, axes, the grind of metal on living wood. Beautiful, vivid and both romantic and dystopian.
The new piece in the program was specially commissioned by the SSO from Lisa Ilean. Titled Land’s End, it’s a virtual sketch of what you might expect at that place: mist, fleeting thoughts and, on a summer’s morning, aural minimalism and repetition – 24 musicians involved and working with utmost delicacy. The acoustic qualities of Bay 17 were up to it as the work began and ended in near-silence.
After a short interval, the orchestra returned with Chicago-based Australia soprano Jessica Aszodi and Gérard Grisey’s Four Songs for Crossing the Threshold – which gave the event its overall title. Composed shortly before he died in 1998, the threshold is that of death: of an angel, of civilisation, of the voice and finally, of humanity. Gloomy ideas given exquisite life.
The 40-minute, four part work explores Grisey’s late preoccupation with spectralism (musique spectrale) in which notes produced by one instrument are echoed or repeated elsewhere and almost imperceptibly higher up the scale; and microtones (according to the useful program notes “mid-crack notes”).
A considerable part of the pleasure in this concert was the proximity of audience to orchestra and the already mentioned acoustic traits of the space. It meant being able to watch and experience the unusual and instrumentation and – in Four Songs – the specific way they're grouped. For instance, the double bass with the lower-pitched brass; a violin with the lighter reeds and brass, a harp placed centrally and the whole embraced by a wide range of percussion instruments and their three players.
Placed conventionally beside the conductor, Aszodi gave intense and focussed life to the text – fragmentary poems by Guez Ricord – in ways that were both lyrical and percussive. Her control was matched by a glorious rich tone and boldness. It would be good to have her back from Chicago more often. Meanwhile, I’m much looking forward to November and recommend you keep an eye on this collaboration of venue and artists.
For an erudite review from a musicological perspective, check out Clive Paget at Limelight magazine: http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/live-reviews/review-crossing-threshold-sydney-symphony-orchestra
