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| Ding Yi Music Company in action |
Canberra
International Music Festival
Canberra
Airport Atrium. 2nd May 2017.
Reviewed by
Bill Stephens.
It was no
fault of the participants that this concert proved to be one of the least
satisfactory of the festival so far. The Canberra Airport Atrium, despite its
soaring spaces, proved an inhospitable space to listen to fine music. The busy
atrium of an operating airport had all the charm of a shopping centre, and
similar distractions.
On arrival,
elderly patrons were upset by the requirement to remove their shoes to get
through security, constant loud speaker announcements continually broke
concentration, travellers hurrying through the performance area to get to their
flights distracted, while airport staff made little effort to work quietly,
loudly chatting among themselves, appearing to resent the concert as an
interruption to their routine.
Despite the
atmosphere, the musicians did their best to create magic. Bassoonist, Ben
Hoadley opened the program with a fine performance of Gilliam Whitehead’s suite
for bassoon, “Nga Ha O Nehera”. Despite the excellence of the playing, this
complex and rather mournful composition seemed a curious choice to open a
showcase especially in this environment.
Seven members
of the Singaporean ensemble, Ding Yi Music Company, lifted the atmosphere,
firstly with a lovely arrangement of the traditional song “Swallow”, familiar
from Shu-Cheen Yu’s astonishing vocal version in yesterday’s High Court
concert, then, surprisingly, a swinging “Singapore Medley” which set toes
a-tapping, performed on a fascinating collection of exotic traditional
instruments.
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| The Simon Bolivar String Quartet at Canberra Airport |
The Song
Company wisely encouraged their audience to gather around them as they stood in
a circle to perform some stunning vocal pyrotechnics, delighting with a lovely
arrangement of “Sakura, sakura”, followed by compositions by Arvo Part, William
Cornysh, Adrian Self and Antony Pitts.
The Simon
Bolivar String Quartet from Venezuela, dazzled with their stirring rendition of
the Castellanos “Fantasy for String Quartet”, following which they demonstrated
their exceptional brilliant warm tonal balance and thrilling dynamics with
equally virtuosic renditions of works by Haydn, Bitran and Beethoven.
In complete
contrast, the spectacularly costumed China Orient Orchestra completed the
program with a selection of traditional Chinese music elegantly performed on
traditional zithers, succinctly demonstrating, for anyone who saw their
performance yesterday in the High Court, how much their performance, as well as
those of the other participants, was compromised when presented under these
conditions.
Thankfully
all these ensembles can be heard during the festival in more appropriate
surroundings. As it was, the best that can be said for this concert was that it
provided a different musical experience.
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| Members of The China Orient Orchestra at Canberra Airport. |
Photos by Peter Hislop
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 3rd May 2017
