Chamber music springs to life in tropical Cairns
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s move to Cairns seems to have taken – and the tropical city is loving it.
Since shifting to Cairns, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music has had a makeover and there’s a spring in its step. This ambitious chamber music event, previously based in Townsville for 34 years, has been warmly welcomed by its new host city – and it’s a successful transition.
Cairns is celebrating its 150th anniversary, which the AFCM has commemorated by commissioning a work by Sam Wu, the composer-in-residence. His Forest, Ocean, City captures Cairns’ tropical essence, the rainy season, the barrier reef, sweltering heat and urban living.
The premiere of Wu’s intensely atmospheric work was a hit in the opening night’s concert. Other compositions pursuing the tropical locale is the world premiere of Alex Turley’s Substratum in a Tropical Winter’s Journey on Friday.
Performance is occurring in a variety of settings including the Cairns Performing Arts Centre and Bulmba-Ya Theatre. To the amusement of the audience, pop-up, al fresco performances along The Esplanade have been accompanied by curlew cries. On Tuesday, Charlotte Miles is playing J.S. Bach’s demanding Suite no. 4 for unaccompanied cello on board The Spirit of Cairns lunchtime cruise.
In Conversations, festival artistic director Jack Liebeck interviews the artists. The stories and anecdotes they share amuses subscribers and often dispels stereotypical notions about classical musicians.
Violinist Alexander Sitkovesky reminisced about his time as a student at the UK’s august Yehudi Menuhin School and how he had a lesson with the famously adventurous violinist Gilles Apap. The audience chuckled when Sitkovetsky said Apap can be viewed on YouTube shredding a classical piece in the manner of Jimi Hendrix.
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Alexandra Raikhlina spoke of Aurora, an acclaimed British orchestra, whose players memorise entire symphonies. She expressed relief that due to her involvement at the festival she will not have to memorise the violin part for a performance of Mahler 1 at the BBC Proms on August 1. Afterwards, when the interviewed artists perform, the audience feels a connection to them and the music.
On Day Two, Isang Anders’s cello sang to perfection in Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Alexander Sitkovesky nailed Czardas by Vittorio Monti with wilful pacing, stretchy rhythm and flamboyant tone.
Musicians at the top of their game make playing look and sound effortless and it’s easy to forget the athleticism and physical wear and tear involved. Concert pianist Piers Lane stepped up at short notice to replace Alexander Krichel, who had injured his hand, in a dangerous account of Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet. Dangerous because the pianist’s part is fiendishly difficult.
To his credit, Lane pulled off the cascading runs at blurring speed and always in sync with Liebeck’s authoritative, nuanced soloing and Dene Olding, Dimity Hall, Julian Smiles and Irina Morozowa’s strong definition.
Due to the ensemble’s rapport, the breadth of tone, romantic spirit and taut unity, this was an astonishing knife’s-edge account, which thrilled the crowd and a visibly relieved ensemble.
Other standouts include Songs of the Half-Light by Lennox Berkely, sung beautifully by the silvery-toned, expressive tenor Robin Tritschler, although Karin Schaupp’s accomplished accompaniment and impressive tremolo deserved more amplification and resonance.
Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with all the AFCM’s string players had an irresistible force on opening night. Chaminade’s Piano Trio in A Minor, presented by the exceptional Sitkovetsky Trio, was another triumph.
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Wu Qian’s gutsy piano playing is unfashionably but marvellously full-blown, but never once swamped the violinist and cellist’s gorgeous lyricism.
Each artist selects a favourite piece, a “guilty pleasure”. Cellist Julian Smiles’ choice was Arvo Part’s powerful Spiegel im Spiegel, which has been featured in numerous films including Elegy (2008), Foxtrot (2017) and the TV series Ted Lasso.
Smiles inhabited the mournful music profoundly. When the final note faded, the silence lingered for an unusual length of time before the cellist deservedly received thundering applause.
There is a healthy balance of male and female performers and the content is eclectic, an admirable mix of old and new American, European and Australian repertoire. Violinist Alexandra Raikhlina and pianist Kristian Chong gave a distinctive airing of Aussie composer Margaret Sutherland’s impressionistic Nocturne for Violin and Piano.
In The Sitkovetsky Trio’s recital on Day Two, the trio channelled Bucha, a piece by Lena Sierova, which is a homage to those massacred in Bucha in the Ukraine in 2022. Overall, the selection of composers from Dowd, Purcell, J.S Bach, Mozart and Beethoven to Gershwin, Mancini and Einaudi to John Cage, is encouragingly diverse.
Violin lecturer Doretta Balzikas from The University of Queensland gave an inspiring masterclass when she coached The University of Melbourne’s Sunrise Quartet, which performed the first movement of Haydn’s Quartet in Bb. She was encouraging but challenging.
“‘Do you feel what you play or do you do what you’ve been told?” she asked. “Even though it’s soft, it shouldn’t sound tentative, it should be golden. Try breathing out in the spirit you want to convey as you produce a sound.”
Witnessing how the quartet improved due to her insight was heartening and entertaining.
Coming up on Day Six is Wonderful World with the remarkable French cellist Christian Pierre La Marca’s multi-media extravaganza about saving the planet, featuring cinematography by Yann Arthus-Bertrand with music by Faure, Glass and Saint-Saens.
On Day Nine, an interactive family entertainment will be presented by Trinity Anglican School, urging children to explore how music can tell stories.
The AFCM’s closing concert on August 1 will includes Dialogue by composer and didgeridoo specialist William Barton, which examines points of connection between indigenous and non-indigenous voices. The festival winds up with all artists performing So long, Farewell from The Sound of Music.
Australian Festival of Chamber Music, July 24 to August 1, Cairns.
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