Music Director: Eve de Castro-Robinson
Performers: Michael Murray, vocals; Edith Salzmann, cello; Kent Isomura, piano; Stella Kim, April Ju, violins; Caroline Norman, viola; Jennifer Maybee, soprano; John Coulter, manuka branch and live electronics; Liam Wooding, toy piano; Sam Rich, percussion; Callum Blackmore, voice
Chief technician: Irazema H Vera
Bob Dylan: Masters of War
Iannis Xenakis: Paille in the wind
David Grahame Taylor: Obłoki nad Ferrarą
John Coulter: Green
John Cage: Suite for Toy Piano
Eve de Castro-Robinson: ConunDRUMS
Lyell Cresswell: Das Lied von dem Fisch
Cathy Berberian: Stripsody
Auckland University Music Theatre, Sunday 10 May 2015
Review by Nelson Lam
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With the departure of John Elmsly from Auckland
University in 2014, Karlheinz Company director Eve de Castro-Robinson had the
formidable task of carrying Elmsly’s three-decade legacy and success with the Company
forward today. Aligning well to de Castro-Robinson’s character, the new
directorship brought along a refreshing burst of energy, evident long before
the concert day with her tantalising and hilariously internet-meme-appropriate
Facebook marketing – an investment well rewarded with one of the biggest turnouts
I have seen for a Karlheinz concert.
Before the first note was sounded, it was
evident that de Castro-Robinson’s curatorship extended well beyond the
programme itself – a homely rug, warm hues from the effusive lava lamp and pot
plants imbued an unpretentious and intimate atmosphere, certainly inviting us
concertgoers into what almost felt like an informal jam session. This was
certainly the case with Michael Murray’s poignant cover of Bob Dylan’s Masters of War; a wrenching opener well
matched by his throaty attack, made more bittersweet by a carefully controlled
and sensitive vibrato as his voice trailed off.
Iannis Xenakis’ Paille in the wind felt like a non sequitur to Bob Dylan, but this hostile
soundscape was cushioned in part by the informal atmosphere so well
established. Edith Salzmann masterfully negotiated the deceptively simple cello
line with impeccable precision, without sacrificing its yearning lyricism.
Salzmann was an effective foil to pianist Kent Isomura, whose controlled
navigation through Xenakis’ crystalline and ultra-condensed clusters gave each
chord enough space to let its unique sonorities ring.
While the Karlheinz Company has always been at
the forefront of championing works by modern (local and international) masters,
it was heartening to see fledgling talented New Zealand composers have their
works given their time in the spotlight. Perhaps the emotional highlight of the
concert, David Grahame Taylor’s Obłoki nad
Ferrarą from Podróż was a
sensitive treatment of Zbigniew Herbert’s wistful text, autumnal in temperament
with beautifully shaped lines floating over deft strings. The instrumentation
was well-balanced – Jennifer Maybee’s engaging lyricism was able to co-exist
with the delicate string textures, without overwhelming them. The quartet’s
cohesive performance added sheen to Taylor’s immaculately voiced chords; it was
just a shame that such a suspended mood was dropped with some hesitancy from
the quartet towards the end.
John Coulter’s Green was an arresting work that beguiled from the first breath from
silence, right up until the final decay. Coulter himself performed solo on a
giant fallen manuka branch through a series of mouthpieces, forging a haunting soundscape
devoid of familiar instrumental timbres. The electronic modulations (dictated
in real time by wind pressure and direction) were subtle, symbiotic and
extremely clever. It disseminated what was previously heard into its spectral
constituents, recombined and refocused. Visually striking, aurally organic, the
work succeeded to be bold in intent and evocative in effect.
Conversely, John Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano was whimsical in character and ridiculous in
effect – Liam Wooding’s larger than life silhouette, against a comically small
piano, with music that was almost an order larger than the piano itself was
frivolous to look at. It was a piece of contradictions, with figures haphazardly
introduced, dismissed and reintroduced. Such an innocent sounding instrument
was amusing at first, but the novelty did wear off and the incessant,
one-dimensional tinkle of the piano became testing. That being said, I never
really understood Cage’s compositions; as a figurehead of the 20th
century, I’ve always felt that I ought to pay respect to him, but often the
sheer stochasticity in his compositions made it difficult for me to truly
appreciate his works.
Eve de Castro-Robinson’s ConunDRUMS was a sonic and visual tour de force, made all the more
poignant by the dedication of the performance to the memory of iconic New
Zealand composer Jack Body. In this primal piece bold in gesture, Sam Rich’s
poised playing flew brazenly through the virtuosic percussion score, not to
mention the impassioned brush strokes Rich painted on the blank canvas behind
him. As the work unfolded, it became an intriguing three-part counterpoint
between the timbrally kaleidoscopic sonic world, the drama of Rich’s kinetic
gestures, and the bold visual paint strokes left behind. In particular, the
sonic emergence and submergence of various rhythmic patterns and timbres echoed
a similar sort of visual emergence and disappearance of suggestive shapes and
figures on the canvas, all of which was brought to life by Rich’s playing, filled
with austere intent.
A wryly humourous Das Lied von dem Fisch followed – Lyell Cresswell’s economical
writing was reflective of his similarly stark orchestral work ‘The Clock
Stops’. The work consisted of seven pithy miniatures on a rightly bizarre and
ridiculous subject of a (constipated) goldfish. Perhaps the piece itself nods
to Mahler’s gargantuan ‘Das Lied von der Erde’, but its laconic setting could
not be further away from the overly romantic soundscape a Mahlerian piece might
imply – even though there were some direct and intended quotations from Mahler
himself. In a few of the movements, the inherent sternness of the German text
against the absurdity of the subject matter was all that was required to create
the humour. Here Jennifer Maybee demonstrated her dramatic prowess, conjuring a
cheeky, clown-like demeanor that was worlds away from her nostalgic character in
Taylor’s Podróż. This was equally
matched by Kent Isomura’s pointed playing, to succinctly capture a piece I felt
was better at being whimsical and ridiculous than Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano.
Cathy Berberian’s Stripsody closed the concert. Indeed the piece itself was a
microcosm of the smorgasbord of sonic delights we heard throughout the evening
with its drama, comedy and intriguing combination of onomatopoeic sounds.
This was impeccably performed – Callum Blackmore’s stunning drag outfit, his
larger-than-life embodiment of each ‘character’, a facile vocal prowess and simply
a natural flair for drama turned this into a performance that would have
rivaled Berberian herself. With a work that could easily sound random and fragmented,
Blackmore crispy demarcated each vignette visually to subtly enforce structural
clarity without impeding the overall flow. Even with sections of seemingly
nonsensical sounds, Blackmore’s fluid interpretation of the visual score wove a
compelling narrative that was exceedingly natural and effortlessly hilarious.
Musically, from the programming to the
performance, the concert itself was masterfully executed. But the real icing on
the cake was de Castro-Robinson’s astute eye for detail in setting up the
concert space. The simple inclusion of a rug, a coffee table, a lava lamp and a
few pot plants transformed what might otherwise be just another concert, to now
an intimate, almost a convivial living room dialogue for modern music. It effectively
shattered the formality so often seen in concert halls with a space that was down-to-earth
and inviting, without at all detracting from the performances.
Outside of the concert setting, it is not often
that we see composers or directors of these events to be so active in engaging
with their audiences – the beauty of social media is that they can do just that.
Forging a more immediate connection with the event not only allows sustained
audience engagement, but also injects life and hype in a way print media could
never do. Our hyper-connectivity in the digital age makes this strategy
extremely effective – one that de Castro-Robinson has harnessed so well.
If Sunday’s concert is anything to go by, Eve
de Castro-Robinson’s directorship of the Karlheinz Company will redefine how we
approach concerts, all while continuing to deliver the refreshing sonic
experiences the Company is already well known for.
