Mayhem and Rapture - Perth Festival

Reviewed by Paul Treasure

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With the Perth Concert Hall closed for renovations, it gives the WA Symphony Orchestra the

chance to explore new venues for their concerts, including the Studio Underground at the

State Theatre Centre. The space is perfect for a chamber sized orchestra, and the seating brings

you close to the players, giving it a very intimate feel. The programme consisted of three

chamber works all written in the last 35 years, by three living composers.

The first piece was the delightful And Whether Pigs Have Wings by Australian composer

Holly Harrison. Dating from 2018 it was the newest piece of the night. A setting of “The

Walrus and the Carpenter” from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, you would expect it to

be quirky and playful, and it certainly did not disappoint. It gives a lot of opportunity for the

mezzo-soprano to demonstrate what she is capable of, and Jessica Aszordi took to it with

relish, ranging from spoken word to coloratura fireworks. Written when she was only thirty,

Harrison demonstrates her skill, but also especially her sense of humour. We are living in a

time when female composers are starting to get the recognition they deserve, which is

fortunate for us as it means we get to be exposed to such utterly charming and exciting

pieces of music like this one.

Dating From 1992, John Adams’ Chamber Symphony is the oldest of the evening’s pieces.

Acknowledged by Adams as one of his most difficult pieces, it starts at a rattling pace and

doesn’t let up for its entirety. The first movement is entitled “Mongrel Airs” as a swipe at a

British music critic who once described Adams’ work as lacking breeding. There is a definite

and deliberate cartoonish aesthetic to this movement, which would not be out of place as the

soundtrack to something by Tex Avert. The second movement, ‘Aria with a Walking Bass”

starts with a plodding theme played on the bass and bassoon, as the trombone plays

mournfully over the top. This plodding theme is shared among the lower instruments through

most of the movement, as the higher instruments chatter and tweet above them. The

movement is relentless and somewhat mournful in in its inevitable drive forward. Returning

to its cartoonish theme, the final movement is unashamedly called “Roadrunner’. It continues

the momentum of the previous movements but in a much more playful mood. Midway

through the movement the other instruments fade out to allow room for an extended

credenza on the violin before the rest of the ensemble return for the movement’s exuberant

finale. An exciting and playful piece from a major contemporary composer, the ensemble

tackle its intricacies and difficulties with apparent ease.

The final work of the evening was Ayre, the 2005 song cycle by Argentinian composer

Osvaldo Golijov. Drawing from a variety of Spanish, Arab, and Jewish musical styles that

evokes medieval Spain. Commencing with the retelling of a battle between the Moors and

Christians, Mananita de San Juan swoops and glides and gives Aszodi the chance to really

show what she is capable of before the rest of the cycle commences. After the fireworks

comes the gentle and mournful Una Madre Comio Asado, then an energetic and angry beat

invades the orchestra for Tancas Sarradas a Muru, a song that gets more wild and frenetic,

as even the orchestra join in with the whoops and hollers. The haunting strains of Luna tell of

a woman confronting her unfaithful husband, as the mezzo weeps and wails and breaks our

heart. The mezzo then gets a break as the orchestra dive into the jaunty and lively Nanni,

before she interrupts them, mourning for her missing love in Ma Habibi, one of the more gut-

wenching songs of the cycle. There is a little bit of byplay as the orchestra reprise their

jaunty tune in between verses of Aszodi’s grief, providing a delicious counterpoint between

the two moods. There seems to be little room left to move in this cycle so the mezzo throws her voice to the heavens and pleads with God himself in Aiini Taqtiru. But all the music has

now been sucked from the room leading the next piece, Be a string, water, to my guitar, to

be a spoken word recitation. The pretty folk song Sueltate las Cintas allows the music to

creep back in before the trickiest section of the cycle, Yah, Annah, where Aszodi’s singing is

recorded and looped back, so she is sometimes singing against three or four different

versions of her own voice. The cycle ends with Ariadna en su Laberinto, a wordless vocalise

that is mysterious, erotic and suitably labyrinthine, given its title.

With such an exciting programme the musicians of WASO show themselves more than

capable of rising to the challenges of contemporary classical music and its rapidly shifting

changes in mood and colour. Benjamin Northey, the evening’s conductor was an excellent

guide and really seemed to be relishing every moment of the evening. But the evening

inevitably belonged to Aszodi, an entrancing vocalist with great mastery of her voice and

effortlessly negotiating this tricky and eclectic repertoire.

Image Credit: Daniel James Grant

Reviewer Note: Tickets for this review were provided by Perth Festival.