Woollahra Philharmonic Orchestra (WPO) presents TRUE BLUE 23-24 June 2018
Conductor: Brad Lucas. With the participation of Translucent Duo.
Within the relative austerity of St Columba Uniting Church Woollahra Philharmonic Orchestra give a concert each three months or so, serving up a fine mix of the new and the old. The program on June 23, entitled True Blue, was a delightful selection of Australian pieces, played with all the aplomb this community orchestra continuously musters.
The program commenced with the Burke and Wills Suite, a compilation of pieces from Peter Sculthorpe’s score for the 1985 Aussie film about that doomed expedition in 1860-61. Having heard WPO perform Nigel Westlake’s Antarctica some time ago the chill of the atmospherics in that piece were sublimely contrasted here by the sensations of heat, desolation and monotony that those men must have experienced on that trek, especially in the pieces Sand Dunes and Burke and Wills March.
This was followed by an entertaining and amusing music and performance piece headed up by David Lockeridge (percussionist) and Bernie Lagana (saxophone) aka Translucent Duo. Their virtuosity as musicians is without question and the composition Cog by Steven Kramer created a great tug-o-war between the soloists and the backing orchestra. Mr Kramer is well known in music theatre circles and it does not surprise that his composition was full of comic-dramatic challenges for all involved.
After the interval two pieces by one of the WPO’s patrons, Elena Kats-Chernin, were presented. Eliza’s Aria from her Wild Swans ballet is a mesmeric pieces full of taut tension, teased by a centrifugal rhythmic life force that is capped off with a humorously hopeful final flourish. It’s a piece well known to those avid listens to ABC’s Late Light Live – having been its theme some years ago. Equally uplifting was her Dance of The Paper Umbrellas inspired by a visit to The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and the work of Dr Catherine Crook.
Finally the Danish Folk Suite by Percy Grainger. All in all intriguing stuff from a similarly intriguing personality, this concert urging me on to read more about Grainger. I was fascinated by Lord Peter’s Stable-Boy (one of the pieces in the suite I hasten to add). At times with full orchestra there were elements in this that could have been from the 17th Century Baroque, not composed 90 years ago.
It’s a great pleasure to sit so close to an orchestra and feel its full force. Music must be mankind’s highest achievement. Come hear WPO next September when they will offer more music delights under the baton of their Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Lee Bracegirdle and featuring clarinetist Dimitri Ashkenazy and flutist Bridget Bolliger.
Mark G Nagle – Theatre Now
