SOLFÈGE AND SORCERY
11 November 2021
CONCERT REVIEW: REQUIEM FOR AN EMPRESS
11 November 2021
COLLABORATIVE ENCOUNTERS
W.A. Mozart (1756 – 1791)
As the Australian Boys Choir advances towards 2022, it prepares to travel back in time to the eighteenth century. Embarking upon a new collaboration with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO), the Institute will present a program titled Austrian Encounters which will see vocal and orchestral colours swirling and mingling to make spirits soar for both performer and listener alike.
ARCO was founded in 2013 under the direction of renowned musician and educator, the late Richard Gill AO. Current co- Artistic Directors, violinist Rachael Beesley and clarinettist Nicole van Bruggen, continue Gill’s legacy which also shares a common vision with the ABCI.
‘Under Richard’s artistic direction, the pillars of music education and historical insights into Classical and Romantic repertoire struck a powerful chord within the Australian music and music education worlds,’ says Rachael. ‘The musicians of our orchestra and our youth orchestra, Young Mannheim Symphonists, share Richard’s energy and passion for music, and we are proud and humbled that he entrusted us with carrying on his incredible legacy.’
Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809)
The Choir has also felt the depths of Gill’s contribution to the community, and ABCI Artistic Director Nick Dinopoulos recounts how the partnership was born: ‘ARCO co-Artistic Director Rachael Beesley and I have worked together on various projects in and around Melbourne for years now, and she was terrifically enthusiastic about putting the pieces together when we last had a friendly Zoom catch-up and I mentioned the idea for this concert,’ he says. ‘I am absolutely committed to these sorts of wide-ranging collaborative projects for the ABCI into the future.’
Rachael also notes a strong synergy between the two organisations: ‘We are thrilled to collaborate with ABCI as their core ideas of offering exceptional music education and training to support talented young singers to grow, learn and shine, empower boys to find their voices and encourage them to have a go aligns with our philosophy towards music education.’
ARCO specialises in the historically informed performance (HIP) of late 18th- to early 20th-century orchestral and chamber music repertoire on period instruments. Sometimes referred to as period performance, HIP seeks to elucidate the musical culture and aesthetics of the period in which the music was conceived. Both Nicole and Rachael studied historically informed performance at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague, playing with many leading HIP ensembles throughout Europe and Australia.
Michael Haydn (1737 –1806)
‘To the listener, there is an immediately noticeable contrast between the HIP approach and that of the mainstream symphony or chamber orchestra,’ says Nicole. ‘This is due to different timbral relationships between wind, brass, string sections... Understanding changes in performance styles encourages us to investigate how things might have sounded in the 18th- and 19th-centuries.’
The planned repertoire includes pieces written specifically for boys’ voices, featuring some of the most outstanding choral repertoire written by Mozart, as well as works by Joseph and Michael Haydn. The performance will recall the ABCI 2018 European tour when the boys sang in Salzburg Cathedral, site of Mozart’s baptism. ‘Perhaps the most intriguing work on the program is Mozart’s first setting of the Litany of Loreto which will open the concert and was written when the composer was 15 – around the same age as many of the performers that we’ll have on stage’ says Nick.
The ABCI Artistic Director looks forward to a program that is ‘absolutely crystalline and effervescent. We’ll pair Mozart with the well-known Missa Brevis in B-flat by Joseph Haydn, before returning to perform another Litany by Joseph’s younger brother Michael,’ says Nick, detailing some of the program highlights. ‘The Sparrow Mass (so called for the chirps found in the violin part of the Osanna section) is easily one of the most ebullient works in Mozart’s output and will round up this historically informed presentation, including the unique sound of gut strings in the violin and cello sections of the orchestra, and replicas of eighteenth-century Viennese trombones.’
The Choir’s 2022 season will be a magical mystery tour of global proportions. ‘International travel has been fairly tricky for a while now, so we thought we’d bring the world directly to our audiences instead,’ says Nick of the diverse offerings for the coming year. ‘I’m also looking forward to our September program of sublime choral music from Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia presented alongside the wonderful singers of The Vocal Consort and it will be great to be back on stage at Melbourne Recital Centre at Christmas, too.’
Austrian Encounters Concert Details
Saturday 22nd May at Sacred Heart Carlton, with a live-stream on the Australian Digital Concert Hall platform.
Also Sunday 21st May at St. Mary of the Angel’s Basilica Geelong.
To learn more about the exciting concerts and events planned for 2022,
please see
www.australianboyschoir.com.au/concerts
The Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra perform at the City Recital Hall – Angel Place, Sydney (Photo by Oscar Smith)
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