LEN POWER.
WITH their first concert for 2021, the Canberra Choral Society filled Llewellyn Hall with the sound of voices, trumpets and trombones in a spectacular performance of contrasting works from the 16th and the 21st centuries.
The first half of the program presented works by Giovanni Gabrieli and Andrea Gabrieli. Both composers spent much of their careers as organists of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice in the 16th century. They utilised the unusual layout of the church with its two choir lofts facing each other to create striking spatial effects.
After a confident opening with Giovanni Gabrieli’s “Cantate Domino”, arranged for the choir by Dan Walker, the brass instruments played one work each by both composers from the hall’s balcony. The sound coming from above and behind the audience was quite electrifying, giving a hint of the type of spatial effects the composers were renowned for in their works in Venice.
Sarah Rice… “Visual images can put power into poetry and music – they can make a poem feel real.” Photo: Helen Musa
POET, artist, philosopher and academic, Sarah Rice is one of the true chameleons of the Canberra arts scene – and she sings, too.
A former soprano with Canberra’s long-running Oriana Chorale, she’s returning to the choir armed with an ArtsACT grant for an ambitious project that puts all her talents to work.
The multi-arts project inspired by Rice’s poetry about to take the stage at Llewellyn Hall under the title “Text/ure,” was made that all at easier by the fact that Oriana’s newish conductor, Dan Walker, was keen to attract new audiences and new choristers, so was on board from the start.
Arts editor
HELEN MUSA has another week’s worth of “Arts in the City”. Here it is…
NEW play “Foxholes of the Mind” looks into the lives of Vietnam veteran Frank, suffering from PTSD, and his wife Trish, 30 years after the war. It’s written by Bernard Clancy, author of the Vietnam war novel “Best We Forget” and directed by Wolf Heidecker, producing on behalf of the Geelong sub-branch of the Vietnam Veterans’ Association. At Courtyard Studio, May 12-14. Book at canberratheatrecentre.com.au
THE Art Gallery of NSW celebrates 100 years of Australia’s portrait award with a new major exhibition, “Archie 100: A Century of the Archibald Prize”. The show will unearth the stories behind more than 100 carefully selected artworks. The good news is that it’s coming to the National Portrait Gallery, spring/summer 2023-24.
Music / Konstantin Shamray, Musica Viva. At Llewellyn Hall, April 29. Reviewed by
CLINTON WHITE.
Despite his big hands, the Russian-born and trained, Adelaide-based pianist, Konstantin Shamray has an exceptional gentleness and fluidity when he plays the piano. His respect for the piano is palpable. It is almost as though the piano reciprocates that respect.
Appearing with the strings, 19 in number, of the Australian National Academy of Music Orchestra, led by Sophie Rowell, concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and ANAM’s Head of Chamber Music – Strings, Shamray performed two very contrasting works.
Gustav Mahler began, but never completed, his “Piano Quartet in A Minor” as a student in Vienna. Even though only the first movement was completed, it did get its premiere in 1876. But then Mahler lost interest in it and it was not re-discovered until the 1960s, more than 50 years after his death.
Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra, playing at the music festival this weekend.
CANBERRA International Music Festival kicks off on Friday, April 30, and runs until May 9, mostly at the Fitters Workshop, Kingston, but it’s also streaming via a 10-concert digital pass here and, as well, there’ll be a “student” rush, one hour before at the door, for all concerts. Book here.
THE Royal Academy of Dance Australia will host a gala evening of performance by students at ACT and Riverina area dance schools this Sunday. RAD, which has a quarter of a million students worldwide, will present a program which spans genres from ballet to Broadway and contemporary to character. Playhouse, 6pm, Sunday, May 2, book here or 6275 2700.