Review: 2023 Coriole Music Festival

If there’s one reassuring factor that emerged from the ache of COVID, it’s the realisation that the fullest enjoyment to be gained from music comes from folks really being bodily current collectively and sharing within the expertise of listening to it. One appreciates this increasingly more as we emerge from the pandemic and attempt to put it behind us.

Coriole Music Competition’s return, tentative at first however accelerating every time, has due to this fact been most heart-warming for many who have come to know and admire this annual occasion. On the identical time, it pays to look again and see how the pandemic affected our lives – due to course it did, very profoundly.

As Coriole’s incoming inventive director, Simon Cobcroft took on precisely this angle within the concert events he richly devised. So in a trajectory of darkness to gentle, of adversity to reaffirmation, listeners might retrace a journey as expressed by means of artwork that possibly we have now all been by means of.

Well-known to many because the ASO’s principal cellist, Cobcroft introduced alongside an exquisite firm of fellow musicians to perform this program. His personal chamber group, Lyrebird Trio from Queensland, took a distinguished position, however many colleagues got here from the ASO and elsewhere from interstate. The musicianship they confirmed was excellent all through: intense however elating, and punctuated at instances with sheer unbridled enjoyable.

What folks could not have identified, till Cobcroft took to the microphone, is simply how eloquent and well-read he’s throughout all of the composers who have been represented. He had many illuminating tales to inform regarding the three concert events of “Longing”, “Reunion” and “Savage Parade”.

Serving virtually as a clean canvas for every thing to be drawn upon, Monteverdi’s madrigal in reward of the nightingale, “Dolcissimo Uscignolo”, sounded pure and distilled in Paul Stanhope’s association of this tune for soprano, piano, violin and cello. Lyrebird Trio – comprising violinist Glenn Christensen, pianist Angela Turner and Cobcroft – then delivered an electrifying efficiency of Stanhope’s Piano Trio “Dolcissimo Uscignolo”, a piece that takes the identical madrigal into more and more manic territory. Providing quirky, even unruly enjoyable at instances, Nielsen’s Wind Quartet, Op.43, was a pleasure because of excellent taking part in from Julia Grenfell (flute), Joshua Oates (oboe), Dean Newcombe (clarinet), Mark Gaydon (bassoon) and Adrian Uren (horn).

A mighty two-piano efficiency of Rachmaninov’s “Symphonic Dances” performed by Kristian Chong and Daniel de Borah took all breath away within the thrilling pleasure and distinctive self-discipline these pianists delivered to this most fantastic work. It was intriguing to see how in another way they handled line and phrase – de Borah extra analytically, Chong extra gesturally – whereas combining faultlessly when it comes to timing. To drag this off so effectively is a prodigious feat, as it’s certainly corresponding to Stravinsky’s two-piano model of “Ceremony of Spring” in rhythmic complexity.

Daniel de Borah and Kristian Chong offered a mighty two-piano efficiency of Rachmaninov’s ‘Symphonic Dances’. Picture: Frank Lynch

The second live performance took the listener right into a world of aloneness, by way of varied solo works that culminated in a triumphal affirmation of camaraderie in Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat, Op.44. A number of the solos maybe over-emphasised the thought of isolation of their meditative stillness, however Newcombe’s efficiency of “Abime des oiseaux”, from Messiaen’s “Quartet for the Finish of Time”, was immensely expressive and fantastically accomplished. The Schumann quintet was one of many triumphs of this competition. With consummate chamber taking part in from Lyrebird Trio joined by violinist Alexandra Osborne, violist Justin Julian and Daniel de Borah, this scaled the true heights of chamber music.

Chilly, wintry climate posed no actual impediment throughout the weekend, and audiences have been handled to a trio of recent works and a very spectacular finale on the Sunday. As this 12 months’s commissioned composer, Anne Cawrse contributed a extremely memorable “Anniversary Trio” in honour of competition patrons Don and Veronica Aldridge. Flowing abundantly with inspiration and infectious rhythmic drive, it is rather impressively written for the medium of violin, cello and piano. Alongside the best way we heard intriguing quotes from Beethoven and Billy Joel that, as Cawrse defined, acknowledge the musical preferences of its dedicatees. It’s most likely her best work thus far.

Two different very enlivening Australian works put hearth within the stomach. With touches of Ravel and jazz, Joseph Twist’s “Dancing with Anyone” for string quartet had a terrific rhythmic drive and degree of pleasure; and Justin Williams’ “Three Intermezzi” for piano was delightfully whimsical in its contrasts of jumpy rhythms and romantically-laden melody.

A trickier hear, Stravinsky’s Septet for blended ensemble is a vexatious work, filled with astringent, dotty complexity that appears to deliberately attempt to unseat the performers and confound the listener. Its circus-like hijinks and “managed cacophony” proved but extra enjoyable because of nice ensemble taking part in from the performers.

Each notable competition wants a notable finale, and this time we had one which will have surpassed something Coriole has beforehand provided. Britten’s “Les Illuminations” is a very arresting tune cycle for soprano (or tenor) and string orchestra based mostly on fairly disturbing surrealist poetry by Arthur Rimbaud. It was riveting right here in an impressive, massively dramatic efficiency by Sofia Troncoso and 16 strings. The depth was nail-biting and past something one might have imagined. What a marvellous singer Troncoso is, and the way effectively the strings labored collectively with out the necessity for a conductor.

When Coriole Music Competition resumed in 2021 and 2022 underneath Anna Goldsworthy’s astute stewardship, it felt as if some kind of human victory had been gained. Now underneath Cobcroft it feels doubly so. We are able to solely stay up for extra fantastic experiences subsequent 12 months and the next underneath his path.

The Coriole Music Competition was offered on Could 20 and 21 at Coriole Vineyards in McLaren Vale.

Supported by the Authorities of South Australia