This concert's main title, ‘Danceworks’, refers directly to the two major works performed, while the subtitle, ‘Musical Mavericks’, rather begs the question as to whether it refers to the composers represented or the performers? While the Perth Concert Hall undergoes renovation, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra is performing in a variety of venues; perhaps the very name of this one – the Studio Underground (in the State Theatre Centre WA) – suggested something on the alternative side, or perhaps this was a long term plan just happening to find its home here? Whatever the case, the WASO played this somewhat unfamiliar repertoire with its customary precision, energy and elegance in a concert which totally engaged.
Guest conductor Otto Tausk hails from the Netherlands and highlighted works by his late compatriot and colleague Louis Andriessen, plus other contemporary composers Michael Torke (USA) and Andriessen students Martijn Padding and Steve Martland. Tausk himself was a genial companion for this particular journey, addressing the audience to lend context to the performances.
The short opening piece, Torke’s Adjustable Wrench, was an intricate and jaunty number with jazz inflections, including bluesy effects. It featured an eclectic ensemble of classical and contemporary instruments, starting and ending with three clarinets, a brass array, single strings, electronic keyboard, grand piano and marimba with a short bassoon solo near the end.
Andriessen’s Dances, necessitated a considerable rearrangement of forces, with this time a full symphonic complement of strings, along with harp and lots of percussion. There are four movements, none of them identifiable as any kind of particular dance movement, but nonetheless suggesting rather stately movement. The first movement featured ringing sounds of bells and marimba, while the following three feature a soprano. There is a text based on the book Winged Pharoah by Joan Grant, a 20th-century writer and “reincarnationist”. While the words were projected onto the back of the stage, it was hard to make much sense of them without further context, apart from alluding to scenes in the life of some long dead Pharoanic figure. However Sara Macliver brought to bear her crystalline accurate soprano which blended well with the assembled forces to create a quite enchanting impression of Ancient Evenings, which included an incipient storm rolling back to gentle quietness, and an impression of a difficult life falling finally into silence.
After the interval, a short work by Padding, entitled Slow March to Moscow, reflected Napoleon’s unsuccessful attempt on Russia. The small ensemble for this one, as well as scratches on a piece of paper, also featured cries and moans from the musicians, which Tausk suggested may reflect the anguish of some Dutch soldiers who had been involved in said campaign. One quite felt for the troops plodding wearily through the snow.
Martland’s Dance Works was the final piece which, like the Andriessen one, comprised four movements bearing no resemblance to any established dance forms, but was certainly dancelike in its rhythmic effects. This one featured yet another orchestral configuration, noticeably three different types of saxophone as well as an electric violin, two electric guitars, piano, trumpet and trombone. A fanfare-like beginning ushered in the rollicking opening movement, followed by a mellower Brubeckian section. The third movement featured urgent driving rhythms with an abrupt finish. The last movement began with a rather back-country road effect, but sped up towards a short jangly piano solo which introduced a swelling crescendo for a rousing finish. While the audience was a lot smaller than that for most WASO concerts, it was most enthusiastic in its response.
