The Conservatorium of Music, which is the music department of the University of Sydney, presents a "lunchbreak concert" each Wednesday during the school year. Admission is a "gold coin donation" -- the $1 and $2 Australian coins are gold -- and each week's concert is presented by a different department of the school. The singers perform one week, followed by the strings, and the brass, and so on; last Wednesday was the percussion students' turn. This was a happy coincidence for me, as I very much enjoy percussion music.
The concert was presented in the Verbruggen Concert Hall, a lovely auditorium which seats about 300 (there doesn't appear to be a photo of the hall at the Conservatorium's website); it was about half-full for this concert, which I thought was a good turnout for a Wednesday afternoon percussion concert.
The program opened with Eric Ewazen's The Palace of Nine Perfections, which the program notes tell us was inspired by a series of scrolls by 17th century Chinese painter Yuan Chiang. The three movements depict the procession of soldiers and dignitaries; the palace itself, shrouded in mist; and "the excitement of the painter's vision;" the piece lasts about 20 minutes.
The first movement alternates somber marches and brisk waltzes, all quite stately and haughty. The second movement is more of a fantasy landscape, with clouds of soft, prolonged chords that occasionally allow melodies to shine through; the third movement is about rhythmic propulsion and high energy. If Ewazen's melodies throughout tend to slip into the pentatonic cliches of Chinoiserie, he shows great skill in varying their color, given the limited instrumental choices available to him (xylophone, marimba, and vibraphone carry the melodic weight, occasionally accented by glockenspiel and tubular bells), and makes particularly effective use of the marimba's lowest notes. It's entertaining music, if not profound, and I'd like to hear more of Ewazen's music.
Next came Emmanuel Sejourne's Nancy, for solo marimba. It was a short piece, no more than four minutes long, and was a study in contrasts; soft rolled chords were periodically interrupted by louder, staccato melodic outbursts. Sandy Sin gave a nice performance, though I think she could have boosted the dynamic level on the quieter passages a bit without losing the effectiveness of the contrast; those quiet moments were sometimes hard to hear. Sin is a petite woman, and her arms were often stretched as far as they could reach to play some of the chords which called for notes at both extremes of the marimba's register; had she been three inches shorter, I don't think she'd have been physically capable of playing the piece.
The program closed with the Percussion Octet of New Zealand composer Gareth Farr, the premiere of a new work commissioned by a generous donor to the Conservatorium. In a single movement of about 15 minutes, this piece was all about rhythmic energy and volume. The roto-toms drove the work throughout; its steady pulse and abrupt shifts from one musical idea to another were reminiscent of early Glass or Reich. While it wasn't an obvious influence in the sound of the music, the performers seemed to be treating the piece as something akin to dance music; they bobbed their heads and shifted their weight from one foot to the other as if they were standing at the bar of their favorite club. (That may have also been a visual cue for the ensemble, which performed this piece without conductor, to keep one another in tempo.) When it came time for the timpani player to take the melodic lead -- which, in this piece, means that everyone backs down to mezzo-forte and he ramps up to fortissimo -- he leapt around inside his arc of drums like a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance.
Given that the piece is loud from beginning to end, Farr did a surprisingly effective job of keeping it from becoming dull or overbearing; it's an exciting piece to hear. There is still some revision to be done, I think. The ending is very abrupt, and the ensemble hadn't quite worked out the optimal placement of performers and instruments -- one of the marimba players had to make a frantic, awkward dash to strike the gong at the very end -- but for a first performance by a student ensemble, it was very fine, and the audience greatly enjoyed it.
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