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Review for The Birch Tree: Music based on Folktunes.
Gwen Bennett•Published November 2, 2016 for The Music Trust
“The most unusual aspect of this CD is the rare sound of Béla Bartók’s piano music played on a harpsichord, sometimes with cello, and surrounded by contemporary Australian compositions.”
From two volumes of Bartók’s collections of Hungarian and Slovakian folksongs entitled For Children, Diana Weston has selected 27 pieces, in two sets. Mostly songs and dances, usually around a minute long, they vary in mood from sombre, poignant or whimsical to lilting, energetic and jolly. The robust sound of the harpsichord suits the music well and Weston plays with verve and skill. The unexpected presence of Angus Ryan’s cello reinforces rhythm in about half of the pieces and also provides some lovely solos to chordal accompaniment from the harpsichord. These little pieces represent much effort on the part of their collector and transcriber…
The opening track on the CD is Mary Mageau’s Variations on Scarborough Fair. The tune is subtly altered yet always recognisable in these lyrical and poetic variations, which are beautifully performed by Joanne Arnott (recorder), Shaun Ng (viola da gamba) and Diana Weston.
Inventiveness and joy imbue Four Children’s Songs by May Howlett. This composer easily enters into a child’s fantasy world – she wrote both words and music to a descriptive quartet of pieces entitled “The Littlest Dragon”, “The Cat”, “The Dog” and “Flutter-by, My Butterfly”. Howlett has had a long career in performing, teaching and composing and knows much about how to write for voice. She has given the soprano some vocal challenges, but the masterly Anna Fraser has no trouble with those – her interpretations are great fun, with the occasional roar, purr or woof!
Suite for Diana was commissioned by Diana Weston and composed in 2014 for solo harpsichord by Ann Carr-Boyd. Three movements inspired from different folksong sources are separated by “Interludes” as breaks between the songs, to be inserted, omitted or repeated at the discretion of the performer. “The Wild Colonial Boy” opens the Suite in a brisk, spirited rendition of this Australian/Irish song. The second movement consists of two contrasting Latvian folksongs. Carr-Boyd introduces the tunes then takes us on a delightful imaginative journey of an improvisatory nature, with scalic passages, trills and flourishes of diverse types, before the recapitulation. The third movement is based on a traditional Arabic song called “Gulumkan”. Over a repetitive bass line, Carr-Boyd provides some interesting writing for the right hand, with more trills and flourishes which ally aurally to earlier sounds. A concluding “Interlude” acts as a coda. This Suite is an excellent addition to the body of Australian music written for solo harpsichord.
The final track gives its name to the CD – The Birch Tree by Elena Kats-Chernin, written in 2014 for cello and harpsichord and recorded here for the first time. It is based on a famous Russian folk song: “In the fields stood the birch tree, it was curly . . .” Kats-Chernin comments: “I had very, very curly hair as a child and I felt like that birch tree . . .” This concept ties straight back, in a most satisfying way, to the imagery of Howlett’s Children’s Songs. The repetitive nature of the piece is mesmeric and quite evocative – I had a vision of a group of Russian women in long skirts and headdresses performing a round dance, although a few modern jazzy bits creep in from time to time.
Diana Weston is founder and director of Thoroughbass, a group dedicated to presenting innovative programs of early and contemporary music, as this CD amply demonstrates. She should be commended especially for commissioning new Australian music. The recording was made in Studio 301, Sydney by engineer Ross A’Hern and Diana Weston.
Wirripang continues on its exemplary path of support for such projects.
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Reviewed by Gwen Bennett
“The most unusual aspect of this CD is the rare sound of Béla Bartók’s piano music played on a harpsichord, sometimes with cello, and surrounded by contemporary Australian compositions.”
From two volumes of Bartók’s collections of Hungarian and Slovakian folksongs entitled For Children, Diana Weston has selected 27 pieces, in two sets. Mostly songs and dances, usually around a minute long, they vary in mood from sombre, poignant or whimsical to lilting, energetic and jolly. The robust sound of the harpsichord suits the music well and Weston plays with verve and skill. The unexpected presence of Angus Ryan’s cello reinforces rhythm in about half of the pieces and also provides some lovely solos to chordal accompaniment from the harpsichord. These little pieces represent much effort on the part of their collector and transcriber, reminding us to reflect on the life and work of this great composer.
The opening track on the CD is Mary Mageau’s Variations on Scarborough Fair, written in 1982 for the now defunct Brisbane Baroque Trio. The tune is subtly altered yet always recognisable in these lyrical and poetic variations, which are beautifully performed by Joanne Arnott (recorder), Shaun Ng (viola da gamba) and Diana Weston. While this setting does not use the words, the opening lines of the famous tune are well known:
Are you going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. . .
Weston’s liner notes inform us that the words have a “submerged meaning. Fascinating studies on the methods of contraception used in medieval times – both herbal and mechanical – reveal that the parsley, rosemary and thyme are not just culinary flavours . . .” That snippet of information certainly provides a new notion of why a person might be going to Scarborough Fair!
Inventiveness and joy imbue Four Children’s Songs by May Howlett. This composer easily enters into a child’s fantasy world – she wrote both words and music to a descriptive quartet of pieces entitled “The Littlest Dragon”, “The Cat”, “The Dog” and “Flutter-by, My Butterfly”. Howlett has had a long career in performing, teaching and composing and knows much about how to write for voice. She has given the soprano some vocal challenges, but the masterly Anna Fraser has no trouble with those – her interpretations are great fun, with the occasional roar, purr or woof! She is accompanied by Shaun Ng, Diana Weston and also by Joanne Arnott in “Flutter-by, My Butterfly”.
Suite for Diana was commissioned by Diana Weston and composed in 2014 for solo harpsichord by Ann Carr-Boyd. Three movements inspired from different folksong sources are separated by “Interludes” as breaks between the songs, to be inserted, omitted or repeated at the discretion of the performer. “The Wild Colonial Boy” opens the Suite in a brisk, spirited rendition of this Australian/Irish song. The second movement consists of two contrasting Latvian folksongs. Carr-Boyd introduces the tunes then takes us on a delightful imaginative journey of an improvisatory nature, with scalic passages, trills and flourishes of diverse types, before the recapitulation. The third movement is based on a traditional Arabic song called “Gulumkan”. Over a repetitive bass line, Carr-Boyd provides some interesting writing for the right hand, with more trills and flourishes which ally aurally to earlier sounds. A concluding “Interlude” acts as a coda. This Suite is an excellent addition to the body of Australian music written for solo harpsichord.
The final track gives its name to the CD – The Birch Tree by Elena Kats-Chernin, written in 2014 for cello and harpsichord and recorded here for the first time. It is based on a famous Russian folk song: “In the fields stood the birch tree, it was curly . . .” Kats-Chernin comments: “I had very, very curly hair as a child and I felt like that birch tree . . .” This concept ties straight back, in a most satisfying way, to the imagery of Howlett’s Children’s Songs. The repetitive nature of the piece is mesmeric and quite evocative – I had a vision of a group of Russian women in long skirts and headdresses performing a round dance, although a few modern jazzy bits creep in from time to time.
Diana Weston is founder and director of Thoroughbass, a group dedicated to presenting innovative programs of early and contemporary music, as this CD amply demonstrates. She should be commended especially for commissioning new Australian music. The recording was made in Studio 301, Sydney by engineer Ross A’Hern and Diana Weston.
Wirripang continues on its exemplary path of support for such projects.