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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

E=mc2 = mighty music-making: music festival launches at shine dome

THERE were some very sophisticated scientific concepts floating around the Shine Dome last night, but they were music to the ears of assembled supporters of the Canberra International Music Festival at the launch of the 2015 event.

Roland Peelman, pic Peter Hislop
Roland Peelman, pic Peter Hislop

After Festival board chairman Arn Sprogis complimented the sponsors and reminded us that festive music-making had been happening on the banks of the Molonglo for 20,000 years, physicist Prof John Rayner treated guests to a lively introduction to the theory of relativity and string theory.

And what does that have to do with music? Well, apart from the fact that Albert Einstein was a pretty fair violinist, (though probably not good enough to play at this festival) as Rayner saw it music and science shared the common attribute of creating “creating masterpieces from very simple beginnings.” Just as in his field, physics, laws were obeyed, so it was in music, with its rules of harmony accountable counterpoint.

Prof John Rayner, pic Peter Hislop
Prof John Rayner, pic Peter Hislop

But every so often in both, Rayner reminded us, where changes are normally incremental, someone came along to turn things upside down – like John Cage and, as we were soon to hear, Einstein.

Emma Rayner performs Bach, pic Peter Hislop
Emma Rayner performs Bach, pic Peter Hislop

After an interlude of exquisite Bach played by young Canberra performer Emma Rayner (no relation to the Professor), the dynamic yet cerebral new director of the Festival, Roland Peelman, leapt to the podium to deliver, at breakneck speed to a musical soundtrack and video installation, the 2015 Canberra International music Festival program.

Peelman, a masterful conductor, is equally masterful with audiences and held everyone spellbound as he explained that the 2015 Festival theme would be “Music, Einstein and you!”

It was plain that he saw Einstein as a revolutionary whose four papers about the “building blocks of the universe” delivered in 1915 had changed the world.

With that in mind, he has programmed a series, running from May 1-10 next year, of musical masterpieces that “Defied the limits.”

And who more revolutionary that Beethoven, whose complete piano sonatas will be performed at the beginning of the Festival by brilliant artists like Ian Munro, Anna Goldsworthy, Arnan Wiesel, Daniel de Borah, Lisa Moore, and the recent Chopin competition winner, Kotaro Nagano.

“There could not be a Canberra Festival without Bach,” Peelman asserted, praising Rayner for her performance, and sure enough, one of the earliest items, “Bach on Sunday” on May 3 would feature Tobias Cole, Paul McMahon and the Festival Bach Ensemble directed by Erin Helyard.

Last year’s formidable theme relating to World War I, was by no means forgotten, seen in the concert. “The Memory of Gallipoli and the Western front: traditional Sufi music and Western music of loss and redemption” at the Australian War Memorial on May 4.

Later, at Mount Stromlo, in the concert “Space exploration,” music by artist in residence Kate Moore, Bach and others will be performed, enhanced by a high-level talk by Nobel Laureate Prof Brian Schmidt.

In spite of having promised to put the “fun” back into the Festival, Peelman is also insisting on some hard work from his audiences, with the cult event “Music in 12 parts, ” the 209 minute work by Philip Glass, to be performed in Gandel Hall at the NGA on May 10. He later told “Citynews” he expected it would be fine for audience member to come and go during that one.

Children will be catered for in “Sebastian the Fox and other creatures,” works by George Dreyfus and Katie Abbott.

The closing concert is to be a celebration of Jewish culture, with works by Glass, Bloch, Butterly and music from the diaspora, featuring Canberra-raised Kristian Winther on violin, the extraordinary Moorabilla boys and girls choir, the Song Company and of all people, Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier.

But just in case you were wondering, yes, the Shine Dome will be the location for a performance very dear to the heart of the director – “String theory,” described as “a strung-out performance in the round,” with music by Smalley, Ligeti, Wesley Smith and Winther.

The Canberra International Music Festival 2015, May 1-10 2015, bookings open on Wednesday, November 26 to cimf.org.au

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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