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Canberra Today 12°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Music festival goes cheerfully off to war

 WHEN the eminent war historian Charles Bean wrote that there had been almost no music at Gallipoli, he was almost certainly wrong.

Jovial privates Leonard Darcy and John Pratley, of the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance, make music with frying pans and kitchen utensils at Blackboy Hill training camp, WA, in September, 1914. Photographer unknown, awm.gov.au/collection/A03353/
Jovial privates Leonard Darcy and John Pratley, of the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance, make music with frying pans and kitchen utensils at Blackboy Hill training camp, WA, in September, 1914. Photographer unknown, awm.gov.au/collection/A03353/
Indeed, as the director of the 20th Canberra International Music Festival Christopher Latham (and current “CityNews” Canberra Artist of the Year) confirms, the trenches were alive with the sound of music as officers and enlisted men alike struggled to keep up their spirits.

Photographic records of the time show Diggers with gramophones, makeshift musical instruments and in full song.

“Music restored people’s humanity and when they heard their opponents’ singing, it reduced their indoctrinated hatred of them,” he says.

In an act of risky magnificence, Latham, whose own family bore the scars of war-ravaged musical enterprise, has turned the spotlight on the music of World War I in his last festival. Adopting the title “The Fire and the Rose” from TS Eliot’s wartime work “Four Quartet”, Latham’s programming speaks to the power, the passion, the fire and the love of the Great War.

He’s playing a dangerous game with conservative classical music followers, but if the April 24 “CityNews” concert “Lest We Forget” of music by soldier/composers was anything to go by, the poignancy of the music will win hearts.

“I have wished to bring all of these forgotten figures back to life,” he says. Anyway, there are also performances of Mozart, JS Bach, Sibelius, Puccini, Holst, Messiaen and Vaughan Williams.

It’s a labour of love for Latham, who argues, “the war that ended peace also burnt out classical music… We lost performers and composers in droves, but in fact the real damage was done to the living.”

In countering this dismal perception, he has engaged some of Canberra’s, Australia’s and indeed the world’s finest musicians, including three former Canberra Artists of the Year, clarinettist Nicole Canham, soprano Louise Page and cellist David Pereira.

Cellist David Pereira… not only performing solos, but leading the cellos in the modern orchestra and the chamber orchestra. Photo by Fusion Photography
Cellist David Pereira… not only performing solos, but leading the cellos in the modern orchestra and the chamber orchestra. Photo by Fusion Photography
Pereira not only performs solos, but he leads the cellos in the modern orchestra and chamber orchestra Latham has assembled for the festival, which also includes other commemorations – music from World War II, Europe Day, the 1963-4 filling of Lake Burley Griffin and the revival of the Fitters’ Workshop.

Among the local talent will be brilliant Canberra pianists Daniel de Borah and Adam Cook, back in town to perform. Countertenor Tobias Cole, mezzo soprano Christina Wilson and harp virtuoso Alice Giles make appearances.

The Wallfisch Band, assembled by Australian baroque violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch from players from around Australia and the world, is one of the ensembles in residence.

Australian baroque violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch… leading one of the ensembles in residence.
Australian baroque violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch… leading one of the ensembles in residence.
From Sweden come pianist Bengt Forsberg and Nils-Erik Sparf and the Uppsala Chamber Soloists, and from the Netherlands is soprano Simone Riksman.

The keynote concert, “The Fire and the Rose”, will be the largest orchestral concert mounted in Canberra, made up of the Wallfisch Band, ANAM String Quartet, the ANU School of Music faculty, staff and students, Sprogis Woods Smith Young Artists and top choirs.

Some unusual concerts? “Music from No Man’s Land” on May 10, featuring works by Australian soldier, composer and Olympic gold medallist Frederick Septimus Kelly; “Music from the Camps” on May 13; “The Glass Soldier”, the story of Nelson Ferguson, trumpeter, painter, stretcher-bearer and glass artist on May 14 and “The Christmas Truce” on May 16.

Latham is fond of quoting the old Russian saying that “when the guns talk, the muses fall silent”. This festival looks set to disprove it beyond doubt.

Canberra International Music Festival, May 9-18, bookings to 6275 2700 or canberraticketing.com.au, program details at cimf.org.au

 Llewellyn Hall concert “The Fire and the Rose” on May 17, bookings to 1300 795012 or ticketek.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Helen Musa

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