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Canberra Today 22°/24° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review / Concert 16 CIMF: Birds and musicians harmonise

A PERFECT autumn day saw music-lovers, musician and birds out in force at the Australian National Botanic Gardens for a concert aptly named “Garden of Delights’.

8  vocalists perform Jack Body's 'Jibrail', photo Helen Musa
8 vocalists perform Jack Body’s ‘Jibrail’, photo Helen Musa
Director of the Gardens, Dr Judy West, warned the sturdy concert-goers that “birds often join in,” and so it was as we descended into the Rainforest to the distant sounds of flute (or maybe birds) and some eerie musical effects produced by young musicians on the walkways.

The unforgettable opening to the concert, performed by a single percussionist and eight superb young vocal artists attached to the festival, was the recently-deceased New Zealand composer Jack Body’s surreal invocation to the Archangel Gabriel in the work ‘Jibrail’  (the Arabic word for Gabriel).

As we penetrated further into the forest, we encountered flautist Kim Falconer performing a mediative work by Jindrich Feld, the first of four flute solos interspersed throughout the program. “Play it again,” festival director Roland Peelman called out – he couldn’t get enough.

A lighter note was struck in the Daisy Garden as Continuum Sax treated the crowd to a whimsical work, ‘Petite Quatour’, by Jean Francaix, a more sombre work about a polar bear floating on a piece of ice by Continuum member Martin Kay and finally a bouncy piece by ‘Apollogy’ (named after Apollo) by resident composer Gerard Brophy, who emerged from the audience to receive the accolades.

Next we took ourselves to the Eucalyptus Lawn, where Speak Percussion members Eugene Ughetti and Kaylie Melville performed ‘boutique compositions’ for two bass drum— Gerard Grisey’s ‘Stele which saw Melville massaging her drum with a scrubbing brush and ‘The Origin’ by Horatiui Radulescu. The birds keenly harmonised with this one.

The 90-minute concert of delights concluded —where else?— in the Desert garden, with Falconer play the final piece in Feld’s four-part musical reflection.

 

 

 

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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