AS PIANIST Michael Kieran Harvey proclaimed before stepping up for an epic performance of “The Way of the Seeker” at a commemorative concert on the weekend, Larry Sitsky is “our greatest composer ever”.

The Sufi-inspired work for piano he was about to play, Harvey said, was not only full of ancient wisdom but “very emotional”, something to which we could all relate.

Although Sitsky had already told those present that the prologue to the ambitious six-part piece was “shortish and soft”, Harvey approached “The Way of the Seeker” with forceful ease as he traced, in music, the journey of the human soul through from delusion into light.

This performance required intense concentration, from the committed audience of music teachers.

Harvey’s was the climactic work in an unusual concert held during the weekend’s ANZCA International Music Conference to commemorate the life and works of Sitsky.

The recital was preceded by the official launch of Sitsky’s long awaited “Century Collection”, an anthology of compositions for young piano students, an aspect of his work that is little-known to the wider public.

The “unusual” feature of the program, curated by Giselle and Kieran Roberts and technical collaborator Tobias O’Leary, was the projection on a large upstage screen of abstract landscapes by Canberra artist Carmel McCrow. Carefully selected by the curators for their metaphysical quality, McCrow’s paintings proved a good match for Sitsky’s deeply emotional works, which he told those present, had been composed out of “what is going on in my head”.

The images added a dreamlike quality to the concert, while the addition of cross-fades to close-ups of the pianists’ hands added a visual element to the demanding music.

First to the piano with the deceptively schematic “Fantasia No. 14 for forte-piano” was Giselle Roberts, a current Sitsky student, former Woden Valley Youth Choir accompanist and a piano teacher of 28 years standing. Roberts gave voice to the darker moments of this fantasia depicting Orpheus’s encounters in the Underworld.

Second was master Taubman piano teacher Therese Milanovic, whose firm and confident touch introduced the “Fantasia No.4. Arch Fantasy”, the title of which invoked a pun on Sitsky’s own name. This work, dedicated (as was the previous Fantasia) to forte-pianist Geoffrey Lancaster, had been written for competitors in the Sydney International Piano Competition and was performed by Milanovic with the necessary virtuosic flourish.

A mixture of delicacy and pianistic aggression characterised ANU University medallist Aaron Chew’s confident performance of Sonata No 3, in which each movement involved a physical shift from one end of the keyboard to the other—Movement 1 featured high notes, Movement 2 the middle keys and Movement 3, the far left of the keyboard. Some of the bolder sounds were produced with the flat of the hand, to the evident delight of the audience.

Early in the evening Sitsky spoke of his plans to compose an opera based on Thomas Mann’s novel “Doctor Faustus” using modern technology. This exacting concert confirmed the impression he created on Saturday of an innovative, visionary composer at the height of his powers.

 

 

 

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