Music / Adélaïde Férrière, percussion. At the Snow Concert Hall, February 23. Reviewed by IAN McLEAN.

Like a huge sentinel, the marimba (a giant, five-octave big brother to the xylophone), stood on centre stage, gleaming in subtle lighting, surrounded by a wash of atmospheric purple hue, with its perimeter guarded on either side by an assortment of carefully arranged drums of every imaginable size and shape. 

This incredible array dominated the stage of the magnificent Snow Concert Hall and set the scene for an amazingly good concert by an outstanding performer, French percussionist Adélaïde Férrière.

Playing entirely from memory this gifted player commenced her two-and-a-half-hour concert by adding to the well lit atmosphere by immediately demonstrating the many musical colours of the marimba.

The familiar repetitive patterns of Philip Glass were evident in his appropriately titled Opening but were entirely appropriate with a sense of calming peace pervading.

The three-movement Concerto BWV 593 in A minor was composed by JS Bach for the organ but Ferriere arranged the complex piece, in the style of Vivaldi, for marimba. Wonderful dexterity and brilliant hand/finger/wrist control quickly demonstrated a masterful technique as she achieved a complete range of tonal colours linked with dynamic control, which resulted in a whisper-quiet adagio second movement contrasted with the thunderous sound of the allegro finale.

Imagery next with Japanese influenced music, written by a Chinese composer and performed by a French lady telling the story, in music, of the Vermillion Bird, one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. This restful work received its world premiere just two years ago when performed by Ferriere.

Back to Baroque times and another arrangement by the performer, this time of the Passacaglia  from a Handel Suite in G minor for organ, but embellished by mixing in parts of duets for violin and viola by Johan Halvorsen. A clever feat of arranging in its own right, the piece was enhanced by a flawless performance which allowed the full extension of the five-octave marimba range to be utilised.

Soft mallets and silent cat-like movements up and down the instrument brought the first half to a close in the Arabesque No 1 by Debussy, a classical dance that, with its excellent reverberation, suitably showed off the high acoustic quality of the Snow Concert Hall.

A first ever performance of an energetic Blue Smoke, by American composer Michael Burritt, opened the second half. Similar in style to Philip Glass it explored both the marimba colour range and every possibility of dynamic contrast.

Amongst a concert of highlights perhaps the most outstanding was the interpretation of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Included to celebrate the 100^th anniversary, just two weeks ago, of the first performance of this classic work, I have often marvelled at how a pianist, with just 10 fingers and thumbs, could play so many notes with such rapidity. To see and hear a percussionist play the same piece with only four mallets, and with such absolute accuracy and definition, was riveting!

All concert long the mass of drums had remained silent but Rebounds, by Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, changed all of that with a thrilling finale.

At the time of its writing (mid 1900’s) percussionists of the day declared it to be absolutely unplayable. All to do with rhythm and time, the composer used mathematics that he translated to rhythm and architecture to relate to the actual set up of the percussion instruments. Add in the virtuosity of an outstanding player and all exploded with lots and lots of rebounds!

The large crowd greeted the end of the concert with a spontaneous standing ovation.  Nothing could be more deserving. This was a concert of sheer excellence and an absolute treat.