Elena Kats-Chernin and Tamara Anna Cislowska gave a dazzling one piano four hands recital of Kats Chernin's music at the Parramatta Riverside theatre as part of a national tour celebrating a related CD release - https://shop.abc.net.au/products/butterflying-piano-music-2cd.
What joyous music Kats-Chernin writes, full of propulsive energy but with slightly varied patterns of intensity. Her music makes us smile and laugh; its clear construction entices us into her discernible sound world.
The energy of works such as Russian Toccata, Cinema and Russian Rag were nicely contrasted with the sadness of Blue Silence and the strength and beauty of the justly famous Eliza’s Aria.
With the extended Remembering Bialystok, we also encountered deeper beauty as though the composer was channelling the energy and soulfulness of Jewish music, similar to the way Shostakovich did in his Fourth Quartet and Second Piano Trio. The duo gave a powerful performance of this work.
The final work, Homecoming, a recent commission to celebrate the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre at Penrith, played a mischevious riff on Bishop’s Home Sweet Home, both in melancholic and syncopated modes. The melancholic hinted at the deep skinned beauty that Percy Grainger used to find in exploring others people’s music.
The balletic and cinematic aptness of Kats-Chernin’s music was on full display as was the power and intuitive closeness of both performers, particularly when crossing hands at the keyboard and finishing each other phrases. Both wings of the butterfly were coordinated but subtly different. The droll interplay between them as each piece was introduced was a nicely judged comic act.
Katz Chernin, like Britten, seems to respond in delightful ways to performers and audience with her commissioned works. Ideas are imaginatively realised, translating into a new and approachable experience for the listener.
Both Kats-Chernin and Cislowska are steely technicians, but with the required touch of improvisation and experimentation. Seeing such palpably creative women, both relaxed and purposeful, showed how music making can be a joyous activity.
The intimate nature of this performance made me reflect on the related scale and beauty of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Kats-Chernin has the same tenderness and brilliance in her music. The hybridity of her work, deeply Russian at times, deeply laconic and playful at other times, seems to reflect the shared inheritance of both Australian and Russian strands of her life and personality.
The beautiful way she introduced the work she had composed for her son’s wedding, reflected on her good humour, nurturing presence and precise response to the moment, all of this reflected in the clear craft and poise of First Dance. Kats-Chernin is indeed a powerful earth mother, in the clear, radiating happiness she distils.
Butterflying –Riverside Theatres– Parramatta – 10 April 2016.
Elena Kats-Chernin and Tamara Anna Cislowska gave a dazzling one piano four hands recital of Kats Chernin's music at the Parramatta Riverside theatre as part of a national tour celebrating a related CD release - https://shop.abc.net.au/products/butterflying-piano-music-2cd.
What joyous music Kats-Chernin writes, full of propulsive energy but with slightly varied patterns of intensity. Her music makes us smile and laugh; its clear construction entices us into her discernible sound world.
The energy of works such as Russian Toccata, Cinema and Russian Rag were nicely contrasted with the sadness of Blue Silence and the strength and beauty of the justly famous Eliza’s Aria.
With the extended Remembering Bialystok, we also encountered deeper beauty as though the composer was channelling the energy and soulfulness of Jewish music, similar to the way Shostakovich did in his Fourth Quartet and Second Piano Trio. The duo gave a powerful performance of this work.
The final work, Homecoming, a recent commission to celebrate the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre at Penrith, played a mischevious riff on Bishop’s Home Sweet Home, both in melancholic and syncopated modes. The melancholic hinted at the deep skinned beauty that Percy Grainger used to find in exploring others people’s music.
The balletic and cinematic aptness of Kats-Chernin’s music was on full display as was the power and intuitive closeness of both performers, particularly when crossing hands at the keyboard and finishing each other phrases. Both wings of the butterfly were coordinated but subtly different. The droll interplay between them as each piece was introduced was a nicely judged comic act.
Katz Chernin, like Britten, seems to respond in delightful ways to performers and audience with her commissioned works. Ideas are imaginatively realised, translating into a new and approachable experience for the listener.
Both Kats-Chernin and Cislowska are steely technicians, but with the required touch of improvisation and experimentation. Seeing such palpably creative women, both relaxed and purposeful, showed how music making can be a joyous activity.
The intimate nature of this performance made me reflect on the related scale and beauty of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Kats-Chernin has the same tenderness and brilliance in her music. The hybridity of her work, deeply Russian at times, deeply laconic and playful at other times, seems to reflect the shared inheritance of both Australian and Russian strands of her life and personality.
The beautiful way she introduced the work she had composed for her son’s wedding, reflected on her good humour, nurturing presence and precise response to the moment, all of this reflected in the clear craft and poise of First Dance. Kats-Chernin is indeed a powerful earth mother, in the clear, radiating happiness she distils.
Butterflying –Riverside Theatres– Parramatta – 10 April 2016.