The inaugural season of Swansong recitals is part of the Perth Winter Arts Festival. This particular offering, featuring pianist David Wickham and soprano Sara Macliver, was also advertised as part of the Singers and Strings Town Hall Sunday series, so it would have been almost impossible for any music lover in the city not to have been aware of it. Therefore, a full house was assured, and indeed this presentation was worthy of nothing less.
Be assured that the name ‘Swansong’ refers to the Swan River, not to the legendary swan who, ‘when death approached, unlocked her silent throat’. None of these performers is about to die, literally or figuratively. Macliver, for example, is one of the West’s musical treasures, although her work is appreciated all over the country, and Wickham is perhaps one of the best accompanists Australia has seen since the days of Henry Penn, or more recently, David Tunley. Professor Emeritus Tunley is patron of the Swansongs season. He would have shared his patronage with much-loved vocal coach Molly McGurk, but sadly she passed away in January at the age of 83, before the performers had chance to ask her blessing. McGurk was a brilliant musician. She won the ABC Concerto and Vocal Competition twice – once as a pianist and once as a vocalist, a unique achievement.
Macliver was Molly McGurk’s pupil, and if the shade of Ms McGurk were hovering over the Town Hall during the performance, she would have been proud of her acolyte. I have long admired Macliver for her wonderful operatic voice, but this was the first time I’d heard her sing art songs. She and David Wickham make a great team, and that is the essence of an art song: rather than being a song with accompaniment, it is a duet in which the performers complement and support each other. That’s exactly what happened in this presentation, and it was magical.
The first half of the program was devoted to French composers, Debussy, Fauré and Hahn, with words by poets as diverse as Verlaine and Hugo. Each song was a little gem, each one different from the last. The first three Debussy songs were delicate, charming pieces on the theme of the sorrows of love, while the fourth, ‘Chevaux des bois’, was a jolly, galloping number, as befits the title. Of the five offerings by Fauré, my favourite was ‘Mai’, with words by Victor Hugo. These lyrics were utterly lovely in both French and English; however, Macliver gave us all the songs in the program in their original languages.
Moving on to the third bracket, comprising four songs by expat Venezuelan Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947), we were treated to a range of emotion from the gleeful ‘Fêtes galantes’, which Macliver sang with a playful, flirtatious manner, to the deeply touching ‘L’heure exquise’ which closed the first half. Both had words by Paul Verlaine, but two more disparate poems would be hard to find. Macliver gave us sensitive renditions that evinced a wide variety of expression.
A nice long interval gave the audience chance to fortify themselves with coffee and cakes and to gird their loins for the Rachmaninov songs. Macliver essayed these in Russian, a language with which I have no familiarity at all, but our diva seemed as confident in Russian as she had in French. There was obvious contrast with the earlier brackets: Russian emotions seem more turbulent and less mannered than the French, and this divergence was brought out very clearly by Macliver and Wickham. There was tear-jerking tenderness and the recapturing of sad, anguished memories, but no fun or laughter in these offerings!
As an aside, I actually found myself disappointed that Macliver had not changed her dress during interval. She wore a very pretty summery chiffon gown throughout the performance, but I must admit I would have liked to see a more dramatic outfit for the second half. Not that she could have sung better in a different frock … Macliver = excellence, no matter what she wears.
The last two brackets were in English. First we had three songs by Australian composer Raymond Hanson (1913-1976) with words by Karl Hansen. The first two lyrics seemed somewhat trite, but the third, ‘This is my delight’ was more complex in both music and lyrics. Another aside – Raymond Hanson was my harmony and aural training teacher at Sydney Conservatorium when I was a girl. I always thought his compositions tuneless and boring, but it’s amazing what a difference five or six decades can make to one’s musical taste: I found all three songs presented here quite beautiful. Of course, when I was 17, Sara Macliver was not around to sing them.
The final number had music by American composer Samuel Barber with lyrics provided by a prose poem by James Agee. Titled ‘Knoxville, summer of 1915’, it proved to be a lengthy, dramatic piece with an emotional tone that varied from intense to contemplative. The end was full of pathos, as a child seeking a sense of identity drifts off to sleep. The piano coda provided a lullaby-like conclusion. There was silence before the final applause: a sure sign that the listeners had been transported.
Throughout the performance, Macliver captured the delicacy of the art song form while nevertheless imparting an expressive richness of tone to each item, and Wickham’s piano playing is second to none. As a team, Macliver and Wickham are unbeatable. I hope to see them together again before too long. And a special mention goes to student Jocelyn Hawkins, who turned pages, set up music, filled water glasses and I’m sure, did many other things, with quiet efficiency and aplomb. I remember what a thrill it was to be asked to turn pages for real professionals!
The final show of this series, on 22 September, will feature David Wickham with a different soloist: the up-and-coming young singer Katja Webb. I am already looking forward to it!
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Perth Town Hall Sunday Series presents
As part of the City of Perth Winter Arts Season:
Swansongs: Sara Macliver and David Wickham
Sara Macliver (soprano)
David Wickham (pianist)
Perth Town Hall
25 August
