Windsong Concert 2. Photos by Ben Marden
The Four Winds Festival commenced in 1991 and takes place mainly on ten hectares of rural land in Barragga Bay owned by Carrillo Gantner that has now been put into trust for the Four Winds Foundation.
Sheena Boughen is a former chairperson and one of the Festival’s eight founding members. ‘We never wanted a national or international artist flying in and flying out. From the beginning we had strong views that music was not just entertainment, something you go to and then it is over. The vision was always to invite artists of the highest quality, professional paid artists, demonstrating that we are committed to new music and high quality,’ she said.
‘It was not only classical music in the Western canon. From the second year we had Indian Classical music and gamelan. When the Festival started it was just a paddock: no water, no road, nothing. But by 2010 we had planned a vision for what we now call “nature’s concert hall”. Then in 2014 we had the stage built by the dam and in 2016 the project was completed with the building of the Windsong Pavilion. A guided walk is now in the planning phase.
‘The metaphor for Four Winds became critical about how we think about education. There may be several “Winds” that we are exposed and open to, but there is one contributing intent and experience. Indigenous conversation has been very important. Nature has been a constant theme. There was never any thought about Four Winds being only indoors. It was always so that people could experience nature along with the beauty of music,’ she continued.
‘Experiencing the freedom of nature has become crucial to the Festival’s character. People have said to me, “You know, I heard that Sculthorpe in the city but here it is very different”. They were experiencing it in a different way. Music is part of a civilised life and it is transformative, contributing to Australia’s sense of who we are. That is why we are committed to new music and commissioning new music from the beginning. The range of human experience from sadness to jubilation is very exposed at this site because you cannot shelter from the rawness of experience amongst nature. There is also healing, hope and beauty. The words “reconciliation” and “solidarity” are also on our lips as well,’ Boughen said.
Four Winds Easter Festival’s third concert was another House Concert, this time in a modernist timber and glass house near the beach at Barragga Bay, nestled in amongst burrawang cycads and spotted gums. The greens and rusty reds of these magnificent tall trees are replaced, when the bark peels, with soft blues and grey, while the giant seeds of the burrawangs are brightest orange.
The artists on this occasion were composer and pianist Ian Munro, Julian Smiles (cello), Lloyd Van’t Hoff (clarinet) and Australian soprano, recently returned from a busy operatic career in Germany, Emma Pearson. The program included Ian Munro’s 3 Birds, composed in 2016 for the Australia Ensemble and exploring man’s relationship with birds across centuries and continents; and Basque-born Ravel’s Miroirs, while the Latin theme continued with Joaquin Turina’s Poema en forma de canciones, a cycle of five love songs.
Emma Pearson has a fresh and attractive voice, a lovely, warm and honeyed tone, and an impressive range. Her performance of the Munro was excellent, three settings of poetry by Judith Wright, Matsuo Basho/Wallace Stevens and Emily Dickinson, the latter a marvellously observed setting, floating and still, measured and in its own time. Munro’s performance of Miroirs was particularly evocative in this bush setting with its bird calls in the second movement Oiseaux triste (Sad birds) and La vallée des cloches (The valley of the bells) both highlights, though the fourth movement, Alborada del gracioso, lacked precision. The exuberant Turina, setting words by Ramón de Campoamor, however, was superbly performed by Munro and Emma Pearson.
Windsong Concert 2 took place on Friday evening within the excellent, warm acoustics of the new, Tasmanian Oak-lined Windsong Pavilion. The program comprised two well-known chamber music compositions by Puccini and Robert Schumann (the Goldner String Quartet and Ian Munro, piano) separated by the first performance of a commissioned work by Gerard Brophy, performed by a young mixed ensemble including David Rowden and Lloyd Van’t Hoff (clarinets), Maria Raspopova, piano and ANAM Strings (unnamed in the printed program).
Giacomo Puccini’s I Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) opened proceedings, composed in one night in 1890 as a memorial to the Duke of Savoy, Amedeo. Tenderly conveyed, its darkly decadent Art Nouveau character was perfectly understood by the Goldner String Quartet. After the commissioned work they returned with Ian Munro for a polished, mature and highly satisfying reading of Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op 44. The work was dedicated to his wife, composer and pianist Clara. The Allegro brillante sparkled in its forthright entrance while in the In modo d’una Marcia one could almost hear the gritty sound of funereal marching boots on gravel. The deep burnished tone of Irina Morozova’s viola was a delight throughout.
This was contrasted with the sheer light-filled second subject. The work was intended to be first performed by Clara Schumann who, owing to indisposition, was replaced at the last moment by Felix Mendelssohn. He allegedly played through the piece at sight. In this performance the fiendishly difficult Scherzo: Molto vivace, with its ascending scale opening motif, was performed by Munro with distinction. That Mendelssohn, known as the master of the Scherzo, could perform this work without preparation astonishes; he apparently advised Schumann afterwards that he would recommend a second Trio be added to the movement. The final Allegro ma non troppo with its double fugue based on the work’s opening theme was lyrical and nicely weighted, building to an ebullient coda.
Gerard Brophy’s 10-minute new work, We Two Boys Together Clinging, after Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, is scored for two clarinets, piano and string quartet. The piece is a celebration of the relationship of its commissioners, Steven Alward and Mark Wakely with support from Four Winds donors and Creative Partnerships Australia, as part of the recent ‘Compose the Future with James Crabb’ campaign. Brophy’s first considerations had the work scored for tenor solo and instrumental ensemble. He later changed his mind and writes, ‘The eclectic yet highly attractive combination of instruments facilitates a rich and evocative response to the commissioners’ wishes for the piece to be a celebration of their relationship. The incorporation of the two clarinets and piano were at their express request.’
Brophy, now residing for part of the year in Istanbul, infuses the work with a haunting Byzantine character, employing ornamented monody throughout and Eastern modality, while the duo of clarinets sounded like soft Armenian duduks in their lower range. Vibrant and energetic opening material leads to a lamenting song with one of the clarinettists ending the work alone.
The capacity audience responded effusively.
House Concert 2: ★★★★
Windsong Concert 2: ★★★★☆
The Four Winds 2018 Easter Festival, Bermagui runs from 28 March to 1 April
David Barmby visited the Four Winds 2018 Easter Festival as a guest of the festival.
