Image: Katie Noonan and Brodsky Quartet; Photograph by Darren Thomas.
With Love and Fury is a collection of new works for strings and voice based on a selection of poems by Judith Wright and formed into a ten-piece song cycle.​
The performance, and the newly released CD of the same name, is an international collaboration between Australian vocalist Katie Noonan and the UK’s Brodsky Quartet, featuring Daniel Rowland and Ian Belton on violins, Paul Cassidy on viola, and Jaqueline Thomas on cello. Noonan thanks Wright “for living her life with such love and fury and for birthing words that I believe are still the beating conscience of our nation today.”
In a further artistic collaboration, each of the ten pieces was composed individually. This makes it a showcase for nine contemporary Australian composers, with one piece by Noonan. The featured composers are Elena Kats-Chernin, David Hirschfelder, Paul Dean, Andrew Ford, Iain Grandage, Paul Grabowsky, John Rodgers, Richard Tognetti and Carl Vine.
Despite the range of composers, many of these pieces sounded remarkably similar. The players approached each with piece with enthusiasm and undeniable technical excellence, but there wasn’t the tremendous synergy that usually marks their work. Noonan’s delivery also seemed a little awkward, but perhaps this is inevitable with a long program of all new work. There also seemed to be some distortion in her top range from the amplification and audio effects which just dulled her impact during the first half of this song cycle.
It was not until The Surfer, the fifth piece in the cycle and the one composed by Noonan herself, that she really hit her range and we felt the full force of her powerful voice. Failure of Communication, set to music by John Rodgers, was a challenging cacophony of synthesizer and effects.
These pieces blur the boundaries between musical genres, challenging our usual perceptions of the string quartet – even one as adventurous as Brodsky. Somewhere between jazz, opera, and the classical canon is a niche where these pieces ask us to listen even if we’re not sure of what we’re hearing.
After the interval, the program moved on to more familiar musical territory. The musicians opened the second half alone for an Australian triptych of works by Peter Sculthorpe, Andrew Ford, and Robert Davidson. This was the highlight of the performance, with Brodsky playing at their passionate best.
Noonan came back on stage for a short set of popular pieces by Elvis Costello, Bjork (“one of my absolute favourite humans” said Noonan) and Sting, including a final audience sing-along.
A spontaneous standing ovation, albeit with a brief round of applause, was rewarded with two encores, the first a delightful duet between Noonan and cellist Jacqueline Thomas before the rest of Brodsky came back on stage. And a special mention must go to local Adelaide bass player Milush Hanlon who made two guest appearances on stage.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
With Love and Fury
ARTISTS
Katie Noonan – voice
Brodsky Quartet
Daniel Rowland – violin
Ian Belton – violin
Paul Cassidy – viola
Jacqueline Thomas – cello
touring nationally: Sydney May 2, Albany May 4 and Perth May 5.
