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WA Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey and Claire Edwardes channel dance, devils & legend at Perth Concert Hall

Headshot of David Cusworth
David CusworthThe West Australian
WA Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey and Claire Edwardes channel dance, devils and legend with Iain Grandage and Rimsky-Korsakov at Perth Concert Hall.
Camera IconWA Symphony Orchestra, Ben Northey and Claire Edwardes channel dance, devils and legend with Iain Grandage and Rimsky-Korsakov at Perth Concert Hall.

Female voice rang through Perth Concert Hall during WA Symphony Orchestra’s Dances, Devils and Arabian Nights program on Friday, yet never a word was spoken or sung by any woman.

Instead, percussionist Claire Edwardes embodied a whirl of female energy and expression through Iain Grandage’s concerto, Dances with Devils, in four gothic tales of the colonial bush.

Grandage paid tribute in his introduction to strong women of today, summoning the zeitgeist of #MeToo and toxic Canberra to draw a parallel between one female voice speaking over many and Edwardes prevailing over the ranks of WASO musicians.

Yet the effect was more a dialogue; a sudden attack in bass reminiscent of Dvorak’s New World (or its derivative, Jaws) triggering delicate tuned percussion and explosive drums.

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Edwardes supplied the fuse and charge, intensely expressive from the get-go; morphing to the marimba to summon the mystery of the bush.

Iain Grandage introduces Dances with Devils at Perth Concert Hall.
Camera IconIain Grandage introduces Dances with Devils at Perth Concert Hall.

As with Grandage’s cor anglais concerto premiered in 2019, the lone musician had to challenge full orchestra, but Ben Northey’s detailed direction and the placement of percussion front of stage seemed to balance the ledger.

Until a drum and block cadenza bounced around the auditorium, powerful testimony by one woman utterly compelling, before mellow marimba ushered in funereal brass, mourning a murder in the night.

Movement two, The Conquering Bush, opened with a joyous peal of crotales and bells over dark chords in brass, bird-like cries in flute and rustling strings, joined by bowed percussion.

Tubular bells struck and lowered into water tolled a drowning cadence while the orchestra subsided as if to the watery grave of the story; bass drum at the back administering last rites.

Claire Edwardes plays Iain Grandage’s Dances with Devils, with WA Symphony Orchestra and Ben Northey at Perth Concert Hall.
Camera IconClaire Edwardes plays Iain Grandage’s Dances with Devils, with WA Symphony Orchestra and Ben Northey at Perth Concert Hall.

An accompaniment of tuned glasses carried Edwardes with her bowed waterphone, ghost-like, into the third movement, The Drover’s Wife.

Swooning strings segued to more mysterious marimba played urgently, incessantly as if railing against restraint as the ensemble evoked elemental unease.

Finally, marimba summoned a broken dance rhythm, with tambourine cutting across broader themes in the orchestra, in homage to European countesan Lola Montez, who toured the goldfields in the 1850s.

Urgent energy of the opening returned, with jagged instrumental phrases answered by robust and rousing drums and marimba.

Flailing timpani in the back row summoned a dramatic final drum flourish, and an eruption of girlpower whoops and cheers in the auditorium.

Ben Northey conducts WA Symphony Orchestra in Dances, Devils and Arabian Nights.
Camera IconBen Northey conducts WA Symphony Orchestra in Dances, Devils and Arabian Nights.

It seemed a world away from the overture, Rimsky Korsakov’s May Night; haunting chords and shimmering strings setting a melancoly tone for mellifluous horn to lead a traditional dance as Northey kept all in check.

Mood changed from corporeal to spiritual and back as lyrical woodwind and skittish strings held the centre while brass echoed the dark magic of a European folktale.

In contrast, the same composer’s Scheherazade suite after the interval drew immediate comparison with the concerto.

Stentorian chords suddenly stilled by Laurence Jackson’s silken solo violin seemed to channel the lone voice in a sea of sound as the legend of the 1001 nights unfolded with the story of Sinbad.

The central theme in full orchestra unleashed a cascade of solo voices — David Evans’ horn, Andrew Nicholson’s flute and Allan Meyer’s clarinet — swelling with brass and drums, subsiding then returning to storm and fury; fading at last to calm.

Jackson’s solo opened the second movement, ushering in Jane Kircher-Lindner’s measured bassoon, echoed assuredly by Liz Chee’s oboe, and in full ensemble.

Ben Northey conducts WA Symphony Orchestra in Dances, Devils and Arabian Nights.
Camera IconBen Northey conducts WA Symphony Orchestra in Dances, Devils and Arabian Nights.

Northey conducted deftly, whether to direct a duet of Yin-yun Loei’s lush harp and ethereal flute; or barely-there horn and lyrical violin; or a gathering storm across the ensemble.

Sweeping strings announced The Young Prince and Princess, punctuated by woodwind, summoning dance-like measures and sympathetic steps on the podium; violin and harp connecting the dots in duet.

Finally, dark mystery returned in the tale of a shipwreck, flagging another gathering storm, insistent rhythm driving drama and intrigue.

The program noted Rimsky-Korsakov himself marked his emergence from Wagner’s shadow in this suite, and its modernity again connected with Grandage.

Though not rigidly programmatic, Scheherazade has a Star Wars-like episodic quality which Northey played up in alternating solos and sections, dramatic interplay and sudden dynamic contrasts, setting a vivid scene.

Waves, streams and rivulets of sound eventually resolved to violin and harp, then a lone harmonic hung defiantly over the closing phrases; a reminder of the one voice among many.

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