Frankenstein!! & the Goose’s Mum

Ensemble Q’s final concert for 2024 was a total treat! The selection of musical pieces was influenced by a Halloween theme, but this was a complex and satisfying mix of experiencing deep emotions from composers past, and celebrating vibrant music from the present. To set the tone, the magical ‘Danse Macabre’ by Camille Saint-Saëns. Usually performed by a full orchestra, this unique arrangement for simply gorgeous cello (Trish Dean) and beautiful violin (Adam Chalabi) was courtesy of Cicely Parnas, who tweaked the original to practise with her sister during lockdowns: proof that intricate melodies from the 1800s can be revived and refreshed in the right talented hands. ‘Poltergeist’ by William Bolcom introduced a string quartet (with Anne Horton on violin and Tobias Breider on viola) to bring us a Scott Joplin-esque Ragtime theme. This was a totally unexpected style and such a delight to hear performed by musicians of this calibre.

In a role reversal from the first piece, Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose Suite’ was composed in the early 1900s as a piano duet, but here we heard it arranged for the addition of strings (Bernardo Alviz on double bass; Emily Granger on harp) with woodwind and brass (Paul Dean on clarinet; Huw Jones on oboe; Alison Mitchell on magical flute and piccolo; David Mitchell on bassoon; Peter Luff on French horn; Alfie Carslake on trumpet). This was certainly no nursery rhyme – a complex and moving suite in five movements that builds in emotional intensity. Written for a friend’s children, you feel this piece is preparing young people for the challenges as well as the beauty that their lives may see. A deeply moving suite.

If Ravel is preparing us to deal with life’s bittersweet and heartbreak-making moments, then HK Gruber is asking us to embrace its surreal madness! His ‘Frankenstein!!’ saw the welcome addition to the stage of narrator/singer Jason Barry-Smith, playing the mad scientist/composer/conductor. This energetic piece kept all the musicians on their toes, including virtuosos on piano and percussion, Daniel de Borah and Jacob Enoka – who now add ‘toy piano’ and ‘paper bags’ to their tunemasters’ toolkits. It was wonderful to see 12 musicians on stage from the intimate ‘reversed seating’ mode in the Concert Hall. Oh, plus one peeved spider who had obviously had his slumber in the Steinway grand disturbed! (At least it has eight legs to tap along!) Gruber’s mad suite feels like a Halloween hangover where you’ve eaten too many sweets and fallen asleep in front of a late-night TV movie marathon – it features scenes from (of course) Hammer Horror’s ‘Frankenstein’, superheroes Superman, Batman and Robin, cheesy western hero, John Wayne, and a montage of James Bond villains. An aural cornucopia is provided by many, many additional instruments, mostly from the music shop’s bargain bin – melodicas, harmonicas, ocarinas, penny whistles, slide whistles. I have never seen anything so joyful as a double bass player eagerly waiting for his cue on the kazoo, or an accomplished pianist crashing the keys on a tiny toy piano. The woodwind section were tasked with hurling vacuum cleaner tubing around the air. Jason had too much fun in this role, which gives his operatic voice a gymnastic workout. A total fun-fest! I don’t envy Ensemble Q’s Artistic Directors the challenge of planning how they will top this music selection in next year’s programme.

Find out more about Ensemble Q: www.ensembleqaustralia.com

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Stewart Tyrrell