Jess Hitchcock & Penny Quartet

Jess Hitchcock and the Penny Quartet is a unique combination of song and instrumental giving us a personal glimpse into Hitchcock’s life and innermost thoughts set in a forest of gold and white illuminated trees.

Jess Hitchcock is an opera singer, a jazz singer, a singer-songwriter, a writer, a composer and  storyteller. Her versatile voice can make itself at home in a studio, on a stage or in a football stadium.

The Penny Quartet is made up of Glenn Christensen (violin), Madeleine Jevons (violin), Anthony Chataway (viola) and Jack Ward (cello). They are an award-winning Australian string quartet with an appetite for the new. from regional touring to festival appearances to international performances.

The fusion of their talents results in a song cycle featuring 11 Australian composers, each commissioned to take one of Jess’s songs and arrange it for voice and string quartet.

The result is an exquisite song-cycle for the here and now, interwoven with solo quartet repertory, showcasing Jess, the quartet and the composers.

Through song, Jess takes us through growing up as an indigenous performer, her love of the land and sea and her personal struggles. She highlights love, heartbreak, family, country, identity – while retaining the songs’ personal identity.

The songs featured are - Fight for Me (2019) arr. Christine Pan, Leader of the Pack (2019) arr. Ben Robinson, Running in the Dark (2019) arr. Matt Laing, By the Sea (2019) arr. May Lyon, Together (2019) arr. James Mountain, Days Are Long (2023) arr. Iain Grandage,
Soak to My Bones (2023) arr. Harry Sdraulig, On My Own (2023) arr. Holly Harrison,
Homeward Bound (2023) arr. Isaac Hayward, Unbreakable (2023) arr. Alex Turley and Collide (2020) arr. Nicole Murphy.

The song cycle offers a variety of styles both vocally and instrumentally. Jess’s voice, though classically trained, as is evident in her higher register, is equally at home in country and western. Her control is impressive as she takes us through the gamut of emotions. Her voice soars to the heights and then plummets to deep earthy tones.

The Penny Quartet gives us a rich feast of sound with techniques ranging from pizzicato, sul ponticello, bariolage and spiccato to lyrical melodic passages, power chords and sonorous, chorale-like harmonies. Their dedication to the music is a joy to watch. They play as a unit with silence being as important as sound.

I am an Iain Grandage’s fan and particularly enjoyed Days Are Long which features fascinating rhythmic and melodic figurations.

In Fight for Me the orchestration highlights the song’s emotions and results in a melancholic feel helping to reinforce the message.

As Jess says, Leader of the Pack is a bit if fun featuring the physicality of the quartet. I particularly enjoyed the coda.

Not a War Zone is an excellent example of what Jess calls “The joys and trials of the human condition”. It is a lesson in gratitude for the path created by those who have come before.

Running In The Dark, contains some remarkable cello passages and is a song that remembers a love gone wrong but moving on.

Soak to my Bones highlights Jess’s voice as she pours her heart out and asks for release. This was one of my favourite sections of the programme.

The finale song, Unbreakable is the perfect union of the five performers with its intricate weaving in and out of voice and instrumental. A fitting ending to an entertaining evening.

All the songs are amazing in their own right and every audience member will resonate to each song differently. Jess introduces each song giving some background, the history of its composition and its relevance to her. She sits in the middle of the quartet, creating a virtual quintet of sound and song.

My only reservation with this production is the printed programme. I was delighted to find an insert with the lyrics to each song printed. As an audience member who likes to follow along however, I found it confusing that the order of songs was different in the body of the program and the insert. Both of these were different to the running order on the night, very confusing.

Jess Hitchcock and the Penny Quartet is a fusion of song and instrumental into seventy minutes of an intensely personal journey. It is a moving and uplifting experience!

Barry Hill OAM

Images: Tessa Thames

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