Presented by Canberra Youth Music and Canberra Dance
Development Centre
Llewellyn Hall Saturday 23rd June 2012
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
 |
| Georgia Powley and Hayden Baum with The Canberra Youth Orchestra (Photo:Greg Primmer) |
Canberra
Youth Music and Canberra Dance Development Centre pooled their resources to
present an impressive and satisfying Shakespearean themed concert in Llewellyn
Hall.
The opening
work was the lovely tone poem “The Bard” written in 1913 by Jean Sibelius.
Although short, this piece makes considerable demands on the players because of
its richly detailed colouring. After a rather tentative start, the young
musicians of The Canberra Youth Orchestra, carefully guided by conductor Rowan
Harvey-Martin, soon settled into the mystical atmosphere of the piece to
produce a deeply satisfying performance.
No sign of
hesitancy in the second piece, “Suite from Henry V”. Muir Matheson’s stirring arrangement of music written
by Sir William Walton for Sir Laurence Olivier’s acclaimed film of
Shakespeare’s “Henry V” convincingly
captures the period feel of the source material, and it was clear from
their strong, confident playing, that
the young players were revelling in the dramatic possibilities inherent in the
arrangement, as much as the audience.
This
confidence flowed over to the third piece of the evening, “The Walk to Paradise
Garden”, the gorgeous intermezzo written by Frederick Delius for his opera “A
Village Romeo and Juliet”. This beautiful
emotive music was superbly played by the young orchestra and set the mood and
tone perfectly for the major drawcard of the evening, a performance of Sergei
Prokofiev’s evocative “Suite No. 2 from Romeo and Juliet” presented with full
orchestra and dancers from the Canberra Dance Development Centre.
Usually, in
this type of presentation the dancers perform in front of the orchestra, which
often results in the dancer’s movements being blurred by the movement of the
orchestra players behind them.
On this occasion
however, the vast stage of the Llewellyn Hall was divided into two separate
areas, with the orchestra on one side, and the dance area, covered by a dance
tarkett, on the other. It worked beautifully.
Jackie
Hallahan had choreographed the seven short movements which make up the suite
into a one-act ballet depicting the major incidents of the familiar Romeo and
Juliet story. Commencing with the dramatic meeting of the Montague and Capulet
families and progressing through to the final death scene in the family crypt,
the choreography was clear, expressive and in complete harmony with the music.
Most importantly it was confidently and beautifully executed by the young
dancers.
Highlights included the dramatic opening
sequence with the dancers costumed in lovely flowing red and black costumes,
and the lovely pas de deux superbly danced by Georgia Powley and Hayden Baum.
As seems de
rigueur at concerts in the Llewellyn Hall, Rowan Harvey-Martin made an
impassioned statement during the concert drawing attention to the impact of the
current situation involving the Canberra School of Music, and the truth of her
comments was compellingly demonstrated by this remarkable concert by two of
Canberra’s leading youth organisations.
