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| 'The Large Blue Horses' by Franz Marc |
The Flowers Of War
concert
National Gallery of
Australia, Tuesday May 17th
Review by Len Power
The Flowers of War is a three year project to uncover,
perform, discuss and celebrate the music and art that talented men used to cope
with the horror of the First World War and to mark their experiences. ‘The Man Who Painted Blue Horses: Verdun and
the WW1 sketch book of Franz Marc’ was a concert with projections based on the
WW1 sketches of the great German artist, Franz Marc, who founded the Blue Rider
School and died at Verdun in 1916. Music
by Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss and forgotten and lost composers of the First
World War, some who died at Verdun, was featured.
The concert was a particular triumph for Canberra soprano,
Louise Page, who sang a large number of songs with great feeling and technical
assurance, culminating in a thrilling ‘Transfiguration’ from ‘Tod und
Verklärung’ by Richard Strauss in an arrangement by Christopher Latham.
Louise Page was accompanied on piano in the first half of
the program by pianist, Tamara-Anna Cislowska.
The Sculthorpe Quartet then joined singer and pianist for the remainder
of the program. The playing and singing of
these major artists was simply sublime and a joy to listen to.
The art of Franz Marc, which was projected during the
concert, was fascinating and colourful and the choice of additional art by
Marc’s Blue Rider colleagues and friends, Kandinsky, Delaunay and Klee, was
inspired.
The program included English translations of the songs performed
and it would have been helpful to be able to follow these while Louise Page was
singing. Unfortunately the auditorium
lights were switched off due, no doubt, to the requirements of the art
projections. Louise Page performed in
silhouette with the projections behind her and it would have been preferable to
be able to see her face during the performance.
This memorable concert will be followed by several concerts
over the next three years as part of the Flowers Of War project.
This review was first
published in the Canberra City News digital edition Wednesday 18th
May. Len Power’s reviews can also be
heard on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Artcetera’ program from 9am Saturdays.
