Illuminate is Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s most recent and third recording to be released in album format. Following the scintillating CD and digital format release of Heavenly Mozart – recorded in the studio, Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra return to immortalise an important concert recorded live.
This third Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra release celebrates one of Australia’s first concert events following COVID concert hall silence. It took place in Sydney at the City Recital Hall with attractive staging. Three years after it helped bring Australians back to live music performance it is being preserved as an album.
Perhaps the outsider with little exposure to these dynamic HIP experts and their Artistic Directors Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen may be excused for thinking a recording from this orchestra will only rest back in the banlieue of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. This outsider will be joyously surprised at the glistening effects and lush Romantic to early modernist outlooks to be found so well packaged here.
What sounds can we expect from vocal so;oist and strings here? The period string instruments produce an inimitable sheen across the newer expression of the selected post- Classical period, later-Romantic and even later composers featured on this album. Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s signature clarity and exciting momentum is a joy to listen to as they catapult across the divide from the late nineteenth century Romanticism and into early modernism. The vocalist presents the complex late Romantic texts by Rimbaud with wide range of nuance in fluid modern accent above the same pointed, precise gestures on the period string accompaniment.
The inclusion of Bruch’s posthumously published (finally in 1997) Serenade on Swedish Melodies was conceived during the First World War whilst Britten’s setting of Rimbaud’s harsh, philosophical protest poetry premiered in its original ‘for Soprano and Strings guise in 1940, just a few months before the Germans invaded France in the next World War.
Above: Co-Artistic Director, Rachael Beesley, leads the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra in the live performance of ‘Illuminate’ in 2021. Photo credit: Robert Catto
The exciting part of any recording or live performance from this orchestra is the remarkable amount of research, preparation and sinking of musicological teeth into the subject works and performance practice of the chosen era. This 2021 concert and now enduring 2024 recording release is no exception.
The fine program booklet documents the approach of Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra’s academics and practising musicians. They immersed themselves in studies of and time listening to 19th to 20th century vibrato styles, rendering of melodies using expressive portamenti plus flexibility of tempo to enhance the passion or elegance of this slice of history’s musical examples.
Elegance and expert narrative delivery are fitting labels for the calibre of performance here. As in my response to the 2021 COVID- comeback live concert, the sharing of text, reaction over the often restless, angular instrumental gesturing with modern string effects on older instruments in Britten’s Op 18 Les Illuminations delivers music with a unique and warm accent.
Jacqueline Porter’s performance has a chilling, exasperated power of protest, description or lament. Rimbaud and even Britten would have given a solid series of nods to it were they to hear this rarely performed work reach Australians with such drama range of and internal contrast.
Porter’s outcry from the stunningly accompanied opening ‘Fanfare’ movement, with poet Rimbaud’s angst-ridden text – “J’ai seul le clef de cette parade sauvage” (“I alone have the key to this savage parade”) blasts us back into a fiery time of reaction to a changing world. The emerging textural and tone colour possibilities of Britten as master manipulator of the intricate string tapestry surge beneath the soprano’s bold commentary.
This soprano soloist excels in ensuring the often harsh words and Britten’s modernist settings are full of both power and beauty. Her solid, strong and soprano tone, as was first intended and not the later popular tenor voice timbre, is supported with much colour by the orchestra’s well-articulated accompaniment. In moments of relative stillness such as the restrained final movement ‘Départ’, the delicate ‘Phrase’ or lilting ‘Antique’ the blend of voice and strings is especially spellbinding. In this recording the sound engineering excellence ensures vocal declamations remain as penetrating and well-balance with instrumental figures as they were in the compelling, semi-staged and costumed live concert.
Now when this digital album enables us to enjoy Illuminate either from beginning to end as in the 2021 concert, or with favourite tracks immediately repeated or jumped between, this album release offers a satisfying exploration for the listener. Its overall portrait of a musically brave, changeable era, now over a century old is a worthwhile excursion for us to take.
Above: Soprano Jacqueline Porter performs Benjamin Britten’s ‘Les. Illuminations Op 18 with Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra. Pictured above from the 2021 concert recorded live at City Recital Hall. Photo credit: Robert Catto.
So then, what of the elegance previously referred to in addition to this live album’s stunning central narrative? This comes in the string orchestra delights which bookend the Britten. Favoured violin-concerto-famous Max Bruch’s workshopping of Swedish folk tunes is here full of fine character, caricature and energy. From the opening ‘March’ through love songs and the Scandinavian dance patternings Bruch excelled in recreating in other chamber compositions. There is something in this lush late Romantic package for all modern ears to enjoy. In the tradition of this orchestra’s intention to educate and inspire, this work’s newer place in the repertoire, discovered and published way after the composer’s death, is engagingly reinforced for the listener.
Shifts in character from the wistful to energetic come with Tchaikovsky’s emotionally active almost-twentieth-century work, his Souvenir de Florence Op 70 which ends the album’s flow. Such shifts are presented in the now popular texture of full string band rather than string sextet that the composer originally endeavoured to master. This is a seamless, surging version of an expressive work to be heard with historic performance practice plus researched executional devices well applied.
In reflection of the recording’s opening work, some more folk melodies feature, this time from Russia. in this way a third cultural power from the chosen trio of progressive composers is juxtaposed in this album’s fine series of interpretation. All orchestration and expressively shaped counterpoint from the original chamber music conversation sings with subtle and joyous string orchestra sheen produced by the period strings voices assembled.
This new recording by Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra immortalises a stellar live concert moment in its recent history. The release continues the live-concert souveniring achieved to popular acclaim with their first CD, Perspective and Celebration. Illuminate brings equally fine programme structuring , with satisfying discovery, education and inspiration for fans old and new.
This 2024 album is a worthwhile addition to the busy orchestra’s discography. It demonstrates that enlightenment, emotion and the stylistic progeny of Romanticism still amaze us in our modern times. Unfortunately these remain times not devoid of conflict, clouded by complex human identities and predicaments which Rimbaud, Britten, Bruch and Tchaikovsky would be able to depict with vivid musical colours. Colours that require carefful illumination as achieved in this concert and now recording by this orchestra’s powerhouse musicological and performance team.
Illuminate is available for download purchase via https://arcomusic.bandcamp.com/album/illuminate as well as being available on all major streaming platforms.
