A visually spectacular and aural feast as the combined talents of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra (WSO) and Legs on the Wall ( Legs ) unite to bring us NEXT CHAPTERS ABOVE/BELOW .It was performed and filmed at the Concourse , Chatswood as part of the Chatswood Bites season and streamed by the Australian Digital Concert Hall.
Musically we hear contemporary classical works, mostly by Australian composers but also Arvo Part. Included are Elena Kats-Chernin’s Wild Swans Suite (which accentuates the use of harp, piano and celeste) and Graeme Koehne’s Just Walk Beside Me. Not forgetting Matthew Hindson’s The Stars Above Us All.
They are joined by soprano Susannah Lawergren,. in a rich, multi-layered, highly accomplished performance energetically, enthusiastically led by Willoughby Symphony conductor Dr. Sarah Penicka-Smith.
There are great sequences showing the Orchestra. The three performers from Legs on the Wall, Isabel Estrella , Anna McCulla and Romain Hassanin, perform on the thrust stage at the front of the Orchestra. Sometimes, very briefly, Lawergren also ‘flies‘ while singing.
The concert was off to an emphatic, bustling start with Arvo Part’s, “Mein Veig” (“My Way”) .The percussion section was very busy! The earthbound Legs on the Wall performers performed swooping curves of choreography and sculptural poses.
For the rest of the works, a couple of times the Legs performers entered through the audience, one of them, at one point, slinkily creeping on catlike, ascending the stage then disappearing.
There is a thrilling section where two of the Legs performers float high above the stage in specially lit costumes like night time stars.
The music bubbled and rippled at times. At one point there is an underlying beat by the Orchestra while the Legs performers catapult on stage and throw themselves at each other. At another point, Hassanin has a melancholy solo but is joined by one of the ladies who floats and flies while the music pulsates. Could it have been thoughts of a lost love?
For Hindson’s work the music oozes, bubbles and curls, with the piano featured. The music then whirls breathlessly allegro in a dynamic, speedy, waltz tempo. Lawergren is backed by a clip-clop beat/rhythm and then stalks off to return while Legs performers smoothly perform very difficult lifts and swooping choreography with circular arms, This leads to the finale with Hassanin earthbound but tossing, catching and twisting Estrella and McCulla for a spectacular conclusion.
RUNNING TIME 70 minutes.
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