Terra Australis

Terra firma for new Australian Fare? Not really with this uneven release from Grimethorpe.

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Grimethorpe Colliery Band
Conductor: James Gourlay
Soloists: Philip Mead, Robert Westacott
Polyphonic Recordings: CDQPRL 231D
Total Playing Time: 75 mins approx

Although there will be a great deal of interest generated by the recording of the ‘contest version’ of the title work ‘Terra Australis’, it is not the 2010 National Finals test piece that leaves the lasting impression from this rather uneven release.

Adept

That certainly comes with a wonderfully adept performance by Philip Mead and Grimethorpe of the composer’s ‘Cabaret Concerto’, which draws classy, relaxed, stylised playing from all concerned on a composition of expert craftsmanship and sharp musical observation.

Over 20 minutes in length it is a substantial work of contrasting invention and witty pastiche – from mock Joplin to Brahms, all inspired by the paintings of American born artist James Abbott McNeil Whistler (he of the famous portrait of his mother which hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris)

There is an engaging aesthetic quality to the writing that echoes much of the painter’s work (and not just the titles of each of the movements) and which is further enhanced by James Gourlay’s sensitive control of accompaniment (as well as Robert Westacott’s fine individual contribution).

Dry delicacy

There is a dry delicacy to the musical wit (an Ellerby forte), with each vignette retaining its sharp definition by allowing the soloist to remain the centre of musical focus throughout.

In contrast, the quartet of major contesting works are delivered with a sense of robust bravura that becomes harsh and untidy, losing the acute, and at times, darkly hued humour in the process.

’Chivalry’ is the most successful – played with a sense of Errol Flynn flamboyance and tongue in cheek drama. It’s music to accompany the stirring deeds of one of those 1950s Douglas Fairbanks Jnr films, full of chaste romance and well fitted codpieces.

It is unashamedly populist and all the better for it too.

Uneven

The two ‘Variation’ compositions are given uneven performances however – at times thrilling and lyrical, at others just plain shrill and messy (not helped by a very bright, top end heavy sound balance).

Therefore Ellerby’s intuitive appreciation of the darker elemental attributes of both Edward Elgar and Malcolm Arnold are not fully revealed, whilst the sharp wit loses it elegant dryness and becomes more than a little slapstick at times. These are rather two dimensional performance portraits of much deeper, more complex musical characters.

Firm ground?

In comparison ’Terra Australis’, is an effective and evocative concert piece that suffers by trying to become something its certainly isn’t – a fully blown major test piece.

Why the organisers of the Nationals couldn’t have just asked the composer to write a new test piece (which he certainly deserves) instead of having to potch about with what really is a showcase concert work (extended to 12 minutes in duration by the inclusion of a series of ‘Vintersque’ contest cadenzas) does the composer a disservice, however skilfully he has gone about the task in hand.

The piece doesn’t need the ‘spotlight’ additions anymore than Ellerby’s earlier, and much more musically satisfying, ‘Tristan Encounters’ does.

Bling

The more obvious ‘bling’ elements (the 24 carat soprano work can cause blindness in lesser mortals than Peter Roberts or Kevin Crockford here) and the inclusion of the modern Australian National Anthem (not fully agreed upon until 1984, when it beat ‘Waltzing Matilda’ into second place in a national poll) seem carefully choreographed audience friendly ‘lollipops’.

That would have been fine, clever and very popular back in concert mode in Oz in 2005 with YBS at full tilt, but lack real relevance five years later, in the UK and as a set work for the National Championships of Great Britain.

Everyone (including the Australian relationship and understanding of its own increasingly cosmopolitan national identity) has moved on.

This now seems a very dated piece in more ways than one.

It rounds off an interesting, and at times engaging release from Grimethorpe, which perhaps just fall short of delivering the performances these Martin Ellerby works deserve.

Iwan Fox

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