Omega Ensemble brings Joy of both sexes

WHILE politicians discuss quotas and women’s representation in Parliament, Sydney’s gun chamber music group Omega Ensemble just got on with the job in their latest concert.

Omega Ensemble performing in their Joy concert at City Recital Hall Angel Place. Picture: David Vagg

• Wagner to the power of 7
• Top-notch young veteran
• A Spaniard in the works
• Gold standard Goldberg from the ACO

WHILE politicians spend time and countless words discussing quotas and women’s representation in Parliament, Sydney’s gun chamber music group Omega Ensemble has just got on with the job in their latest concert branded Joy.

The first half was dedicated to works by two dead white males in Schubert and Beethoven, and the second featured a nonet by a much-overlooked 19th century Frenchwoman Louise Farrenc and a popular gem from Australia’s own, very much alive Elena Kats-Chernin.

The ensemble is an equal opportunities employer, being co-directed by husband and wife team clarinetist David Rowden and pianist Maria Raspopova, and this concert was led by versatile violinist Veronique Serret.

First up was Schubert’s Notturno, a stand-alone piano trio movement of mysterious origins. The lovely work in which cello and violin sing together in harmony before the piano takes over the melody, is thought to have been written a couple of years before the composer died in 1828 and wasn’t published until 20 years later with the name added on.

Serret, Paul Stender and pianist Clemens Leske did the work good service.

The first of the joyful pieces to give the concert its name, Beethoven’s “Spring” Violin sonata No. 5, closed the half and this was a terrific performance with Serret in sparkling form. ADMIRED

Equally happy playing as a regular guest with the Sydney Symphony and the ACO as she is as violinist and back-up vocalist to US folk songstress Joanna Newsom, the freelance fiddler was in her element here and Leske was equally impressive.

Despite the melodic charms of the two familiar first half pieces the highlight of the evening for this listener was the Farrenc nonet which she composed in 1849 during her tenure as a professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire.

Much admired as a teacher and pianist, Farrenc, as a woman, was not allowed to take official classes in composition but she had private lessons with Anton Reicha, a friend of Haydn, and so became familiar with the Vienna classical school.

The nonet is an entertaining work and shows off Farrenc’s talent for orchestration which was admired by Hector Berlioz

Until triumphant premier of the nonet, which featured the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim, Farrenc was paid less than her male conservatory colleagues but she campaigned for and achieved equal pay on the back of the work’s success. She retired from public performance, and composing, when her musician daughter died.

The nonet is an entertaining work scored for violin, viola, cello, double bass, horn, clarinet, oboe and flute and it shows off Farrenc’s talent for orchestration which was admired by Hector Berlioz.

At times it is reminiscent of Haydn — Reicha’s influence no doubt — at others the sound world of Mendelssohn comes to mind. Serret kept things bubbling nicely and the give and take between strings and wind instruments was a feature.

Kats-Chernin’s Russian Rag was written more than 20 years ago in the Paddington house of composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks. It is one of her most popular pieces and this arrangement by the Omega Ensemble made the perfect off-kilter ending to an evening of music celebrating the Joy of both sexes.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Omega Ensemble, Joy

● WHERE: City Recital Hall Angel Place

● WHEN: Tuesday, September 25