Remember, if you can, the opening scene of last year's James Bond film Spectre. The Day of the Dead in Mexico city. Mr Bond walks through a scene of crowds and costumed performers. On one of the passing floats you can see the famed Mexican percussion ensemble Tambuco. And this year you'll be able to see and, of course, hear them throughout the Canberra International Music Festival. You don't even need to be wearing a macabre skeleton costume.
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In his second year as artistic director, Roland Peelman has built our annual classical music festival around a Mediterranean theme. Peelman explains that the program explores the role of the Mediterranean as the "cradle of western civilisation", the home of "Greek Antiquity, Roman Culture, Arabian science and mathematics". All crucial to the development of western music and culture. Spanning history, you will find early music experts from Spain and Italy, along with Rossini, an oud and modernist music from France. Tambuco join a surprising number of performers and composers from Latin America, who will demonstrate the impact of Mediterranean culture's embrace around the world.
Peelman was happy to program so much Italian, French, Spanish and Latin American music this year;
"They have been largely left out of previous festival programmes," he said.
Tambuco will be performing in six concerts across the span of the festival. Of these, the Nishi Sequenza concert, may be your best chance to get your James Bond on. That lunch-time concert meanders through various locations around New Acton, where multiple bars may grow very tired of making shaken martinis before the conclusion of the festival.
While Latin American performers represent possibly the furthest reach of Mediterranean culture, the festival also includes concerts that will familiarise audiences with its origins. The Spanish early music ensemble Forma Antiqva comprises the Zapico brothers, Daniel, Pablo and Aaron. They are known for their creativity, liveliness, rhythms and ability to perform with stunning accuracy on period instruments; theorbo, baroque guitar and harpsichord. The ensemble's main concert at the festival, titled Fandango is a history of the dance of the same name, and is described in the program as "thirty fingers in perfect syncronicity".
The festival also features a man Peelman excitedly declares is an "icon" of the early music scene. Marco Beasley is expert in the early folk and bardic traditions of Europe, particularly Sardinia and Abruzzo. His commitment to these ancient story-telling techniques will come to the fore in the Battle of the Sexes concert at the Fitters Workshop at 7:30pm on Friday, May 7. Far from the tedious debates which normally carry this title, this concert is one of the most emblematic of this year's theme.
Battle of the Sexes features three works, but the most significant is Verdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Described by Peelman as a "perfect musical drama", it is a story told against a backdrop of one of the most significant moments in the history of the Mediterranean, the first crusade. A concise, 21-minute work which perfectly combines music, motion and a classic tragedy – two lovers who find themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield. It's a work for three voices, the two lovers and Beasley interpreting the role of narrator in a period-authentic style.
This year's composer-in-residence is Gerard Brophy, an Australian who currently splits his time in Brisbane, Calcutta and Istanbul.
Brophy's musical influences are diverse. His studies took him from Sydney to Brazil then back again, only to ultimately find himself studying in Italy with the modernist composer Franco Donatoni. Donatoni taught Brophy to write "lots of semiquavers basically, with lots of grace notes" Peelman explains with a laugh.
But, after exploring modernism for much of his early career, Brophy returned to the Brazilian sounds, pulse and rhythm of his early studies. His recent compositions are built around "natural harmony" and frequently feature frenetic, precise performances on pitched percussion like vibraphones and marimbas. Peelman speaks highly of Brophy, describing him as having a "great sense of colouristic refinement" and responsible for the "most sensuous music written in this country".
There will be nine works by Brophy performed across the festival, from the opening gala through to the Brazilian-themed festival finale. Three of these pieces will be world premieres; two pieces composed specifically for the festival and an unexpected work Ru B Fuego, which was actually written in 1998 but won't been performed until the finale concert of this festival. Why has this work not been performed until now? Perhaps you can ask him at the Talk of the Town session at the Ainslie Arts centre on May 4. There Brophy and Spanish guitarist Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey will betalking about their work, flamenco guitar and one of Brophy's festival premieres, an as yet unnamed that will feature in the El Camino concert the following evening.
But, of course, it's not all Latin flair and Mediterranean flavours. The festival also finds room to feature some of the more familiar sounds that concert goers might expect. As Peelman says, "Canberra loves their Bach". But, be prepared for the theme to still find a way to permeate proceedings. For example, the Scarlatti meets Handel meets Bach concert, seems fairly traditional. It's a concert celebrating a famous keyboarding dual between Scarlatti and Handel. But with Aria-winning Oud player Joseph Tawadros listed among the performers, not all may be as it seems.
The 2016 Canberra International Music Festival commences on April 28 at the Fitter's Workshop on the Kingston Foreshore. For full program information, visit www.cimf.org.au
Don't Miss
Ear of the Cat, Saturday, April 30, 10-11am Ainslie Arts Centre – Canberra's Griffyn ensemble in a concert for the young and young at heart. A show about cats, video games and soup – developed in collaboration with children in Canberra and Cairo.
Bells and Smells, Monday, May 2, 12:30-2pm National Gallery of Australia to the High Court – A concert built around the relationship of bells, architecture and rituals. Starting with a performance on the National Carillon, following on with Tambuco premiering a work by Tristan Coelho in the National Portrait Gallery and concluding with ritualistic music by Gerard Brophy in the vaulted halls of the High Court of Australia. "Smells" are promised too, but are being kept a secret!
Streets of Madrid, Monday, May 2, 6:30-8pm Fitters' Workshop – The program labels this "A romp through the streets of Madrid". This concert opens with one of Peelman's personal favourite works, the rarely performed and fiendishly difficult Mozart Divertimento KV563 string trio. It is followed with much-loved works by Luigi Boccherini, the La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, and Fandango.
French Invention: Invention Francaise, Wednesday, May 4, 6:30-8:20pm Fitters' Workshop – One of the more unusual and exciting concerts of the festival. Headlined by literally a French invention, the Ondes Martinot, performed by the French performer Nadia Ratsimandresy. She will be performing Messiaen's Oraison as well as a world premiere Epirus, An Ancient Voice by the Australian/Greek composer Konstantin Koukias. The concert closes with a Harp quintet composed by French composer, war hero and inventor, Jean Cras.
Sounds on Site: Garema Place, Thursday, May 5, 12:30-1:30pm Garema Place – A free concert performed by Tambuco, the Band of the Royal Military College Duntroon and carillonist Lyn Fuller. The concert includes samba from Tambuco and Elena Kats-Chernin's original Beaver Blaze composition. The National Carillon will be relayed to Garema place to perform a world premiere work by Sydney composer Jessica Wells.
Gardens of Delight, Friday, May 6, 12:30-2pm National Botanic Gardens – An excursion through the rainforest and desert of the National Botanic Gardens to the sound of contemporary art music. Performers include Continuum Sax, Speak Percussion, the ANU Experimental Studio and any birds that aren't scared off.
Argentina Magica: Alberto Ginastera, Saturday, May 7, 2:30-4:10pm Fitter's Workshop – Celebration of the centenary of Argentina's most prominent composer, Alberto Ginastera. The concert features a number of seminal Ginastera works, including some never performed before in Australia.
The Chocolate Factory: A Family Concert, Sunday, May 8, 11am-12:30pm Fitters' Workshop – "A great concert for mums, grandmas and the kids" says Peelman. Chocolate themed music combined with chocolate tastings and Tobias Cole disguised as Willy Wonka. Includes a new, specially written work for the occasion.
A Wave and Waves, Sunday, May 8, 2-3:15pm National Gallery of Australia – A huger ensemble including Tambuco, Speak Percussion and members of the Canberra Youth Orchestra performing a work by the contemporary American composer Michael Pisaro. The performers will sit among the crowd creating waves of sound on unusual instruments such as sandpaper, stones, seeds and bells.
