Grove Classics chamber music series launches season with five Albany concerts, 10 in Perth

Grove Classics chamber music program has launched its 2023 season with a first foray into the regions at Albany Entertainment Centre in May. The series, now in its 13th year, features established and rising WA musicians with a program influenced by co-founder Irina Buevska-Cowell’s Ukrainian heritage. First-up in Albany, Buevsha-Cowell joins her brother Ivan Buevsky in a Four Hands, One Piano recital of music from their homelands, on Friday May 5, at 7pm. “Growing up in separate Soviet countries and not seeing each other for more than 20 years, the atrocities of war have brought us together for an emotional and historic reunion,” she said. They will play music by their father Taras Buevsky, and grandfather Boris Buevsky, both prominent composers in Eastern Europe. “The concert means a great deal to me, as this will be the first performance with my brother, and even more special as we will be featuring music composed by our father Taras, and grandfather Boris,” Buevska-Cowell said. “While they are prominent composers, we have received scores which we will world premiere.” She will also team up with South-West resident Anna Bogachova as Two Pianists from Ukraine, a combination launched last year at the Grove Library, Cottesloe, and repeated at Margaret River. “Anna and I both graduated from the same University of Arts in Kharkiv (Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts) just three years apart,” Buevska-Cowell said. “It was a chance meeting in Margaret River WA that brought us together, orchestrated by a local wine producer. “Our university has now sustained significant damage due to the war, and we endeavour to highlight that the war cannot break us nor destroy our heritage. “Anna and I fuse our techniques and musicianship together as we perform works for two pianos, on Albany Entertainment Centre’s beautifully maintained Steinways.” Their recital is on Saturday, May 6, at 5pm. Other concerts in the Albany series are: Details of Grove Classics’ June program at the Grove Library, Cottesloe, are available at: https://www.trybooking.com/CGGAL Grove Classics launched the 2023 season on Sunday with a Valentine’s Day-themed recital by classical guitarist Don Candy. A rippling introduction to Phillip Houghton’s Kinkachoo: I Love You caressed the quiet air of the library, undulating rhythm gradually slowing to a rustling, meditative close. Film music followed in Leo Brouwer’s Un Dia de Noviembre, more deliberative and denser in harmony, breaking to a lyrical second theme and cool in the cadence. Django Reinhardt’s Nuages channelled the legendary Hot Club sound, with silvery grace notes and harmonics over robust jazz chords, lingering on whispered blue notes and a whimsical finish. Verde Alma (Naive Soul) by Maximo Diego Pujol was softly balladic, redolent of a thousand love songs yet fresh in its own signature theme. Waiting for Dawn (Andrew York) was again balladic but more complex in melody and harmony, eddying quietly through the library’s still air. A Bach Prelude changed pace, its rhythm ringing brightly like a peal of bells, with perpetual motion playing out on the fretboard. Like a sorbet between courses, it refreshed the palate for more rich romantic fare. Cavatina, by Stanley Myers, reprised the theme from The Deer Hunter, musing on nature, love and death in a nostalgic walk down memory lane. Last before interval, an Australian premiere of Variations on Greensleeves, by Alan Marsden, morphed from folklore to jazz and back, taking a Spanish tack in tempo and intent before returning to the English original. After interval, Shenandoah was another familiar theme in novel form, lyrically nuanced and delicately phrased. Vals, by Augustin Barrios Mangore, was zither-like in timbre and tempo; a jaunty air and rhythm more Latin then Viennese, with a quirky dismount. Agua e Vinho (Water and Wine) by Egberto Gismondi led out Latin lamentation with scintillating harmonics and lilting rhythm; feather-light in the cadence. Caprice Arabe, by Francisco Tarrega, channelled Arab sensitivities in Spanish tradition, flamenco-like, light in tone yet darkly mysterious; Candy finding all the time in the world to explore a full spectrum of effects. Londonderry Air, arranged by Toru Takemitsu, was emerald-green Irish folklore shot through with blue notes in a thoroughly international musical language. Meditiation from Thais (Massenet, arranged by Fernando Lepr)i, an orchestral intermezzo to opera disguised as a pop ballad, had the audience rapt in inner calm and dreamy in conclusion. Last on the bill was Felcidade by Antonio Carlos Jobim; urging, pulsating rhythm introducing a complex sound palette resolving in classic jazz harmonies and a booming conclusion. In encore, Grove Classics co-director Rob Cowell joined Candy in a duet of The Beatles’ Blackbird — their left-hand-right hand combination a homage to the original artists — before Candy rocked out with Bach’s Prelude BWV 1007; familiar fare seamlessly reworked for guitar.