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WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall explores space themes

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David CusworthThe West Australian
Eimear Foley and Sam Parry in WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall.
Camera IconEimear Foley and Sam Parry in WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall. Credit: Jarrad Seng

Gustav Holst’s Planets Suite proved its enduring charm in WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall on Saturday, bringing the best out of the ensemble amid a program heavy in film scores.

From the first frenzy in strings and stentorian horns to the majestic central hymn and sweeping climax, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity emanated a universal appeal, steeped in the ebullience of an empire on which the Sun never set 100 years ago.

It had a fine contemporary counterpart in Ella Macens’ The Space Between the Stars, a meditative reflection dedicated to her late grandfather.

“Think of the heavens and those who look down on us from there,” conductor and WACO founder Sam Parry urged the audience.

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The spiritual sentiment fitted the mood of the night; a teeming Concert Hall audience replete with family and friends whooping it up like a religious revival before, during and after each tune.

Sam Parry conducts WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall.
Camera IconSam Parry conducts WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall. Credit: Jarrad Seng

Macens’ piece launched in strings over harp highlights, with woodwind especially well employed — young cor anglais player Laura Biemmi earning a second ovation within days after appearing with WA Symphony Orchestra and WA Youth Orchestra the previous weekend.

Concertmaster Jason Chong also shone in a silken solo as Macens made full use of dynamic and tonal range right through to the last bass flourish and fade.

Soprano Eimear Foley was another jewel, precisely intoning Song to the Moon, from Dvorak’s Rusalka (aka the Little Mermaid), with a sense of devotion too often missing.

But for the heartfelt last cry, she would not have been out of place in church.

Foley followed that with Eric Whitacre’s Goodnight Moon, her musical-theatre ballad voice a change of mood nicely tailored to the young and family audience.

Gentle tones in strings were well suited, tempered by harp and blissful in the cadence.

A less-assured start to the program in Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra — think 2001: A Space Odyssey — had some rust in the fanfare, but the players steadied the good ship Enterprise for a Star Trek trilogy reaching back to the pioneer years of space flight.

Few on stage would remember those times, but the kookie themes resonated nonetheless; especially a fine euphonium solo from Oliver Stark, and a cameo by Foley as exhilarating as it was brief.

WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall.
Camera IconWA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall. Credit: Jarrad Seng

After the interval, the West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus gave way to the WA Wind Symphony for contemporary repertoire from the Star Wars era.

Ludwig Goransson’s The Mandalorian introduced a breathy consort of recorders high in the choir stalls, with intense percussion injecting an almost tribal beat far, far away from the other film scores presented.

Brash theatrics returned with The Imperial March, crisp and accurate in intonation though less subtle in dynamics.

Princess Leia’s Theme brought a change of pace, Sandra McKenna’s ethereal horn over Kira Gunn’s tinkling harp and whispering flutes settling the air.

The Battle in the Forest evoked Ewoks and Star Troopers, with menace in angular chords and jagged melody, and some stratospheric flights of fancy in horns aptly illustrating the fortunes of war.

Recorder consort for WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall.
Camera IconRecorder consort for WA Charity Orchestra’s Music of the Spheres at the Concert Hall. Credit: Jarrad Seng

Yoda’s Theme restored balance to the Force, cool tones in flute, horn and lower brass soothing the fallout of cosmic conflagration; a moment of expressive reflection before a dramatic entree to the Main Theme.

Finally, Phillip Glass’s Music of the Spheres — the show tune — was presented as a virtuoso piece few might attempt.

Atmospherics stirred a wave through the band unleashing explosive percussion for a Big Bang effect.

Cooler tones in clarinet and saxophone prevailed for The Lonely Planet, giving way to Asteroids and Shooting Stars before Music of the Spheres and Harmonia wove a counter-narrative of form amid the void.

Lastly, The Unkown tested the acoustics of a hall packed to the galleries; and if the decibel load didn’t stun the audience their own whoops and cheers surely must have, so the effect would be the same.

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