Metropolis and Recollections

My mum sometimes gets questions that go something like this:
"What does your daughter do?" "Does she want to be a teacher?" "When is she going to play in the orchestra?"

Briefly, the answers are as such:
I study music. In particular, the piano.
I am a classical pianist most interested in collaborative work.
Teaching may be part of my work in the future.
At the present, I hope to play a lot.
I've been in a number of orchestras.
But this one, on 27 April, was different.

My mum could totally boast "Oh yes, she was playing in the MSO concert that night..."
Fact.

The MSO this year is presenting a Metropolis series entitled "Brett Dean's Vienna". All are held at CUB Malthouse, which is a pretty edgy venue. The concert we did was a joint collaboration between MSO and ANAM. For example, in the orchestral piece as well as the octet I was in, half of the players were from MSO, the other half from ANAM.

Brett Dean's 'Recollections' (2006) for clarinet, horn, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano is a piece about "aspects of memory". In the piano part, I had to venture to the other side of the music stand (cue dramatic music here). I mean, there is so much music written for the piano - one could spend multiple lifetimes trying to even get through the solo repertoire, let alone chamber music and all other things, which may or may not include the other side of the stand! I was required to do some pizz-ing and some hitting of strings with sticks (mallets). It was all pretty weird cool fun. I stuck stickers on the inside of the piano so I knew where I was, what to hit or pluck.

What made the entire experience something new?
1. The conductor was also the composer. Okay, so I have worked with composers before on their compositions; in fact, a few have conducted their own piece too. But if you havne't heard of Brett Dean, he's kinda a Big. Deal. And you know what was realy cool too? He was super nice! He introduced himself to me, gave me heaps of encouragement and was very kind. And It was really cool to be told specifically what he wanted. We could ask questions, he would tell us exactly!
2. We had a very short rehearsal period. So this is something that I think professional orchestras do (ie. the short time-frame of things. So different to uni!) We had a rehearsal on the previous Wednesday for about 2.5hrs, then another one the next day that was scheduled for 2.5hrs (but only went for about 1.75hrs...) and then had the five day Easter long weekend. And then we came back on the Wednesday and did an hour or so (okay, went not so great the first time - I think we forgot how it went after five days! Don't worry, we pulled it together on the second go!) and then did the concert that night. Talk about efficiency...

So, being the Thinker-Feeler that I am (thanks Phil Jauncey! Okay, I'm wondering whether I'm starting to do things because I 'should be having this reaction because I'm a Thinker-Feeler' or whether I'm just more aware of it...?), I think it went pretty well. Of course, not everything was perfect. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record, what is perfect? The most moving part, I think was the last movement, entitled 'Locket'. This quotes a Clara Schumann Romance (no opus number) in the piano and the other instruments weave in and out, highlighting certain notes, creating an eerie atmosphere of some memory. It suspends in mid-air and ends in a similar fashion. Absolutely incredible to play.

I really enjoyed working on this project. I enjoyed working with Brett Dean, particularly on his own composition. I was grateful for a few friends that came to see me (and others...) play. I sometimes think that maybe people wouldn't want to come hear new music, but I think that more people are willing to try it, taste it, to see what other possibilities exist for instruments who have so much written for them already.