"Paul's Big Splash "
Two Ducks Swimming
Iwaki Auditorium
On Saturday night the Australian Art Orchestra quacked, splashed and swam in a river of experiment.
In his latest venture, Two Ducks Swimming, conductor, Paul Grabowsky, commissioned pop artist Willy Zygier and classical composer Elena Kats-Chernin to write notation-biased scores for improvising musicians.
All were swimming against the tide, but treading new waters in necessary and invirgorating. Both these works and Graowsky's own contribution were nostalgic and extensively relied on percussion, unison writing and extremes in pitch and volume. Kats-Chernin's TurnTableTurn reiterated the composer's hallmarks. It's highly charged, very fast, theatrically inspired and densely orchestrated. Zygier's work The End of Music capitalises on the mesmerising effects of pulse and repetition.
Grabowsky brought his musicians to dry land with Variations 'd'un gout etranger' on a theme by Marin Marais. Here the Art Orchestra was back in the comfort zone and the performance and the work itself excelled as a result.
- Herald Sun (Xenia Hanusiak)
