ANAM Solo Recital
South Melbourne Town Hall
Friday 1 June 2018
Mature-age audience-people have been listening to music for
decades. They can tell the good from the excellent from the superb in a flash. When
50 or 60 of them – with 20 or so student-support – recognise a performance as
superb and rise as one person to say so it’s good evidence that the muso
concerned is a winner. At ANAM on Friday the winner was Caleb Wong.
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| Caleb Wong Source: https://www.maroondahsymphony.org.au/future-concerts/concert-sunday-16th-september-2018/ |
The Strauss/Mendelssohn opus 6 cello sonata was written when
Richard was in his late teens: it’s late-ish 19C. So playing it very well, answers,
‘can I play German romantic with my eyes closed - because you can’t play
Mendelssohn well with your eyes open. In Caleb’s case on Friday, the answer
was,’ Why are you bothering to ask?’ He had the score open but I have no idea
why. He spent a lot of time not looking at it and it showed in the way he let
the music channel through his head and out over the space between stage and
audience He gave us wonderful brio in
the first movement and great vivo in
the third with beautifully controlled andante
but non-troppo in between. Simply
beautiful. But was it competition winning stuff? Yes ... ish.
The late Debussy sonata was next. Not easy, that piece.
Challenging to listen to with its unusual sur
la touche and sur la chevalet bowing
instructions. Caleb describes the second movement as sarcastic. I’ve never thought
to describe even late Debussy like that, but he’s right. It’s a wonderfully acerbic
piece that Caleb clearly understood very well. Hmmm ... it's not all sweetness and light in that head.
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| Grace Wong with brother Caleb Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xobm-7xhdWo |
But to cut to the chase, Caleb was,
I’m certain, doing a practice run for a high-powered competition. In that, his next
choice of repertoire was ideal. He came nowhere near the boring and banal of which
there is heaps in the cello list:
Samuel Barber? No! American schmaltz.
Béla Bartók? No?
Britten? Hmmm … later, maybe.
Elliott Carter? Bit risky. Very risky!
Elgar? Du Pré! So no, not until I'm very famous.
Variations on a Rococo Theme? No bite! What Tchaikovsky has?
Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante? Yes! Bite!
But can we handle the horrendous technical stuff?
The answer was, yes, firmly, yes – apparently with ease. We were given (thank you Caleb) a
brilliant, gut-grabbing performance of a piece that is rivalled for Russian bite
and satanic writing only by Prokofiev’s third Piano Concerto. We heard only
the second movement with the deceptive instruction, Allegro. Now I want to hear the whole deal. Even in a piano
reduction it’s a spectacular piece of music with enormous music values and we
got a spectacular performance that tapped into those values. Not just my
opinion. The audience were on their feet
before I could move.
Louisa Breen was the Associate Artist – not the
accompanist. Gerald Moore killed that concept by asking sardonically, Am I too loud? Louisa’s playing was
equally as stunning as Caleb’s.
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| Louisa Breen Source: https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2018/natural-landscapes/ |
When they stood, exhausted, Caleb waved his right hand in her
general direction. I’m absolutely certain that he didn’t intend to be
dismissive: he’s too good a bloke for that. But as a piece of stage manners,
next time Caleb might indicate Louisa firmly or shake her hand or kiss he on
both cheeks or hug her then do a hand-holding bow with her. Mate, she was your
associate artist! The performance was not possible without her – her work was top-class . You were both equally superb, mate!
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