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Dominion, Monday 8 March 2004, Pg A13
De Castro Robinson reveals sensual side
WHAT: De Castro Robinson Portrait
WHO: New Zealand String Quartet, Douglas bellman (violin), Gillian Ansell (viola), Bridget Douglas (flute), Patrick Barry (clarinet), Carolyn Mills (harp), Dan Poynton (piano), Helen Medlyn (mezzo)
WHERE: Ilott Concert Chamber, March 5
REVIEWED BY: John Button
EVE DE CASTRO ROBINSON is at the very heart of academic musical
life as a lecturer in composition at Auckland University.
She is, as well, involved in workshops, organiser of festivals, and a writer,
broadcaster and reviewer on musical matters.
As a composer she has had commissions from most musical organisations of any
note in New Zealand, and has had her works performed widely overseas.
I had always thought her a worthy, if rather straight-laced, adherent of 20th
century atonal doctrines.
This concert rather changed my mind.
Certainly the opening ‘Tumbling Strains’, in a new version for string
quartet struck me as a little dated, but all the other works in this concert
revealed an unexpected freedom, leavened with more than a hint of sensuality,
and in the final settings of nine Len Lye poems, a sense of theatre, a feeling
for the absurd and a sharp sense of fun.
All five of the works in this concert had something different to say.
‘Tumbling Strains’ with its frenetic tremolos from the strings,
‘Undercurrents’ exploited the clarinet’s possibilities (and
revealed Patrick Barry’s enormous skill), while a Pink-lit phase –
inspired by a poem from the composer’s mother – drew out the exotic
and sensual possibilities from the combination of flute, viola and harp.
The connection to Ravel was, clearly, not lost on the composer.
‘Ring True’ for piano, little bell and orchestral gong was written
for Dan Poynton, and it too, rang with an exotic, mysterious sensuality.
But the settings of Len Lye poems capped things brilliantly.
With a hint of vaudeville here and more than a nod to Edith Sitwell and William
Walton there, it exploited the extravagant talents of Helen Medlyn to the hilt,
closing the first real festival-style concert I have experienced this time round,
in style.
Contact Helen, Penny, and the Hell HQ Team Here