Friday Music at St Stephen’s | Richard Rourke
21 April, 2023, St Stephen’s Macquarie St, Sydney
How many times have I rushed past St Stephen’s church at lunchtime on a Friday busy getting to the next ‘important’ thing in my day? I can’t count, but this Friday I stopped at the little A-frame sign saying, “RECITAL TODAY 1:10 to 1:50” and popped in. This little gem nestled between the high rise blocks of Macquarie Street is literally only two minutes from Martin Place Station, and it was here that I, and a goodly number of lunchtime music lovers, experienced some wonderful music including a world premiere.
Today’s recital, presented by clarinetist Richard Rourke and pianist Sumiko Yamamura began with Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie introduced by Rourke as a work commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire for their annual examinations to test the abilities of the clarinet students. A beautiful example of Impressionism this short piece took me musically floating up a river past flocks of chattering water birds, navigating both slow meanders and quick rapids. Rourke would have passed the Conservatoire exam with flying colours.
The final piece was Sonatina from Austrian born British composer Joseph Horovitz. Three movements that ranged from a cheery Allegro, calmato to a reflective Lento, quasi andante to downright jollity in the final Con brio. Rourke and Yamamura as equal partners on this musical journey rocked along together to leave the audience in high spirits as they spilled out onto the city street.
But sandwiched between these was the work I had come to see, the premiere of Alan Holley’s Morpheus.
Morpheus is the ancient Greek god of dreams. The word literally means ‘maker of shapes’. Holley explained that, “The idea of dreams and dreamlike music was not in my mind until I started reading The Freedom Artist a novel by Ben Okri where the writer takes the reader into a world of dreams, where it is difficult to be fully aware of reality… Okri’s novels deal with the space between real and that which is not and I wanted my music in this short chamber work to also inhabit a soundworld that drifted, indeed morphed between one abstract thought and another as if in a dream.”
So how did this idea transcribe to music? ‘Dreamily’ is the word that comes to mind. There were phrases that had that distinct feeling of having just dropped into sleep and suddenly being wrenched out again with that familiar sensation of falling. A jolt followed by many ascending scales settling the listener back into a kind of hypnogogic state before traveling off on a new path into… where? Perhaps a darkening bush landscape (I often hear the sounds of nature in Holley’s compositions), perhaps a deep fog with slowly emerging and disappearing shadowy figures? My imagination runs wild as the clarinet softly lulls me into peace while the piano brings in tension again, stabbing at a few staccato notes – the work created a not wholly unpleasant sense of peering about to see what’s around the corner just as it slips away from sight, ungraspable. It’s both playful and tense, calming and frenzied, but overall mesmerising stuff.
Rourke and Yamamura are both well known to Holley, in fact this work was written specifically for the duet, and they certainly did the music justice, Holley noted, “There is a great sense of security when writing for musicians who you know will take consummate care with the score and delve into the underlying aspects of the music.” That they did, and with great enjoyment too.
What a great way to take time out from the day and be immersed in great music. I suspect Friday Music at St Stephen’s could easily become a weekly habit!
iPad sketch – Rod Holdaway
