Music / Songs of Eve, Jane Sheldon, soprano and Jack Symonds, piano. At Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, February 16. Reviewed by LEN POWER.
In a demanding but superb program, soprano Jane Sheldon and pianist Jack Symonds, created an extraordinary world of atmospheric music that was dreamlike and haunting.
Jane Sheldon is a leading Australian soprano and composer with an international reputation.
Her own body of compositional work includes electronic music, chamber music, an opera installation, works for dance companies and large-scale sound installations for galleries and museums. She holds a doctorate in music composition from the Sydney University.
Jack Symonds is a composer, conductor and pianist and artistic director of Sydney Chamber Opera. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music, London and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he received the University Medal.
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Sheldon introduced the order of the four program items at the start of the Art Song Canberra concert and then performed them without a break. She began with her own compositions to a text by Rainer Maria Rilke from her album, Flowermuscle.
This was followed by Wolken (Clouds) by Pascal Dusapin to a text by Goethe. Gabriel Fauré’s La Chanson d’Eve with a text by Charles van Lerberghe was the third item and the final item was Francis Poulenc’s La Dame de Monte Carlo, which had a text by Jean Cocteau.
Sheldon’s use of her clear soprano and ability to convey the meaning and different emotions in the works was extraordinary. The sly humour in the words of Poulenc’s La Dame de Monte Carlo was especially well presented. Jack Symonds’ piano accompaniment for this program’s complex music was remarkable.
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