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Government House live debut for Cygnus Arioso string ensemble with Mozart and Tchaikovsky

Headshot of David Cusworth
David CusworthThe West Australian
Cygnus Arioso string ensemble put 15 musicians on stage at Government House Perth, with a ticketed audience, all socially distanced.
Camera IconCygnus Arioso string ensemble put 15 musicians on stage at Government House Perth, with a ticketed audience, all socially distanced. Credit: David Cusworth

Tradition – passing on culture – was the leitmotif for Cygnus Arioso string ensemble’s live debut at Government House Ballroom Perth on Sunday.

Colours seemed to tumble from the ceiling as 15 stringed instruments – a rare sight in the era of COVID-19 – channelled the bright tones of Mozart’s Divertimento in F Major.

The young ensemble walked on together and combined spontaneously as if in dance, from the lilting strains of violin and viola to the warm underpinning of cello and bass.

Allegro dance gave way to the Andante second movement, a sweet and gentle serenade. In the heart of a COVID-cowed and storm-abated city, here was a warm, calm centre.

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When the Presto finale burst on to the scene it felt like spring come early, by turns riotously robust and softly refined. And like the pleasant relief of an early spring day, it was over all too soon.

But the echoes of Mozart were heard in the second work, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C Major, evidently patterned on the Classical master’s work.

And as leader Akiko Miyazawa said of her group of students, pros and amateurs: “We have the same culture of strings which was passed on from the older generation, and we will pass it on. But with coronavirus the challenge is huge, so you (audience) coming today is the best support possible.”

In the opening Sonatina, the Romantic shimmer of Tchaikovsky swept out from the stage like an all-encompassing wave, rushing, receding and repeating; subsiding to a slow meander, meditative and moving.

String orchestra is one of the most homogeneous genres, each voice matched as if in a choir, and here it found full expression.

A waltz-like figure brought back the spirit of the dance, Miyazawa swaying slightly as swooning, yearning phrases thrown between higher and lower instruments evoked call and response.

Then languorous bowing and richly sonorous harmony brought on an elegiac, pastoral mood.

The next movement returned to dance with Walzer, a familiar, lyrical theme that had the whole ensemble swaying as if bursting to jump down on the parquetry and put the ballroom to its traditional use; the motif passed around the group as if in play.

A grandiose Elegie followed to summon fate and the passing of time, doubly poignant given the youth of the players; pizzicato accompaniment spicing an ethereal line, soaring yet never strident.

Cello and bass took up the lament as light cloudbursts of violins drifted down, rising to an infinitesimal pause before returning to earth with the solemnity of the introduction.

The Finale dawned faintly, almost mystically, before a rousing pastoral jig, bright and lively, to round out a memorable matinee.

The encore, fittingly, was the Walzer repeated, as it was when the work had its debut.

Cygnus Arioso returned to live performance as a quartet on June 27, the day COVID-19 restrictions were wound back to the current level. With this live debut of the wider group, which previously only played online, they have shown the value of the adage: “Never waste a crisis.”

Sunday’s matinee was part of Restart the Arts with Government House.

The program continues on Tuesday, August 18, with a WAAPA livestream featuring pianist Geoffrey Lancaster, at 1pm, available on the WAAPA Facebook page.

Next Sunday, August 23, HIP Company bring baroque to the ballroom at 4pm. Tickets at www.trybooking.com/bksnc.

Akiko Miyazawa next appears with pianist Jonathan Bradley on Sunday, August 30, 2pm, at Camelot, Mosman Park, when they continue their Beethoven Sonata Cycle. Tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/akiko-miyazawa-30336690670.

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