My Favourite Things Program Note from Alex Raineri
Read Brisbane Music Festival Director Alex Raineri’s program note for My Favourite Things below.
Jessica Aszodi is an artist who transcends traditional operatic labels. Fearless artistry paired with exquisite control of her instrument makes collaboration with Jess an extreme joy. Our program offering today radically departs from the norms of a standard vocal recital
I invite you to listen with curious ears to our program that traverses heartbreaking beauty, raucous cabaret, and humorous displays of theatre. The Aszodi-jukebox opens the show with Jennifer Walshe’s ‘G.L.O.R.I’ that takes us on a journey through 80s and 90s pop hits. Following this, I play an arrangement of a Julie Andrews tune arranged by my pianist-hero Stephen Hough, the virtuosity factor of which is truly ridiculous.
Keith Humble played an important role in the shaping of Australian music through the latter part of the 20th century. The abstract nature and musical complexity of his compositional style perhaps accounts for his absence in contemporary concert programming. His ‘Cabaret Songs’ however, are just that – eight highly charismatic musical vignettes that set poetry of Yeats, Graves, Hope, Wordsworth and Auden.
We follow with three offerings from the king of musical theatre, Stephen Sondheim. Exquisite sentimentality is then complemented by the brash burlesque sounds of two extracts from Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins. In this work, Bertolt Brecht’s satirical libretto paints a picture of morality through the travels of two sisters. Laura Steenberge’s work is a curious piece of theatre that depicts the mythology of the legendary hero Perseus and his slaying of Medusa. For this final offering, we welcome a third performative collaborator, Jodie Rottle.
Alex Raineri
