A hellish cellist and other devilish treats
Acclaimed pianist Alex Raineri is also something of an impresario and the sixth iteration of his Brisbane Music Festival is daring and diverse
How do you get the punters interested in classical music? Well, Brisbane Music Festival curator, local pianist Alex Raineri, is devilishly clever at doing that, devilish being the operative word considering one of the events is called Hellish Cellist.
Part 2 of BMF is on in December (Part 1 was in October) and flicking through the program the eye is immediately drawn to Hellish Cellist.
What makes a cellist hellish? In this case it’s talented local Daniel Shearer in a theatrical piece that references Dante’s Inferno, which is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic poem Divine Comedy.
“Daniel’s show is a semi-theatrical Dante-inspired performance,” Raineri says.
The program describes it as “a devilish new rendition of a Bach masterwork” and goes on to say that in it “an unadulterated character takes a Dante-esque tour through the inferno in this reimagined theatrical performance of Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major”.
“He even plays it backwards,” Raineri promises.
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Presumably he plays it the regular way, too, but that will become clearer when you go along.
It’s clever programming for a festival that has been praised for diverse programming.
This is BMF’s sixth year and Raineri, a hard-working musician with an international reputation, has an eclectic approach. BMF is a cross-cultivation of musical offerings from the old and familiar to the vibrant and new. While it is primarily a classical music festival it is anything but stuffy and frequently ventures into the realms of jazz, pop and even experimental music.
And there is a focus on Australian music and performers with plenty of world and Australian premieres.
Raineri works extensively across the classical music scene and his connections are impeccable and that shows in the artists he is able to attract.
In this second tranche of the festival popular baritone Jason Barry Smith is on the bill along with flautist Tim Munro (a Grammy Award winner who lived for many years in the US), popular local soprano Katie Stenzel, cellist Katherine Philp (not as hellish as Daniel Shearer), violinist Courtenay Cleary who once played for the late Queen Elizabeth II (make that twice) in Courtenay Cleary in Recital.
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And popular singer Irena Lysiuk stars in Exit Music which will feature, a tad surprisingly, the music of Radiohead … “reimagined”.
Raineri and Katie Stenzel are good friends and colleagues who will team up a few times across the program, including in Mahler 4, a version of Mahler’s sweeping Fourth Symphony.
“This is a full Mahler work reduced down to two pianos and voice,” Raineri says. “When BMF does one of these older more canonic works, I like to do something different.
When we chat, Stenzel has just arrived at Raineri’s studio for a rehearsal and she is enthusiastic.
“I love working with Alex,” she says. “We rarely get through a rehearsal without absolutely cracking up. We get to explore music we wouldn’t have done with other people and it’s a chance to explore more intimate work than I would be doing on the opera stage.”
One of the treats will be Stenzel’s recital Romance by the Book, which will feature the cabaret songs of the great British opera composer Benjamin Britten.
“Some people don’t like Britten operas because he’s not as tuneful as Mozart but his cabaret songs are much more accessible and theatrical … and funny,” Stenzel says.
Raineri and Stenzel and friends teamed up for an intimate concert called Wonderland – An Evening of Classics, as part of the QPAC Unlocked series. In fact, it was the first show at QPAC after lockdown and it was an intimate concert presented in the Lyrebird Restaurant at QPAC, by necessity.
That model of more intimate shows is now very popular and that approach is at the core of BMF which is now presented in a new exciting inner-city venue, FourthWall Arts, at the Story Bridge end of Brisbane’s CBD.
And as Stenzel points out, when tickets to BMF events are only $25, that’s an added attraction and a way of introducing a whole new audience to classical music with some variety, as a sweetener.
6th Brisbane Music Festival: Part Two, December 4-10
brismusicfestival.com