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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Happenings / People Children's Choir in concert The Children's Choir of St. Theresa conducted by Haasinee Halpe Andree will stage a concert on Thursday, August 18 at St. Theresa's Church commencing 7 p.m. This concert will be the choir's first concert to launch a continuous charity programme for under-privileged children.
"The Children's Choir was begun ten years ago by the then Parish Priest Fr. Bernal Steinwall and I've been the conductor since then. The choir comprises 60 members and was invited twice for performances over SLBC. Thanks to two parents of the choir Jesse and Paul Muller, the choir was the host choir for the Vienna Boys Choir on two occasions, winning praise from the conductor of that choir Martin Sebasta", expresses Haasinee Halpe. The Children's Choir sings for the Mass on Sunday mornings at 11.45. All support and encouragement are given by the Parish Priest Fr. Neil Dias Karunaratne and Father Rex, the Priest in-charge of the choir, who will be leaving for higher studies shortly. This concert is a farewell gift to him. The event is open to all. (MP) Inspiring performance The great pianist and composer, Johannes Brahms was a master of sonority and was a symbol of Viennese romanticism. There is a joke that in his time, there were signs in halls saying "this way out in case of Brahms". Yet, a capacity audience came to hear Eshantha Peiris perform one of the most austere and taxing recitals heard in Colombo for some time. The pianist's weight and tone has improved dramatically since he was last heard in Colombo. He is now taller, slightly balding but sporting a foot-long hairstyle neatly tied up for the occasion. Playing sometimes from the shoulders rather than the elbows, his playing has even more brilliance than before. If I may be excused for the name-dropping, his serious demeanour reminded me of the great Russian virtuoso and former prodigy Yevgeny Kissin, who I was once lucky enough to hear in the Sonata No. 3, as well as meet. Like Kissin however, the performances were maddeningly uneven, prone to moments of extreme brilliance, but also to mere note-spinning especially in this Romantic repertoire. Not allowing the music to breathe with silences, Brahms caused me the same uneasiness that I experience when listening to Scriabin or late Prokofiev. The brief chorale preludes, so beautifully transcribed by that Italian pianist genius Feruccio Busoni were well played, with burnished tone, paying full due to the choir-evoking melodies. Not waiting for applause, Mr. Peiris launched head first into the Paganini variations. Paganini's 24th Caprice has the signal honour of being transcribed, arranged and Rhapsodised by more famous composers (Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Andrew Lloyd Webber...) than almost any other tune. Brahms' is indisputably the most awesomely virtuosic of these. Unfortunately, these punitive difficulties are not apparent to the layman, causing people to wonder why on earth pianists sweat like coal miners when playing it. Stamina, the most solid virtuoso technique, perfect indepedence of the finger and even sheer physical strength are necessary to bring these off successfully, and it is thankless task. Which is why most young pianists eager to "show off" avoid it like the plague. Eshantha Peiris did these two books of 28 variations in all, proud. He did convey some sense of effort unlike, for example, Kissin which did communicate to his listeners that these were no normal challenges that he was surmounting. After the interval, the 19-year-old pianist returned to play us the 20-year-old Brahms' Gem of Youth. This mighty 5-movement Third Sonata has some powerful ideas in it, ideal for a youthful performer to show any audience a wide variety of technical and intrepretative powers. The Wendt's resident Yamaha grand was strident when large chords were played in its upper octaves. Heart, soul, fingers, mind and pianist came to full communion for the first and only time that evening, in the 2nd (Andante) movement. These exquisite moonlit thirteen minutes were further ingrained in my memory and my notes by an achingly beautifully played descending figure towards the end; a most inspired moment. Fate robbed both audience and pianist of hearing one of the most exhilaratingly triumphant homecomings in piano literature. Finger memory has a tendency to let one down in the most inopportune moments, and with the deluge of notes in the final pages of the concluding Finale, physical and mental tiredness (or fleeting loss of concentration) caused the pianist to fumble through an improvised briding passage. Mr. Peiris consoled us for our disappointment by playing his own fine jazz improvisation (and there is no doubt that is where his heart is) on Paganini's memorable theme. - R. Joseph |
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