MUSIC Belle and Sebastian ★★★★ Palais Theatre, August 23 To attend a Belle and Sebastian concert is to go back in time. It’s the late ’90s or early 2000s, and searching bookstores and libraries for something to love, you spot a pleasant-looking album and take it home. You pop it into the CD player and let the warmth spill out, that striped sunlight sound painting colour into your monochrome life.
Belle and Sebastian are led by Stuart Murdoch. Credit: Richard Clifford The Scottish band’s earnest, bookish indie pop, often labelled twee with either affection or derision, captures a time and place. It’s evident by their Melbourne audience, all stripes, berets and cardigans.
But life has happened, too: many have their kids in tow, hoping to pass the magic on. Together for almost three decades, Belle and Sebastian are one of the great indie legacy acts: they’re still releasing music, but certain albums will always define both them and their fans. It’s a blessing and a curse, but so is growing up.
The precious naivete of some of the group’s earliest songs is lost in their polished performances now, but the joy remains palpable. Blooming to a nine-piece live, including a couple of local musicians, the band – led by the affable, chatty Stuart Murdoch – is a well-oiled machine, with splashes of occasional chaos. Unlike many touring bands, they don’t have a standard set list – each night is different, and anything could happen.
On this night, the sound mix is muddled and drowns out some of the band’s intricacies – their setup includes winds, brass, strings and vocal harmonies. Newer songs such as So In the Moment and Reclaim the Night (sung by the endearingly shambolic Stevie Jackson and sweet-voiced Sarah Martin, respectively) are bombastic, as are mostly unnecessary background projections. Belle and Sebastian perform at The Palais, August 23, 2024.
Credit: Richard Clifford It’s nice enough, but the audience is largely seated and passive until one of those classic songs, Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying , has everyone on their feet at once. From there it picks up, with all the old hallmarks: the band inviting crowd members onto the stage to dance to The Boy with the Arab Strap , Murdoch prancing down the aisles during Stay Loose . Rearrangements of decades-old songs make them feel fresh – the acoustic Piazza, New York Catcher gets a lush makeover, and Sleep the Clock Around , subtle on record, receives a jolt of electric energy.
It feels both old and new, like opening a dusty book you forgot you’d written your name in, and remembering what was there the whole time. Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen MUSIC ANAM Orchestra with Brett Dean and Stefanie Farrands ★★★★ Australian National Academy of Music, St Kilda Town Hall, August 24 What do you get when you mix two violists with two forward-thinking composers? No, this is not the beginning of another crass joke about the viola, which in times past was regarded as the orchestra’s Cinderella. Brett Dean in rehearsal with ANAM.
Credit: Charlie Kinross In fact, the recent collaboration of Australian violists Brett Dean and Stefanie Farrands in a program of works by Dean (also one of our country’s foremost composers) and Hector Berlioz made for an engrossing listening experience. This experience was further enlivened by the palpable energy generated by Dean’s week-long mentorship of the talented students of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). Plunging headlong into Dean’s often complex sound world, ANAM’s sizeable string band gave the Australian premiere of his 2016 triptych Music of Memory , which pays tribute to lost friends and colleagues.
Drawing out the subtleties of string timbre and texture, Dean evoked the different personalities of his subjects; most notably the British conductor Richard Hickox in the monumental, elegiac finale. Written during a COVID lockdown in 2021, Dean’s Imaginary Ballet is scored for piano quartet. Moving from the conductor’s podium to take up his viola, Dean was joined by violinist Harry Egerton, cellist Jack Overall and pianist Ronan Apcar in a convincing account of this technically challenging work.
Stefanie Farrands and Brett Dean ahead of their performance with ANAM. Credit: Charlie Kinross In nine short movements, the music pits moments of frenetic dance-like energy against elements of profoundly sad stasis. Bass strings of the piano, either plucked or struck with mallets ominously tinged the more reflective episodes.
Farrands, ANAM alumna and now principal viola of the Australian Chamber Orchestra brought supple style and grace to Berlioz’ Harold in Italy for viola and orchestra conducted by Dean, her former ANAM mentor. Presenting four scenes loosely based on Byron’s epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage , the score pits a large orchestra against the delicate ruminations of the soloist. At times projecting more enthusiasm than exactitude, the ANAM orchestra was not helped by the booming acoustic of the St Kilda Town Hall or the seating of the wind and brass above the strings.
These issues worked against some fine-tuning of intonation and ensemble but did not stand in the way of a rollicking good time. Loading The ebullient mood was sustained by an encore: Stravinsky’s early arrangement of Chopin’s Grande valse brillante in E-flat major which served up equal measures of fun and fussiness. This optimistic viola-led odyssey confirmed that the hope and promise of Australia’s upcoming classical musicians is no joke.
Reviewed by Tony Way The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it every Friday . Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later.
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Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen is a writer. Connect via Twitter . Most Viewed in Culture Loading.
