Led by conducting wunderkind Eduardo Strausser, ANAM have put together something breathtaking.
In a major performance at the Melbourne Recital Centre, the ANAM Orchestra will take on three pieces derived from the world of ballet. The titular Petrushka is the cream of the crop, a stunning work of evocation marked by composer Igor Stravinsky’s experiments with bitonality.
To begin, visiting conductor Eduardo Strausser will take the orchestra through the ‘Polovtsian Dances’ from Alexander Borodin’s opera, Prince Igor, and selections from Manuel de Falla’s music for the 1919 ballet, The Three-Cornered Hat.
All three pieces gained renown in the early 20th century via Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company. In the hundred or so years since they were debuted, they’ve become venerated works of musical innovation independent of the original choreography.
Petrushka is a particularly important work in the history of classical music. It’s one of three works Stravinsky composed between 1910 and 1913 for Diaghilev’s hugely influential Ballets Russes. Along with The Firebird (1910) and The Rite of Spring (1913), the work affirmed Stravinsky’s position at the cutting edge of musical design.
Stravinsky was born 1882 and grew up in Saint Petersburg. However, it was in Paris that he found fame.
“Diaghilev was bringing Russian artists to Paris to perform to the elite of Paris,” says Strausser. “The Paris bourgeoisie was very interested in Eastern culture back then. The first collaboration was The Firebird.”
Following the resounding success of The Firebird, Diaghilev immediately sought another work from the young composer. Petrushka was inspired by a vision Stravinsky had of a puppet springing to life. It was his intention for the work to be performed in a concert setting, but Diaghilev had other ideas, seeing great dramatic potential in the writer’s imaginative source.
The work’s title refers to its main character, the male puppet Petrushka, originally portrayed by eminent Polish-Russian dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky. Petrushka was a jester-like character that had been present in Russian puppetry since the 17th century – Petrushka is often seen as the Russian equivalent to Punch from the traditional British puppet show, Punch and Judy.
While the invocation of puppetry might suggest the work has a childish flavour, Stravinsky’s composition is musically complex with palpable tragic overtones. It’ll be Strausser’s first time conducting the piece, but the Brazilian-born conductor is deeply familiar with Stravinsky’s repertoire.
“I just did the Firebird in Berlin last month, so I’m really looking forward to conducting Petrushka with ANAM,” he says “I think every musician has a relationship with Stravinsky because he really changed the paradigm for musicians and for music history. Everything was different after Stravinsky.”
Strausser is currently based in Berlin and in recent years has gained a reputation for his charismatic stage presence and powerful conducting style.
“I studied in Switzerland. When I finished school I got a job to work at the Opera House in São Paulo and so I moved back and I spent three years working at the Opera House conducting a lot of operas,” he says.
He returned to Europe in 2016 and has since been working with orchestras across the continent including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and The Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his Australian debut in 2018, conducting Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
“I have the opportunity to travel a lot, to know a lot of different people, different countries, and make beautiful music all around the world,” he says.
ANAM is Australia’s only professional performance training institute, giving musicians the opportunity to learn and hone their skills through public performance. The academy regularly invites international guests such as Strausser to work with its musicians.
Petrushka is the penultimate event in the 2019 ANAM at Melbourne Recital Centre series and it’ll embody the organisation’s aims to reset the parameters of classical music performance.
Petrushka will be performed at Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on Saturday September 7. Find out more about ANAM and buy your tickets to the show via their website, anam.com.au.
