Southern Cross Soloists (SXS) opened 2024 with Divine Alchemy, a concert full of strong emotional imagery and a program inspired by the transfiguration of suffering into beautiful art. Alongside classical composers like Mozart, Bach, and Debussy, Divine Alchemy included a number of premieres honouring loved ones who had passed, including the world premiere of the newest work for the SXS Didgeridoo Commissioning Project.
Established in 1995 and based in Brisbane, Southern Cross Soloists is a chamber orchestra composed of leading classical soloists, in frequent collaboration with Guest Associate Artists, Artists in Residence, and Next Gen Artists. SXS also regularly commissions and premieres new Australian music, with more than 130 commissions to date. 2024 marks SXS’ 29th year of operation and their 15th season as a Company in Residence at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC).
Divine Alchemy opened with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Oboe Concerto in G minor, with SXS Artistic Director and oboist Tania Frazer as the soloist. The SXS were joined by harpsichordist Mai Lien, Guest Associate Artists Katherine Philip on cello and Margaret Blades on violin, and SXS 2024 Next Gen Artist Chae Eun Oh, also a violinist. The quick Allegro darted between soloist and strings before the famous second movement, a lamenting Larghetto. The third and final movement was a passionate and speedy Presto, returning to the energy of the first movement and passing the music between the instruments.
SXS Artistic Director Tania Frazer then introduced guest soloist Amalia Hall, recently returned from performances in Europe and soon to be performing six concertos in six weeks across Central and South America. Hall stood in the centre of the ring of musicians – SXS play without a conductor, and it is always fascinating to watch the way the musicians communicate with one another onstage – for the world premiere of a new arrangement, by Tania Frazer, of Claude Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G minor. Considered to be Debussy’s final work, the sonata reflects the inner and outer turmoil of his final years, between his declining health and World War I. The first movement, Allegro Vivo, was full of shifting moods and speeds, coming to a sharp finish and followed by the playful, but darker, Intermède: Fantastique et léger. The Finale: Très animé retained this sense of the fantastical, with strange and sudden bursts of colour and speed. Hall had an impeccable sense of timing, finding tiny pauses in the music and leading the piece to an uplifting finish.
Following enthusiastic applause, Hall returned to the stage for an encore. Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer, and Hall performed his 1911 piece Scherzo-Caprice for solo violin, quick and sharp and full of interesting sounds and slides. Even playing a such a speed, Hall drewing out the richness and colour of the music.
SXS Didgeridoo Artist in Residence Chris Williams then took the stage to speak about the next piece, a world premiere co-composed with Sean O’Boyle through the SXS Didgeridoo Commissioning Project 2023 and a tribute to Wakka Wakka woman, and Chris’ grandmother, Maureen Williams. He described The Wise Woman as “her story, in song” and spoke about the extraordinary life and generational legacy of his grandmother. Photos of Maureen Williams were projected above the musicians as they played.
The Wise Woman began with the notes passing between the instruments, as a story is passed down to future generations. From the gentle idyll of a riverbank, there was rising heat and a ferocity of spirit before the distinct sounds of a carnival that Williams’ intended to evoke, specifically, the Longreach showgrounds. Fragments of Crimond (The Lord is My Shepherd) were woven together with the traditional Wakka Wakka song Gurri Ngindin Narmi, which Williams sang partly through his instrument. Williams played three different didgeridoos throughout the piece and moved into the audience while he played, circling the auditorium and eventually returning to the stage. The sound of the music shifted as it moved around the listeners, and the ending of the piece felt bright and hopeful, looking toward the future.
SXS clarinettist Ashley Smith introduced the next piece, although he commented that it needed no introduction – Requiem in D Minor was the final piece that Mozart composed, and it remained unfinished at his death. The score was completed by Mozart’s pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr but, as part of Divine Alchemy, Southern Cross Soloists performed three small excerpts from Mozart’s parts of the composition. The Lacrimosa (Sequentia) was haunting, full of evocative imagery. Next came the Kyrie, with a three-and-a-half bar phrase for the bassett horn that creates a terrifying fugue and a plea for mercy, and then the Dies Irae (Sequentia) which was faster and restless as Judgement Day approached.
Requiem in D Minor was commissioned anonymously – the patron turned out to be an eccentric Austrian count – but Mozart supposedly came to believe that, given his poor health, he had been commissioned to write the requiem mass for his own funeral. Smith added that he discovers more and more inside this piece every time he comes back to it, and commented that it was interesting that Mozart returned to Bach for inspiration at the end of his life.
The next piece was the Australian premiere of award-winning French composer Thibaut Vuillermet’s Élégie, and the world premiere of its arrangement for chamber orchestra. Tania Frazer told the audience that she saw a video of it being performed online just two days after its world premiere in October 2023, and wrote to the composer immediately about programming it for SXS’ 2024 season. Inspired by the loss of two loved ones, including Vuillermet’s father, Élégie certainly evoked a sense of sadness and mournful remembrance, but finished with shining strings that suggested the other side of grief, living on with hope for the future and fond memories.
Divine Alchemy concluded with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, considered one of the greatest piano concertos ever written, with 2024 SXS Artist in Residence Konstantin Shamray as the soloist. Shamray observed that Mozart had written 27 concertos and 1 rondo, and only 2 of those in a minor key. I felt a sense of drama and despair in the Allegro, followed by the slower, soothing Larghetto and picking up speed and intensity again in the third movement, the Allergetto. There was a beautiful clarity to Shamray’s performance, and the fluid, continuous movement of his fingers over the keys was mesmerising.
Divine Alchemy was a poignant and reflective concert to begin the year, with Southern Cross Soloists drawing on the depths of human emotion to bring brand new works and timeless classics together in a coherent whole.
Divine Alchemy was performed at the QPAC Concert Hall on 3 March 2024
Click here for more information about Southern Cross Soloists, including their upcoming concerts
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