Classical on Cuba
2nd – 3rd September 2023
Various locations on Cuba Street Precinct, Wellington, New Zealand.
Review and photography by Tim Gruar.
Pitched as an immersive musical experience like no other, the kaupapa of this boutique festival is to bring together classical musicians, many who usually frequent the fringes and academic halls of culture and those of us who prefer the more ‘mainstream’ worlds of music and art. As their publicity promises the event is a “celebration of the intersection of classical music and contemporary Cuba Street culture.”
The concept for this festival was born out of the challenges of the Covid lockdown in 2020, when Orchestra Wellington teamed up with musicians and festival producers to support the Cuba Street businesses impacted by the cancellation of the (usually) perennial CubaDupa festival. Now, in its third year, the festival boasts a line-up of 80 shows, featuring over 40 music groups performing across 12 venues around the vibrant Cuba Street precinct. And shows promised to be out of the box – quirky and vibrant.
Today’s performances did certainly push artistic boundaries, redefining the usual tropes of stuffy shirt, traditional concert hall experiences by setting up gigs in the manner of LitCrawl, in rowdy bars like Bedlam & Squalor, shops like Nood, niche art galleries, and tiny desk venues like the offices of the Goethe Institute.
I won’t lie, nearly all the artists I saw today were new to my ears. But that’s the thing – to listen and learn, open your mind and heart to the new. Some of what I heard and saw leans more to the artistic, some more toward the accessible. Some delightful, some more demure. So, here is a punter’s take on a few of this festival’s offerings. I don’t confess to being an expert. Just a humble music obsessive with a thirst for new experiences.
NAVAA – SOUNDS OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Our first concert today was Navaa (which means ‘Melody’ in Persian). They are a collective of musicians from Iran and Syria playing oud or lute (Michel Alkhouri), Persian Tar or animal skin bass lute (Ali Rad), Persian Daf or hand drum (Manda Safavi), cello (Imogen Granwal) and renaissance recorders (Kamala Bain). The repertoire was, as expected, distinctively Middle Eastern classical. It does take a few minutes to tune your ear into this particular style, especially if you’ve not heard much of it before. But the rewards are boundless. The vibe, which is the best way to describe it, is this intimate, soothing feel. As promised, it was “a balm for the ears.”
The first piece was an enchanting tune called ‘Winter’ that was surprisingly warming. That was followed by swirl, empathetic music from Azerbaijan and a song from an Israeli group called ‘Wind’ – normally appropriate for the Capital, which was glowing in an unusually still amber spring afternoon.
The mood became melancholy for another piece from Azerbaijan, before this short 45-minute set rounded off with a riotous dance mis-named ‘Autumn’. Perhaps that season is less drizzly and gloomy in the Persian world.
KOOLISH ZEIN – NAOTA SEGAWA, CALLUM PHIPPS & ZOE WHITE
My next gig was a short walk away, at the City Art Gallery, which is sadly completely cocooned in construction scaffolding from the surrounding buildings and takes a map and a compass to find your way to the front door. But the hunt was definitely worth it to see this mix of exquisite choreography and the live playing from marimba virtuoso Naota Segawa who together created Pōneke composer John Psathas’ sonic adventure and futuristic landscapes; “Koolish Zein”.
It’s a bit hard to describe but picture this: Segawa skilfully blends EDM with the notes he plays on giant 1.5-metre-wide xylophone, his hands grasping four hammers, two in each, sweeping across the keys like a conjurer performing a trick of the eye. Magic indeed.
At the same time, Zoe White careens about the stage like a plastic bag caught in a wind tunnel. The definition of her abdominals tells the story of the preparation she must have put into this performance. More the work of a gymnast than a dancer. She’s joined by the equally deft Callum Phipps and together they intertwine in a series of movements that encircle each other with ever decreasing circles like satellites attracting static moondust. Truly mesmerising.
SOMI KIM
South Korean-born pianist Somi Kim is one of Aotearoa’s most sought-after musicians. Pianists. The Times referred to her playing as a “breath-taking range of colour, tone and inflection.” That was enough inspiration for me to go and check out her gig. She also plays with the NZTrio, amazing performers in their own right, and has scooped up accolades galore such as the Royal Overseas League Accompanist Prize, the Gerald Moore Award for Accompanists and being made Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). She’s also done some proper big stuff like concerto work with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Wow!
She played Mussorgsky’s enormous ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ at the Piano Hub. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the art group known as “The Five”. He was an innovator of Russian music in the 19th Century Romantic period. This piece was dedicated to his friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann, who had died in 1873 at age 39yrs. In the piece we walk through the gallery, looking at all the different pictures, which range from peasant scenes, a ballet for unborn chicks, a marketplace, Paris Roman Catacombs, and a Chicken witch. The strolling theme which appears to connect all 10 ‘paintings’ in the piece might be familiar to you. It was to me, from the chimes of my Poppa’s Grandfather clock in the hallway, when I was a nipper.
Kim’s playing is just phenomenal. I’m sure I could shower her in metaphors, had I the musical knowledge to back my evidence. Suffice to say, I was in awe of her skill, the way she painted our imaginations with the vibrant colours from her keyboard.
BRIAR PRASTITI X MOTH QUARTET
Freelance composer/vocalist Prastiti is academically trained, with a Master’s degree in Composition, and a passion for film scoring and electronic music production, and composing for film. Her own musical journey traverses Balkan folk, Javanese gamelan, flamenco, Latin, jazz, and Greek traditional music (her own heritage). It was clear from her performance today that her thematic base draws from the rhythms and harmonies common in Hellenic folk music.
Accompanying Prasati was the Moth Quartet (Tristan Carter, Salina Fisher, Elliot Vaughan, and Nicholas Denton Protsack), who make their public debut. Quick note, folks. Elliot Vaughan is the main man behind this year’s Classical on Cuba. Proving they are more than just a cover band the outfit specialises improvisation (rare in the Classical world it seems) having jammed privately in weird-as locations like the mountain streams of Tongariro National Park.
I’m not entirely sure what I heard but it was soothing, enchanting and often downright mesmerising – a collection of beautiful, lush, narrative driven and folk-tinged songs that made me think of Nana Mouskouri, if she was supported by An Emerald City.
THE QUEEN’S CLOSET (FURIOSO 3: ORLANDO FURIOSO)
My late afternoon experience was all about the Baroque. Baroque opera, that is, ‘re-engineered’ for the ‘21st Century attention span’. It was a bit like Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rapsody’, snatches of lyrics and airs designed for quick consumption packaged for an audience that are used to 3-minute radio play. Well, sort of.
This year’s ‘Classical on Cuba’ project is a cycle of three ‘mini-operas’ called ‘Furioso’ based on Ludovico Ariosto’s 1532 epic poem (‘Orlando Furioso’), which has been the inspiration for countless operatic adaptations and aria. The Queen’s Closet ‘minis’ tell three parts of Ariosto’s tale, involving and “overlapping casts of knights and warriors, sorceresses and princesses…and a hippogriff”. Just your average Kardashian episode, really.
I got along to the second in the series, ‘Love and Madness’, a shrunken down rendition of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s usually sumptuous opera Roland (1685). So the outrageous plot goes: Princess Angelique is in love with Medor, but the unfortunate knight Roland (otherwise known as Orlando) is on a descent into jealous madness. There is intrigue, double-crosses, double-double crosses, a ring that makes you invisible and a wayward hippogriff (err what is that, exactly?) and pointless romance at the end of it. Typical opera stuff really. This version was done by the group out of costume, which was a bit of a shame.
They sung in the original romantic Italian, in fine voice. But somehow the reading of librettos from iPads did kind of kill the mood a bit. The embellished narrator was a fine touch and the harpsichord helped the ensemble’s authentic sound to be ever more convincing.
NZTRIO
Considered the superstars of the Classical world, NZTrio, Amalia Hall (violin), Ashley Brown (cello) and Somi Kim (piano), have done it all and played with virtually everybody. I won’t bore you with the highlights – just Google it. But I do remember their mesmerising gigs at WOMAD a few years back. Today’s programme, ‘Le Chat Noir’ was a suave, vibrant offering. Clearly influenced by French Café Music and jazz (think Django Reinhart-era Paris).
We also got ‘Groovebox’, one of my favourite pieces of the weekend. It was written by US Composer and Violinist Kenji Bunch Kenji Bunch, artistic director of Fear No Music and lecturer at Portland State University. It’s distinctly rhythmic, capturing the soul and essence of NYC between the setting and rising suns. Bunch is an artist I need to seek out, incredible work.
Following that were bohemian snatches from Paris-based Kiwi Reuben Jelleyman (maybe not my thing entirely, but I got the point), and some rumbustious and brash-Brazilian flair from the pen of South American composer Raimundo Penaforte. This, above all else was the concert for me. It brought together everything I wanted – discovery, journey, challenge and inspiration.
NZTrio do this so well, bringing their audience with them – and we trust them, like pilots on a plane, to handle our ears with care and land us in a happy place. I was told: “Expect to be affected.” And I was.
This was just a handful of the artists on offer over this two-day festival. By the time you read this, it will be all over. But I hope I’ve installed a little bit of FOMO in you. Because this really is a brilliant concept. As I said earlier, I’m not a Classical buff, and my knowledge is pretty thin. But even these few mini concerts have whetted my appetite for discovery, which was the point of it all. Wasn’t it?
A final word to the volunteers who made my afternoon special, welcoming everyone to these unique spaces as if it was nothing to be afraid of. The mainly older audience certainly appreciated this manaaki and will no doubt be telling all their friends what they missed out on and to book earlier next year.
Were you there in Wellington for this magnificent festival of classical music? Or are you a fan of classical music in general? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Ambient Light was provided passes to review and photograph this festival. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only. This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase a product using an affiliate link, Ambient Light will automatically receive a small commission at no cost to you.
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