SCUNA history » Concerts » 1968 - 3
The George Dreyfus farewell concert at the Canberra Theatre on Sunday night offered a happy compendium of his work.
There were examples of what might be termed 'popular' Dreyfus, of 'sardonic' Dreyfus and 'serious' Dreyfus. It was the latter in particular, represented by his song-cycle 'From Within Looking Out', which one was most pleased to hear. For his expressed desire to attract an audience and a natural ebullience and often droll buffoonery tend to obscure his very real talents and the serious intent behind the more important works.
Written in 1962 for soprano, flute, viola, celeste and vibraphone, this five-movement work is still his most significant creation - excepting perhaps the 'Symphony No 1' which was premiered earlier this year and which, incidentally, I hope the ABC will programme in one of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's concerts here in 1969.
The taxing soprano part was beautifully sung by Janice Taylor, with fine tonal accuracy and delicate expressiveness, particularly in the tender third movement. Vincent Edwards' subdued but warm toned viola set-off the cool, clear filigree lines of the flute of Suzy Powell: against these were the interjections of the bell-toned instruments played by Donald Hollier and Richard Miller.
Altogether it was an evocative performance of this haunting and expressive music.
The 'Homage to Igor Stravinsky' was written for an ABC programme this year when someone had the incredible idea of asking a round-robin of Australian composers to each write a two-minute work in honour of Stravinsky's 87th birthday. Perhaps such a joyous send-up as Dreyfus concocted is the only way to treat such official woolly-headedness!
It was performed with appropriate mock-seriousness by the ANU Choral Society, and perhaps because its appeal is more visual than musical it won instant success with the audience and had to be repeated.
The concert opened with the short seven-movement suite from the music for the TV series 'The Adventures of Sebastian the Fox' for wood-wind quartet, one of a number of projected permutations of this cheerily inconsequential music. It is a pleasant little example of his popular music.
Similarly, the concluding work, 'Song of the Maypole' sprang from this desire to reach people with his music and to involve them in it. A little opera for children's choruses, it drew for its performers children from five Canberra schools, dressed in costume as fishermen, their wives, children, and a group of Aborigines. With an accompanying orchestra of 40 or so players, the whole energetically conducted by George Dreyfus himself, it was all colourful and attractive - and the children appeared to be enjoying themselves.
The J. C. Bach 'Symphony in B flat major' played by the Boccherini Orchestra, a small group of players whom Dreyfus gathered around him at the ANU, was a further example of his personal involvement in the Canberra musical scene during the 18 months of his ANU Creative Arts Fellowship. Of the holders of this award to date Dreyfus has certainly made the greatest contribution to the artistic scene here.
It was therefore appropriate that his farewell concert should involve so many people as performers, amateurs as well as professional, and that it should be so light-hearted and joyful. But such involvement is a two-way affair: Canberra will miss George Dreyfus when he leaves, but no doubt he will miss Canberra too, and we should see him back here quite often.
Source: A fruitful contribution. (1968, November 12). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 13. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from Trove: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article136954739
A personal response to performing the Homage to Igor Stravinsky may be found in Oyez June 1970, note 11.