Declassified

There’s a Paul Simon lyric that goes … ‘most folks never catch their star’. Well, some of the ‘declassified’ information gleaned from Friday night’s Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) performance is that this judgement will simply never apply to award-winning pianist Adam Herd. Born in Coffs Harbour, Adam has followed his musical star from the Queensland Conservatorium, across the world, landing in Helsinki, where he achieved his Master’s Degree, and where he now lives. Adam studied at the Sibelius Academy, whose former students range from instrumentalists and folk musicians to singers of heavy metal and opera. It feels to me like this wonderful Nordic mix, combined with the coastal surrounds of his birthplace and adopted home imbue his music with an intrepid love of nature, and a touch of Aussie humour (he has a forest–piano series on YouTube). And so the BMF audience were treated to an alluring mix of musical pieces that set out to ‘declassify’ or demystify the classical ‘prelude’ – short pieces that usually feature motifs of melody and rhythm.

To start, Adam takes us across the Baltic to the Norwegian Sea to hear three preludes by Trygve Madsen, a contemporary Norwegian composer. These are sweetly melancholic, all requiring masterful skill from their performer. If Madsen provides a warm-up, then George Gershwin (as arranged by Earl Wild) ups the ante for fine finger work with four virtuoso etudes – including ‘The Man I Love’ and ‘Fascinating Rhythm’. These tunes immediately transport you to a Broadway apartment salon where you can imagine Gershwin at the helm of a lively party. The Wild arrangements take skill to keep up and Adam shows his finesse at achieving Wild’s stated intention – to keep the melody shining through the complicated glissandos and syncopation. While introducing the next two pieces, Adam shows his skill at picking up the language of his new home: introducing the pieces in Finnish, he explains that the two folk songs by early 20th-century composer, Oskar Merikanto, are about the love for an eagle. The trilling piano evokes the subject of the songs, which Adam sang as well! The theme continued with Adam’s arrangement of ‘Blackbird’ – one of my own favourite songs – adding an energised layer to take the Lennon-McCartney tune from the realm of folk into the classic category.

To end we enjoyed three concert etudes by Ukraine-born composer Nikolai Kapustin, who was one of the first to introduce popular jazz to Soviet audiences. This was at a time when the music mode was banned and available only on bootlegged albums. These lively and upbeat pieces are wonderful, with shades of American jazz classics, including just a hint of a Gershwin melody too. What a find! I feel like I just discovered a rare album in the bootleg bin myself! The hour’s international journey swept by too swiftly – let’s just say that, in the virtuosic hands of Adam Herd, these preludes will always leave an audience wanting more. Incidentally, it’s no secret that another artist who has definitely ‘caught his star’ is BMF’s Artistic Director, Alex Raineri, who (as well as being a talented performer) has a forte for uncovering hidden-gem composers and inspiring performers with a Queensland connection. BMF continues until 10 December.

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Aaro Keipi

Find out more: https://brismusicfestival.com