Tonya Lemoh Concert Pianist
Australian/Sierra-Leonean pianist Tonya Lemoh's concert appearances and recordings have consistently garnered critical acclaim. A prize winner in international piano competitions, she has performed in solo and chamber recitals, international festivals and concerto performances in Australia, Africa, America and Europe. She has released numerous solo CDs for international labels Chandos, Naxos, Dacapo, Danacord and, most recently, a disc of music by Henry Handel Richardson for Toccata Classics.
Tonya Lemoh will be performing on the Royal Hotel's Yamaha Concert Grand Piano.
Dinner available before the show, book separately.
Presented in association with Musica Viva Australia
Ticket Information
General Admission: $45.00 + booking fee
As part of Season Pass: $40.00 + booking fee
($135 Season Pass + booking fee for all 3 Musica Viva Program performances at the Royal)
Other shows in this Musica Viva Series
-
Haydn Variations in F minor Hob XVII:6
Coleridge-Taylor “Three-Fours” Suite Op. 71
Dulcie Holland Nocturne
Liszt La Vallee d’Obermann (Annees de Pelerinage)
Ginastera Danzas Argentinas Op. 2
Approximate duration: 60 minutes without interval
-
This program is inspired by the poet T.S. Eliot’s line, “So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing’, drawn from his poem East Coker (Four Quartets 1943).
The poem explores ideas of death, transformation and rebirth. This recital presents piano works which reveal composers at their most tragic and profound, juxtaposed with works of colourful vivacity in an affirmation of the dance of life.
Haydn’s F minor Variations (1793): this heartfelt work was written shortly after the death of Haydn’s close friend, Marianne von Genzinger. Unusually, it is a set of double variations, which also suggests the idea of a pair. The poignant minor theme of the opening contrasts strikingly with the tender, whimsically nostalgic character of the major theme. After a still, reflective opening and the subsequent subtle, complex unfolding, the piece culminates in a dramatic climax followed by a whirlwind of arpeggios. During the coda the initial theme falls gradually into the darker registers of the piano. The final statement is however an ethereal pair of repeated octaves in the upper registers, offering a glimmer of light before the music disappears into emptiness.
The son of a Sierra-Leonean doctor and British mother, Coleridge-Taylor was one of the most eloquent composers to emerge from 19th-century Britain. His career was cut tragically short by an early death, but he achieved enduring international renown with his work Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. The Three-Fours Suite (1909) reflects his gift for melodic invention and harmonic richness. The dances encompass an emotional range from the lively and capricious to a deeply- felt expressive lyricism and high drama. Each is marked by an irresistible charm and subtlety of rhythm evoking the elegance and joie-de-vivre of a bygone era.
Dulcie Holland studied with some of the leading composers of her generation, including Alfred Hill, John Ireland, Roy Agnew and the serial composer Matyas Seiber. Born in Sydney, she attained a Teacher’s Diploma in 1933 at the NSW Conservatorium of Music, where she also studied piano, cello and composition. She later became one of Australia’s most renowned pedagogues and a leader in music education. Travelling overseas for further study, she was awarded the Blumenthal Scholarship and the coveted Cobbett Prize for Chamber Composition at the Royal College of Music in London. After her return to Australia, where she worked as a free-lance composer, she received an AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) amongst numerous other prestigious awards for her compositions. She remains one of Australia’s leading 20th century musicians.
The nocturne genre was originally conceived by the Irish pianist and composer John Field, then expanded and transformed by Chopin. In the hands of the extraordinary Australian composer Dulcie Holland, we find the nocturne’s characteristic mood of inner contemplation filtered through a new palette of evocative tone colours. Composed in 1947, it combines aspects of Romantic Impressionism with an eloquent lyricism. The work opens with a plaintive hymn-like melody which moves towards a restless, dramatic climax, before returning to the original theme, now subtly suffused with lingering elements from the rhapsodic middle section.
Described by Liszt historian Derek Watson as ‘a dark nocturnal confession of the soul’ Liszt’s La Vallee d’Obermann (1855) is a tour-de-force of Romantic pianism, which takes the listener on an unforgettable journey from the depths of despair to the heights of exultation. Inspired by Senancour’s great Romantic novel Obermann, it maps Obermann’s psychological and emotional journey of darkness to light. The opening theme is darkly melancholy, but undergoes numerous transformations as the piece progresses, by turns dramatic, stormy, reflective and ultimately triumphant. The piece ends with an ambiguous nod to the opening theme, indicating that the hero’s journey is far from over.
Alberto Ginastera was one of the leading Latin-American composers of the 20th century, and a student of Aaron Copland. His music is striking and rhythmically inventive. The Danzas Argentinas (1937) are from his early nationalist phase, incorporating Argentinian folk idioms and culture. This set of dances remains one of Ginastera’s most popular works. The first is a humorous, eccentric portrayal of an old cow-herd in a percussive, bitonal dance, with each hand playing in a different key. No. 2, the young maiden’s dance is hauntingly evocative, featuring a plaintively beautiful melody. No. 3 depicts Argentina’s wild cowboys in a riotous ride full of fiercely exuberant rhythms and pianistic fireworks.
-
“Pianist Tonya Lemoh's impressive technical agility and keen ear for tone color work hand in glove to create sensitively nuanced interpretations.” - Classics Today
“Powerful and eloquent” - Gramophone
“A significant new keyboard talent” - All Music Guide
“Tonya Lemoh plays all the music with poetic sensitivity” - BBC Music Magazine
“The pianism of Tonya Lemoh has a sonority that is at once generous and round, refined and subtle” - Classica Magazine (France)