Muses Trio launch CD with fine recital
Therese Milanovic, Christa Powell, and Louise King.
Right: The spooky lighting in F Block at Boggo Road and starkly lit entrance to the gaol. (Photos by Deanne Scott.)
The talented Muses Trio (Therese Milanovic, piano, Christa Powell, violin and Louise King, ‘cello) launched their debut CD, The Spirit and the Maiden, at Boggo Road Gaol last weekend.
They linked the launch with a thirty-minute Ghost Tour of the Gaol and the actual recital was performed in F block, a brick building filled with tiny cells that used to the women’s wing of the prison.
The grand piano, bedecked with fairy lights, and music stands, all well lit and that greeted the audience was a strange sight, but the acoustics were amazingly good.
The recital featured that featured tracks from the CD.
It is an interesting concept - compositions by women played by women – and it proved to an entertaining hour or so with music in many moods. The movements from Elena Kats-Chernin’s The Sprit of the Maiden were my favourites.
The is obviously a lot of variation on the Cd for we heard sections from Nadia Boulanger’s Three Pieces for ‘Cello and Piano, a short and cute piano solo, Kate Neal’s Song for Comb Man, which was the background music from a short film, as well as pieces from Louise Denson and a newly composed very modern piece by Cecile Elton, Tango for a Sleepless City.
After the interval we heard excerpts from Judith Bingham’s Chapman’s Pool, Amy Beach’s Romance, and Jennifer Higdon’s Pale Yellow.
There was also a quartet of performers from Vulcania Women's Circus who added real atmosphere with some beautifully timed work in hanging nets.
The first movement of the Kats-Chernin piece ended an enjoyable and thoroughly professional evening’s entertainment.
The CDs come with a 12 page booklet, and were designed by Trudy Renee from Two Trees Creative. Geoff McGahan did the editing and mastering of the CD.
You can get the digital album now through CDBaby, or pre-purchase the CD through the Muses Trio website.
The CD cover and below the promotional video