Sara Macliver and Mark Coughlan bring An Afternoon in Vienna to Government House with Schubert and The Trout

A hometown artistic alliance graced the 20th season of Music on the Terrace for An Afternoon in Vienna at Government House Ballroom on Sunday, celebrating the WA Day long weekend. Sara Macliver’s scintillating soprano and Mark Coughlan’s lyrical piano showcased the Romantic riches of Franz Schubert’s songbook, complemented by a rousing rendition of The Trout Quintet to round out the matinee. Macliver opened with the Olympian legend of Ganymed, a divine drama delicately related over rippling accompaniment with dramatic pause and effect; each note assured down to the lilting cadence. Auf dem Wasser zu singen (To sing on the water) engaged insistent, rumbling piano to buoy words of longing pealed out with pleasing ease; the ebb and flow of poetry sweetly intoned in both parts. Lachen un Weinen (Laughter and Tears) broached deeper emotion in an internal dialogue externalised through verse and music. It was an apt prelude to Goethe’s poetry and the drama of Faust in Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the spinning wheel). Intense arpeggios in piano and florid highlights in voice captured the dilemma of a troubled soul in love with the devil’s disciple. The Zeitgeist of one European empire came alive 200 years later in a monument to another; the classical setting lending artistic unity to long tradition. Coughlan settled the scene with two impromptus for piano. The first, a familiar theme, established a contemplative air which the pianist then challenged with more extravagant flurries; left and right hand more in competition yet balanced in conversation, warming to a climax then tumbling to a plangent conclusion. Macliver returned for Fruhlingsglaube (Faith in Spring), her clarion call stirring the still air then suddenly interrupted by a 21st century demon, Coughlan’s iPad fail. Service restored, Macliver reasserted the same ethereal timbre, a partnership of polish and precision rising to the crisis then fading gracefully to finish. On a winter’s day that felt like spring, Macliver found the mood. Nacht und Traume (Night and Dreams) set a darkly delicious ambience for a sonorous soprano solo subtly nuanced in the rise and fall of dynamics and expression. Rastlose Liebe (Restless Love) rang out in scurrying piano and feisty voice with an evocation of emotional turmoil as poignant as it was shortlived. Der Jungling an der Quelle (The youth at the spring) again plumbed unrequited passion in a brief reflection; rivulets of piano sustaining a lovesick plea sadly set to fail. Finally, Macliver voiced the ear-worm Die Forelle (The Trout), the agile prey portrayed in athletic piano pirouettes and a knowing narrative, the soloist employing full effects of her art to draw the audience into a moral and musical dilemma; of beauty ever vulnerable and brief. After the interval, experience and youth combined in a quintet led by violinist Paul Wright and pianist Raymond Yong, with violist Sally Boud, cellist Jeremy Garside and bassist Oakley Paul, again channelling The Trout. Decisive in the opening chord, the ensemble waxed Romantic in full-voiced strings over bold keyboard flourishes. Balance and empathy were central, with staunch bass, clarity in cello, and a lively lien of violin and viola thriving on the constant prompting of piano in the Allegro vivace first movement. The Andante second stanza warmed the heartstrings in close harmony over restless piano, rolling into more heroic rhythm and riffs, drawing out violin in call and response. The Scherzo: Presto third movement erupted in exuberance, with jaunty rejoinders across the quintet, before the Andantino - Allegretto fourth recalled the Trout theme, cool and serene in its first iteration then leaning enthusiastically into variations by turns lithe and leisurely. Garside’s cello stamped his assured mark on the leitmotif, matched by Boud’s viola then Wright and Yong who led like dance partners to close over Paul’s firm bass. Rocking out, the Allegro giusto finale tapped the youthful spirit of a master composer who died well before his time, many years ago. Music on the Terrace returns on July 27 with Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.