Marie Angel and Sally Whitwell take minimalism to the max at the Adelaide Fest.

Elder Hall, Adelaide

February 22, 2014

Local producer Mark De Raad’s idea of presenting the ABC recording artist and award winning pianist Sally Whitwell as part of the Fringe programme is an inspired one. On a professional level and in terms of repertoire, the recital devoted to Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and others would have easily held its own in the Festival proper.

The first half of the show was devoted in instrumental music that we associate with Sally, broken down into short groups of compositions not only by Philip Glass and Michael Nyman – both of whom she has recorded with great success – but also music from Yann Tiersen’s Satiean score for the whimsical film, Amelie and Elena Kats-Chernin’s popular ‘Russian Rag’ with its dark and brooding Weillian harmonies. All were given impressive performances with great clarity within the those familiar ostinati on which so many of these pieces are based. Even the more familiar pieces were presented with authority and verve, including ‘The Heart Asks Pleasure First’ (The Piano) which ebbed and flowed with passionate yet controlled abandon adding even more to the sense of...