Brisbane-born international keyboardist Anthony Romaniuk enjoys an impressive, wide-ranging musical career that encompasses his own compositions and arrangements, alongside performances of an astounding array of repertoire.

As the soloist and creator of this Camerata program, arranging music as required to suit a string orchestra, he offers a diverse palette of classical, jazz, contemporary and improvised music, with a smattering of electronica for good measure.

Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra: Old. New. Borrowed. Blue. Photo © Alex Jamieson

Trained initially as a classicist, Romaniuk’s musical talents are demonstrated by his virtuosity on both piano and harpsichord in Old. New. Borrowed. Blue. a concert whose title refers to the long-held tradition that a bride should wear an item in each of these categories on her wedding day to ensure a happy marriage.

Romaniuk uses it to demonstrate that each of the nine pieces of music fits under the heading in at least two of these categories, opening with 17th-century Baroque composer Georg Muffat’s Armonico Tributo. A designated Old/Borrowed work, Romaniuk’s measured harpsichord playing, alongside a gentle sweetness in the higher strings that grows more fulsome in the third section, offers a colourful and joyful opening.

Moving from harpsichord to conduct from the piano, he transitions smoothly into the second piece, Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi’s Anagamin for 11 strings, setting a strong beat for this brutalist postmodern work, in which the metallic high pitches delivered by the strings are rhythmic but eerily insistent. It comes to a slow end, fading into nothingness, before Romaniuk moves to his own new composition, Blue Poles.

Named after Jackson Pollock’s celebrated work and inspired by the artist’s colourful visual palette, Romaniuk has created a vibrant, pulsating work for piano and strings with obvious room for improvisation. Rhythmic and unrelenting, with the intensity of some synthesised sounds, its textures and harmonies blend beautifully. A riveting piece.

Anthony Romaniuk: Old. New. Borrowed. Blue. Photo © Alex Jamieson

A short interlude of electronic music links through to more Baroque with the Allegro from Bach’s Concerto in D Minor, played vivaciously and with sparkling energy in the strings. This is followed by the main electronic work, Blue Calx by Aphex Twin, with the synthesised sounds of the original translated very successfully to strings in an atmospheric, filmic arrangement.

The finale of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G Minor brings us back to a dialogue between piano and strings, with some first-rate solo string playing, underscored by Romaniuk’s piano and some finely paced interplay between instruments. An interesting electronic interlude, appearing to echo lines of a medieval chant, is a fascinating piece.

After an unusual arrangement of Josquin des Prez’s Ave Maria (without vocals), the mood changes to the Cool Jazz era of Dave Brubeck, with Romaniuk beating out the jazz rhythms of Blue Rondo à la Turk on the wooden surfaces of the piano and harpsichord. Rearranged for piano and strings and played with verve, fierce intensity and increasing speed, it’s even more fun than the original.

Finnish composer Olli Mustonen’s glorious Toccata finishes the program with a complex, sweeping sonority.

Romaniuk’s program is innovative, challenging and exciting. We need our musical classical past as much as our current and modern future, and Romaniuk is someone who can straddle and present these multiple genres with ease and intelligence.

It would be hard to think of a more skilled musical polyglot.

Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra presents Old. New. Borrowed. Blue. on 21 August at the Concert Hall, Redland and 22 August at The Empire, Toowoomba.

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