The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 21

LOUISE ADLER by ARTS ENTERTAINMENT Minstrel's narrator, and to India, but to another westerner, a British survivor of the old Raj, who provides the seasoned comments of an old hand. These usefully temper the newcomer's naivety and enthusiasm. One of the delights of the performance is to become aware of just how subtly Ramsay shifts from character to character. It is not simply a matter of accent, but of intonation, body language, gesture or posture. Sometimes merely a slump of shoulders signals different character.

We are beguiled in part by a blurring of the line between actor and persona, not in this case due to a lack of skill but to a deliberate candor and a persistent style of Ramsay's Accidental Mystic gives us something to think about, not only the religious belief that is both logical and poetic, a reconceptualising and merging of things that western thought has separated into compartments of science and religion, but the sheer skill with which these ideas have been presented. Natural horn thriller MUSIC Australian Chamber Orchestra Series No. 3: natural horn Anthony Halstead, director Richard Tognetti. Concert Hall, Monday. Tessa Birnie.

Caulfield Grammar School, Friday. ABC 20th Century Orchestra Series No. 1: conductor Gunther Schuller, accordion James Crabb, cello David Pereira. Malthouse, Saturday. CLIVE O'CONNELL HE GUEST FOR the Australian Chamber Orchestra in the current series, Anthony Halstead, took part in the entire first part of Monday night's concert.

The eventual focus of all eyes soloist in Mozart's. Horn Concerto No. 4, he also played the harpsichord continuo in three other works: Gluck's Dance of the Furies from Orphee et Euridice, Torelli's Minor "Christmas" Concerto, and the middle baroque master Biber's entertaining poem, Battalia. Last week, the Melbourne Musicians played the Gluck dance creditably, but the ACO has a habit of leaving competition in its wake. Its string texture came across with lashing clarity and director Tognetti had taken great pains to integrate dynamic contrasts and accents.

It was yet another virtuoso display by this remarkable group. After some relief in Torelli's gently paced concerto grosso, the ACO outlined Biber's seven section picture of military life, complete with pseudodrunken musicians staggering, playing different melodies simultaneously with extraordinary control; a kind of pizzicato battle of the low strings, mimicking cannon shots; also a pree education Music. The revival this year includes future performances by John O'Donnell and Anthony Halliday. The program featured composers whose piano literature Birnie knows more than most, in particular Haydn and Schubert: she has performed their complete keyboard works an extraordinary feat, considering the amount of music involved. On this night she played Haydn's minor Variations and Schubert's last piano sonata in flat, well as a large part (13 of the 20 pieces) of Schumann's Albumblatter, Op.

124. This was serious and controlled playing, at its most effective in the veiled passion of the sonata's slow movement and the variations' occasional glimmers of optimism. The pianist's approach was notable for the absence of trivialising or making overmuch of the music's juxtaposition 'of contrasts. If it had come from a young musician, up to the mark with novel insights, it would have struck listeners as heavy in outline and densely colored, notably in the style of pedalling; but, for my taste, Birnie's playing was a welcome reminder of how little dexterity and speed count for in interpretative skills, and how more important are qualities like commitment and intellectual coherence. INTHER SCHULLER is one of America's foremost senior musicians composer, conductor, writer, educator, publisher: a kind of thoroughly modernist Leonard Bernstein.

On Saturday night, he directed the Melbourne Symphony in five works, including two by Carl Ruggles (like his friend Charles Ives, an uncompromising American individualist but without his colleague's volatility and injections. of popular color), and Schuller's own recent Pulitzer Prize Of Reminiscences and Reflections. Both Ruggles pieces come from that limited number of the composer's best-known works, Men and Mountains and Sun-treader. They progress with a stark and admirably terse vigor, blocks of sound etched out on a vast orchestral fabric. Schuller's work also had massive moments, particularly at either end.

The most recent orchestral work by the Of Reminiscences, evokes his and his recently deceased wife's musical lives together; hence its final effect of jubilation, rather than of threnody. The night's focal point came, with the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina's Seven Words (referring to the last utterances of Christ on the cross) involving two soloists: the cello of David Pereira, and Scottish musician James Crabb's accordion Gubaidulina's representation of an organ, apparently used because the piece refers to Heinrich Schutz's sacred oratorio on the same theme. This is, considering its country of origin, an extraordinary essay in musical mysticism, notable for the original and demanding use of Crabb's instrument, which for mar of us probably holds unforgettable if outdated associations with Young Talent Time. Picture: JEFF BUSBY The Accidental Mystic: Robin Ramsay is a latter-day strolling minstrel. monition of Cagean sound generating devices when the double bass threaded paper through his strings to generate a snare-drum effect.

An added attractive feature of this work was the opportunity it gave to see these young players, doing the unexpected. In spite of their vitality and musical appeal, often you get the feeling that the well-disciplined, black-clad group have sublimated their personalities in the cause of their music. A piece of frivolity like Battalia broadens an audience's perception of the chamber orchestra. Halstead explained his instrument and how it functions, illustrating the natural horn's limitations but in no way apologising for them. Quite right, too: what we heard was what Mozart would have expected from the instrument of his time not the perfectly even timbre that a valved instrument produces throughout its range but a more "uneven' sound with less stentorian power than the horn we hear today.

Halstead's reputation as the most distinguished performer of this period instrument was well substantiated by his and infectious reading of this popular concerto, throughout which he maintained the work's ebullient nature, but at the same time kept one would emerge. guessing as to how the familiar notes Tognetti and the ACO strings vaulted into this century for the second half with works by Sculthorpe and Bartok. The Australian compos- TELEVISION TWO SEVEN and PRIME SBS NINE and WIN TEN and TEN VIC Big operators are TV's new Hope OPS docs. police ARE Once shows being it were seemed replaced every- that by where; now medical dramas back in a big way, and several new bigbudget hospital series ER, Medicine Ball and the latest example, Chicago Hope are putting the theatre back into operating theatre. ER is already a big hit for Nine on Thursday nights: Chicago Hope (Channel 7, 9.30pm) makes its debut tonight, with a second instalment tomorrow, the beginning of a regular Tuesday night spot after Blue Heelers.

Chicago Hope is the name of a hospital, a high -tech, high -powered institution where all the surgeons are brilliant and there is more lifesaving than a Bondi surf carnival. Here, medical miracles are as common. es the ary of "'OK people, let's go," on ER. Litigation, in these circumstances, is a perpetual concern at Chicago Hope. The hospital's lawyer is constantly consulted, and the hospital board stuffy, pennypinching bureaucrats every one meets regularly, although its major role seems to be to stifle individual brilliance.

In particular, its chief function seems to be to antagonise Dr Jeffrey Geiger (Mandy Patinkin). Dr Geiger is an abrasive, maverick (and, of course, brilliant) surgeon who thrives on soul music in the operating room, and confrontations in the board room, a compulsive innovator who likes nothing more than a combined medical-bureaucratic challenge separating Siamese twins without the approval of the hospital board, for example. We learn at the beginning of the pilot that his personal life is a mess: at the end of tonight's show we find out what happened to his wife and young son. His best buddy is Dr Aaron Shutt (Adam. Arkin), more mild-mannered than Clark Kent, the benign partner in Geiger's good-doc, bad-doc routine.

He's you guessed it brilliant neurosurgeon, and his personal life is, naturally, a mess. His wife, Camille (Roxanne Hart) the chief OR nurse, has fust filed for divorce, it seems, however, that they MONDAY 8 MAY 1995 THE AGE 19 REVIEWS THEATRE The Accidental Mystic, written by Barbara Bossert-Ramsay, performed by Robin Ramsay. Malthouse Theatre, until 20 May. HELEN THOMSON a sing, XCEPT minstrel. latter Robin THAT The -day Ramsay entire HE is strolling world doesn't really is his beat, and he tells stories with sources in a number of cultures, particularly those of India and Australia.

His present persona is light years away from the one we saw here last year, that of Henry Lawson, but it is more. than simply a fashionable New Age discovery of ancient beliefs that animates his travellers and his vivid impressions of India. So familiar is the experience of West discovering East that it really requires an especially good script and performance to make it. fresh again. The Accidental Mystic fortunately succeeds on both counts: Barbara Ramsay's text is impressionistic and suggestive, while Robin Ramsay's performance, understated and subtle, instantly draws the audience in, wanting to share more of the experiences he dramatises.

The first half of the show is essentially a skilful. travelogue that will particularly delight those who have themselves visited India. Its tone is a mixture of the affectionate and the critical as we hear of the amusing, maddening and sometimes enchanting impressions of Indian hotels, taxis, post offices and railways. Ramsay recreates the freshness and newness of the impressions of a firsttime visitor, conveying just how curious everything seems to the newly arrived westerner. The persona Ramsay adopts is that of an Australian school teacher, taking a holiday in India.

This introduces two of the structural themes of a piece: the teacher is himself to be taught he becomes a student of Indian religion hiss as well as everyday life and journey is of enlightenment as well as physical travel. Yet in the end we find he has assumed the role of teacher again, for his story also enlightens us. What makes it effective is the lack of preaching and the retention of subtle shades of Western scepticism. Ramsay speaks to us as a learner, not an authority. The emphatic certainty of belief comes not from Ramsay himself, but from one of the characters he dramatises.

It is the voice of an elderly woman, encountered in a railway waiting room, that enlivens us with an account of karma, reincarnation, and the circle of time, the ages of gold, silver, copper and iron, and the promise of a return to the golden This constitutes the second half of the show, by which time. we have been introduced not only to the Fester keeps groove alive JAZZ Fester. Bennetts Lane, Thursday. ADRIAN JACKSON employed enough surprises twisting phrases, dissonance, growls and woofs to keep his solo interesting. His partners, organist Tim.

Neal and drummer Andrew Swann, laid down a superb, in-the-pocket groove beneath the saxophonist's lines. Neal, best known for his work with Paul Williamson's Hammond Combo, played in essentially the same style here. Producing a rich, full-bodied sound in the classic Jimmy Smith mode, he maintained a steady groove and soloed in a logical manner that made liberal use of bluesy flourishes. Most of the music followed this pattern, Neal and Swann laying down an appealing groove, while Wilson revelled in it, then started stretching at it, his sax tone changing from smooth to hoarse as he went, He is still a young player in the process of refining his playing style, but his essential musical instincts do set Wilson apart as not only a very capable saxophone player, but also a genuinely interesting improviser as well as an appealingly exuberant one: Possibly his most satisfying playing of the night came in the ballad You Don't Know What Love Is, where the organist set up a dark, moody atmosphere and Wilson played an understated solo that was full of subtle allusions to the theme. For a couple of numbers in the second set (an original theme and a version of John Scofield's catchy I'll Take Les), another outstanding youngster, clarinettist Chris Tanner, sat in.

This was a quite different situation to his regular band, Allan Browne's New Orleans Rascals, but his playing here displayed the same uninhibited qualities, and the combination of clarinet and organ proved effective, if somewhat exotic. Fester can be heard at Bennetts Lane on 11, 18 and 25 May. EFORE year's phone HIS Awards, National success tenor Jazz in Saxo- saxo- last phonist Julien Wilson was best known (and only in some circles on the Melbourne music scene) as a member of David Tolley's spontaneous improvisation ensemble, That, where he showed real flair for intuitive improvising in an on-theedge context. Having formed his own group, Wilson now seems more intent on playing material, including some of the standard jazz repertoire, that will allow him to relax and have a little fun on the stand. The opening number was nothing more complicated than a mediumtempo blues, on which Wilson played enough familiar blues licks to sound appropriately soulful, but also er's contribution was a reworking of his String Quartet No.

9 into a string orchestra sonata. Typically, the piece's five segments are inter-related, passages of mild aleatoric musicmaking permeate the score, the methods of sound production move from the orthodox as far as the moderately adventurous, and emotional content is not as important as the presentation of a series of sound-tableaux: outback-alienation mood-music, although effectively achieved and unmistakeably speaking Sculthorpe's vivid musical language. Finally, the players gave a thorough working-over to Bartok's Divertimento. There was little relaxation of the piece's taut angularity; rather, Tognetti and his colleagues attacked the two outer movements with a sort of relentless insistence on highlighting the composer's intermeshed string lines and the harmonic clashes that are produced through his discord-rich vocabulary. It was exciting to hear and watch, but the final bar came as a relief after such a whitehot performance that belied the composition's title and in the context of the composer's output its benign character.

BIRNIE'S recital at the Grammar signalled the resurrection Malvern campus of Caulfield of a body that the pianist inaugurated 30 years ago, but which held its last Melbourne concert in 1974: The Australian Society for Keyboard 6am Open Learning: The 6am Sons And Daughters. 6.30am World Watch. Includ- 6am ITN World News. G. 6.30 6am Sports Tonight.

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M. ily's terrible experiences dur- Restless, PG. 3.30 The Upper 1.30 Donahue. US chat show: Quantum. R.

2.0 Landline. R. 2.15pm Behind The Scene ing WWII. PG. 2.15 Weath- Hand.

G. 4.0 The Fresh Wives Who Do Everything, 3.0 Sesame Street. 3.55 Mr Road To Wellville. M. 2.30 A erwatch and Music.

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takes Travis for a burglar. S. umentary series: The Ad- 7.30 Cybill. US comedy about drama. Annalise makes an 7.30 The 7.30 Report.

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1 8.30 Chicago Hope. Movie- 1991 comedy-drama based 1992 thriller starring Demi night, an artist whose 8.28 News (also at 9.28, length episode of new US around six stories by six dif- Moore and Glenne Headly. paintings inspired by 10.30). drama series set in a state-of- ferent film makers. MA.

A woman becomes in- spider webs, how to make 8.30 Four Corners. Current the -art medical centre. Dr 11:35 Fine Cut: Huey Long. A volved in the murder of her creme brulee, linedancing, affairs program: Paying For Gelger faces a difficult deci- portrait of flamboyant best friend's violent and a makeover for a chair, the Paul. A critical look at Paul sion when he operates to sep- Huey Long, the Governor of abusive husband.

Directed cost of hobbies, a report on Keating's economic record as arate Siamese twins. With Louisiana from 1928 to 1935, a by Alan Rudolph, S. caravans and trailers. G. Prime Minister.

S. Mandy Patinkin, Adam Arkin. US Senator, and a potential 10.40 Nightline. News, G. 0.30 Film: Shadow Of A 9.15 lemore Media Watch.

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round-up of the weekend's Fire. Syrian The Date Show. PG. Diane Ladd and Margaret 9.30 McFeast. Elle McFeast AFL matches with Bruce McA- drama series.

M. 11.40 The Making Of Webb. A young girl slowly takes a lighthearted look at vaney, Malcolm Blight and 2.0 Close. Skin'. A behind-the-scenes comes to realise that her politics.

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2.40 And Dan- 3.50 Brothers. Drama series. Bent film reviews. 10.0 Clae- PG. 4.0 Naked City.

2.0 G. gore. A profile of six women M. Bent. Pride and Preju- PG.

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10.30 Curtain Up. G. 5.30 The Sullivan 4.30 South PG. G. 3.50 Open Knots PG.

Performing arts. 11.50 Close. R. 5.0 General PG. 24 HOUR SPORT ALA 1800 555 111 TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS OPERA Patience State theatre, 7.30pm Anthony Warlow makes his long-awaited return to the Australian Opera to star as Grosvenor opposite Gilbert and Sullivan stalwart Dennis Olsen as Bunthorne.

The production also features Heather Begg as Lady Jane a and Christine Douglas as Patience the milkmaid, with Tom Woods conducting the State Orchestra of Victoria. READING La Mama Fiction La Mama theatre, Faraday Street, Carlton, 8pm An exciting night of new fiction has been promised with 1994 Age short story competition winner Elliot Perlman (recently signed to Faber and Faber and University of Queensland Press) making his debut. Also featured are Karen McKnight (one of the night's organisers), Tricia Bowen and Only the Brave cowriter Mira Robertson. EXHIBITION Drawn from the Heart Museum of Victoria, Swanston Street A touring exhibition of work by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Displayed for the first time in 20 years, the art is from thousands of drawings collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board from 70 different communities from 1973-77.

An art competition for Victorian Aboriginal children is also being held, with all entries joining the museum's collection of Aboriginal art. RECORDING D. Bridge Cello sonatas. Rebecca Rust cello, David Apter piano. Marco Polo 8:223637 Donald Tovey, musicologist, author and pianist, provides the surprise in this CD with two strong, attractive works.

He wrote Elegiac Variations, a poignant, even sombre work, in memory of a close cellist friend in 1909; the sonata is cheerfully pastoral. Bridge's sonata, better known, is from the same mould though with a strong sense of purpose. The CD's wide range of moods is completed by two Bridge miniatures, the romantic Melodie and the witty, high-spirited Scherzo. Rust and Apter show the fruit of a decade's partnership in their balance and sense of unity. Compiled by Greg Burchall; recording: Barney Zwartz.

PHILIPPA HAWKER Viewpoint should be able to continue working together: in the operating room, they can put their differences aside. Dr Thurmond (E.G. Marshall) is the elder statesman of the hospital, a 76-year-old legend who is no longer quite as brilliant as he used to be. He limbers up with Beethoven sonatas at the piano in his office, but his hands are beginning to shake. The thought of retirement is unbearable to him: "If I can't operate, I'll he tells the head of the department.

He and his wife, however, seem to get on. Unlike ER, where the medical procedures seem' to be running on permanent fast forward, Chicago Hope takes a little more time in the operating theatre, and savors the explanation of surgical techniques. Operations are depicted in more loving detail, and a woman with a brain tumor is given a matter-of-fact account of a procedure with a name that says it all: full-face degloving. Tonight's introduction made up of the pilot and the first episode is full-fledged male melodrama. Tomorrow night's episode is little more offbeat.

It has a touch of Picket Fences, another show created by Chicago Hope's writer-producer David E. Kelley, whose credits also include LA Law. Picket Fences is set in a small town, and it is a mix of social issues, sentimentality and black comedy, in a sometimes successful, sometimes uncomfortable combination. Chicago Hope, in the more confined setting of a hospital, relies heavily on the sentimental element, on a plot that mites moral dilemmas and miracles. Heartstrings are turned and heart transplants are carried out with equal emphasis.

TV HIGHLIGHTS Masterpiece: P.J. 0'Rourke SBS, 8.30pm Humorist P.J. O'Rourke's grandmother didn't mind that in the '60s he was a Maoist anything, she believed, was better than being a Democrat. Decades on, he is still pleasing his granny, but from a very different political perspective. In this amiably conducted interview with Melvyn Bragg, O'Rourke reads from several of his books and obligingly parades his views on whining liberals and the role of the Ferrari in the free world.

Four Corners Channel 2, 8.30pm Once again, Four Corners invites a guest reporter on to the show this time Canberra journalist Laura examines the Keating Government's budget history and the economic record of the erstwhile World's Greatest Treasurer. Montreal Vu Par SBS. 9.30pm Six directors contribute stories set in Montreal. A mixed bag from film makers who include Denys Arcand, Atom Egoyan and Patricia Rozema. Rozema's whimsical tale displays one of the most playful uses of subtitles you are likely to see.

Mortal Thoughts Channel 9, 8.30pm Demi Moore and Glenne Headly are best friends, Bruce Willis is Headly's abusive husband, and Harvey Keitel a homicide cop whose relationship with the two women has something in common with Keitel's role in Thelma and Louise. A flawed but often absorbing drama about murder and female friendshi.