Live Gallery: Harpedelique | Strings and Voice Festival | Hawthorn Arts Centre | 15/08/26
27 Magazine decided to do something a bit different and set out to catch a sextet of harps on stage at the Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Not every day one gets to witness a harp recital, let alone six of them on the same stage. Harpedelique entranced the audience in this intimate recital as part of Hawthorn Arts Centre’s Strings and Voices festival. Harpedelique are a unique ensemble, not only in the instrumentation but in their effortless combination of live performance and electronics to create a soundscape that promised ‘a concert that dissolves boundaries between concert hall, cinema and reverie‘.
A program of premieres both in terms of new works and arrangements, a clear highlight of the night was the reimagining of Nigel Westlake’s ‘Penguin Ballet‘ from his timeless Antarctica suite and subsequent re-scoring as guitar concerto.
An ensemble to watch for lovers of cinematic classical music of the modern age.
