[MUSIC/Classical ~ SA ~ ADELAIDE FRINGE PREMIERE]
Hounds and Grounds at Carclew, Wed 22 Feb, 2024
Adelaide based composer Mitchell Bartel summarises a decade of both life and music in his supremely touching Pictures In Time. A portrait of progression in both artistry and character, Bartel’s 10-piece suite of original piano compositions sparkles with delicate harmony and an agreeable smorgasbord of tonal variety. As the performance moves through works both ‘serious and silly’, in the composer’s own words, a picture emerges of an artist whose talent and virtuosity is only matched by his generosity of spirit and admirable lack of pretension.
Several pieces purely on their own merits are genuinely stunning – opener For Jess, written for Bartel’s wife, is a delicate and entrancing work that moves with an ethereal grace, while the penultimate Rambunction Junction is a skilful and ultimately awe-inspiring harnessing of total musical chaos. Le Vol de Parreseux pays homage to Bartel’s compositional heroes Debussy and Ravel, while Brain Storm traverses a mind in a state of at once painful and ecstatic flux.
Like any good show though Pictures In Time is most moving as a whole work, a testament to a life lived in the spirit of a passionate commitment to creativity. Bartel’s sweet introductions to his pieces throughout the show portray a man of great sensitivity and unconquerable passion for his art, and it is this quality most of all that makes this performance an incredibly endearing and inspiring experience.
Pictures In Time continues at House & Grounds at Carclew at 7pm, Tue 27 Feb.
Book at FringeTIX and adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.
3.5 stars
Daniel Tune
#ClotheslineMag
#ADLfringe
Daniel Tune
A portrait of an artist whose talent and virtuosity is only matched by his generosity of spirit.
