Benaud Trio: Holy Fools (Music of Luke Altmann)
De la Catessen

The stars memorably align on this forty-minute collaboration between Luke Altmann and the Benaud Trio, with the Australian chamber ensemble's fifth studio album wholly devoted to the music of the Port Adelaide-based concert and film music composer. Their association began thirteen years when violinist Lachlan Bramble, cellist Ewen Bramble, and pianist Amir Farid first performed Prelude to New York at Manchester Lane in Melbourne. Bramble's characterization of the piece as “achingly beautiful” is supported by the performance on the release, one of four that capture the authenticity of the composer's writing. As presented in trio arrangements, his material exudes the austerity and calm associated with Arvo Pärt, but Altmann's no clone: while one imagines his music would appeal to fans of Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Rachel Grimes, and others of their kind, the pieces on Holy Fools are very much a reflection of Altmann's personality.

The attractively designed physical edition (300 copies) houses its CD within a six-panel case and includes a sixteen-page booklet featuring commentaries and images by Gustave Dore (Don Quixote illustrations) and others. The album title, by the way, is meant to celebrate outsiders, like Quixote, whose ideas might go against the grain but, through persistence and determination, ultimately triumph. While I won't presume Altmann sees himself as a ‘holy fool,' I do imagine he sees himself as someone committed to his muse and doggedly pursuing his own path. He's found a kindred spirit in the Benaud Trio, which is suitably sober and serious in its approach yet also open to doing a pop cover, a version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” one such example.

Prelude to New York was written to capture the experience a close friend of Altmann's had upon relocating from Australia to NYC. Never before having traveled outside of his home country, he found the prospect of the move and its attendant flight daunting, which the composer captures in the patient unfolding of the music's ascent and eventual descent and the tinctures of turbulence that punctuate the eleven-minute trip. The portentous piece is executed with immense care by the trio, its sensitivity to tempo and dynamics laser-sharp. Note, for example, the swells in intensity that intermittently arise, the gesture perhaps suggestive of the anxiety occasionally overtaking the traveler during the flight.

The Quixote connection arises directly in High and Sovereign Lady!, the title a reference to Dulcinea del Toboso, the infamous object of the knight's passion. First performed in 2003, the pensive setting receives a moving reading in a cello-and-piano arrangement that channels maximum emotional expressivity into its seven-minute frame. Premiered fifteen years later, The Sunne Rising sees the composer translating John Donne's poem of the same name into a delicate, quietly uplifting evocation of similar duration. The graceful quality of Altmann's writing carries over into the album's gently insistent closer, the fourteen-minute title track. As it does elsewhere, nuance characterizes the trio's handling of the material, marked as it is by fragility, reserve, and deliberation. While memorable motives lend the pieces distinguishing character, melodic elements are used as artful scaffolding upon which the larger structures are built.

There's much to recommend the recording, laid down in Adelaide in 2017 and 2018, the superior musicianship and calibre of Altmann's writing most of all. Another appealing thing is the focus on one composer only, something rather uncommon these days when many classical ensembles opt for collections featuring pieces by multiple figures. As a result, one comes away from Holy Fools not only with a strong impression of the performers but a more informed take on who Altmann is and the stylistic area he calls home.

August 2020