Coady Green, Artistic Director for Actually Gay Men’s Chorus and his partner Christopher Wayne Smith, both internationally award-winning classical pianists have made the record books by performing two massive symphonies for piano duet, 3600 meters above sea level at the Thikse Monastery, the biggest monastery in the Himalayas. It’s on record as the highest ever publicly attended classical music concert in history.
This most unusual concert came about to honour of the 100th year anniversary of the great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s death, Coady and Christopher were asked to help realise the composer’s dream of having his music performed in the Himalayas. Scriabin had grandiose plans for a seven-day spectacle of his music in this exotic location, combining piano, orchestral and choral music with light, colour, dance and scent.
Highlighted Reviews: 2015
UK based Australian pianist Coady Green has studies long and hard with some of the best teachers around... and it shows.
He possesses a strong versatile technique capable of the most delicate colouring and tonal brilliance, rising to the challenges of extreme virtuoso demands with relish.
This was put to good use in an all-Russian program on late 19th and early 20th century byways. It uniformly demanded digital dexterity but allowed little room for Green to demonstrate his abilty to control the broad sweep of an extended musical canvas.
Nikolai Madtner's charming but rather derivative single-movement Sonata Reminiscenza opened the program. Green showed great sensitivity in handling its discursive and poetic utterances.
Anton Rubenstein's Six Etudes Op 23 followed, with Green tackling its megalomaniac technical demands confidently and enthusiastically.
In truth it was hard to find much real musical interest in any of them but the drama being played out at the keyboard maintained interest.
Green performed only four of Skryabin's Eight Etudes OP 42. Finally things returned to technical bravado with Stravinsky's Trios Movements de Petrouchka. Green reveled in its diabolical challenges.