Patricia Pollett
Patricia Pollett plays the viola with passion and a big, warm tone that makes the instrument sing. Her recordings run from Brahms and Bruch with orchestra to Australian chamber scores written expressly for her.
In Perihelion, the Brisbane chamber group with the unusual lineup of clarinet, viola, piano and cello, she recorded Australian scores written for the ensemble: Edwards's Ecstatic Dance, Henderson's G'Day Africa, Sabin's Points of Departure, Schultz's Dead Songs and Mephisto. Her solo programmes gather first recordings and pieces written for her, among them Kats-Chernin's six-part Still Life, Andrew Ford's Swansong, Schultz's Attack and Duo Variations, Sculthorpe's Threnody and Betty Beath's From a Quiet Place. She can be cello-rich and declamatory in a lament, lean and spare when the line wants simplicity, with a delicacy that matches the passion. With orchestra she takes Berio's orchestration of Brahms, Bruch's Romance and Schubert's Arpeggione, music that shows how much more the viola can do than elegy alone.
Performing as JANUS
Old Wine, New Bottles
Floyd Williams and JANUS illustrate the cross-fertilisation of folk, popular and jazz idioms within classical music. The premise was to play early music of the 14th–16th centuries on modern instruments, free of purist historical constraints.
Patricia Pollett is a member of
Perihelion
Perihelion's rare lineup of clarinet, viola, piano and cello made the Brisbane chamber group a commissioning engine for Australian composers. Their recordings catch scores written for that mix at full colour and bite.