Musical soulmates

Flutist Melanie Lançon

“…audiences are in for a treat.”

The essence of chamber music is found in intimate artistic relationships between the musicians. The newly-formed trio of flutist Melanie Lançon, oboist Bede Hanley and pianist Stephen de Pledge has that kind of rapport and Lançon describes the feeling as “magical”. “When you have such a level of trust in a group,” she says, “that you can be spontaneous on stage and know the awareness between you is so high the others will play off it, that’s what we live for.”

Louisiana-born Lançon came to New Zealand in 2017 on a temporary contract as the APO’s Principal Flute and later won the permanent position.  From her first rehearsal she knew she had come to “a special place” and her affinity with Hanley, Principal Oboe, and other colleagues in the wind section was immediate. “We were rehearsing Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, with a lot of wonderful flute and oboe writing, and right off the bat Bede and I thought ‘wow, it’s so easy to play together’. We are musical soulmates.”

Melanie Lançon and Bede Hanley (centre) with APO wind colleagues Ingrid Hagen (bassoon) and Jonathan Cohen (clarinet)

Experienced chamber musician de Pledge was invited to join the pair this year and together they’ve just set out on a national ten-concert tour for Chamber Music New Zealand. The three musicians have curated a programme called “Fantasy and Romance”, featuring music by Clara and Robert Schumann alongside Gabriel Fauré and other composers with a French flavour. “It’s a really fresh programme of new repertoire,” says Lançon.

Tarantelle, a trio by Frenchman Phillipe Gaubert opens the recital. “Early 20th century French music was a golden age for wind instrument writing,” Lançon explains. She describes the charming Trio by Englishwoman Madeleine Dring as another obvious choice. “It also features flute and oboe beautifully and Poulenc’s influence links it to our French theme.”

Pianist Stephen de Pledge

…the experienced chamber musician arranged Schumann’s Abegg Variations for trio.

Rivet, a CMNZ commission from Wellington composer Glen Downie, premieres on the tour. “He’s imitating hammer dulcimer, harp and bagpipes - the outer sections are fireworks, the middle dreamy and nocturne-like,” says Lançon.  “And then Stephen woke up in the middle of the night and thought ‘what about arranging Schumann’s Abegg Variations for trio?’ It’s a delightful, flashy spin on the piano work. Audiences are in for a real treat.”  

“Fantasy and Romance” Melanie Lançon (flute), Bede Hanley (oboe) Stephen de Pledge (piano) Chamber Music New Zealand national tour, August 1-27.  The programme will be recorded by RNZ Concert for future broadcast.                                                      

 This article was first published in the NZ Listener issue July 31, 2021