Morceaux de Salon
Akiko Miyazawa (violin)
Liam Wooding (piano)
Lawson Flats, 14 July 2025

There’s something magical about musical performances in non-concert venues. The provisionality, casual attitudes to etiquette and artist/audience proximity all contribute to a warmer, more authentic, more human experience. Nothing breaks down the fourth wall more effectively than an instore or a pub gig.

This is particularly true when it comes to classical music, typically seen, even today, as the preserve of the straight-laced elite. Even WASO’s return to the Winthrop Hall has, despite causing some logistical and financial headaches, has resulted in a more immediate, thrilling concert-going experience evocative of the smaller provincial European opera house of yore and today’s regional town halls.

In the past, chamber music was usually performed in private homes or the smaller rooms of palaces. Hence “chamber” music. The 17th and 18th century salon was a part of that tradition: hosted by wealthy and intelligent women, they featured not just robust intellectual debates and readings but musical performances.

Therefore what at first appears original is often merely a return to past practices – even if today the lines between da camera and da chiesa genres are now blurred, with chamber ensembles routinely using churches as concert venues. 

But it can still be innovative. Such is the case here.

Lawson Flats is a member’s club in an Art Deco building on Sherwood Court in the Perth CBD. Its spaces are as diverse and flexible as the events and activities it hosts, which latter vary from live music and literary discussions to Vedic meditation and wine and chess clubs.

The brainchild of club member and pianist Liam Wooding and WASO violinist Miyazawa, Morceax de salon (“Salon pieces”) here offered a genuine classical chamber music “experiment” in a relaxed and intimate lounge setting. On every level, it worked.

Firstly, the hour-long recital featured either the kinds of shorter pieces usually encountered as encores or single movements from larger sonatas. And despite the largely European music being drawn mostly from 19th and 20th century repertoire, there was enough variety and contrast to keep one wholly engaged. 

Thus the journey from Fritz Kreisler’s Baroque pastiche Praeludium und Allegro to Tom Poster’s arrangement of La Vie en Rose took in musical morceaux such as Piazzolla’s Café 1930 from Histoire du Tango, Maurice Ravel’s Bluesmovement from his second Violin Sonata and Mexican composer Manuel Ponce’s exquisite Estrellita.

My only disappointment was absence of an originally slated piece by Clara Schumann. I’m not interested in the representation of female composers purely for the appearance of inclusivity, but Clara’s artistry far exceeds that of many who did make the final cut. Her presence was missed.

Throughout, the genial Miyazawa and Wooding were as charming and amusing as hosts as their performances were absorbing and, at times, electrifying. One minute you were wholly absorbed in the lyricism and intricacies of Perth composer Lachlan Skipworth’s Villanelle, the next taking a roller coaster ride as Miyazawa negotiated the considerable technical demands of Pablo de Sarasate’s Zapateado and Henryk Wieniawski’s Scherzo & Tarantella.

Best of all, the sound fully inhabited the space in the same way the performers inhabited the music, drawing us in utterly. There was nowhere to hide, we were all exposed. And if there was the occasional wrong note or infelicity of intonation, they only served to enhance rather than detract from the sense of communion, of shared humanity.

More, please.