Brinda and climate

I had a clash, the People's Climate March with Brindabella Orchestra's final concert of the year. I chose the immediate (and much enjoyed) concert, of course, as one must, but in spirit I was also on the streets for climate. Before Brinda, once more my summary of the climate predicament:

All you really need to know about climate change. We're one big civilisation and climate is changing fast given a sudden imbalance of carbon since the industrial revolution. The mechanism of greenhouse gasses has been known to science for 150 years or so and we're at 400ppm and adding another couple each year, and 2 degrees warming (guessed to come at 450ppm) is a rough, perhaps optimistic, estimate of where runaway climate change could happen given various feedback loops (the ubiquitous "tipping points") and it looks to me like we've got Buckley's chance of staying within 2 degrees. With business as usual, IPCC estimates 3-6 degrees rise by 2100. That's just 85 years. Scientists provide the proof of all this for honest readers. To me it looks like game over and sooner than we think. I just hope I'm wrong because nobody wins an argument with physics.

At least my family went to the march. Back to Brinda. On this topic, I was amused to find a denier of anthropogenic climate change amongst the Brinda performers ... but it takes all types. My response was warming so I left the counter to a calmer voice currently studying for an ANU science doctorate. But to Brinda...

This was Brindabella Orchestra's final concert for 2015. It was entitled Dominant tonic; held again at Qbn Uniting Church (nice acoustics); conducted by Peter Shaw. The program was significantly more demanding than previous and the outcome confirmed the choice. Ensemble playing was impressive with nice shared senses of dynamics, time feels and intonation. The composers were the real thing: Beethoven Creature of Prometheus overture, Faure Elegy for cello and orchestra, Dvorak Symphonic variations, Brahms Academic Festival overture, Bizet L'Arlesienne no.2 and some music theatre, Lloyd Webber Selections from Phantom of the Opera. Challenging but not impossible. I even enjoyed the last amongst the more historical fare. We had visitors: brass from Western Winds (Peter also directs this ensemble, so a happy coincidence) and Jennifer Wurtzel, guest soloist from NY via NCO to play the cello part in Faure. This was a happy and very successful concert that I reckon brings Brindabella to a new level. Congrats to Peter and all.

Brindabella Orchestra performed Beethoven, Faure, Dvorak, Brahms, Bizet and Lloyd Webber under Peter Shaw (conductor). Jennifer Wurtzel (cello) soloed in the Faure Elegy.

Thanks to Phuong Dang for some of the pics