Unexpected

A free, unused ticket to a Selby concert was unexpected but the outcome was a surprise in other ways too.  I see/hear lots of local musics and I like to support it, but sometimes (not always), when I get to a major outing, like a visiting New Yorker jazzer or Musica Viva, I am floored by how good these people are.  It hit me last night with Kathryn Selby and her guests Natalie Chee and Julian Smiles.  I was taken aback by the delicacy of the bowings, by the clear communication and close interpretations, how pauses would sit in the air and dynamics move together or apart to feature one instrument or another.  It's the nature of good playing and this was well deserved.  I should not be too surprised given their histories, but still I was.  They played a program of fathers with informative intros from all players.  Haydn first up, after being introduced as the father of the symphony, the string quartet and the piano trio.  Then a young Schoenberg before he fathered 12-tonal music and finally Dvorak, father of national musics in the classics.  I actually most liked the Haydn, then the Schoenberg.  Dvorak is seldom a fave of mine.  But the lesson in this for me was the immense capability of top pros.  I wonder about people just hearing these players, just attending the visiting stars, but I can value the possibility even given my own immersion in local culture.  I've often wondered about mediaeval life with just a visiting troubadour or minstrel every now and then.  What with recording and travel, we live such wealthy cultural lives if we choose to.  But then many choose reality TV or sports instead.  Strange that but it takes all.

Kathryn Selby (piano) led Natalie Chee (violin) and Julian Smiles (cello) playing Haydn, Schoenberg and Dvorak at the theatre at the National Gallery of Australia.