Run down to Christmas

The final concert of the year in the Wesley Wednesday lunchtime series is always the Wesley Scholars.  I'm not sure how it's run, but it's obviously an opportunity for some talented performers to get some extra training.  It's quite common to see these faces performing in various other groups around town.  I once saw Ellery String Quartet at Government House, no less, and they are comprised of scholars from this year's bunch.  First and last up was a vocal quartet comprising members of Kompactus and others.  They sang two carols in Swedish or other and later a few in English.  Amusingly, I'll be home for Christmas as in Dean Martin, jazz with classical awareness - very lithe and beautifully done - and Deck the halls in 7/8, no less.  I liked, too, that they took some lines as pairings of voices making the sources of pitches much easier to catch.  The Soprano is easy to identify but the other parts can be more lost in the mix.  Then Ellery Quartet with a very lively arrangement of three tunes by the Danish String Quartet and a few carols including one with cello pizz all the world like a jazz walk.  The tinges in my ears of other countries' folk music suggested connections and maybe migrations around the world.  Then a duo of violin and cello playing three movements from a Boccherini sonata, older and frequently joyous and danceable in the styles of that era.  A lively, lovely, carol-heavy last concert of the year from Evie, Pippa, Martin, Jesse, Brad, Anika, Chloe, Tanya and Gabriel.

The Wesley Scholars performed the final Wednesday lunchtime concert of the year at Wesley.  The Vocal quartet comprised Evie Osbourne, Pippa Newman, Martin Magill and Jesse Hill.  The Ellery String Quartet comprised Brad Tham and Anika Chan (violins), Pippa Newman (viola) and Chloe Law (cello).  The duo comprised Tanya Boag (violin) and Gabriel Fromyhr (cello).