Just how good

Best composition?  I wondered about that but it's a stupid question, especially given my limited knowledge, but my favourite work?  I think so.  I've listed every classical piece I've performed in concert (now 506 with some repeats) and it includes Beethoven 3,4,5,6,7 and plenty more, but my faves are choral and this seems my most memorable of all.  Sitting through Brahms German Requiem by Igitur nos tends to confirm it.  Gloriously rich and attractive, emotionally dense, wonderfully informed bass lines, extensive chromatic and substituting lines, beautiful harmonies in voices to drool over, high sopranos, inventive harmonies and challenging fugues.  I closed my eyes and fell into this density, knowing it well after having played it myself.  I find when I've practised and performed a work, it stays with me, so I know upcoming phasings and predict every line.  Strange that practice, or perhaps performance, can be so permanent.  I can't play from memory but I can revisit and predict a listen.  Hayley did a great job on so many lines, slow or busy as they were.  Otherwise, just a small accompaniment of piano, single strings and woodwinds, 8 players in all in the arrangements, rather than a full orchestra.  And the choir and two soloists, bass and soprano.  Very nice soloists, but I preferred the massed parts, the power and precision and movements of lines in harmony.  My German was nil, so the words were of nothing, but still power remained and glorious, emotional music.  Brahms German Requiem: a work of beauty and huge emotional density.

Igitur Nos performed Brahms German Requiem at Wesley.  Matthew Stuckings (conductor) led a choir of 22 with two vocal soloists, Elsa Huber (soprano) and Colin Milner (baritone) and an octet comprising Rowan Harvey-Martin (violin), Elizabeth Chalker (viola), Alex Voorhoeve (cello), Hayley Manning (bass), Jodie Petrov (flute), Yu-Lan Chan (oboe), Lis Hoorweg (clarinet) and Emily Leong (piano).

Salut

Salut can mean both hi and bye in French and it's a greeting between family and friends so it's apt for Salut! Baroque, partly for the intriguing invitations to the musics of composers or places or purposes that S!B explore in their programming and explain in their programs.  This concert was Bohemian Rhapsody.  We read of the first rhapsodies for piano composed by a Bohemian Vaclav Tomasek; of the relevant geographic area; of the manufacturing and trade links that associated with movement of arts and music through Prague, Vienna, Krakow, Leipzig, Venice and more; of the Defenestration of Prague and the Thirty Years War; of the Hapsburg Empire and the Peace of Westphalia; of the relationships of Bohemian, Venetian, Veronese and Viennese composers and the nature of the musician's life in court.  All fascinating, leading to a program of Biber and Vivaldi, and Zelenka, Bertali, Fox, Caldara, Schelzer, Fischer, Jiranek and Brentner.  There are many new  or lesser known names: a concert by S!B is nothing if not inquisitive.  And pretty, ordered, danceable, dignified, even suggestive and so well played by strings, harpsichord, recorders, theorbo and the like.  This is music that was new at the time, now played from the past, but very much a part of our musical development and so often just delightful and courtly.

Salut! Baroque performed at Wesley.  S!B comprised Sally Melhuish and Anitra Blackburn (recorders), Rachael Beesley and Julia Russoniello (violins), Marianne Yeomans and Brad Tham (violas), Tim Blomfeld (bass violin), Jude Hill (bass), George Wills (guitar, theorbo) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).

Songs of lament and reflection

They advise The Elegy Project is "a contemporary chamber music ensemble blending classical, jazz and folk".  It's strange, yes, but beautiful and deeply satisfying.  Think a vocal dectet (a nonet on this day) singing Megan Washington or Lonely woman by Horace Silver and Leonard Feather, or a solo pianist playing Rachmaninov or Chopin's famous Funeral march then joined by the choir, or Joni Mitchell Both sides now, a key song of the '70s, played by a jazz quartet (on this day a trio of piano, bass, vocals).  This is a new group, directed on the day by Kimberley Steele with a string of renowned locals.  It's not a small chamber group given 13 names are listed, but a fascinatingly broadminded and exploratory combination.  Full marks for the mix of musics.  And there were some seriously satisfying performances, too.  Kimberley on solo classical piano and voice; Rachael on jazz vocals, deeply effective and emotive, and also joining in the choir; Chris just that fabulous bassist that he is, but then picking up a Telecaster to back the choir on one tune; Micah impressively spelling tunes and improvising, unhurried and purposeful, on a much nicer piano than I'd heard him on recently.  And the choir, some lovely voices, well intoned on some challenging and well arranged harmonies.  Gus is the drummer to come and he can only add.  I was taken deeply by this concert, the breadth and emotional expression of it all.  Fabulous and still very new.  If you read this post promptly, perhaps you can catch them at Wesley 3pm Sat 13 or All Saints 3pm Sun 14 June.

The Elegy Project performed at Wesley and comprise Kimberley Steele (piano, musical director), Chris Pound (bass, guitar, synth, director), Rachael Thoms (vocalist), Micah Knight (piano), Angus Henderson-Mack (Gus Henderson, drums), Emma Griffiths (soprano), Petta Lindsay and Neille Williams (altos), Oliver Bruhl and Cody Christopher (tenors), Martin Magill, Lachlan Rankin and Daniel Westbury (basses).

Plucks

Alice Giles introduced this concert by observing that the instruments being played, harp and guitar, are both plucked but they sound quite different given the structures of the instruments themselves.  The guitar has its strings (usually 6) over the soundboard; the harp has strings (6 octaves) exiting from its soundboard.  At least the strings are both plucked, although with different techniques, so a guitar may play a chord on six strings, but a harp can play a strum of many more.  And the techniques are otherwise, too, like on harp changing keys with pedals.  Each pedal raises or lowers a note by one semitone.  Interestingly, they are grouped, so two pedals work on the first two flats (B, E) and two further pedals work on the first two sharps (F, C) and the others manage the rest of the accidentals (G, A, D).  Fascinating!  Both these performers are renowned locals and this was a very relaxed and understated performance but very capable.  The first set was Alice on harp playing two sets of Five preludes for harp alone by Carlos Salzedo.  The first has movements titled Quietude, Iridescence, Introspection, Whirlwind, Lamentation, so I found myself wondering of the aptness of the composition.  I then found my concert neighbour brought up the same issue in some movements of the second prelude.  Not surprising, I guess.  Then set 2, with harp and guitar.  Three short compositions by Turlough O'Carolan, a local composition relevant to the Arboretum, A view from the Eagle's Nest by Marian Budos who was there for a chat after, and Suite magica by Maximo Diego Pujol, an Argentinian guitarist who had visited the ANUSOM in the past.  So some joyous, occasionally danceable, sometimes slow or filmic or storytelling or expansive as in landscape, and an obligatory Argentinian tango, from a pair of understated but quite brilliant performers on their respective instruments.  A pleasure.

Alice Giles (harp) and Timothy Kain (guitar) performed for the Harmonic Curves series at Wesley.

A cousin reads

I was at a family event and talking reading with cousin Licette and got an invitation to her presentation at the State Library the next day.  This was a monthly Tuesday Talk of the Friends of the State Library of South Australia and Licette was talking of influential books in her life.  It was an interesting visit to a reader's life viewed in the light of her readings.  The difficulty of the task of distilling the list was hinted at by the key literary texts she had  rejected.  Those she chose had a range of life references relating to Licette and not to all others: childhood, relationships, travel, and the like.  I could identify similarities and crossovers with some of my meagre personal readings and I came out with a desire to follow up quite a few.  So what and who?  Remember this is a personal collection over a full life to date, so Enid Blyton, Joanna Trollope, Zola, AS Bryant, Armitage, Andre Makine, Winifred Watson, DE Stevenson, Dorothy Whipple, George Eliot, John Gottman, Nina Stibbe, Alan Bennett, Alan Ramsay and a work by Licette and fellow professionals, Emotion coaching with children and young people in schools (2000).  Some intrigued me, some raised ethical or political questions, some just seemed entertaining.  FWIW, my starter intentions are Hero's daughter / Andre Makine, L'Assommoir / Emile Zola and Miss Pettigrew lives for a day / Winnifred Watson, but my list is not limited to three.  I don't read in a book club, but given the pleasure of this session, maybe I should...

Licette Gus spoke on significant books in her life for Friends of the State Library of South Australia.

Where's this now?

I missed a busy Euro day in Canberra with two jazz duets the previous weekend so I was happy to see at least one of the duos were featured with a full 2-set performance at COMA in Adelaide.  Suffice to say this was a stunner.  The duo was Reinier Baas and Ben van Gelder, guitar and alto, out of The Netherlands.  One quoted comment was that they sounded like a whole orchestra.  Not quite but I could see the intent.  Mainly it was a function of a certain guitar style that I'd not seen before, using pick and fingerstyles and strums and thumbs and fingered extensions to play bass lines, chords, fills, melody, snippets and intrusions and inclusions, all confirming grooves and setting an housing the song, seemingly all at once.  The alto was more conventional but thrillingly expressive, fleet, intriguing with intervals and sequences and fittingly with guitar, somewhat loose with time, so I could be unsure of the count, where was a beat or a temporarily changed tempo.  It sound problematic but it was anything but, being loose and expressive and together.  I noticed once a face from Reinier to Ben that suggested a slip but mostly this was ripples then waves and rough weather, all telling a story.  There were many originals, perhaps introduced by one or other performer, with fast melodies from alto while you're unsure of a common tune, then a massively quick line appears from guitar, perhaps unison, that confirms the composition.  These originals could seem indistinct in melody if lovely to hear, and perhaps strange or vague in structure but perhaps not, I'd have to listen more.  These were constructs of much complexity.  Then most unexpectedly a series of standards: All the things you are, Body and soul, Monk, more, that had the same sense of ambiguity and an exhilarating build of improv.  This delightful sense of melodic improv with a beguiling sense of time and multi-roles of accompaniment was a stunner.  I remain a bit perplexed but very, very impressed.

Reinier Baas (guitar) and Ben van Gelder (alto) performed for COMA at The Wheatie in Adelaide.

Gremlins not

A pub with a flying saucer hovering over: another boho venue, this time in Adelaide's city centre and with a weekly jazz jam.  I took my e-bass and the crowd and the space was fairly small.  The full range of Coopers on tap.  I drank dark.  Then the host band started and they were a blast, fabulous playing all round, playing a first set celebrating his life just days after the death of Sonny Rollins (d. 25 May 2026).  So, Pent-up house, Decision, Waltz hot, Ellington Way out west and Eternal triangle with Sonny Stitt.  Lithe and mobile alto, truly fascinating lines and apt from guitar, quick expressive bass with great tone, driving drums oddly toned down in effective solos to my ears.  The players were Tom Noonan, Django Roh, James Ho and Craig Laurenson appearing as The Gremilys (at Grace Emily Hotel).  It set a high bar for a jam session.  A player I'd seen at COMA came up for the first jam, as I remember on Airegin (I hadn't realised but this is Nigeria spelt backwards), then more jammers of a decent standard if not quite the openers.  Only a few tunes and not all just 32- or 12-bars.  I sat in for The more I see you with a singer leading from first year at the Elder Con.  The bass was heavier and higher actioned than mine and occasionally sliding out, but nicely strung and well amplified so I was pretty happy.  Then a final tune from the band to close the night and out.  I chatted with a woman more my age and it turns out it was her son who had sung.  And more chats with first time attendees chatting about jazz jams and improv and not having played with or heard any of the fellow jammers and The Wheaty and COMA.  I had been amused by jazz newbies dancing back from the loos or jogging to the high intensity jazz.  So such a fun night, just finished off with the Coopers Dark, so pleasant.

The Gremilys were the host band at the jazz jam at Grace Emily pub in Adelaide.  Th Gremilys comprise Tom Noonan (alto), Django Roh (guitar), James Ho (bas) and Craig Laurenson (drums).

Descend to COMA

COMA seems to always have two sets with two ensembles, mostly jazzy but sometimes exploratory classical.  Presumably with frequent connection to the Elder Con.  But it can feature others, including various Euro musicians coming to Smiths Alt in coming weeks.  Nice. And these nights are recorded, audio and video, and published to YouTube.  An impressive feat and warmly welcoming in a very musical pub with its own range of house-brewed bears.  Set 2 this night was the Bailey Hall quartet, reportedly contemporary jazz compositions exploring fun grooves, tasteful melodies and entertaining improvisation.  This was intense, not so easily visited but wonderfully capably played, precise lines, unison and otherwise, twisted, of various counts, often suddenly changing then returning.  Either they read superbly well or they had done some considerable work.  Some swing, some grooves, 6s and 4s, did I count 9? I wasn't too sure, expansive and rapid tenor solos, dense with screeds of notes and mobile harmonies, against a fascinating chordal guitar accompaniment and solos, dirty, edgy distortion on something like a Gibson 335 into a Twin Reverb or similar Fender with a distinct bluesy edge but far more inventive.  The yellow bass amp was Mark Bass and that belonged to the venue; perhaps the Fender did too.  A twisted 4/4 hint at blues and 6/8 with precise bass lines and unexpected fills, and another with floating dirty dissonances, desperate moving guitar and floating tensions.  Great PA tones, too.  Some truly capable playing from four graduates out of the Elder Con in the last 5/6 years.

Bailey Hill (drums) led a quartet with Lachlan McGargill (tenor, soprano saxes), Jack willsmore (guitar) and Tasha Stevens (bass) for COMA (Creative Original Music Adelaide) at The Wheatsheaf Hotel (The Wheatie).

Wake from COMA

In Adelaide again for family matters and all very urgent but I managed one COMA outing.  It's a satisfying night, musically exploratory, jazz or classical, in a very boho hotel with its own brewery.  What's not to like? Two bands as usual; one set each.  First up was Mudholia led by Mark Lurker, apparently a jazz odyssey about colonial Port Adelaide. A sextet led by bassist Thomas Byrne on PBass with drums, keys, tenor/sop, trumpet/flugel and fascinatingly a full time analog synth (Korg Minilogue) making a prog reference further confirmed with effected flugel, perhaps flange or delay or whatever.  Keys were piano and I heard organ, mostly more accompaniment, but everyone soloed at some stage, but that Korg was everpresent with varied inviting analog tones and countermelodies and the like.  The horns could lay down a lovely melody for the head and some impressive sax solos and that intriguing effected flugel suggested '70s Miles to my ears.  And underneath it all, densely grooving funk from the PB and insistent, unrelenting drums, sometimes stern and stated, otherwise intriguing polymetric twists.  Nice and warming welcomingly; proggy and funky and entertaining.  But still wondering who Mark Lurker, the name associated with Mudholia, is.  Perhaps the composer?  He wasn't playing on the night.

Thomas Byrne (e-bass, synth bass) led a sextet with Triniti Canini (trumpet, flugelhorn), Zac Trelor (tenor, alto saxes), Ben Anderson (synth), Shea Gallagher (keys) and Regi Ashman (drums) playing Mark Lurker Mudholia for COMA (Creative Original Music Adelaide) at The Wheatsheaf Hotel (The Wheatie). 

Thereabouts

I do love the baroque and thereabouts and I love seeing commonalities with jazz improv and classical composition, diminished and cycles and the like.  It just goes to show the relationships of history and modernity, at least here in a European context.  CIMF was mostly more modern, especially MOSSO, so The Southern Concert was a pleasant and diverse interlude.  Lots of singing from Greta Claringbould with her lovely soprano voice accompanied several names I know but some I didn't.  Stephen Freeman and Lauren Davis and Clara Teniswood but theorbo (and guitar) from Shaun Ng and harpsichordist, Rosalind Halton, and Odette Bruinzeel, viola.  Newer names for me, I think some or all from out of town.  They played a quartet from Evaristo Dall-Abaco, a solo toccata from Alessandro Piccinini and two major vocal works, cantatas da camera, Giovanni Bononcini Ecco, Dorinda, il giorno and Scarlatti Olimpia.  Quite a quiet interlude in St Paul's, ignoring the traffic and the incipient sunlight, of course.  

The Southern Concert performed at St Paul's, Manuka.  SC comprised Greta Claringbould (soprano), Stephen Freeman and Lauren Davis (violins), Odette Bruinzeel (viola), Clara Teniswood (cello), Shaun Ng (theorbo, guitar) and Rosalind Halton (harpsichord).

Bells

I'd attended a practice to help balance instruments, so this interested me but I could only make 30-min and that's with a subsequent event that was just a few kms away.  This was Bell Plains with Thomas Laue, senior carillonist, and Dylan Slater, guitar.  Guitar?  This was an interesting carillon concert with compositions by a range of, I think, all Australian or local composers.  I was lucky enough to chat with Chris Sainsbury of ANUSOM at the sound check.  He provided two works, those with guitar.  Interludes from Eugene Ughetti Bell Curve fragments had been played only an hour or so earlier in Parliament House.  Perhaps it was Sally Whitwell Snaking that featured samples or recordings of sax and other instruments in performance with bells.  Others by Nat Bartsch and Dulcie Holland.  others, too, but I had to leave.  The Carillon tower must have a PA for Dylan's (moderately amplified) e-guitar and for the recordings.  Quite a fascinating outing of bells and instruments and sometimes just bells.  But the bells are sharp and cutting and perhaps unyielding for other instrumental tones.  But a careful mix allowed the softer guitar and more to sit fairly comfortably with those sharp bell tones.  An interesting outing with a string of original, innovative pairings bells and more.        

Thomas Laue (carillon) and Dylan Slater (guitar) performed music for carillon and other instruments  .

Supplication

One last short day for CIMF2026.  I was sad to miss the final MOSSO gigs and a few others this final day, but so be it;  external conflicts.  But I was free for a solo concert of James Crabb, renowned classical accordion player on a chromatic button accordion.  This is a button accordion with its complex, geometric arrangements for each hand.  His touch could be light and flighty, strong and decisive, even making sound effects and accordion breathes.  Something quite unexpected and experimental to my ears, but I don't know the instrument int his context.  The theme was spiritual with a title Supplication to transcendence with water spirit songs from Ross Edwards, religious themes from JS Bach and Piazzola and Sofia Gubaidulina.  Then, unusually, a discussion with CIMF MD Eugene Ughetti on related themes, of Gardeners and architects, religious symbols, dissonance and resolutions, practice, breathe>spirit/divine>religion, his performance history and approach to the instrument and teaching and ritual of performance. And weight of the instrument: 16kg each and he may carry 2, front and back.  Thus some exercise, I guess.  And the mechanicality of it all, with one button stuck on this day!  A fascinating outing with a master of the art.

James Crabb (accordion) performed at ACCC for CIMF.  JC was interviewed by Eugene Ughetti.

Easter story

The Llewellyn Choir was playing an Easter program, Passion and Resurrection, with its generous choir and a soprano for one of the main works and a strings ensemble in accompaniment and alone for one work by Shostakovich, and various other instruments, organ and brass and timpani and even tuned water glassed for two mediative pieces.  Those were interesting, with the singers, females lined up along the left wall and males along the right, with those tuned glasses ringing up front.   These two glass performances opened each half.  Then, in the first half, a waltz by Shostakovich and Lachlan Skipworth Mass for Easter Sunday; in the second half, Elgar Elegy for sting orchestra and Erik Esenvalds Passion and resurrection.  The Shostakovich and Elgar were performed by the string ensemble.  The Passion and resurrection featured firm and dominating soprano solo from Sonia Antiloff and associated quartet, all telling the story of the passion and resurrection.  All under Rowan Harvey-Martin.  So, a major outing by a major local choir and a fitting performance for the time of year.  CJ sadly remembers the loss of friend Annette Quay who sang with the choir.

The Llewellyn Choir performed Eriks Esenvalds, Shostakovich, Lachlan Skipworth and Elgar at the Anzac Chapel, Duntroon, under Rowan Harvey-Martin (conductor) with Sonia Antiloff (soprano), a string ensemble and ANU Orchestra brass.

Earth, leaves, uglies

My last MOSSO performance, given a need for a break before a choral recording that evening.  Sadly I missed two final MOSSO concerts and they looking interesting but there are limits.  This was Ensemble Contrechamps performing four works by indigenous composers against the biggest TV screen of decent resolution that I've seen.  Compositions by Nardi Simpson, Nicole Smede, Aaron Wyatt and Davin Ojala touched on deeply unpleasant through to more positive portrayals of people in the land.  Much sounded with sparse movements as of earth and leaves, one had supremely ugly quotes from known persons in recent history, another moved with a lovely effective bass line, so considerable diversity from four composers.  All moved with background visuals, some more obviously aligned.  One spot had me stunned with a sax solo that displayed jazz chops, but mostly sax played tones; similarly one had a lovely moving bass part, and again mostly played more abstract parts.    

Ensemble Contrechamps comprised Thierry Debons (percussion), Pierre-Stephane Meuge (sax), Maximilian Haft (violin), Hans Egidi (viola), Martina Brodbeck (cello), Noelle Reymond Ruegg (bass), Susanna Peters (flute), Laurent Bruttin (clarinet) and Antoine Francoise (keyboard).  They performed music of Nardi Simpson, Nicole Smede, Aaron Wyatt and Davin Ojala at NFSA for MOSSO during CIMF2026.

Portraits

Between the two short sets of Lyrebird brass was a performance in the ARC Cinema of music of Fiona Hill, CIMF2026 composer-in-residence.  Why portraits?  Because the music accompanied visuals including a stunning dance work featuring ~14 performers from the Sydney Dance Company PPY (Pre-Professional Year), a sweeping drone footage of cliffs, seas, beaches, nature, and a final (live?) visual work with solo sax accompaniment.  Musicians included several of the several visiting featured groups and some local musicians making up the rank, in smaller and larger ensembles and that solo sax, as I remember all pitches, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano.

Music of Fiona Hill was performed by Ensemble Contrechamps and Australian String Quartet with Joshua Hyde (solo sax), Tim Wickham (violin), Samuel Payne (cello), Kyle Ramsey-Daniel (bass), Eugene Ughetti (percussion) and Fausto Brusamolino (artist).  The performed works were Circumstance, Sunyata and UnderOnBelow.  They performed in the ARC Cinema at NFSA for MOSSO during CIMF2026.