Shadows

Tenebrae is Latin and translates to Shadows or Darkness in English.  Thus the theme continues in this Holy Week series at Wesley Church.  This concert was a revisit by Igitur Nos under DM Matthew Stuckings and presented a collection of works suitable for Lent, drawing on scripture, poetry and liturgical texts and inviting interest in matters including loss and grief, comfort and isolation, solidarity and renewal.  Thanks to Matthew (presumably) for these words.  In practice, the music was richly varied, a capella, SATB to 8 parts, with works by Gibbons, Byrd, Wood, Puseley, Greene, Tchaikovsky, Goreki, Poulenc, Bairstow and Harris.  The voices were pure and well controlled, interleaving with precision, highlighting variously soprano or tenor or whatever, sometimes fairly simple, othertimes busy and changing between multiple parts.  Again, I loved the soaring sopranos, but also male voices when they were prominent.  Igitur Nos is a wonderfully satisfying choir by one of our major local leaders.  Satisfying and sometimes thrilling.  And the Gibbons encore was a great choice, highlighting the best of the busy interplay, clear voices and voicings.

Igitur Nos were 27 SATB voices led by Matthew Stuckings (conductor, MD) with occasional accompaniment by aJmes Porteous (organ).  They performed at Wesley Church.

When not playing pool

 

I've heard and recorded Charles Huang several times but this one seemed special.  It's obviously the program wot done it.  Two Beethoven piano sonatas, apparently historically before and after a point of development by Beethoven.  And between these, three consecutively numbered JS Bach Preludes and fugues, BWV863, 864,865.  Suffice to say about the Bach that I love fugues and his immensely effective and complex  counterpoint so these were fabulous to hear.  I love the jigsaw puzzle of a fugue in any context, not least in Bach.  Not sure I made the distinction for the Beethoven piano sonatas, that may take another listen, but I enjoyed them both.  As for Charles, he played all from memory with immense dynamics and commitment and skills.  I didn't play like this in my mid-teens and still don't.  Very impressive, dynamic, expressive, skillful.  I just wondered how some more difficult passages sat together, but this is understandable given the practice required for individual parts.  So another stunning piano concert and a great program from Charles.  And then later I heard of his playing in a national pool competition.  Pool?  Somewhat another skill.  Talented guy.

Charles Huang performed Bach and Beethoven at Wesley.

Tenebrae

This was the first of the Wesley Holy Week concerts-cum-religious events and it was a fascinating and unusual happening.  At least for me with my Catholic background.  The minister presenting opening prayers, final prayer and benediction and managing 13 candles during the service.  Three parishioners reading the story of Jesus' final week in a series of readings from Luke.  A choir (8 person, SATB a capella) performing music mostly of Bruckner and a longer Psalm 22 put to music by Charles Giffen interspersing the other activities.  The a quiet departure by congregation and presenters.   The whole was called Tenebrae (=Shadows)  representing the fall into darkness awaiting the resurrection on Easter Sunday.   The choir was quite lovely with intriguing harmonies, clear voices and a quiet presence.  The readings from Luke were well known and a reminder for me.  The minister's activities were a little odd, presenting items on a table and first up lighting candles then extinguishing them during the service, but intriguing none-the-less.  The whole was streamed to YouTube and is still up if you wish to see it.  Dark as it may be for most of the service.  Intriguing and very often quite beautiful.

Jade McFaul coordinated the music for Shadows at Wesley Church.  Performers were Elsa Huber (soprano) and Jade McFaul (soprano, MD), Sarah Heartwood and Evangeline Osborne (altos), Thomas Liu and Felix Huber (tenors) and Martin Magili and Lucus Allerton (basses).

View the streamed video on YouTube > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz7tUG5sZ-I

Last minute wonders

There is so much on at the moment.  I arrived back after an orchestral practice and when I looked at the Smiths site, I realised The Subterraneans were half way through their first set.  I got in quickly and caught the second.   It had been yonks since I'd seen Steve Hunter and I can only gasp in awe at his solid, funky finger-style playing with death-defying speed and Jacoesque awareness on a JB or clone.  He was playing Smiths' Roland 60w cube which added a dirty edge to the louder notes that worked a treat.  In awe as always.  But I'm a bassist: not to say the others were shirking!  James Ryan is leader with deliciously effective and lyrical tenor solos and inviting stage presence; Michael Coggins on guitar was all manner of delays and effects and lovely, deceptively relaxed melodic solos; drummer Jack Powell was simple and rock steady which suited the band but seemed tame until his heavy/metal solos, all double kick pedal and the sharp, busy lines and heavy tones that go with it.  He got a few solos at the end and they were a blast.  The second set ran over, as they do, but still only four or five tunes, one by Steve and a final reggae in 7/4.  If there was a determinant of this band, it's probably the counts.  There was another 7/4; another 4-4-4-2 with fill or bridge of 4-4-4-4.  Perhaps more.  All from one or another of their albums over the 15 years of their existence.  And this was a tour and Steve said the frequent gigs help to be sharp.  They certainly were!  Tight as! Fast as! Unrelenting and exciting and infectious.  I guess it's jazz-rock or fusion even some metal, but so infectious.  Fabulous.

The Subterraneans are James Ryan (tenor), Steve Hunter (bass), Michael Coggins (guitar) and Jack Powell (drums).

Old and new

 

I was pleased to record Salut! Baroque.  S!B is a baroque ensemble, with gut and recorders and harpsichord and theorbo so I was surprised that the first tune was dated 1995 by Karl Jenkins.  He is around these days!  Then into the more expected dates, 1693, 1749, a later one at 1805 but that sounded quite modern being a lament that could be a current ballad to my ears.  And finally to JS Bach but he's a common feature in such company, and the final work, Concerto Dmin BWV1043.  I knew this one but from the first notes I was flustered.  Then I noticed "arr. Terry Bor" with movements Allegro brisko, Lager mit schmalz and Alla mode.  Wow, short and unexpected!  The first movement was swung, then schmaltzy as promised, and a final 12-bar with jazzy 2-feel.  But it was Bach, no doubt, as never heard before.  Otherwise, there were recorders with their period presence, gut strings, the theorbo and a period-looking guitar with, how many ... 10 tuners?  Wikipedia says 5 string pairs.  As for the theorbo...  But some capable  and convincing playing, certainly not least by John with his lengthy history in European and other ensembles.   But it's not just the tones of historical instruments.  This concert was entitled Baroque spirit and the 15 works investigated all manner of styles, dances, cultures, approaches through the era to dispel the interpretation of Baroque as bizarre.  The composers were Erlebach, de Murcia, Rameau, Gow, O'Carolan, Playford, Telemann, Cantemir, Orme, Anon, Pla, mostly somewhat lesser known than Bach, so this was a widespread investigation and even educational.  So, a deserving and fascinating and sometimes confounding musical outing.  Well done by both the musical directors and the performers.

Salut! Baroque performed Baroque spirit at Wesley Church.  The musicians were Sally Melhuish and Alana Blackburn (recorders), John Ma and Julia Russoniello (baroque violins), Brad Tham (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (bass violin, cello piccolo), Jude Hill (baroque double bass), George Wills (baroque guitar, theorbo), Jack Peggie (percussion) and Monika Kornel (harpsichord).  Artistic directors are Sally Melhuish and Tim Blomfield.

Divergence

Jennifer Hou performed on piano at Wesley today.  It started with Ravel Sonatine, but then on to Caroline Shaw, a modern US composer, and Zhang Zhao, Chinese and Jennifer's background, Poem of sound, a Hani love song, from Two songs to dear parents.  These were interesting works and Jennifer played them with real skill and respect.  Ravel pretty obvious with emotionally rich and varied lyrical storytelling, flowing screens of notes with triplets on each beat.  The Caroline Shaw was Gustave Le Gray, initially meditative, repetitive with slight change then into chordal movements, apparently based on a Chopin mazurka.  Then Zhang Zhou which featured Chinese scales but I had not heard dissonance.  Jennifer informed me they were pentatonics, presumably major pentatonic, and obviously comfortable to jazzers and others but perhaps this music has a more delayed sense of time that I felt and occasional teeming waterfalls of notes.  But all wonderfully prepared and comfortably played.  Quite a different pianistic experience with new and culturally varied compositions. Fascinating.

Jennifer Hou (piano) performed at Wesley.

An unlikely forty winks

Apparently someone heard snoring in the audience and was surprised given this was a Shostakovich symphony but Rami was just 6 months old so, so be it.  NCO is generous to its audience!  But jokes side this was a big and impressive gig.  NCO played Shostakovich Symphony 5, Weber Bassoon concerto with Ben Hoadley as soloist and Ella Macens  The space between stars.  Ella had studied with Louis so was close to home, but well regarded in her own light.  The Macens is a work celebrating the night sky, picturing stars, constellations, even meteors, all long notes and slow tempos and defined dynamics moving amongst parts.  The Weber is a renowned concerto on the cusp of classical, neat and ordered, steady with flashy inserted passages, ponderous but pensive second movement, and a quick, lively, buoyant third.  This was fun.  The orchestra could have overwhelmed the solo bassoon, but was delightfully restrained.  I personally loved the light touch this demanded.  It also demanded a good ear for Ben and a trained eye for Louis, for there were some very malleable tempos.  But so lovely and satisfying to play.  Then to the interval and the main work: Shostakovich Symphony no.5 op.47.  It was all a confusing mess at first but came together with practice and rehearsals and ended in concert as a fascinating, challenging expanse over four movements.  Plenty of action for the basses who start two movements with gutsy melodies.  There's a truly delicious passage for the concert master, explosive runs throughout, odd movements and harmonies (I drooled over a passage running scalar to Bb then dropping to an E to end.  Louis directed with aplomb, the winds were stupendous as they so often are, I'd heard some touchy intonations in the basses, but listening after to a little video I thought the intonation was quite professional.  But it's a complex and different work thus challenging and I can only admire people who enjoyed it if not knowing it before.  This is big and a difficult listen but fascinating.  How wonderful to have played it.

National Capital Orchestra performed Ella Macens, Carl Maria von Weber and Dmitri Shostakovich at Snow concert hall under Louis Sharpe (MD, conductor) with soloist Ben Hoadley (bassoon) and Thayer Preece (concertmaster).  String bottom enders were Henry South (principal), Juliet Flook, Jennifer Groom, Talia Meischke, Jeremy Tsuei and Eric Pozza (double bass).

Thanks to Sophia for the bassists pic.

Tchaiks does hooks

My first up concert for the weekend. Busy.  This was Musica da Camera under Brad Tham, who returned after playing with us a year before.  He's quiet and respectful and a talented musician and recent ANU graduate.  His choice started with a relatively straightforward Brook green suite which was written for a schoolgirls' orchestra.  It's shortish despite its three movements and not difficult despite some tricky, malleable counting and some speed in the last dance movement.  Then Lonely Angel by Peteris Vasks, another modern meditation featuring Brad on violin out front.  Slow but can be difficult to manage without a conductor, given offbeat changes and lines.  But the feature was Tchaikovsky Serenade for strings.  Lovely and inviting and challenging enough.  Again it has speed and occasional tricky lines, a delightful waltz as movement 2, a stirring elegie as movement 3, and some fairly straightforward if fast lines and scales in movement 3.  But it's something everyone knows and is immediately pleasurable.  How well does Tchaikovsky do melody, often with the simplest of lines.  Nicely played by our MdCC led by our quietly talented Brad.

Musica da Camera Canberra played Holst, Vasks and Tchaikovsky at Cook under Brad Tham (MD, violin) with Tanya Jenkin (concertmaster).

Good out

Good to get out for some jazz.  I'm busy with all manner of classical music, which I love and some of which I play, but jazz remains a long love and this was a corker.  A corporate gig with a contented and welcoming audience and we play our music, standards and James', and the sound is good and we are playing well.  Relaxed, welcoming and a nice beer and some nibbles.  Such a nice night out, playing, if too rarely listening these days. Close to home, too.

Tilt were James Woodman (piano), Mark Levers (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass).

Keys of a different ilk

I usually think of Linus Lee as an organist and I love his performances and I love organ, especially for the dramatic, deep, pensive nature of the thing.  But this concert was called Interesting Oz Composers and the music was of the early C20th by composers with obscure names, sometimes with pseudonyms, Hall as Morel, Zelman, Mareo as Marsden, Knox, de Chaneet, and titles with subtitles, like Elaine: Marceau brillant or In the gloaming: romance or Glowing embers: narrative-intermezzo.   It was James who suggested music for silent movies, and it's quite likely, being varied and emotive and narrative.  Other than a few ordinary titles, Hungarian dances op.17 no,5,8 and Elegy for the violin, that is.  These were all on piano, but even the organ tunes to end had a similar presence, so Gates of Baghdad, Norwegian cradle song: tone picture and Lady Pompadour: a court dance, all by F Hall as Gabriel Morel.  But whatever the theme and compositions, they were inviting and pleasant and nicely played for a wonderful outing by Linus, even with limited 32' double open diapason or contra violine.

Linus Lee performed early C20th Australian composers on piano and organ at Wesley.

Movies and more

I caught Stuart Long doing a lighter piano concert than normal.  This was music of films and Satie and Glass and Nyman and Morricone and Ye.  Ye?  Yes, a tune from when he was Kanye West.  It a change from Prokofiev and Schubert and Beethoven that I'd heard from him before.  And from from the compositions of Alan Hinde that we'd recorded recently and that we will complete sometime soonish.  Some film tunes are deeply moving and melodically inviting, like Nyman form The Piano and Morricone from Cinema Paradiso.  Just lovely.  Then an encore from Sally Greenaway which was again lyrical and luscious.  Nice outing.

Stuart Long played film and other musics at Wesley.

Guts most pleasant

It was a very busy night.  We had a jazz gig that I couldn't do, and thank you tickets to Luminescence that we couldn't take up and a Motown show band was live at the Germo, but we'd bought tix to the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra at our local concert hall and we had hosted one of their two MDs for a CIMF in the past, so it was meant to be.  In the end, the other MD came but it was an excellent performance.  This group has a myriad of albums!  They play superbly capable baroque with authentic instruments and their members sit in with plenty of important baroque orchestras around Europe.  I was not so sure of the first set perhaps, perhaps the fortepiano concerto was less frequently played.   The keyboard could get lost in the mix and it wasn't quite so together, but the second set was settled and blissful, probably tunes they play incessantly and they were superb: accurate, together, intoned, expressive.  I was eyeing the bass lying on stage in the interval then Dina Kehl came to tune up and we chatted.  Violine, gut, frets, tuning (perhaps FADF♯A), bow (big, convex, German).  I looked up Dina later and she has all manner of interesting musical projects: take a look.  Mostly her task was pretty simple if nicely done, but there were some semiquaver runs that had me in awe, so fast and clear and not at all faked.  But as it should be with a group at this level.  The music as pretty obvious: JC Bach symph Gmin, Mozart piano conc no.9 Eb, Mozart violin conc no.5 Amaj, Mozart symph no.40 Gmin.  And a final, short encore.  Impressive but also just so lovely.  And nice to meet Dina and to catch up with various friends in the audience.  This was a big and satisfying one.

The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra performed at Snow Concert Hall with soloists Kristian Bexuidinhout (pianoforte) and Gottfried von der Goltz (violin, MD) and bass ender Dina Kehl (violone).

Bass alt.

It feels a strange outcome for me to be bass in the string section assisting at a jazz big band gig.  But there I was.  Nice that the jazz bassist, Evan, did a great job, and I could enjoy a listen in.  I liked the role of providing colour and hits and tonal washes against the drive and excitement of 13 or so wind instruments and a 5 part rhythm section.  This was ConneXion Big Band and we were playing the return gig of their 64-Bit Big Band Videogame Music Night.  So there were costumes and music very unlike the clicks and buzzes I remember from Asteroids.  Games are different now: sophisticated and complex and filmic with some great composition.  We played two sets, mostly all in, about 1/3 with just the big band, several tunes with singers.  It was a load of fun and, at least earlier on, a challenge for the syncopations which can be a job to read.  I was blown out by sax and brass hits, some blaring guitar solos, some great bass, nice drums and percussion, a few memorable solos from all manner of horns not least from Justin B upfront.  Interesting, too, to see the mix of ages, with some very capable players of little ages, not least Nicole who sat in front of me.  And it all sat together in the end and the audience and band enjoyed it all and I was perfectly happy to sit in the accompanying strings.

ConneXions Big Band performed computer games music at the Belconnon Community Theatre under Aaron Michael (MD) with singers Zanelle Ramsay-Daniel (vocals) and Justin Buckingham (vocals, alto, MC).  Bottom enders were Evan Teece and Eric Pozza (basses) and Nicole Philipse (cello) approached the bottom end.

All is well

I ran into some fellow classical players and one had just started going to CSO concerts because she was approaching 35 and that's the cutoff age for cheaper tickets and another had played in Canberra for yonks and this was his first concert.  We'd been subscribers but missed gigs too often to maintain a subscription and then had got too busy.  But I was glad we got back for this one.  The music was Charles Ives Unanswered question, Elena Kats-Chernin Night and now, a flute concerto with Sally Walker, and Tchaikovsky Symphony 6.  Observations?  We were up the back so interesting to observe the lone trumpeter injecting into Ives, as an alternative voice.  Jessica Cottis had argued this was about a staid life and the alternative.  Then Elena K-C in 3 movements.  I found the first movement pretty steady and repeating, but it enlivened for the second and third movements, even if the flute could be lost amongst the great hubble-bubble.  Then the Tchaikovsky.  Apparently Tchaiks considered it his best work.  I was his last - he died ~8 days after the first performance.  It starts quietly, then a 5/4 waltz and a march and the quieter final movement.  I can't hear Tchaiks without marvelling at his ability to create glorious melody from the simple lines, then meld and mould it.  And the CSO did a great job, nice phrasing and movement and section play, and huge dynamics.  We were in the last row upstairs and i measured volume around 88Db down to a whisper.  And Jessica Cottis virtually dances on the conductor's podium.  Interestingly, the orchestra seemed to be well off her indications, but consistently so, so it all held together, so good.  They were recording, so many mics around the stage.  We left in some elation, and not just Megan and I, but also muso friends we saw afterwards..  Plenty of smiles so all good.  Very glad we went.

Jessica Cottis (conductor) led the Canberra Symphony Orchestra at Llewellyn Hall playing Ives, Kat-Chernin and Tchaikovsky with soloist Sally Walker (flute).

PS.  The following day I had lunch with Elena Kats-Chernin and it was a very pleasant outing.  We talked of music, of course, but not just.  Meeting musicians outside the concert hall gives you a chance to talk of other things.  It's a key pleasure when we host CIMF visitors.  We talked of family, home, history,  music and musicians and previous night's concert (the encore was Eliza's aria from Wild Swans), touched on politics, national and otherwise.  Perhaps more.   Such an interesting, wide ranging discussion and a pleasant interlude.  Elena, lovely to chat.

Observations

 

This was a combination of bassoon and harpsichord from Ben Hoadley and Ariana Odermatt at Wesley.  It's not a common combination, but quite lovely.  And it's not a pairing of baroque instruments as the bassoon was modern, but nonetheless, quite lovely.  And also not all baroque music, and again quite lovely.  Ben mentioned playing the modern bassoon with harpsichord and how it was a different experience, bigger and louder, I guess, and maybe more fluent.  Whatever, they sat nicely together.  He also highlighted the period of the musics: the first three were Marcello, Telemann and Couperin, all early 1700s, and the last Francois Devienne, late 1700.  It was obvious when you were made aware of it.  The earlier period was of royal courts; the later was of the people, entertainment, post-revolution and clearly more classical-styled.  I'd quipped to Ariana earlier that the harpsichord didn't change volume and she'd responded with louder, dirtier sound.  Then sure enough, the first and second courante by Couperin did exactly the same, quiet and delicate, then dirtier and louder.  So lots to observe and some lovely playing to just enjoy.  What's better?

Ben Hoadley (bassoon) and Ariana Odermatt (harpsichord) performed at Wesley.