History of the pluck

This was Ariana Odermatt at Wesley and it struck me as a historical overview of the development of keyboard music in just 3 compositions.  William Byrd The Ghost was played on a virginal and I'd though just the same thing as Ariana when she asked later what it that signified a ghost.  Or perhaps it was Casper, friendly as it sounded.  But that was early 1600s.  Then Couperin and Domenico Ziponi, both extant to the first decades of 1700s.  Couperin was more lengthy, comprising the suite of dances of the era, courante, saraband, gavotte, gigue and the likes, all right hand melody and left hand single notes, sometimes parallel melodies from the right hand, sometimes even walking lines, early jazz.  And then Zipoli with four movements, largo, corrente, sarabande, giga, but sounding more modern to my ears, with chords in the left hand moving through descending sequences with right hand phrases moving in parallel, often in 3 or 6 but not always, faster and lively or slower and hesitant, perhaps in 12 with triplets over 4.  But it all seemed like a modern conception, even jazzy.  Fascinating and lovely on these plucked keyboard instruments.

Ariana Odermatt (harpsichord, virginal) performed at Wesley.

Vikings and more

Thus the Scots shouted at the arrival of the Vikings, I guess, although a museum in York suggests the marauders actually settled in quite well.   But this was a hoard and that suggests rapine and that's the image of the Vikings.  The Galloway hoard was a major travelling exhibition at the SA Museum.  Also in Adelaide at the time was Chihuly glass at the Botanic Gardens but we missed that one.  The Hoard must have been easy to travel, requiring perhaps just a well insured show box of two.  A hoard is a collection of ingots, jewellery and the like, so compact.  But some lovely pieces, prime amongst all an inscribed cross with chain of twisted silver wire (very lovely) and a knot of arm rings.  What I mostly took from this was the date, ~900CE.  I think it only seems recent in context of the Church, prominent given the recent death of the Pope Francis, but the Church is the oldest extant institution in Europe so perhaps an unfair comparison.  Otherwise there was lots of video, perfectly interesting with interviews with archaeologist investigators, and a smattering of Lego windows for the kids.  We managed a visit to a few other areas of the Museum: the famed and much loved, old-styled, Egyptian room, small with its mummy and more, and the stunning opalised fossils in the next room and a few meteorites.  Most unexpected was the Egyptian boomerang!  All interesting but then I always found that local museum of interest over many years.

The Galloway Hoard was displayed at the SA Museum.  Also on display are Egyptian artifacts, opalised fossils and more.

Comfy not flashy

It was Anzac Day and we were off to experience a two-up session but no luck.  The Net advised that two-up is only in RSL clubs in Adelaide on this day.  The first RSL club was closed.  The second had some guys out front.  One bloke said two-up was no longer legal even in RSL clubs in SA but he was inviting and we went in for a drink and a listen to the covers band at the Walkerville RSL and Community Centre.  Well, it a as nice, easy going, informal an outing as we could imagine.  The music was loud and of a period, mostly around ‘60s-’70s.  The performers and audience were of much the same period.  The lady behind the bar was lovely and the bassist was happy to give me a feel of his 5-string JB.  The audience was even dancing, mostly together although the ladies later ended in formation.  We took a quieter area and some drinks, relaxed into a lovely easy scene with military memorabilia over our heads, not least a Vietnam-era rifle that I was within months of a barrel-ball selection of bearing.  Soon a break and a Rolling Stones karaoke experience, then the band again.  A few beers and we were off but it was an unexpectedly inviting outing for this Anzac Day afternoon.  So much for the two-up; give me casual sociability any day.

The band Flash and the Rolling Stones Experience performed at the Walkerville RSL Club and Community Centre for Anzac Day.  Flash were to change membership the following day to become The Extras.

Visiting community

I’m in Adelaide for a family visit and not the first time and I am intrigued by the local scene.  It’s a long time since I knew an Adelaide scene.  This time, I checked the practice nights for the local Burnside Symphony Orchestra, and sure enough it was that night.  Too late for email permission so I took a chance and the first person I noticed in the car park had a violin case.  We chatted and I met the conductor, ASO horn player Philip Paine.  I listened to a first run through of Beethoven Symph 7 and I thought they did it well.  The numbers were down given this very holiday-able week bridging Easter and Anzac Day.  The concert is not until late July with two iterations and featuring a standard program structure: Liszt Les Preludes, Saint-Saens Piano conc 5 and Beethoven 7. Nice.  I pulled up the cello/bass part on IMSLP and enjoyed the revisit on movements 1 and the luscious 2 then chatted to the sole bassist (a female player whose other performance field is heavy metal; not so surprising really).  I left in the break to return to family, but this was a friendly encounter and an informative listen.  Much enjoyed and I hope to get to this or another performance someday.

The Burnside Symphony Orchestra practices in the Burnside Town Hall on Tuesdays under Philip Paine (conductor).

The mother's voice

The story of Easter is the crucifixion and it was set so beautifully by Pergolesi Stabat Mater and performed in small format by Greta Claringbould, Tobias Cole and Linus Lee, upstairs at Smiths.  It's the story of Mary at the Cross as her son dies.  This setting was a smallish room, bedecked for the occasion with candles and lit with a cone of light against on a red background.  Just perfect except for a lighting malfunction of auto strobe strobe lighting.  But these are professionals and the music still spoke for itself and we could all laugh about it after, perhaps in relief at the music of intense tragedy and deep faith that Pergolesi presents.  Certainly, the death was obvious as the music temporarily collapsed into emptiness.  Then recovered with reference to the devotees.  Toby and Greta matched voices at time, these are high voices, harmonised with intense beauty at others, singing over the essential presence of the Linus' piano with introductions that are so well recognised.  This was a work of great beauty done by wonderfully capable and responsive local performers.  Another  immensely touching memory for this Easter.

Pergolesi Stabat Mater was presented as Vigil at McGregor Hall at Smiths Alternative by Greta Claringbould (soprano), Tobias Cole (countertenor) and Linus Lee (piano).

The kids are alright

Today was a free gig by the Australian Youth Orchestra just down the road at Snow and it was just a wonderful outing and a decent and popular program.  Jessica Wells Uplift putting take off and flight to music.  Then Ann Carr-Boyd Look at the stars with short movements from Mars to galaxies and specifically the Sombrero to the Sun and Mercury and Saturn and out again to star clusters.  My faves were Mercury, a jovial wind trio, and the generic star clusters with all manner of stars slashing by through gravitational fields.  Then some comfy and popular classics.  J Strauss II with on the Beautiful Blue Danube, all waltz melodies, apparently 5 melodies each played twice, and Mussorgsky Pictures at an exhibition which is ever popular and it's obvious why, fascinating and varied and expressive as it is.  I loved the huge crescendo in whatever and the superquick bass lines later on, but much more is hugely exciting.  I've played this but can't quote the prices they appear in.  And they played it well.  Not professional but very good and these are kids, although our AYO accepts to age 27 so could include music school graduates.  None-the-less, hugely impressive and a great free afternoon out.  And nice to see reams of kids, teens and younger, avidly enjoying this music.  Great outing and thanks to AYO.  This is the second year of an AYO camp at Canberra Grammar School and Snow concert hall.  Keeping it local.

Australian Youth Orchestra performed at Snow Concert hall under Luke Dollman (conductor).

Six strung

Tilt is going increasingly Alt.  This time, James was off for Easter and it was Mark and Jeremy, in this case playing guitar rather than Shostakovich bass.  It was pretty quiet, even in Dickson, given a double holiday weekend and Good Friday.  Even this heathen feels Good Friday may be an unusual night for a jazz gig but there are plenty who won't recognise it.  And guitar was quite a change from piano, so this was a different gig.  All standards which we both recognised or knew and a desire for dirt, as in effects, but maybe we ended up pretty mainstream clean.  Jeremy's solos and accompaniments were great but quite different but it brought out some melodic solos on my part that I really enjoyed.  Whatever, a great and much enjoyed night out.  We'll do it again sometime.  And great chatting to a surfeit of trombonists, one local (TraXion?) and Sophia.

Tilt Alt. was Jeremy Tsuei (guitar), Mark Levers (drums) and Eric Pozza (bass).

Contemplating the body

These days of modernity and medicines we protected from so much, but Easter remains a brutal story from ancient/mediaeval history.  I felt this with a jazz gig on Good Friday evening but primarily with a concert for Holy Week at Wesley in the afternoon.  The music was Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri, a great powerful work of early baroque (I guess) with five voices and accompaniment with a theme of Christ on the Cross expressed in 7 short movements totalling ~60 minutes: ad pedes; ad manus; ad genua; ad latus; ad pectus; ad cor; ad faciem.  That is, an immersion in the horrors of crucifixion, specifically this one: contemplations on the feet, knees, hands, sides, breast, heart and face.  Not at all modern, but powerful, not least in Latin.  Each movement started and ended with a SSATB "concerto" then arias by various individual voices or parts.  Accompaniment was mainly violin, viola, cello, harpsichord, but for some time, adding organ and viola da gamba 1,2.  All period instruments.  And this was a stunning experience, so well sung by several of our local luminaries, and similarly accompanied.  Just a work of power and beauty seldom experienced.  Stunning.

Buxtehude Membra Jesu nostri was performed at Wesley Church on Good Friday.  Performers were Greta Claringbould and Jade McFaul (sopranos), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Dan Walker (tenor), Andrew Fysh (bass), John Ma (violin), Lauren Davis (viola), Clara Teniswood (cello), Rachel Walker and Caroline Downer (violas da gamba), Marie Searles (harpsichord) and Ariana Odermatt (organ).

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.