23 April 2025

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).

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