B2&M

Even in the massive space of Llewellyn Hall, I was surprised by how satisfying was the volume of a classical trio, even with that diminutive instrument, the fortepiano, at its heart.  This was Musica Viva and it's not a common visit but I enjoyed this immensely, even if not particularly critically.  I mostly just took it in as the pleasure it can so easily satisfy.  This was Beethoven and Mozart, mostly Beethoven (4 vs 2) although the concert was entitled Mozart's clarinet.  Perhaps because the concert was set when the clarinet was new and Mozart and then young Beethoven wrote for it.  It started with a basset horn which is a precursor to the clarinet that we know but looks nothing like it, at least in this incarnation, bent and with an odd box before the horn.  Then Beethoven variations, Mozart Kegelstatt trio, interval, Beethoven aria and more variations, Mozart piano sonata K.545 and a Beethoven piano trio. Megan recalled the K.545 as something every pianist learns and it was very recognisable even to me.  I mostly just sat and enjoyed the capable playing and easy composition, but took note of Beethoven's interplay of parts and just the beauty of the solo, quiet fortepiano and the lines moving between cello and clarinet and the fingering on the cello.  That's something I could understand.  Nicola Boud mostly played a "historical clarinet" to Erin Helyard's (historical) fortepiano but Simon Cobcroft's cello seemed modern enough.  Whatever, this was inviting music played with class and perfectly adequate for the large Llewellyn space when you adjusted to it.  Lovely.

Nicola Boud (clarinet, basset horn), Erin Helyard (fortepiano) and Simon Cobcroft (cello) performed Mozart and Beethoven for Musica Viva at Llewellyn Hall.

Direct lineage

Given this concert's Bohemian theme, I would no longer think of Simandl as unconventional but artistic, yes.  Simandl developed the major technique of double bass playing although he now has competition from Rabbath.  But still his technique and book is known by all who take up classical double bass.  Kyle Ramsay-Daniel, known to all the local classical string community, performed a lunchtime Wesley concert with Ella Luhtasaari entitled the Bohemian Double Bass and featuring Franz Simandl with Adolf Misek, Frantisek Cerny and Vojtech Kuchynka.  All from the Austro-Hungarian area and perhaps all having studied in Prague.  Kyle gave a great background to each composer even if I didn't catch it all, but most important, of course, were the compositions.  A scherzo capriccioso form Simandl, melodic and playful and way up the neck as perhaps as all double bass solos do.  Then a three movement sonata from Misek, a beautiful notturno & intermezzo from Cerny and a final canzonetta from Kuchynka.  So mostly light and lyrical with a touch of dance in the rhythms.  It was demanding bass for Kyle and he did it proud (I learned tons from just watching) with effective and responsive piano accompaniment form Ella.  But the greatest claim of all was Kyle's own link to Simandl, having studied in a direct line of a few generation to Simandl himself.  It's not so far back (Simandl 1980-1912) but still wildly exciting to hear.  I guess that places Max McBride one step closer to the great Simandl himself.  And that story of 600 solo recitals by Kuchynka.

Kyle Ramsay-Daniel (bass) was accompanied by Ella Luhtasaari (piano) playing compositions for double bass at Wesley.

Parliament no.48 opens

'Twenty-eight countries, including Australia, the UK and France, are demanding an immediate end to the war in Gaza and for Israel to lift aid restrictions.  The joint statement, signed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, comes amid growing international concern over the number of deaths at aid sites in the enclave. It criticises what it calls the "inhumane killing" of Palestinians and condemns the "drip feeding of aid".  "We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now," the foreign ministers of Britain, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Denmark and other countries, and an EU commissioner, said in a joint statement. "We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region. ... Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law." The joint statement also includes a condemnation of Hamas's treatment of hostages held captive since the group's October 7, 2023, attack in Israel.'

Australia, UK, France and other nations call for immediate end to war in Gaza. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-21/uk-australia-france-joint-statement-end-war-in-gaza/105557108

Delights

In so many ways, this concert by Salut! Baroque was delightful.  It's a throwaway description but worthy and apt in this case.  The music was glorious early baroque music from Telemann and mostly contemporaries and the music often featured lines "stolen" from those contemporaries.  As Picasso said, "Good artists copy; great artists steal".  I thought Miles said that, but so be it.  Certainly Telemann did steal some lines, but it's also the development and more that's relevant and anyway, they get lost amongst his other 3,000 compositions.  Colin Milner appeared as Telemann himself, introducing tunes and some stories of Telemann and singing one piece and generally also being delightful.  Not least in the bird and cat scene.  And John Ma was there as orchestra leader and it was clear to see the respect for his interpretations and leadership amongst the performers.  John is MD for the next Musica da Camera concert and I'm learning tons of the baroque spirit and instrumental interpretation as we speak.  We are lucky to have John and such Euro-experienced musicians in our midst when they quite often return.  And the pieces were short and often essentially danceable, so again delightful, and that's a common aspect of music of this period, the waltzes and bourées and gavottes although often just expressed as Andante or Vivace of Allegro non molto or the like.  It was only one hour, but we heard some great bottom end from bass and cello and that remarkable theorbo, a delightful, quiet harpsichord solo, those lovely strings, 2 violins and a viola, and the winds, two recorders and a flute, often playing off against each other, and Telemann singing of the cat.  And a most unexpected gypsy number to end.  It was just one hour but a work of collection and performance that delighted.  Do I need to say I loved it and got a good few chuckles along the way.

Salut! Baroque performed the music of Telemann and contemporaries at Wesley.  Performers were Sally Melhuish and Alana Blackburn (recorders), Sally Walker (baroque flute), John Ma and Sarah Papadopoulos (baroque violins), Brad Tham (baroque viola), Tim Blomfield (baroque cello), Jude Hill (baroque double bass), George Wills (theorbo, guitar), Monika Kornel (harpsichord) and Colin Milner (historian, vocals) as Georg Philipp Telemann.

Popular B1 of 3B

Beethoven Septet Ebmaj op.20 was somewhat the most popular of his works, so a pillar of BBB admiration.  But he didn't like it.  Too early, too popular, too trivial against his more mature works.  Yeah, but pleasant, as the prorgam says "it masterfully blends classical grace with innovations that hint at Beethoven's own evolving style".  The program was another Wesley Wednesday lunchtime, but bigger than normal played by a seven players of strong competence, of CSO and NCO and perhaps otherwise and seemingly pulled together by my NCO principal bass, Henry South.  He did a great job, expressive and aware although the part wasn't too difficult.
  The seven parts were a string quartet of one violin, viola, cello and bass and a wind section of horn, bassoon and clarinet.  Just a lovely combination that could play and share and pass and alter melodies at will and settle with strong foundations in both sections.  A lovely and intriguing outing and so glad to record it.

Beethoven Septet Ebmaj was performed at Wesley by Michelle Higgs (violin), Lauren Davis (viola), Ben Munro (cello), Henry South (bass), Helena Maher (clarinet), Rebecca Rivera (bassoon) and Dianne Tan (horn).

One for NAIDOC

I was wondering what to do for NAIDOC week and I had the opportunity to attend Big name, no blankets at the Canberra Theatre Centre.  It's the story of the Warumpi Band, their history and music.  I was aware of the Warumpi band by name but not particularly aware of their music or influence, having already entered the domain of jazz by the time they appeared.  And they appeared ages ago, early 1980s.  They comprised 2 brothers and 2 others, so the family story is apt.  They came from NW of Alice Springs , Papunya, within sight of the Warumpi mountain.  They were poor but a white visiting school teacher had a guitar and amp and car and they formed and added a brother-in-law singer.  Starting with rock and roll standards, they graduated to some seriously satisfying originals of real personal and political concern and ended up touring Australia and internationally, even being asked by Dire Straits to support an Australian tour.  They eventually succumbed as members missed the country and finally disbanded in 2000.  R&R is a hard life, especially for poor black rockers.  But this was happy and inspirational theatre and sometimes a bit rock loud but with relatively interesting compositions, 12-bars but more and I noticed some fascinating lengthened lines and unexpected changes and inviting lyrics.  The show was heavy on the music and that's joyous.  The whole theatre was called up and jumping several times and it was just inevitable with the very lithe and mobile singer up front.  Interestingly, there were another 4 musicians behind the band, sometimes playing backing behind spoken passages, sometimes backing the full band in flight up front, and these included two sons of core Warumpist Sam.  A daughter also appeared as all female roles and we met her at drinks after.  The musical has been running for about a year and took 5 years of creation from band memories and it continues to the Alice and beyond for festivals and more.  It's late as I write this, but this is joyous and mostly hopeful picture of our cultural experience as well as a visit to our recent Aboriginal musical history.  "Blackfella, whitefella / It doesn't matter, what your colour / As long as you, are true fella / As long as you, are real fella ... Are you the one that's gonna, stand up and be counted / Are you the one that's gonna be there, when we shout it".  Simple but honest.  Highly recommended.

Big name, no blanket was rock and roll theatre telling the story of the Warumpi Band at Canberra Theatre.  By Andrea James (writer) with Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher (consultant) and Rachael Maza and Anyupa Butcher (co-directors).  And thanks to Canberra Theatre Centre for the tix.

Death thoes?

Oh well, here we go again.  Changes to ANU; changes to the School of Music.  The School took a while to recover from the damage of the last round of changes but it's a lesser being, as I presume it was after the initial move from independence to the ANU.  But there was money then, I guess, because the buildings are impressive.   The latest seems to be to forego the conservatorium model.  There was some of this last time, what with requirements for PhDs for music teachers and the rest.  Some of the best jazz teachers have none of that.  Coltrane had none of that. Thus musicology seemed to be of great interest in the last round.  I'd heard gossip of a renowned teacher and international-class performer soon to leave, then I chatted with another significant staff member who'd taken package.  I guess there are more to be announced over coming weeks and months.  There was an article in the Canberra Times announcing changes to the SOM.  Interestingly, just the night after I'd been chatting to a friend with connections into ANU.  I'd put it down to the managerialism of universities, the reduced government funding, the need for paying students especially foreign students and the effects of COVID for reduced student numbers then the foreign student numbers bounce-back and the politicisation of immigration and foreign student numbers.  My friend spoke more of internal ANU and senior management matters.  FWIW, again as an ex-librarian I will keep a running list of references in Canberra Times and other sources that I find but it looks increasingly serious this time.  From Peter Tregear (ex-head ANUSOM in Canberra Times, 8 July 2025 p.1): 'Teaching people how to play instruments would be replaced by "Indigenous Music in a contemporary context, and Music and Wellbeing", and with an emphasis on the technology and production of contemporary music.'   Cause for considerable concern. 

See my bibliography Save Music in Canberra no.2 2025

Annual outings

Again Jinbo Huang brought his students to Wesley for a concert outing.  I've seen several of these and they are always rewarding, starting as they are with younger, newer players on simpler yet still satisfying pieces, and working up to the major works and perhaps working up in volume.  Certainly volume this day!  The other aspect I noticed this was the arrival of film and game themes.  I've been watching this is classical outings and even played a very successful and popular film theme outing with NCO so I was not at all surprised.  Film and games is a location for much contemporary orchestral and classical instrumental music these days.  I expect the film connections but I'm old enough to be somewhat flummoxed by the games, but so be it.  Things change.  Games are a huge business and composition is part of it.  So the concert started with the theme from Interstellar and finished with some very raucous Game of Thrones music, with Bach and Haydn and Chopin and Schubert and a few lesser names between.  I'll just mention the final two players.  Charles Huang with some delightful Schubert impromptus and Damien Ruan with some very stormy and voluminous Game of Thrones music.  Suffice to say I set my recording levels on Damien's warmup.

Charlie Sanoubane, Arabella Lu, Khloe Chen, Frank Huang, Naomi Feng, William Mon, Charles Huang and Damin Ruan (pianos) from the studio of Jinbo Huang played at Wesley.

Bass and beyond

Pippa Macmillan was coming to play with John and Marie in Apeiron Baroque and I was in.  Pippa is now in Australia but is quite and international, with degrees for the Royal Academy of Music and Juilliard and appointed Professor of baroque double bass at the RSM, that school next to that other Albert Hall, and performing with Tapfelmusik, Florilegium, Austn Brandenburg Orch, Austn Haydn Ens and the rest.  She was playing violone with the gut strings and those gut frets and a big Dragonetti period bow.  But how lithe and quick and unrelenting in her drive.  No slowing down with this rhythm section!  Otherwise, this was a joy of baroque historical overview with a program called Something old, something new.  Thirteen composers, mostly C15th, some C16th and just two contemporaries.  Ariosti and Albinoni and a string of lesser known names, seldom encountered.  All held together with backgrounds and stories from the ever-engaging John Ma, himself of considerable European history, and Marie Searles on harpsichord, again of Euro-connections.  The group would move through tunes, with Matt Greco, again a Euro-aligned and Aussie-busy concertmaster and soprano Susannah Lawergren up front for a series of tunes, not least a fabulous modern work but Michael Bakrncev who was in the audience, and if I remember right, was listening to the world premiere of this composition, a touching song of a mother laying in bed with her new child while her partner rings updates downstairs.  The text was by Cate Kennedy and the work was called Thank You.  Just glorious music.  Otherwise, the modern works were Allemande from the Jorn Borsen Harpsichord sonata and Spring from Dominick Argento Elizabethan songs.  And several Canberra advanced students invited by John and Marie, Brad Tham, Alex Monro and Dante Costa, all well known in local circles.  Just wonderful playing with that stellar bottom end, a varied and intriguing program from the ages and some delightful, welcoming patter.  Another great outing.

Apeiron Baroque performed at Wesley Church.  AB was led by John Ma (violin, MD) and Marie Searles (harpsichord, MD) with Susannah Lawergren (soprano), Matt Greco (violin), Pippa Macmillan (violone), Michael Bakrncev (composer), Dante Costa (flute), Brad Tham (violin) and Alex Munro (viola).

Our annual songs meet

I love my jazz and other gigs but my longed-for favourite each year has to be NCO with CCS.  That's a full orchestra and choir at Llewellyn; 120 or more on stage and some fabulous music.  I've played a string of these including Beethoven, Carl Off, Monty Python (?!), Haydn, Brahms... Playing in such orchestral strength with a capable massed SATB choir is a huge thrill.  This year was perhaps more modern, story-telling, filmic with 2 modern pieces.  First up was the occasionally jovial recounting of the experience of migration to Australia and the surprises and loves of process and outcome created by 2 immigrants, composer Elena Kats-Chernin and librettist Tamara-Anna Cislowska, telling stories from Chinese migration at the time of the gold rush, post-WW2 migrants, Vietnam refugees and more.  The lyrics were lengthy and not always so easy to catch but suffice to recognise an ode to Vegemite and an immigrant's surprise at topless bathing at Bondi.  How Aussie!  The bass could be repetitive, other than for one fiendishly tricky quick movement, so perhaps the voices defined the pleasures, but I languished in the pleasure and good humour of it all.  Then an interval and surprisingly similar approach (repetitive accompaniment, filmic accompaniment, more complex lyrics with inviting melodies) from a one-time member of Soft Machine and now composer of a British Classic FM Hall of Fame no.2 hit.  This was the Kosovo-inspired mass for piece, The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins.   Again inspiring if mostly for the voices, but quite touching and apt for out times.  Suffice to say, this was again a deeply thrilling outing and another for the diary.  And as for the post-concert party and Martin's dip, well, that's another story of joy.

National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society under Louis Sharpe (conductor, NCO MD) and Dan Walker (CCS MD) performed Human Waves and The Armed Man at Llewellyn with soloists Jillian Halleron (soprano) and Liam Meany (cello) and Bilal Berjaoui (vocals) performing the Call to prayers.  The bottom enders were Henry South, Juliet Flook, Mel Fung, Jeremy Tsuei and Eric Pozza (basses).

The allure of standards

Apparently Geoff had suggested a standards trio and I was not alone in thanking him for it.  Jazzers can become a bit blasé about our American songbook but when it's played with this delicacy and beauty and awareness of the great players that precede us this can be a thing of great beauty, immense subtlety and respect for history.  Thus it was with Hannah James and her return to Canberra with her standards piano trio with Adrian Keevil and Paul Derricott.  Just beautiful melodies played with respect, an array of great solos and a few traded fours.  Oscar Peterson, Mulgrew Miller, Horace Silver, Ray Brown, Tommy Flanagan: what's not to like and to swing to.  And some tunes that can be cheesy but just sat so nicely of the likes of Tea for two or Love for sale or Mean to me or some lesser knowns like NY attitude or It never entered my mind or something a bit funky with Mulgrew Miller Soul-Leo and that lovely transition that I think her offsiders didn't even expect, when Hannah sat on a repeated G on the 4/4 beat of Here's that rainy day that subtly mutated to the 3/4 of Moon river, a heartache favourite of mine, continuing to a solo and melody almost obliviously.  The room was swooning and the playing was delicious and Hannah's solos were understated and instructive.  Just lovely and I'm hanging out to revisit it in the mix.  Thanks, Hannah.

Hannah James (bass) led a piano trio with Adrian Keevil (piano) and Paul Derricott (drums) at Smiths.

Early days

Zachary Li was new to me but he'd started playing piano at 4 and achieved his AMEB Grade 8 at 14 so I shouldn't have been surprised with the effectiveness and commitment from the first notes of the Mozart Sonata that started his concert.  Played from memory, like all the pieces, expressive, firm and confident, quick and loud but also dynamic and nicely balanced hands.  Then followed a JS Bach prelude and fugue and another later form Mendelssohn and an oddly different Pink Nautilus from Michael Kieren Harvey, all handfulls of percussion over the whole 8 octaves and busy and driving and handfuls of arpeggiations.  This was different.  Then a very lovely Samuel Barber with ostinato left hand and a Ballade from Chopin.  Quite a range of styles and all done with musical maturity to my ears.  Then, after thanks and bows, his sister Lillybelle joined him for a four handed encore.  Just stunning and unexpected from such a young performer, a student of Stephanie Neeman.  I wonder are we seeing early days.

Zachary Li (piano) performed at Wesley and encored four-handed with his sister Lillybelle Li (piano).