New world

Sunday was the New World, at least that one of Dvorak, and it was great fun.  I'd played it before but not with such pleasure, but I loved this take, perhaps quicker and more on edge.  It's not too difficult, but a few passages are tricky and mvt.3 zaps along but many of the melodies are just so lovely, friendly, welcoming.  THere was some last minute anxiety amongst the basses but it all happened.  Quite amusing, really; one for the records. And the rest of the program was good.  A world premiere from Ben Hoadley, NCO Artist in Focus 2025, fairly short and pleasant and nicely portaying the flowing stream it was named for as Riparian.  Then Kyle on solo bass for Mary Finsterer.  Even with some PA amplification, some enriching reverb and a reduced orchestra, he was sometimes overwhelmed, but his playing with masterful.  Lake ice portrayed lake ice perfectly well (if too expansive a lake) and sounded to me as lovely moody film music.  Kyle followed up with a solo bass number with references to his punk / e-bass background: shorter, unaccompanied, frequently chordal, rock punchy.  But the New World was the pull factor and it sat well and invited a good audience.  It's not uncommon to have touchy final run-throughs and even some chuckles when things go awry, but in concert there's a natural concentration that avoids such slips.  This was tight and satisfying and presented an inviting new world, perhaps more common these days in the concert hall than out.

National Capital Orchestra performed Dvorak, Hoadley and Finsterer in the Snow Concert Hall under Louis Sharpe (conductor, MD) and with soloist Kyle Ramsay-Daniel (double bass).

Busy busy

I am often amazed by how busy musical life in Canberra can be.  I'm sure it's busier in Melbourne or Sydney or NYC but it can be pretty good here and it's so accessible.  I have lived in places with much fewer offerings.  But then it takes some awareness.  We'd attended CSO playing Mozart Requiem just the night before, Thursday.  Then my Tilt Trio had a gig in Dickson on Friday.  I noticed Bohjass was playing at the very same time at Smiths.  I didn't know the band but it was from Melbourne and seemed a fascinating little big band.  I apologised to the band and managed to organise to mix a recording captured by soundman Bevan.  Some of my best listens are of solos soloed during mixing, so it's a great pleasure.  Our gig was a corker despite some temporary nerves.  So now I await the multitracks of Bohjass to relive memories of Sun Ra in Rome and his remnant Arkestra later in London.  What a web can be this music.  And there's more on my plate, including a start in recent days on Honegger symph no.2 and playing Dvorak New World on stage tomorrow as I write this.  What a pleasure is all this but busy busy it can be!

The image is Deities_in_the_Litany_of_Ra.jpg (public domain) from Wikimedia Commons.  As in Sun Ra.

Life and death and entropy

Don't read too much into the title.  I'm reading a book (Hovering / Rhett Davis) and this phrase appeared (p.218) and it seemed to fit CSO's Mozart Requiem concert pretty well.  They played 3 pieces.  First was Mozart Divertimento Dmaj, written at age 16 and thus the life to contrast with the final piece, Mozart Requiem, as the death.  In fact, he famously only wrote part of the work and left sketches for more and nothing for some movements.  Entropy somewhat fits with the middle piece, Australian Corrina Bonshek Dreams of the Earth I for string orchestra, all sounds of the bush and cicadas and if structured, not too obviously, although I did note repeating bass passages.  This was sounds of nature and quite authentic in its impression, concerned with nature as the impressionists were, but quite accurate unlike their take on colour and movement.  The Divertimento was a lively and relatively light piece and nicely done, although I did feel some it a bit untogether, perhaps in diverse lines in the composition, but nothing at all of the sort for the Requiem.  To my ears and closed eyes that was a stunning, hugely dynamic with the quieteest passages looming then exploding, solo voices clear and choral passages massive and touching.  The movements are from the Catholic mass.  CSO played with a choir of ~50 and 4 vocal soloists and the orchestra as scored, 2 basset horns, 2 bassoons, three trombones, timpani, violins and violas and continuo comprising cellos, basses (3) and organ.  So not huge in volume but apt.  I sat eyes closed for most of the work, stunned by the effectiveness and power and the capable performance, indulging in the immnse beauty of it all, lusting over the fugues.  How I love fugues.  CSO did themselves proud.

Canberra Symphony Orchestra performed Mozart Divertimento and Requiem and Corrina Bonshek at Llewellyn Hall. Erin Helyard (conductor) led soloist singers Sara Macliver (soprano), Ashlyn Tymms (mezzo-soprano), Louis Hurley (tenor) and Christopher Richardson (bass-baritone), Kristen Williams (violin, concertmaster) and the CSO chorus prepared by Tobias Cole (chorus master).

Passage of time

The gig was called Passage of time, apparently highlighting early to later French piano, but really just a varied mix: Rameau, Haydn, Schubert, Chopin and Debussy.  It was a first personal concert but not a first competition performance for Shreyas Sunkaraneni, a student of Marie Cull.  He was good.  Plenty of commitment, musical responsiveness, some errors but nice recoveries and worthy interpretations, generous dyunamics and volume responses, nicely expressive with some drama along the way, firm and loud and played from memory.  It's interesting to see the developing players and Shreyas had some slips, but there's a certainty of tone and strong interpretation here that was warmly received by the audience.  Nice gig, much enjoyed.

Shreyas Sunkaraneni (piano) performed at Wesley.

Minor blues

I'd picked a bass to play for the monthly Blues Club jam but when I arrived there were no spots for basses left on the board.  So be it.  Bass is a common instrument in the Blues Society, but still I was disappointed.  I caught the host band and a few jam bands and chatted to a few regulars but then left early.  But it was a big day; the room was full.  The host band was loud and alive with a great front line of mobile female singer and more mobile lead guitar, hopping on the drums riser and the like.  It was good fun with committed blues rock and plenty up dancing.  Nice to see a few Gibsons too, a Les Paul and the SG that someone told me is really a heavy instrument.  I'd built my first bass and it was modelled on similar Gibson bass on display in Allans and was fretless given the difficulty of inserting frets.  Then two capable and, to my ears, more down-South and earthy blues jam groups with the CBS seniors.  All nice, but I missed my performance outing, entertaining as it is with the lit stage and PA line array and big bass amp on hand with no need to lug.  Maybe next time...

The Wildfires hosted the Canberra Blues Society monthly Pro Jam a the Harmonie German Club.  The Wildfires comprise Weasey Wade (vocals), CC Hall and Robert Campton (guitars), Niall Howe (keys), Craig Marshalsey (bass) and his son Finlay Marshalsey (drums).

Classy

They are one of my faves to record each year.  This was the RMC (Royal Military College = Duntroon) Band Woodwind Ensemble.  The whole band is wonderful, being a mix of classy, well trained musos with experience in concert bands and more.  They admitted they also like to play the Wesley gigs for the music they get to play, not concert band or pop or marches, as welcome as they are, but some classy new music and interesting classical, from Mozart to Emescu.  I knew Emescu's name but not his music and it was fascinating and complex and a busy interweaving of lines and instruments.  Mozart was just his typical inviting inevitable melodics.  Never fault Mozart!  Then Gershwin Three preludes for sax quartet, with sop, alto, tenor, bari playing very lively jazz styles.  I chatted with the baritone sax player later about the solid lung work required for the low notes and the 1-5-6-5 groove (did I hear it right?) and the swing groove at the heart of it.  She said not many talk thus, but I am a bass player and she was that role for that tune.  Then two modern Australian composers, both very interesting: Harry Sdraulig writing for two flutes, busy, obviously challenging and quick and interleaved, and a cute one about her cat, Francesca Brzoskowski Figaro's bakery.  Amusingly, for the Sdraulig, the music was spread over four stands and the two flautists moved stage right to left to read through the chart.  Then a final movement from Richard Strauss for 13 wind instruments.  Just orchestral in its busy enmeshed lines.  All done with quiet confidence.  Virtually all winds, although with one tuba taking another bass role and those horns which seem to be brass but are classified winds.  Whatever, a wonderful and welcomed gig.

The RMC Band Woodwinds performed at Wesley.

Playing catchup

I was aware of several exhibitions that interested me in some way and their end-dates got me off my butt to see a few.  I don't always manage it!  First up, the Stromlo Observatory exhibition at CMAG.  It was just a little thing and spread over the full life of Stromlo and for the general public so not too interesting for me in the end.  I've got a long-term interest in astronomy and even did volunteer work there on a telescope that was destroyed in the fire of Jan 2003.  Glad I got in there in time.  Our team was involved with dark matter studies, Machos and Wimps, advised by Brian Schmidt and others and even involved in the discovery an early extra-Solar planet (no.9?).  Another wonder opportunity available to Canberrans, at least in earlier times.  There was a larger exhibition at CMAG on Italo-Canberra architect Enrico Taglietti but I just got a few minutes before the gallery closed.  Then the 1970s exhibition at the National Library, especially focussed on 1975, called 1975 : Living in the Seventies.  A big year!  It was mainly photos but covered the Whitlam dismissal, land rights, feminism (feat. Anne Summers Damned whores and God's police), music of course and flared jeans, Cyclone Tracey and just days later the Tasman Bridge collapse, Medibank, North Vietnam taking Saigon, various international revolts, East Timor, Mozambique, etc.  But then I queried a schoolkid about the dismissal a day-or-so later and she had no idea.  So be it.  We all remember what we live through.  And the final biggie, the NGA exhibition Cézanne to Giacometti : Highlights from Museum Berggruen.  Now it's not a favourite period for me (I prefer old style esp. Renaissance) but I enjoyed this.  Some major works from this Berlin gallery merged with a string of NGA works and grouped and ordered to display relationships and influences.  Suffice to quote their description: "The avant-garde visions of Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti shaped twentieth-century modern art in Europe. Australian artists such as Russell Drysdale, Grace Cossington Smith, John Passmore and Dorrit Black brought their ideas and style back to Australia, transforming Australian art in parallel. / Bringing together over 80 works from the Berggruen collection with over 75 works from the National Gallery’s collection, this exhibition illustrates how social connection and networks acted as driving forces during the development of international and Australian Modernism."  More convincing than I'd expected.

Various exhibitions around Canberra mid-Sept 2025.

Gentle and effective

It was an afternoon of gentle, smooth, intoned voices that I had when I recorded The Resonants.  I'd recorded them several times before.  There's a sense of balance and sensitivity in their concerts rather than abrupt and outspoken voices.  Their theme was Sun Moon Stars and the magic of the Universe, of the natural world, from a range of composers, modern Australian to Elgar and Barber, various moderns of other countries, some locals and relatives as composers and arrangers, and even some pop music, Harry Styles and LaLa Land in choral arrangements.  Accompaniment was from piano, mostly, but also string quartet in the first set and just the violins therein or just the voices a capella.  And those two instrumental breaks, one of Here comes the sun by the string quartet and that LaLa land tune on piano.  And then the two conductors, Helen Swan, who formed the choir 35 years ago, and Kylie van Dijk, now Helen's offsider.  Piano was Emily Leong and the string quartet was Tim Wickham, Claire Phillips, Thayer Preece and Sam Payne, of CSO and other groups and regulars around town.  But so nice to hear these controlled, educated, trained voices that sat so well together, intoned some difficult intervals with aplomb, especially the deeper voices, but maybe it's easier there.  Not sure.  And a concert with an interval, less common in my recent experience.  Lovely, expect to hear it on ArtSound sometime.

Helen Swan (musical director) and Kylie van Dijk (associate MD) variously conducted The Resonants at Weston Creek Uniting Church in a range of choral works and with the accompaniment of Emily Leong (piano) and a string quartet comprising Tim Wickham and Claire Phillips (violins), Thayer Preece (viola) and Sam Payne (cello).

Out of the West

Ben Vanderwal appeared at the Festival of the Drum at Smiths, essentially leading the evening.  He's renowned and from Perth and unexpectedly accompanied by another Perthite who happened to be in town, but he revealed during the gig that he's got an early connection with Canberra.  I'll let you ask him.  I'd heard Ben several times over the years and he's a fave of mine and no way did he let us down this evening. But then he had a pretty good set of offsiders, too: Miro, John, Greg, Lachlan and that visiting Perth person, Emily Gelineau, on 5 string violin-cum-viola (the extra low string on the violin provides for the full range of the two instruments) who just happened to be passing through with Musica Viva (!).  There were tunes from several members, not least two of Miro's renowns and one from Greg as well as 3 from Ben (one with the title: Paul Motion goes to a dance hall concert) and an arrangement of Summertime and Monk Bemsha swing and interestingly, two rich groove-rich numbers from Don Cherry.  Don Cherry, that's interesting.  The final tune of the night was Mopti by Don Cherry and it just spelt the tenor of the night, deeply grooving, joyous presence, some improv cutting going on.  Emily was on violin and it's not a common jazz instrument.  She told me of her admiration for Stephane Grapelli and how she especially enjoys gypsy jazz, but she was perfectly comfortable in this grouping. There was joy and laughter here from the West to join with the chops of our more sedate Canberra presence.  Of course, Ben was inventive and supremely reliable and steady despite his wildly inventive play.  Something like his humour, perhaps.  And that final tune and the passed solos and infectious joy was just such a groovy pleasure to end the night on.  Just a stunner, in humour and stage presence as well as inventive playing.  Fabulous.

Ben Vanderwal (drums) led a band with Miroslav Bukovsky (trumpet, flugelhorn), John Mackey (tenor), Greg Stott (guitar), Lachlan Coventry (bass) and perth-side sit-in Emily Gelineau (5-string violin/viola) at Smiths. 

Boys' turn

It's not so much boys as young men when the Canberra Grammar School performs at Wesley, but given recent posts, it fits.  This was a smaller, shorter and more discrete performance.  A pianist was unwell so couldn't perform.  Otherwise, it was mostly solo performers with piano accompaniment -  clarinet, voice, alto sax-cum-voice - and a solo guitar.  All in preparation for HSC exams in coming weeks/months.  Some things never change, though.  First piece was a Katz-Chernin rag and it was lovely, played on clarinet, followed by a Poulenc second movement.  Second movements are commonly the slow,  contemplative ones.  Then that solo guitar, playing a tango, which fits guitar so well.  Then voice, but somewhat more modern in presence and in style, with one tune from the famous rap musical, Hamilton, and a similarly wordy, rhythmic, rap adjacent lyric with some sung pitches, Gnarls Barkley Crazy.  Then would be the missing piano and a final discombobulatingly different vocal with a Finzi tune that I'd heard before, all classical voice, perhaps tenor, incessantly melodic and story telling  and not at all rappy and two alto sax numbers from the same performer.  So a vast mix of styles and takes and tones.  Really quite a satisfying outing from the boys-to-men at CGS.

Canberra Grammar School students Alistair Bridgewater (clarinet), Pace Allen (guitar), Jarvis Christie (voice) and Willem Hehir (voice, alto sax) performs mostly with accompaniment by Anthony Smith (piano) at Wesley.

1+1=3

I'm late to write up this weekend of Musica da Camera concerts but it was busy and varied in style and takes some consideration.  Mainly because our director was John Ma, lively expert in an earlier period of Western music and one that was quite a challenge for me at least.  The composers? Campra and Locatelli, Boccherini and Fischer and Dauvergne.  The themes? Love around Europe; tears of Adiadne; the sounds of streets of Madrid; the famed saltworks of Luneberg (!?); a finish on a bit of refined French style.  John led us in stylistic forms of our own, how to phrase to a key bar, or how to spell a phrase to gel with others, bowing for swift passages and dirty hammers, how to sit on a beat so as not to drag.  Not to drag is common to all musics but some other approaches are earlier, of a different era from classical, so a learning experience.  And John has a way as a director-audience-communicator, introducing the works with generous and humourous backgrounding, then often a few words to set each movement.  So that Euro lovers were French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and the movements matched to ears of the time.  Thus also with the the bells or rosary in Madrid or those tears or hammers.  And there's that pleasure in performing twice, so the reticence of the Saturday resolves with the performance of the Sunday.  The full day commitment of the drive to Gunning, our take on a tour, is part of that.  So I mention some aspects from behind the music stand, but the proof is in the smiles and satisfaction of the drive home.  So much of a period and a style and a very worthy memory.  And why 1+1=3?  Because the reprise is always so much more comfortable and satisfying.

John Ma (violin, director) led Musica da Camera in Cook and Gunning to playing Campra, Locatelli, Boccherini, Fischer and Dauvergne.

Men

I've sung in mixed choirs before but a men's choir is different.  In tone, obviously, deeper and perhaps softer, with those lower notes.  MD Leanne spoke of TTBB (tenor, tenor, baritone, bass) and other combinations.  No SA here, although there can be high male voices.  And the songs seemed different, too.  Several shanties and similar styles and themes of the sea and travel and more; just one religious song and some local cultural matters, from Deborah Cheetham and Eric Bogle.  Interesting stuff, not that I caught all the lyrics.  Several songs were sung a capella but mostly with piano accompaniment.  And pardoxical if contemporary, a woman up front directing and speaking for the group. No problem but amusing.  This is the modern world.  I enjoyed the rollicking sea scapes, the occasional touching solo tenor voices, the awareness of issues in the modern Australian songs.  And those yellow bowties on black added as touch of humour and enjoyment to the whole.  Great stuff.

Canberra Men's Choir performed at Wesley under Leanne McKean (director) with accompaniment from Martin Magill (piano).