Fine romances

It was NCO again and this was exciting. We were playing the world premiere (in full symphony orchestra format) of Mike Dooley's first piano concerto. I'd heard it before in a smaller format but this was the full thing, beautifully melodic and inviting and played so well by Andrew Rumsay. Mike gave an excellent pre-concert talk, talking of his preference for consonance, or at least resolution of dissonance, complex with examples on piano. The work had some complex counts, too. Mike joked that he had a coffee cup with a caption of difficult counts - 11/16 and a few others - and apparently that's what we played. I'd missed playing Sally Greenaway with NCO so I was glad I didn't miss this one. Andrew is a Kawai artist, and Kawai had shipped in a new 8' grand for the event. And after interval, one of my most difficult but favourite plays, Rach 2. Madly romantic, teeming with ideas that are combined with sudden crossovers, slow to rabid times. Great fun and sweepingly attractive. The third movement is famous as providing the theme for the pop hit, All by myself / Eric Carmen. So, a great program with Mike's alluring new piano concerto played by Andrew combined with the romantic bliss of Rachmaninov Symphony no.2. What a great afternoon and a satisfying challenge.

National Capital Orchestra performed Mike Dooley (composer) and Rachmaninov under Leonard Weiss (conductor) with Andrew Rumsey (piano) as soloist. BTW, the bottom end was Roger Grime and Eric Pozza (basses). National Capital Orchestra, Mike Dooley, Leonard Weiss, Andrew Rumsey

Mike 2

Mike 2 should really be Mike 1. This was a concert by Andrew Rumsey and friends at Wesley leading up to AR's visit to the US - a visit that includes performances at several festivals and Carnegie Hall. The feature, longest, last programmed work was Mike Dooley's first piano concerto. It's scored for small forces at this stage, somewhat like a sonata for quintet, but what a successful, attractive work. Mike explained that it contrasts 4 against 3, symbolically grace against truth, moving through 3 and 4, combining, eg for 7 (although I seemed to count 5 for most of the second movement), moving through keys with 4 sharps or 3 flats and the like. I found it wonderfully convincing and satisfying. That's not all, AR also played a short piece for solo piano earlier in the show, by Mike, called Le Torbillon (=The whirlwind). This is the one Andrew will play at Carnegie Hall. So, from Canberra to Carnegie: today's small world. But otherwise the show was a series of shorter pieces, mostly solo piano or piano with one of two other instruments, and one solo guitar and one quartet. And it was a seriously interesting collection: Poulenc Novelette in Bb minor, Rachmaninov Moment musicaux, through a flute duet by Ibert, several by Ian Clarke, a clarinet duet with Jewish themes from Bela Kovacs and a slightly jovial film theme by John Williams, and some Piazzola, Milonga del Angel and Vuelvo al Sur. Then Paul McCartney Yesterday arranged for classical guitar and Speigel im speigel for a quartet of violin, cello, clarinet and flute. Then Mike's piano concerto and an encore of Saint-Saens La cygne for piano and cello. The playing throughout was hugely impressive with dense concentration, keen ears and hot chops, but there was also humour, if mainly from host Andrew, so this was a wonderfully entertaining but also challenging and satisfying outing. And Mike's fabulous, serious, impressive works were an absolutely core component. I can only be in awe all round. And Mike had another world premier for a song cycle sung by Louise Page the next day: sadly I missed that one. I am in awe.

Andrew Rumsey (piano) performed with Laura van Rijn (flute), Thomas Azoury (clarinet), James Larsen (cello), Mia Stanton (violin) and Matt Withers (guitar) at Wesley. They performed Mike Dooley's first piano concerto (world premiere, scored for chamber group) and Mike's Le Torbillon, as well as a string of other modern composers.

Mike's history of music

Mike Dooley played me a take on Mozart a few years back at the Moruya Festival. It was mightily authentic to my ears and I guess a start on what turned into a composer's journey though music. We heard the full panoply the other night at All Saints. Mike had written pieces in various styles - baroque, early classical, late classical, romantic, modern - and gathered a string of excellent local players to perform and it was a stunning achievement. A Suite in A minor in 4 movements for the baroque, a Sonata in C major in 3 movements for early classical and so on through time. You get the idea. A folly, perhaps; a training exercise, probably; a tour de force, certainly. These were all works written for piano. The players were amongst the best in town: James Huntingford, Emily Leong, Aaron Chew, Andrew Rumsey, Sally Greenaway, Mike himself. I see my tastes changing as I'm playing and learning this music. I may have preferred baroque in the past but my faves for the night were late classical (Emily Leong) and Russian romantic Pilgrim fantasia (Aaron Chew). But the others were all well constructed and well played. I have a recording from the night but I wasn't alone: the conglomeration of mics and video was amusing. We can look forward to a video or clips, an ArtSound broadcast, a CD and perhaps more. Don't miss it. A stunning achievement of composition matched with admirable performances all round. All this at All Saints one Saturday evening late in November. Mmm, that suggests CDs under the Christmas tree.

Mike Dooley (composer) presented his original compositions in various "fine music" styles as Anachronisms : a composer's journey through time. Compostions were performed by James Huntingford, Emily Leong, Aaron Chew, Andrew Rumsey, Sally Greenaway and Mike Dooley (piano).

Bloody good

National Capital Orchestra tag themselves as Canberra's other orchestra. After today's concert, I can believe it. This concert was excellent. Remember, this is not a professional orchestra although a few players may be otherwise paid. They are a community orchestra; they pay to practice and play; they perform three or four gigs per year. But their training is solid (7th grade suggested) and their commitment is clear. Not that I'd expect commitment to be weak in any community orchestra - they're not just in it for the money and probably not even for the fame. NCO are about 50 players wIth a generous percussion section (at least for this concert) and all parts covered, although pretty light on bass (just one, David Flynn). Leonard Weiss conducted a program called Carnival! The Carnival was Saint-Saens' of the Animals, with two pianists, James Huntingford and Andrew Rumsay and narration by Peter Smith. Gliere's Russian sailor's dance and four Dvorak Slavonic dances preceded the Carnival and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade followed the interval. So, two solid hours of performance. The Carnival was a joy and a belly-laugh amusement from pianists and orchestra and narrator. Scheherazade was performed impressive skills - I was watching David especially but this was tight and with effective dynamics and impressive chops throughout. The Gliere struck me for the first notes with sharp intonation and sharp togetherness and the Dvorak dances were similarly attractive and effective. This was sharp, professional playing from an amateur orchestra. Most impressed. Now to practice for my own outing in 2 weeks with Maruki. Here was a challenge!

National Capital Orchestra was led by Leonard Weiss (conductor) playing Dvorak, Gliere, Saint-Saens and Rimsky-Korsakov with James Huntingford (piano), Andrew Rumsey (piano) and Peter Smith (narrator) sitting in for Carnival of the Animals.