Doing the rounds

The Wesley Scholars are a changing group and they perform several times each year and this Wednesday lunchtime concert was one.  And it was a doozy, very good and plenty varied.  First up was virtuoso piano from Joyu Yuen playing a Saint-Saens Toccata from memory.  This one was fascinating, merging early jazz, ragtime or New Orleans, with classical themes through dynamics and busy chordal figures throughout the octaves.  Then solo cello from James Munro playing a Ligiti sonata movement, again mad, complex, dissonant timing and bowing and intervals, and a hugely impressive great take.  Then one of the singers, Phoebe Bourke, accompanied by Joyo,  with a modern piece she'd played to the composer, then her examiner, then back to her origins with a karaoke take on a musical number, Your Daddy's son from Ragtime.  That was all heavy.  We all know and love Tom Lehrer and Martin Magill played piano and sang Poisoning pigeons in the park.  Sadly the vocals were a little lost but the audience could imagine the theme easily enough.  Then cellos again, with Chloe Law and James Munro playing three movements from David Popper Suite for two cellos.  Apparently the composer is known for his 40 demanding  etudes, but these were sweet and melodic if challenging and again so satisfyingly played.  And to finish up a longish lunchtime concert, another singer, Evangeline Osborne with Martin Magill, and the first song was that classic song from that classic album, River from Joni Mitchell Blue.  That just struck me as it would have many in the, shall we say, mature, audience.  And then Hoard Blake and A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.  So a huge expanse of music, not just established classical but newer fine musics and jazz and even musicals.  Stunning so well performed.  This was a special one.

The current crop of Wesley Scholars performed at Wesley: Joyu Yuen (piano), James Munro and Chloe Law (cellos), Martin Magill (piano, vocals), Phoebe Bourke and Evangeline Osborne (vocals).

History and today

The first Wesley Wednesday lunchtime concert for the year was a doozy, starting with Hildegard von Bingen and ending with modern Americana by composer Caroline Shaw.  And the performers were apt.  Rachel Mink sang and she told that her parents live near a property sung of, and the youthful and exploratory and very capable Ellery String Quartet provided accompaniment, with a range of noises and techniques, not least picks/plectrums on strings.  Both Rachel and Ellery were stunning and apt in performance, but I was somewhat befuddled by the modern music.  This comprised two works, each of several parts/movements.  First was Plan and Elevation: the grounds of Dumbarton Oaks, picturing the Cutting garden, Herbaceous border, Orangery and the like; second was By & By, comprising several parts putting ~century old lyrics on death and related themes from various authors to music: Will there be any stars in my crown?; Angel Band; O Death; I'll fly away.  But it did get me thinking as I followed the lyrics.  And also it had me intrigued by a range of tones and techniques used: bowings; slow harmonic movements; tapping instruments; most unexpectedly, plectra including a big blue one for cello.  Odd and unexpected and a very different aural space from Bach and the like.  I think of voice as more established and Rachel's was lovely and nicely controlled.  Voice remains the greatest instrument to my ears, but then it is us, not just our invention, so not unexpected.  And it speaks ideas not just impressions.  So, a concert that was challenging in techniques and heavy in themes so probably an apt start to a new year of music at Wesley.

Rachel Mink (soprano) and Ellery String Quartet presented America Voices at Wesley.  ESQ comprised Brad Tham and Anika Chan (violins), Pippa Newman (viola) and Chloe Law (cello).

Run down to Christmas

The final concert of the year in the Wesley Wednesday lunchtime series is always the Wesley Scholars.  I'm not sure how it's run, but it's obviously an opportunity for some talented performers to get some extra training.  It's quite common to see these faces performing in various other groups around town.  I once saw Ellery String Quartet at Government House, no less, and they are comprised of scholars from this year's bunch.  First and last up was a vocal quartet comprising members of Kompactus and others.  They sang two carols in Swedish or other and later a few in English.  Amusingly, I'll be home for Christmas as in Dean Martin, jazz with classical awareness - very lithe and beautifully done - and Deck the halls in 7/8, no less.  I liked, too, that they took some lines as pairings of voices making the sources of pitches much easier to catch.  The Soprano is easy to identify but the other parts can be more lost in the mix.  Then Ellery Quartet with a very lively arrangement of three tunes by the Danish String Quartet and a few carols including one with cello pizz all the world like a jazz walk.  The tinges in my ears of other countries' folk music suggested connections and maybe migrations around the world.  Then a duo of violin and cello playing three movements from a Boccherini sonata, older and frequently joyous and danceable in the styles of that era.  A lively, lovely, carol-heavy last concert of the year from Evie, Pippa, Martin, Jesse, Brad, Anika, Chloe, Tanya and Gabriel.

The Wesley Scholars performed the final Wednesday lunchtime concert of the year at Wesley.  The Vocal quartet comprised Evie Osbourne, Pippa Newman, Martin Magill and Jesse Hill.  The Ellery String Quartet comprised Brad Tham and Anika Chan (violins), Pippa Newman (viola) and Chloe Law (cello).  The duo comprised Tanya Boag (violin) and Gabriel Fromyhr (cello).