The sound of voice

I've come to love the sound of the voice, the most human of instruments.  I've also come to love a choral concert, so our annual outing of National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society is a highlight of my musical year.  We have done some amazing pieces in that format with 150 or even 180 people on stage at Llewellyn, singing Beethoven or Brahms, a mass or other.  It is something powerful and invasive.  Saturday arvo was another choral concert, with just piano accompaniment, and flute for a few pieces, at Wesley and I recorded.  The theme was Wanderlust, the conductor/MD was Dan Walker and the accompanists were Anthony Smith and Sally Walker.  Not a bad outing!  Basically, they performed two sets of four short choral pieces and a final world premiere, a Dan Walker original entitled Arboterum with three movements with themes of our Canberra Arboretum's Bonsai garden, Forest of Remembrance and "Wide brown land", meaning Australia's botanic environment.  These three sets were separated by two duets of flute/piano.  Works were by contemporary composers and less, Sally Whitwell, Eric Whitacre and Dan, through Elgar, Lili Boulanger, Vaughan Williams, Bruckner and a few others.  The first set featured one work with female voices and a final work with the deeper male voices, quite fascinating in their different presences.  The second set had the choir in mixed position, so voices were intermingled rather than grouped as SATB, thus demanding a more individual role in pitch and the rest.  I was stunned at the integration it produced, the distribution of sound, the balanced and clear pitch were immediately obvious if not too easy to define, all these voices melded together rather the positioned as a group.  Lovely and to be recommended.  So a wonderfully varied and interesting outing of our mates in CCS.

Dan Walker (conductor, MD) guided the Canberra Choral Society in concert at Wesley with accompaniment by Anthony Smith (piano) and Sally Walker (flute).

Love and war

This is a theme that's around with the new film of The Odyssey but it's nothing new.  Two of our major classical music groups combined to do a program on this very topic, Guerrieri et Amorosi, Warriors and lovers, highlighting madrigals by Barbara Strozzi and Claudio Monteverdi, two major composers in mid/late-1600s Venice, Monteverdi older than Strozzi but both prolific and renowned, if Barbara is lesser so these days.  And a few instrumental pieces by Apeiron in respite by GB Vitali and Scarlatti.  Madrigals were written for solo voices, one for each part, and MD Dan Walker highlighted the challenge of this fluid music for a choir and Oriana did a wonderful presentation to my ears, capably accompanied by our renowned locals Apeiron Baroque as a quintet.  The themes suggest a more martial awareness by CM with an amorous sinfonia exploding into martial music, love portrayed as a literal disaster although later Cupid being praised rather than Mars.  Maybe because this Eighth Book of Madrigals is dedicated to the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor.  Other the other hand, I note a sweetly sung song about an Athenian Maiden raped by the King of Thrace (lyrics by BS's father), a song on affections of the mind (Yearning, desire...) and an argument over sources of joy which resolved to a single kiss.  But this is just a sampler and my notes are just a borrowing from the program anyway.  But the song, the accompaniment, the vocals solos were a thing of great pleasure.  Again a warmly received concert and a full hose at Wesley for an imposing musical pairing.

Oriana Chorale was accompanied by Apeiron Baroque at Wesley with a program of madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi.  Oriana Chorale was conducted by Dan Walker (MD) with sometimes soloists Ali Hardy and Jade McFaul (sopranos), Oliver Bruhl, Cody Christopher and David Faraker (tenors) and Patrick Baker, Neil Bulleid and Joshua Dunne (basses).  Apeiron Baroque comprised John Ma and Brad Tham (violins), Marie Searles (harpsichord), Anton Baba (cello) and James Holland (theorbo).

Repeats

Could this become repetitive?  No, never.  Perhaps the greatest excitement I have in music these days in a big orchestral choral concert.  Doubly so in a good location.  This was my second play of Carmina Burana, again with National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society and the Woden Valley Youth Choir and the soloists, again in Llewellyn, second choral concert in 2 weeks in this our major Canberra concert hall.  What was different was the hall was very close to full with the upper balcony open, and the standing ovation.  I've never had a full hall doing a standing ovation for any work before.  This was something special.  Carmina is like that, though: everyone knows it from Nescafe ad or film Excalibur, or Therion or Nas or Turn up the bass.  There were times it took off in tempo but the restraint just heightened the changes so the excitement and tension.  So the arrival after 60 minutes was ecstatic like much of the work.  But first up was something very different, religious, much reduced in lyrics if again in Latin, Poulenc Gloria.  This as choral, one choir and one soloist, soprano, modern.  It didn't get the recognition, but the worth was there and the performance and musical discovery was satisfying.  At least it had standard notation, unlike the strangely presented Carmina.  But again some tricky pizz/arco changes on bass and plenty of odd and changing meters and rhythms.  So, repeated but not at all monotonous.  Loved it!  Ciao to Jeremy who's off to NYC to study.  And thanks to the NCO FB page for a few pics.

National Capital Orchestra, Canberra Choral Society and Woden Valley Youth Choir performed Orff and Poulenc under Louis Sharpe (conductor) with soloists Rachel Mink (soprano, Orff and Poulenc), Sitiveni Talei (baritone, Orff) and Dan Walker (tenor, Orff).   The bottom enders were Jeremy Tsuei, Greg Perkins, Mel Fung, Juliet Flook and Eric Pozza (basses).

Ranges of uprisings

Oriana Chorale's latest concert was called Uprisings with a theme of revolutions and the texts read of uprisings but not so sure of the music.  And the revolutions were just sometimes Soviet or the like and often enough the modern takes on the personal as political.  Shostakovich appeared in four of 10 poems on texts by revolutionary poets but the others, the more moderns, were gay marriage and anti-racism and women's voices on their rebel blood and harmony in diversity by Sebastian Allen, composer-in-residence, a world premiere.  But there was also the past, with Thomas Tallis writing form within the English Reformation, a chorale of a German composer who took his life from conflict of his religion and serving the Nazi regime.  And an intriguing wok on Indigenous recognition and reconciliation with words of Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Psalm 137:4 ("How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?").  So a fascinating program worthy of followed lyrics.  The modern tunes were rich in complexities of harmony, especially.  How to find those sharpened intervals with just dots on pages and a voice?  These chords could be doozies, but thus is much modern music-making.  Tallis was like a relief for a time, rich and full and relatively predictable.  Shara Nova was rich in such harmonies.  There were also a tune for the males and a tune for the females, the latter led within by Olivia Swift although with musical composition by otherwise MD Dan Walker.  Shostakovich appeared quite consonant and tame against some of the living composers.  And to end, the Perfect chord, the title of the world premiere composed by Sebastian Allen, one of a few with solo passages, here a glorious melody from soprano Jade McFaul.  So a varied and quite magnificent program from an adventurous MD and a very capable choir.  Congratulations are due.

Oriana Chorale performed at Anzac Memorial Chapel at Duntroon under Dan Walker (MD, conductor) including one World and one Australian premiere.

Earth or poets

I was intrigued by the lyrics and themes of the latest Oriana Chorale concert and pleased to be asked to record it.  They always perform beautifully capable and interesting concerts and this was no exception.  I usually just listen to the music, as lyrics can be hard to decipher on stage, but lyrics are the essence of song and that's what choirs do and words have an intellectual clarity that music can only hint at with emotional soundscapes.  The concert was called Colours of the Earth and the four songs all had themes related to Earthy things: trees, lakes, minerals and the like.  But most interesting to me was that the lyrics were mostly poetry, by Sara Teasdale and snippets of Goethe, Tennyson, a Josquin chanson, and a full work by Judith Wright, and also with supplementary themes, of time and life and words to a child and faiths lost.  And containing all that, the music was fascinating.  The main work was Oche by Caroline Shaw, with movements named for various minerals, and amusingly with samples provided on the day by the Canberra Lapidary Club.  MD  Dan Walker provided the final song of the evening, To a child, to the words of Judith Wright.  The first was Luke Byrne Desert Sea followed by a world premiere from Oriana's Emerging composer in residence, Aija Draguns, with that text from Sara Teasdale, about lost leaves displaying a sky view.   The accompaniment was percussion, both tuned and not, which is unusual but felt apt in this context for the rigours of the Earth.  And the performance was again hugely inviting, rich and sweet and not too dissonant.  How I love song and the combined singing of a capable choir.  Lovely.

Oriana Chorale presented works by Luke Byrne, Aija Draguns, Caroline Shaw and Dan Walker at Wesley Church under Dan Walker MD (conductor).  Aija Draguns, Oriana's Emerging composer in residence, composed Lost leaves, presented as a World Premiere.

Radiant performance

We expected a rush but NCO finished early enough and we relaxed.  Nice, because the next outing was something particularly special.  Guitarist Harley Coleman was staying with us while rehearsing and touring with Luminescence Chamber Singers.  Now, these are a seriously professional group; what they do is worthy of your time.  They had played Andrew Ford Red Dirt Hymns at CIMF and they were touring it through NSW.  We got to see it at The B in Qbn. Luminescence were 6 singers (3 female voices, 3 male) with instrumental accompaniment from Harley on guitar and Freya Schack-Arnott on cello.  Later, a combined children's choir joined for some hymns.  Andrew Ford had written the music, bass line, chords and melody, from the little I've seen.  Roland Peelman worked with the performers to develop presentation and wonderfully rich harmonies while leaving space for improv from the musos.  Roland also conducted the children's choirs on the day.  Andrew Ford was there highlighting the exceptional work on the hymns done by Luminescence.  Suffice to say it was work of the highest artistic achievement to my ears.  I was stunned by the skills and musicality and glorious arrangements; by Harley's understanded chordal interpretation and one pretty rock-dirty solo and Freya's bass lines and atonal plays on sound; by the solo presentations of some songs, then then ensemble performances of others; by the playful drumming on garden pottery, by the reverent singing of the children's choir.  The work comprises 16 shortish songs with lyrics volunteered by invited poets, so a range of themes, but presumably all around issues of Australian relevance.  I caught some lyrics, not all; the richness of performance mostly took my attention on the day.  So I still have a worthy task to read these poems and hopefully a future opportunity to hear a recording or view a video.  Just a stunning performance and a fascinating project.

Luminescence Chamber Singers performed Andrew Ford Red Dirt Hymns at TheB in Queanbeyan.  Luminescence are AJ America, Rachel Mink and Josephine Brereton (sopranos), Dan Walker (tenor), Lucien Fischer (baritone) and Alasdair Stretch (bass-baritone).  Roland Peelman (MD, arranger) arranged and conducted the children's choir from Luminescence Children’s Choir and Music for Canberra.  Accompanists were Harley Coleman (guitar) and Freya Schack-Arnott (cello) and Sammy Hawker (visual artist) provided the backdrop.

Land and skies

This was a concert of open skies and land and nature, and not only of Australia. But there were Australian themes and local composers and the performers were obviously local and very worthy.  I like Canberra Choral Society and consider our annual outing of NCO/CSS in Llewelyn a highlight of my year.  This was accompanied by jsut piano, but the very worthy Anthony Smith with MD Dan Walker up front and featuring some of his arrangements and one composition and Mike Dooley in the room for a rendition of three movements of one of his works.  The concert started with Iceland, a capella with moving parallel fifths - stunning - and there was Philip Glass on piano and a Burt Bacharach South American gataway, a Swingle Singers lyric-free song from the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and a delicious Appalachian round, and a theatre piece from Kate Miller-Heidke and others on rabbits and colonialisation.  Then images of open Australian open spaces and big skies from Dan and trees and Norwegian tundra.  And Emily Dickinson on the Moon and sea and Lili Boulanger on the Sun in French.  Throughout, this was carefully expressed and well intoned and could be thrilling and fascinating.  For one, I loved the round.  So, another deeply satisfying outing for several mates and the CCS.

The Canberra Choral Society performed in Wesley church under Dan Walker (MD, conductor) with accompaniment from Anthony Smith (piano).

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).

Tastefully typical

Sally Whitwell is a Canberra resident and it was she who designed a deliciously effective description on her day.  She earlier spoke of being in a rut with choirs and finding this enlivening as a musical interpretation of our true lives: three coffees a day, breakfast, cat, veggies for lunch, emails, housekeeping, visitors for dinner and sleep with a book club thrown in.  A typical day but with wonderfully inventive music, some borrowed, some original.  So we got Michael Nyman Miserere with Three ways to vacuum your house and an indie Oxford comma and a delicious sleep from Eric Whitacre.  And such a capable choir to sing it all, a towering soprano, capable parts and harmonies and a division (interestingly at the vacuuming and later dinner) of the women's voices then the men's.  So cute nad joyful and true stories told with superbly effective choral complexities in all manner of styles, Sally herself and Nyman and Whitacre and lesser names and Indie rockers Vampire weekend and some musical theatre from Beauty and the Beast and one work by OC's emerging composer in residence Aija Draguns, with Sally's piano accompaniment and Dan Walker's direction and a clarinet in there somewhere.  Delicious, delightful and down to earth.

Sally Whitwell (piano, direction) created the program Musica Domestica : a musical diary of a remote worker ... in thirteen chapters and with Aija Draguns wrote some original music for Oriana Chorale under Dan Walker (conductor) and one clarinetist that I can't name.

Interlude no.2 Choral

This is a busy time for recording but it's great pleasure: a string of CIMF concerts and jazz and choral.  The choral was the locals, Canberra Choral Society, presenting Handel Dixit Dominus and Arvo Part Berliner Messe at St Paul's.  A wonderful location and one that suits my gear ... mostly.  Arvo Part was pretty minimalist as, is his want, although with some considerable complexity, as I heard from the mouths of singers and instrumentalists.  Parts that interacted unpredictably, both in voices and in strings.  This was a mass, so the structure, at least, is known.  Often quite odd to hear, too.  Handel seems much more friendly, recognisable, although even here I heard singers speaking of unexpected interplays, perhaps given this is such an early work, written at age 22.  If we could all do such magic at that age!  But this was a competent choir, if lacking in tenors, and similarly capable instrumentalists, led by John Ma, and five very capable singers, so a lovely, all-enveloping, enriching paean to faith with not a few exquisite fugues.  A choir singing Handel and the like is one of my favourite musical experiences and CCS did it great justice.  As for "the venue suits my gear", the audio was great but that light in mid-late afternoon just streams in on performers and cameras alike.  Great for a religious experience but problematic for a video.  But a great joy, nonetheless.

Canberra Choral Society performed Handel and Arvo Part at St Pauls Manuka under Dan Walker (director) and John Ma (orchestra leader) with soloists Josephine Brereton (soprano), Rachel Mink (soprano), AJ America (mezzo soprano), Tom Hallworth (tenor) and Alastair Stretch (bass-baritone).

Contemplating the body

These days of modernity and medicines we protected from so much, but Easter remains a brutal story from ancient/mediaeval history.  I felt this with a jazz gig on Good Friday evening but primarily with a concert for Holy Week at Wesley in the afternoon.  The music was Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri, a great powerful work of early baroque (I guess) with five voices and accompaniment with a theme of Christ on the Cross expressed in 7 short movements totalling ~60 minutes: ad pedes; ad manus; ad genua; ad latus; ad pectus; ad cor; ad faciem.  That is, an immersion in the horrors of crucifixion, specifically this one: contemplations on the feet, knees, hands, sides, breast, heart and face.  Not at all modern, but powerful, not least in Latin.  Each movement started and ended with a SSATB "concerto" then arias by various individual voices or parts.  Accompaniment was mainly violin, viola, cello, harpsichord, but for some time, adding organ and viola da gamba 1,2.  All period instruments.  And this was a stunning experience, so well sung by several of our local luminaries, and similarly accompanied.  Just a work of power and beauty seldom experienced.  Stunning.

Buxtehude Membra Jesu nostri was performed at Wesley Church on Good Friday.  Performers were Greta Claringbould and Jade McFaul (sopranos), Maartje Sevenster (alto), Dan Walker (tenor), Andrew Fysh (bass), John Ma (violin), Lauren Davis (viola), Clara Teniswood (cello), Rachel Walker and Caroline Downer (violas da gamba), Marie Searles (harpsichord) and Ariana Odermatt (organ).

Loss, grief and healing

As I write this I regret that I hadn't read the generous and informative program notes before this performance.  This was Oriana Chorale performing at Wesley Church and the title/theme was We are not ready : Music of loss, of grief and of healing.  Not an easy topic and the program even came with a warning of possible emotional triggers.  The music was of various eras, several modern, several regarding a passage of the King James version of the Bible on a son's loss, several on other losses, in various wars or otherwise.  I might have listened differently.  I just noted the modern dissonances and chromatics and the comparisons with the sweet harmonies of Monteverdi.  The lyrics were not included in this program and maybe they would have guided the appreciation.  Whatever, I've recorded it so look forward to a relisten after reading the excellent program notes .  But otherwise, this is a wonderful choir, with high notes towering above with SATB males and female voices with wonderful skills and clear enunciation under two excellent directors, one having composed one piece, and the other arranged another.  The tunes were from Weelkes, Olivia Swift, Prestini, Makaroff, Monteverdi, Eric Whitacre, Ella Macens and that arranged Trad piece.  This is music of richness and complexity and variation and I feel I just touched on the experience in my first outing.

Oriana Chorale performed music of loss, grief and healing at Wesley Church under Dan Walker (director, conductor) and Olivia Swift (conductor).

A shorter vigil

It should be heard in an all-night vigil while standing.  We were luckier than that.  This was Rachmaninov All-night vigil, loosely called Vespers from the main part of the work.  Actually Vespers makes up movements 1-6 of 15 with Matins 7-11, Lauds 12 and Prime 13-15 and this whole would be heard in the traditional Orthodox service from sunset finishing in the morning of the next day.  Oriana Chorale learnt and sang the Russian text a capella in the ANZAC Memorial Chapel at Duntroon, no less, under Dan Walker with soloists Maartje Seventer, Andrei Laptev and Andrew Fysh.   It was a different thing.  I had just heard complex modern harmonies with Kompactus.  This was much denser and darker, partly from the larger choir, but I guess also from many parts.  It's also SATB but each section can be split into 2 or 3 parts through the work.  It's heavier, more serious perhaps, certainly more religious.  Sometimes an introductory solo to start a movement (what is this called?) or a quiet vocal tone after a tuning fork to a skull.  After hearing this and Kompactus in one week, I remain in awe of our local choral scene.

Oriana Chorale performed Rachmaninov All-night vigil at the Anzac Memorial Chapel at Duntroon under Dan Walker (musical director) with soloists Maartje Sevenster (alto), Andrei Laptev (tenor) and Andrew Fysh (bass).

Flight

Flight was the theme of the latest Oriana Choir concert and it's an apt theme for a choir, it seems to me.  it's light, flightly, swooping high and low, playful like birds, intelligent and intriguing like Leonardo and even reaches to the stars like the final tune of this concert.  The tunes were all manner, from Swans and Magpies, from calm to frenzy; Leonardo dreaming of his high flying machine by Eric Whitaker, noted as a choral tour-do-force and obviously a massively complex choral outing.  We heard various bird noises amongst the words and all manner of bird-like movements and swooshes and tweets and the like, amongst all the words with their own more obvious meanings.  I still love words for their meanings, so choirs are a huge pleasure, even if you often need to follow the program to comprehend them.  Sally Whitwell is a long-time friend and came on for several pieces and her composition Flying and a last minute world premiere that led into it.  Then a final Elton John Rocket man which spoke of space while musically and lyrically bringing us down to earth: such a clear indication of the relative simplicity of the pop tune.  All, so lovely, so well sung and managed, so interestingly programmed.  Much enjoyed.

Oriana Chorale performed with Sally Whitwell (piano) under Dan Walker (musical director) at Wesley Church.

Exhilaration and fear

My outing with NCO and choir in Llewellyn Hall is a highlight of my year and this was a doozy: Beethoven Missa Solemnis.  Not at all easy but with plenty of mates to tackle it with.  Not just one but two choirs.  I counted 148 listed in the program, 86 choristers, 57 instrumentalists, 4 solo singers and Louis as conductor but I know of one who had to pull out so perhaps 147 total for the afternoon performance.  Whatever, it was big and exciting and hugely demanding to boot.  Everyone agreed to that.  A scary-fast Gloria with unisons and fugues to melt over, and a few other fugues throughout.  Many notes on dense pages, even for our relatively clumsy bottom enders.  Exhilarating despite trepidation and occasional terror.  It's probably the most demanding part I've known for preparation and where fingering  and string choice was of the essence.  The fast lines were often twisted not scalar and basses had two octave jumps and sudden semiquaver lines at speed and all manner of tempo changes and demanding confidence on first-up quiet, long notes and then that odd whimper to end.  There were spots to relax, but always the awareness of coming demands.  But we did it and it was well done.  Apparently this was the first performance of this piece in Canberra since 1990.  One of the choir had sung in that!  Missa Solemnis was written after Symphony no. 9, so after Beethoven's magnum opus.  He was deaf by then and exploring religion through doubt and the words of the Catholic Mass.  All fascinating.  For the performers it was exhilarating, demanding, scary, all those things as well as an impressive performance and something worthy to remember.  Amusingly, I was down at Manuka today, the day after, hearing the bells of St Christopher's, honestly able to say I'd attended 3 masses in the last two days (2 rehearsals and one performance).  As for now, I'm looking forward to Tim's recording and a listen.  Thanks to all and especially our leader Louis.

Beethoven Missa Solemnis was performed at Llewellyn Hall by National Capital Orchestra with Canberra Choral Society and the Llewellyn Choir and singers Sarah Darnley-Stuart (soprano), Emma Mauch (alto), Ryan O'Donnell (tenor) and Stivenu Talei (bass).  Louis Sharpe (Director) conducted and Dan Walker (chorus master) prepared the vocals.

Tallis to today

Prayers and lamentations was the title of the concert by Oriana Chorale with a range of Biblical and other quotes.  The obvious one and ever popular was Thomas Tallis lamentations of Jeremiah from the a capella first half.  Interestingly the two parts of Tallis sandwiched a modern work by Roxanna Panufnik.   It was a little confusing and I thought Tallis was mightily modern at one stage but it all resolved in the end and I loved both pieces although the Panufnik was my fave.  This is stunningly dissonant complex harmony apparently  minor against major tonalities but I guess all manner of flattened notes.  My admiration to the choir for handling this one!  Fascinating (listening now on Spotify: Deus, Deus Meus from her Westminster Mass).  The second half was Stravinsky and Lili Boulander , both modern.  I've played some Stravinsky and love it but never Boulanger, Lili or Nadia.  I jokingly compared notes with Megan at the end and she was not at all surprised that my choices were Panufnik and Stravinsky.  And how well this was done!  The choir was superbly strong, complex, reliable, and the Stravinsky required serious volume at times.  The accompaniment, just piano, clarinet and violin, was just as impressive and satisfying.  This was no walk in the park.  There was complexity and volume and challenging harmonies and odd time feels to navigate and all was wonderfully present.  The Boulanger also featured a high solo male voice and that worked a treat too.  So a great pleasure but more importantly a stunningly interesting and capable presentation.  Interesting, too were the arrangements: Stravinsky by Stefan Cassomenos; Boulanger by Dan Walker.  Quite an overwhelming outing and nice to be asked to record.

Oriana Chorale performed at All Saints Ainslie under Dan Walker (MD, conductor) with accompaniment by Helena Popovic (violin), Milan Kolundzija (clarinet) and Ronan Apcar (piano).  And a few mates, including Liz from Wesley and Imogene from my recent wedding band.

Clarity

Five concerts in the Christmas series and we got to two.  This was a much smaller concert than the first but what was lost in complexity was gained from the familiarity of the performers and the clarity of the performance.  This was just the core 6 singers who make up Luminescence and who presumably, frequently, sing and practice together.  We could hear that heightened awareness between performers.   We could hear each individual voice, given just 6 singers together in great clarity and the space did its bit too, with its gentle presence.  So the sometimes raucous songs of Spain's golden era and Alfonso's cantigas was a dream.  Despite foot stomps and tambourine percussion.  This is music from later C13th and late C16th, sometimes simple melodies, sometimes embellished or harmonised by the group, sometimes boisterous and festive, sometimes sole voices with perhaps a single tonic note accompaniment.  What I loved was the clarity of a small, comfortable, practised group and the clarity and uniqueness of each voice.  Interestingly, choir was ordered with sopranos at each end, low bass and baritone in the centre and mezzo soprano and tenor between.  One performer spoke of two trios, whether the male lower and female higher, or the right baritone-tenor-soprano or left bass-mezzo-soprano, I'm not sure.  Whatever, this was a memorable display and one fully worthy of Tim's complex recording (hint: love to hear it...).  Just a stunner.

Luminescence Chamber Singers were led by Roland Peelman (conductor, percussion).  LCS comprises AJ America (mezzo soprano), Lucien Fischer (baritone), Veronica Milroy and Rachel Mink (sopranos), Alasdair Stretch (bass) and Dan Walker (tenor).

Choral home

I've just travelled and heard Bach's choir and more and on return recorded Wesley's Oriana Chorale and I remain dumbfounded at our local quality.  This was really very good.  Oriana Chorale is a local non-professional choir but it performed complex modern works with great authenticity and quality,  The main work was Mass for double choir by Frank Martin (pronounced as in French) and it was complex with its eight parts (SSAATTBB, I guess) with dissonant harmonies and odd intervals and there were times the entrances were a bit unsteady in some parts but there were also times, far more frequent, that the voices just rang with those odd harmonies and questioning dissonances and high sopranos and melding lower and mid parts and the beauty was quintessential.  That was eight parts and complex, but the simpler four parts could be similarly challenging if not so dense and the performance equally enthralling.  Brooke Shelley Nativity, a modern work out of Sydney, and Poulenc Found motets for Noel were thus and even the shorter C16th madrigal by Madalena Casulana were similarly adventurous, with rich inventiveness of chromaticism and conterpoint.  They were all musics pretty new to me and all performed with seriousness and dedication and mature awareness for a devouring crowd.  I was pretty stunned actually.  There's great music in Europe but we have our fair share, perhaps more than our share here in Canberra.  So I guess the message is be proud and be there. 

Dan Walker (musical director) led Oriana Chorale in a Christmas themed concert called O Magnum Mysterium at Wesley with music by Frank Martin, Poulenc, Brooke Shelley and Madalena Casulana.

Vox+

This was a gloriously beautiful concert but that could be expected.  It was called B.A.C.H. with reference to the Bach motif; it was sung by Luminescence Chamber Singers so those glorious voices and harmonies; it included violinist-cum-vocalist Anna Freer as guest while one member was off the US; it included a rendition of Bach Violin Partita no.2 Dmin with its 5 movements ingeniously interspersed with Bach chorales; it started and ended with some lively early music, amusingly for me (given I did a midi take complete with whistles on Hope / The Pots) including the crab canon over palindrome Guillaume de Marchaut Ma fin est mon commencement.  I loved the violin partita and wondered over the accompanied fifth movement and admired the partita played touchingly and searchingly from memory, but what did it for me were the voices.  I consider the voice the most perfect, most complex and satisfying instrument, not surprising given it is of us  rather than an invention however impressive, and Luminescence do it so well.  Not quite perfectly, but bloody close to.  And Anna fitted wonderfully as a sit-in soprano.  Those voices and harmonies were a thing of immense beauty and exploration of harmony and rich vocalisation.  This was a concert to treasure.  Good to see that our local ArtSound recording engineer, Tim, was there experimenting with multiple mic pairings.  He does an excellent job, too.

Luminescence performed Bach and more at Drill Hall Gallery.  Anna Freer (violin, soprano) joined choir members AJ America (mezzo soprano), Veronica Milroy (soprano), Dan Walker (tenor), Lucien Fisher (baritone) and Alasdair Stretch (bass).  Tim Lamble recorded for the performers and ArtSound.

Voices

I reckon that voice is the most intimate and natural thus most significant instrument there is, so it's no surprise that I love a choir.  But this concert was beyond the pale.  I was stunned, touched, by Oriana Chorale singing with the Phoenix Collective (string quartet) and pianist Jem Harding under Dan Walker.  Maybe partly because it was intimate in a smallish space, us being in the effective front row at the Larry Sitsky Room, or because of the programming which was diverse and interesting but also consistsent,, from Depeche Mode and Sigur Ros to Elgar and Rach and trad, or because of the number of performers, somewhere around 45.   Not just because the singing was exemplary as was the accompaniment.  This was also the second performance of the night, and I always love a repeat performance.  They sit so much better.  I find it hard to identify a fave piece.  The pop songs by Depeche Mode and Sigur Ros were all suitable for this format and interestingly complex pop tunes with a touch of minimalist electronica interpreted by strings and piano.  A pair of pieces by Ola Gjiela, Dark/Luminous night of the soul, were gloriously hopeful.  Ella Macens Look up: The sky is glowing was long and satisfying and as all the rest deserved hearing the lyrics (which I didn't manage) and Rachmaninov Hail Gladdening Light from Vespers was classic glorious religious music.  Phoenix did a string quartet Scandi-folk number called Waltz after Lasse in Lyby and perhaps the most complex, most intense of all was Lux Aeterna from Nimrod Variations by Elgar as an unaccompanied vocal piece, presumably with multi parts beyond SATB.  This seemed the hardest of the night and the most uncomfy for Oriana.  So what.  I blissed out on the parts, the soaring sopranos and the clear harmonies in Elgar and throughout the night and the intimate accompaniment that came with little preparation as Oriana had only sung with the Phoenix that morning, but that's the way with such professionalism.  It just works like that and it did work a treat.  Beyond a treat, it worked an emotional tsunami.   One to treasure in memory.

Oriana Chorale performed under Dan Walker (director) with Phoenix Collective (string quartet) and Jem Harding (piano) in the Larry Sitsky Room at ANUSOM.  The Phoenix Collective comprise Dan Russell (violin 1), Pip Thompson (violin 2), Ella Brinch (viola) and Andrew Wilson (cello).