Complete with gargoyles

This was a lovely little concert. The location is special and old for Canberra: not exactly Notre Dame but it does have gargoyles. It was All Saints in Ainslie, the Sydney sandstone, gothic-styled Anglican church built in 1868 at Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery as one end of a mortuary steam train track, used until 1939, dismantled in 1958 and reconstructed in Canberra. The event was part of the Heritage Festival given its history. The group was called the Rookwood Ensemble playing chamber music, this day mostly of Vivaldi, in the organ loft with the mechanical pipe organ. The organ is itself historic: built in 1857 for a Baptist church in Harrow, UK, and transported to Canberra for dedication in 1990. I just played two pieces and there were another two trios for oboe, violin and organ. Caroline, Heng and Terry were the key performers on the day and well deserve praise for some wonderful solo features. It's odd playing in an organ loft with half your audience sitting with their backs to you, looking to the altar. Even for those with seats turned to the back, there was little too see, with musicians viewed from below and largely hidden by railings. But the music was lovely and the group was capable and the acoustics are satisfying. I was particularly taken by Vivaldi's variations on La Follia. Amongst other works, we played a chamber arrangement by Terry, our organist, of an organ concerto by Bach, arranged from a work by Vivaldi, his violin concerto Grosso mogul. This had possibly the longest count I've encountered (strings don't count like brass): 103 bars of solo organ. Then a finish and an afternoon tea, as is the way with such events, and much good cheer by the performers and others.

Rookwood Ensemble performed Vivaldi and related at All Saints Ainslie. RE were Caroline Fargher (oboe), Terry Norman (organ), Heng Lin Yeap, Heather Shelley and John Dobson (violins), Thayer Parker (viola), Teresa Neeman (cello) and Eric Pozza (bass).

Saints all

I find it hard to say no, so I said yes to the Rookwood Ensemble playing Bach and Vivaldi. Not least because the Bach was JS's Oboe and Violin concerto which I know well from LNL and otherwise. In the end, being bass, I played a limited role, dropping out for the soft segments and hammering in for the mfs, fs, ffs and the like. But what a piece. The counterpoint and melodies and that restrained pizz second movement were a blast. The Vivaldi was his Concerto in D for violin organ and strings: not bad itself. Otherwise, we had several pieces without the string accompaniment, from Quantz, Handel and Scarlatti, played by continuo, recorder, violin, oboe or the relevant mix. We were playing with the mechanical pipe organ at All Saints so we were in the Loft and the pitch rose and fell with the state of the organ on the day (presumably due to humidity and temperature). We got various favourable comments, even from audience who had attended the CIMF Bach at the Fitters' by Bach Akademie Australia. Cool. And we enjoyed it and we raised a few dollars for the All Saints music fund. It's a grand old church for Canberra (built Sydney 1868 for Rookwood Cemetery and transported to Canberra 1958, if I read the plaques correctly). What a pleasure. Thanks to my fellow performers on the day.

The Rookwood Ensemble comprised Heng Lin Yeap (violin), Caroline Fargher (oboe), Ann Neville (recorder) and Terry Norman (organ) with string section John Dobson and Heather Shelley (violins), Paul Whitbread (viola), Teresa Neeman (cello) and Eric Pozza (bass).

Orch 3

Coming quick and fast recently. This was my third orchestral performance; my second with the Brindabella Orchestra. The program was fairly short, fairly light, but with a few difficulties. There were several challenging passages in Mendelssohn Hebrides overtures (Fingal's cave), and the final page was dark with semiquavers. We did a few movements of Dvorak Suite in A major (American): the fourth was luscious and the fifth was a counting nightmare with the 1 and 3 all over the place. Strauss Kaizerwalzer was a thing of delight and it will be interesting to play it in a few months with Maruki. Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld is the CanCan and just a treat to play, all lively and rollicking and immensely joyous. I could not help but beam when the dance came up. Too bad, but no dancing girls for this performance (although I read in Wikipedia that men also danced the CanCan as an athletic and perhaps less salacious dance in mid-1800s Paris). The whole was held together with the Dam Buster march (immensely nostalgic for a certain age group) and ended with a JC Superstar medley which I found surprisingly satisfying. Again, great fun, a few mistakes from me, but the orchestra played with more ear and dynamics than at any practice. Just another confirmation of the adage: "She'll be right on the night".

Brindabella Orchestra performed a program called Musical journey. Rosalie Hannink conducted and Heather Shelley led from the principal violin seat. Rosalie hands over the baton to Peter Shaw for the next concert.