Aussie oi

Black Mountain Piano Quartet are mates of mine from NCO and they played Mozart as one will, but the real feature of this concert was the Australians.  It matches the Matilda times.  They opened with Elena Katz-Chernin, admittedly born in Tashkent but now warmly welcomed as one of our great composers.  Then the Mozart, his Piano Quartet no.2 Ebmaj.  Then a break and the main work, Colin Brumby Piano quartet.  I didn't know of Colin Brumby but he's Australian in more ways than just his name and his piano quartet was considerable and impressive.  CB was from Melbourne and studied there and further in Europe then settled in Brisbane as a music academic and director of the Queensland Opera Company.  His work is extensive, for opera, choirs, orchestra, chamber group, organ and more.  Including this one piano quartet.  I heard it as an expansive opening movement (expansivo!), a nicely questing middle movement and a demanding third, all with effective push and pull between piano and strings.  A worthy work and a nice find for BMPQ.  Then a final twist.  I wonder why it is that the classics are often welcoming to metal, but thus it is.  Today it was Iron Maiden Run to the hills, capably arranged by local Warren 'Wazza' Brahms (AKA...).  So, an interesting and expansive concert from one of our local gems.  Nicely done and congrats for finding that work from Colin Brumby.

The Black Mountain Piano Quartet performed at All Saints Ainslie.  BMPQ comprises Jason Li (violin), Thayer Parker (viola), Alex Moncur (cello) and Kathleen Loh (piano).

Revelations

I admit I was wary of attending a concert of piano students, presumably from a very young age.  What could I learn from kids hardly up to my waist?  But I was wrong.  This was a huge revelation.  The younger kids would play music relevant to their age and musical development and do it surprisingly capably.  So the Bach lines were satisfying and the Haydn pleasant.  This from 9, 8, 10 years olds.  But then to watch the development of older students was a revelation, as they played more complex, rhythmically demanding, dynamically interesting, emotionally more profound pieces.  You could observe human development here, in the course of 11 short but lengthening pieces.  So we got into Beethoven and Chopin and ultimately Grieg and Rachmaninoff.  If I had a favourite, it would be Mykhail Anufriiev playing Rachmaninov Prelude C#maj op.65 no.2 "Bells of Moscow" for both the music itself and the wonderfully mature performance.  And then to finish with two movements of a Mozart sonata by a duo of 10yo Charlie and adult violinist Jason Li, who I had recorded leading the Black Mountain Piano Quartet just days before.  The playing was different and developing with age but always worthy and interesting.  The joy of it all was infectious and only helped by the sight of slightly nervous kids on stage.  The training must have been excellent, from teacher Jinbo Huang, (BMus ANU, PhD UCLA).  Maybe unexpected but a great pleasure.

Piano students of Jinbo Huang performed at Wesley.  The students were James Li, Lingwen Chen, Charlie Sanoubane, Naomi Feng, Frank Huang, Hongkai Chen, Michael Danilov, Damien Ruan, Mykhail Anufriiev and Charles Huang.  Jason Li (violin) joined Charles for a final Mozart sonata.

B-ing late

Last year was the big Beethoven birth bicentennial but many events were lost due to Covid.  I just got to one, a year late.  It was Black Mountain Piano Quartet playing two Beethoven piano quartets, one written at age 15, another much later, and two pieces written to Beethoven.  Local composer Michael Hardy, an old mate from the Patents Office and also the Blues Club, presented two world premieres, A scherzo for Ludwig and Ludwig in Wonderland.  Mike introduced the works as influenced by Beethoven's playfulness, thus the scherzo, obvious enough, but Wonderland?  Beethoven after too much listening to Steve Reich and Terry Riley.  Amusing.  And both were solid, interesting works.  Well done.  Not to be limited (Mike is prolific!) the encore was a classical take on an Angels song, a great melody with classical harmony and quartet interplays.  Insinuating and satisfying.  The BMPQ was neat and internally responsive, perhaps a bit unsure of some of Mike's reimaginings, but very satisfying.  As for cello, Alex got a good few bass-like lines.   But think of this.  In a few hours in downtown Canberra, I've explored bell ringing in two venues and experienced 2.5 world premieres and 2 Beethoven piano quartets.  And tomorrow a touch of Afrobeat, perhaps?

 The Black Mountain Piano Quartet comprised Jason Li (violin), Thayer Parker (viola), Alex Moncur (cello) and Kathleen Loh (piano).  They played Beethoven and Michael Hardy after Beethoven and The Angels at All Saints, including 2.5 world premieres.