Tourists

Every few months I go on tour. This last one was to Gunning. Before, it's been to Cooma and Goulburn. Big time ... not at all, but entertaining if unpaid. Musica da Camera is my string orchestra that plays three of four times each year pairing its concerts with one at Cook on Saturday and a repeat at a local country town on Sunday. Each concert is directed by an invited musical director, perhaps with an invited soloist. If not, by a member of the group. MdC has been around for 40 years and it's been working this way for sometime (well before my time which is only ~18 months back). And this group is good, comprising various teachers and professionals and serious amateurs and inviting some great local guests. This concert was directed by Jonathan McFeat, now of Sydney, with early jazz banjo/guitarist, Liam O'Connell. A possible commission fell through but the program was fascinating none-the-less: Vivaldi, Faure, Warlock, Handel, Mendelssohn, Sibelius. The Vivaldi and Handel were par for the course and always much loved. The Mendelssohn was a blast, his Symphony no.10 that combines three movements into a single whole and drives along at a mighty pace. The Faure was his widely known Pavane, and the Sibelius, his Impromptu no.5&6, was a pairing played as one and the most well received of all from the comments I heard. It was beautiful. But perhaps the Warlock Capriol suite was the most unexpected of all. Harking back to medieaval or old folk with twisted dance sequences, a pavane but also a Bransles and a Tordion and a Mattachins (?), all jumpy and unexpected. I liked it all, partly because it was so tricky. But the prize for the unexpected probably goes to the guitar and strings arrangement of Faure Pavane and even more to the solo banjo rendition of Lionel Belasco Miranda, jazz/calypso from ~1915. Banjo and strings. A strange combination but it's all music. Congratulations and thanks too all: great music all round.

Musica da Camera performed at Cook and Gunning under Jonathan McFeat (conductor) with Liam O'Connell (guitar, banjo).

Announcing a virgin birth

It’s coming on to Easter and there are choral concerts a plenty. This one was Igitur nos performing music on the Annunciation. In these post-religious times I should explain. The Annunciation is the announcement by angel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God, third person of the Trinity, by a virgin birth. It’s a strange story when you think on it (and who’d believe it from a teenaged daughter?), but thems were different times. This is the music of believers, from an era when all believed and shared a common belief, a time when they built monuments to this belief, the great cathedrals (and the sanctification of god-given monarchical power). And despite this being music of deep belief, it was also the business of the time: glorious, otherworldly, heart rending music fit for European stone and reverberant spaces that people earned their living from. Despite the all-too-human business of it, the sacred choral tradition is a thing of beauty even for non-believers.

I loved this concert for the sounds of soaring soprano, the interplay of counterpoint, the malleable male voices, the beauty of a few intoned strings. Igitur Nos is a very capable group. There were some times I felt uncomfortable with intonation or harshness of voice or string, but I only mention this because they were so few. From the first powerful words of Gorecki’s Totus tuus through Byrd and Pergolesi and names lesser known to me, this was rich and symbolic and well performed. The feature works were selections from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Durante’s Magnificat. The Stabat Mater featured soprano Sarahlouise Owens and mezzo-soprano Rebecca Carmichael with mingling and interlaced voices singing the tragic loss of Mary at the cross. It’s beautiful but intensely sad. I particularly enjoyed the exaltation of the Magnificat. A friend of conductor Matthew Stuckings wished to use it for her wedding. I could understand. This was soaring, joyous, annimated music. Sarahlouise and Rebecca performed as a pair, as did Jonathan McFeat and Peter Laurence at other times. The Gorecki was a powerful and unexpected introduction of forte block chords for all voices then a wash of deeply emotional murmurings on a Marian theme. JS Bach made an appearance with the Sinfonia from Cantata BWV169 featuring a locally made chamber organ and chamber orchestra. This was typically flowing, jaunty melody and a total joy. Otherwise, there was Elizabethan and chants right up to modern. A wonderfully intimate program well performed in an apt environment of stone and timber. Soul stirring and much enjoyed.

Igitur nos performed with a chamber orchestra and organ at All Saints Anglican Church, Ainslie. Matthew Stuckings conducted. Featured singers were Sarahlouise Owens, Rebecca Carmichael, Jonathan McFeat and Peter Laurence. Terry Norman played the chamber organ constructed locally by Trevor Bunning and Roger Jones.