Unexpected

A free, unused ticket to a Selby concert was unexpected but the outcome was a surprise in other ways too.  I see/hear lots of local musics and I like to support it, but sometimes (not always), when I get to a major outing, like a visiting New Yorker jazzer or Musica Viva, I am floored by how good these people are.  It hit me last night with Kathryn Selby and her guests Natalie Chee and Julian Smiles.  I was taken aback by the delicacy of the bowings, by the clear communication and close interpretations, how pauses would sit in the air and dynamics move together or apart to feature one instrument or another.  It's the nature of good playing and this was well deserved.  I should not be too surprised given their histories, but still I was.  They played a program of fathers with informative intros from all players.  Haydn first up, after being introduced as the father of the symphony, the string quartet and the piano trio.  Then a young Schoenberg before he fathered 12-tonal music and finally Dvorak, father of national musics in the classics.  I actually most liked the Haydn, then the Schoenberg.  Dvorak is seldom a fave of mine.  But the lesson in this for me was the immense capability of top pros.  I wonder about people just hearing these players, just attending the visiting stars, but I can value the possibility even given my own immersion in local culture.  I've often wondered about mediaeval life with just a visiting troubadour or minstrel every now and then.  What with recording and travel, we live such wealthy cultural lives if we choose to.  But then many choose reality TV or sports instead.  Strange that but it takes all.

Kathryn Selby (piano) led Natalie Chee (violin) and Julian Smiles (cello) playing Haydn, Schoenberg and Dvorak at the theatre at the National Gallery of Australia.

What a blast

Another Canberra Symphony Orchestra concert but special. The music was accessible and well known and not too challenging, but it was special, at least for me. It was the first time I'd attended a concert where I'd played all the pieces before. I find my appreciation of a piece is immeasurably deeper when I've played it before: the structure becomes more visible; the lines (most prominently the bass lines) are expected and the harmonies and melodic and rhythmic plays with other parts are at front of mind. Nothing too surprising in that, but it's a revelation. The program was Brahms Academic Festival overture, Beethoven Triple concerto for violin cello piano and Elgar Enigma variations which I've played over time with Maruki and NCO. I'd played the Brahms twice, with Maruki and Brindabella. All exciting. And the soloists were Dimity Hall, Julian Smiles and Piers Lane. I'd played with Dimity and Julian at Llewellyn with NCO. All very exciting. The second half was on the program as just Enigma variations, so short, but the CSO encored with that English soul stirrer, Elgar Pomp & circumstance march no.1, also known for its lyricisation as Land of Hope and Glory. I'd played that too, with Maruki, one December. It took all my willpower not to stand and squat in rhythm as the upper class twits do in (London's) Albert Hall for the final night of the Proms (see YouTube). I was beaming and singing as I left. But what of the orchestra? BJ Gilby was missing from her seat and Maria Lindsay took that spot with Pop Thompson to her side. Lots of common faces but a few new and young ones too. Five basses this time, led by Kyle and Dave in the core of the back line. Nicholas Milton up front. I loved the program; I loved the playing. The Brahms is lively and fun; the Beethoven couldn't be by anyone else and Julian's cello playing was a revelation (my take of this was BJ Glby, David Pereira and Edward Neeman but I was too busy playing and too far from the sightlines to appreciate it like this night); the Elgar was really nicely done, dynamics, relaxation, intensity, variation, good all round. Then the final Elgar Pomp&Circ was just nicely played and is such an infectious blast. I just sat nodding time and grinning. So, suffice to say I really enjoyed this concert, not for intellect or adventurousness so much as for affinity and simple pleasure.


The Canberra Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Milton (conductor) performed Brahms, Beethoven, Elgar and Elgar at Llewellyn with soloists Dimity Hall (violin), Julian Smiles (cello) and Piers Lane (piano).

Doubles

It was another successful outing for National Capital Orchestra. The program was called Brahms Double. The music was Brahms Double concerto, ie, Amin op.102 for cello and violin, local composer, Natlie Williams Chambers of the South and Respighi Belkis Queen of Sheba. The Williams was an airy, floating, pensive thing, a challenge to read and track even if the notes were easy enough. The counting is so often the challenge, especially in the rests. The Respighi was a clear story-telling outing, a yarn. All militarism or dreamy. It was written for a ballet but as a music performance it seems to always be played movement 1-3-2-4. Strange. The blue line leading across mvt 3 on the score looked like a kid had played with it, but it was on all the scores I saw. Again, there was counting, but also some difficult lines, not least demisemiquavers mixed semiquaver triplets and crochets and quavers. And the big fanfares featuring four long trumpets, with valves, but straightened, somewhere around a metre long: Fanfare or Herald trumpets? Then the feature, Brahms Double concerto, with husband and wife team, Julian Smiles, ex-Canberra SOM, and Dimity Hall, both ex-ACO and long-term Goldner String Quartet. It's a pleasure and an honour to play with such performers. All under Canberra's excellent, young conductor, Leonard Weiss. An excellent presentation by the orchestra and especially so by the soloists, and much glee all around at the party afterwards.

National Capital Orchestra played Brahms, Respighi and Williams in Llewellyn Hall under Leonard Weiss (conductor). The Brahms double concerto soloists were Dimity Hall (violin) and Julian Smiles (cello). For my fellow bass followers, the bass section was Roger Grime (principal), Geoff Prime and Eric Pozza.

Finally

Finally Selby. I've heard about these concerts but never attended. Kathryn Selby is a Sydney pianist. She regularly gathers some mates, top players in Sydney, to perform at the NGA (and Angel Place in Sydney). It's chamber music, ranging over time. This time her friends were Sophie Rowell, Tobias Breider, Julian Smiles and "development artist" Anna Da Silva Chen. The music was great, but so was the performance. Absolutely convincing. They started with Ross Edwards Piano trio (piano, violin, cello), then Fauré Piano Quartet no.1 C minor Op.15 (added viola), then Schumann Piano quintet Eb major Op.44. The titles were none too flash. I was chatting with others after about favourites, but I couldn't pick one. They were all hugely different in style, but impressive and demands and also in interest. My ears pricked up for the spacious piano and melodic cello and the explosive third movement in Edwards. But the canon and the pizz with gambolling piano in Faure appealled. And the attractiveness of the whole and fiery running scales in the fourth movement of Schumann. These guys had serious chops. Julian Smiles played with tablet and foot page switch, but he seemed to have a terrific memory: he didn't seem to look at it too often. The others had paper and Kathyrn had her page turner. All standard. And it was nice to see a young player being brought into the fold. She was very good but the difference is apparent in an A-B comparison like this. But this was seriously satisfying chamber music. Good reason for the following it clearly has.

Kathryn Selby (piano, leader) performed with Sophie Rowell (violin), Tobias Breider (viola), Julian Smiles (cello) and Anna Da Silva Chen (violin) at the NGA theatre.

Piggies

Megan said the Saint-Saëns had been used in Babe and I can understand why. We were at the latest performance of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the program was Berlioz’s Roman carnival overture, Shostakovich’s Cello concerto no.1 op.107 and Saint-Saëns’ Organ symphony no.3 op.78 in C-minor. I was particularly interested in attending to hear the organ (the Llewellyn purchased a major electronic concert organ a few years back) but in the end, it was the Shostakovich that I’ll remember. Julian Smiles played the cello solo part with dignity and at times, I thought, some wonderfully slow, pained bowing. Pained is the right approach. This was in the USSR in the era of Stalin and following the Great War, thought to end all wars. You could feel an informed dread of Stalinist threats and disquiet with the price of progress that permeated the middle years of the 20th century. I loved the clearly stated solos, the lines that echoed through the orchestra, the solemnity and intelligence, the horn that was a prominent and responsive partner to the cello, one lovely passage that really struck me of violin counterpoint against oboe melody, democratic dignity in the context of war and threat. This was my favourite piece for the night. Julian Smiles followed with a short piece from Carnival of the animals, accompanied by the heavenly sound of celeste played by Suzanne Powell. Nowhere near as profound, but tonally delightful.

I was despairing of constant coughing in the quiet passages. I wonder why this happens. I very rarely feel the compulsion, but it seems almost inevitable in a hall. Amusingly, it appeared as a rising then falling cacophony between movements at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and in Europe. In the Llewellyn, it was frequent and evident during the quiet passages. Why is this? It’s not a young crowd, but it’s not winter, either. So I was at least pleased with the louder works that muted the coughing. The show opened with Berlioz. No great recollections here, although it was lively and attractive and popular music. The final work was Saint-Saëns’ Organ symphony. I was interested in the sound of the organ and initially a little disappointed. The tone was right but it didn’t seem to have the presence of the real thing until some loud chords that boomed over the orchestra. It’s then I thought of the volume of this thing, and also the tuba. Both were used here, and both overwhelmed the orchestra when they upped their volume. To me, the Saint-Saëns appeared a meek Beethoven, with swells and crescendos and classical/romantic cross, but lacking the inevitability and variation and nowhere near as satisfying or involving. I recognised one passage after the organ hits - an attractive passage of floating piano and strings melody - but I found it hard to ignore (and not to be disappointed by) the ghost of Beethoven. As we moved out for interval, it was interesting to hear one woman say this was the best she’d heard, seemingly having attended numerous performances of the work. That’s interesting.

This was another successful CSO presentation. I was educated and entranced by Shostakovich and well satisfied by the others. Our local orchestra does a great job. The Canberra Symphony Orchestra performed Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, Shostakovich’s Cello concerto no.1 op.107 and Saint-Saëns’ Organ symphony no.3 Op.78 in C-minor at the Llewellyn Hall. Julian Smiles played cello for the Shostakovich, Amy Johansen played organ for the Saint-Saëns and Nicholas Milton conducted.

Inevitably there’s a winner

I don’t particularly like competitions, especially in the arts, but I enjoyed the finals of the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition well enough. Not for the fact that there was a winner, but because I got to hear the same pair of tunes played three times in such different ways by the three pianists who reached the finals. At least this time we guessed the winner (I have a poor record at Wangaratta), but that’s at least partly a function of our preferences as much as the performances.

Each finalist performed the same two Chopin pieces for the final: the lullaby Berceuse Op.57 and the Concerto no.1 in E minor with chamber accompaniment. The chamber group was made up of some members of the Goldner Sting Quartet and a few ring-ins: Dimity Hall and Mark Ingwersen (violins), Irina Morozova (viola), Julian Smiles (cello) and Justin Bullock (bass). The Berceuse was a delightful piece with some unexpected dissonance and an echoed melody line towards the end that seemed devilishly difficult to pull off effectively (and to read). It certainly sounded different from each performer. The concerto was also very different on each performance so the repetition was no strain on attendees. The third movement is well known and, by the third time through, I was feeling the other movements were old friends. It’s a live version of the experience of re-listening to CDs, but this had the added diversion of different performers.

Peter de Jager played second so had the advantage of well warmed-up string accompaniment, but I noticed many other differences. I found his melodies were wonderfully clear and well identified against accompaniment in the other hand. I noticed this first when the melody moved from right to left hand, and the left took easy prominence. Peter is a composer, so I wondered if this might help him to clearly comprehend the parts and perhaps to channel the instruments that would otherwise play the parts in a full orchestra. I also noticed his firm tone and a parallel firm direction he gave to the strings and the ensemble playing. That had me thinking further. The preceding pianist, Gracjan Szymczak, was Polish and delicate and softly spoken; the following pianist, Oliver She, was Australian and firmer and louder, somewhat like Peter. Also, I’d noticed the frequent delicacy of Janusz Olejniczak, the seasoned Polish pianist who’d opened the Competition with a recital the previous Sunday. Could these be national characteristics, in performance style or training or interpretation? (Comments invited below). But I preferred the firmer playing that drew a very different tonality from the Steinway and provided needed volume for the piano to match the strings. Suffice to say, I enjoyed all three performers but felt more comfortable with Peter’s interpretations.

The strings were also a pleasure. There was a clear improvement from the first to second performance of the concerto (as in job interviews, never take the first spot). Cellist Julian Smiles was a delight to watch with vivid involvement on his face, open eyes to respond to the leading violin, and lovely, firmly fingered passages. First violinist Dimity Hall was strong and involved in her melodic, front-line role. I enjoyed the bouncy melodies and some longish pizzicato passages towards the end of the third movement and the interplay of the string parts as the second violin followed the first, or moved in unison with the viola or the viola played with cello and the bass offered a simple, deep paraphrase of the cello lines. Again I’m showing my ignorance, but I thought I understood the structure of orchestral composition better from seeing the interplay of strings in this quintet. Presumably the orchestral version has sections playing the quintet lines, with some highlights from the piano score taken or matched by instruments other than strings. Local bassist Justin Bullock didn’t have the most demanding part, but he did the job well and the role added immensely to the effectiveness of the strings in balancing the piano’s huge range.

Pianists Peter de Jager, Gracjan Szymczak and Oliver She performed for the finals of the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition. Dimity Hall and Mark Ingwersen (violins), Irina Morozova (viola), Julian Smiles (cello) and Justin Bullock (bass) accompanied in the Concerto. The judging panel was chaired by Larry Sitsky and comprised Emanual Krasovsky, Alan Hicks, Stephen McIntyre, Pamela Page, Piotr Paleczny, Arnan Wiesel and Charles Bodman Rae. And everyone was congratulating Arnan Wiesel for the good work in organising the competition.