Stabat Mater

To finish off this Easter season, at least the music side, it was Stabat Mater by Greta Claringbould and Toby Cole at Smiths, upstairs at McGregor Hall, with accompaniment by Linus Lee and Zachary Connor, piano and cello.  This was a revisit to last years vigil, then with just Linus on piano.  The addition of a cello spelt out the accompanying melody line with vocal-adjacent tone and demanded from the piano a less expansive role and more defined role.  Nice.  Great high vocals are expected from and delivered by this pair and the melodies and harmonies in the work are gloriously beautiful.  I chatted with some audience and this was their return too: such is this work and these performers.  Others have done this work, but probably the Pergolesi here is the most renowned and loved.  Taken with candles and centred spot in a close setting and this is an experience of inestimable beauty and touching intimacy.  How could it be otherwise with such a topic: a mother standing below her son on a cross.

Greta Claringbould (soprano) and Toby Cole (counter tenor) performed Pergolesi Stabat Mater at Smiths, McGregor Hall, with accompaniment by Linus Lee (piano) and Zachary Connor (cello).

The mother's voice

The story of Easter is the crucifixion and it was set so beautifully by Pergolesi Stabat Mater and performed in small format by Greta Claringbould, Tobias Cole and Linus Lee, upstairs at Smiths.  It's the story of Mary at the Cross as her son dies.  This setting was a smallish room, bedecked for the occasion with candles and lit with a cone of light against on a red background.  Just perfect except for a lighting malfunction of auto strobe strobe lighting.  But these are professionals and the music still spoke for itself and we could all laugh about it after, perhaps in relief at the music of intense tragedy and deep faith that Pergolesi presents.  Certainly, the death was obvious as the music temporarily collapsed into emptiness.  Then recovered with reference to the devotees.  Toby and Greta matched voices at time, these are high voices, harmonised with intense beauty at others, singing over the essential presence of the Linus' piano with introductions that are so well recognised.  This was a work of great beauty done by wonderfully capable and responsive local performers.  Another  immensely touching memory for this Easter.

Pergolesi Stabat Mater was presented as Vigil at McGregor Hall at Smiths Alternative by Greta Claringbould (soprano), Tobias Cole (countertenor) and Linus Lee (piano).

Keys of a different ilk

I usually think of Linus Lee as an organist and I love his performances and I love organ, especially for the dramatic, deep, pensive nature of the thing.  But this concert was called Interesting Oz Composers and the music was of the early C20th by composers with obscure names, sometimes with pseudonyms, Hall as Morel, Zelman, Mareo as Marsden, Knox, de Chaneet, and titles with subtitles, like Elaine: Marceau brillant or In the gloaming: romance or Glowing embers: narrative-intermezzo.   It was James who suggested music for silent movies, and it's quite likely, being varied and emotive and narrative.  Other than a few ordinary titles, Hungarian dances op.17 no,5,8 and Elegy for the violin, that is.  These were all on piano, but even the organ tunes to end had a similar presence, so Gates of Baghdad, Norwegian cradle song: tone picture and Lady Pompadour: a court dance, all by F Hall as Gabriel Morel.  But whatever the theme and compositions, they were inviting and pleasant and nicely played for a wonderful outing by Linus, even with limited 32' double open diapason or contra violine.

Linus Lee performed early C20th Australian composers on piano and organ at Wesley.

Linus returns

It's always a pleasure to hear Linus Lee on the organ, not just for the playing and the program but also for the familiarity that we gain with the music.  Not that this music was so unfamiliar, at least some of it was very familiar.  He finished with two movements of Rossini William Tell Overture and they are cemented in all our brains, but the Malzat, once thought to be Haydn, wasn't so familiar although Fritz Kreisler and Offenbach should be.   Linus said this was a concert of oboe, violin, cello and orchestra and so it was.  The Malzat was the first movement of his oboe concerto and the Kreisler is famed for virtuosic violinists and the Offenbach was apparently a regular of Jacqueline du Pré.  It all feels different on an organ, though.  Those buttons may refer to wind and string instruments but the tones are none too obvious and the complexity of multiple lines from deep, loud bass to flittering trebles are different, but we love the organ for just that: the drenching bass and the high whistles and all manner of tones in between.  And Linus does it well and enjoys it to boot and walks us through the pleasures.  This was a lovely outing of catchy melody and occasionally stomach churning bass pipes to boot: just how we like it.

Linus Lee (organ) performed at Wesley.

Song of Joy, no less

National choirs are a thing and I've even sung in one (Italian) but I don't always expect much.  They are community choirs and are welcoming rather than auditioned and that's good, so they have a social as well as an artistic or cultural role.  They often play the free circuit of aged homes and fetes and the like but not so often the more skilled reaches of the concert hall, but the Austrian Choir appeared at Wesley and they were a great pleasure.  We heard some decent harmonies and interesting costumes and skilled accompaniment from Linus Lee on the very good organ and piano at Wesley Uniting Church and some capable leadership from Geoff Roberts, but the thing that ultimately impressed me was the repertoire.  I'd expected folk tunes from a nattily dressed national choir but we opened with Beethoven Song of joy, no less.  Beethoven 9!  And that was a very decent rendition with nicely clear and correct harmonies.  There was another Beethoven, too, and a Mozart.  Mozart was from current Austria (b. Salzburg).  Beethoven wasn't (b. Bonn) but I decided a Germanic culture can claim these names so OK.  Perhaps not Ketelbey who was also sung and was English, but that went into Kyrie Eleison which must have common ownership over all Europe.  The songs from a few musicals (You'll never walk alone, Climb every mountain) were harder to claim but they were inviting, and the Louis Armstrong reference (What a wonderful world) was also pretty new world USA.  Linus got in an organ solo by Vittorio Mondi and there were a few  songs that are popular in newer religions and this seemed more new world  but maybe not and they are really infectious tunes (Guide me O great Jehovah, You raise me up).  But then to finish a final musical number that talks clearly of Austria (Eidelweiss from Sound of Music) even if it was originally received with "disdain by Austrians" (Wikipedia).  As in the film, it was the final number and we were invited to sing along so it was a great pleasure.  As was this whole program and concert.  I enjoyed this concert.

The Austrian Choir Canberra performed at Wesley Church under Geoff Roberts (conductor) and with accompaniment from Linus Lee (organ, piano).

Dreams of travels

There was some very satisfying playing, of course, on organ and piano, so similar and yet so different.  This was Linus Lee playing in the church at Wesley.  The title of the concert was also its theme, Tunes from faraway, varied in source and culture, but related in the pleasantness and joy of the music.  I mentioned joy lots when I was reporting on the OWJF.  Some bands just had that sense of entertainment, others were heavier, maybe more serious, but I doubt it.  As for chops, they were all to perfectly capable.  So it's not ability or conviction that associates with joy or even serious intent.  Maybe it's just these difficult times that prompt me to hear joy and I did here, too, with Linus.  He talked of programming for a lunchtime concert, and that's also part of it.  So we got Ballet Egyptien by a Frenchman with an Italian name, a Persian market by Ketelbey and later Mussorgsky and the national dance of Ukraine (a Russian writing Ukrainian song; again a marker, or not, of the times).  Those were all on organ.  On piano we had American Edward MacDowell and 5 forgotten fairy tales and Granados Capricho Espanol (Spanish writes Spanish) and Coleridge-Taylor Danse Negre (an Englishman in Africa and possibly spurned these days).  The organ was its soft and deep and full self and the piano punchy and percussive and loud.  But in all, an entertaining and fascinating concert played really nicely.  Thanks to Linus.

Linus Lee (organ, piano) performed for a Wesley Music Centre lunchtime concert.

Shimmies

We can be pompous about the arts, their deep connection with our souls and the like, so the sheer entertainment of good company and close relationships or even playful seductions can be forgotten or disregarded.  Even this statement is doing much the same, meaning, intellectualising the everyday and playful.  Linus Lee did a concert that had me bopping in my church pew and smiling big smiles.  He called it European Dance Afternoon.  He played it in the Wesley church, variously with their relatively grand organ and Yamaha grand.  Again, pipe organ in a church is not normally throught of as a thing of playfulness, even less so of seduction.  But it was all there, with the seductive program cover and the polkas and boleros and various dances.  He had a range of tunes, many very well known, from Strauss II, Bartok, Brahms.  I knew Csardas but not Vittorio Monti.  Trust an Italian!  Several dances derived from national folk music, Norwegian or Hungarian or Bartok's Romanian.  SS's Dance macabre.  It was a mix of tones, with the majesty and depth of the pipe organ sandwiching the percussive business of a competently played grand piano.  Linus did both with panache and involvement and joy.  What a wonderful, joyous concert. 

Linus Lee (piano, organ) performed various shades of dance music at Wesley Church.

Maintaining history

The Wadsworth organ seemed out of place in this modern church space, all stage upfront with lectern and no altar, but with resident band gear in the corner.  The organ, though, had history, birthing in 1908 in Manchester and finding its way through a number of moves to Marist College here in Canberra, then finally to the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Cook.  Linus Lee played it for this RSCM (Royal Society of Church Music, Australia, ACT Branch) concert.  I'm working my way around the organs in Canberra through this lovely group that presents monthly lunchtime concerts around town.  It's a pleasant interlude with these unique and complex instruments. They are mostly not the grand organs of European cathedrals, but satisfying none-the-less, even if their spaces here in Canberra can lack requisite stone to share their profundity. Whatever...  This concert featured Linus Lee playing a range from Buxtehude through Bach and Beethoven to Franck, Ketelbey and Lefebre-Wely.  There was a pleasant mix of stateliness and lighter contrasts, right from the Buxtehude on, and counterpoint and renowned melody - the Beethoven was his piano sonata no.8 Cmin put to organ so less percussive and fuller.  And a string of organ grinder-like joviality and joy to finish.  That was a little unexpected but clearly welcomed.  There were some low notes that felt weak and some clunks and knocks but that is all part of this mechanically complex instrument that demands such maintenance.  The cost of that, the age of the instruments, the lack of expertise militate against that these days.  But the sounds can be blissful and there were some lovely passages in this.  Thanks to RSCM(ACT) and Linus Lee for the concert and Westminister Presbyterian for the opportunity.

Linus Lee (organ) played Buxtehude, Bach, Beethoven, Franck, Ketelbey and Lefebre-Wely on the Wadsworth Organ at the Westminister Presbyterian Church for the Royal Society of Church Music monthly concert.

Backs

Organs are different things. The organ player's back is usually facing you; the music is variously grand or delicate and variously toned. It's different from other keyboard instruments, too. Sustain is achieved by holding down notes; notes are on/off rather than with a natural decay; volume is not controlled by the playing hands but by the foot pedal; there are several keyboards (=manuals) for hands and one for the feet. It must be confounding for pianists or harpsichordists, although obviously some aspects carry over. The ACT Organ School at Wesley Music Centre presented a student concert comprising 10 players over an hour-or-so. Again, they were varied: several school kids and some advanced students and ANU SOM students. The music was mostly Bach and Buxtehude, but the advanced performers branched out, into Hindemith, Messaien, Widor and Franck. I love baroque (we all do), but I particularly enjoyed the modern takes with the differing harmonies, the demanding dynamics and the rest. Wesley provides the organ and manages the Organ School. The teachers come in from interstate: tiring but obviously enjoyed. Brisbane organist Christopher Wrench is the senior tutor and he emceed for this event. A great pleasure from all players and an inspiration from several.

Christopher Wrench (organ tutor) compered a student concert for the ACT Organ School at Wesley Music Centre. Performers were Christopher Taylor, Ariana Odermatt, Kate Cole, Jacob Wu, Timothy Kelly, Rebecca Anderson, Jayden Lohe, Jonathan Lee, James Porteous and Linus Lee.