Anothery

We remember this concert with much reverence.  It's not a recent concert.  It was from 4 years ago at one of our favourite venues, St Peter and Paul, the heavy bluestone Catholic cathedral in Goulburn with the wonderful acoustics.  The group was Musica da Camera and our guests were Louise Page and Lenny Weiss.  As I am wont to say, at different stages of their musical careers.  MdaC was around its 40th anniversary.  Louise was on her final year before retirement, performing with various groups around town.  Lenny was yet to take up studies at the Peabody Conservatorium in USA.  Both Louise and Lenny were much admired and much loved.   We also had some horns and clarinets sitting in from NCO.  We played a Mozart symphony, too, but that didn't appear in the recording that is now released as Sorrowful song on Spotify and YouTube and Bandcamp and all the other streaming services.  The songs are arias from various operas, from Handel, Purcell, Gluck and Mozart, and the performances are deeply touching.  It was such a pleasure to support Louise in this most tragic of music.  Whatever, it's now released so have a listen and if you wish to support MdC (now Musica da Camera Canberra to support our international presence!), go to Bandcamp and purchase a download.  But do listen.  It's nothing like a joyous pop song, but it's intense and truly felt.  Sorrowful song is our second album and a source of much pride.

Musica da Camera Canberra (string orchestra) released an album of arias performed with Louise Page (soprano) and led by Leonard Weiss (director).

• https://musicadacameracanberra.bandcamp.com/

Again

Day 2 was Goulburn. The cathedral was cold but ended up pleasantly well attended. The acoustics were rich and full even if the space was large and hearing Louise out front was not so easy. It was presumably different for the audience, under a cathedral roof with timber and stone and a replete reverb. The first notes we played were lovely but the temperature played havoc with bows and rosin. It wasn't just me: one long-experienced player mentioned a similar thing, that her instrument didn't perform so well in the cold. But it all went well and by the end I was glowing with smiles. I felt we were a little tentative for the arias, given we couldn't hear so easily, but later more unrestrained for the louder Mozart symphony no.40. Again, the program was bliss to play. Again, it was a massive privilege and pleasure to accompany Louise and always satisfying to be led by Lenny. By the end, the reception by the audience was great and we left contented after a very busy but pleasing weekend. The music was great and its reception was satisfying but there was an element of sadness: to see such a grand building in such disrepair. It's a common refrain that the Church has money, in Australia or otherwise. Yes, it has property and the Vatican Museums are bulging, but I'm not sure how much direct income, and despite failings, it does worthy work. Here are a few pics to show just that, along with our amusing Stonehenge just outside Canberra. But now a break from my own playing for a while and let's see what I can find to report for CJ in other places.

Musica da Camera performed Mozart and a series of opera arias at the St Peter & Paul Catholic Cathedral in Goulburn. Leonard Weiss (conductor) directed and Louise Page (soprano) sang.

Falling in love

I'm not the first to fall in love with Mozart and I'm sure I've enjoyed him immensely before, but playing his Symphony no.40 with Musica da Camera was an emotional high. It's such a fabulous work, with such intrigue and unexpected variation and sometimes surprisingly modern phrasing and outlandish energy and the rest. I was stunned. And this was just the second half. Before interval was a series of opera arias with our Canberra diva, Louise Page, out front with the orchestra often hanging off Lenny's baton when the time goes vocal-led rubato. Louise is such a convincing performer and her voice so intimate and apt, but you don't appreciate all the art as you accompany. You have other things to do; your listening in accompaniment is different from the listening of a concert goer. But this was a hugely satisfying concert and we get to do it all again, this time in Goulburn, as is the way with the paired concerts of MdC. A deeply satisfying Saturday outing despite smelly flowers and the rest.

Musica da Camera performed Mozart and a series of opera arias at Cook. Leonard Weiss (conductor) directed and Louise Page (soprano) sang.

Llewellyn

The day was all leading to the Llewellyn stage and our National Capital Orchestra performance of Gorecki, Gordon and Smetana. In the inverse order. The Gorecki was his Symphony no.3, better known as Symphony of sorrowful songs. Gorecki was apparently a serialist, but then produced this, his religious work, to be rejected by the modernists. It's a strange piece, long at 55 minutes, slow and sparse and meditative, with occasional soprano singing of three pieces over three movements, of women's laments, one Mary for her crucified son, another by a young girl from the wall of a gestapo cell, a final one by a mother lamenting her son lost in Silesian uprisings in 1919/20. the work starts with depp, slow bass and continues pretty much throughout, with dynamics and rising pitch at various times. Louise Page sang the songs, sad and slow and pensive but dignified. I came to love this work with playing so not surprised how well it was known amongst musos and how much they wished to play it. And it's got a following. One guy at the afterparty had come from Sydney to hear it: he'd otherwise heard it numerous times. The first half from lighter and livelier. First up Smetana The Moldau, a programmatic piece picturing the Moldau river that not least, runs through Prague. Then Christopher Gordon Ceremonial Games. This was a world premiere of this suite of comprising three movements (from 13) written for the opening ceremony of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. This was more grand, lively, even rocky, with times switching between 4/4 and 7/8 and moving through arpeggiations, then to a dramatic end. Great fun and great to play for the composer. Then pics and after-party and congrats. Much enjoyed.


National Capital Orchestra performed Smetana, Gordon and Gorecki at Llewellyn Hall under Leonard Weiss (conductor) with Louise Page (soprano) singing Gorecki songs. Christopher Gordon (composer) was present. The bass section was Roger Grime, Chelsea Kennett, Hayley Manning, Kate Murphy, Eric Pozza and Geoff Prime.

What is this thing called, love

It's a piece of nostalgia and theatre and comedy as much as music. NCO and CCS and a string of soloists performed Not the Messiah : he's a very naughty boy at Llewellyn last night to a crowded house and everyone had a ball. There's a generation out there that's brought up on Monty Python (I'm of it), so I'm not surprised at the turnout, but to some degree I was surprised at my own enjoyment of the event. I'd gone around thinking this is not Beethoven 9 or Mozart Requiem, especially because of the fairly simple readability of the music. But it's not complexity alone that makes for success in music and I wonder if I'd been snobby about the whole thing. I don't think so but I'd ignored the pleasure of a massed musical outing, of the joy of comedy and the essentially intelligent and well meaning humour of the Python crew and just the effectiveness of our locals to carry all this off.

120-or-so performers filled the stage physically and the hall aurally with a inundation of sound with the help Llewellyn's new phrased array; the orchestra did its musical job, enhanced even with a rhythm section with electric instruments (gasp); the choir sang a treat but also played up the night with discrete props; the soloists were a roguish joy as well as being wonderfully capable as singers; the brass wore sombreros and the pipers brought the house down. There were smiles and joy everywhere and congrats for jobs well done. Well done to Lenny, of course, who conducted this all and to SarahLouise who had done her parallel part with the choir. A huge turnout and a huge success.

National Capital Orchestra and Canberra Choral Society presented Not the Messiah : he's a very naughty boy by Eric Idle and John du Prez at Llewellyn Hall. Soloists were Louise Page and Demi Smith (sopranos), Nick Begbie (tenor), Tobias Cole (baritone), David Pearson (bass) under Leonard Weiss (conductor) with Ylaria Rogers (director) and SarahLouise Owens (chorus master). The bottom-enders were Roger Grime, Lizzy Collier and Eric Pozza (basses).

As written

It was gloriously satisfying to hear Louse Page and Sally Greenaway in the cabaret act, direct from the Adelaide Fringe. It was a presentation of about a dozen songs called Louise and Sally do Tin Pan Alley, dedicated to the wondrous tunes that came from that street in NYC, 28th St between 5th and 6th Avenues. I strolled down there once but there's nothing much there now but memories. But what fabulous memories are the great tunes from theatre and film that spread to the world and formed much of the infrastructure of jazz over the decades. The Gershwins, Ellington, Arlen, Kern, Porter. I enjoyed this deeply for the tunes and their outwardly innocent but wickedly playful and aware lyrics but also for the performances. Louise presented with clarity and trained voice as only her training can muster and portrayed every word with clarity and insight. Sally was a dream. She's a composer so she knows alternatives better than most, picks them with wisdom and portrays them with training. I love the bebop turn-it-on-its-head approach too, but Sally could portray the tunes in their original voice then play with them in a clever but empathetic way that floored me, even down to the collapsed dissonances of one tune or the quotes from James Bond or Rhapsody in Blue or a string of tunes built on Rhythm changes, not least the Flintstones theme. I noticed that once before with another jazz gig she did. To some degree, all improvisers compose but not like a composer improvises. Huge pleasure. Then there was the story of the songs, the insertions of a few further inventions of Sally, a take on a Bach Two part invention (no.8, Fmaj) as rag time and an original from her Seven inventions show telling the story of the emergence of movies which works a treat. These are two wonderfully trained and experience musicians doing cabaret with real, deep class. Suffice to say, I was both floored and touched.

Louise Page (soprano) and Sally Greenaway (piano) presented their ode to the great American Songbook and its place of origin, Tin Pan Alley.

Blue horses

I didn't know of Franz Marc, a German artist (painter) who died in WW1. Chris Latham is running a series of WW1 memorial concerts which are, as Chris is wont to do, seriously broad-minded and intelligently themed. The concert program gathered a series of songs and tunes from the era and presented them against a backdrop of projected pencil drawings and coloured paintings (some watercolours? others perhaps oils?) from FM's sketch book. Seeing so many works gives a real understanding of the artist's mind, of how he manages the interactions (geometric and very much like Picasso and Braque cubism) and how he colours (bright, primary colours) and what subjects he considers (deer, horses, birds, mostly in nature, but occasionally people but distant, occasionally in human environments distressed by war). Chris mentioned that he died young and may have lived to be famed like Kandinsky, and his swirls remind me of that. Apparently, he also painted blue horses and moderator Alex Sloan, at the discussion before the concert, brought one her grandmother had given her. Apparently blue horse are remembrances of WW1. New to me. The earlier discussion also had Joan Beaumont, professor of history, speaking of the battle of Verdun, of 700,000 lost soldiers over 303 days and Jacqueline Dwyer, well spoken daughter of a French immigrant who returned to France to fight and ultimately survived in Australia. And Chris Latham who spoke of the sketch book. I expect Chris gathered the pictures and the music; he rearranged several pieces for the ensemble of piano, soprano and string quartet. All touching and illuminating and will be well received in the French churches where future concerts will take place. I admire the knowledge and the respect, but am not comfortable with the culture-war expenditure that is this anniversary of the Anzacs. $A550m+ to promote this celebration of war loss; way beyond European countries (Australia $8889 per WW1 death; Germany $2, France $52). The people deserve it; the use by politicians degrades it. But that's politics. The music was intriguing and fitting and the projected works of Franz Marc was enlightening.

Franz Marc was the man who painted blue horses in his WW1 sketch book at Verdun. Alex Sloan, Joan Beaumont, Jacqueline Dwyer and Chris Latham conversed. Louise Page (soprano), Tamara Anna Cislowska (piano) and the Sculthorpe Quartet comprising Veronique Serret (violin), Chris Latham (violin), Tor Fromyhr (viola) and David Pereira (cello) performed the music.

Latin inflections

It was unexpected and it was the last tune of the festival and there were mates from the Jazz School on stage and the syncopations were infectious. I enjoyed this more than anything I'd heard (from the 3 concerts I'd attended): this is still CanberraJazz.net, after all. The tune was a world premiere of a piece written 18 years before by Gerard Brophy, not played by the German commissioners and only recovered when being transferred as manuscripts to the National Library. I missed the title, but like the rest of the concert, it was themed on Brazil and had the energy and abandon of samba and was scored like a manic music theatre overture. Great! I loved it and many others did too. A joyous end to the festival and a nice crossover between the classical and jazz/world music/theatre world. The earlier concert started with Tambuco, the Mexican percussion quartet playing a four cajons that could have been a latin improv class, then a serious classical percussion piece with Australian trio Speak Percussion, then a cute tune by Hermeto Pascoal using four metal mixing bowls filled with rice or similar and later some whistles. Then a larger ensemble playing six or more pieces dedicated to neighborhoods of Rio de Janiero, played by the Boccherini Trio and Alice Giles and various woodwinds and Continuum Sax and led by Roland Peelman from the piano. Then a another large ensemble playing Villa-Lobos, featuring Louise Page and Andrey Lebedev playing three guitar preludes. Then the big final tune. This was latin, exciting, expansive, diverse and a great high to end the festival.

Tambuco, Boccherini Trio, Continuum Sax, Roland Peelman, Louise Page, Andrey Lebedev and various others played Gerard Brophy, Villa-Lobos and Hermeto Pascoal as the final concert of the Canberra International Music Festival for 2016.