Challenges

It was a challenging program and a professionally demanding MD and our time was cut by various things and then I had a family event in Adelaide so missed further practices but it went OK in the end.  I was massively embarrassed by a miscount, of all things playing a pizz latin groove in the most jazzy segment on the day - too comfy - but I enjoyed the local Christopher Sainsbury composition about a running stream Gurawa and the original played by the composer and solo flautist Christine Draeger Three dances for imaginary animals. I could admire the Schoeck Sommernacht with its lovely off-beat somnambulism, but the star of the show was Honegger Symphony no. 2 written in the early years of WW2, all military and metal and tense with a hugely wary and seductive second movement and a frantic third movement leavened by a beautiful, redemptive trumpet solo.  Apt given our second performance was in a Bungendore church hall frequented by Mary McKillop, Australia's first saint.  So to all, sorry for that miscount but thanks for an exhilarating if very demanding set of music.

Musica da Camera performed Schoeck, Draeger, Sainsbury and Honegger at Cook and Bungedore under Monica Buckland (MD, conductor) with solos from Christine Draeger (flute, composer) and Mark Strykowski (trumpet) and in the presence of Christopher Sainsbury (composer).

1+1=3

I'm late to write up this weekend of Musica da Camera concerts but it was busy and varied in style and takes some consideration.  Mainly because our director was John Ma, lively expert in an earlier period of Western music and one that was quite a challenge for me at least.  The composers? Campra and Locatelli, Boccherini and Fischer and Dauvergne.  The themes? Love around Europe; tears of Adiadne; the sounds of streets of Madrid; the famed saltworks of Luneberg (!?); a finish on a bit of refined French style.  John led us in stylistic forms of our own, how to phrase to a key bar, or how to spell a phrase to gel with others, bowing for swift passages and dirty hammers, how to sit on a beat so as not to drag.  Not to drag is common to all musics but some other approaches are earlier, of a different era from classical, so a learning experience.  And John has a way as a director-audience-communicator, introducing the works with generous and humourous backgrounding, then often a few words to set each movement.  So that Euro lovers were French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and the movements matched to ears of the time.  Thus also with the the bells or rosary in Madrid or those tears or hammers.  And there's that pleasure in performing twice, so the reticence of the Saturday resolves with the performance of the Sunday.  The full day commitment of the drive to Gunning, our take on a tour, is part of that.  So I mention some aspects from behind the music stand, but the proof is in the smiles and satisfaction of the drive home.  So much of a period and a style and a very worthy memory.  And why 1+1=3?  Because the reprise is always so much more comfortable and satisfying.

John Ma (violin, director) led Musica da Camera in Cook and Gunning to playing Campra, Locatelli, Boccherini, Fischer and Dauvergne.

Tchaiks does hooks

My first up concert for the weekend. Busy.  This was Musica da Camera under Brad Tham, who returned after playing with us a year before.  He's quiet and respectful and a talented musician and recent ANU graduate.  His choice started with a relatively straightforward Brook green suite which was written for a schoolgirls' orchestra.  It's shortish despite its three movements and not difficult despite some tricky, malleable counting and some speed in the last dance movement.  Then Lonely Angel by Peteris Vasks, another modern meditation featuring Brad on violin out front.  Slow but can be difficult to manage without a conductor, given offbeat changes and lines.  But the feature was Tchaikovsky Serenade for strings.  Lovely and inviting and challenging enough.  Again it has speed and occasional tricky lines, a delightful waltz as movement 2, a stirring elegie as movement 3, and some fairly straightforward if fast lines and scales in movement 3.  But it's something everyone knows and is immediately pleasurable.  How well does Tchaikovsky do melody, often with the simplest of lines.  Nicely played by our MdCC led by our quietly talented Brad.

Musica da Camera Canberra played Holst, Vasks and Tchaikovsky at Cook under Brad Tham (MD, violin) with Tanya Jenkin (concertmaster).