Other times

It's the oldest church in Canberra (1844), to the extent that it has a European feel ascending the very steep staircase to the organ loft. St John's Anglican Church is small, even with its extension of 1872. It's proud and tall with its 1877 spire. Internally, the stained glass is pleasant and of an era and the wall feature plaques for deceased parishioners, often military, MPs and the like. And the organ loft features a none-too-large but quite lively-sounding two manual, tracker action organ built by Ron Sharp of Sydney Opera House fame. I am working my way through the organs of Canberra with the Royal School of Churn Music (ACT Branch) and this was their last monthly concert for the year. Three organist played and one flautist featured on one piece. Darryn Jensen opened with four chorale preludes by Bach. Nigel Poole played three movements from Yon Advent suite. Rosemary Shepherd and Shiela Thompson played Grétry Concerto in C major for flute and keyboard and Shiela ended with five canonic variations by Bach. Suffice to say, a lovely and moderately understated concert. This is not a big organ with big, deep power, but neat and textured and nicely spoken and the pieces were similarly restrained. Really a very lovely outing and a touch of an older Canberra, to the degree that there is such a thing.

Darryn Jensen, Nigel Poole and Shiela Thompson (organ) and Rosemary Shepherd (flute) performed a program for Advent for the Royal School of Church Music (ACT Branch) at St John's Anglican Church, Reid.

All new and mice

Canberra New Art Music. It’s a challenging concept. It arose after the Australia Youth Orchestra summer camp in January. A few members discussed how to maintain an interest and audience for contemporary, original music. So this. It was just a little event and the musos almost outnumbered the audience. I didn’t think it all worked, but it shouldn’t. This is experimental, an opportunity to explore and present to an inquiring audience. It wasn’t long, either. Ninety minutes to present about 10 compositions. But there’s detail and complexity in 10 fine music charts so this represented massive work. I was honoured to have been invited.

The show started with John Burgess (electric double bass) performing his tune, Searching finding, solo with and without bow, without and without effects. It reminded me of Jaco and Corea. Very fluid, and I expect considerably improvised, and with some impressive technique on an instrument with action set to zero. Amusingly, John complained of larger shoes clicking the wrong pedals, but, not knowing the piece, it still worked for me. Next was Quartet no. 4 by Nigel Poole, performed by Sarah Hewat (flute), Rosemary Shepherd (flute), Marlene CP Radice (clarinet) and John Burgess (bass). This had elements of a round that passed sometimes jolly lines between instruments against flutes playing crochets in 4/4. Next was Robbie Mann (piano) playing a Larry Sitsky composition, Nocturne magique, on a questionable piano. It’s constructed from a tone row with notes representing letters of a name, and accidentals placed irregularly. I liked this, especially for the time delays between hands, an effect I also noticed when Larry Sitsky played Dvorak at the SOS concert earlier in the week. Then Hayley Bullock (violin) played Zara 1 for violin by Paul Witney. This was a work based on a three note motif, with triplets, slides, double stops and more, and with occasional hints of hillbilly to my ears. String quartet no. 3 by Lulu Huang followed. I found this very satisfying. It was played by the String Theory Quartet comprising Erin Patrick, Sabrina Tiong, Rosy Davidson and Darsha Kumar. I counted 7/4 at one time and triplet feels and 4/4 at others. I heard it as a slightly dissonant take on Mozartian sweetness: melody with a contemporary quizzical take. Are you out there? was written by hostess Thea Zimpell and performed by Marlene CP Radice (clarinet). It was a dedication to Thea’s mentor, Stephen Stanfield, now deceased. It was solo clarinet, pure, sometimes harsh, often cutting, sometimes meandering and mostly questing. Then Lucia Gonzales (flute) played a solo piece by Marlene CP Radice called There’s no one here, there never was. It’s based on words of a Leonard Cohen poem. Sometimes sparse, sometimes lively, it reminded me of sprites in the words. Then Playing with shadows, piano trio no. 3 by Sandra France performed by Hayley Bullock (violin), William Tu (cello) and Thea Zimpel (piano). This was the second movement of a CD, Fluctuating states of calm. The name fits: this was open and pensive and questioning. Last was a humourous finale called Mouse by Michael Sollis. We were amused by Sarah Pettigrove, Megan Billing and Kirstie Raffan (oboe, oboe, english horn) arriving in black with mouse ears. We were more amused by a four note motif with varying often lengthy rests between repeats, frequent unisons, occasional sidesteps and infrequent harmonies. All with simple sudden choreographed movements. It was much more intriguing than you would imagine and a great way to end a night of considerable inquisitiveness. John Burgess encored with an another solo bass piece to satisfy his concern over his mistepped effects. This one was more pulsingly rhythmic and featured some e-bass techniques on his very lowly strung axe: tapping, chords, slides, harmonics.

This was an intriguing and discursive concert of new music. It’s great to see we have this scene here and let’s hope we still have it after the ANU changes are put in place. Canberra New Art Music, Thea Zimpell, Nigel Poole, Larry Sitsky, Paul Witney, Marlene CP Radice, Sandra France, Michael Sollis, John Burgess, String Theory Quartet