Repertoire

Then Maruki performing more repertoire.  I love Maruki for its brave approach to repertoire, the full programs, the unflinching takes on the hardest works.  Again a threesome of overture, concerto and symphony: Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream overture, Beethoven Piano concerto no 2 Bbmaj and Tchaikovsky Symphony no.1 Gmin.  Never flinch, even with the demands of this Tchaikovsky symphony.  This was a doozy, all chromatics and glorious melody, not least on bass and quick lines and odd timings and frantic stringendos and ever trustworthy brass who saved the day for me a few times.  This was not easy and I'd not managed too many rehearsals.  Next to the Tchaiks, the Mendelssohn seemed trivial if exciting and the Beethoven, played by Cornelia Dragusin, was beautiful with a Mozartian delicacy and danceability.  But as ever, to reach the end of such a program and such a demanding composition as the Tchaiks is a pleasure and satisfaction.  We are a welcoming unauditioned community orchestra and this is as hard as it comes but just having learnt this and the rest of the repertoire that we work through is a great satisfaction and an opportunity to get into the guts of a work and know it in a way that listening just doesn't provide.  And the size of the orchestra just confirms I'm not alone in this pleasure. PS.  The pics are from the warmup, not the concert, of course.

Maruki Orchestra preformed Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky at Albert Hall under Kristen Simpson.  The Beethoven concerto featured soloist Cornelia Dragusin (piano).  Bottom enders were Owen Livermore and Eric Pozza (bass).

Repeats

It was the second time I'd played Beethoven 5 and the program was a blast.  The first time was my second classical concert, playing with Maruki, and coincidentally, the first outing with Maruki for Kristen, then cellist, now conductor/MD.  That was 2005.  As for the program, it was a typical Maruki onslaught: Elgar Pomp & circumstance 1, Holst Jupiter, Mozart violin concerto no.5 Amaj with Georgina Chan as soloist and B5.  Interestingly, Georgina also has a history with Maruki and John Gould, Maruki's creator, now deceased.  She started lessons with him at age 4, and has played variously with the orchestra and how now completed degree and masters at the Qld Con. Whatever, this was a large outing, around 60.  I just managed to sit-in at the last minute, given travel and other, and wasn't quite prepared enough.  There are tricky lines in all those pieces, not just Beethoven.  Mozart had its slick fills; Holst various odd timings and Elgar just ecstatic and immediate.  But that's why these are so intriguing and welcoming.  We did it with some success if not perfection, but also immense pleasure and lots of, as they say ugly-ly these days, "learnings".  There's an understanding of a work that comes through the preparation and performance that I find deeply satisfying and transformative of how you hear it.  I've mentioned this to others and it's a common awareness.  At least for me, following the dots on the page while listening, then repeating those tricky parts and, from some jazz training, noting the diminished lines and the like, is the most you can do to get close to a piece.  And every one of these was a work of some genius.  Just wish I'd had more preparation.

Maruki performed Elgar, Holst, Mozart and Beethoven at Albert Hall. under Kristen Simpson (conductor) and soloist Georgina Chan (violin) for the Mozart concerto.  The bottom enders were Owen Livermore, Jeremy Tsuei and Eric Pozza (basses) with assistance from the bottom-end brass sitting adjacent, Karren Crosthwaite and David Hodgkinson (tubas).