Good night and ...

This was the first concert at Wesley for the year and a worthy gig with distinct Canberra connections.  How fascinating!  Jennifer Hou and Patrick Galvin met while studying Masters at the San Francisco Conservatorium of Music.  During that time, Patrick's teacher, Camilla, died.  Patrick had studied with Camilla for some time and it was a great loss. The result was this musical recital and historical recitation dedicated to Camilla.  Camilla had been a notable violinist of international standard, performing personally to Sibelius, soloing with the NY Phil, playing a Stradivarius.  Her career was interrupted and she sold the Strad to later return with the violin Patrick was playing, by Australian luthier AE Smith.  Wikipedia speaks of AE Smith and his renowned varnishes and Ernest Llewellyn who played one of his instruments and Isaac Stern's admiration and friendship and other AES players including Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh and his eventual death in Canberra on 16 May 1979.  So this story has particular local resonances.  Patrick and Jennifer have presented this musical narrative in several concerts around Australia and will tour to UK and US and their recording (Dear Camilla,) is online and mostly match the musical components played at Wesley although without the recollections.  Here Camilla's story was punctuated by Sibelius, Chopin, Part along with Emma Greenhill, Ernest Chausson, Amy Beach and Jennifer Higdon and included a commission and world premiere from Jolin Jiang, Every wheel turns, including a short Chinese folk song sung by Jennifer.  The playing was fluent and together, quick but ever-expressive, and rich in harmonics, and that violin tone was strong and inviting as promised. So, a very satisfying first part of a good night.

Patrick Galvin (violin, raconteur) was accompanied by Jennifer Hou (piano, raconteur, vocals) at Wesley to recount stories of his teacher, Camilla Wicks.

Kangaroos or wallabies

I think it was the kangaroos that delayed Patrick and Jennifer for their gig at Wesley.  They started on time but it was tight.  But then Wesley is a fairly casual event, being a weekly lunchtime concert and Patrick had seen kangaroos.  He's Irish descent but San Francisco-based and I think this was his first time.  He asked about the difference between kangaroos and wallabies and we chatted otherwise about our fauna.  Jennifer is an Aussie working now in Sydney and Canberra so she knows kangaroos.  They both have SF Con in their CVs so I guess that's where they met.  Whatever, this was a classy and singular collection of tunes.  From Sibelius and Chopin arranged for violin and piano and Spanish Sarastate and an amusing Prokofiev march and a few solo violin numbers, not least con Westhoff, pre-Bach, to finish with American composer Amy Beach and a Romance for violin and piano.  All attractive but also exotic.  And all informatively introduced and played with awareness and chops.  Interestingly, with a violin made in Sydney!  A lovely afternoon concert of considerable depth.  BTW, I still don't know the difference between kangaroos and wallabies: I must look it up.

Patrick Galvin (violin) and Jennifer Hou (piano) performed a glance at romance at Wesley.