Missing hand(el)

Walking to the bedroom you know very well but half the floor is missing.  At least that's how Rowan explained his concert with a heavily bandaged and temporarily disabled finger.  Rowan's concert was entitled Faure and Handel but the program changed on Monday after an injury on Sunday but he still did it and it was still pleasant and really capable.  Maybe a bit more restrained and heavy on the right hand melodies while light on left hand chords, but it still happened.  Helen joked that Rowan had set a high bar for a cancellation at Wesley.  He had.  With a late changed program and an unusable finger, he played a few trad. Irish folk tunes, some baroque dances interpreted by contemporary Bernard Andres, a few Debussy hits including Clair de lune and Pachelbel Canon in D.  A popular concert of considerable pleasure carried out with some humour and a significant, happily temporary, restriction.  Very satisfying and also aphoristic.  After all, the show must go on.

Rowan Phemister (harp) performed despite an injured finger at Wesley.

Clever folk

It's a long time since I've interested myself in folk music.  Perhaps when I attended some Irish jams in pubs in Adelaide yonks back.  Or when I played in White Cockatoo (bush band with rock rhythm section) around the Bicentennial.  Since then, I've had this idea it's all strummy guitars and singer songwriters.  But I can be wrong and it was proven to me by Veronica Milroy and Rowan Phemister at Wesley.  Now these are capable and well-trained musicians: Veronica sings in Luminescence Chamber Choir and Rowan in the CSO.  They presented what is essentially Irish folk, but it was far more than three chords.  This was complex, written stuff.  My Lagan love was traditional but it was gloriously beautiful and presented with immense capability and interpretation with depth.  They did two tunes by Loreena McKennitt, both musically complex and touching stories and four tone poems from Mirian Hyde in a series on the sea in which you could just feel the lapping of water in the melody overlaid on the lyrics.  It's another of those times that lyrics determine melody.  I've felt this before with Beatles, Bacharach and clearly here, and it just empowers the story and enlivens the melody.  And an amusing thing called Shipping song by Lisa Knapp dedicated to the much loved BBC Shipping forecast, now well past its 150th anniversary.  It was just the last tune, Don McLean Vincent, that fitted my strummy simple folk impression, but it's a great enough tune anyway and beautifully presented by this pair.  None-the-less, it's that early, busy, complex folk that will remain for me from this concert and reinvigourate my interest in (some) folk music.

Veronica Milroy (soprano) sang Irish folk with accompaniment by Rowan Phemister (harp) at Wesley.

New

It's fascinating to hear of the history of musical instruments.  The modern-day concert, pedal harp dated from ~1800 but was still "revolutionary" for  orchestral use in 1888 in a symphony by  Cesar Franck.  By coincidence, that's also pretty much the era for Antarctic explorations (which followed the whalers after they'd depleted the northern whale populations).  There had been harp-like instruments for yonks, even from classical days and earlier (Wikipedia says 3,000BCE), but we are talking of reliable mechanisms for providing a full chromatic instrument with the ability of changing keys in an instant.  Not simple.  This was a product of Germany but the French seems to warm to the instrument.  Thus we heard a string of harp tunes, from 1919 onwards, from France, from men and women, and one popular tune, again absolutely associated with France.  Marcel Tournier provided a sonatina in 3 movements, perhaps the most significant work of the day, then 5 of 6 short pieces by Henriette Renie, Professor at the Paris Conservatoire, then the well-known stuff, Debussy Clair de Lune and Louiguy/Piaf La vie en rose.  And it was Rowan Phemister who played this program.  He's a harpist for CSO and various other orchestras around Australia, not least the Ballet (or Opera?) orchestra in the Opera House.  He mentioned frequent travel.  I asked about transporting harps by plane (no) and thus whether they are supplied by orchestras (yes; some have several).  But this was a hugely pleasurable concert, perhaps think Degas picnics, with Rowan's introductions and chatter and wonderfully expressive, understanding playing.  He gets those gigs for a reason.  The muting of palms, the sharpness of finger attacks or alternative softness, the busy footwork for pedals and also for turning pages for his act of modernisation using an iPad in place of paper, the eyes darting from strings to page, the overall musicality of this unique instrument.  This was  a serious pleasure.

Rowan Phemister (harp) performed French music at Wesley.

French olives

My last Wesley concert was before the OWJF and it was a beauty, not least for the unusual combination: violin, oboe, harp.  That clear, plucky, nylon sound of harp with the sustained sound of violin and that serpentine oboe tone.  Really delightful, but a buggar to source music.  The group is the Olive Trio and they are locals, all playing in Canberra Symphony and frequent performers are Wesley and otherwise.  They had a piece written by our local Sally Greenaway and arranged for them by Sally.  Also Debussy and Gaubert, mostly arranged for this format.  The French music suited the group well.  And an fellow student of violinist Lucy had written a piece specifically for them when he heard of the combination.  I could easily understand that; that was a world premiere.  Suffice to say they are all competent players so this was a slightly unusual but very much welcomed concert.  Lovely stuff.

The Olive Trio performed at Wesley Music Centre.  Olive Trio comprises Rowan Phemister (harp), Zoë Loxley Slump (oboe ) and Lucy Macourt (violin).

Calling Gabriel

The Bach was instantly recognisable and so was the Morricone.  Not so the Saint-Saens.  A wonderful program, but more than that.  This was a wonderfully performed outing.  I was touched by the effective interplay of violin and oboe, and the softer harp replacing the harpsichord.  Presumably, that's the original, at least for the Bach.  I was enamoured.  Poor Zoe was working between movements to keep her oboe clear and effective.  She succeeded.  This was a beautiful, sinuous tone throughout.  And Lucy's bowing was a great joy, slinky movements but rich tone and a lovely reading, moving in and out with Zoe on the Bach, or just stating with immense clarity on SS.  Rowan's part was different, being harp not keyboard, and less percussive, but always relevant, providing melody but also interesting choices in arrangement.  There was a real interplay between all three.  The SS was just two, Lucy and Rowan, who share a house so presumably play together lots.  Amusingly, their other house share buddy didn't come to the performance; she'd heard it all many, many times.  (Sounds like Megan with my recordings: I understand).  Have I been clear on how impressed I was?  This was a series of wonderful interpretations, at times blissful.  Zoe was a little dismissive of Morricone Gabriel's Oboe, but I'm a big believer in connecting thorough music that people know.  Once connected, people have open ears for new stuff.  And it's an infectious melody.  And the Bach (BWV1060, mvt.III) was a  Philip Adams LNL theme, so also already in many ears.  The SS was rare but just so good.  So in all, I was entranced.  Fabulous concert.

Lucy Macourt (violin), Zoe Loxley Slump (oboe) and Rowan Phemister (harp) performed Bach, Saint-Saens and Morricone at Wesley.