The core

This was a mid afternoon concert at Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts. A generous and impressive place for a school hall, but this apparently belongs to the Ballarat Grammar (the headmaster was thanked for providing it). This was the core of the classical repertoire: three sonatas, two by Beethoven (no.5 Fmaj “Spring” and no.1 Dmaj), one by Brahms (no.2 Amaj). And the players were superb. Monica Curro, an assistant principal at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Stefan Cassomenos. SC had played the previous night for the opening concert. Here the piano was a generous Steinway and we were close up. I fell in love with the close spelling of the tune the shared sense of dynamics and phrasing, the frequent delicacy of the violin and the strength and forcefulness of the piano. Just superb renditions, informed and reasoned and most importantly shared. These two play together in a modern group, Plexus, and this was not that, but their mutual understanding showed. SC would often look up to MC awaiting a lead; MC was oddly positioned to not easily look to SC, but it all worked. Truly, a great treat! How the classics should be played.

Monica Curro (violin) and Stefan Cassomenos (piano) played Beethoven and Brahms sonatas.

Creole

First up was the opening concert at St Patrick’s Cathedral (huge and impressive and reaching for the stars and bedecked with ribbons). The Gloriana Chamber Choir performed with Carlos E Barcenas and Stefan Cassomenos and Argentinian percussion. They started hidden in the choir stalls with chant, unison, high and female, then a second piece of chant, this time in harmony, with mediaeval-like drums accompaniment and a slow walk to the altar. Nice. I liked this one. Then Ariel Ramirez Missa Criolla. It’s a setting of the mass in post-Vatican II non-Latin with accompaniment of South American folk idioms and indigenous instruments. I found this is bit unsatisfying for its harmonies, but others claimed this as their piece for the night. My fave for the night was two movements (3,4) form Joby Talbot Path of miracles, telling of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. It was sung mostly in English but with some Latin, accompanied by various percussion instruments, using frequent obbligato passages and the like. My favourite for the night. Very nicely sung by the Gloriana Choir, a very strong tenor voice from Carlos and some very decent accompaniment.


Gloriana Chamber Choir was led by Andrew Raiskums (conductor) with Carlos E Barcenas (tenor), Stefan Cassomenos (piano), David Richardson and Ben Smart (Argentinian percussion).