A different experience

Our experience of the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge, was different from that of many others, and there were many others at Llewellyn Hall for the concert. It was pretty much packed, upstairs and downstairs. The choir huddled in a square on stage, younger singers in the two first rows; older choristers in another two rows behind. In front were conductor Daniel Hyde, an organist, and accompanists Alice Giles and Umberto Clerici. Alice also performed solo (Cavalli). The choir mostly performed in full, although there were pieces in the first half for the young'uns and for the King's Men, as the seniors are called. The King's Men perform and record separately. The choir consists of 16 boys from age 7 and 15 male Cambridge University students. The boys sing treble; the students sing alto, tenor, bass, split approx 4/6/8. Singers generally remain with the choir for 3 years and it's hard work. They perform evensong 6 nights per week during term, as well as practice and tours. The seniors also perform as the King's Men. This, in addition to a heavy academic workload over short 8-week terms. Not sure how many terms per year. So, how was our experience different? We billeted two students, Trojan and George. Trojan was studying music and sang bass; George was studying classics and sang alto (also bass?). But what of the concert? Canberra got program no.2 covering a range. The early works were from Bach and Byrd, Tallis and Gibbons and Monteverdi. Then through Britten and Vaughan-Williams to contemporary. Ross Edwards provided the Australian relevance with a new commission, Singing the love; Weir and Wallen provided contemporary English compositions. Wallen's Pace (=Peace) was introduced as "hear a pin drop" material and it was true: beautifully soft with unexpected dissonances that resolved (perhaps too early for this jazz lover) then reformed. Lots of harmonic colourations with staggered breathing. Funnily enough, someone did drop something tinkly and needle-like near where we sat during that tune. That was my favourite for the night but I was enamoured by the clarity and also strength of sound of all the works by the choir in that big Llewellyn space. The second half especially had me in raptures. So, a memorable concert of precise and historical voices and an interesting interaction with Cambridge, the university. This visit will just have to suffice until we get to Evensong in the chapel, when next in Cambridge.


The Choir of Kings College, Cambridge, performed in Llewellyn Hall. We billeted George Gibbon (alto) and Trojan Nakade (bass).

Home studio

We host musicians for the Canberra International Music Festival and we enjoy it immensely. To some degree, it's more interesting to host than to listen. It's more intimate, you learn lots, you're in the know to some degree, you get to hear some highly trained musicians practicing in your lounge room. Last year, it was Cecilia, a wonderful Dutch-Italian baroque violinist with Amati attached. This year, it was Anton Baba, cellist, again baroque, gut and bow, trained in US and Europe, now resident in Sydney and playing with all the best baroque groups and a lovely guy to boot. He was to play the Bach cello suite no.1 Gmaj on Saturday morning so we recorded it on Friday evening as an exercise. A nice record of the visit and a great training tool for Anton and his students.

Anton Baba (cello) recorded Bach during his stay for the Canberra International Music Festival.

Ciao Cecilia

Our CIMF this year was quiet in terms of concerts, not least because of other commitments, but was none-the-less involved. We are part of the crew that billets and drives musicians for the festival and it keeps us busy. This year we were blessed with billetting Dutch/Italian violinist Cecilia Bernardini, a lovely guest and a stunning performer. I may have bored her with amateur chatter about music, but she was gracious and informative: about violins and the lovely one she was performing with (an Amati from Cremona's golden age); tech matters like the various bows she uses for different musics and how frequently she changes her (gut) strings; her life on the road as a professional musician; her partner's and family's relationships with music; her involvements with various groups. She plays regularly with Scotland's Dunedin Consort and also in groups in Rome and Paris (ah, modern European life! Why Brexit, I wonder?) and has twice led Canada's Tafelmusik which is visiting Canberra for Musica Viva in a few weeks time. And just those friendly discussions of life and the rest that ordinary people indulge in. The sound of her practising was a pleasure: a serious performer on a serious instrument preparing Beethoven and Schubert and the like. It's wonderful to welcome guests, musical or otherwise, and a great pleasure and honour to host Cecilia.

Cecilia Bernadini (violin) was our guest for the Canberra International Music Festival 2018. BTW, Cecilia is the in the middle, in green, in the pic above.

Cheap thrills

Maybe not so cheap. This year we are not billeting but I am a driver for the Canberra International Music Festival. First up was an airport collection for Alexandre da Costa. Alex was a Canadian child prodigy violinist and now is a multi-CD (25) Sony artist, multi-award winner, performer with various of the biggest orchestras in the biggest locations and also associate professor at WA's Edith Cowan University. I expected to recognise him easily especially given a violin case, but they are so small (mine is a larger instrument) but we found each other and chatted and I drove him to his hotel. So, the not-so-cheap thrill? The Stradavarius in that diminutive violin case. I'd read he also plays a del Gesu, but he confirmed this was a Strad. I've seen Strads and the like in museums (Met, Ashmolean, perhaps others) but never transported one with its esteemed player. Suffice to say, I drove carefully, for the pickup and his later departure.

Alexandre da Costa (violin) and his Stradavarius Dubois (1667) visited Canberra for CIMF 2017.

Thanks to Wikicommons for the Stradavarius pic

Faces in misty light

We are volunteers for the CIMF and we love it. We've billeted visiting musicians for several years and enjoyed them all. Even if I bore them with endless chatter about the music. This year, we've also helped out with the taxi service, collecting whoever where-ever and delivering him/her to another wherever, essentially Ainslie Arts Centre or Fitters Workshop, but a few others besides and some other billet households. This is fun if you have the time, and perhaps more interesting than attending the concerts these people are here for. This is more personal, more informative. So, this year we had Laura Barton staying, a younger artist in the troop, one of the Festival Ensemble. A New Zealander, studying at the Te Kōki New Zealand School of Music (NZSM). We had some great chats around the breakfast table and goss about the festival itself. All amusing. We couriered a few other names, too. Featured artists and others, not least Jose Maria Gallardo del Rey and Marco Beasley and Nadia Ratsimandresy. Poor Nadia who plays the obscure Ondes Martenot and is probably driven near insanity by questions about her instrument (~10 prof players in the place of origin, France, and maybe 30 others around the world). I was little better than others, noting the Ondes M with some trivial knowledge from a YouTube video. But how nice to chat with a thoroughly pleasant Parisian on a visit down under. All immensely satisfying and beneficial for the festival and mind-broadening for us, if you have the time. And necessary: the Chair spoke at the final concert and advised the CIMF covers 40% of costs through ticket sales. So immense thanks are due to volunteers and embassies and the ACT Govt, and, to date, to the Australia Council. So, final cheers to Laura.

Eric Pozza and Megan Curlewis billeted Laura Barton for the Canberra International Music Festival 2016.

Our CIMF

The Canberra International Music Festival remains a spark on the Canberra music horizon. It's somewhat changed this year. Roland Peelman has taken over as artistic director and the main venue is the Fitters Workshop. I read Roland's message in the program and it appeals to me in several ways: the recognition of Canberra as a place of "knowledge, science and ... fact-seeking" as well as the more obvious government and governance reference. Actually, we can claim a good bit of the governance, but much of the government actually comes to Canberra. We can't lay claim to Abbott or Hockey or Babs Stilton. But Roland admires the view of setting sun in hills and they have been spectacular recently. Perhaps for all this, the theme of this festival is Einstein. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Theory of Relativity. Amongst all the hoo-ha and expenditure on another recent centenary this one is easily forgotten, but it's a mark of this institution and of Canberra that Relativity that would be remembered here. It's a mark of genius, of awareness and broadening minds. Amongst this, Roland attests this CIMF as "unashamedly" celebrating the great Western classical tradition. But CIMF is not staid, for amongst the Bach and Beethoven there are the minimalists and the contemporaries and the commissions. This is nothing if not a refreshing and intelligent event. We are involved through attendance, of course, although not so much of that (it's a busy time otherwise). We are hosting a few of the visiting artists and this is a much deeper involvement in some ways as well as just plain good fun. Kate Moore is a visiting composer and Pete Harden is performing on baritone guitar. International visitors are a reminder of difference and this is great for a settled life. These two live in the Netherlands but are from Australia (Kate studied at the Canberra School of Music) and England. This visit is much fun, although maybe I should avoid too much chatter on music. There is more to life besides music even during this week. CIMF is looking great.

Seduction at court

Garth Mansfield, the Director at Wesley Music Centre, thanked the Australian Haydn Ensemble at the end observing that they had staged 1,100 concerts over 12 years (something like that) and this was one of the best. I certainly agreed it was something special. Partly because we had involvement through billeting; partly because of the performance. This was early classical music, played with period instruments, all gut and transitional bows and fortepiano. The Wesley is great space for this music. It’s not a particularly pretty but it’s nicely timber-reverberent, of longish shape and relaxed and intimate.

The music was Haydn Clock symphony no.43, Beethoven piano concerto no.1, Salomon Romance in D and Mozart Jupiter Symphony no.41. The ensemble is not large, numbering 8 for the Mozart, so we could follow individual lines, feel the flow of melody and passing phrases, watch it in the musician’s own movements and follow their eyes as they watch for prompts. There’s no conductor, of course, so there were lots of glances. Chatting after, cellist Tony commented favourably about how frequent these glances were. Part of all this is the informality that this music seems to exude. I observed Neal Peres da Costa on fortepiano as he was watching and waiting to come in for a passage in the Beethoven, rocking on his stool with the beat. This is intimate music, and the informality of performance drips from it. It seems so unlike a conductor-led massed orchestra. There’s movement there, too, but I guess it’s lost amongst massed musicians and sections that are biding time and counting. I didn’t hear gut in Handel’s Theodora the other day in the large space of the Playhouse, but we heard gut here and felt the bouncier effect of the bows of this era (they are differently balanced and have the hand some way up the shaft). I also chatted with bassist Jacqueline Dossor and was surprised by her tiny bass (unknown Bolognese luthier c.1750) with a shape harking back to its viol forebears. It was probably built for 3 strings tuned in a triad. Things were different then. The fortepiano was even more obviously different with its soft but tubby, plucky tone. The instruments are otherworldly but so is the music. I speak of this music as dignified and courtly but to see it in this original form makes me think seductive intimacy rather than intellectual respectability. Not that there’s not classical order here, but there’s also playfulness in musical structure and in performance.

I haven’t spoken of performances here but there were seriously impressive individual presences here. I particularly noticed Melissa Farrow’s woody flute and Alice Evan’s fine violin tone and Neal Peres da Costa’s very easy-going fortepiano, but this is as much a function of their forward roles. When I concentrated on any player here, I was satisfied and involved. I loved some unison rapid lines on bass and cello, and Anthony Albrecht’s energetic responses to the music, but they were all involved and mobile. Both ensemble and audience were delighted after the performance. Joyful and informed and somewhat seductive. The Australian Haydn Ensemble returns to Wesley on 19 August for a program of the nascent classicism of CPE Bach. Sadly I can’t make it. Book early: after this gig, expect a sellout.

The Australian Haydn Ensemble performed Haydn’s Clock Symphony, arr. Salomon, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, chamber arr. Cimador, Salomon’s Romance in D, flute solo, and Beethoven’s Piano concerto no.1, arr. Lachner. The performers were Alice Evans and Skye McIntosh (violins), Heather Lloyd and James Eccles (violas), Anthony Albrecht (cello), Melissa Farrow (flute), Jacqueline Dossor (double bass) and Neal Peres da Costa (fortepiano).

Wrap-up

This Canberra International Music Festival was a blast for Megan and me. It’s a different experience to be so involved: more work, more time consuming, a busy house, but also more satisfying and more informed. We billeted James Eccles (viola) for the full festival and Graeme Jennings (violin) for the last weekend. We chatted music and heard strings at breakfast and were close to practising habits. We drove Graeme and Clare Tunney (cello) and others so chatted more. We knew of rehearsals and attended a few and these were interesting in a very different way from the performances. We heard tell of people and challenges and the inevitable minor foibles. We never tasted the soup. The density of contact and concerts taught us of composers and styles and musical history.

I blogged and attended more than I’d ever expected to, so the Festival took on shape and the creativity of Chris Latham’s (Artistic Director) event became more evident: Canberra the city, its role in democracy, its design and designers, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin, who appeared in a delightful and informative conceit. All this in the year of Canberra’s 100th anniversary and the C100 festivities. The gathering of professional players for the Canberra Camerata Chamber Orchestra and the Song Company and Roland Peelman and the New Zealand and choral and ANU and other local connections. The internationals that thrill with their presence but also mingle and share learning back and forth: Pieter Wispelway (cello) and Paul Dresher (composer, US/California) and his Double Duo and Gavin Bryars (composer, UK). The interleaving of works from the baroque and Bach to minimalism and the modern. The setting of history (Great War, fin de siecle) that was influential at the time of Canberra’s founding. It’s a rich tapestry and this festival explored it with considerable musical and historical intellect. Being a part and attending more than a few concerts lets you appreciate all these themes. Of course, this takes time and maybe that’s why so many attendees were obviously retired.

Looking back, I found little that was disappointing and this actually surprises me. Perhaps worst was the Canberra Times coverage which was almost derisory. For such a high quality and intelligent event, I expected more coverage. Chris Latham had claimed Jesus’ Blood as perhaps the most important composition of the century (he’s always enthusiastic) yet I don’t remember a review. The Sculthorpe premiere got a very limited space as part of one article reviewing 3 concerts. It may not be run with the budget and renown of more famous festivals, but it is clearly run with intelligence and creativity that I reckon would vie with the best. CIMF2013 was a hugely successful event and Chris and the others who were involved can be duly proud. So should be Canberra and Australia.