Musical catch-up

Sorry - it's been much too long between drinks. 

The last couple of weeks have been full of wonderful musical experiences starting with the concert at ANAM. The first half consisted of the Webern Variations for orchestra (so good they played it twice!) and a rather exciting trumpet concerto by Ledger. The second half was a performance of Beethoven's Eroica symphony - Sebastian Lang-Lessing conducted.

The following Sunday I accompanied B to the Recital Centre (P was in Brisbane) to hear an all-Mozart concert by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. Paul Dean, the new director of ANAM, played the clarinet concerto superbly; the sound went from whisper soft to full burble. The concert finished with a brisk performance of the 40th symphony.

More Mozart on Tuesday: Victorian Opera's new production of The Magic Flute. Sung in German but with English dialogue the production by Jean-Pierre Mignon was simple and very effective. The singing was a bit uneven with outstanding performances by Sam Dundas as Papageno and Janet Todd as Pamina. Suzy Shakespeare's Queen of the Night was perhaps a little underpowered, but very impressive to watch. Probably the disappointment of the night was Jacob Caine's Tamino - he sounded as if he wasn't quite up to the part, but the night we went there was nothing to justify BZ's Age review which said that Caine was better when he wasn't singing; unnecessary and cruel. Sets were faux Rousseau le Douanier and costumes definitely had a touch of Priscilla.

On Thursday night B and I had a quick meal at the Malaysian place at QV (P was still in Brisbane) before wandering down to the Town Hall to hear the MSO under the exiguous Mark Wigglesworth play Mahler's seventh symphony. What a knockout - both the work and the performance impressed. I don't know the Mahler symphonies as well as I would like and this performance has made me dig out my recordings. 

It's been very nice hearing these performances in venues other than Hamer Hall - acoustically all these other places seem to be so much better. Let's hope the current work being done on the hall results in a better listening experience.

On Sunday afternoon Gloriana gave our first concert for the year - Rachmaninoff's amazing setting of the Vespers. We sang to a packed church and the performance went off very well - Andrew R was very pleased at the end and the audience enjoyed it so much they stamped their feet as well as applauding. It was a hard sing requiring great stamina, especially for us on the top tenor line (quite often doubling the altos), but all the work paid off. 

A wonderful start to the musical year.

Glorious Gloriana

Last night's performance by Gloriana of Bach's Mass in B minor was one of the high points of my performing life. The orchestral rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday had suggested to me that Friday's performance would be exciting, and this was ensured by the presence of nearly 500 audience members in St Mary's Star of the Sea, West Melbourne, which definitely boosted the adrenaline levels.

A fabulous baroque band, superb soloists Siobhán Stagg, Sally-Anne Russell, Timothy Reynolds and Nick Dinopoulis and the Gloriana choir, all under the direction of our director Andrew Raiskums produced an evening of extraordinary music. From the opening of the Kyrie I felt that this was going to be a night to remember. Aside from the forces involved performing there was also the attentive and supportive audience - at times you could almost have heard a pin drop.

I am very grateful to have been a part of such a performance, and think I acquitted myself well in what is very  difficult music to sing.

For me the Bach doesn't end with last night as today I had a rehearsal for tomorrow's (early) performance of the cantata Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe with all of last night's soloists but Nick. What a treat.


If anyone is interested, the service starts at 9am at St Johns, Southgate. Admission is free.

Bach to rehearsals

Last night was my first rehearsal for the next Gloriana concert: Bach's magnificent Mass in B minor. The concert will be on Friday, November 26 at 8pm, at St Mary's Star of the Sea, West Melbourne. It promises to be a wonderful concert and I hope at least one of my readers will come.

It's a long sing, and for the tenors quite high, but last night reminded me of all the wonders contained in this amazing score. I think I'll need all the coming weeks' rehearsals to build up the stamina needed to last the distance.

While I have sung the work a couple of times at St John's Southgate, it has always been broken up into parts and spread over several weeks. The only time I have performed it as a whole was with Ensemble Gombert in 2000 for their weekend of Bach performances, timed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of his death if I recall correctly. The Mass opened the weekend festival on the Friday night, and was performed to a packed St Patrick's Cathedral; it was one of the high points in my choral-singing career.

Gloriana concert

Don't forget to tune in to ABC-FM on Sunday at 3pm to hear us singing seasonal music.

More on Mum

Mum was moved from Cabrini on Wednesday to the Elsternwick Private Hospital where she is receiving physiotherapy for rehabilitation. She's expected to be there for about a fortnight after which she may, if approved, finally go back to her cosy little home.

I visited her this afternoon with my sis and bro-in-law; she is so much better than she was a couple of weeks ago when she went to Cabrini. She greeted us with a lovely smile and seemed quite upbeat about everything - she'd been for a couple of walks already today and was sitting in her chair ready for her afternoon tea.

Other than Mum, everything is going well. Monday's rehearsal went off very well - the choir's second run through of Howell's Take him earth for cherishing went surprisingly well and the rest of the program was well covered, too.

This morning was a Children's Farm market after which, as usual, we visited Vic Gardens before adjourning to B&P's for a tasty lunch of yummy quiches from the market. This afternoon, inspired by Maggie B, I made a loaf of oat and walnut bread - it's delicious, and I suspect not long for this world.

Singing and a birthday

Back to Gloriana rehearsals this week. What fun - it looks as if it's going to be a very interesting year. You can check out the details here. I've sung a few of the works in the first and second concerts, but the third mostly unknown territory.

I never thought I'd sing in Ligeti's Lux aeterna; add to that the Sven-David Sandström paraphrase of Purcell that Tat and I heard performed by the Danish choir Camerata (in February 2006), and concert three looks decidedly scary.

We're also doing a lunchtime concert at Scots Church on Holy Thursday, and later one in Hamilton.

The other main highlight of the last couple of weeks was B's birthday last week. It was pretty low-key, despite it being a big one; I went to dinner on the day to share P's delicious vera bolognese. There was a larger gathering held on Sunday afternoon which I had to miss but we meet again for dinner tomorrow night. All we ever seem to do is eat ... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Quick ketchup

Last week DG and I had a delightful evening out with JE and DN. We all met at D&J's and walked to Rumi, a great Middle-Eastern restaurant at the top of Lygon Street. I heartily urge all readers with even the vaguest interest in food to go there and experience their great food. Though it's probably best to leave it for a week or so as it was mentioned twice in last week's theage(melbourne)magazine and so might be a bit busy for a while.

Shopped as usual on Saturday morning though without the excitement of a market. Fed B&P on Saturday night with more pizza (I do so enjoy playing with dough) and nephew SP came on Sunday to help me eat up leftovers.

Monday night was rehearsal (Note to prospective audience members: the concert on Sunday is at Trinity Chapel in Royal Parade, not St Mark's) which included birthday celebrations for AR who turned 40. As it was our dress rehearsal we couldn't really spend too much time in festivities, alas.

Last night I went to P&B's for dinner - P (who has been feeling poorly) had cooked a wonderful roast chicken which was followed by B's luscious strawberry ice-cream. We do eat well.

This morning before work I took myself off to ACMI to see the wonderful Pixar exhibition. the highlight was the "artscape" which was a video (high-def?) which was four times as wide as normal and showed an amazing and intricate amount of pre-production work from all (most) the Pixar films. Very impressive.

And then to work.