ANAM winds

Last night's concert at ANAM was of music for winds. Four instrumentalists had spent the week working with the students: Wally Hase, flute, Dimitri Ashkenazy, clarinet, Lyndon Watts, bassoon, and Marie-Luise Neunecker, horn. Plus, of course, Nick Deutsch on oboe.

The program was varied beginning with the Wind Quintet by Harald Genzmer. He studied with Hindemith and the piece, to my ears, was more interesting than the Hindemith Sonata for 4 French Horns which followed.

The first half finished with the world premiere of Yitzhak Yedid's Music for ancient rituals. For the same scoring as the Strauss which finished the concert, it was quite noisy and busy, but I quite enjoyed it.

After interval we heard Divertimenti by Frank Bridge, for wind quartet. The inner two movements were duets, with the outer two involving all players.

My favourite work of the night (not surprise) was the Suite in B-flat major, Op 4, by Richard Strauss, a work I've known for a long time. It was wonderful to hear it in concert again (I think the last time was also at ANAM, directed by Barry Tuckwell).

A great night of music.

The good and the bad (no ugly so far)

Last Saturday afternoon I went to Covent Garden for a performance of Massenet's take on the Cinderella story, Cendrillon. The production was by Laurent Pelly (I have a couple of his productions on DVD, notably Rameau's Platée, which I love) and was a straightforward telling of the story, with a great deal of humour, aided hugely by the wonderful sets and outrageous costumes.

The glorious mezzo, Joyce DiDonato, sang the title role with Alice Coote as a rather believable Prince Charmant. The extraordinary contralto Ewa Podles did an a very entertaining comic turn as the evil step-mother. Musically the work is pleasant but fairly unmemorable, but the quality of the production and, above all, the performances made it a great afternoon's entertainment.

Life was entertaining in a different way this week with the direct broadcast of the appearance of James and Rupert Murdoch in front of the Parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Murdoch senior looked initially like a sad old man; junior was quite glib, if not verbose. In the long run, probably, not very much was achieved, but it was very satisfying to see. I've been in Britain at a rather interesting time, seeing a complete volte face being done by many in the public eye who had previously courted Murdoch and News; and seeing various people being caught up in their own webs of lies.

On Tuesday Paul B came over to Lewisham and we went to a local Turkish restaurant A&A had recommended. The food was very tasty, but there was so much (probably enough for four) that P took the leftovers home in a doggie-bag.

The next night I went to the Apollo Theatre to see a performance of Yes, Prime Minister. It has been up-dated to the twenty-first century (references to the Internet and Blackberries) with even references to the recent tribulations of News Corp. Like much of the television series the story revolves around Jim Hacker landing in a moral/political dilemma, from which he is eventually saved by Sir Humphrey. It won't win any awards, but was a bit of fun.

Last night's outing was to a concert to celebrate the life and works of the composer Geoffrey Burgon, most well known for the music for the TV series Brideshead Revisited. The City of London Sinfonia played well and other performers were the choir Wellensian Consort. Ex-Python Terry Jones, who knew Burgon from childhood, introduced the works including his viola and cello concertos, the latter receiving its premier public performance.

The bad occurrence this week was the cancelling of my Visa card - I'm not sure why, but my credit union said Visa claimed its security had been breached. I managed to use my alternative card (from another bank) successfully, but on the second attempt it too bombed out. Luckily I have my Cash Passport which still seems to be working OK - I just can't book anything online.

Education, art and music

Brent left to go back to Utrecht yesterday afternoon - it was great having a house guest and nice being able to return the favour.

This morning I went out to see Bruce M at Harrow-on-the-Hill. He spends a couple of months there every year, accompanying for students' music exams. We went on a huge walk up the hill and around the various buildings that make up the school. The view from the top of the hill is wonderful - you can see all the major London buildings.

Afterwards we jumped on the train into London and went to the Royal Academy where, thanks to Bruce's membership, we lunched in the Members' Lounge before spending some time taking in the Academy's Summer Exhibition. There was an extraordinary range of works, ranging from prints, through paintings and prints to a fascinating collection of architectural models.

This evening I took the train over to Shoreditch where I went to a concert by the Joyful Company of Singers. It consisted of various settings by Victoria interspersed with settings of the same texts by modern composers -  Pärt, Campkin, O'Regan and Jackson. The performances were very satisfying: nice tone, well tuned and intelligently performed; while not without a couple of shaky moments, in all it was a very satisfying night.

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.

Minchin about

Last night LE and I went to the Palais to see Tim Minchin in concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He is a very talented performer, writing clever, often very funny, songs which attempt to rip away much of the hype of modern life. Always taking a strictly rational view of the world, his songs, with one exception, display a complete lack of sentimentality. Often profane (I wonder how the MSO players reacted to F*** the mother-f****** Pope when they first heard it) but usually right on the mark, he interspersed his songs with fairly laid-back patter to the audience.

After singing Cont(ext) the first part of which is a string of outrageous racial, sexual and other slurs, all of which are ameliorated when sung, in the second part, in context, he was verballed by a woman at the front of the audience who claimed that she was offended by the song. He suggested that if that was how she felt, she would be better off to leave immediately, as it was only going to get worse. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with Minchin she was quietly but firmly escorted from the theatre.

He seemed a little spooked by this encounter, but was quickly back on form. In all it was a most enjoyable night. His one indulgence in sentimentality was White wine in the sun (Christmas song) in which he describes how, without any recourse to religion, he "really likes Christmas".

As an ex-ginger myself I'll leave you with this:

Food, history and music

Well, things have been fairly busy of the past couple of weeks. I've started volunteering at 3MBS, the local volunteer-run "fine music" station. So far I'm working on the reception desk answering phones and doing some data entry and it's proving to be very interesting and the people most friendly. At the moment Friday afternoon is my time there but I'm quite flexible with my time and have made it clear that I'm available at other times as well.

Saturday was a market day at the Children's Farm - it had rained most of the night so the ground was rather soggy and the attendance was fewer than usual. I picked up a tasty goat's cheese tart which we (P&B and I) had on Saturday night. After the market we headed to Smith Street for lunch - we had an extraordinarily good meal at Huxtable, one of the numerous new eateries in this burgeoning part of town. The opposite side of the road has at least a dozen places to eat between Peel and Gertrude Streets, with more to come. I see this as a challenge.

After lunch we walked up to the Johnston Street bridge where we joined a walking tour arranged by the Collingwood Historical Society. Despite a slight change of route and almost constant rain we all enjoyed a very interesting talk given by Gary Presland covering the geology, aboriginal history and the earliest European exploration of the area. 


Yesterday I joined P&B again for a visit to Melbourne University on its Cultural Treasures Day. We went on a guided walk around campus learning about the history of the university - we finished the tour in the underground carpark under the south lawn, an extraordinary space which has appeared in many films and TV shows. After the walk we made our way to the Conservatorium for a concert by the Consort of Melbourne of music of Percy Grainger. As I had missed the two previous chances to hear this concert I was thrilled to be able to enjoy what was a very impressive concert - the highlight was possibly the two-piano version of Blithe Bells, though the Tribute to Stephen Foster was pretty amazing too.


Listening to: Joyce DiDonato, Colbran, the Muse, music of Rossini.

More music

Last night I went with P&B to the South Melbourne Town Hall for the season opening concert for the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM). The hall was packed to the gills - standing room only for a most enthusiastic audience.

The program was chosen to represent some of the composers who will be highlighted in the academy's 2010 season: Schumann and Chopin, both born in 1810; Gyorgy Kurtag; and Anthony Pateras who is ANAM's composer-in-residence for this year. The works performed covered a wide range of ensembles, from solo piano through horn and piano, to tenor (Steven Davislim) and orchestra; the performances were of a consistently high standard.

The night was thoroughly enjoyable and confirms my feeling that music in Melbourne is in a remarkably good state - now I have to sit down with the ANAM program to plan out my year of concert-going.

Lunchtime concert

Today I went up to Trinity Chapel to a performance of "An Avian Miscellany: A Parlour Songbook of Birds", a collection of songs about birds, by Peter Campbell. The songs, the texts of most of which were taken from a Mother Goose collection, were beautifully sung by Louisa Hunter-Bradley accompanied by Jonathan Bradley on the piano.

A good-sized audience heard a collection of well-considered songs, many displaying great humour. The thoughtful settings avoided the obvious and reflected the emotions of the texts beautifully. I'm glad I had a program as Hunter-Bradley's diction was variable, although her performances were delightful and displayed much thought.

There were many familiar faces in the audience - I sat with Stuart and MdeC was sitting opposite.

Orchestra Project

On Tuesday night B&P (freshly returned and relaxed after their Blue Mountains holiday) and I went to the South Melbourne Town Hall to attend a concert for ANAM. As it turned out we were there to celebrate the news that the academy will continue to operate as it is, at least for another year.

The Orchestra Project, a huge orchestra made up of ANAM alumni and members from many other Australian orchestras, played an all-Strauss program. The first half was the Four Last Songs, very nicely sung by Joanna Cole - such a treat to hear such gorgeous music so well performed. After interval the orchestra leapt into Ein Heldenleben, the massive ego-centric tone poem Strauss wrote about himself. It was terrific - Fabian Russell, the conductor, handled the huge work sensitively, allowing the music to breathe when necessary but allowing the players full-rein at the climaxes.

While the hall may have been a bit small for such large forces, I think I prefer it to Hamer Hall - the bass sound was fabulous, something I would never say about the concert hall, and I could hear most of the inner lines quite clearly as well. All in all, it was a wonderful night of music.

More on Mum, and a concert

Mum had a visit last week from the aged care assessment people (or, rather, person) and she's going to organise a district nurse to come daily to administer her medications as this is one of the things she's been forgetting. There are a few other things to come as well including a rail by the front door, and probably one in the toilet as well.

On Wednesday I'm off to the doctor with Mum to get the results of the CAT scan.

Last Thursday B&P and I met and had a quick, but tasty, meal at Chillipadi in town (I had a tasty Nasi lemak) before making our way to Melba Hall for a free recital given by Rosamund Illing, with Dean Sky-Lucas on piano and Craig Hill on clarinet. The program was mixed, ranging from Purcell and Mozart to Poulenc and Obradors with some Strauss and Duparc on the way. The concert ended with Schubert's glorious Shepherd on the Rock.

It was a wonderful night; it was great to be able to relax in the knowledge that you were listening to a real artist at work (or should I say artists - Dean Sky Lucas' playing of what I know to be some extremely difficult accompaniments was accurate and sensitive). Illing's voice is well controlled with an amazing dynamic range, from whisper soft to full bore; she certainly had no problems filling Melba Hall. I think the French and Spanish songs were the best (though her coquettishness in the Obradors was just a little much), the Schubert not quite coming up to quite the same level for me. A very enjoyable evening.