Syzygy Ensemble - astounding!

Last month I went to an astounding performance by the Syzygy Ensemble (www.syzygyensemble.com) at the Guildford Lane Gallery in Melbourne. There were so many different factors that contributed to the impact this concert had upon me.

The venue: small, out of the way, the Gallery is situated in a quiet laneway in which you could be forgiven for thinking you'd been transported to the 1900s. Held in the main downstairs space there was a small homely bar and...the programme! All across a long wall of the room was an enormous roll of white butcher's paper upon which the program was scrawled in very artistic pencil script in various fonts. It was a fantastic piece of art on it's own and it meant no-one shuffling programs during the performance.

The music: all twentieth century program - what blew me away was how new and fresh a lot of the music sounded despite being 20 or 30 years old. There were pieces by Copland, Crumb, Beaser and Corigliano.

Performance: Two performances really stood out for me: Leila Engle & Leigh Harrold playing Robert Beaser's Variations for Flute and Piano and Crumbs Apparitions with soprano Greta Bradman. The Beaser was a mammoth work at over 30mins and absolutely virtuosic. I was completely engaged by this performance and the work itself was intriguing.

The Crumb was fantastic. The music was really creepy and used several extended techniques in the piano part. It was helpful that the audience were given copies of the libretto/lyrics to read along with. Greta Bradman's singing was incredible, dramatic and exciting.

The other works on the program were similarly satisfying, but these two works sold the performance for me.

I'll look forward to the ensemble's next concert!

'Johan de Meij' concert

On the last day of term our school band performed a concert at Melba Hall with the Grainger Wind Symphony. Originally composer Johan de Meij was supposed to be guest-conducting GWS in his Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth.

Our program was:

Esprit de Corps - Robert Jager

In Stillness - Brian Hogg

Nett Interference - Taran Carter

Don Ricardo - Gabriel Musella & Rick Rodriguez

First Suite in Eb - Gustav Holst

This program was a big challenge for us. It's a significant amount of music, and to finish with the Holst is a big deal. The piece in itself requires significant stamina especially from the brass. I tried to space the demands upon the brass across the program. Esprit de Corps is also a big blow and in some ways a risky start due to the high tessitura of most parts and possible issues with intonation.

Although I'm yet to hear a recording the concert felt really good. The students definitely played Esprit de Corps the best they had so far - really lifted for the concert. In Stillness was very moving. The expression, dynamics and phrasing are really coming along in that piece. I felt the audience were satisfied with our reading of it. Nett Interference has become much more comfortable for us after several performances - I am very happy with all we have achieved through working on this piece. The composer was at the concert which was brilliant and I got to talk to him briefly afterwards. Don Ricardo was slightly undercooked - we had had the music for the shortest time. I think we have some more work to do on the contrast and really making the high points sparkle. It needs more drama.

The Holst was considerably better than their last performance. The chamber sections in the first movement were much more settled and the stress and phrasing in the March was much better. My project for term 2 will be to improve our soft dynamics - this would open up a whole new dimension to the Intermezzo.

Symphony No. 3 - 'Planet Earth'

Grainger Wind Symphony performed the Planet Earth Symphony, but without Johan de Meij who was unexpectedly unable to make it to the concert (!). The work opens with recorded artificial sounds of what one imagines to be depicting comets or asteroids passing and big bangs designed to represent - yes, the Big Bang! The piece was epic in scale and alternated between strong, fully scored sections and more introspective moments which showcased some beautiful bassoon solos in particular. It also employed celli and double bass which provided an interesting new colour and texture. The taped sounds recur throughout the work. Some difficult moments were when the band came back in with the tape and the pitch was slightly different. Towards the end of the work the texture was full and loud for an extended period which became a bit repetitive - partly due to how small the venue was for prolonged fff's and the piercing high woodwind and mallet parts. It was performed well (from what I could tell without a score). The brass were to be commeneded on their stamina - the piece was approx 50mins. long and they didn't really show any signs of flagging at any stage.

All in all it was a successful evening - even if I didn't get home till after 12am following unpacking the truck at school.

Looking forward to the next big performance!

West Side Story

I'm very behind on reporting on my concert-going activities...so, a quick catch up:

A few weeks ago I went to the MSO's concert conducted by Alexander Shelley which featured a piece by Reveultas, the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and West Side Story Symphonic Dances. I went for the Bernstein - I will pretty much go to any concert that involves Bernstein. (Although I do draw the limit at really bad school bands playing bad arrangements of WSS which I have unfortunately been privy to in the past).

This was the second time I'd seen/heard Shelley conduct the piece - the other time was in January last year with AYO. It was an exciting performance. I was listening and watching in a different way to normal as someone in the Frankston Symphony has requested that we play it in a movie-theme concert at the end of the year. In particular, I was focussing on what the strings role was and how hard their parts were. I was actually surprised at how uncomplicated yet fantastic their parts are in the first two main dances. Afterwards their parts became more challenging - far beyond our players at the moment. A highlight of the performance was Geoff Payne's trumpet solos, especially in the Mambo (always a highlight, actually) and the orchestra yelling out 'Mambo!'. Concertmaster Marcus Tomasi turned directly to the audience each time and yelled at the top of his lungs with great love and energy - looked like he was having a ball. The violas too were having fun - they seemed to pulse their instruments ever so slightly upwards. With each successive cry of 'Mambo' I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if they would go the thole Simon Bolivar thing and jump up and down. If you haven't seen the video you need to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtnjixhvOTU

Lots of fun!!

Slava Grigoriyan (?sp) played the Rodrigo, which was great, but sandwiched between the two much fuller pieces the guitar sound seemed to pale in comparison, just to do with the orchestration. Interesting to note in my future programming.