Another Wonderful Concert

Armidale has a rich musical life and, last Thursday, we attended our second major concert in 5 days. This time the performers were the ACO2, or in longer terms, the Australian Chamber Orchestra 2. This ensemble comprised five of the orchestra's younger members plus six 2015 emerging artists and six emerging artists from earlier years. The guest director and lead violin was Australian Benjamin Schmid, one of Europe's leading violinists. So we saw just the 18 very young performers shown here.

OK, if you count carefully, one is missing! They all had a ball during their performances, especially Aiko Goto in the front who was so small she stood on a box. She was smiling and moving around so much that I feared that she'd fall off with catastrophic consequences! That didn't occur and the ensemble was triumphant. Their timing and cohesion was exemplary despite torrents of notes from some complex works.

The four works played were: Bach's Concerto for Violin in E major (BWV1042); Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence (op 70); Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings (Op 11) and first conducted by Toscanini in 1938; and Herbert Berger's Metropoles Suite for Violin and Strings. Believe it or not, he's one of Austria's leading jazz musicians and, since he was born as recently as 1969, the work must be only 20 years old at the most. Berger's work was delightful and brought together the music of several different places. The first movement, Insomnia, portrayed Salzburg; the second - El Largo Adios - took us to Barcelona; the third, A la minute, reflected Paris; and the final movement. Avenida, portrayed a street scene in Maputo - the capital of Mozambique. Many people do not like modern music, but this work was an eye-opener. Give it a go if you can find a copy.

By the way, ACO2 should be spelt slightly differently but I didn't have superscripts and subscripts to put together the right combination. It should read A, C superscript, O, 2 subscript!

AS

Last Night of the Proms

I seem to recall that the Last Night of the Proms (LNP) always takes place in August at the Royal Albert Hall. Not in 2015! It actually took place at the University of New England yesterday on Sunday 10 May. A large audience witnessed some 80 performers with the Armidale Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Gee, a local, plus dozens of singers with two local choirs - the Fiori Musicale and the Armidale Choral Society. There must be few regions of c. 25,000 people a long way from anywhere who can command those forces. The audience was also equipped with coloured streamers and a combination of Australian and British flags to throw - or wave- at appropriate moments.

The concert was in two distinct parts. The first was purely orchestral and comprised two very popular works: Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Dvorak's Symphony #9 - from the New World. The orchestra performed superbly with tempi that matched the best in the world. The renditions were really exciting and nuanced. The youngest performer, by the way, was the grand-son of a friend of yours and we estimates his age at about 12. He played the trumpet! And a brilliant local drummer, James Walsh, who accompanied a trio of local Pipers, first performed with the orchestra when he was just 8 back in 1997! He has since performed with at the World Pipeband Championships with the North Belfast Pipeband in Glasgow - and he'll be back there this coming August. A special guest representing Britannia was Ruth Strutt - guess what she sang. James participated in the second part of the concert.

And the second part of the concert matched the traditional (LNP) fare: Handel's Zadok the Priest; Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March #1 (played twice with Land of Hope and Glory added the second time); Arne's Rule Britannia with Ruth as soloist; Taylor's Naval Flourish - with James among the drummers; two traditional Scottish items - one a Hornpipe and the other the Strathspey and Reel (performed by the pipers already mentioned); Home Sweet Home; and Parry's Jerusalem. To these, the program added a medley of Australian Tunes devised for our Bicentennial in 1988.

The second part saw lots of flag waving and streamer throwing, along with audience participation in many of the choruses. However, I did observe a couple of alien flags! On was definitely the the Scottish flag and other, believe it or not, was Finnish. I surreptitiously took a few photos during the event and these are shown here. The quality is not the best, but I couldn't use flash and the focus was often far-distant. We'll start with getting ready.

Part of the programme and my blue streamer - Dot had the flag.

David Gee addressing the audience.

Audience participation in the second part.

Ruth Strutt as Britannia.

Percussion section - they were worked hard - and note the exotic headgear worn by some of the orchestra. Other items included a bowler hat and a police helmet.

Three pipers and James, the drummer, on the left. They were all fabulous and note the full regalia for the blokes.

It was a great social occasion and everyone departed smiling and chattering loudly.

AS