A short while ago I acclaimed Armidale's two symphony orchestras - the senior version and the youth orchestra. It's not often that a modest country town of 25,000 people can support two orchestras. Today, I found out that we now have three orchestras! The former New England Sinfonia has re-emerged as the Errol Russell Sinfonia and it presented its first performance this afternoon. It's a string orchestra - violins, violas, cellos, double bass and a harpsichord.
It was simply brilliant - in terns of choice of works and quality of performance. The works were (1) Finzi's Prelude in F Minor (Op 25) dating from the 1920s, (2) J S Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G Major (c. 1720), (3) Corelli's Concerto Grosso in G Major (Op 6 #8) dated early 18th century and also called the Christmas Concerto, (4) Glazunov's Theme and Variations in G Minor (Op 97) (c. 1915), and (5) Warlock's Capriol Suite (1926). So three works were early 20th century and the other two were 300 years earlier!
Now, this orchestra stunned me in several ways. Nearly all the performers, apart from their teachers were under 25 years old! Well over three-quarters of the 18 performers were women ... or perhaps I should say girls! And despite their youth, they played with great verve and in complete unison - prrrrfect. We even received an encore after a great round of applause from the enthusiastic audience. This was top-notch stuff. It's a pity I left my phone at home. Had I taken it, I could have added a video. Alas I have no pictures.
One other thing. The performance was given added oomph by a storm raging overhead, which added peels of thunder unanticipated by the composers. They only wrote for stringed instruments, not percussion.
Perhaps I should add a second other thing. We've just gone through a sever drought, but it has now rained for about 5 days in a row giving us several inches for December. And one place in Queensland - Halifax, east of Ingham received 681 mm yesterday. That's nearly 27 inches or, for those readers in England, almost the entire annual rainfall for the south coast. Imagine that!
AS
It was simply brilliant - in terns of choice of works and quality of performance. The works were (1) Finzi's Prelude in F Minor (Op 25) dating from the 1920s, (2) J S Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3 in G Major (c. 1720), (3) Corelli's Concerto Grosso in G Major (Op 6 #8) dated early 18th century and also called the Christmas Concerto, (4) Glazunov's Theme and Variations in G Minor (Op 97) (c. 1915), and (5) Warlock's Capriol Suite (1926). So three works were early 20th century and the other two were 300 years earlier!
Now, this orchestra stunned me in several ways. Nearly all the performers, apart from their teachers were under 25 years old! Well over three-quarters of the 18 performers were women ... or perhaps I should say girls! And despite their youth, they played with great verve and in complete unison - prrrrfect. We even received an encore after a great round of applause from the enthusiastic audience. This was top-notch stuff. It's a pity I left my phone at home. Had I taken it, I could have added a video. Alas I have no pictures.
One other thing. The performance was given added oomph by a storm raging overhead, which added peels of thunder unanticipated by the composers. They only wrote for stringed instruments, not percussion.
Perhaps I should add a second other thing. We've just gone through a sever drought, but it has now rained for about 5 days in a row giving us several inches for December. And one place in Queensland - Halifax, east of Ingham received 681 mm yesterday. That's nearly 27 inches or, for those readers in England, almost the entire annual rainfall for the south coast. Imagine that!
AS
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