Our little town certainly mixes it with the major cities when it comes to staging high quality orchestral concerts, and last week we were privy to yet another spectacularly successful event staged by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. This was a small group of mainly young and highly talented musicians - 17 in all, several of whom are shown in this picture. They played brilliantly and were subject to rapturous applause at the end of each work performed.
There were three very different pieces on the program: Mozart's Divertimento in D Major (K 136); Bartok's Divertimento for Stings (BB 118); and Brahms' Clarinet Quintet in B Major (Op. 115). The first of these was exquisitely and very energetically played, with perfect synchronisation and tone.
The whole event was led by Pekka Kuusisto who 'conducted' while playing his Stradivarius violin. He's played with many different leading orchestras around the world, organises international music festivals, and likes to introduce new music into the repertoire. Perhaps one of the most bizarre events occurred at the end of the concert when, after thunderous applause from the audience, we thought we were going to get an encore! Well, in one respect we did. But in all other respects it was unusual, to put it mildly. With the orchestra standing, Pekka raised his violin and performed a solo work. But he didn't use a bow. Instead, he plucked the violin and sang what I gathered to be a Finnish folk song.
All up it was a wonderful evening.
AS
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