"Karin's Komments" on Music in Melbourne: May/June

We are taking in a lot of the musical scene of Melbourne. There are concerts of every genre, in every possible venue from town halls to our neighbouring coffee house. There are also special events that come up annually, like the “Melbourne Jazz Festival”, which offer up a myriad of concerts at venues throughout the city. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) was part of this jazz festival, and on May 8 the orchestra performed in an alternative theatre called the “ MALTHOUSE”. The conductor was none other than our own former conductor of the WSO – Bramwell Tovey! I teach the two sons of the publicity manager of the MSO, so he graciously offered us tickets for the evening. How could we refuse? The concert itself was more like our Winnipeg New Music Festival, with all the music being contemporary in sound and style.

Repertoire KATS-CHERNIN Zoom and Zip TOVEY Pictures in the Smoke BIRTWISTLE Panic ROUSE Bump

Featuring Bramwell Tovey conductor Amy Dickson saxophone David Jones drumkit

Need I say more? But for those who are interested, I will elaborate. Each number featured a different family of the orchestra. In true Tovey style, an “informative” talk preceded each number. The audience was small and we were seated close to the front. During one such introduction, Tovey caught our eyes, and thereafter kept looking back over to us. Had he recognized us? At the end of the concert, we went to meet him, and he was absolutely shocked to see us there. He gave both of us a great big hug, and chatted with us as if he were our long lost friend!

Melbourne city is divided into many different precincts, and many of these areas also present local concerts. They even sponsor their own representative amateur orchestras that rehearse and perform regularly. Rick and I were invited to perform with one such orchestra call the Stonnington Symphony.We played a concert with them on May 29 that was part of the “Stonnington Jazz Festival”. We did the Four Last Songs by Strauss and Satie’s Gymnopedie among other selections with the Australian jazz pianist/composer Tony Gould. I was asked to sit in the second desk of 1sts. The violin that I brought along here is not of a high quality and sounds very closed plus I have not managed to practice regularly out here, so I had my work cut out for me. All in all, the orchestra plays at a very high calibre, and the concert was a great success. The concert took place in the local Malvern Town Hall, and the audience sat around at round candle-lit tables with a glass of wine at hand. How cool is that?

Many musicals are also mounted in Melbourne. We have already made some lovely Australian friends, and went with one such couple on June 2^nd to see the musical “Fame”. The venue for the show was the old Regent Theatre, which is a refurbished movie theatre from the 1920’s. It is an opulent theatre. The foyer has a huge chandelier hanging down from a high vaulted ceiling The ceiling and walls are elaborately carved, and gilded almost to the point of excess. The auditorium is gigantic with three levels of seating. Where we were seated, we all got to sit in our own individual leather chair with ample leg room! The show itself was over-amplified, which tended to distort some of the music, but the dancing was superb! A good time was had by all.

June 6 - 9

There are many musical happenings offered throughout the city each day of each week. We would only barely scratch the surface of everything that is going on in Melbourne, were we to attend a concert each night. But that is what we tried to do this past week! No wonder that I am so far behind in keeping our blog up to date!

• Our week began on Sunday when we went to a Lutheran church in the morning to hear the Australian Chamber Choir sing a Bach cantata and a Bach motet. The choir was accompanied by a small orchestra playing on period instruments.
• Next we heard the Australian Chamber Orchestra play Schubert's Unfinished and the Brahms First Symphony on Monday night. This group is made up of youthful players who are led by their concertmaster. They travel throughout Australia and are a very proficient and exciting group.
• Then on Wednesday night we were invited to a wine reception/dress rehearsal with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to hear their complete ballet rendition of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. It was like a Maestro Circle event in Winnipeg, complete with oysters, proscuitto rolls and lamb egg rolls. The orchestra was hugely augmented in size, sounding very precise and powerful. It was conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, none other than the former conductor of the Toronto Symphony!

That was the end of our musical adventures this past week, as we then embarked on our next travelling adventure to the north area of our state of Victoria. It is the start of the rugged arid outback region, as you will learn about in a future blog!