Considering how regularly you have to hear the theme music of your chosen news source, you want it to be good. I tend to get my news from the ABC, who, historically, have done good work in this area. The venerable old warhorse Majestic Fanfare is still used on ABC radio nearly 80 years after its composition by Charles Williams – impressive longevity indeed, and a bit of tweaking by Richard Mills hasn’t done it any harm at all. Here’s one version of it: Here’s another ABC news theme that many will remember fondly – the Tony Ansell/Peter Wall music for the ABC’s evening news bulletin, that was used from 1985 to 2005. Here it is, sans Richard Morecroft: Now, the above two themes use fairly traditional musical tropes, and use them well. The prominence of brass instruments – the arpeggiated, almost military theme of the Fanfare, the solo trumpet in the later piece – unmistakeably heralds the bulletin. The music gets your attention immediately with its arresting gestures: the pomp and circumstance of Fanfare‘s splendid full orchestra, Ansell/Wall’s rhythmic call-and-response, and, later on, its equally rhythmic stabbing chords. Both main melodies are eminently singable. The harmonic patterns and textural…

Coffee no.1 at exactly 8.00am on Friday morning. A little tired after a very long day but a really exciting rehearsal with the singers last night. We did not get through the entire work but already I can feel that this will be a very special performance of the this piece, especially given the beautiful way the choir are singing the chorales which are rehearsed a cappella, with no accompaniment, to ensure perfect intonation and ensemble. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs are one of the hardest-working choirs in the country and as such may find themselves working on several different programmes at the same time. Having only just finished John Adams’ Harmonium a few weeks ago and with some of the members also singing in a production of The Fellowship of the Rings with Sydney Symphony, while others augment the Festival Chorus in Orff’s Carmina Burana, it is really these last few rehearsals, which tend to be closer together, where the real music-making starts to occur. Individual lines have been mastered, the language has been deconstructed and put back together and the overall shape of the music is being discovered. Last night we also went back to rehearsing “in the round”,…

A core group of twelve cellists – comprising a mixture of professionals and students from the Australian National Academy of Music – performed works by Bunting, Vivaldi (with exquisite solos from Gabriel Schwabe) and Handel. The first half concluded with a work by the festival’s featured composer Anatolijus Senderovas written for master cellist David Geringas, David’s Song. The Baudin String Quartet performed alongside Geringas in this exciting piece, something of a departure from music by Senderovas heard the night before with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. This time he called upon the performers to go beyond their instruments, occasionally shouting, interrupting each other with shrieks and squeals and eventually whispering before Geringas brought the piece to a dramatic close. The concert’s second half began with a solo performance by Geringas of Pablo Casal’s Song of the Birds, marking the debut of the brand new cello that had been built for the festival in a mere 10 days. I might point out that the usual time for construction varies but is usually at a minimum around two-and-a-half months, not including the varnishing process. I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Grant, a Melbourne violin maker who was part of the team…

We are a week away from our final dress rehearsal and many aspects of the production will come together for the first time in the next seven days. Soloists will fly in from around the country, orchestral members will play the work for the first time and the choristers who have been rehearsing weekly on this repertoire will be brought together and drilled in the finer aspects of articulation, enunciation and meaning. Today is D-day for orchestral parts. Let me explain… The orchestra has a very short period of time to rehearse the work and therefore the more detail in terms of bowing, dynamics, articulation and overall shape that is already in the parts (the actual music they play from which contains only an individual line rather than the overall picture), the less talking and the more playing in rehearsals. This band is what we refer to as a “scratch” orchestra in the sense that they are not an established group but they have all been handpicked, not just because they are good players but because they have an affinity with Baroque playing techniques. The first person chosen months in advance is the leader, in this case, Fiona Ziegler, who…

On Wednesday evening, The Tenor In My Life made his Metropolitan Opera début, singing the Drum Major in Berg’s Wozzeck. It was a very proud moment. The Met, of course, is one of those houses — if not the house — which almost every singer hopes to cross off the list, and where the roster for even a single season, let alone the last hundred years, is basically a Who’s Who of opera. It’s not the be all and end all, whatever some New Yorkers might tell you, but it’s massively significant just the same — there aren’t many operatic thrills that can beat a triumphant Met début, and that’s exactly what TTIML pulled off on Wednesday. I know I’m biased, but trust me on this: he aced it. It was also a very proud and exciting moment for me, sitting there in Row P of the stalls and clapping as hard as I could. Believe it or not, years and years ago, when opera first took over my life, I remember setting it as one of my life’s goals to one day be the guest of somebody making their Met début. I’d since forgotten all about it; only recently did…

After an inspiring morning watching David Geringas’ masterclass, I couldn’t help but barricade myself in a practice room for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, applying some of the advice that he had imparted to students and audience. That evening I was thrilled to be attending the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Master Series at the town hall featuring Geringas as soloist. Seated in the dress circle of the Adelaide Town Hall, I found the acoustic well balanced and was close enough to the stage to feel intimately involved in the performance. The concert opened with two movements from Three Miró Pieces by Australian composer Richard Meale. One was left wondering why the third piece wasn’t performed to complete the work! The ASO and Arvo Volmer’s interpretation was full of imagination – an exciting opening to the concert. I particularly enjoyed the wind solos, played with great character and energy. Next was Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Variations on a Rococo Theme. What struck me most was the power and force in Geringas’ sound. Although occasionally overbearing, it felt truly Russian in style and I enjoyed the depth and range of colours he drew from his instrument. It was fitting to reflect on his earlier…

David Geringas, the “celebrity” cellist headlining this year’s festival, presented a masterclass with three students on Saturday morning at the Elder Hall. It was so inspiring I had to write about it! Among the pearls of wisdom he imparted was an overall theme stressing the importance of “finding yourself in the music” while expressing the imagination of the composer.   The class opened with the third-movement cadenza from Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto. Geringas emphasised the importance of creating an atmosphere beyond the notes on the page. What struck me with such passionate work was the way in which Geringas demonstrated “inflections of the spoken word” through music: how the same sequence of notes could be played in an infinite number of ways. The performers had to transport themselves from a sunny morning in Australia to the very dark emotional space Shostakovich inhabits. Expressions of desperation and the occasional glimmers of hope came across with depth and expertise in these student performances. In addition, Geringas stated the importance of understanding who the composer wrote for and the kind of sound he had in mind – in this instance, that of the great Rostropovich, Geringas’ teacher and mentor.   Next we heard…

I’m writing to you from the second Adelaide International Cello Festival – a musical feast of concerts, recitals, lectures, masterclasses and more. I flew in last night, suitcase and cello in hand, just in time to see an idol of mine, Pieter Wispelwey, perform a marathon programme of Brahms, Schubert, Ligeti and Stravinsky followed by no less than three encores. A true performer, Wispelwey’s playing spoke to the audience. His extreme left-hand virtuosity was complemented by impressive bow control evident particularly from the sustained opening notes of Schubert’s Fantasy in C. What I enjoyed most about Wispelwey’s performance was the deep and compelling sense of his own personality that he so effectively conveyed through the music. From his occasional flamboyant bow flourishes at the ends of phrases to the freedom in his approach to Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, he wasn’t afraid to push boundaries. In case the concert itself wasn’t enough of a treat, complimentary wine awaited us afterward, followed by an 11pm performance by Wispelwey of Bach’s Fifth Suite. If only every day could end in such a sublime way! After such a musically fulfilling evening the night before, I couldn’t resist taking my time strolling through town on this beautiful,…

This week marked the anniversary of the death of one of my childhood heroes. 17 years ago, to the day, Kurt Cobain‘s body was discovered in his Seattle home. Although he was only 27 (the same age at which Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all passed away), the influence of his music was, and still is, huge. The Seattle sound, or “grunge”, was probably my first true sonic obsession. By the time I started studying the musical output of bands such as Cobain’s Nirvana, Eddie Vedder’s Pearl Jam and Chris Cornell’s Soundgarden, two of the three had already disbanded (and Cobain was already gone). Nevertheless, I spent years listening to, and attempting to recreate, the relatively small body of work they had produced. The first song I, and the majority of my axe-wielding school friends, learnt to play on the guitar was Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit – a rock song that continues to rank among the most popular of all time. In fact, 15 of the first 20 songs I learnt to play were probably Nirvana songs penned by Cobain. The music was simple, mainly built around power chord progressions, but it was melodic and…

The case was first heard by Justice Peter Jacobson, who concluded that there was indeed an infringement of copyright. Justice Jacobson’s reasons can be read here. An appeal was lodged, but on 31 March, last Thursday, the appellate court – constituted by Justices Arthur Emmett, Jayne Jagot and John Nicholas – unanimously dismissed the appeal, though each judge wrote a separate set of reasons. That judgment, paragraphs 13-26 of which helpfully summarise the bare-bones musical facts, appears here. Of course, there’s been ongoing media interest in the litigation, and articles appeared everywhere when the recent appellate decision was published. The piece run in the Sydney Morning Herald (and elsewhere) reported the original decision as ruling that Men At Work had “ripped off a popular Australian folk tune in their 1980s hit Down Under“. The ABC used “stolen” instead of ‘ripped off’, and reported Justice Jacobson as finding that the Down Under flute riff was “unmistakably lifted from” Kookaburra. Meanwhile, music-news.com called the lawsuit a “plagiarism case”, and reported the courts as concluding that Kookaburra was “the basis” of Down Under. With this kind of language, it’s not surprising that the decision was received with incredulity in many quarters. Kookaburra the…

We have just finished a string of successful performances with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra of John Adams’ Harmonium, one of his first truly great works for voices and instruments that explores the text of Emily Dickinson and John Donne. For anyone who doesn’t know it, it is a work of great beauty and forceful energy. At times the music seems to float suspended in the air and at other times has the precision and weight of a great old steam engine – all pistons and pulleys! Also great to work with former chief conductor Edo de Waart. As a colleague of mine once said, a real mensch! When working on these highly precise pieces, what I find fascinating is the contrast of the choir to the orchestra in the way they work and the preparation involved. The Sydney Symphony is a great orchestra made up of players totally in control of their individual skills and almost telepathically aware of each other which results in a sense of ensemble that only comes through constant playing together. The choir on the other hand is made up of people who for the large part have not trained as professional musicians but who are…

This was the second time YouTube has assembled a symphony orchestra of this grand, global scale, this year with the orchestra flown in to Sydney from 33 countries. The audition criteria raised the bar from Carnegie Hall’s YTSO1. Cellists had to play no less than five excerpts including such notorious selections as Strauss’ Don Juan. There were also concerto (Schumann or Haydn in D for cellists) and Bach requirements. The same audition process applied of uploading your audition video onto the World Wide Web to be judged by a professional panel and public vote. No comfortable task by any means, but it was an experience that had me asking myself, “what good is it to be a musician and spend your life in a practice room behind closed doors?” There will always be people to deconstruct and comment on your playing, but at the end of the day I believe we shouldn’t be afraid of that. We should be sharing our music, embracing the chance to perform for each other and taking on healthy criticism. The week leading up to the final performance was absolutely jam-packed with activities. We had masterclasses, chamber music concerts, sectional concerts, a jam session and…