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Townsville 2012: Day 2 – Getting To Know You

The morning after the night before has a habit of leaving you wondering whether things to come will live up to memories of what has been. Festivals are no exception and after a terrific opening concert (see separate review online) the devotees turning out at 10.00am had something of a ‘match that’ look about them.  It had been a beautiful Queensland morning – shorts weather on the hotel balcony – and Concert Conversations had a slightly musty sound to it, so I was heartened to discover the secondary space at the Civic Theatre laid out rather like a church hall with tea cups and round tables at the front.  Equally appealing was being sat next to a remarkably chirpy Maggie Beer, a Festival regular and chamber music devotee, whose infectious enthusiasm was spreading like wildfire amongst the ranks of the faithful. On the menu for this morning was Festival Director, Piers Lane in conversation with the Storioni Trio and the Grigorian brothers, followed by performances from each.  In my experience, a relaxed musician can be an entertaining talker, but ‘to the point’ isn’t necessarily in the repertoire.  We needn’t have feared this morning for we were in the… Continue reading…

July 30, 2012
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Picking the talent for Townsville

Having returned yesterday from a huge week in Hobart, recording from Tuesday to Saturday with the inspiringly focused, musicianly and unceasingly energetic Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra under Howard Shelley, I realised with a sudden lurch of anticipation, the AFCM starts later this week! It is suddenly upon us and Atle Sponberg, fab violinist from Norway and the equally dazzling UK pianist Kathy Stott, have already arrived up North. It’s now Monday breakfast time and I am in a plane headed for Townsville. I had just taken my seat when I noticed a steward quibbling with a passenger about too much hand luggage. Looking up, I first spotted two violin cases – and then the smiling face of Leo Phillips, who was allowed on, violin cases and all, in the end! I last bumped into him in New Zealand late last year, as I had done the previous year. Before that, it was ages since I’d seen him, but I cherished vivid memories of performing with him as leader of the Vellinger String Quartet. One of the most pleasant aspects of my job as Artistic Director of the AFCM is being in a position to invite performers I admire and like to……

July 26, 2012
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What’s in a festival? The art of programming

I’m off to Hobart to record concertos by Malcolm Williamson with the Tasmanian Symphony for the Hyperion label in London. My partner in crime will be Howard Shelley, the British conductor and pianist of surpassing natural musicality and intelligence. It will be a week of intense concentration, culminating in a public performance of the second concerto on Saturday night. The following day, overseas artists for the Australian Festival of Chamber Music will start to arrive in Australia. Some won’t arrive until Wednesday the 25th, the first day of rehearsals. As always, they’ll somehow cope with the crazily demanding schedule of rehearsals and performances – but those who can, and who know what jetlag means, will get here as early as possible! Williamson’s Second Concerto will feature in the Governor’s Gala concert on the first Saturday evening of the festival. It is orchestrated just for strings, so it qualifies as a “chamber” concerto and will complement a second half of zany and attractive Aussie pieces by Nigel Westlake and Matthew Hindson, with the Goldner String Quartet and the Camerata of St John’s hotting things up in Hindson’s The Rave and the Nightingale, where disco meets Schubert! That’s not a bad representation…

July 16, 2012