Categories: concerts
Date: 05 May 2006 14:20:23
Хрiстосъ Воскресе! (Christos Voskrese!)
[last entry: Kristo leviĝis!: Esperanto: any readers know or speak it?; response: Vere Li leviĝis!]
A wonderful evening with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (ABO) and the Sublime Baroque concert: sublime it certainly was. A beautiful selection of pieces, and all played wonderfully: it was a joy to be swept away to the 18th century for two hours. From Corelli to Bach to Handel to more: beautiful, beautiful music.
I do confess I know nothing about music, so I can't give details with the technical terms: but the joy is that the ABO seems to cater for the likes of me. Between pieces there may be a few words about the upcoming piece or the night's performances by Paul Dyer, the Artistic Director. The programme for each concert, at a very reasonable $8 (though being a season subscriber I pre-paid for these as well at a slightly reduced rate), is one of the best I've seen in all my musical and theatrical explorings: as well as information on the ABO, there is: biographies of the guest soloists and conductors; wonderfully detailed information on each of the pieces, the pieces' composers, and the mood of the times in which they were composed; a page explaining one of the baroque instruments; and an interview with one of the members of the ABO. Advertising, while there (as it needs to be), is also nowhere near as packed in (Opera Australia's programme seemed to be little else!) and intrusive as others I have seen.
The guest director (and baroque oboe soloist) tonight was Italy's Alfredo Bernardini. It was clear to see his love and passion for the music: he whirled and bobbed as he played the oboe and as he directed. He also has quite a wonderful sense of humour: when introducing a final piece, he pulled his oboe apart and used one piece as a microphone! The humour seemed to tie in well with what appears to be a very friendly orchestra: while tuning between pieces, the members are chatting to one another and sharing a laugh. This struck me for some reason tonight.
Sublime Baroque: it most certainly was.