High
culture in the Highlands! All Beethoven concert.
We were
treated to two hours of world-class chamber music on Saturday
10th May. 5pm is an excellent time for such a concert.
Three
musicians regaled us with a pair of Beethoven pieces before a brief
intermission and another two afterwards, finishing just after 7pm.
Kathryn Selby is a dazzlingly talented pianist and was accompanied by virtuoso
Sydney violinist Susie Park and Finnish ‘cellist Mr ‘Tipi’ Valve, both internationally
acclaimed and with good reason. These three played together such that
Ludwig van Beethoven, if he reappeared and recovered his hearing, would be
rightly pleased.
We had
brief introductions by each player explaining details of the composer’s three
distinct periods as well as some humorous anecdotes about his life, from a
difficult childhood to a serious breakdown in later life. The first and
last items were trios supplemented by two sonata ‘duos’. The pieces dated
from Beethoven’s early years in Bonn to his mature period in Vienna, the last after
two years when he ceased composing, only to return to work as productive and
inventive as ever. With his unique and era-changing
style, Leonard Bernstein said that Beethoven showed an ‘inexplicable ability to
know what the next note had to be’ in his music.
We are
fortunate that Ms Selby chooses to include the Highlands in her bi-monthly
tours which also take in Sydney, Turramurra, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide.
The hall was almost full on the two occasions I have attended, hence late
tickets would still have been available (and there are no ‘bad’ seats in this
comfortable school hall).
I hope this
is of interest to readers and I highly recommend the next concert on 28th June.
Written by Andrew Byrne ..
