Dear
Colleagues,
I am happy
to report another brilliant and uplifting concert in the Selby series at
Chevalier College at 5pm on Saturday 8th November. The same program can also be heard in
Turramurra, Wynyard, Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne over the next week.
Being an obligate
opera fan, attending chamber music is a new pleasure and an education for me - especially
after last weekend’s marvellous Met Macbeth ‘HD live’ at the Empire Theatre in
Bowral.
For the “Selby
and Friends” final concert of the year we heard Mozart’s first piano trio in
three movements, Brahms’ Werther’ piano quartet in four movements and Schubert’s
‘Trout’ piano quintet in five movements (the numbers of movements being the
same as the number of instruments is apparently coincidental).
The first
is a jolly, light-hearted romp of melody, form and technical brilliance. The second by contrast is a profoundly deep
and melancholic work. Brahms insisted
that its score be prefaced by a picture of a gun pointed at a human head,
according to our introduction. And
indeed it seemed like the most consistently minor, discordant, down-beat and
sorrowful piece ever written (apart from Chopin’s short prelude in C minor).
It was a
typically brilliant move Kathryn Selby put the ever popular Schubert ‘Trout’
quintet as the last item for the year. Five
superlative artists played to a packed and enthralled audience which gave an
enormous ovation (after a premature ‘Bravo’ from one enthusiast up the back
just before the end!).
By some
strange quirk of timing the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra were also in
Bowral earlier the same day, playing at St Jude’s Church. What a plethora of culture in this small town! Remarkably, neither of these events was on
the official visitors’ information web site for November (nor was the mushroom rail
tunnel tour).
The two-monthly
Selby concerts for 2015 look to be very enticing … http://www.selbyandfriends.com.au/
Best wishes
to all our friends, family, neighbours and colleagues in the Highlands.
Andrew
Byrne .. (Redfern addiction doc)
Clinic web page: http://methadone-research.blogspot.com/
