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Musica Viva concert: Katia Skanavi
I have been attending classical (to use the popular definition of the term) concerts since the mid- 1970s, but I am not musically trained and so cannot comment with any expertise on technique,...
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Musica Viva concert: Steven Isserlis & Dénes Várjon
Cello (Photo by Jamilsoni, used under Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No-derivative Works 2.0) I haven’t written about all the Musica Viva concerts I’ve attended this year because I don’t...
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Musica Viva, the Internet and Borodin
Tonight was the opening of our Musica Viva 2010 International Concert Season. The performers were the Borodin Quartet, and they performed two quartets by Shostakovich and one by their namesake,...
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Introducing the Griffyn Ensemble
A painted Griffin, Knossos (Courtesy: Paginazero, via Wikipedia, using CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported) The Griffyn Ensemble is an exciting chamber music ensemble based right here in our (that is downunder’s)...
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The illicit passions of Griffyns
The instruments await their players Ha! That got you in didn’t it? Or, didn’t it? It’s been a while since I wrote about a music event. That’s not because I haven’t been to any but because I’m no expert...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Contemporary poetry and music
telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree and the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry – they’re bringing them home, now, too late, too early. (from “Homecoming” by Bruce Dawe) Last...
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The Griffyn Ensemble’s paean to the weather
It’s pretty much a given that a Griffyn Ensemble concert will be both entertaining and challenging – and their latest concert, Cloudy With a Chance of Rain, was no exception. But this concert had an...
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Performers and the audience
Have you ever been to a show – a concert, a play, a ballet, for example – and wondered about the performers? How do they relate to each other? What do they do in their spare time? Well, quite...
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The Griffyns are on fire
Preshow setting up And now for something completely different. If Griffyn Ensemble’s last concert, Do you believe? (my review), kept us on our intellectual toes from go to whoa, their third concert* of...
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The Griffyns end the year on, hmm, a macabre note
Only the Griffyn Ensemble could put together a concert that included Arvo Pärt and Bob Dylan, that started with eerie sounds from a tape and ended with mysterious knockings and bumpings from who knows...
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The Griffyns take us north – way north
The time has come, I think, to talk about disclosures. I have been blogging for just over six years now, mostly on literature but also, occasionally, on other cultural experiences – including the...
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Virgil Thomson, Taste in music (Review)
Virgil Thomson, 1947 (Public Domain, from the Library of Congress via Wikipedia) There are several reasons why now seemed an opportune time to write my first Library of America (LOA) post for 2015. The...
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Emma Ayres, Cadence: Travels with music (Review)
Although Emma Ayres’ memoir Cadence had been passed around my reading group with much enthusiasm over the last year or so, I wasn’t intending to read it – not because I wasn’t interested, but because...
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Delicious descriptions: Emma Ayres on music
If the bicycle trip gives Emma Ayres’ travel memoir Cadence its chronological spine, it is music which provides its skeleton. However, before I discuss music, I need to respond to those commenters on...
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The Griffyns are mummified
Those Griffyns, if you haven’t realised it from my previous posts, are a brave and versatile bunch. Their latest outing, the Ear of the Cat, was inspired by musical director Michael Sollis’ residency...
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