The first weeks of January are dominated, as usual, by the Peninsula Summer Music Festival – Mornington Peninsula, that is. A change in artistic director finds oboist Ben Opie in charge of proceedings and he has widened the programmatic net to include events that have little attraction for me – Bach from an ad hoc string quartet while bathing at the Peninsula Hot Springs, Fingal; solo violin music from Jessica Oddie as you follow her around the Hot Springs estate; another peripatetic experience led by Opie on the Festival’s last night starting at the Pelican Statues in Hastings; a scattering of jazz and children’s entertainments, alongside some indigenous recitals, as well as a rock guitarist playing solo and an electronic musician providing sounds to go along with yet another Fingal bathing experience.
Slightly running into the Peninsula festival’s time space comes the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields Festival with a plethora of recitals and a few social events for the solid core of regulars.
Wednesday January 2
SUITE PERSANE
Peninsula Chamber Musicians and Guests
St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Balnarring at 2 pm
The numbers are pretty equal here: five regular Peninsularians and five guests. Some of the latter are familiar names: festival director Ben Opie, flautist Melissa Doecke, bassoonist Adam Mikulicz, while the original group is an unknown quantity to me. Their offerings are decets by Andre Caplet, the formidable orchestrator of Debussy pieces, and Enescu. Presumably, the French work is the three-movement Suite persane of 1900, and the Enescu will be its near-contemporary D Major Decet, written in 1906. Here is real festival fare: unknown scores for an unusual combination. And it’s in a venue that I haven’t experienced, although it might have featured in previous years and I’ve been too lazy to drive to a resort in high season.
Wednesday January 2
SWEETER THAN ROSES
Janet Todd and Nicholas Pollock
Hurley Vineyard, Balnarring at 6 pm
Like the preceding recital – and a good many others – this is a 60-minutes/no-interval program. It presents the talents of Victorian-born soprano Todd, nowadays making her home in Los Angeles, and lutenist Pollock. Their recital’s title refers (I hope) to the song that Purcell wrote for his semi-opera Pausanias. In any case, we are promised music that moves from Dowland, through Purcell, and then to the French Baroque. Pollock is listed as a ‘Peninsula favourite’, although his name is not one that I recall.
Thursday January 3
RAVEL’S BLUES
Sophie Rowell & Kristian Chong
Moorooduc Estate at 4 pm
Sort of self-explanatory. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster Rowell collaborates with expert pianist Chong in three sonatas, ending with Ravel’s No.2 with its central Blues in A flat movement: a sprightly construct and highly effective as long as the players don’t oversell the jazz, thinking that they have a wider scope for interpretative flamboyance than the composer intended. Preceding this come Mozart in B flat K. 454 with its stately introduction and Beethoven No. 4 in A minor which doesn’t have a slow movement. This duo is one of the program’s more certain pairings, involving two musicians of exceptional and established quality.
This program will be repeated at 6:30 pm.
Friday January 4
GODFATHER, FATHER & SON
Duo Foster-Browne
Main Ridge Estate, Red Hill at 4 pm
A neat set of relationships are enshrined in this recital’s title. The godfather is Telemann, who sponsored C. P. E. Bach at his christening. So the players are presenting music by the godfather, his godson and the proud birth father, Johann Sebastian. The duo itself comprises baroque flautist Georgia Browne and harpsichordist Tom Foster who are no strangers to each other, having presented an all-French program at the University of Edinburgh two months ago. For the senior Bach, the pickings for duets number about 8, even if some of these are disputed territory with Carl Philip Emmanuel. As for the godson, the catalogue lists 12 works for flute and continuo, as well as 5 for harpsichord and flute. Looking at Telemann’s output, the mind boggles, grappling with its variety and manifold applications and arrangements.
The program will be repeated at 7 pm.
Saturday January 5
Australian Haydn Ensemble
St. John’s Church, Flinders at 12 pm
On its website, most of the selective encomia for this group, established in 2011, come from the Sydney Morning Herald. Which might be a partial explanation for my lack of experience with them. The ensemble – or part of it – played at a Melbourne International Arts Festival, possibly during the years of Josephine Ridge’s Haydn-fixated directorship. Anyway, here they are now . . . well, a few of them: director/violinist Skye McIntosh, second violin Simone Slattery, viola James Eccles, cello James Bush, with flautist Melissa Farrow a welcome woodwind voice. The program has only two works, both by Mozart: the first Flute Quartet in D K. 285 – all 14 minutes of it – and the String Quartet in G K. 387, which is the first of the set of six that the composer dedicated to Haydn. Seems to be a short-change program if you’re after time value for money.
Saturday January 5
OF LOVE
Songmakers Australia
St. John’s Church, Flinders at 3 pm
Another duo recital, again involving well-known artists. Soprano Merlyn Quaife collaborates with Songmakers Australia director-pianist Andrea Katz. The range offered moves from Schubert to Selleck but then also promises ‘music by acclaimed Australian composers’ – to which group one hopes that the talented Johanna has by this stage been admitted. For all the vagueness, this should be an engrossing business, especially given Quaife’s career-long dedication to performing home-grown material.
Saturday January 5
AN EVENING WITH SARA MACLIVER AND THE AUSTRALIAN HAYDN ENSEMBLE
St. John’s Church, Flinders at 7 pm
This program revolves around Boccherini’s Stabat mater, the original version of 1781 which requires a soprano soloist and a supporting string quintet. As well as this substantial score, Macliver will work through arias by Handel from Apollo e Dafne, Theodora and Agrippina, while the Haydn people present Corelli’s Christmas Concerto and an arrangement for chamber ensemble by that formidable impresario Johann Peter Salomon of Haydn’s last symphony, the London (I assume this version is the one for string quartet and flute). Macliver also offers a Mozart bracket in Zerlina’s two arias – Batti, batti and Vedrai, carino – as well as Pamina’s Ach, ich fuhl’s, and Laetari, locari from the early Apollo et Hyacinthus opera by the then-11-year-old composer; his first essay in the form, actually, although this seems to be the only scrap that has moved into public awareness and, even then, I’ve never heard it live. The ensemble will probably consist of a string quintet as all the Mozart has been arranged by one ‘Lim’ – gifted local veteran composer Liza? Probably not.
Sunday January 6
MELBOURNE RECITAL CENTRE GREAT ROMANTICS WINNER
Miles Johnston
St. John’s Church, Flinders at 11:30 am
Johnston is a guitarist who won this year’s MRC competition – obviously. He’s proposing some Bach, which is par for the course and has been ever since Segovia mined the extensive archive for material, some of which worked superbly. Alongside this, we are to hear works by Australian Richard Charlton – a large catalogue to pick from – and Nikita Koshkin, a big guitar name in and from Russia. It’s an excellent festival initiative, to give a venue to this competition’s winner – especially fortunate when the lucky player is entering a field that is already packed, some of it quite talented.
Sunday January 6
SCHUBERT SONGS
Australian Haydn Ensemble and David Greco
St. John’s Church, Flinders at 2 pm
The program is all arrangements, but not all-Schubert. Greco, an assertive young baritone, is accompanied by the Haydn quintet in Die Gotter Griechenlands, Der Jungling und der Tod (the second version, I think), Gute Nacht, Frulingstraum, Der Leiermann, Der Tod und das Madchen and Der Erlkonig. And we have an identity for that unnamed arranger ‘Lim’ from yesterday’s Sara Macliver/Haydn Ensemble event. It’s Vi King Lim, who works as librarian for Symphony Services Australia and has done a good deal of work for the Haydn people. Interspersed with the lieder are some extracts from Felicien David’s Les quatre saisons, a lengthy collection of pieces for string quintet concerned with memorialising the evenings of the four seasons. For this occasion, the Haydns are playing two of the Summer and two of the Spring soirees. From what I’ve heard of them, any relationship with Schubert will be hard to sustain.
Thursday January 10
REALMS OF LIGHT
Blair Harris
Elgee Park, Dromana at 6 pm
This well-known cellist will spend much of his hour or so playing Australian music. All the works are solos and Harris starts and ends with Peter Sculthorpe: the short Sonata of 1959 and the twice-as-long Requiem written 20 years later. Stuart Greenbaum’s Lunar Orbit offers a meditation on the Apollo 11 mission; Kate Moore’s brief Whoever you are come forth takes its genesis from a Whitman line. Some deviations from the local come with Osvaldo Golijov’s Omaramor, written in memory of Argentinian tango singer Carlos Gardel who died in a 1935 plane crash; and Japanese Karen Tanaka’s The Song of Songs which calls for electronics to support the live instrument as it attempts to summon up the erotic invitation that opens King Solomon’s love-poem.
Friday January 11
MOZART’S CHURCH SONATAS
Inventi Ensemble
St. Mark’s Anglican Church, Balnarring at 2 pm
He wrote 17 works with this title, to be played between the Epistle and Gospel readings during the first part of the Mass, where the mumbled Alleluia versicle now stands. This ensemble intends to precede their selection from the sonata set with improvisations in the style of whatever follows. Flautist Melissa Doecke and oboist Ben Opie lead a sextet which includes violinists Peter Clark and Jessica Oddie, cellist William Hewer and Peter de Jager playing this church’s Laurie organ, originally built for Whitley College and moved to Balnarring last year. On this instrument, de Jager will also play ‘Wagenseil’s brilliant Concerto for Organ’, according to the promotional material; what is not hinted at is which of the 12 possibles is intended. As for the Mozart sonatas, the Inventi could play any of them, except Nos. 12, 14 and the last which all require extra woodwind/brass, including two trumpets. An intriguing program, even if those improvisations leave you wondering.
Friday January 11
ARVO PART: THE PASSION OF ST. JOHN
Schola Cantorum
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat at 8 pm
Gary Ekkel and his choir are taking on this Passio, an hour-long setting of the Johannine Gospel’s Chapters 18 and 19 by the Estonian composer. The requisite forces are a baritone soloist for Jesus, a tenor for Pilate, an SATB quartet to handle the Evengelist’s lines, a larger force for the turba, and modest instrumental resources – violin, cello, oboe, bassoon, and organ. Using Part’s tintinnabuli style – chanting till the cows come home, harmonic and rhythmic stasis, monochrome textures – the work’s intent is to invite meditation rather than express the narrative’s drama. I’ve always found it hard to find sympathy with the Baltic modern musical mystics, which is a personal fault of major proportions, yet, even if you concentrate on this work’s constructional procedures, there’s no getting around Part’s insistent abnegation of flourish. A dour start to this packed festival.
Saturday January 12
RECITAL FOR ORGAN AND SOLO CELLO
Anthony Halliday and Alvin Wong
Carngham Uniting Church, Snake Valley at 10 am
Not much news available about this recital, except that Wong will perform the Bach Suite No. 6 in D, the one that seems to require a five-stringed instrument unless you’re prepared to negotiate a fair amount of stretching and positional awkwardness. What music is there for this cello/organ combination? You’d be surprised, even if the mind automatically turns to thoughts of arrangements. Still, there’s plenty of room for Halliday to play carefully on this church’s Fincham & Hobday instrument. He is a true Festival favourite, taking his place in several variegated events year after year. Wong, a Melbourne University eminence, has operated under my radar since his appointment four years ago.
The program will be repeated at mid-day.
Saturday January 12
A PENINSULA SALON
Linda Barcan
Beleura Estate at 12:35 pm
For this event, patrons are asked to meet in the foyer of the Mornington Golf Club, from which point transport will be arranged to wherever on the estate this scheduled entertainment is to take place. Mezzo Barcan is the initiator but details are thin – well, non-existent – as to what will be performed and by whom. The aim is to mimic the 1870s-to-1880s Boulevard Saint-Germain salon of Pauline Viardot, the famous mezzo who knew and worked with most of the great musical names in Europe before and after her retirement from the stage in 1863. You’d have to assume that this afternoon’s program will comprise works that would have been heard in Viardot’s salon; from the only illustration I’ve seen, the room contained an organ which, for all I know, has a counterpart somewhere on the Beleura estate. Or things might take an unexpected turn and it could be all contemporary material, as it was in Viardot’s day. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
Saturday January 12
ORGAN RECITAL
Nello Catarcia
Ballarat Central Uniting Church at 3 pm
This musician comes from Orvieto where he is cathedral organist. The program for today mentions works by Bach, Franck and Liszt; curiously, those same three featured in the recital that Catarcia gave on May 31 in his hometown’s Duomo. However, the options available to Catarcia should ensure an enjoyable recital of the old school, and here’s hoping for something we never hear, like Liszt’s Evocation a la Chapelle Sixtine or Franck’s Grande Piece Symphonique.
Saturday January 12
IL DIAVOLO
Davide Monti, Josephine Vains, Jacqueline Ogeil
Mary’s Mount Centre, Loreto College Ballarat at 8 pm
Another giveaway title as violinist Monti sets us up for Tartini’s Devil’s Trill with support from well-known Accademia Arcadia personnel in cellist Vains and harpsichordist Ogeil. But after that, we’re in no man’s land, although the projected path is towards contemporaries of Tartini, with the additional foreshadowing that this was a period when composition often amounted to little more than sketches, thereby offering a basis for improvisation from performers. In any other hands, you’d have to be cautious but this is a well-experienced trio with a concert-giving history, so we should be happy with where they take us.
Sunday January 13
J.S.BACH – THE MUSICAL OFFERING
John O’Donnell
Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute at 3 pm
After introducing this superb work, John O’Donnell, from a Christofori piano, heads a quintet to perform the two ricercars, ten canons and four-movement trio sonata that constitute Bach’s answer to Frederick II’s challenge. Violinists Davide Monti and Simone Slattery, cellist Josephine Vains and flautist Greg Dikmans share in the labours of this gripping 45-minute-long collection of contrapuntal craft amounting to genius, much of which can be entrusted to a solo keyboard; let’s hope O’Donnell is generous in sharing the various lines, unavoidable in the sonata which requires flute and violin as well as continuo.
Sunday January 13
JAMES MACMILLAN – ‘SINCE IT WAS THE DAY OF PREPARATION
Schola Cantorum
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat at 8 pm
Back to the city’s Catholic cathedral for another impressive choral work, this one written by a Part disciple and well-known Scottish composer. Gary Ekkel and his Schola re-emerge to present this extension of MacMillan’s own St. John Passion, musically animating the Burial and Resurrection, the appearance to the disciples, and the final scene on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias – all of it sourced mainly from Chapters 20 and 21 of the Gospel text. As well, the composer uses some extra matter – a bit of St. Matthew, Tisserand’s setting of O filii et filiae, Salva festa dies in the composer’s own setting, probably. MacMillan requires, like Part, a small, sober orchestral group – clarinet, cello, horn, harp and theorbo, with occasional bells – and a vocal quintet which can be either a small choir or five soloists. The bass member sings the words of Christ. I’ve heard only scraps, which sound appropriately sombre but the composer has always had a fine ear for what travels clearly.
Monday January 14
BACH, MAHLER, WAGNER AND STRAVINSKY
Dorthe Zielke and Soren Johannsen
St. John’s Anglican Church, Creswick at 10 am
Zielke is the trumpeter, Johannsen the organist in this Danish duo. The pair have been in an established musical (and personal, I believe) relationship for 20 years and have released four CDs: one of music from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, another dealing with Handel’s Messiah, an intriguing one of Carl Nielsen’s music for the two instruments (there isn’t any, to be specific, but the disc features a multitude of arrangements, its longest track the Danish master’s famous organ solo, Commotio), and a general one packed with arrangements of Wagner, Mussorgsky, Bellini, Mascagni, Mozart, Dvorak and several others. The last of these probably indicates what’s heading to Creswick: the Liebstod and Air on the G String, for starters. No idea about the Mahler – one of the Wayfarer songs? – and the Stravinsky could be the finale to the Firebird or just a scrap from The Soldier’s Tale. Whatever the music, it will be accompanied by ‘electronically projected motifs’ provided by Arne Sorensen.
The program will be repeated at 12 noon.
Monday January 14
LES ANGELUS
Louisa Hunter-Bradley and David Macfarlane
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat at 4 pm
Yet another one of this festival’s referential titles that doesn’t carry you very far. Louis Vierne wrote a piece by this name: a triptych – morning, noon, evening – to apply to those times of day when the Marian prayer is said. The title is used on a CD featuring soprano Margaret Roest and organist Ben van Oosten. Whether Hunter-Bradley and Macfarlane follow their Dutch colleagues down a path that includes Widor’s Ave Maria, Franck’s Panis Angelicus, Chausson’s Pater noster and Poulenc’s Priez pour paix remains to be seen. All we can be sure of is that the afternoon is dedicated to Romantic era music for this combination and it is bound to be a popular event, hearing these Festival stalwarts back in their respective saddles again.
Monday January 14
SCHUBERT SONGS PART 1
David Greco and the Australian Haydn Ensemble
Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute at 8 pm
This is pretty much a re-run of the event that appears on the Peninsula Festival program on January 6 where the young baritone sings lieder interlarded with some salonesque string quintet pieces by Berlioz’s mate, Felicien David. The Haydn Ensemble participants seem to be the same, although double bass Jacqueline Dooser was not specified in the Mornington events. It’s hard to know what we will hear because in Ballarat the musicians are presenting two different programs on consecutive days, each of them coming in at close to an hour’s duration. Wait and see, I guess
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Tuesday January 15
SCHUBERT SONGS PART 2
David Greco and the Australian Haydn Ensemble
Beaufort Uniting Church at 11 am.
The only difference expressly noted for this program is that Dylan Quinlan-Basquet, choirmaster and organist at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Canterbury is coming up the highway to play an organ voluntary. Nothing specific yet but, just as I was puzzled to see how David would fit in with Schubert, I’m even more intrigued as to how a voluntary lends itself to the same lieder-heavy atmosphere – unless Greco leads off with Die junge Nonne and Quinlan-Basquet finds an appropriately menacing piece to complement it. Hard to think of one when you consider all those optimistic English composers – Gibbons, Arne, Stanley, Purcell. But then, the young man may play something of his own on the 1959 Fincham instrument. Or he may treat ‘voluntary’ in its broadest sense, which then embraces anything and everything.
The program will be repeated at 3 pm.
Tuesday January 15
SO SWEET A TOUCH
Daniel Thomson and Rosemary Hodgson
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Beaufort at 11 am
This tenor/lute program takes its title from the last words of Samuel Daniel’s Sonnet 47, Like as the lute delights, most famously set by John Danyel, a contemporary of Dowland. You’d be pretty safe in assuming that both composers will score heavily in this recital which brings tenor Thomson back to the festival after a break of some years spent honing his craft in Canada, Switzerland and England. Hodgson is Melbourne’s go-to lutenist, a familiar presence at early music happenings, particularly in the Melbourne Recital Centre. There’s not an organ work in sight but the combination would be worth the 50-kilometre trip west of Ballarat.
The recital will be repeated at 3 pm.
Wednesday January 16
MORRICONE – SCATTOLIN – PAGANINI
Massimo Scattolin, Erica Kennedy, Josephine Vains
Neil St. Uniting Church, Ballarat at 11 am
Along with Orchestra Victoria violinist Kennedy and cellist Vains, the popular guitarist will work through an all-Italian program. Scattolin has worked before with both string players in Ballarat and Melbourne recitals and he spreads his solo talents around, appearing all over this state in post-Festival events. The Morricone elements will probably be arrangements since I can’t find any original works that involve the instrument, apart from chamber scores that involve multiple guitars or guitar with instruments other than violin and/or cello. Scattolin has played his own music here in previous years; I know I’ve heard it but no memories remain. As for Paganini, there is an astounding wealth of material for guitar and violin, three duets for violin and cello, but nothing that fits this trio combination.
Wednesday January 16
FAIR IS THE ROSE
Camerata Antica
St. Joseph’s Church, Blampied at 5 pm
The Camerata has as its fulcrum the cornetto of Matthew Manchester and the soprano of Anna Sandstrom. Naturally, these two flesh out their company for specific occasions; on this evening, viola da gamba Laura Moore and Sydney organist David Drury lend their hands to some English music from the 16th and 17th centuries. Mention is made of Byrd, Tallis, William Child (a plethora of religious works, next to nothing secular) ‘and others’. Among these last, you’d expect to find Orlando Gibbons as one of his madrigals gives the recital its title. Manchester and Sandstrom have appeared in the festival before; Drury has been a regular participant; Moore has appeared with several early and not-so-early ensembles. Their combination, in the abstract, sounds delectable.
Thursday January 17
VENETIAN OBOE CONCERTI
Gianfranco Bortolato and Festival Chamber Orchestra
Former Wesley Church, Clunes at 11 am
Oboist at the Rome Opera, Bortolato is partnered by violinist Claudia Lopes and Anthony Halliday on the organ. The composers cited are Marcello, Vivaldi, Albinoni and a new name to me: Giovanni Benedetti Platti, a Paduan oboist/composer who produced a sizeable amount of music for his instrument, in particular a G minor concerto that will probably be heard this morning. Vivaldi wrote about 20 concertos for oboe; plenty of choice, then. Albinoni produced none, so Lopes might get exposure playing one of his five (possible) violin concertos. Halliday will work with the building’s small instrument: one manual with seven stops and pedal pulldowns. Here’s hoping the chamber orchestra can handle these breezy, unsheltering Baroque scores.
Thursday January 17
MOZART, HANDEL, VIVALDI AND BACH
Gianfranco Bortolato, Claudia Lopes, Anthony Halliday
St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Clunes at 2:15 pm
Following the morning concert at the Clunes Former Wesleyan Church, the three soloists present a recital in the town’s Anglican church which holds a rare Hamlin organ, recently restored although I can’t find out how or by whom. The door is wide open as to what is on the program. You could hope for the Bach Oboe and Violin Concerto or a Vivaldi sonata. As for Handel, everything is up for grabs and any Mozart would have to be an arrangement.
Thursday January 17
A CHOICE COLLECTION
Daniel Thomson and Michele Benuzzi
Loreto Chapel, Loreto College Ballarat at 8 pm
Once again, we can enjoy Thomson’s eloquent tenor, this time allied with Benuzzi’s harpsichord. The program moves from Purcell and Handel to Johann Wilhelm Hassler, who once faced off against Mozart in an organ competition. But the meagre promotional material refers to the participating musicians’ recordings as sources for the evening’s progress. Well, Thomson has only one CD and the Purcells on that are I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly, If Music be the Food of Love, Fairest Isle, Not All My Torments and What a Sad Fate is Mine; there’s no Handel or Hassler. Benuzzi, on the other hand, has produced five recordings of Hassler’s keyboard music.
Friday January 18
THE MUSIC OF MARAIS
Laura Vaughan, Laura Moore, Donald Nicholson, Nicholas Pollock
Loreto Chapel, Loreto College Ballarat at 11 am
It’s never been the same since Alain Corneau’s film Tous les matins du monde came out in 1991/2. Subsequently, Marin Marais and the viola da gamba enjoyed a resurgence of interest, the envy of most other Baroque instrument specialists. Both Vaughan and Moore are gamba experts, while Nicholson is a well-known harpsichord presence and Pollock a theorbo exponent who I believe was here recently with Van Diemen’s Band for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Part of the offerings are the Improvisation sue les Folies d’Espagne and the Chaconne in A Major from Le Labyrinthe. Further, I’d be surprised – nay, shocked – if the Sonnerie de Sainte Genevieve did not enjoy an airing.
Friday January 18
BACH – TELEMANN: TWO GIANTS OF BAROQUE
Trio Sine Nomine
Mary’s Mount Centre, Loreto College Ballarat at 3 pm
This group — violin Claudia Lopez, oboe Gianfranco Bortolato, harpsichord Michele Benuzzi – toured Australia three years ago and this afternoon gather together from their various festival exercises so far to play some music by two Baroque contemporaries and friends. You’d be scrabbling to find pieces by Bach for all three of these instruments, so I’m anticipating duos rather than trios. Telemann produced a wealth of trio sonatas for these forces. But it’s hard to pin down exactly what the In Nomine specialty area is. Complicating matters is the existence of another group of the same name, formed in Perugia in 2015: all-female and comprising two violins and piano.
Saturday January 19
AVEC CHARME
Gianfranco Bortolato and Anthony Halliday
Wendouree Centre for the Performing Arts at 11 am
Two of the more hard-working musicians in this year’s festival will appear in this morning matinee with a program that is, as yet, completely unknown. What do you make of the title? It’s the sort of meaningless phrase you come across in French real estate advertising. Translated to music, it suggests the salon. Still, the oboe/piano combination can boast original works by C. P. E. Bach, Nielsen, Donizetti, Schumann, Franck and Saint-Saens, so there’s room for substantial music-making – as well as the inevitable encore-level dross.
Saturday January 19
CANTO LATINO
Stefania Bellamio and Massimo Scattolin
Hilltop Christian Fellowship Church, Ballarat at 3 pm
Scattolin is a known quantity, soprano Bellamio not so much although she has sung here with the guitarist in 2016. Tonight’s program comes from ‘the Spanish-speaking world.’ Which takes in a helluva lot – Central and South America, the Philippines, the Caribbean, and odd enclaves all over the place. All right: the recital will probably centre on the home country’s products but there’s no harm in wishing for something more novel than all-too-familiar Falla and Granados. I wouldn’t mind hearing some refreshing Renaissance canciones, or even reworkings like the Rodrigo Cuatro madrigales amatorios.
Saturday January 19
Orava Quartet
Wendouree Centre for the Performing Arts at 8 pm
Great to have you in Ballarat, Oravas. It’s been a while since I last saw you; in fact, it might have been at that Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition in 2013 where you won two of the prizes on offer. Or your 2015 Melbourne International Arts Festival recital at the Collins St. Baptist Church. Sadly, I missed your two Melbourne Recital Centre appearances this year. Whatever the case, it’s hard to face the fact that you’ve been around for 11 years. Anyway, here you are in Wendouree and there’s no indication what you’re going to play. It could be some recycling from your Tchaikovsky/Shostakovich/Rachmaninov CD or some local material like Ross Edwards. Or a Haydn Op. 33. Or Debussy. We’ll have to see what comes out in the wash.
Sunday January 20
A TRIBUTE TO JOHN CURRO
Monica Curro, Sarah Curro, Daniel Curro
Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute at 3 pm
It’s all in the family. The renowned founder of the Queensland Youth Orchestra turned 86 this month and three of his four children – violinists Monica and Sarah from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, cellist Daniel from the Australian Brandenbyrg Orchestra – have put together a program of music by Mozart, Schubert, Paganini, Massenet and Delibes. You can find plenty of Mozart trios for this combination but nothing specific by the other four names listed. You can be sure that the occasion will work on the merits of its contributors and serve its chief purpose as a tribute to this formidable, effective educator.
Sunday January 20
A SPIRITUAL FOREST – THE SACRED MUSIC OF MONTEVERDI
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St Patrick’s Cathedral, Ballarat at 8 pm
Stephen Grant brings his vocal ensemble to St. Patrick’s to finish off the festival with soloists soprano Helen Thomson and tenors Daniel Thomson and Tom Buckmaster. The concert’s title appears to come from the composer’s 1640 collection, Selve morale e spirituale. As self-prepared anthologies go, it doesn’t have as much concert hall cachet as the 1610 Vespers. But, as forests go, the foliage and tree-trunks are impressive and Grant has a vast space to log: moral madrigals, a complete Mass and some separate fragments like a Gloria and concluding sentences from the Creed, a mass of motets and psalm settings, a brace of Magnificats and a trio of Salve Reginae – all for varying numbers of vocal lines – from one to eight – the forces ranging from purely vocal to vocal with instruments. There’s a nice symmetry in play between the opening and closing concerts in this year’s festival: from a modern-day writer who reduces his expressivity to spartan levels, to a Renaissance master who, even in the smallest pieces, startles you with his sense of theatre and bounding vitality.
O'Connell the Music 