There’s no denying it: nearly everybody goes to sleep in January, as far as serious music is concerned. I’ve written before about Melbourne’s two festivals that brighten up an otherwise lacklustre month: the Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields and the Monington Summer. But these are – for want of a better phrase – out-of-town, and neither brightens the cityscape at all. You could visit Sydney and its outré festival that is souping up Bach, as well as giving Genevieve Lacey the chance to play Telemann recorder fantasias with the support of a dance corps (well, 32 untrained dancers are slated to take part), and Gluck’s Orfeo is on at the Opera House. But that all presupposes money and travel – for what I consider is scant reward.
But Brisbane has one recital-entertainment that should prove very popular, not least because it is a shining light in a pitch-black space.
WORLD TOUR
Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Tuesday January 25 at 7:30 pm
Being behind modern trends, I wasn’t aware of this violin duo – Eddy Chen and Brett Yang – until seeing them on YouTube where TwoSet Violin is overwhelmingly present, the pair covering a wide range of material – some of it entertaining, some of it worthwhile, some of it risible. Chen and Yang aim to make serious music accessible, an ambition that they achieve usually with success, mainly because both are engaging personalities with absolutely no pretensions and a respectable swag of knowledge. Most importantly, they enjoy themselves while exercising a humour that manages to be self-deprecating, mocking (each other), neo-undergraduate, and (for musicians) infectious. That they both gave up careers with the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras to take on the lifestyle of stand-up comedians with musical talent is admirable and I can’t think of anyone in serious competition with them, on their inexorable rise from a crowd-funded world tour to the heady heights of packed, enthusiastic houses wherever they go. In fact, I think this event is already booked out! If you can get in, their accompanist is Sophie Druml (who appears on some of their YouTube videos). Tickets range between $79.05 and $179.10, with the usual QPAC ‘transaction fee’ of $7.20 added on; you have to admire the sheer graft of it.
O'Connell the Music 