I was a little unprepared for Steve Reich.  Not that I don't love his minimalist repetition (I do) or that I didn't recognise Different trains when it was played, but that variation on a theme which was this concert.  I should have checked the program; it was obvious enough.  This was three works by SR, sandwiching one by Kate Moore, Australian resident in Amsterdam, and another ..read more

Bach, Beethoven and Brahms are the 3Bs but this concert concentrated on the last two, sandwiching the C19th and the developments of modern statehood and universal democracy.  (I wonder how they might record our times).  The two slices of the sandwich were the two imported chamber groups, Trio Karénine from France and Dudok Quartet Amsterdam (with friend and guest Florian for viola no.2 ..read more

The percussion section is so often little considered although they are not just like jazz drums, playing rhythm as important as that is, but they also play pitch with keyboard substitutes on vibes and marimba and pedals on timpani or tubular bells as well as the complexity on seemingly simple instruments like the triangle.  They have to count, too!  But this was Claire Edwardes of ..read more

It's a little different with mates.  I was recording so nabbed the front of house spot to turn on and off the recorder and get some good pics so I was right under the eyes of the Dudok Quartet.  Marie-Louise viola is staying with us and we are driving the group frequently so I would be watched.  Suffice to say it was so easy with Dudok Quartet Amsterdam.  They were such a ..read more

This was guitar of a magical beauty.  I did see John Williams once but in a massive hall; being close is something different.  Clear, crisp, deeply felt playing, complex fingered chords, surprising limited obvious right hand finger movements, occasional lightning scalar runs.  These are strings well played, trebly with little obvious sustain, from quick playing or broad movements ..read more

These were the gardens of Spain, as interpreted by Saralouise Owens and Natalia Tkachenko at Wesley.  The program had that title and interestingly, flowers and pines and various growing greenery appeared frequently in the lyrics, but this was more of love, mostly lost or rejected, amongst florid words and literary circumventions and Spanish rhythm and dance.  Saralouise played the ..read more

I was chatting with trumpet Tom after the gig and I commented on how complex and difficult was this music and he suggested it had taken them 3 years to master it.  That floored me.  The recording makes it seem demanding but fairly relaxed.  The tour and this gig just opened the complexity and difficulty for all to see.  So it was not music for the faint-hearted in the audience ..read more

I have great respect for woodwinds.  They don't play so often, unlike the consistent, unrelenting playing of the strings, but when they do, the lines are essential statements of melody or at least of colour and contrast and those lines can be very difficult.  The bass is clumsy and slow if defining, but woodwinds are fast and fleet also definitional in their different way.  So I ..read more

It was with sadness but also a great deal of musical admiration and fond memories that we farewelled Niels Rosenhdahl.   There were many people present, musicians, friends and family, and plenty of the performers were on stage through a string of combinations.  Probably most had played with Niels.  Michael and Eric from Straight Up; Leigh, Aron and Sam and The Lethals; a ..read more

I've got into recording over the years and most recently into multitrack mixing and mastering, mainly of gigs at Smiths.  I find it fascinating and even, in some ways, better or more revealing than being in attendance.  Less fun, perhaps, and less personal, but revealing.  So I can solo the bass or sax of other and follow the thinking, the improvs, in detail and with repeats.& ..read more