These are the reasons I went to this, the first two probably being marginally more decisive than the third:
1. The program included pieces by Pärt and Philip Glass.
2. The (chamber string) ensemble included a number of people I knew, most notably Jarrod.
3. It was a benefit for Urban Seed and so in a good cause to which I've had some passing exposure in the past.
This was the program:
Vivaldi - "String concerto Al Santo Sepolcro"
Vivaldi - "String concerto in G Minor RV 156"
Pärt - "Siouan's Song ("My soul yearns after the Lord")"
Glass - "String quartet No 2 (Company)"
[Interval]
Natalie Williams - Two movements from "Particle Tracks"
Richard Meale - "Cantilena Pacifica"
Sibelius - "Andante Festivo"
I wasn't previously familiar with any of the pieces, and enjoyed it all very much. All fairly contemplative, but far from oppressively so - and, as far as I could discern, well done by the players. The Glass and the Sibelius were my favourites (the spaces and silences in the Pärt got somewhat lost in the venue), each glimmering with all the stuff that I like about their respective composers. I'm pretty sure that I haven't heard any of their works done live before, so that was nice; to highlight the theme of 'urban space', the Glass piece was accompanied by photos of familiar Melbourne spaces projected on to the walls (suitable and also faintly uncanny given how frequently Glass's music is used as soundtrack score material). Good to be reminded why I like Philip Glass so much, too!
As to the venue, though - the old Baptist church on Collins Street - it generally worked really well acoustically...quite small so that the sound carried well and retained its immediacy and warmth, but somehow without the echoing and boucing off walls and ceiling that I would've expected (both Jarrod and the ensemble's leader, one Bruce Campbell - who, it turns out, I'm pretty sure I've met before at some party or other - commented separately during the interval that they were pleased with the acoustics)...what with the occasional creaking of the pews, I felt that it was an experience somewhat akin to listening to music on vinyl. Was there with Wei and Penny, and also Leana, but a whole host of others were also around (including many from MS [as the Firm will henceforth be known in these chronicles]), as always with these things...the music and the everything of it made me happy.
