After a short break, Chayla Ueckert-Smith who recently won the Canberra Youth Orchestra 2017 Concerto Competition, who is also an oboe teacher was there with one of her students, Olivia Wang from Radford College and they played sections from Bach’s Chorales under the direction of Downer and Maddigan.
With a Q&A between the audience and the performers, demonstrations on these unique instruments, which were passed around to members of the audience and the unique insights into the history and workings of the oboe, made for an informative morning session.
David Macfarlane performed the organ recital in the Wesley Uniting Church. There were five pieces by Bach and one from Vivaldi, which was arranged by Bach. It began with Bach’s big “Prelude and Fugue in B minor”. As the voluminous sound filled the church and shook the pews, Bach’s rich and dense music showed just how well he wrote for the king of instruments, the organ.
Macfarlane’s playing is exceptional. He almost never looks at the keyboard. The many, many notes in this Prelude and Fugue were played with a well-practised precision. The order in Bach’s music brings so much pleasure to people, and its reach is far beyond any mathematical exactness.
After lunch, the last session of the day was titled, “Musicalischer Circul”, which was music played by Bach’s inner circle of contemporaries, pupils and even copyists. The music was from Bach, J D Heinichen, J F Fasch and J P Kirnberger, with Downer and Maddigan on Oboes and Macfarlane on harpsichord.
The first piece by Bach a “Trio in G minor”, flowed with a subtle unison on oboes over its one movement. The playing on these Baroque instruments can at times be a bit squeaky, it’s the nature of the instrument, but the unique expression that they are capable of in the hands of such fine players is unquestionably good.
It was a fascinating day of music and musical knowledge, which was well catered and and run flawlessly by a dedicated group of volunteers.
Who can be trusted?
In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.
If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.
Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.
Thank you,
Ian Meikle, editor
Leave a Reply