True to my threats, I wheedled my way into yet another concert with the baroque-funtimes duo of Hannah Lane (Italian triple harp) and Nick Pollock (theorbo), otherwise known as Ensemble 642. This time, we descended on the Italian Ambassador’s Residence in Canberra with a tapestry of beautiful Italian Seicento music to delight an audience of Italian business leaders gathered from around the country.
We wowed them with pieces both luscious and attitudinous!
We wowed them with pieces both luscious and attitudinous!
Seriously though, and despite having to rehearse through grinding, sweaty-fingered heat for the whole day leading up to the concert, it was a great concert. Such a receptive audience, who were so interested in the context and practicalities of the amazing pieces we were presenting, and such gracious and enthusiastic hosts in His Excellency the Ambassador and his wonderful wife. And there is no acoustic like a solid-marble room, let me tell you! I felt like our 100-odd guests were with me for every single note, no matter how close I held the music to my chest in some moments.
I think the intimacy of baroque chamber music is one of the things that draws me to it again and again, and that sense of getting right to the heart of things….even things that were felt and written and first sung four hundred years ago. And the sense of assisting people to laugh and cry, in much the same way they would have done in response to the same music four hundred years ago, despite our world looking so different now….that’s a very special feeling.
[Photos with thanks to Yvette Devlin]
I think the intimacy of baroque chamber music is one of the things that draws me to it again and again, and that sense of getting right to the heart of things….even things that were felt and written and first sung four hundred years ago. And the sense of assisting people to laugh and cry, in much the same way they would have done in response to the same music four hundred years ago, despite our world looking so different now….that’s a very special feeling.
[Photos with thanks to Yvette Devlin]
Nick Pollock, Karen Fitz-Gibbon, HE Pier Francesco Zazo, Mrs Svetlana Sharapa Zazo, Hannah Lane