Kronenzeitung (newspaper), Austria, 16/04/08:
"The Australian Chamber Orchestra appeared for the first time with the Steiermark Music Society. Under Concertmaster Richard Tognetti, the young chamber orchestra tore through Handel's Concerto grosso op. 6/10, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and the Suite from Rameau's tragédie lyrique, Dardanus. Enormous flexibility, tonal transparency and bold delineation of dynamic contrasts were applied to the Baroque works, which fascinatingly emerged as indirect predecessors of contemporary forms of dance music. The ensemble, which performs standing up, displayed its versatility in Ravel's String Quartet in F major – expansively arranged by Tognetti. He struck the yearning tone perfectly; the work practically seemed to have been waiting for the expressive, yet fragile sonority. For the encore, English tenor Mark Padmore, who will appear in tour concerts with the orchestra, was called to the stage. His refined, introspective "Mondnacht" from Schumann's Liederkreis proved to be a ravishingly beautiful conclusion to a magnificent concert."
Kleine Zeitung (newspaper), Austria, 16/04/08:
"The Australian Chamber Orchestra launches its 2008 European Tour in Graz's Stephaniensaal.
An almost athletic spirit inspires the Australian Chamber Orchestra. During its Graz Music Society debut it traversed Johann Sebastian Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto with such energetic, forward-charging drive that it left even the stormy tempos of a Giardino Armonico clearly behind. The brisk tempos did not detract from the clarity of the performance whatsoever. The voices of the soloist-level strings, whose virtuosity never revealed limits, meshed as precisely as cogwheels.
As its Artistic Director, Concertmaster Richard Tognetti has been tuning the ensemble, which performs standing up, to technical brilliance and tremendous stylistic flexibility since 1989. The Baroque repertoire – which at this concert included works by Handel (Concerto grosso op. 6/10) and Rameau (Dardanus Suite) – is played without vibrato, which is applied very well, however, with Joseph Haydn (in the rarely heard 64th Symphony) and Maurice Ravel (whose String Quartet Tognetti has skilfully arranged for the ensemble).
Tognetti (42) avoids all lukewarm mediocrity. He intensifies dynamic contrasts, calls for incisive articulation and leads his troupe to elegant brilliance as well as heart-warming intensity.
Surprising encore: British tenor Mark Padmore, who will appear as a soloist during the tour, sang Schumann's 'Mondnacht', in an arrangement by Tognetti, with impeccable phrasing."
Showing posts with label Graz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Graz. Show all posts
Monday, 21 April 2008
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
ON TOUR: RT IN AUSTRIA
First concert was last night. Handel Concerto Grosso, Bach Brandenburg No. 3, Haydn 64, Rameau Dardanus, Ravel Quartet.
A good ACO-only program. We had spent two days in Graz rehearsing hard and it paid off for our first concert in Austria’s 2nd largest city. Pop. 350 000. Only a bit bigger than Wollongong, but oh what it has! Their Musikverein compares with Vienna’s for beauty and quality of tone.
This beautiful, intact Styrian city is now famous for its compact and distinctive wines.
Styria sits to the south-west of the more famous Burgenland (home of Kracher sweet wines – Kracher passed away last year). Kracher was instrumental in getting Austrian wines on the map again after some fools put anti-freeze in their wine and froze the reputation of Austrian winemaking.
The audience appeared reserved (and quite stiff in appearance as the Austrians can be) but were obvious listeners of great intensity. They let loose at the end with and even got to their feet. Mark Padmore the wonderful English tenor who is appearing in other concerts came up to sing 'Mondnacht' from Schumann’s Liederkreis as an encore. “Is there a tenor in the house?”
Next concert is in beloved Maribor, Slovenia, which is only 50kms from Graz. Such is Europe that we are now in a Slavic country, only a hop from Austria. Doing a lot of media promoting our concerts and also the Festival in September here in Maribor. They are very proud to be the cultural capital of Europe in 2012 and we are planning on featuring the ACO in this year.
Ljubjana is building a new concert complex and only one hour away in Maribor they’re planning on the same – to be ready for 20121.
Working hard on The Red Tree with Michael Yezerski. The process involves much passing of scores and thrashing of opinions. We have 20 minutes of music out of 40 almost ready so we’re going well to schedule.
RT
A good ACO-only program. We had spent two days in Graz rehearsing hard and it paid off for our first concert in Austria’s 2nd largest city. Pop. 350 000. Only a bit bigger than Wollongong, but oh what it has! Their Musikverein compares with Vienna’s for beauty and quality of tone.
This beautiful, intact Styrian city is now famous for its compact and distinctive wines.
Styria sits to the south-west of the more famous Burgenland (home of Kracher sweet wines – Kracher passed away last year). Kracher was instrumental in getting Austrian wines on the map again after some fools put anti-freeze in their wine and froze the reputation of Austrian winemaking.
The audience appeared reserved (and quite stiff in appearance as the Austrians can be) but were obvious listeners of great intensity. They let loose at the end with and even got to their feet. Mark Padmore the wonderful English tenor who is appearing in other concerts came up to sing 'Mondnacht' from Schumann’s Liederkreis as an encore. “Is there a tenor in the house?”
Next concert is in beloved Maribor, Slovenia, which is only 50kms from Graz. Such is Europe that we are now in a Slavic country, only a hop from Austria. Doing a lot of media promoting our concerts and also the Festival in September here in Maribor. They are very proud to be the cultural capital of Europe in 2012 and we are planning on featuring the ACO in this year.
Ljubjana is building a new concert complex and only one hour away in Maribor they’re planning on the same – to be ready for 20121.
Working hard on The Red Tree with Michael Yezerski. The process involves much passing of scores and thrashing of opinions. We have 20 minutes of music out of 40 almost ready so we’re going well to schedule.
RT
Monday, 14 April 2008
ACO ON TOUR: GRAZ 2
April 13: The ACO is now finally down to business and rehearsing in the Stefaniesaal in Graz, a beautiful hall ornately decorated with chandeliers, gold-leaf and wall paintings that pay tribute to the master German composers of bygone centuries, a perfect space for the Orchestra to be rehearsing Bach's Cantata BWV 82, Ich habe genug, with tenor Mark Padmore and baroque flautist Katy Bircher.
The orchestra will continue rehearsing for the rest of today and will finish with one final pre-tour rehearsal with cello soloist Sol Gabetta tomorrow morning before the concerts begin.
On the subject of jet lag, some members of the members of the orchestra are still battling the temptation of sleep come 4pm most afternoons. The coffee industry in Graz has surely experienced a sudden jump in sales since our arrival a few days ago. There are a few of us that thought they had slipped into the new time zone unscathed, although given the ridiculous hour I am sending this journal entry back to the ACO office, I obviously jumped to this conclusion a little early.
Damien Low, Orchestra Manager
ACO ON TOUR: GRAZ
Orchestra Manager, Damien Low's European Tour Blog:
The orchestra has now all safely arrived in Graz, Austria after spending the previous 24 hours on a series of flights from Sydney through Singapore and Frankfurt. Miraculously not a single bag missed the connection in Frankfurt from our Qantas flight to our Lufthansa connection. This could be attributed to the fact that our Austrian travel agent looked after every detail of our connection in Frankfurt to the extent that they had cordoned off a check-in counter for the exclusive use of the ACO, or perhaps it could just be that the God of Luggage Handling (Heathrow does not fall under his/her jurisdiction) was in a good mood and smiled upon us.
Whatever the reason we are all here and reunited with our suitcases.
Our tour manager for the next few weeks is Reinhold Göggel who has already managed to gain the orchestra’s respect and admiration by ensuring that all the rooms at our hotel in Graz were ready for us at 1030 this morning. No small feat for a group of 26 people.
The orchestra now has the next 36 hours to acclimatise to the time zone and climate of our new environment before they start rehearsals with our soloists for the tour, Mark Padmore and Sol Gabetta. Now doubt this period of acclimatisation will also involve some time for the musicians to reacquaint themselves with the shopping, food and alcoholic beverages that this part of the world has to offer, test their newly purchased cameras, and of course polish up on the repertoire we will be performing in Europe over the course of the next few weeks. I think I can already hear a violin being tuned in the room next to mine.
Graz is a beautiful European town that is dotted by hundreds of historical old buildings that were seemingly untouched by the hands of war all those years ago. Like so many other European towns, Graz is divided into two main areas – the old and the new town. Dividing these two main sections is the rapidly flowing Mur River that is presumably carrying with it the freezing waters from the nearby melting snow capped mountains.
What a great place to start our 2008 European Tour.
Damien Low
The orchestra has now all safely arrived in Graz, Austria after spending the previous 24 hours on a series of flights from Sydney through Singapore and Frankfurt. Miraculously not a single bag missed the connection in Frankfurt from our Qantas flight to our Lufthansa connection. This could be attributed to the fact that our Austrian travel agent looked after every detail of our connection in Frankfurt to the extent that they had cordoned off a check-in counter for the exclusive use of the ACO, or perhaps it could just be that the God of Luggage Handling (Heathrow does not fall under his/her jurisdiction) was in a good mood and smiled upon us.
Whatever the reason we are all here and reunited with our suitcases.
Our tour manager for the next few weeks is Reinhold Göggel who has already managed to gain the orchestra’s respect and admiration by ensuring that all the rooms at our hotel in Graz were ready for us at 1030 this morning. No small feat for a group of 26 people.
The orchestra now has the next 36 hours to acclimatise to the time zone and climate of our new environment before they start rehearsals with our soloists for the tour, Mark Padmore and Sol Gabetta. Now doubt this period of acclimatisation will also involve some time for the musicians to reacquaint themselves with the shopping, food and alcoholic beverages that this part of the world has to offer, test their newly purchased cameras, and of course polish up on the repertoire we will be performing in Europe over the course of the next few weeks. I think I can already hear a violin being tuned in the room next to mine.
Graz is a beautiful European town that is dotted by hundreds of historical old buildings that were seemingly untouched by the hands of war all those years ago. Like so many other European towns, Graz is divided into two main areas – the old and the new town. Dividing these two main sections is the rapidly flowing Mur River that is presumably carrying with it the freezing waters from the nearby melting snow capped mountains.
What a great place to start our 2008 European Tour.
Damien Low
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