Forest Phil - Walthamstow, Sunday 27 Feb 2011

Mark Shannahan and Forest Phil tackled a challenging program with gusto. There was no concerto to give the band a break - the replacement was Walton's Henry V suite, with its beaut string movements and full on battle music. Hope that doesnt appear in a bass audition any time soon, but apparently it has in the past!

The bass section sounded great - Jacqui Dosser joined us for the first time along with Nicko, Lesley, Helen and your truly.

Symphonie Fantastique is a piece that polarises people. I really like it but many do not. And it can be a banana skin for under prepared bass players. Most of us will look at the obvious bits in the 4th and 5th movements, but there are plenty of others that can catch us unawares. The exposed pizz passages in the intro to the first movement can be tricky to get together as a section - to rall or not to rall that is the question! The offbeat quaver passage in the middle of the first movement is tricky, individually and collectively. Despite all this, the basses sounded great.

And Arsenal lost to Birmingham in the Carling Cup Final, a great end to a wonderful day!

Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra, St Georges, Bristol - 12 Feb 2011

A thoroughly wonderful night of music making was enjoyeed by all, including Beethoven 9 and Elgar's wonderful Sea Pictures with the Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra in Bristols glorious St Georges Hall. BHCO was set up 24 years ago by Graham Appleton, a retired surgeon who is an excellent amateur bass player. I have never met anyone quite that enthusiastic any about anything, let alone the bass. Matthew Coorey did an spectacular job conducting, producing a great show and the punters left with a smile on the dial. Matthew and I worked together in Sydney and Hobart in his previous life as a horn player. BHCO is another example of a community orchestra providing very high quality music. And there were some eye watering costumes among the soloists!

End of an era, er two of them

This photo is the end of an era in two ways. It was my last gig in Australia after 15 years over there, with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, one of my favourite bands. I first worked with TSO in 1997 - this gig was in Launceston on 11/6/2010. The photo includes principal bass Stuart Thomson and ex principal Steve Martin. Steve retired at the end of 2011, after over 30 years with the band. The end of an era indeed.

Minehead Festival - chamber concert 30/1/11

I had a lot of fun down at Minehead, playing chamber music with some of the guys from the Festival Orchestra, in a fund raiser for the main festival in July. We did:-
Mozart Divertimento in F
Rossini Duetto for cello and bass
Mozart Viola 5tet in G min

I was in the first two pieces. The Rossini is always a bit of a show stopper and this was no exception. Cellist Sarah Boxall is a star, and entered into the spirit of the piece wonderfully. The audience seemed to enjoy themselves, and so too did the performers.

Beethoven 9 - First london performance

I came across this wonderful article while searching the web:-

http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2010articles/pdf/ebljarticle42010.pdf

Beethoven 9 was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society in London. Its first performance was on the continent, but the first London performance was 21 March 1825. There is a wonderful account on p16 about the booking of the bass player. Negotiations with Dragonetti stalled when he asked for 10 guineas to do the gig, and Anfossi was booked instead. He played the recit in the last movement as a bass solo!!

Opera North - Rosenkavalier and Brahms 4, 10/12/2010

What a wonderful program:-
Richard Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier Suite
Schumann - Cello Concerto
Brahms - Symphony no 4

This was my first gig in St Georges, Bradford - nice hall, a bit dry under the ear but a bit further away the band sounded great.

And a real thrill for me was that I shared a desk with Diana Milner, my teacher from 30 years ago. We had a lot of fun and caught up on lots of news.

Opera North - Russian Programme 4/12/2010

We are in the midst of a chilly snap in the UK - our weather normally comes from the Gulf Stream over the Atlantic, tipping wet warmer weather onto us at this time of year. Unfortunately the stream took a Left to Greenland, leaving us with cold weather from the North East. So its wonderful to be working with Opera North but travelling up to Leeds has been "fun"!

We have a section of 6 for a program of Rimsky Korsakov - May Nights, Prokofiev 3rd Piano Concerto with John Lill and Stravinsky's The Firebird (1945). Am sharing a desk with Jeff Box, ex principal bass with the BBC Phil, for decades. He is a lovely guy, great sense of humour, huge experience and is still a star player at the ripe old age of......now that would be telling wouldnt it!

I write this entry from Bristol - we had rehearsals on Tues and Wed this week, the band had a gig in Huddersfield on Thursday (in theory) with a smaller string section due to the hall size, so I was not booked for that one. But am going back up tomorrow for the Leeds gig on Saturday 4/12.

I have just launched my website at http://www.stuartriley.info/, and will be publishing orchestral excerpts to that site from now on.