Gavin the bass playing gnome!

The photos - feature "Gavin", the Orchestra Victoria bass playing gnome at Albert Park, Melbourne.

While doing the Opera Australia Autumn (er Spring in the Northern Hemisphere) season I was called into a Pearlfishers rehearsal. Dennis went AWOL and Davin is still on leave in NYC, and as I was covering the show I was called in, er 10 mins before the call started. It is custom and practice to sit him on the stool of the player who is missing. Matthew Thorne, Leanda Smith and I could not pretend to have played a flawless rehearsal but Gavin didnt play one wrong note!

Davin Holt loaned me his beautiful Panormo bass - its a George or Joseph.

WNO principal audition - June 2011

Am busy working on the excerpts for the Welsh National Opera audition in early June. The excerpts are:-
Berg - Wozzeck - Act 3 solo, fig 55
Bach - Vn conc in E - 2nd movement tune in C# min
Britten - Peter Grimes - Fig 34, Molto Allegro, tricky passage
Britten - Peter Grimes - the nasty G flat maj passage with lots of string crossings
Britten - Albert Herring - solo at fig 37
Mozart - Magic Flute - Overture, all of it
Strauss - Adriadne auf Naxos - 104-107, and 129, the latter is tricky
Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier - reh 102 and 154
Verdi - Aida - the slow A maj bit that is often a tuning problem
Verdi - Falstaff - Act III, Parte I, Allegro Agitato, molto staccato passage
Verdi - Otello - Act 4 section solo
Verdi - Rigoletto- fig 3 solo with solo cello, F maj tune
Verdi - La Traviata - stretta del introduzione, the F min passage that goes up a semitone every 2 bars
Verdi - La Traviata - bar 114, off the string passagework
Verdi - La Traviata - bar 213, off the string passagework

The solo pieces are a first movement concerto, plus another. And there is the chance of sightreading!

Its a good list, all opera except for the Bach, and lots of Verdi. No surprise there!

Stuart is off to Melbourne - 23/3/11

I am off for some sunshine and to work with Orchestra Victoria and Opera Australia. Work includes seasons of La Boheme, Pearlfishers and Verdi's Macbeth, as well as chamber music concerts and cello/bass workshops at the VCA. Unfortunately I had to pull out of some work with the Tasmanian Symphony, as there was not enough time to get from Edinburgh on 21/3 to Hobart early on 24/3, not without killing myself.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra - 21/3/11

I did a casual audition on Monday 21/3 - everything about it was wonderful, the SCO people were great including the panel. Nikita and Adrian were very gentle. And I was lucky enough to get through and get on the casual list. Am thrilled.

Mahler 7 - Opera North - 19/3/2011

Jac van Steen conducted:-
Sibelius - Tapiola
Mahler - Symphony no 7

This was a remarkable concert. After playing to 6000 in the Royal Albert Hall, the orchestra of Opera North had to sprint up the M1 for two Mahler rehearals the following day. We were knackered, but recovered to produce a wonderful show - one for the memoirs indeed. Jac is fantastic, great attention to detail as well as see the big picture, and it doesnt get much bigger than Mahler 7

Philharmonia casual audition - 11 March 2011

My next audition is on 11th March with the Philharmonia. They have set:-
solo piece of choice
Beethoven 9 - recit from last movement
Mozart 40 - first and last movements
Ein Heldenleben Fig 9-11

So, the "usual suspects" and not too many of them. Which is good as the audition is expected to be no more than 10 mins - more than enough time to see if a player is worthy of getting on a casual list.

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!