Unfortunately the city’s major newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, neglected to review the only new major work to be premiered by the Sydney Symphony in 2009, not to mention the first time Gautier Capuçon, one of the world’s shining new cellists, performed in Sydney.
However, the country’s national newspaper, The Australian, was there and published this [...]
It never rains but it pours. How often does this composer get a premiere? Not often. So how did it come about that I had three world premieres in five days on opposite sides of the world?
• Wednesday 9th Sydney Lightfall - World premiere
• Thursday 10th Sydney Lightfall - Second performance
• Friday 11th Sydney Lightfall [...]
Download and print Meet the Concerto Program September 2009
For reasons I will explain in post 43 I was not able to attend the final concert. Robert Gay, very kindly, has written the following for this blog.
Third performance – 11 September 2009, 11am
It is perhaps not a surprise to say that the last performance of a new work is likely to be the best. [...]
Second performance – 10 September 2009, 6:30pm
After the excitement of the premiere I felt rather weary during the pre-concert talk on night two. However people said it was even better than the first night so there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
The second performance of Lightfall was also better with the musicians more relaxed and in [...]
First performance – 9 September 2009, 6:30pm
They don’t teach you how to bow at composer school. Not that I studied there but I am pretty sure it is not on the curriculum. It’s certainly not something for which I have a natural flair. So I found myself on the concert hall stage at the Sydney [...]
A day in the life…
Final rehearsal this morning. A run through of the entire concert but out of order. First they played through the Dvorak. I am looking forward to the performance this evening as Gautier Capuçon is a very fine player. He has extraordinary projection but with great sensitivity.
Before the rehearsal I met Andrew [...]
Today’s rehearsal of Lightfall was quite short (less than 50 minutes) because the orchestra needed to look at the Dvorak Cello Concerto.
Richard Gill took the orchestra without soloist at a slow tempo from letter T in Part Two, then from letter R at correct tempo. Everything locked in nicely. Then they ran through the entire concerto.
Just back from the first orchestral rehearsal. Richard Gill scheduled all morning for Lightfall and another run through after lunch.
The first run through is always a mess . With knee-jerk certainty I know that there is no hope for me as a composer and consider my exit options. But I have learnt to be patient [...]
The concert on 09/09/09 will be webcast by Bigpond at 6:30pm Sydney time. It will then remain online as a view-on-demand stream. There is no cost and no need to subscribe.
Update 24 September:
You can view it here. (Click on 9 Sep Dvorak Cello Concerto. The Lightfall performance is Meet the Concerto 3). It seems to [...]
