…“bravo, the music will not die” said Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), when he heard a new Italian ensemble – iMusici rehearsing in April 1952. Founded by twelve young enthusiastic musicians in 1951 based on its countries brilliant musical traditions, iMusici da Roma created a unique orchestra; six violins, two violas, two cellos, one double bass and one harpsichord. They do not have a conductor, but instead tune into each other brilliantly. Their understanding of the music is innate, their playing seamless. They have succeeded gloriously and are a true ensemble – all the parts of a whole taken together with each part considered only in relation to the whole.

Players have come and gone from this fine music ensemble over the years, but the essence at the heart of their music making has remained faithful to the vision and philosophy of its original founding players.  Current members will play an exciting program of Italian music at Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in February 2012 as part of their world 60th anniversary tour. The group will features work by great Italian composers, including Rossini, Donizetti, Paganini and Vivaldi.

There has been many interpretations and recordings of Vivaldi’s fabulous, and now famous piece of music, The Four Seasons. However nothing can really prepare you for hearing it played, one on one, by an orchestra for whom the music seems to be programmed into the DNA of its players. An iMusici recording made in 1971 sold over 25 million copies, inspiring other musicians globally and at that time brought the glory of eighteenth century Italian music to the attention of the world.

It was during the Italian Renaissance, from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century in Europe, the love of life so cherished by the ancients and expressed through its music, was re-established. The towering achievements of the Italians during that amazing period of revival and rebirth, meant that all of Europe as well as England was richly ennobled by Italian support for an expansion of world exploration and trade, the birth of the sciences, excellence in the arts as well as its great achievements in architecture. This era also heralded the arrival of a whole new era of marvelous music-making, so eloquently reflected in the grand manner of what is now known as the Baroque style, which gave free rein to the artist and his imagination.

iMusici play Excerpts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

A lively description of the power of the iMusici rendition of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ was recorded in the Braunschweig Newspaper 1.11. 2010 when the orchestra played for the people of this historic town, which located in the Harz mountains of Lower Saxony in Germany…

‘the Allegro of Primavera (Spring) blossoms with the maximum amount of energy and the scintilating bows hurl their rolls of thunder…as the sounds in a wintry squall’

The concert salon of the Ospedale della Pietá at Venice in Vivaldi's time

Composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741) is for Italians, and many others a towering figure in the world of music. Throughout his life he was commissioned to compose works for the church,  the nobility and significant members of European royalty. An exuberant and flamboyant composer, Vivaldi was an ordained priest with flaming red hair. He didn’t conduct the mass but instead for most of his life cared for a flock of disadvantaged children that he worked with, and composed for. The children were either abandoned, orphaned or had families that could not support them. They were cared for at Venice in a former hostel, which had been established for returning Crusaders – the Ospedale della Pietá.

Vivaldi’s music has an unmistakable characteristic resonance, that is all at once expressive and emotionally charged. Vivaldi was only 25 when he started composing vocal works the children could perform. A virtuoso violinist, considered a true maestro because technically his playing was flawless, he was promoted to maestro di’concerti in 1716. He became responsible for all the musical activity of this unique institution, which was a convent, orphanage and music school rolled into one. The ‘home’ was well endowed by ‘anonymous fathers’ because it also accommodated the illegitimate offspring of noblemen and their mistresses. Consequently the decor had an air that bordered on opulence.

Europe’s composers in a ‘romantic’ movement that started around 1810 and went until about 1900, developed a musical style that pushed the edges of human achievement in making music. iMusici will also play works by Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Italy’s foremost early Romantic composer. Rossini had a love of melody, like Mozart with whom he’s often compared. He produced memorable chamber music, instrumental and piano pieces. A significant composer of opera, his best known works are The Barber of Seville, which sparkles with spirit and caprice. Then there is William Tell, which was noble and serious, re-enforcing an idea of reflection and reaching great heights of pathos and lyricism. This when combined with a new-found luxury of harmony and tone meant that the music was delivered with passionate conviction and therefore entirely seductive.

However after achieving so much Rossini gave up opera suddenly at 37 years of age when he witnessed a grand opera his friend Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 – 1864) had composed – Huguenots. A conversation recorded in a book about Mendelssohn by German composer, conductor, writer and music-director Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) reveals Rossini expressed his doubts about the future of opera. iMusici will perform Rossini’s ‘Sonata a quattro’ No.1 in G major and Une Larme – Theme and variations for cello and strings, which both highlight the characteristics and sounds of superb string instruments.  The ensemble recorded Rossini’s Six String Sonata’ in 2011. They were composed when Rossini was only twelve years of age and have been called precocious. With great emotional depth they provide a challenge in technique for any player and their composition seems especially amazing when you realise that they were so finely drawn by someone so young. Rossini was a prodigy in every sense.

Views of the Hubay 1726 Stradivari played by Paganini

Other works iMusici will play include Niccolò Paganini (1782 – 1840) – Il Mosè – Theme and variations on the 4th string for violin and strings and Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (1797 – 1848) Allegro for Strings in C Major.

Paganini’s compositions were technically imaginative.  One of the most celebrated and well travelled violin virtuosi of his time, Paganini was a master of improvisation. He indulged in artistic pleasantries and musical hi jinks, including making animal noises. He excelled at entertaining the public gloriously and they adored him for it. He famously said ‘music is a question for which there is no answer’.

Donizetti was a leading composer of his day and of the opera style now known as Bel Canto, which is Italian for beautiful singing. Originally this style of music was all about placing an emphasis on virtuosity and beauty of tone. In present use the term may also refer to singing methods dating from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, particularly the early Romantic period.

The term ‘Romantic’ did not come into common use until 1880, some years after Donizetti’s death when it was more than likely being used as a counter reaction to the drama of the all new pervasive dramatic Wagnerian vocal style. Composers like Wagner knew true art in any era must find its own mode of expression. Donizetti, on the other hand. reconciled his innate Italian style with that of a respect for French grand opera, without abandoning his own countries musical heritage.

iMusici is celebrating its diamond jubilee by touring around the world to celebrate. They are visiting many cities in Europe, the Baltic, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, South America, USA, Canada, Russia, New Zealand and Australia. This is a rich presentation of individuals, their capabilities, their habitat and indeed their credentials – all of which will enhance our love for fine music making, give a little boost to our collective historical understanding and, raise our cultural awareness.

‘In every art form good models give birth to ideas by exciting the imagination‘*. Today in western tradition architecture, literature and philosophy are integral to the intellectual and artistic life of every society in every age, with its spirit expressed through the richness of its music.

The beautiful sound of music produced by Italy’s unique ensemble iMusici will be sure to revitalize and nurture the inner well-being of many Australians. You will just have to be there.

iMusici at Melbourne
Wednesday 22nd February 7:30 pm
Robert Blackwood Hall
Wellington Road, Monash University, Melbourne
Click for Bookings

iMusici at Brisbane
Thursday 23rd February 8:00 pm
QPAC Centre, South Bank, Brisbane
Click for Bookings

iMusici at Sydney
Sunday 26th February 6pm
Utzon Music Series – Bennelong Lawn, Royal Botanical Gardens
Price: $85 ($60 if purchased in sub package)
Bookings essential: (02) 9250 7777

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

Click Here iMusici 60th Anniversary Brochure

NB: All images, brochure download, video and historical information provided and used with the kind permission of iMusici da Roma

*Quote by Charles Townley (1737-1805)

Related posts:

1. Reading, TV and Music Choices for Festive Season 2011/2012
2. Changing Opera Culture in Australia: Vision & Taking Action
3. Medici Concerts 2012 Twentieth Anniversary Piano Series

When Condé Nast folded its monthly men’s magazine covering fashion for guys, Men’s Vogue in 2008, many believed it was all over for men of style. Who else was going to provide the perfect platform for design, art, culture, sports and technology to flourish that both empowered and enabled men through knowledge, without sacrificing their feelings or making them feel like fools. The male version of the famous woman’s magazine featured plenty of profiles of men who dressed to impress, especially highlighting respected actor role models from Hollywood and abroad. Smoking hot, actor George Clooney was on the first cover.

From the days of backstage action, and sometimes bad behaviour of the boys upstairs and down in TV’s ‘Downton Abbey‘, where middle class solicitor Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens) refuses to compromise or change, to the suave well suited urbane advertising man Don Draper, surviving among other Madmen on Madison Avenue, or the White Collar con-man kid himself, the slim, stylish, ever clever Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer pictured), men of style who are in vogue have always looked both sharp and sensational.

Historically male garb reflects the wearer’s power, his wealth, his youthful joie de vivre or joy of life, as well as his sporting prowess, smouldering sex appeal and, even his beauty. Over the years, fashionable male iconic images have reflected changes in society, culture,  economics, technology, politics and, morality. Styles have gone from being mature, serious and conservative to conceited, youthful and sexy in cyclical patterns.

Men of style include Matthew Crawley, heir to the Earl of Grantham’s Estate in the TV series Downton Abbey, a period drama full of drama, intrigue and wonderful acting, is part of a tradition that has courted both women and history. The costumes men worn then, just as now, provide an expose on the plush private worlds in which a man may plot a path to power on the political scene or otherwise live quietly while sponsoring others and worthy causes. It explains the diversity and humanity attached to men of action, who worked hard for the common good and commerce. We can also gain an insight into the sometimes complex world of ‘boys and their toys’ so that we can praise their prowess, capture their visionary advice, or follow their successes in both love and life.

For men in a certain social sphere the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was about being ‘bespoke’ or tailor made. It was all about peerless cut and precision, not ‘peacockery’, produced by the tailors of Savile Row, at London.

The term “bespoke” is understood to have originated on Savile Row when cloth for a suit was said to “be spoken for by an individual customer “.

The talented ‘bespoke’ tailors on Savile Row today are still sought after, and continue to survive changes in fashion, the expansion of well made ‘off the rack’ suits and, an assault on their competitiveness and competency, which will always be associated with taste, fashion, elegance, sophistication and timeless attitudes

British actor Dan Stevens plays Matthew Crawley in Downton Abbey, which is currently receiving lots of well deserved accolades. Stevens, one of the main characters, is no stranger to playing men of style or to looking dashing in period dramas and wearing bespoke suits.

In Downton Abbey his character refuses the help of a valet assigned to him, until he realizes it’s not just about him. The Earl points out to him that as the prospective head of a great estate he needs to understand the valet’s role, which for him is as important as is his own.

When he discovers he is putting the fellows livelihood on the line by sacrificing him on the altar of his pride thankfully he turns his previously priggish remarks into well earned praise. This change of attitude also changes his perspective on life and re-defines him as a man.

The costume he wears while dapper, neat and smart, is quietly confident and in line with the preferred quiet taste of an English lawyer and man of business attempting to take over the world by degrees. He wears lightweight linen suits with straw hats for summer, echoing the Earl of Grantham, played so competently by Actor Hugh Bonneville, a man of great elegance and style. Crawley wears wool suits and coats with bowler hats for business and the rest of the year.

For the boy who studied English Literature at Cambridge before bursting onto stage and screen Dan Stevens has become one of the 21st centuries everyday stylish, successful men, who inserts himself well into the Downton Abbey milieu upstairs while empathizing and sympathising with the boys from downstairs.

Despite being just a bit greedy and ambitious, while giving us a fabulous ‘I don’t give a damn’ look, Thomas the Footman, played suitably by actor Rob James-Collier, looks very dashing in his suit.

What everyone wore in a house, like that of an Earl like Grantham was important. It reflected to all the people who visited the Earl ‘at home’ his status, commonsense approach, honour, valour and integrity, all important attributes for a peer of the realm.

Whether upstairs or downstairs, men were looked up to as leaders not only of taste and style, but also of the society they kept and so they needed to make doubly sure that they got it right.

Securing your station in life certainly depended on just how able you proved yourself to be. Looking the part too was important, because it was about perceptions.

Don Draper, single handedly has put the E back into Esquire. He is one very urbane, suave, stylish dude. A sixties adman played superbly by American Actor Jon Hamm.

Instead of a pre-war period drama, this television series is about the new modern man, the one who inhabited the fashionable late fifties and sensational sixties in America, the decades the current generation seem to have gone ‘mad’ for.

The setting is Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York NY, where ‘Madmen’ of the all new and exciting advertising industry that grew up following World War II, gained a reputation for being Martini-sodden, Manhattan cocktail swilling, womanising, capitalist princes. They were sometimes ballsy, sometimes dark and always in charge. They made Madison Avenue into one of the most powerful, innovative and creative places in the world for decades.

The series of Madmen has gained nine Emmy’s, four Golden Globes and the GQ Men Of The Year award. Certainly one of the most handsome men in the room, Hamm has, through Don Draper, also put the S back into status, sophistication and style by not only wearing his tailored suits well, but also hats, one of the most powerful expressions for all men of perception at that time. My Dad sure never left home without one.

Jon Hamm aka Don Draper manages to bring a reflective sadness to his character that is palatable. While we know he certainly looks successful, we can see that deep inside despite his stylish suits, it is really his soul that is in jeopardy. Without the suit Hamm pretty much wears shorts more suited to a former football star and sports fan that he is. How Hamm manages to ensure that Draper, his ’60s adman is much more than a design element on the Mad Men’s cleverly curated creative set is not yet clear.

He’s to me like a young handsome Gregory Peck, the actor who actually played diverse and dashing roles back in the sixties wearing his pin striped suits well too.

During the Presidential campaign there was a picture in a New York Times Magazine depicting the interior of Barack Obama’s campaign jet, with in the background a DVD box set of season one of Madmen on a table. This was seen as a very cool cultural penetration by its producers – but the best was yet to come. President Barack Obama came out as a “Maddict” and totally surprised Matt Weiner, head Mad Men man, by sending a handwritten note to say how much he enjoyed the series. Certainly the act of a gentleman who is also at home in a suit.

Hot on Draper’s heels is Neal Caffrey aka. the very handsome Matt Bomer. His character Caffrey is one likeable rogue, oozing confidence, a cool contemporary con man working for the FBI, alongside one of its best agents, Peter Burke played by Tim DeKay, nick named The Suit by Caffrey’s best friend, confidante and conspiracy theorist freak, the loveable Mozzie (Willie Garson).

Caffrey is a creative expert in art, a forger of fine art, securities thief, counterfeiter and racketeer, who not only extricates himself from difficult situations, but also helps the FBI catch other ‘White Collar’ criminals.

He is very dapper and certainly has put the C in conman back into confidence by wearing suits with a slim silhouette that suit his svelte shape so very well. He proves the statement ‘Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society’ by American humourist, novelist, author and wit Mark Twain (1835 – 1910).

Caffrey in contemporary culture is so far, the naughty cheeky boy who manages to get away with being a crook stylishly and celebrates the tradition of men in Vogue. In fact he’s become so highly regarded as reflecting and being a role model for stylish elegance in February 2011 he was invited to be a presenter at the 13th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards in America.

With its contemporary themes and stories, that include treasure hunts and races to find an inheritance and to save the life of a kidnapped heiress, White Collar is a cat and mouse game played out by Caffrey by working with and sometimes against, his new best friend, mentor and nemesis, Agent Peter Burke. He is aided by Mozzie, his foster home raised flaw ridden friend, while Burke is ably helped by his lovely event planner wife Elizabeth (Tiffani Thiesssen), who can’t help but admire Neal’s witty demeanour and refined elegance. She’s my kind of girl, she tends to always look on the bright side of life and unwillingly and unwittingly gets herself into scrapes on behalf of them both.

Neal Caffrey’s rise to fame and fortune is really only down to one woman June, an elderly widow 75 years of age who Neal meets in a thrift store while he’s looking for clothes and trying on old hats. June is played deliciously by former singing star and sensation of the sixties herself, Diahann Carroll.

Inevitably falling for his bad boy charms June offers Neal her rooftop guest room complete with a sensational intact Art Deco Kitchen, fabulous Library and stunning view of the 20′s Deco Chrysler building from its attached Terrace, which comes complete with decorative art and great gargoyles.

Caffrey the artist makes the designer clothes, that once belonged to June’s husband and came along with the flat, his own. Some would say art may well help Neal make and suit his clothes: but it is nature that must first produce the man. In White Collar Caffrey is turning out to be a quite a man for all seasons. As my daughter in law has said, “wow, all these men, in their suits and hats – well they are all definitely my sort of eye candy, and on a grand scale”.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011, 2012

Related posts:

1. Downton Abbey & Castle – Stylish Dramas Capturing our HeArts
2. Downton Abbey Down Under – Celebrity Status
3. Downton Abbey, upstairs and down for the new gen and new age

Classic means of renowned excellence. The Ukrainian born award winning Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk, fits the bill like a glove. He has performed the classics in many of the great concert halls of the world, including at New York in 2005. This was when a New York Times critic said of him that he was a ‘world class pianist performing at his absolute best’. A supreme talent, Gavrylyuk was Gold Medal Winner of Israel’s Artur Rubinstein Competition in the same year and critic Lawrence Budman said “From his remarkable playing and artistic insight, it was easy to see what impressed the competition jury.” He won it, the Horowitz and Hamamatsu competitions – all by the age of 20. Since then he has played with the Russian National Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, Israeli Chamber Orchestra, Kev Philharmonic, Melbourne and Western Australia Symphony and at the Moscow Conservatorium among others. “…such blow-your-socks-off virtuosity is complemented with a dark, intense, ferociously concentrated essence and nature…said Bryce Morrison, Deutsche Gramophone in June 2006

In the first concert of the Medici series Alexander Gavrylyuk will perform

Robert SCHUMANN (181- – 1856) Fantasy in C, Op 17
Claude DEBUSSY (1862 – 1918) Two Arabesques
Franz LISZT (1811 – 1886) Tarantella (Venezia e Napoli) and Dante Sonata from Années de pèlerinage
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873 – 1943) Sonata No 2 in B flat minor Op 36

Of all of these exciting challenges the Franz Liszt pieces from Années de pèlerinage should provide some virtuosic fireworks and have many a heart racing. Composed in his maturity, Liszt the most famous technician of his day, aimed to stir emotions deep within the soul. Liszt was reacting to his travels in many new countries at the time of composing his Tarantella and Dante Sonata. He combines history, poetry, drama and harmony all in perfect tune. His lively self-expression and impressions establish a wonderful rapport immediately between the player and the audience.

Behzod Abduraimov is from Uzbekistan and winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition aged 18 years. Since then his career has taken off like a rocket. It includes signing an exclusive recording contract with Decca Classics. The London Daily Telegraph’s critic described his winning performance of Prokofiev’s Third Concerto as the “most enthralling roller-coaster ride … imaginable. Recalling it my knuckles still go white.” Renowned already for his willingness to take on technical challenges such as works composed by Liszt and Saint-Saëns, Abduraimov is a very refined showman. He made his debut when he was only eight with the Uzbek State Symphony Orchestra and has not looked back since. He has toured with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and given recitals in London, Brussels and Milan, as well as Germany and North America. He will present

Guiseppe Domenico SCARLATTI (1685 – 1757) Four keyboard Sonatas
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (Bap 1770 – 1827) Sonata No 7 in D major Op 10 No 3
Johannes BRAHMS (1833 – 1897) Variations on a theme of Paganini, Book 1
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921) Danse macabre arr. Liszt/Horowitz
Franz LISZT (1811 – 1886) Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude Mephisto Waltz No 1

Like Gavrylyuk, Abduraimov also loves technical challenges. He will play the completely diabolical Paganini Variations, which should see many sitting on the edge of their seats as he is well up to the task.

Piers Lane almost needs no introduction, he is so well loved and admired at Brisbane town, and in Australia where he regularly performs to sold out seasons. Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music his successful international concert career must certainly keep him on his toes. His is a most wonderful sophisticated maturity of style.

His legendary status has been earned through a continuing celebration of Polish composer Chopin, whose works he innately understands and brilliantly interprets. He presents them like rare jewels to be treasured. As well as Chopin he will also perform works by Liszt, the composer seemingly linking this series together. He will present

Frédéric CHOPIN (1810 – 1849) The Complete Waltzes
Franz LISZT (1811 – 1886) Two Arabesques
Jardins sous la pluie
Reflets dans l’eau
L’isle joyeuse
Franz LISZT (1811 – 1886) Venezia e Napoli, S162

The Debussy gems are a homage to the French composer, who developed a musical language of his own. A central figure of European music at the turn of the 20th century Debussy also enjoyed celebrating ‘conversations at the piano’ with Ernest Guiraud his teacher. The piano language of Piers Lane, like Debussy’s, is most eloquently spoken

Eldar Nebolsin will close the 2012 series in November.

Known to ‘caress the keys’, Nebolsin has appeared with leading orchestras around the world and has collaborated also with some of the world’s most renowned chamber musicians. His program includes

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (Bap 1770 – 1827) Sonata No 4 in E flat major Op 7
Frédéric CHOPIN (1810 – 1849)Andante spianato and Grande polonaise brillante
BEETHOVEN/LISZT Song from An die ferne Geliebte
SCHUBERT/LISZT 3 Lieder: Das Wandern, Wohin, Der Mu?ller und der Bach
Franz Peter SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828) Fantasia in C major, Op 15, D 760 ‘Wanderer’

In an interview with Naxos he revealed that his love for passionate, magical Romantic music began when he was very young.  Its constant colour and emotion touched his heart and stirred his desire to play.

Expressing his thoughts and feelings as his fingers fly across the keyboard, the reality of his performances are that he is able to explore the exquisite harmonic dimensions of what is a sublime realm of music.

His choice of Schubert’s Fantasia to end the program will provide a memorable finish to a wonderful series of amazing music presented by great musicians.

The four movements are played through without a break from fanfare to finale. This was one of the pieces of music composer Franz Liszt most admired, and he transcribed it for piano and orchestra and two pianos.

Schubert was a musician’s musician. In 1905 Duncan Edmondstoune in his publication about the life of Schubert remarked that Schubert himself had said about his Fantasia that “the devil may play it“, referencing his own inability to do so properly.

Ann Thompson has in true "Medici' fashion gathered a wonderful group of sponsors around her to support her 10th Anniversary concert series

Ann Thompson OAM, Director of Medici Concerts has worked tirelessly to bring this splendid program to fruition. She is celebrating twenty years of providing wonderful musical experiences to thousands of people.

This is a recital series for all those who love the beauty and challenges provided by great composers for great musicians. It is also for all those seeking to know and understand just how much they have contributed to the social and cultural growth of many nations. Today fine classical music such as this is treasured by millions in both western and eastern cultures. It is not just about the notes or the playing,  which do matter, but also the harmony they can provide.

Great concert series like these provide a continual opportunity to bring together many different people from all walks of life and all backgrounds. They celebrate and encourage communication and intercultural conversations and also help contemporary citizens to better understand the nature of cultural difference; to grow an appreciation and respect for many cultures, so that we can all learn how to better deal with our differences and with each other.

Bravo Ann, what a fabulous anniversary series you have put together – it has been very well done and deserves to be sold out.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

MEDICI CONCERTS

2012 International Piano Masterworks Series

ALEXANDER GAVRYLYUK Sun 12 Feb 3pm ——- @ $62 ——- @ $55
BEHZOD ABDURAIMOV Sun 18 Mar 3pm ——- @ $62 ——- @ $55
PIERS LANE Sun 12 Aug 3pm ——- @ $62 ——- @ $55
ELDAR NEBOLSIN Sun 25 Nov 3pm ——- @ $62 ——- @ $55

www.mediciconcerts.com.au

BOOKINGS

Mail: Medici Concerts PO Box 3567 South Brisbane 4101 Phone: qtix 136246 (Mon-Sat 9.00am-8.30pm)
In Person: QPAC Cnr Melbourne & Grey St South Brisbane (Mon-Sat 9.00am-8.30pm)

SUBSCRIPTIONS

4 Concerts——- @ $210 Adult
4 Concerts——- @ $190 Concession

Related posts:

1. Medici Concerts – The Magic Continues on A Night in Vienna
2. Reading, TV and Music Choices for Festive Season 2011/2012
3. The Golden Hands of Nikolai Demidenko – Poet of the Keyboard

Sher….hmmmm…my best friend Sherlock Holmes…he’s dead

Sherlock, a detective in a deerstalker - but just who is it being hunted?

The only water falling in this episode of Sherlock, the last in the second series, is falling silently at the beginning not the end. It is running down the glass window behind Dr Watson as he sits talking to his psychiatrist endeavouring for the first time to speak about, and come to terms with the tragedy and terror associated with the demise of his wonderful friend Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock – The Reichenbach Fall is the last of three in the second series of the brilliant contemporary take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective. It is truly sophisticated entertainment. The episode starts with a series of flashbacks in which Sherlock is being thanked and rewarded for all the good deeds he’s now doing in helping the police to fight crime in modern day London.

One is just having returned one of two early nineteenth century paintings by the Romantic landscape Painter J.M.W. Turner to the people after it had been stolen. Yes, and you have guessed it, the painting  is of the Reichenbach Falls, a spectacular series of waterfalls on the River Aar in central Switzerland where Holmes nineteenth century counterpart had plunged over holding onto Moriarty in Conan Doyle’s The Final Problem.

This episode was ‘wordily’ written by Steve Thompson, who as a guest writer of creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, also wrote the second in the first series, The Blind Banker. This story has so many twists and turns we have to keep alert and stay on target to keep up with all of them as Moriarty and Sherlock vie with each other and reveal a tale that is definitely very ‘Grimm’. The kidnapping of two children from their beds at boarding school with only a breadcrumb trail to follow to where they are being offered a death by chocolate, is a ghastly tale.

Moriarty is he King, or does Sherlock outwit him to solve The Final Problem in the RB 'Fall'...

Andrew Scott as James Moriarty, Master Criminal and Holmes nemesis proves a brilliant adversary for Benedict Cumberbatch’s always erudite Sherlock. Scott is chilling in his ability to met morph into the different caricatures of the psychotic character he’s playing. This is the episode where he has had the most to say and do, while still endeavouring to stay alive to that terrific tune by the Bee Gee’s. He certainly proves he has talent to burn. A measure of his ‘star quality’ is in the fabulous few minutes where he pulls off bringing three major British institutions on their knees by pressing three icons, a royal insignia, a piggy bank’ and a portcullis all of which are apps on his iPhone. It is wonderfully contrived and presented by the creators.

Moriarty springing the security breach at Pentonville Prison, the Bank of England and The Tower of London all on the same day is beautifully resolved. He has his own ‘Silence of the Lambs’ triumphal moment in front of the huge glass case containing England’s Crown Jewels just before he blasts it open to the tune of the wonderful composition The Thieving Magpie by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868). It ends with Moriarty sitting on the throne wearing the royal crown with the orb and sceptre in his hands waiting to be arrested.

Just what is he up to now?

The attention to detail throughout this series has been truly delightful. Moriarty is sporting his own trendy “London” cap, as a wonderful foil for Sherlock’s new Deerstalker, which he is forced to don on demand.

Sherlock is furious once again, when this is the only photo the press use of him. He thinks he looks far cooler with his collar turned up on his ‘Bellstaff’ Milford coat. To be sure the tradespeople involved in tourism will lap all the attention to headwear and both caps must be selling like hot cakes all over London.

Sherlock’s brother Mycroft, his friends Mrs Hudson, Molly Hooper from St Bart’s Hospital morgue, le Strade as well as his trusted right hand Dr John Weston are all helping him to reach a solution to The Final Problem. Sherlock’s side kick Dr Watson is superbly played by Martin Freeman. He is truly finding his own feet and momentum. Along with Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes, they must both give the writers a great deal of inspiration just by the sheer excellence of their performances. They are a dynamic duo par excellence.

After Holmes is called to give evidence at court Watson tells Sherlock “Don’t try to be clever. Intelligent is fine, but let’s give smart alec a wide berth.” Holmes responds “I’ll just be myself.” to which Watson retorts “Are you listening to me?”.

Watson is truly a great friend because he constantly tells Sherlock what it is he doesn’t want to hear. Love it though how the writers help him to pass blissfully over clues placed either right under his nose or in his hand and still he does not ‘get it’. One who does get it is Molly, Sherlock’s contact in the morgue at St Bart’s Hospital Molly, who would do anything to help her brilliant friend.

Mycroft, well he is in disgrace in this. Played with great subtlety by Mark Gattis, with Mycroft as a brother Sherlock is definitely handicapped. He has revealed much too much about his famous brother to Moriarty in exchange for information about criminal activities. Betraying one’s brother in such a despicable way surely must have him hanging his head in shame, especially when Sherlock seemingly does a swan dive off the roof of St Bart’s.

At the end to save his friends from certain death Sherlock must give his own life otherwise the assassins Moriarty has retained to kill them all will act if Sherlock doesn’t jump.

This is the show when the actors rise up and reveal all their strengths, delivering their scenes and words brilliantly. The interplay between Cumberbatch and Freeman has become seamless, and so superbly done.

This is a story about trust and doubt, about faith and hope and people’s perceptions. It reveals just how easily people can be manipulated by fear and particularly by a gutter tabloid press, as headlines have proved this year. It is also about the pedestals other people put us on and how we can put ourselves at risk, often without knowing it. It plugs into uncomplimentary aspects of our human behaviour, how we can admire someone for a while and then become bored by it all and seek to tear them down.

You told me once you that you weren’t a hero… says Watson at Sherlock’s graveside. You were the best man and the most human, human being that I have ever known and know one will ever convince me that you told me a lie ….I was so alone and I owe you so much ….

…hopefully there is one more thing Sherlock – one more miracle just for me, don’t be dead -  just for me don’t be dead, stop it, stop this…

In Series 3, which was commissioned at the same time as Series 2 let’s hope the writers will give Dr Watson someone else to love, other than just the man with whom he always seems to have such a hell of a good time, that high functioning sociopath Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The final problem for us is just how long we will all have to wait for their return?

Preview: Sherlock – The Reichenbach Fall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MimV42deNMA

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

*This post contains details of the plot of Sherlock – The Reichenbach Fall so if you don’t want your viewing pleasure spoiled, don’t read it until after the event.

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One of the enchanting figures on the Chinoiserie Style Pavilion in Sansouci Park at Potsdam. Johnn Gottfried Büring was the architect and it was built between 1755 and 1764 by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (1712-1786)

What is Art Deco
Art Deco (1920 – 1940) is a design style that reached the apex of its popularity between two global conflicts, World War I and II. It borrowed from virtually all the design styles of the past in order to fashion the future. It was the perfect expression of Paris during the 20’s to the 30’s and embraced every area of design and the decorative arts including architecture, interiors, furniture, jewellery, painting and graphics, bookbinding, costume, glass and ceramics. It was all about glamour. It was also about completing a deeply felt need for a style that would never be threatened by change. Its protagonists wanted to ward off the threat of a civilization dominated by either industry or technology, or both. The idea was to integrate contemporary living with art and turn life into art and for a while they succeeded.

Chinoiserie, More than Fantasy and Fashion
During the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery. It manifested itself in intimate interiors where mirrored rooms reflected scenes of frivolity well. It draped itself delightfully with sumptuous silk textiles that recorded scenes of fashion and folly. The admiration of all things Chinese also led to the ultimate crossing over of cultural influences. On the scale of things a very few people in England and Europe had ever seen someone who was Chinese so their vivid imagination took over and, when combined with a great layering of charm, Chinoiserie was a style that was very fetching.

Jane Austen, more than the cultivation of the mind?
While her only known image may seem to reveal otherwise, there was nothing really plain about Jane Austen 1775 – 1817. Her novels, which have become classics in their own right, allow us today to share the memory of the robust society in which she lived and its privileges of rank. It was a colourful, turbulent and seemingly romantic world in the process of rapid evolution. The English provincial life, as led by Jane Austen and some of her heroines, was one of quality and modesty. A cultivated ambiance of politeness, with a keen though delicate sensibility was well balanced by common sense.

If you would like to watch more videos just bookmark our link http://www.youtube.com/user/carolynmcdowall

Carolyn McDowall, Writer in Residence, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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In society collectors over the centuries have come from all walks of life and all backgrounds. Their motives have varied greatly, although they all have in common that fervant desire to preserve and protect the art and literature of the past in many shapes and different forms. There is the dilettante, the learned connoisseur, the curio hunter all of whom have hoarded their treasures; some in secret while others place them on display to enhance their self esteem. Many however have valued their privacy, and it is only after their death that the full extent of their holdings become clear. Currently on display at the Bodleian Library at Oxford in England is a selection showcasing the largest donation of material it has ever received. It is open FREE to all those who can get to Oxford before the 29th January. The display has been chosen from an extraordinary collection of rare musical works, verse and ephemera, which weighed some 20 tonnes and took two chartered aircraft to carry. It has traveled from the basement of a ‘shabby’ house in Chicago to the rarified atmosphere of the conserving libraries at Oxford in England.

Its benefactor, Walter Newton Henry Harding was born in south London in 1883.  He became an English emigré, the son of an East End bricklayer who migrated with his family to America when he was four years old. He grew up to be a ragtime pianist in a time when this original musical genre was enjoying its peak of popularity (1897 – 1918). This was when one of its main protagonists, composer and musician Scott Joplin penned his great hit the Maple Leaf Rag, which after that time heavily influenced the arrangements of melodies, harmonic progressions and metric patterns by other composers.

From 1909 – 1914 Harding was playing in silent cinema, and later became an organist playing at various churches and his masonic lodge in downtown Chicago. His was seemingly an ordinary life. The family timber framed home tucked away in an urban location, became a repository for his collection of printed music, verse and drama. His passion for collecting new no bounds, despite his very limited means. He preserved a legacy of popular music and verse from the 17th and 18th centuries, during a time when they had no value, to a time when they have become a rich irreplaceable music and cultural resource. His collection was meticulously indexed, despite Mr Harding not having had an academic or musical education. Forming the collection seems to have been all about his own sense of homelessness; of being displaced from his English homeland and from the culture that was his heritage. It contained opera and musical comedy scores, English art and popular songs, French songs and American popular sheet music from the 1790′s through to the 1960′s. For the Bodleian, and the rest of us, Harding’s collection is now a valued legacy.

Gathering all these rare and wonderful works together gave Harding a reference point, one that no doubt helped him to make sense out of the story of his own life. He gathered together the largest collection of popular songbooks before he died in 1972, leaving them to the Bodleian library, despite having never visited Oxford.

Clive Hurst, Head of Rare Books, Bodleian Libraries, said ‘…we hope that his story will inspire similar generosity in others to support our libraries.’

On the 18th January display curator Dr Abigail Williams will present a talk and a voice and violin Duo Alva, a short concert of music from works in the collection. This will include a parlour song by Walter Harding entitled ‘All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go’.

Despite the collection having arrived in 900 crates 20 years ago Dr Williams said recently: ‘…his legacy is still living and we have only just begun to uncover the riches in this varied and unusual collection’.

Walter Harding’s collection constitutes a remarkable resource for scholarship in many fields, including the art of collecting.

DISPLAY
Until 29 January 2012 Mon-Fri 9.00-19.00; Sat 9.00-16.30; Sun 11.00-17.00
Bodleian Library Catte Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
ADMISSION FREE

TALKS AND MUSIC
18 Jan 2012 5:00pm-7:00pm
Divinity School and Convocation House, Bodleian Library
Tickets free. E-mail – with Subject line: HARDING MUSIC – rsvp@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or phone 01865 277000 to reserve tickets.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford form the largest university library system in the United Kingdom. They include the principal University library—the Bodleian Library—which has been a library of legal deposit for 400 years; major research libraries; and libraries attached to faculties, departments and other institutions of the University. The combined library collections number more than 11 million printed items, in addition to 30,000 e-journals and vast quantities of materials in other formats. For additional information see www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

Ref: Press Release Bodleian Libraries : JStor American Sheet Music in the Walter N. H. Harding Collection at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University – Jean Geil – Notes Second Series, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Jun., 1978), pp. 805-813

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‘Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound

Traumatised by the memory of the dreadful death of his father on the moor when he was nine, a grown up well-provided for Henry is desperate to get out of therapy and to lead a normal life. He does not want to live the rest of it in the fear of what he witnessed as a child as he watched his father torn to pieces by a giant hound with glowing red eyes.

Fear is the operative word in the second episode of the second series of the BBC’s Sherlock, reports our London correspondent. Creative duo Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis contemporary Sherlock is lured out of the city into the countryside simply by the word hound.

Mark Gattis has conjured up another great contemporary take on one of Conan Doyle’s most famous Sherlock Holmes tales, which he calls The Hounds of Baskerville. In the first of the second series we learned that perhaps Sherlock might have a capacity for love, as he sparred with the lovely Irene Adler. This week he’s dashing about on a bleak, but beautiful Dartmoor. This is a wild geologically rich moorland in South Devon, England where Holmes encounters and experience real ‘fear’ for the first time in his life. Holmes standing on a rock overlooking the moor is a ‘Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff moment well captured. You are right Watson, a turned up collar on his now famous Belstaff ‘Milford” coat, made of pure Irish wool tweed, does make him look at the essence of ‘cool’.

Detective Inspector LeStrade (Rupert Graves) is sent in by Sherlock’s brother Mycroft to keep an eye on the brother he worries about as he’s busy himself, having locked up the evil Moriarty in a government facility. Things are getting a little bit more personal with Scotland Yard’s finest, as we find out his given name is George? Not as romantic as we might have hoped for the adorable LeStrade, but there it is. He is also enjoying the chance to leave London behind for a breathe of fresh country air, although chasing a huge ‘super dog’ capable of killing a grown man was perhaps a little more than he bargained for. Just what is going on in the mist of Dewer’s Hollow, which is below the secret military base of Baskerville?

Protected by a field of land mines, this creepy place just reeks of murder and mystery, keeping all the locals at bay. Visiting the Baskerville chemical and biological weapons research centre Holmes and Watson find out about the horrors of genetic engineering and so a super dog seems more than plausible, even a possibility. Cumberbatch is at his brilliant best in this, his mood swings are quite confronting as he nearly alienates Watson his first and foremost friend with his words and actions. Apologising is not really in his make up but he does, showing us another side to his complex characterisation. Freeman just loves being Watson, you can tell, and he is completely awesome. Henry in the meantime is freaking himself out with memories coming thick and fast. He nearly kills his therapist in a hallucinating session about the hound he believes he has seen.

Visiting the local superbly thatched pub Watson does some detecting on his own and soon discovers the ‘innkeepers’ have ordered an inordinate amount of meat, perhaps to feed The Hounds of Baskerville that keep tourists coming, boosting the local economy?

Is the hound real or a figment of the imagination? It certainly has a gut wrenching growl. When Sherlock actually sees it for the first time, the encounter causes all sorts of ramifications for those around him. There is a great deal of action going on with some scary moments that will send the heart a racing. The Sci Fi element is nicely handled and the haunting quality of the horrible hollow on the moors perfectly captured. Dashing through the woods on a dark, only moonlit night with only a few torches, is just the right amount of scary for anyone.

After Holmes has once again brilliantly deduced what is happening and solved the mystery, which we won’t spoil here, the episode ends with Moriarty being let go by Mycroft to participate no doubt in ‘The Reichenbach Fall’, the final in the Sherlock series for 2012.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

Watch the Trailers

Sherlock Series 2 Episode 2 The Hounds of Baskerville

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCPwZYkulF8

Sherlock Series 2 Episode 3 The Reichenbach Fall Preview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MimV42deNMA

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2. Sherlock – For Watson, Just don’t be Dead after your Fall
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Sensational Emily, cool as a cucumber wearing red, truly the right colour for enacting revenge

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, said Chinese philosopher Confucius nearly six centuries before the Christ event. He also expressed the principle my grandmother lived by ‘Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself’. Somehow that did not translate into the 21st century life of Emily Thorne aka Amanda Clarke (Emily VanCamp), who is seeking to punish all those who betrayed her father David Clarke (James Tupper) when she was a little girl. Tossed around in the foster and correction system in America after being dragged cruelly away from her father one night, the one thing she keeps close is a box of evidence and a journal. Her father left them hidden for her so that she would know just who was responsible for the trumped up terrorism charges that led to his arrest, imprisonment and death.

This drama television series out of America is definitely a classy, stylish soap opera with some seriously good actors. Madelaine Stowe has already been nominated for a Golden Globe 2012 as Best Actress for her role as Victoria Grayson, for whom the word bitch was surely invented.  She is the powerful and glamorous Queen of the Hamptons, where her life plays out against a backdrop of wealth, power, sea and sand.  One summer long ago it was Victoria who set up Emily’s father she reputedly loved, ensuring that Emily, whose mother was already gone, ended up in institutions. Emily VanCamp is just perfect as the cool, calculating very beautiful young woman, who has groomed herself impeccably and perfected the patience that she will require if she is to be successful at enacting revenge.

Emily Thorne and Nolan Ross plotting revenge

Emily has two main friends who know her story and that she can trust. Her friend Kara Wilkins (Margarita Levieva), who grew up in an institution with her. Kara knows Emily’s true identity and pretends to be Amanda Clarke so that the real Amanda can play at being Emily Thorne, a successful wealthy young woman who fits right into Hampton life and culture. Then there is Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann), a genius billionaire software inventor, who owes his growing fortune to her father. They are there to offer her their support and help her bring her plans to fruition.

Daniel Grayson is Victoria’s only son, with whom Emily enters into a ‘loving’ relationship soon after arriving in town. We join the story just as festivities are getting under way for the announcement of their engagement. But Daniel has mysteriously disappeared. All at once there is a bloodcurdling scream from the beach as Daniel’s sister Charlotte (Christa B Allen) and her boyfriend Declan Porter (Connor Paolo) find someone hovering over what seems to be a blood covered body in the sand dunes. Is it Daniel? And who was it that dragged the body into the sand hills. Is what has happened part of Emily’s first act of revenge?

Jack and Sam, anchors aweigh

The first series of Revenge starts with murder and then goes into flashback, as we follow the events that led up to the first moment. It starts when Emily (Amanda) first arrives back in town in disguise. She rents her old family home, virtually overlooked by the devious Victoria Grayson from the bedroom balcony of the mansion next door.

The Hamptons with its reputation for trillionaires, glamour and a luxurious lifestyle is the perfect backdrop for all that goes on. Who but very rich people would have time on their hands and be able to spend it on plotting and planning the downfall of others.

Jack Porter and Kara Wilkins aka Amanda Clarke

Into the picture comes Emily’s childhood friend. the gentle and charming Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler). He had given her abandoned labrador Sam a home when she was taken away.

Sam is really the only one who recognises his former mistress. Can she keep him from giving her away? He certainly doesn’t know the supposed ‘Amanda Clarke’ when she appears on the scene.

Sadly however  Jack doesn’t pick up on the fraud and vows once again to protect ‘Amanda’ as he had done when they were children together. He doesn’t know that this version of ‘Amanda’ is a very dangerous woman.

Tyler and Daniel, friend or foe

The very handsome Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) seemingly has the world at his feet. Graduating from one of the world’s best colleges, surrounded by money, power and wealth what he wants out of life is something he seems not to have completely sorted out, except that Emily since he met her has been placed high on his list.

Heir to his father’s fortune and an integral aspect of his mother’s scheming, Daniel’s easy relaxed style makes all those around him feel completely at their ease. It has certainly meant that his best friend from college Tyler Barrol (Ashton Holmes), who has come home with him for the holidays is continually engaged, but as we find out not really in a nice way.

What goes on down in the pool house between these two will be sure to turn everyone’s worlds upside down. Tyler we discover is a psychopath, who believes that if he cannot have Daniel for himself then he will make sure that no one else can. He will enter into any relationship necessary, be it with a man or woman just to get his own way. Off his meds he proves to be very dangerous.

There are various relationships going on with Victoria. There is first and foremost that of Victoria and Emily, the two arch rivals for Daniel’s affections. Then there is a dysfunctional one with her daughter Charlotte Grayson (Christa B Allen) who is in a relationship with Jack’s younger brother Declan Porter (Connor Paolo). Victoria relies heavily on her event planner Ashley Davenport (Ashley Madekwe), who will do just about anything for her. Ashley also forms an attachment for the disturbed Tyler.

There is all sorts of shenanigans going on with Victoria and her lawyer, Victoria and her security guard and Victoria and her husband Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny) as well as his mistress Lydia Davis (Amber Valletta), who it turns out is Victoria’s very best friend. Early on Lydia takes a nose dive off a balcony. But was she pushed, or did she jump?

We find out eventually that Emily Thorne (Amanda Clarke aka Emily VanCamp) has had various people, who have encouraged her to seek revenge. They include Warden Sharon Stiles (CCH Pounder) of whom we will no doubt hear more. and Samurai Satoshi Takeda (Hiroyuki Sanada).

He has taught Emily strength, endurance and how to deal with solace through the martial arts. Who knows Karate may come in handy with some of those protagonists she will undoubtedly come up against on this, her dangerous life’s journey.

The complexity of Emily’s character is something the writers revel in revealing slowly. Emily can look so completely innocent, while being so very guilty. Nolan, while hovering on the edge of corruptibility, proves constantly that he is the only one who can force her to think twice about her actions. She explains herself by saying “My father died an innocent man. Betrayed by the woman he loved. When everything you love has been stolen from you, sometimes all you have left is revenge.”

Watch the Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-M0QiJIy6I

Emily and Daniel, beauty is as beauty does

revenge

Created by Mike Kelley

IMDB Starring
Madeleine Stowe
Emily VanCamp
Gabriel Mann
Henry Czerny
Connor Paolo
Ashley Madekwe
Nick Wechsler
Joshua Bowman
Christa B. Allen

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Sherlock wearing only a sheet in a Buckingham Palace Drawing Room

Awesome! Writer Steven Moffat has surely outdone himself with the first story in the second series of Sherlock, featuring the enigmatic and erudite Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and award-winning Martin Freeman as Dr Watson. In an interview on BBC Breakfast on December 20th Moffat declared that he and co-creator Mark Gattis have been far more faithful to the Conan Doyle originals, even though they have transposed his stories for the modern day. Scandal in Belgravia (not Bohemia) certainly lives up to the reputation given to Sherlock Holmes by its original creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The captivating author would surely be smiling if he was around to see what his favourite detective is currently getting up to. Cumberbatch was surely born to play Sherlock Holmes. And, in this episode he also gets to wear the ‘deerstalker hat’.

Sherlock re-commenced on the BBC on New Year’s Day, reports our London correspondent, with very little prior notice. But some ten million people caught the message and tuned in. A staggering result. Although I imagine many of the BBC’s traditional audience might have found some scenes quite confronting. Moffat and Mark Gatiss’s brilliant reinvention of a contemporary Sherlock is brainy, sexy and savvy. Sherlock outwits ‘The Woman’ – Irene Adler, by cracking the code to reveal damaging information about a royal ‘client’ stored on her smart phone. But that’s not all that is revealed. Ms Adler, played brilliantly by Lara Pulver, bares all to the viewers, to Sherlock and to Dr Watson (who one would think would be used to seeing naked women). According to Britain’s Daily Mail the series co-creator Steven Moffat said he gave Holmes an overtly sexual sparring partner to scotch speculation about a homosexual undercurrent to the relationship between him and Dr John Watson. Sherlock also lets us know his body is not so bad either, when he nearly loses the sheet wrapped around his naked frame. And, in a Buckingham Palace Drawing Room of all places. What is the world coming to.

After ending the first series on a ‘cliff hanger’ with Moriarty about to blow up Watson in a Swimming Pool complex, after Moriarty goes off on another chase to the tune of the Bee Gees’ ‘Staying Alive’, the first in the second series moves along at a cracking pace.

Good old Detective le Strade (Rupert Graves) is back, as is the tea drinking Mrs. Hudson. She is given a very bad shakedown by some pretty nasty CIA types. And, as we would expect Holmes and Watson come to her aid. Sherlock shakes him down by throwing him out of his window onto the rubbish bins below, several times too. However when Watson suggests a trip into the countryside to aid her recovery from this very traumatic event Sherlock scoffs at the idea “Mrs Hudson leave Baker Street? England would fall.” he says.

Once again co-creator Mark Gattis is just perfect as Holmes brother Mycroft. One touching scene has he and Sherlock wondering ‘if there is something wrong with us’ as they fail to have feelings after viewing a family grieving over a dead body. There are some simply lovely touches and many sublime moments, especially as the boys host a dysfunctional Christmas drinks ‘at home’ at 221B Baker Street, which is all decked out with decorations for the occasion.

Less is More - Irene Adler, naughty but nice

Sherlock with a Gun?

The script is truly dialogue delicious, Moffat has had so much fun weaving its many complexities. They quip constantly at each other and deliver some poignant phrases that make the time rapidly race by. One can clearly sense Moffat’s delight at bringing Conan Doyle’s characters into a contemporary world full of technology that allows him to innovate with such great style.

Sherlock waving a gun about and being ‘whipped’ by a naked Dominatrix Irene Adler is certainly a new take on the original. Watching what Moffat described as what is essentially an ‘unlove’ story unfold, you cannot help be fascinated by the intense relationship between Pulver and Cumberbatch as, like two predators, they circle each other looking for signs of weakness.

Bringing Sherlock into the present time has meant that Moffat and Gattis can, while not entirely humanising him, provide him with something Conan Doyle did not; pathos, a celebration of man’s heroic qualities in harmonious proportion. Pathos is such a good word, it describes our interior universe and yet implies something so much more than simple emotion: it refers to that inner universe one to which man is drawn attracted by the very nature of his own complexities and contradictions.

This first episode of Sherlock in the second series will certainly have you glued to the screen for the whole 90 minutes. You may be shocked, you will smile a lot, you will laugh out loud and perhaps even let a tear slide. It is a fantastic start and will have everyone counting down the days and hours until the second of three, ‘The Hounds of Baskerville’.

Those two Best Boys from Baker Street

Watch the Trailer and Interview with Steven Moffat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdNVoEldlc8

Sherlock – A Scandal in Belgravia

Director: Paul McGuigan
Writers: Steven Moffat
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Lara Pulver, Mark Gattis, Andrew Scott and more

Sherlock Series 2
“A Scandal in Belgravia,” written by Steven Moffat. “The Hounds of Baskerville,” written by Mark Gatiss “The Reichenbach Fall,” written by Steve Thompson.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2012

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Elena Xanthoudakis as Eurydice and Andrew Goodwin as Orpheus in L'anima del filosofo: Orpheus & Eurydice composed by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and produced by the Pinchgut Opera at Sydney in 2010

If we are looking at examples of how you can make a past art form like Opera appeal to people of the present we need to look no further than the amazing Sydney based Pinchgut Opera, a small company that presents one major work annually. Over the past decade it has championed early works and instead of spending precious funds on elaborate costumes, fripperies and over embellished sets that can detract from a performance, or worse still hide mediocrity, they have invested their funds in splendid voices. Designers produce simple settings of great impact to highlight the historical musical scores in a contemporary way. ‘Authentic instruments’ also help audiences engage with the performance, because they re-create the sound as it was composed, mellow, beautifully round and rich and, so gloriously sensuous.

The reviews were so good they ensured that its first production or two were noticed. But here’s the thing. Pinchgut Opera,’s audiences, which have built steadily over that decade wait now with baited breath for the next performance and are ready to ‘book’ it out. This is because they have learned to appreciate the choice of music presented, and the incredible standard of excellence achieved. People keep coming back because they want more. They are also bringing others along to experience an art form many have not known. Their is no ‘high brow’ atmosphere, just friendly banter, happy chatter and enthusiastic applause. The stories presented are about human frailty, which means everyone connects to them emotionally. It’s truly awesome, brilliant stuff.  And they have done it without any government funding, just with funds from supporters and ticket sales. The applause after each performance has been deafening.

Tenor Andrew Pryor at the launch of Operapolitan in the Queen Street Mall, Brisbane

Long may they grow and prosper.

Having said all of that Opera is not only just about people gathering in a theatre any more to access it. This is a style of music truly millions of people love, but have found difficult to access one on one. There are many reasons for this, least of all is cost. Many people will spend hundreds of dollars to attend a rock concert, despite having to stand all night to be part of a huge crowd that often has to hoist people up on their shoulders to see. One of the reasons they don’t come to opera is because they feel intimidated by ‘opera regular’s. They are the members of the ‘club’ Artistic Director of Opera Australia Lyndon Terracini recently referred to in his Peggy Glanville Hicks Address 2011.

Now whether this is intentional or not, it is how people feel. And how they feel today is what counts. No longer can Opera remain part of an exclusive ‘club’ of just a few people comparatively to the rest of the population. Opera Companies receive huge grants of government funding i.e. money from the people. That means they need to showcase wonderful voices by presenting songs from opera along with other great songs that suit such voices, to millions of people not just thousands. For a reason that I find personally hard to fathom. many people believe some ‘art forms’ like some ‘people’, are quite beyond their reach, whether intellectually or socially. But that is not how it should work in a true democracy. Everyone should be able to access its own culture and its art forms. No one person is better than any other; although we do recognize as individuals, that we have different skill sets, strengths and weaknesses. And, if we are being honest, many fragile moments. It’s about getting us to play or sing in tune that is the challenge.

Interestingly, engaging with art in an art gallery seems less intimidating than listening to opera in a theatre

The beliefs many people have, interestingly enough these days, doesn’t have so much to do with paintings, sculpture and objects as ‘art’ like when I was a child. This is because increasingly since World War II the majority of people in society, including kids from school, have been able to access those produced through history by going to their State or National Art gallery, which has free admission to permanent collections and free guides to tell you all about it.

Collections have grown for the last two hundred years all over the world to include ceramics, textiles, glass, precious metal and other objects. As a general rule this means people don’t feel nearly as intimidated by going to the art gallery or to the museum, as they do about going to listen to the opera in a theatre. So they go in their droves, coming from all walks of life and all backgrounds. Just look at the record breaking crowds the Treasures of Tutankhamun recorded at Melbourne recently. At a State art gallery or museum people can choose what they would like to see and access further education if they want. It’s their choice.

The world of Opera however has developed as a ‘separate ‘art form’ much like the Ballet and different styles of Orchestras. This has happened around those who want a passive, more restrained and elegant experience (in house at the theatre) as against those who want a participating experience (out there along with everyone else), moving along to the music.

Andrew Pryor Tenor, Liza Beamish Coloratura, Christian Gante on Steinway Grand

They have created around them a culturally diverse society that can be ruled by one class of people. The theory of a ‘cultural hegomony’ is about how one group of people manipulates societal culture (beliefs, explanations, perceptions and values) so its view is perceived as a societal norm that is beneficial to all society, while in reality it only benefits the ruling class.

Today this is not an idea to be tolerated. It is not about what is right or wrong or what is appropriate. but it is about sharing the music around. This has happened to a degree in the last few years with initiatives like Opera in the Vineyard, Opera in the Paddock and Opera at the Cinema, presented on a big screen near you.

At Brisbane the ‘Operapoltian’ Team of singers launched the initiative of bringing works from the La Scala Opera House at Milan for Birch Carroll & Coyle. But it’s still not a first hand experience unless delivered in ‘real time’ – live. Perhaps that’s something Opera Australia could do with their opening nights (which are always booked out anyway). What fun to dress up and share the experience of first night at a reasonable cost.

With a colleague from Theme and Variations Piano Services, who sponsored the fabulous Steinway Grand piano, a team of people under the banner Operapolitan between 2006 and 2008 offered free concerts at Brisbane. We started with wonderful opera arias and operatic style songs in acoustically wonderful buildings on Eagle Street in the heart of the CBD. These great buildings housed five to seven thousand people working every day. The team performed three concerts in the Riverside Centre each day for three days and then moved on to Riparian Plaza, where we performed three more for a further three days.

Both buildings were designed by Sydney architect Harry Seidler. Because the acoustics were so excellent we were able to present them cost effectively, without having to involve sound people or technology, just using the architectural acoustic to bounce the sound around. It resonated beautifully.

Liza Beamish Coloratura, Kathleen Procter-Moore Mezzo Soprano and Christian Gante Accompanist on the Steinway Grand - Presenting The Flower Duet from Lakmé at Riverside Centre, Eagle Street Brisbane in 2007

We presented the wonderful voices of Liza Beamish (coloratura), Kathleen Proctor-Moore (mezzo), Andrew Pryor (tenor) and Shaun Brown (baritone) who were accompanied by Christian Gante (pianist) on the fabulous Steinway grand piano.

The voices bounced because Harry Seidler had a great love of proportion and the golden mean ratio in mathematics, which is directly related to musical harmony.

They entertained with such songs, arias and duets as O Mio Bambino Caro, Nessun Dorma, La Donna Mobile and The Flower Duet from Lakmé.

Soprano Milica Ilic - Principal Artist for Opera Australia in 2012

The owners of the biggest venue, Riverside Plaza were very chuffed and flew from Sydney to attend. The workers in the building attended, as did passers-by lured in by the sound and the scene.

The courier boy on his rounds stopped resting his back on the wall to shut his eyes and grab a few moments for himself, as did many executives and office workers.

A consultant producer of musical and community events to Brisbane City Council 2006 – 2010, my accepted brief was to take opera to the people, not have them come to it. The Operapolitan program went on to hold a further twenty-seven concerts at three Westfield Shopping Malls and twelve concerts at Retail First Shopping Centres.

Before we started we went and spoke to the principals of the Conservatorium of Music and Opera Qld asking if they would like to feature some of their emerging artists as well. The lovely student soprano Milica Ilic, who will be a new principal artist for Opera Australia in 2012, sang brilliantly as did sopranos Alicia Jane Lee who also formed the Ten Divas. Then there was Elizabeth McBride from Opera Queensland, who was both an experienced pediatric speech pathologist and successful opera singer. A rare combination

Christian Gante Accompaninst, Liza Beamish Coloratura, Andrew Pryor Tenor and Jeffrey Black Baritone, Launch of Operapolitan Queen Street Mall

We kicked them all off with another three concerts in the Queen Street Mall at Brisbane, where we were overwhelmed by the crowds that formed. The hurdles we had to jump included not using the Mall stage as the people who worked the stage each day wanted us to. But we didn’t decide how to arrange the stage for our performers until after we had been in the Queen Street Mall to meet up with the Stage Manager to discuss arrangements. Unbeknown to any of my staging team it was the day Queensland Opera was offering a free publicity performance to launch their new season. The Mall stage manager said he had deliberately invited us for that time because he wanted us to see how it was done ‘properly’! You can understand we were not amused that he patronised us all so pointedly.

We gathered patiently to watch the company set up in the usual way preferred by Stage staff. Facing down the mall where people sat neatly in rows on chairs as in a theatre. Control was the key. The opera company then, to our minds did a curious thing. They put their own ‘stage’ onto the existing stage. This way they raised the singers up above stage level on one side and ground level on the other. They turned their back to the third side, where people could stand, placing a black backdrop curtain ensuring they couldn’t see.

A professional interior designer and design history lecturer of some considerable experience, I was very disappointed, because I knew that in design raising people or objects up translated to instilling a notion they are the best or above everyone else.

It’s a deliberate technique architects use to great effect and did so very effectively during the so-called Baroque style period in Europe during the seventeenth century, at a time when opera became part of Louis XIV’s grand entertainments at the Chatéau at Versailles.

Just look at the Chateau Vaux le Vicomte outside Paris in the countryside.

This is the original palace of the first ‘Sun King’ Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680). There it stands so splendidly on its platform set among stunning gardens and accessed by a great sweep of stone stairs.

It is a divine building in a divine garden setting. It cost a fortune, even in its day and subsequently it’s owner ended up in gaol after the King threw a hissy fit as Fouquet was his Minister for Finances.

The point is that it was deliberately designed to intimidate the approaching visitor and instill the notion the occupant was both wealthy and powerful. It works well even today. Any visitor having a one on one experience at Vaux cannot help be overwhelmed by it all. It added to my enjoyment of the place when visiting that I knew a great deal about its design. Knowledge allows you not to hopefully be ‘tricked’ by such clever devices.

It is telling too in that the architect Louis le Vau, designer Charles Le Brun and gardener Andre Le Notre, were all seconded from Fouquet by that same jealous young King Louis IV to renovate and extend his father’s old hunting lodge at Versailles into a chatéau, which provides a similar experience. Fouquet ended his days in prison and his family have been trying to clear his name since.

We would have to say Vaux is like a great, and very Grand Opera Diva on display.

Contemporary photographer’s also use the design ‘intimidation’ technique by kneeling down and shooting a photo looking up at someone, especially when they are deliberately trying to make that person look elitist or to raise them up ‘above’ everyone else.

This style of  ‘grand manner’ is an image Opera, to remain relevant in Australia has to leave behind. Opera is music of the people, about the people and for the people. All of them. And, as we can see design matters.

Larry Parkes as Al Jolson

Back at Brisbane in the Queen Street Mall we watched as the State Opera Company achieved a small audience and complete lack of participation or interaction with the public. There wasn’t any connection between what was happening on the stage and the audience at all.

Age can be a blessing in disguise sometimes, because I could not help remember an example of making music accessible to many. It was a scene in the first ‘talking’ movie ever made that caused millions to embrace cinema – The Jazz Singer. This was the story of Al Jolson (1886 – 1950) an American singer, comedian and actor who in his day was dubbed “The World’s Greatest Entertainer”. Played by Larry Parkes on screen Jolson’s story was a phenomenon in more ways than one. In the movie he declares to his manager that he hates being behind blinding lights on stage, because they stop him seeing the people in his audience’s faces.

The people he is singing to and for. This was important to him and his performance. The stage hands all think he’s mad, but he insists and has them build a runway into the audience, so that he could run along it, shake hands and kneel down and sing to people one on one. He was also resisting all those who wanted to put him on a pedestal to suit their own agendas.

Kylie Minogue and Reece Mastin tread the X Factor runway to meet their audience

Recently designers of the X Factor television show built a runway that went around behind the judges so the winning vocalist, Reece Mastin and his colleague Kylie Minogue, when singing a duet together could venture into the crowds too, receiving a great one on one reaction.

In the Queen Street Mall one very experienced stage worker re-invented the way the sound worked on the stage for the Operapolitan Team, because he was so excited to be involved in us changing how it worked.

By putting performers directly onto the stage surface and facing the audience another way, we opened up the arena so that people could surround the performers on three sides and offer them a far more intimate experience.

Despite being in the open the audience felt as if they were up close and personal and they responded accordingly by cheering wildly, calling out and, in some instances singing along.

Operapolitan Launch, Queen Street Mall with Liza Beamish Coloratura, Andrew Pryor Tenor and Guest Star Jeffrey Black, Baritone

Enjoyment of music today is about is ‘being there’. About being able to ‘express self’ by singing along, waving your arms about, jumping up and down and in some instances, screaming. This is what happens at most pop concerts. You don’t have to worry what anyone else thinks, because they are all doing the same thing. That makes contemporary music a ‘real’ experience.

We held three performances that day and most people stood while some older people, or people with babies in prams chilled out on the few benches available. We put out a few rows of chairs in the usual spot, which was now to one side and left plenty of room for people to gather behind them.

There were grandparents, mums and dads with children in hand or in strollers. There were teenagers galore, some with coloured hair, rings in their noses, ears or lips, as well as heaven forbid, even a few Goths who are known to flee classical music scenes. There were also a lot of hand holding romantics and lots of young parents with small children, who wonderfully held them up to listen. Everyone was relaxed and happy.

The clothes we asked them to wear were meant to be what they might wear on a first date.

Throughout the series the diversity of cultures listening was palatable. One family of Italians brought their grandfather because he had never seen opera live before.

The Gold Coast's lovely coloratura Liza Beamish, a superb songstress for all seasons

In the mall and in the shopping centres where the Operapolitan Team performed people cheered and clapped spontaneously and loudly.

After the performances they politely crowded the singers to grab autographs, to shake their hands and to say thank you. Many couples and some whole families also became groupies following us everywhere as the team performed.

The best thing for the team was that people came to tell us all their stories. They told us how they loved opera but couldn’t afford high prices, or to buy the posh dresses they felt they needed to wear when they went. And it kept them away. It was not that they did not like the music, which is a conclusion some people conveniently come to. They did and they do. However they felt (feelings are important) they were not wanted or accepted by their peers. How awful.

It seemed that over time Opera had got away from being about the music of the people, and the music of love and life. It had become a backdrop to a stage on which others performed for their own benefit.

That hopefully is set to change. Bless you Lyndon Terracini of Opera Australia for standing up and leading the change needed to make opera far more accessible from 2012 to those who want to enjoy its richness and wonderful music. It will surely add to their lives and to the thousands more who will be introduced to its magic for the very first time.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2011

* developed by Antonio Gramsci

Related posts:

1. Changing Opera Culture in Australia: Vision & Taking Action
2. Opera, the Music of Love and Life
3. Looking forward to tenor Andrew Goodwin as Orpheus, questing for love for the Pinchgut Opera