Wildflowers & Walking

Images by Lisa Stewart

It's almost Spring down here in the southern hemisphere. I've got lots of musical things I could tell you about, but will save them until I can show you all some photos as well. In the meantime,I'm adding some outside, spring pics & I urge anyone who lives in Sydney to make a visit to Muogamarra Nature Sanctuary on the next couple of weekends. Just out of Cowan on the Old Pacific Highway.

A very special place, Muogamarra is only open for a few weekends each year, in spring, as it designed to preserve northern Sydney bushland without too much human trampling. The wildflowers are all in bloom and are spectacular; heaths, grevilleas, and even red waratahs. The first time I have seen NSW's state floral emblem growing in the wild!

The Spit to Manly walk is also good for wildflowers,and views of course, and has just been included in a huge new survey of Sydney's coastal and harbour walks..see www.walkingcoastalsydney.com.au Fabulous - you can download all the maps from here.

Happy walking and wildflower viewing!

Time for a change...

So it's that time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere at least!) to update, organise and renew in readiness for the new academic year.

So here's my offering, a new website!

www.rachaelbeesley.com

I've also updated the Ironwood website and Facebook Ironwood group page, so feel free to check them out!

www.ironwoodchamberensemble.com

Rachael:)

My new baby!

Boxes and the Bach Archives

Whilst trying to fit my whole life into 12 Boxes to put on a ship pending my imminent relocation to Australia, I had a lot of time to listen to music, and found myself flitting between myriad styles from Jazz, to Indian wedding music, to electronic, to Chanson Française to the Beatles, to Bach Archives. So it wasn't a trip down memory lane just because of the stuff I was packing, but also for my lucky ears. I love rediscovering old favourites, they become all fresh and shiny once again, yet they will always have that air of nostalgia about them, no matter how long it has been since they saw the inside of my stereo.

I was talking to a friend about one of my all time favourite CDs, and we both agreed that it has to be one of the most beautiful recordings ever made. EVER! Definitely a desert island disc this one.....

It is a collection of works written by members of the Bach family that belonged to and greatly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S Bach treasured this collection, and took the time to correct some errors, complete missing parts and to write cover pages for some of them.

The large majority of works on this disc are by Johann Christoph Bach, eldest son of Heinrich Bach and uncle of Johann Sebastian. J.S. Bach particularly appreciated the works of his uncle and had performance materials made to perform many of them in church in Liepzig. The Lamento Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte is absolutely exquisite. Listen to this with the translation and make sure you have a box of tissues in close proximity. The most well know of Johann Christoph Bach's compositions is the stunning cantata Meine Freundin, du bist schön, which has a gorgeous chaconne with a beautiful, virtuosic obbligato violin line.

The CD also features the work of Johann Christoph's younger brother, Johann Michael Bach, also a prolific composer and organist of the castle chapel in Arnstadt, then later in Gehren, as well as a motet by Georg Christoph Bach, the brother of Johann Ambrosius (Johann Sebastians Father) based on Psalm 133, and composed for Georg Christoph's birthday in 1689, when both of his brothers came to visit him in Schweinfurt, where he was Kantor.

To have an insight into the musical language of J.S Bach's forefathers is already fortuitous...and the interpretation here is remarkable. The instrumental playing is amazingly expressive, and the singers communication of the text is stunning. Language is so all important in regards to the interpretation and performance of Baroque music. The repertoire of the 17th Century in particular is a style in which instrumentalists must strive to represent the spoken language as well as the musical language of the composer. Obviously when it is your mother tongue it is much more straightforward and in the end, that is what makes this recording so perfect. Here, every single musician understands and FEELS the text. In addition to this, their interpretation has a wonderful spontaneity, that is so often missing because of the cutting and pasting aspect of recording these days.

Funnily enough I am about to perform a cantata of another Bach family member, Johann Nicolaus Bach who was the son of the Johann Christoph Bach that I mentioned above) at the festival Bach en Combrailles in the Auvergne. I will probably run into a certain Rachael Beesley while I am there as well :)

Let's Get Physical

No, not the old Olivia Newton - John video clip! Although that might be a good jumping off point for improvisation...

Nicole here, reporting from various excursion around Sydney's current dance and theatre performances, exploring and building some ideas about how our music making might be expanded, well, physically.

First off, the Australian Theatre for Young People ATYP presented Meryl Tankard's work "VX18504" at the very funky Carriageworks VX18504 was Meryl Tankard's father's service number, and the work looks at all sorts of conflict, personal, at school, and at war, using a variety of spoken, & danced techniques. It was an amazing night from some extraordinary young performers. I got into the final performance - lucky me.

Earlier this week, I went to see a new collaboration between the Sydney Theatre Company and the National Institute of Dramatic Art NIDA directed by Nigel Jamison, who has been known for his work in the physical theatre area for some years, in the UK and Australia. "Gallipoli" is an epic ride through one of Australia's most iconic, and most contested bits of history. This work was a stunning combination of song, contemporary war commentary from historians such as Charles Bean, monologues, and movement, all workshopped by the performers over several months. Go and see it while you can, if you are in Sydney.

In the last couple of weeks, I've also been to see a much more experimental wing of the Sydney Theatre Company; their 'Wharf2Loud' program, which is all new work. "Manna" the work I saw, explored sound in theatre, using newly composed song, soundscapes and folk song. The actors sang most of their parts, and did some of the wierdest bits of cooking I've ever seen on stage!

During our residency at Bundanon last year, we had Adrian Burnett come in to give us some movement & pilates/yoga workshops. Adrian is a freelance choreographer, who has an extensive career in dance, including being a soloist with the Australian Ballet for a number of years. I dont think any of us are about to grace a stage in ballet shoes, but we learnt a lot from Adrian (including which muscles hurt the most, at seven in the morning!), and it's all contributing to a greater awareness of what we do on stage as musicians.

All very interesting and inspiring and causing my little brain to whirr furiously...Stayed tuned..or should that be 'hold that pose'? ;-)