Watching Jonas Kaufmann sing

For those Australians who saw Jonas Kaufmann last week and need another little fix, try the link below.
The thing I found most fascinating about his live performance was being able to see (or perhaps feel) how he adjusts his body in preparation for singing. It is as if he adjusts the strings of his internal cello, holds it all in place, inhabits the role, then breaths - and suddenly the air carries vibrations of such beauty you feel like weeping.

Quite extraordinary ... and perhaps ones own body mimics his, because it makes you feel as if you are part of the performance in some odd way.

Steven Isserlis and the ACO

Steven Isserlis's cello runs away with itself
(12 x 17 cm)

The virtuosic cello player Steven Isserlis is one with his instrument and the way he plays it makes you feel as if you are an extension of it as well. So yesterday when my watercolour cello ran away with itself, I let it go.

I was listening to Isserlis and an augmented Australian Chamber Orchestra with over 40 musicians play Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor. They were wonderful. The ACO are always exceptional and we are so lucky to have such an orchestra call Australia home.

Concerts are not usually the place where people discuss politics, especially not in Australia, but yesterday I ended up in political discussions with both the retired couple I met in the coffee queue beforehand and the people seated next to me at the concert. There seems to be an increasing awareness of the infiltration of our political system by big business and people want to talk about it.  Perhaps the recent pronouncements by our environment minister has tipped the balance?