Music with Aiko Goto and ACO musicians

A weekend listening to Australian Chamber Orchestra musicians is a weekend to appreciate.

On Saturday last Aiko Goto gave a violin recital with pianist Ian Munro. This is the third Goto solo recital I have heard and I think she only gets better. Not only is she a whizz on the violin, she is a little package of charm and much loved by her audiences.

Ex-convict prison: the marks where the stairs went up to
higher levels are visible on the end wall.

 Then on Sunday I attended a Mozart/Beethoven concert given by five ACO members in the former women's convict prison, now National Art School lecture theatre.

I studied there a few years back and heard a lot of lectures there but I never 'saw' the prisoners in my mind's eye as I did last Sunday. The building has massive sandstone walls and must have been a dark forbidding place when the internal walls were still there. They were removed and a new roof installed when the building was rescued from dereliction after WW2.

ACO musicians play Mozart

I hope the time/space warp makes it possible for lovely music to travel backwards and lighten the burden of the poor women who were incarcerated there. Theirs must have been a sad existence indeed.

The Bastille in Red

The Bastille - I aimed my camera, pressed the button and got a picture of red.

It was a passing bus, but quite appropriate for the Bastille because this was where the Bastille prison was until the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. It was subsequently physically destroyed, with nothing remaining.

Instead there is the July Column which I had been trying to photograph.

July Column

The July Column was built in 1835-40 of 21 cast bronze drums with an interior staircase. On top stands the 'Spirit of Freedom', a large gilded figure you cannot overlook. He carries the torch of civilization and his broken chains.

'Spirit of Freedom'

'Spirit of Freedom', I don't suppose it ever looses its relevance. Perhaps they could erect another when Chelsea Manning, Julian Assauge and Edward Snowdon are released from their respective confinements.