Photos from times past

Picnic in New Zealand, about 1940. My grandmother is bottom right and mother standing by the tree.

Late last year I took lots of photos of the photos in my late mother's old albums. My aim was to create some printed albums for family members. It is taking a lot of work and a long time as each photo needs work. I keep thinking I have finished, then I discover a photo I have overlooked and need to reorganise the album.

The photos show that people in the early to mid 20th century made their own fun. There are lots of photos of picnics and other gatherings. The photo above looks like a picnic, but where is the food?

Explaining the Tristan Chord

The Tristan Chord, the beginning of modernist atonal music. Here the wonderful Stefan Mickisch explains the Tristan Chord to Stephen Fry.

It is Bayreuth opera time again and if you are one of the fortunate ones going and Mickisch is presenting his 'play and tell' shows, be sure to go along. I have heard lots of people explaining Wagner, some with great musical abilities, but Mickisch outshines them all. He is competent, amusing and humble. A true musician. In 2006 I drew Mickisch as he talked - portrait below the video.

Stefan Mickisch plays and explains

Portrait of Stefan Mickisch In 2006 I attended a seminar given by Stefan Mickisch in Bayreuth. I drew several small portraits as he spoke and showed him afterwards. He asked me if he should sign one and, after a little hesitation (remembering the Helen Clark portrait) I said 'Well yes, why not'. I value this little picture, painted as Mickisch played. It reminds me what a nice (and very erudite) person I had the honour of listening to.

Otello in Sydney with Simon O'Neill

Simon O'Neill as Otello  with Lianna Haroutounian as Desdemona.

Photograph: Branco Gaica/Opera Australia

On Wednesday I saw Otello at the Sydney Opera house with Simon O'Neill in the title role, Lianna Haroutounian as his Desdemona and Claudio Sgura as the dreadful Iago.

The singers were all in fine voice - their singing was just glorious and you would never have guessed that Lianna Haroutounian was a last minute stand in.

I am too much of a softie to really enjoy Otello because I just hate watching Otello being so deviously deceived by Iago. I winced and squirmed in my seat, which is a credit to the singers as they performed so compellingly I had no escape!

Apart from the excruciating story, the set in this production also bothered me. The whole performance took place on a steep staircase. As they sang and argued, made love and killed each other I was willing them not to trip and tumble right to the bottom of the stairs. None of them did, although it looked as if O'Neill had done himself damage in his final dying lunge. However he stood up and took his bows with a smile.

More:
Guardian Review
crikey.com review (have a listen to the great clips in this article .... they'll lead you on to an evening of watching more and more.)
Portrait of Simon as Siegmund

Whales frolic nearby

Whale with baby (image from Wikipedia)

I have just seen a live whale. It is swimming with a mate off my local beach in NSW as I write. Word gets around quickly (my neighbour told me) and when I drove up the hill a lot of cars were stopping at good vantage points for a look. You could see the whales from the beach as well, but perhaps not as easily.

The enormous bodies looked more like floating sand bars than animals. Watching the slow rise and fall of an concessional tail or fin made me think how talented photographers are to get pictures of wales above the water.They must wait a long time for the right shot.

As I watched I remembered seeing a whale off Nambucca Heads about 30 years ago. Or perhaps I dreamed that. I do know that we stood on a lookout waiting for the whale to surface but I no longer remember if I saw it surface or if my memory has been mixed with photos I  have seen. Memory is like that, not always infallible.

ACO and Paavali Jumppanen

Last week I saw Piano Quintets performed by Paavali Jumppanen and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Here is a video to show you how good they are. They are performing around Australia through July - see them if you can!

Maribor Music Festival in September

Maribor Festival website

Wooo hooo ... the Maribor Music Festival is on again in September and I am going.
I can't wait.  It is a festival you get hooked on  because not only are the concerts wonderful the town of Maribor in Slovenia (just south of Graz in Austria) is charming as well.This will be my fifth festival!

It is a rather sudden decision and I have been spending lots of time perusing relevant websites, mulling over possible side trips.

www.bahn.de

My favourite website of all time is www.bahn.de which is the German Railways website (in German and English).At a click of a button you can find out where and when European trains/ buses leave, how long they take, how much trips cost (prices vary depending on the route and time of day) and all the special offers. You can also find out which hotels are near the station or the airport or the centre of town and book them, often without having to pay until you arrive. What's not to like?

Thank you Miele

Old seal from the Miele oven

I had to replace a rubber seal on a Miele oven this week. I rang the company to order a new one but I didn't know the model. Miele had it on file though, knew exactly what and when (2003) it had been purchased.

I asked if the part was easy to replace and was told the seal had hooks and I should be able to do it myself and avoid the $150 call out fee. They were right. When I took the old seal out I realised how simple the design was - simple and effective. The little wire hooks slotted in and the new seal was installed in about 10 seconds flat.

That's why I like German designed products. They might cost a little more, but it is worth it in the end.

Extended stay in the music room

View from the bed

A one night stay in the music room was what I planned when I arrived in Sydney last Thursday, but I hadn't reckoned with the winter flu bug that is doing the rounds in Sydney. One night turned into five and I was sick enough not to get bored with my unvarying view.

Tonight Warwick Fyfe is singing Wagner songs in Sydney. Warwick stole the show at the Melbourne Ring Cycle last year when he .jumped in at almost the last minute and sang a very memorable Alberich. My reminder alarm just beeped for the show but unfortunately I wont be there. I am out of the music room, but not fit enough for trains and buses.

Surfing at Freshwater Beach

Freshwater beach
Watercolour on Arches paper

On Saturday I was at Freshwater Beach on Sydney's north shore where the water was dotted with black clad figures waiting for waves.

The sky was blue, the weather balmy and the water was calm and clear with waves breaking just offshore and rolling in with boarders aloft.  Walkers basked in the sun as they strolled along watching the surfers. It was a perfect Sydney winters day.

Perfect?

Kids with surfboards making for the beach

It is the warmest June I can remember, another record no doubt.

The kids in this photo will have cause to blame us if we don't take urgent action on our warming climate. Tony Abbott, are you listening?

Accepting children as they are

"Accept the children the way we accept trees--with gratitude, because they are a blessing--but do not have expectations or desires. You don’t expect trees to change, you love them as they are." 
--Isabel Allende




This quote is taken from the blog of a father who has struggled with his son becoming addicted to drugs. It has been a long journey back, but the family seem to have made it. All power to them. 

Passionfruit

Passion fruit flower

It is already June but the passion fruit plant in my garden continues to produce flowers and fruit. It is as confused as many other plants are by the unseasonal warm weather.

The abnormal autumn comes after our hottest year yet.  I am wondering if summer will always be as long as it was this year.

When Australia has particularly warm weather New Zealand seems to have particularly cold weather. There was snow in Dunedin not so long ago ... will this become more common as well?

Musical moments, Sydney 2014

Sayo Lipman plays harp
Pearl Beach, 8/6/14

The last few months have been very musical for me and I have sketched as I listened.

I have just put my sketches online. They include mezzosoprano Deborah Humble, pianists Lukáš Vondrácek and Michael Curtain, Principal Viola with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Roger Benedict, harpist Sayo Lipman, singers who have performed for the NSW Wagner society and three musicologists.

Roger Benedict in Pearl Beach

Roger Benedict with Viola
(and Simon Tedeschi in background)

Last night Roger Benedict, Principal Viola with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, gave a concert with well known pianist Simon Tedeschi in the small Pearl Beach Community Hall. It felt like one of those small venue concerts in Europe, great crowd, great acoustics and wonderful enthusiasm. And fantastic playing! So nice to hear more of the viola.

The concert was is part of the June long-weekend two day music festival organised by the Pearl Beach Progress Association. Long may they continue.

Bush path up the hill

Alone, walking up the fire trail from Pearl Beach this morning, I marvel at the colours and the winter stillness. It takes about thirty minutes from the bottom to the lookout, more if you meander and take pictures.

Red earth path

Banksia flowers in bloom

And at the top, a view over the mouth of the Hawkesbury river to the sea. How could one ever tire of such a view?

Sailing boat on the Hawkesbury; Palm Beach in the distance

Sydney is having an unprededented warm spell. Twenty three days so far above 20C in May and it is to continue until at least 6 June. What will summer be like?

Mezzo soprano Deborah Humble

Stephen Mould on piano, Deborah Humble singing

On Wednesday Deborah Humble sang lieder by Brahms, Wagner (Wesendonck Lieder) and a long lost song by Mendelssohn for an appreciative audience at the Verbruggen Hall in Sydney.

Lieder (= songs in German) show off a voice or show the imperfections.  Deborah is a mezzo soprano but I prefer the old fashioned term contralto which seems to me more fitting for Deborah's deep and expressive voice, a voice and quite up to the task of a whole evening's continuous singing.

Her concert was a real pleasure. Now she is busy rehearsing for her concert in Melbourne.

After the concert (from Deborah's Facebook page)

Coffee with music

Fancy silver coffee pots, once very popular and now found in antique and op shops, were the basis for these intaglio prints. These were printed in Dunedin in 2008 and have been sitting in boxes since.  I am retrieving them and making a 'coffee pot' collage series.

Intaglio print/ink

Intaglio print/ink/collage

Coffeepots

Coffee pots for my coffee shop.

I framed up a couple of intaglio print and ink collaged coffee pots for the wall of my local cafe this week  There is printed music on the pots which you can't see on these images as the pictures were taken after framing ... so not the best. Creating coffee pot images while listening to ABC Classic FM was a nice respite from budget politics.

Coffeepot 2

Coffeepot 1

Music on the coffeepot (just visible!)

Gonski is a hero

There are heros in Australia as well as creeps (last post) and one of them is the businessman David Gonski. 

David Gonski is the gentleman who co-authored the 'Gonski Report' on education funding.  He says that he had thought when he began his research that the bureaucracies were responsible for education problems but when he met them he realised he had been wrong.

 Watch his video.

Gonski's report highlighted the big gap in funding between wealthy and poor schools in Australia and provided a path to recovery.  Julia Gillard was very keen to close the gap but Tony Abbott's 2014 budget will result in even greater disparities of wealth between schools.

Just plain 'yuck'!

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's minders must have had their job cut out making him look like a man you could trust.  After presenting a budget that punishes the poor, the young and the sick he is getting extra scrutiny and revealing his true colours. Australians are discovering he is much worse than they had ever imaged: a congenital liar, a sleaze and just plain yuck.

We hear that at uni he was a far-right misogynist thug who took pleasure in terrorising women.
"He was a very offensive, a particularly obnoxious sort of guy," said Barbie Schaffer, a Sydney teacher who was at Sydney University with Mr Abbott.

Abbott amused by grandmother's plight

Now a video has emerged showing he hasn't changed.   On a radio show a grandmother asks him how she was going to make ends meet after July when Abbott's budget cuts come in.

She said to pay the bills she works on a phone sex line, at which Abbott winks, smirks, giggles. Then he catches the eye of a minder and tries to look serious. He tells her he is getting rid of the carbon tax but she can keep the offset she received.

Can this be a Prime Minister? Not for long one hopes.

To quote the Sydney Morning Herald today:

• " The wink video is also not the first time the Coalition has been caught up in a "footage issue" in recent days. Last week, there was much controversy about whether Christopher Pyne said "grub" or something else in the House of Representatives chamber. And then again, when footage emerged of him apparently signalling Speaker Bronwyn Bishop to shut down applause for Bill Shorten's budget reply speech."

Igudesman & Joo in Vienna

Australian budget ructions are gathering speed .... so a bit of musical humour hits the spot.

A concert with a difference...