From Brahms to Boeing

No matter where you are going in the world, Sydney is and remains an international city. It really is
extraordinary. At least the bits that everyone marvels over. The bridge, the Opera House, Circular
Quay, the toaster. Chris and I come down fairly regularly throughout the year to concerts at the OH.
It really is a remarkable building, even though it is not finished according to the desires of its
designer Jørn Utzon. I have been to so many concerts in this crimson hall with its wonderful pipe
organ looking over the vast chasm below it, but I never cease to get a thrill of excitement as members of the
orchestra slowly wander on to stage and, lost in their own individual worlds, run a few bars of the piece they are about to play. It’s always exciting. When the conductor walks across the stage after they’ve tuned up, there is wonderful silence that ensues as he picks up his baton, looks his charges in the eyes and raised his arms. I will never tire of it.

Last night we heard an all Brahms concert: the Academic Festival Overture, always fun, and two big
concertos, the Double Concerto for violin and cello, and the 1st piano concerto. This was a really big
night. The Double Concerto has a remarkable story. Brahms and his best mate, the most famous
violinist of the day, Joseph Joachim, had had a falling out some years earlier. They had not been able
to reconcile but Brahms sent Joachim the score for this concerto for comment, as Brahms himself
was neither a violinist or cellist. It worked. The interplay between the two instruments is gentle and
friendly and always collegial. It is as if the violin part is Joachim and the cello part is Brahms himself.
So, the whole concerto is a musical poem of reconciliation. And it shows.

The piano concerto in D Minor is one of two that Brahms wrote. It is a piece of great passion,
solemnity and beauty and he wrote it in his twenties. He debuted it exactly one hundred years
before I was born, at the age of twenty-six. I think that is truly remarkable. I don’t know what you
were doing at twenty-six, but I was still finding myself, denying my sexuality, working as a High School
teacher and being somewhat of a religious nutter. I love this Brahms. There is not a month goes by that I do not play it, either while I’m working or reading. It is one of my most favourite concertos of the genre. The soloists were amazing. I did not know them, but I have a new found respect for Andrew Haveron (violin), Umberto Clerici (cello) and Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano); the SSO’s Chief Conductor David Robertson bringing his usual flair and enthusiasm to the music. Some exciting music awaits in the States, and very soon. A surprise.

Today, it’s all about airports and luggage and checking in and security and waiting for our flight. It
was delayed about two hours, so a drink and some rest helped. We’ve read the all the papers, Chris
has done a bit of sketching already and I have had a go at some fundamentalist homophobes on
Twitter. We are both just looking forward to getting on the plane and going. Till next.Read more