Welcome to the November Newsletter, it’s coming out late but not as late as last month.
Brisbane
So I took a holiday to Brisbane to see the world premiere of a Double Bass concerto, more about that later. I haven’t spent much time in Brisbane before so was aiming to just hang out and see what there was to see. I booked an apartment near Roma Station which was within walking distance of QPAC for the concert. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t start well. I got sick with a really bad cough and flu when I arrived and had to recover on the couch. Lucky there was cricket and bowls on the tele. Once I got better I walked down to South Bank to check it all out, went shopping at Chermside, walked along the river, went to Allan Border Oval to watch Queensland play Victoria in the Marsh Cup, joined a curators tour at the library, checked out the art galleries, went shopping in Queens Street Mall, walked around Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and went to a show at Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium. It was a great 10 days. I would go back again.
TV shows
Engineering Reborn
I’m a little excited my TV boyfriend, Rob Bell, is back on the tele. Engineering Reborn looks at big engineering buildings that have been repurposed for example Bankside Power Station is now TATE modern. You can catch up on SBS ondemand.
Building the Impossible
Rob is also back in Building the Impossible for a second season. It’s all about building lighthouses, very cool. Also available on SBS ondemand.
Concerts, concerts
Another big month of concerts
Mighty Rachmaninov
So I planned my whole trip to Brisbane to go to this concert by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. It was the WORLD premiere of Paul Dean’s Double Bass Concerto. He wrote for Phoebe Russell, the double bass principal of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. I even brought a whole new outfit from Kitten d’Amour for the occasion. I was very excited and wasn’t disappointed. The concert started though with a piece by Andrew Howes, Luminifera – Wild Light for Orchestra. It was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as part of the 50 Fanfares project. This is the second time that I have seen this piece performed (see my September Newsletter). It was great yet again to hear it. The second piece was the Amazing Double Bass Concerto. I first saw Phoebe a couple of years ago at Double Bass day in Melbourne. Her stage presence is just amazing. Her abilities are just epic. It was brilliant to see her perform a piece written just for her. So inspiring. The third piece was Symphony No.2 in E minor by Rachmaninov. It is an epic piece. Full orchestra and full sound. It was very enjoyable.
In very exciting news you can hear the actual concert on ABC radio online. Check the program here
Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas with James Ehnes
So I flew back to Sydney on the morning of this concert at the Opera House. I had seen James Ehnes perform the Four Seasons back in 2014/15 and was blown away so was very excited to see this concert. I wasn’t disappointed. It was a lovely concert with just James Ehnes accompanied by Andrew Armstrong. He performed 3 of Beethoven’s Sonatas plus a bonus movement. They were No1, No5 “Spring” and No9 “Kreutzer”. The bonus was the No6 second movement. I can’t rave enough about how much I love James’ tone and expression. Check out the program here. I’ve put together a
playlist of the concert and the complete playlist of James and Andrew’s recordings of Beethoven’s Sonatas.
Two Cellos
The final concert of the month was another big one. The Two Cellos performed at Aware Super Theatre. I’ve been waiting for them to come back out for ages. They performed with the SSO back in 2016, you can check out the concert on youtube. I was very excited to get to see them live. It was my first concert at the Aware Super Theatre. It felt a bit like Eurovision with the long runways to get through security. It turned out though that I had brought aware seats. Second row on the tiered section. They were amazing, funny, loud, entertaining and very very good-looking. The concert went for 2 hours straight no break. So much fun, dancing and singing along.
Books
I’m back in the books. Having some spare time and also getting sick while I was away, gave me a great opportunity to get some of my TBR done. I read the following.
- The Twyford Code – Janice Hallett
- Murder in Williamstown – Kerry Greenwood
- Fall of Angels – Barbara Cleverly
- The Crow Trap – Ann Cleeves
- Fer-de-Lance – Rex Stout
Welcome to the festive season
I’m not the world’s most excited when it comes to Christmas but I do love LEGO so there was much excitement when this year’s Christmas LEGO arrived. This year it’s a tram, a toy shop and a music shop. I also got another Christmas Tree and the CITY Advent Calendar. They are all great additions to the Christmas display.
Have an amazing Christmas, I hope you get up to mischief and have lots and lots of laughs.
