Conductor: Leonard Weiss
Organist: Calvin
Bowman
Wesley Uniting
Church, Forrest 15 December
Reviewed by Len Power
For their third concert, Canberra’s newest semi-professional
musical ensemble presented a fine program of three works – one orchestral suite
by Bach and two organ concerti by Handel with Calvin Bowman as soloist on the
Wesley Uniting Church organ. The program
was conducted by Leonard Weiss.
The first item, Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major, is said
to have been composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the period 1717 to 1723 while
employed as Kapellmeister for the German Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen. This is the first known example of secular
orchestral music that Bach composed.
 |
| Leonard Weiss conducting the Canberra Sinfonia |
The
seven movements in French Baroque style were nicely played by the orchestra, especially
the sprightly Gavotte and Minuet movements and there was fine playing by the
trio of bassoon (Jordan London) and oboes (Lucy Preece, Timothy Elphick) in the
Bourreé movement.
After interval, Australian organist and composer, Calvin
Bowman, joined the orchestra for the two Handel organ concerti. Bowman is the only Australian composer to
have been exclusively featured on the Decca recording label apart from Percy
Grainger. As a performer, he was
nominated for a Helpmann Award for his single seventeen hour playing of the
complete Bach organ works at the Melbourne International Festival in 2009.
 |
| Calvin Bowman playing Bach with Leonard Weiss conducting |
Six Opus 7 organ concerti were written in London between
1740 and 1751 for performance during Handel’s oratorios. In this concert, concerti 1 and 4 were
presented. Calvin Bowman played both
works superbly with strong and well-balanced support from the orchestra. The final movement of the No. 4 concerto was
especially well-played.
Photos by Peter Hislop
Len Power’s reviews
are also broadcast in his ‘On Stage’ performing arts radio program on Mondays
and Wednesdays from 3.30pm on Artsound FM 92.7.