A Winning Performance from the Verbrugghen Ensemble

Forget the Olympics in Rio, last night the real action was in the Concourse Concert Hall Chatswood. It was gold, gold, gold all the way for the Verbrugghen Ensemble.

It was a tight first half when the team played  Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with sparkling purity and precision.  At half time, there was a excited buzz of anticipation among the fans in the Concert Hall. The capacity crowd was thrilled when the Verbrugghen Ensemble returned to play Schubert’s Octet. There were plenty of stand-out individual performances in the Octet. But it was the team play – the beautiful shaping of passages, the exhilarating technique and the joyful camaraderie – that booked the Ensemble’s place on the winner’s podium.

Our photographer went along to the Ensemble’s pre-concert warm up to see what it takes to create a winning performance.

 Verbruggen Ensemble closed

The Verbrugghen Ensemble. What was their game plan for the night? Great music played perfectly.

 

Verbruggen Ensemble Winds

An in-form Francesco Celata  (clarinet) played beautifully; every shimmering note was 
pure gold.  Andrew Barnes (bassoon) and David Thompson (horn) showed their 
versatility – playing with airy lightness and orchestral richness.

 

Verbruggen Ensemble Strings

Bridget O’Donnell, (violin) a young player with great potential joined star performers Andrew 
Haveron (violin) and Rodger Benedict (viola) in a brilliant strings line-up.

 

Verbruggen Ensemble Alex Henery  Verbruggen Ensemble Umberto Clerici

Alex Henery (double bass) kept up the pace with more agility and power than a 
Wallaby forward.  And as always, Umberto Clerici (‘cello) turned in a stunning performance. 
He’s the Usain Bolt of the ‘cello.

 

Daniel Kaan from ClassikON came to the concert and we are very pleased that he gave the Verbrugghen Ensemble  a high score.  "A distinguished group performing at a high standard with focus and intensity" he said. You can read his comments and insights about musical technique in his review posted on the ClassikON website . Thank you to Daniel and to the ClassikON Team for publishing the review.

                             

                                            Photos and text: Charmain Boyakovsky

 

 

 

Posted on Saturday, 20 August 2016 at 12pm