OBSERVER: Morning Melodies


Celebrating its 40th year of operation, the Morning Melodies daytime concert series had the well-known culinary icon Maggie Beer curate an hour or so of music performed at Hamer Hall by Orchestra Victoria.
The program chosen by Beer consisted of seven short pieces from composers Mendelssohn, Suther-land, Mascagni, Brahms, Delibes, Gershwin and Marquez and included well-known works such as the Flower Duet from Lakme (Delibes) and Hungarian Dance No 5 (Brahms).
While the format of each Morning Melodies concert does vary from month to month, in this instance it consisted of Greta Bradman, who regularly presents on ABC Classic-FM, introducing each piece while conversing with Beer about her musical selections and why they were important to her.
The lovely rapport between Bradman and herself meant that, while admitting to some nerves, Beer very quickly relaxed and told entertaining and often amusing anecdotes relating to each of the seven pieces. These spanned tales from her youth when she poached at midnight in the wilds of Scotland to more recent stories of dinners with friends, piano-playing and much singing and merriment, in and out of the kitchen.
Conducted with verve by Carlo Antonioli, Orchestra Victoria were in fine form. There was a fair degree of variety in the demands made on the orchestra by the seven pieces, but the orchestra took it all in their stride.
For two of the pieces it was joined by soprano Nina Korbe and mezzo-soprano Syrah Torii when they sang the Flower Duet and then, going solo, Korbe sang Summertime from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bass.
The beautiful voices of both singers filled Hamer Hall as they, together with the orchestra, gave wonderful renditions of these two moving songs.
A wonderful guest, charming conversation and delightful music all added up to a fitting tribute to Morning Melodies in this, its 40th year.
Venue: Hamer Hall, 100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.
Morning Melodies further details: artscentremelbourne.com.au/festival-and-series/morning-melodies
Review by Peter Murphy