The Reef and MOMA!

Michelle and I were in Perth for 3 days this week. We were there to see her folks as it was her birthday recently, to attend The Reef which I posted about here, visit the MOMA exhibition at the WA Art Gallery and catch up with middle son Oscar and his girlfriend.
What an experience The Reef was. A surprisingly wide array of captivating music, absolutely wonderfully played and accompanying by a visual extravanganza of surfing and landscape footage taking in the far North West of our state at Gnaraloo.

The music was as follows:
Tognetti - Heart of the Black Beast, Bathymetry
Tognetti/Grandage - Beyond
Seeger - Where have all the flowers gone
Rameau - Les Vents from Les Boreades
Ligeti - Ramifications
Crumb - Black Angels (excerpts)
Bach - Fugue from Sonata No. 1, BWV1001
Grandage/Atkins - Immutable
Pigram Brothers - Raindancing
S Pigram - Mimi
Kilar - Orawa
Alice in Chains - Them Bones, Angry Chair
Dean - Peripeteia from Electric Preludes
Shostakovich - Allegro molto from Chamber Symphony, Op. 110a
Rachmaninov- Vocalise
Beethoven - Cavatina from String Quartet, Op. 130

It is not often you hear a string ensemble play Seattle grunge but the ACO2 did and the Alice in Chains pieces were awesome. The leader Richard Tognetti, also a fin free surf afficionado, who would have enjoyed his fair share of waves at Gnaraloo, put away his priceless Guaneri violin and got an evil looking electric violin out and rocked out with some great electric guitar style sounds. Sweet indeed.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the Crumb and the Beethoven Cavatina played as the concert finale was achingly beautiful. You could not find 2 more contrasting pieces of music but each worked so well with the visuals that were chosen to accompany them.




Really amazing as there is something very powerful about the combination of music and images, especially, those captured by an incredible talent like Jon Frank. Lots of underwater footage viewing the waves moving through from underneath and some sensational close views from a wide variety of angles of Derek Hynd and Ryan Birch, on that famous little piece of foam, sliding across in front of the camera!

I am pleased to report that our very own Warren Pfieffer, who was also involved in the similar Musica Surfica project, featured in the first actual surfing footage of the evening on the wave you can see in the pic. I am hoping to get my hands on that footage and any other footage that exists of Warren from the trip, edit it and get it up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
Michelle and I also visited the Museum Of Modern Art exhibition featuring the work of 14 Modern masters including Picasso and Andy Warhol. I have always liked Jackson Pollock's work as I tend to paint a similar style of abstract expressionism myself when ever I do paint which is not terribly often nowadays. Michelle kindly took this pic of me standing next to a typical example of the abstract art he produced in exchange for the dozen or so I had to take of her.

I also really liked Picasso's work and it is so interesting to be able to get up close and check out the brushwork. I have also always admired his draughting skills and there were a few of his drawings there also which was a treat too. It is always a relief to get home again but it was an enjoyable and culturally enriching change.