They say electricity and water don’t mix. Well, we can tell you that organ and trumpet certainly do. Dominic Perissinotto and Brent Grapes proved this at a packed St Patrick’s Basilica, Fremantle on Sunday afternoon, 11 November 2018.
Perrisinotto and Grapes were outstanding and we’ve never heard a sweeter ‘Last Post’.
Together with reader James Hagan, soprano Eva-Maria Middleton and baritone Michael Heap, they nailed verse, voice and virtuoso playing.
Concert Four of this year’s Pipe Organ Plus series, ‘For The Fallen’, was supported by Legacy, on the Centenary of Remembrance Day – 100 years after the end of the Great War.
Middleton and Heap’s duets were quite beautiful and Hagan’s readings and booming delivery of Walt Whitman’s epic poem, ‘When Lilacs Last In The Dooryard Bloom’d’ framed a wonderful afternoon of vocal and instrumental art.
The ensemble performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Last Invocation’, immediately before the afternoon tea of Essenza Coffee, Elmstock Premium Tea and Picobello Patisserie petit fours, was as uplifting as the afternoon tea was delicious.
The concert gave the audience a perfectly balanced selection of Western ‘war’ music and poetry, from the old world of Europe to the new worlds of the United States and Australia; from the greats to the not so well known, including the lovely closing piece for organ and trumpet, ‘At The Going Down Of The Sun’ by Brenton Broadstock, commissioned by Perissinotto in 1994.
What we heard reminded us of the pain, suffering and tragedy, not to say futility of war. The message passed down to us all over the past 100 years, rang out clearly. It is a message for the ages.
Dominic told us he will ‘take off’ the first half of 2019 recording his wonderful music. But the second half will see the return of Organ Plus. If you haven’t been to one during the past 18 years, make sure you get along then. Take the family. It is always a perfect afternoon.
We Fremantle people are so lucky to have such talent on our doorstep.
By the way, if you’d like to know more about Dominic Perissinotto, listen here to our audio interview with him a short while back.
