Diary

05.06.2009: Down under, part II

Down under, part II

Hello all! I'm writing this on my way home from Tampere, where I was adjudicating in the contest for vocal ensembles at the Tampere Vocal Festival, for the third time already. Sitting in the jury is a very interesting and fulfilling job – especially when you have such a cappella greats as Anders Jalkéus (The Real Group), Anna Maria Friman (Trio Mediaeval) and Bob Chilcott (ex-King’s Singers) as your colleagues. It was actually exactly ten years ago that we won the same competition... how time flies. The level of the groups in this year’s contest was again quite varied, the winning group being a wonderful German quartet Klangbezirk. Congrats to all the prize winners!

Well, let’s now go back in time a bit...

Our Aussie tour continued from Canberra to Hobart, Tasmania, where we were hosted by the world’s southernmost symphony orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony. As you know, ABBA was wildly popular in Australia, so we were really looking forward to our ABBA gigs there. Hobart is a pretty little city and we were sorry that our schedule didn’t allow us to spend a couple of days to explore the unique nature of Tasmania. Well, maybe next time.

After a radio interview, the compulsory ”let’s-go-and-find-the-best-or-the-nearest-sushi-place-in-town” and a rehearsal it was time for the concert. The venue was Tasman Room at the Wrest Point Casino, a milieu that fits ABBA’s music quite well. The concert was sold out and had quite an extatic feel to it – the way the audience got up and started dancing on the aisles was not something we were used to. This far. The orchestra played really well and seemed to enjoy the gig too.

We didn’t have much time to dwell on the success of the Hobart gig, as we needed to leave for Adelaide before the sunset. The local 2000-seat concert hall was very nice, and already in the first rehearsal the Adelaide Symphony also played well. We were happy to hear that both concerts had been sold out and celebrated that by having a lovely meeting with our friends from The Idea of North.

The Adelaide audiences were awesome and they certainly embraced us. The Saturday night’s concert is no doubt the most energetic ABBA concert we have ever done. During the last song of the evening the audience lights were turned on and we could see a hall full of people standing up, dancing and singing along. Wild!

All three ABBA concerts were conducted by a gentleman called Brett Kelly who turned out to be not only a great conductor, but also a very nice guy. Brett rehearsed both orchestras with great skill and treated us very well. The rhythm section (piano, drums, electric bass and electric guitar), brought from Sydney and Melbourne, was very good too – definately the best we have ever had in our orchestral concerts outside Finland. Thanks to Brett, thanks to all the musicians, thanks to ABBA!

Another early flight. This time we were joined by our Aussie friends, The Idea of North, who had come to Adelaide to see our ABBA show. We slept on the plane as much as we could and drove straight to the venue, a lovely place called The Powerhouse, right on the Brisbane river.

The first show on Sunday was a bit of a struggle for us as we had some technical problems which we were luckily able to solve during the 30-minute break before the second concert. That was a lot better one for us, and Monday night’s concert was a good one too. TION sang better than ever and also our joint numbers were well received.

Many of us spent the night between Monday and Sunday celebrating the fine Brisbane gigs and the conclusion of the whole tour. Good times. As all the Brisbane concerts were sold out too, we could calculate that all but one of the concerts on our first ever Australian tour were sold out. Not bad! Thanks to all of our old and new fans. It's more than likely that we'll be back down under soon. See ya!

Jussi