PrettyInScarlett

Different Embassy, similar theme.... On Friday M and I attended the regular Arts Cafe hosted by the Austrian Embassy/Austrian Cultural Forum here in Ottawa. Still on a musical theme, the Cafe of 25 th March was promoting 25-year old Austrian pianist Stefan Stroissnig and celebrating the bicentenary of Liszt's birth. For a first taster of the Austrian 'circuit', this was promising: a very good turnout (though rather older on average than audiences at recent NAC events -I do find that slightly depressing) at U Ottawa's Tabaret Hall, though sadly no wine ! Stroissnig's programme was as follows: Liszt ' Bénédiction de dieu dans la solitude (Harmonies poétiques et religieuses )' S173/3 Brahms: Sonata No 2 in F sharp minor Friedrich Cerha : Netzwerk - Fantasie Schubert: Sonata in D major, D850 ' Gasteiner ' The curiosity was the piece by Cerha , a contemporary Austrian composer. Neither of us were really enamoured with the piece, couldn't re...

Something of a departure from our recent outings to see Finnish band Apocalyptica on 11 th March. After somewhat 're' discovering the band via this route , we were quite excited by the time Friday came. To detail the evening in reverse, Apocalyptica's show was superb, with a range of songs both old and new/transcriptions and originals. I particularly liked the more introspective mid-set performance of Beautiful (with drummer Mikko Sirén on a 4 th cello) and Sacra. As far as I recall and compared to setlists from other shows (none available for 11 th March), the setlist (compiled here from setlist . fm ) was as follows: On the Rooftop With Quasimodo 2010 Grace Master of Puppets ( Metallica cover) End Of Me (with Tipe Johnson) I'm Not Jesus (with Tipe Johnson) One ( Metallica cover) Refuse/Resist ( Sepultura cover) Beautiful ( Mikko Sirén left the drumset to play Cello for this song) Sacra Bittersweet Last Hope Bring Them to Light Seek & Destroy ( Me...