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John Keene conducts & plays Bottesini with Fremantle Chamber Orchestra at Perth Town Hall & Freo Naval Store

Headshot of David Cusworth
David CusworthThe West Australian
John Keene will conduct Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and play Bottesini’s Concerto for Double Bass No.2.
Camera IconJohn Keene will conduct Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and play Bottesini’s Concerto for Double Bass No.2. Credit: Nik Babic

A baton in one hand and a double bass in the other?

It makes an intriguing picture, but John Keene has something less athletic in mind when he conducts Fremantle Chamber Orchestra and plays Bottesini’s Concerto for Double Bass No.2 this weekend.

Keene, deputy principal double bass at WA Symphony Orchestra, presents works from the 18th through to the 20th centuries at Perth Town Hall on Saturday and Fremantle’s Naval Store on Sunday.

“The program features some not so well known, but incredibly uplifting and jovial ‘classical’ symphonies, as well as a wonderfully lavish and enthralling string piece by a 20th-century neo-Romantic composer Atterberg,” he says.

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“Haydn’s 60th symphony is also one of his most comical works and is quite theatrical in performance.

John Keene Serge Koussevitzky’s Concerto for Double Bass with the Cygnus Arioso String Quartet at The Grove.
Camera IconJohn Keene Serge Koussevitzky’s Concerto for Double Bass with the Cygnus Arioso String Quartet at The Grove. Credit: Bohdan Warchomij

“I will conduct these works as a conductor properly from the podium, but for the Bottesini, I will be merely leading the group from the front with a few introductory gestures and then everything after that will operate as ‘chamber music’, where the musicians listen to the solo line and interact internally with each other.”

It’s a first for Keene conducting and playing a concerto, though last year he played Serge Koussevitzky’s Concerto for Double Bass with the Cygnus Arioso String Quartet at The Grove library.

He also conducted the debut performance by The Orchestra Collective at Government House, with Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture and Flute Concerto No.1, followed by a head-turning rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No.7.

This weekend’s program opens with the Symphony in D major by Beethoven’s contemporary Ignaz Pleyel, followed by the Bottesini. Atterberg’s Intermezzo then complements the Haydn symphony.

Perth Town Hall is a well known music venue but it is possibly the first time the Naval Store has hosted an orchestra as FCO’s regular venue, Fremantle Town Hall, is temporarily closed.

John Keene conducts The Orchestra Collective at Government House Ballroom.
Camera IconJohn Keene conducts The Orchestra Collective at Government House Ballroom.

“The Naval Store promises to have good acoustics and is big enough to socially distance,” Keene says.

“It started as a new arts space recently and I think this will be the first performance of classical music there.”

John Keene and Fremantle Chamber Orchestra are at Perth Town Hall on Saturday, April 10, at 3pm, and at Naval Store (corner Canning Highway and Victoria Street, Fremantle) on Sunday, April 11, at 3pm.

Tickets are available at the door (cash): adults, $40, concession $35, under-18, $20; or at Ticketek (charges apply): https://premier.ticketek.com.au/search/SearchResults.aspx?k=fco

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