Not so very many
years ago, two young students, already laurelled, each one, with considerable
success, entered the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, Australia.
Everything from ‘Mein Herr Marquis’ to the songs of Copland …
And for a change
from Strauss or Copland, they manufactured their own material
And it so happened
that both of them, separately, moved out into the big wide musical world … and
just happened to end up in the same place. Berlin, Germany.
Which is where I
come in. On my second day in Berlin (ever, the first was Das Vetter aus dingsda), Dr Kevin Clarke took me to a concert at
the Bar Jeder Vernunft. Australians? I come to Berlin to hear Australians? Paul
in a new guise as singer-songwriter ‘Montmorensy’, Fiora backing him with
stratospheric sopranoisms.
I was blown away, and I rushed into print ...
I was blown away, and I rushed into print ...
Montmorensy went
on to record a CD (Writ in Water), which
became the joy of the cognoscenti, and then quietly slipped away to turn himself
back into the pianist and composer, Paul Hankinson.
Fiora stepped out
from the ooh-aah desk and up into the limelight, touring the world as the
featured vocalist with DJ Armin van Buuren to hordes of screaming fans …
And when she
wasn’t touring, and he wasn’t away playing Haydn, Beethoven, Britten et al, and
premiering his piano quintet (To Cross
the Bay) in Australia…
the pair
coincidentally both ended up in the Hochstrasse, Berlin. Living across a
courtyard from each other. It wasn’t long before the string and a tin can were
in operation. And the result? A
few years on from ‘Pierrot’. Another song together. ‘Human Race’. Out this
week, and already heading for the Top 100 in Russia!
You start off with
‘Mein Herr Marquis’ and you end up on the Russian hit parades, and itunes, and
Spotify, and soundcloud and all those places I’ve never been …
Music, music, music ...
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