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Choose festival...Bachfest, London (1)BBC Proms (14)Celebrating Grainger 2011 (6)Chelsea Schubert Festival (8)CHOPIN 2010 In the Footsteps of Chopin. The Chopin Society Concert Series. (3)Greenwich Early Music Festival (11)Kings Place Festival (32)London Festival of American Music (5)Wimbledon Music Festival (4)
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| Date | Event | Composers, Works, Performers |
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| Friday 3-Sep-10 01:00pm |
 St Martin-in-the-Fields, LondonFree Lunchtime Concert - Olivia Sham Piano |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Friday 3-Sep-10 01:00pm Free Lunchtime Concert - Olivia Sham Piano Price type: Free | ||
| Friday 3-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Overseas League: Princess Alexandra Hall, London "Schumann and more" Chamber Music Festival |
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| Royal Overseas League: Princess Alexandra Hall, London, Park Place, St James's Street, London SW1A 1LR, United Kingdom Friday 3-Sep-10 07:30pm "Schumann and more" Chamber Music Festival "SCHUMANN AND MORE" Festival Princess Alexandra Hall Royal Over Seas League House, Park Place St.James's Street London SW1A 1LR Tickets - £10 a glass of wine included 3rd September Concert, 7:30 at the Princess Alexandra Hall, Schumann Fantasiestucke Piano Trio op.88 (Alba Ventura, Natalia Lomeiko, David Cohen) Bruch A selection of pieces for violin, clarinet and piano (Natalia Lomeiko, Nicolas Baldeyrou, Olga Sitkovetsky) interval Schumann Piano Quartet in E-flat (Alba Ventura, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Yuri Zhislin, David Cohen) 4th September pre concert rehearsals at the Hall possible masterclass Concert, 7:30 Schumann Adagio and Allegro op.70 (David Cohen, Olga Sitkovetsky ) Fantasiestucke (Nicolas Baldeyrou, Olga Sitkovetsky ) Fantasie arr.Kreisler (Yuri Zhislin, Olga Sitkovetsky) interval Bach Goldberg Variations arr. for String Trio by D.Sitkovetsky (Natalia Lomeiko, Yuri Zhislin, David Cohen 5th September Concert , 3:00 Schumann Piano Quintet (Alba Ventura, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Natalia Lomeiko, Yuri Zhislin, David Cohen) short interval Brahms Clarinet Quintet (Nicolas Baldeyrou, Natalia Lomeiko, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Yuri Zhislin, David Cohen) Natalia Lomeiko, Violin David Cohen, Cello Yuri Zhislin, Viola Alba Ventura, Piano Olga Sitkovetsky, Piano Alexander Sitkovetsky, Violin Nicolas Baldeyrou, Clarinet Price type: Low cost: 50% at £10 or less | ||
| Friday 3-Sep-10 07:30pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Bach Brandenburg Concertos |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Friday 3-Sep-10 07:30pm Bach Brandenburg Concertos | ||
| Friday 3-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 65 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Friday 3-Sep-10 07:30pm Prom 65 In the first of his two Proms with the Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle couples Beethoven’s punchy Fourth Symphony – a work packed with drama beneath its sunny surfaces – with Mahler’s First, which recalls the youthful song-cycle heard in Prom 62 while tracing a characteristic Mahlerian scenario of hard-fought triumph over personal doubts and demons. | ||
| Saturday 4-Sep-10 03:00pm |
Cadogan Hall, London Proms Saturday Matinee 5 BBC Proms |
Jackson, In nomine Domini (BBC Commission: world première) |
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| Cadogan Hall, London, London SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom Saturday 4-Sep-10 03:00pm Proms Saturday Matinee 5 Judith Weir responds to 13th-century Parisian master Pérotin, while Brian Ferneyhough is inspired by Renaissance composer Tye. For their part, Jonathan Harvey and Gabriel Jackson glance backwards to Tye’s contemporary Taverner. Thea Musgrave evokes the homecoming of Odysseus and Bayan Northcott sets the Latin poet Catullus. Musgrave, Thea (b. 1928), Ithaca (BBC commission: world première) Jackson, Gabriel (b. 1962), In nomine Domini (BBC Commission: world première) | ||
| Saturday 4-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 66 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Saturday 4-Sep-10 07:30pm Prom 66 In the first half of their second Prom, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic pair late works by two of Germany’s greatest late-Romantics – ‘Richard the First’ and ‘Richard the Third’, as the conductor Hans von Bülow rather wickedly called them (quipping that, after Wagner, there could be no ‘Richard the Second’). After the interval come sensational sonic adventures by the three great musical pioneers of early-20th-century Vienna. Celebrated Finnish soprano Karita Mattila returns to the Proms as soloist in Strauss’s opulently nostalgic reflections on life’s last days. | ||
| Saturday 4-Sep-10 07:30pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Vivaldi - The Four Seasons by Candlelight |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Saturday 4-Sep-10 07:30pm Vivaldi - The Four Seasons by Candlelight | ||
| Saturday 4-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Overseas League: Princess Alexandra Hall, London "Schumann and more" Chamber Music Festival |
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| Royal Overseas League: Princess Alexandra Hall, London, Park Place, St James's Street, London SW1A 1LR, United Kingdom Saturday 4-Sep-10 07:30pm "Schumann and more" Chamber Music Festival Natalia Lomeiko, Violin David Cohen, Cello Yuri Zhislin, Viola Alba Ventura, Piano Olga Sitkovetsky, Piano Alexander Sitkovetsky, Violin Nicolas Baldeyrou, Clarinet Price type: Low cost: 50% at £10 or less | ||
| Saturday 4-Sep-10 10:00pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Tchaikovsky - Liturgy of St John Chrysostom by Candlelight |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Saturday 4-Sep-10 10:00pm Tchaikovsky - Liturgy of St John Chrysostom by Candlelight | ||
| Sunday 5-Sep-10 02:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 67 - Last Night of the Proms 1910 BBC Proms |
Paganini, Moto Perpetuo in C major, Op.11 (arr. Pitt) Mussorgsky, Rayok (The Peep Show) (orch. Henry Wood) Bizet, L’Arlésienne (excerpts) Matthews, Dark Pastoral – based on the surviving fragment of the slow movement of Vaughan Williams’s Cello Concerto (1942) (BBC commission: world première) Dvořák, Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101 No. 7 (orch. Henry Wood) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Sunday 5-Sep-10 02:30pm Prom 67 - Last Night of the Proms 1910 To open our daylong tribute to Proms founder-conductor HenryWood, we present his own Last Night programme from a century ago – so producing the first Proms season ever to feature two Last Nights. While this parade of short popular classics truly recalls Promenade concerts of another age, we also continue Wood’s commitment to new works – what Wood called his ‘novelties’. So one short cello piece from the original 1910 programme is this afternoon replaced by a brand-new work, based on a movement from the unfinished Cello Concerto by Vaughan Williams. Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich (1839-1881), Rayok (The Peep Show) (orch. Henry Wood) Bizet, Georges (1838-1875), L’Arlésienne (excerpts) Matthews, David (b. 1943), Dark Pastoral – based on the surviving fragment of the slow movement of Vaughan Williams’s Cello Concerto (1942) (BBC commission: world première) Dvořák, Antonín (1841-1904), Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101 No. 7 (orch. Henry Wood) Jennifer Larmore, Mezzo-soprano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Steven Isserlis, Cello BBC Concert Orchestra Paul Daniel, Conductor Price type: Free | ||
| Sunday 5-Sep-10 03:00pm |
Royal Overseas League: Princess Alexandra Hall, London "Schumann and more" Chamber Music Festival |
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| Royal Overseas League: Princess Alexandra Hall, London, Park Place, St James's Street, London SW1A 1LR, United Kingdom Sunday 5-Sep-10 03:00pm "Schumann and more" Chamber Music Festival Natalia Lomeiko, Violin David Cohen, Cello Yuri Zhislin, Viola Alba Ventura, Piano Alexander Sitkovetsky, Violin Nicolas Baldeyrou, Clarinet Price type: Low cost: 50% at £10 or less | ||
| Sunday 5-Sep-10 03:00pm |
Foundling Museum, Brunswick Square, London Foundling Sunday Concerts |
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| Foundling Museum, Brunswick Square, London, London WC1N 1AZ, United Kingdom Sunday 5-Sep-10 03:00pm Foundling Sunday Concerts Price type: Free | ||
| Sunday 5-Sep-10 03:30pm |
Brown's Hotel, London Concert and Champagne Tea, Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano. Young Artist's Recital. |
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| Brown's Hotel, London, Albemarle Street, Mayfair, London W1S 4BP, United Kingdom Sunday 5-Sep-10 03:30pm Concert and Champagne Tea, Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano. Young Artist's Recital. Members of the Chopin Society £30. Non-members £35 | ||
| Sunday 5-Sep-10 07:30pm |
The Warehouse, London The Third London Festival of American Music - Con Acento Latino - London Festival of American Music |
Sierra, Counting-out Rhyme for cello and piano (UK première) Sierra, Recordando una melodia olvidada (UK première) Sanchez Gutierrez, Trio Variations (European première) Carrillo Cotto, Will the quiet times come (European première) |
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| The Warehouse, London, 13 Theed Street, London SE1 8ST, United Kingdom Sunday 5-Sep-10 07:30pm The Third London Festival of American Music - Con Acento Latino - The aim of the London Festival of American Music (founded by Lontano Ensemble in 2006) is to bring UK audiences to a broader spectrum of the best American and US-based contemporary composers. Most of the concerts will include UK or European premieres and several of the composers featured will attend the festival. Bayolo, Armando (b. 1973), Hermandad (UK première) Sierra, Arlene (b. 1970), Counting-out Rhyme for cello and piano (UK première) Sierra, Roberto (b. 1953), Recordando una melodia olvidada (UK première) Sanchez Gutierrez, Carlos (b. 1964), Trio Variations (European première) Carrillo Cotto, Carlos, Will the quiet times come (European première) Sierra, Roberto (b. 1953), Turner (UK première) | ||
| Sunday 5-Sep-10 08:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 68 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Sunday 5-Sep-10 08:00pm Prom 68 To close our HenryWood Day, the Ulster Orchestra and its Principal Guest Conductor PaulWatkins play music either premiered by or closely associated with the founder-conductor of the Proms, opening with the fanfare that Arthur Bliss, the BBC’s then Director of Music, wrote for Wood’s 75th (and last) birthday in 1944, the year of the Proms’ Golden Jubilee. | ||
| Monday 6-Sep-10 01:00pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London St Martin-in-the-Fields Organ Series |
Programme not known |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Monday 6-Sep-10 01:00pm St Martin-in-the-Fields Organ Series Programme not known Price type: Free | ||
| Monday 6-Sep-10 01:00pm |
Cadogan Hall, London Proms Chamber Music 8 - Venice: from the streets to the palaces BBC Proms |
Works by Manelli |
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| Cadogan Hall, London, London SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom Monday 6-Sep-10 01:00pm Proms Chamber Music 8 - Venice: from the streets to the palaces As a curtain-raiser to our 400th-anniversary performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (see Prom 75), the vibrant French ensemble Le Poème Harmonique conjures up the carnivalesque atmosphere of 17th-century Venice, where the streets and palaces provided a cultural melting pot for the popular and artistic styles of the day. Along with one of Monteverdi’s most famous madrigals, the Lamento della ninfa, the programme includes rarely heard music by Francesco Manelli, the first composer to write operas for the paying public as opposed to the privileged court. Works by Manelli, Francesco (1594-1667) | ||
| Monday 6-Sep-10 01:10pm |
St Anne's Lutheran Church, London Schumann: Piano Trio in D minor |
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| St Anne's Lutheran Church, London, Gresham Street, London EC2V 7BX, United Kingdom Monday 6-Sep-10 01:10pm Schumann: Piano Trio in D minor The Lauriston Trio returns to start the new season of concerts at St Anne's. Refreshments are provided before and after the concert, visitors are welcome to bring lunch. Price type: Free | ||
| Monday 6-Sep-10 07:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 69 BBC Proms |
MacMillan, The Sacrifice (Three interludes, London première) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Monday 6-Sep-10 07:00pm Prom 69 The Royal Scottish National Orchestra and its French-born Music Director, Stéphane Denève, join Paul Lewis as he rounds off his cycle of the five Beethoven piano concertos with the last and most proudly majestic of them all. Taking up this afternoon’s Italian theme, they play spectacular orchestral showpieces by Berlioz and Respighi, inspired respectively by Rome’s lively street life and its imperial past; while, cementing Celtic connections, they introduce a recent symphonic suite drawn from the Scottish composer James MacMillan’s opera The Sacrifice, inspired by the medieval folk tales of The Mabinogion and premiered to great acclaim by Welsh National Opera in 2007. MacMillan, James (b. 1959), The Sacrifice (Three interludes, London première) | ||
| Monday 6-Sep-10 10:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 70 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Monday 6-Sep-10 10:00pm Prom 70 French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky and Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux sing arias and duets by two great masters of 18thcentury opera seria, including a rare extract from one of the works that Handel’s London rival Porpora wrote to show off his star pupil, the legendary castrato Farinelli. | ||
| Tuesday 7-Sep-10 01:00pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Free Lunchtime Concert - Flute Ensemble |
Works by Clarke |
| More info... | ||
| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Tuesday 7-Sep-10 01:00pm Free Lunchtime Concert - Flute Ensemble Works by Clarke, Elizabeth Price type: Free | ||
| Tuesday 7-Sep-10 07:30pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Classical Concerto Masterpieces |
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| More info...Buy tickets! | ||
| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Tuesday 7-Sep-10 07:30pm Classical Concerto Masterpieces | ||
| Tuesday 7-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 71 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Tuesday 7-Sep-10 07:30pm Prom 71 In its first visit to the UK since Daniele Gatti became Music Director, the Orchestre National de France presents three great works linked to France and its capital city. Dating from a decade before his symphony of seascapes, La mer, Debussy’s poetic Prélude made its composer’s name when it was premiered in 1894, and created controversy when Nijinsky danced his erotic choreography of it for the Ballets Russes in 1912. A year later the Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring prompted an even more sensational succès de scandale for Diaghilev’s company, causing the most famous riot in musical history. | ||
| Wednesday 8-Sep-10 07:00pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 72 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Wednesday 8-Sep-10 07:00pm Prom 72 Bruckner, like his hero Wagner, composed on a vast scale. In his third Prom of the season, the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor, JiΣí BΔlohlávek, pairs the dashing festive prelude from Act 3 of Wagner’s ‘swan knight’ romance with the most overarching and open-hearted of Bruckner’s nine symphonies – a work whose slow movement was composed in the shadow of Wagner’s death and enshrines Bruckner’s musical memorial to the man he revered as the ‘Master’. Always a composer of vivid and funky surprises, Tansy Davies promises in her new work to take us on a journey through the Tarot pack. Davies, Tansy, Wild Card (BBC Commission: World Première) | ||
| Wednesday 8-Sep-10 10:15pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 73 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Wednesday 8-Sep-10 10:15pm Prom 73 To end the season’s Late Night series we celebrate a band of musicians popular for two generations. Penguin Cafe’s quietly insidious blends of catchy material, sophisticated skill and slightly surreal unpredictability have long been familiar to listeners who may never have registered the names of performers or music. Originally dreamt up and fronted by Simon Jeffes until his death in 1997 – and also prompting David Bintley’s successful ballet ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Cafe – the group’s music has reappeared on the scene thanks to Jeffes’s son Arthur, who has added new pieces to the menu. Joining them is star Northumbrian smallpiper Kathryn Tickell, a past guest of the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Penguin Cafe is the latter-day reincarnation of the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra, founded in 1972 by Simon Jeffes, whose original music for the band music has always been notoriously difficult to describe. ‘I think our recordings have been put in the classical, folk, pop, rock, avant-garde, chill-out, world and dance sections of record shops,’ says Arthur Jeffes, the group’s current leader (and son of Simon Jeffes). ‘One description I like at the moment is that it’s a kind of modern chamber folk – I like that it could apply to the music or the musicians.’ The band boasts an eclectic line-up of instruments, ranging from violin, cello and piano, to ukulele, dulcitone (a keyboard instrument whose hammers strike tuning forks), penny whistles and guitars. Kathryn Tickell, on Northumbrian smallpipes, joins the group for its first Proms appearance. ‘I’m looking forward to playing with Kathryn very much,’ says Jeffes. ‘I’ve been a real fan for a long time. I find the expression she can get into the pipes sounds so effortless, and yet so clear and direct that I can’t listen to her playing without smiling.’ For its Late Night Prom, the ensemble aims to offer ‘a place where one can opt out of the dehumanising pressures of modern life and simply be. Without wanting to sound overly mystical about it, a space where the music can just simply exist.’ | ||
| Thursday 9-Sep-10 02:30pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Latin American Classics I: Songs of the Black Swan - Chilingirian Quartet/Millennium Quartet |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 02:30pm Latin American Classics I: Songs of the Black Swan - Chilingirian Quartet/Millennium Quartet Tickets: £4.50
Composed in 1915, Villa-Lobos's Second String Quartet is an early example of a genre that attracted him throughout his life (he composed 17 of them in all) and reveals the early Romanticism and the influence of French music on the Brazilian master. O Canto do Cysne Negro (Song of the Black Swan), though it may sound echt-Brazilian, was arranged in 1917 from an orchestral work based on Greek mythology, the symphonic poem Naufrágio de Kleônicos (1916). Manuel Ponce, often called ‘the father of Mexican music', combined Impressionist and neoclassical influences picked up in Europe with an interest in Mexican folk-music and an innate lyric talent, shown to perfection in the popular Estrellita, often used as an encore.
Singer-songwriter-filmstar Carlos Gardel, who died in a plane crash in 1935 at the height of his fame, is one of the legends of the development of tango in Argentina (though he claimed he was Uruguayan, and was born in France!), and creator of the tango-canción. The Venezuelan pianist-composer Aldamero Romero was a prolific composer in many styles, including Caribbean popular music and jazz. He created the Venezuelan style known as Onda Nueva (New Wave), influenced by the Brazilian Bossa Nova. The highly rhythmic (and almost Bachian!) Fuga con Pajarillo comes from a suite for strings composed in 1975. The pajarillo is a Venezuelan dance, something like a waltz but with the accent on the second of the three beats.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 02:45pm |
Kings Place: Hall Two, London Classical Music from India - Hindustani Santoor Recital Kings Place Festival |
See "More info..." for programme details. |
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| Kings Place: Hall Two, London, 90 York Way , Opp. Goods Way, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 02:45pm Classical Music from India - Hindustani Santoor Recital Tickets: £4.50
Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust
Darbar takes you on an Indian musical journey, introducing instruments relatively new to Indian classical music. We begin in the foothills of the Himalayas with the shimmering sounds of the santoor, the hundred-stringed instrument from the valleys of Kashmir. This ancient instrument is the Indian version of the hammered dulcimer. The second concert takes us to the deep south, and unusually features the violin as a solo instrument, supported by percussion. We end our journey back in the north, with an instrument we would usually associate with Western jazz - the saxophone.
Harjinderpal Singh
Harjinder Pal Singh's interest in music began in his childhood, and his father sent him to learn tabla from Bhai Labh Singh Ji of the Punjab Gharana at the age of 14. He also mastered the Pakhawaj style of tabla, and later became a senior disciple of maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar. Harjinder travels widely in India giving concerts, lectures and demonstration programmes in schools and colleges. He also tours abroad.
Manjeet Rasiya
Manjeet is one of the UK's greatest Indian percussionists, and a fine Latin and Afro-Cuban drummer. As well performing with renowned Indian musicians and on theatre and film he has performed with Western musicians, including Jarvis Cocker, Marianne Faithful and Beth Orton.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 03:45pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Latin American Classics I: Jazzinho - Chilingirian Quartet/Millennium Quartet Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 03:45pm Latin American Classics I: Jazzinho - Chilingirian Quartet/Millennium Quartet Tickets: £4.50
Born in Caracas of a Venezuelan mother and German father, Reynaldo Hahn spent his career so completely in France (where he moved with his parents at the age of 3) that he's generally thought of as a French composer. As well as composing songs, operettas and film music, he managed to be the lover of Marcel Proust and the friend and biographer of Sarah Bernhardt. His Violin Sonata of 1926 is, typically for him, sunny and lyrical, full of discreet charm and nostalgia for more gracious times, even when it is being sprightly. It could almost be very superior salon music, but with an infusion of the urbanity and grace of Faure.
Jose Luis Munoz is credited with being the first Venezuelan composer to adopt the 12-tone method, but many of his works attest to his fascination with jazz styles, such as Jazzinho (the title denotes ‘small, sweet' jazz) for piano and string quartet.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 04:00pm |
Kings Place: Hall Two, London Classical Music from India - Carnatic Concert Kings Place Festival |
See "More info..." for programme details. |
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| Kings Place: Hall Two, London, 90 York Way , Opp. Goods Way, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 04:00pm Classical Music from India - Carnatic Concert Tickets: £4.50
Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust
Darbar takes you on an Indian musical journey, introducing instruments relatively new to Indian classical music. We begin in the foothills of the Himalayas with the shimmering sounds of the santoor, the hundred-stringed instrument from the valleys of Kashmir. This ancient instrument is the Indian version of the hammered dulcimer. The second concert takes us to the deep south, and unusually features the violin as a solo instrument, supported by percussion. We end our journey back in the north, with an instrument we would usually associate with Western jazz - the saxophone.
Jyotsna Srikanth
Trained in the south Indian Carnatic and Western classical genres, Jyotsna composes her own music and collaborates with jazz, western classical and world music artists. ‘She provided a remarkable, improvised
instrumental, switching between rapid-fire violin ragas and slower delicate pieces and some impressive interplay between the percussionists.' (Guardian, April 2010).
Neyveli Venkatesh
Neyveli gave his first mridangam performance at the age of ten. He is skilled in playing the difficult ‘gumuki style' and is adept in kanjira konnokol, the art of performing percussion syllables vocally. Neyveli has accompanied frontline musicians in many major Indian music festivals and has toured extensively.
R N Prakash
R N Prakash is a disciple of Vidvan K N Krishnamurthy of Bangalore. His fusion work with western pop and jazz groups, especially Massive Attack, illustrates the musical bridges he builds to other cultures. He has made many television appearances demonstrating the versatility of mridangam and ghatam.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 05:00pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Latin American Classics I: 4 Four Tango - Chilingirian Quartet/Millennium Quartet Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 05:00pm Latin American Classics I: 4 Four Tango - Chilingirian Quartet/Millennium Quartet Tickets £4.50
Manuel Ponce's Sonatina for violin and piano is a beautiful example of his gentle and temperate neo-classicism, and also reflects the influence of Paul Dukas, with whom he studied in Paris. Astor Piazzolla is celebrated as the great master of Argentinian tango, but 4 for Tango, composed in 1982, is also his first string quartet, and a virtuoso application of the full range of 20th-century string textures (sul ponticello, ‘Bartok-pizzicato', harmonics, glissandi, rapping on the wood with the knuckles etc, as well as traditional playing techniques) to a very sophisticated stylisation of the popular dance rhythm. Short, pithy, and dark-hued, it makes the perfect foil to Reynaldo Hahn's imposing yet delightful Piano Quintet in F sharp minor of 1922. This work breathes the spirit of Gabriel Faure, who was one of Hahn's teachers at the Paris Conservatoire.
Lucid and civilised, this is music that harks back to the more spacious and comfortable days before World War I, yet does so with wit and sobriety, especially in the opulently tender slow movement (reminiscent of the operettas of Messager) and the vigorous and joyous finale.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 05:15pm |
Kings Place: Hall Two, London Classical Music from India - Contemporary Indian Classical Kings Place Festival |
See "More info..." for programme details. |
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| Kings Place: Hall Two, London, 90 York Way , Opp. Goods Way, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 05:15pm Classical Music from India - Contemporary Indian Classical Tickets: £4.50
Darbar Arts Culture Heritage Trust
Darbar takes you on an Indian musical journey, introducing instruments relatively new to Indian classical music. We begin in the foothills of the Himalayas with the shimmering sounds of the santoor, the hundred-stringed instrument from the valleys of Kashmir. This ancient instrument is the Indian version of the hammered dulcimer. The second concert takes us to the deep south, and unusually features the violin as a solo instrument, supported by percussion. We end our journey back in the north, with an instrument we would usually associate with Western jazz - the saxophone.
Jesse Bannister
Jesse Bannister plays north Indian classical music on the saxophone. His exciting music demonstrates how the saxophone can be ‘as sweet and mellifluous as a flute at times and at others, as powerful and direct as a Shehnai' (Amrita Review in Los Angeles), adding a new dimension to India's contemporary classical repertoire.
Bhupinder Chaggar
Bhupinder is a leading disciple of tabla maestro Pandit Sharda Sahai Ji. He teaches tabla to jazz students as well as tabla classes, and works with musicians from many cultures, including flamenco guitarist Eduardo Neibla, Portuguese percussion maestro Rui Junior, and soul singer Jocelyn Brown.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 06:30pm |
Handel House Museum, London Improvisation: Handel to Hendrix and beyond with harpsichordist David Gordon |
See "More info..." for programme details. |
| More info... | ||
| Handel House Museum, London, London W1K 4HB, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 06:30pm Improvisation: Handel to Hendrix and beyond with harpsichordist David Gordon The freedom of spirit and demonic intensity of music-making that characterises Hendrix’s work was not unknown to baroque performers. The keyboard playing of Domenico Scarlatti, for example, was compared with that of ‘ten thousand devils’. Improvisation and virtuosity were closely linked, and solo harpsichord performance in baroque times was invariably improvised. Folk music and dance music were integral to even the highest ‘art’ music of the period. This recital aims to look at the harpsichord as a solo instrument through the prism of improvisation, contemporary rhythms, and of questions as to the possibilities and the limits of the instrument. The programme will consist of everything from a prélude non mésure, a realisation of a Pasquini sonata for basso continuo, Purcellian divisions and Bach partimento fugues and doubles, all containing a large degree of improvisation, to original jazz-based compositions, and – perhaps – requests from the audience. £9, £5 students | ||
| Thursday 9-Sep-10 07:15pm |
Kings Place: Hall Two, London London Sinfonietta - Chamber Music by Igor Stravinsky Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall Two, London, 90 York Way , Opp. Goods Way, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 07:15pm London Sinfonietta - Chamber Music by Igor Stravinsky Tickets: £4.50
In 1930 Igor Stravinsky (82-71) was introduced to the violinist Samuel Dushkin, who became a great friend and recital partner. Inspired by Dushkin's playing, Stravinsky wrote several works for the violinist including his Violin Concerto No.1, the Suite Italienne (based on pieces from Pulcinella) and the large-scale Duo Concertante (1931). Formed of five distinct movements, the music of this Duo ranges from the tranquil pastorale to episodes with a more angular, aggressive character. The final movement, Dithyrambe, features some of the most lyrically expressive music the composer ever wrote.
Three Pieces for clarinet (1918) was dedicated to the tea millionaire, and amateur clarinettist, Weiner Reinhart, who financially supported several of Stravinsky's struggling concert series. The colourful pieces are among the first works in which Stravinsky experimented with incorporating aspects of jazz, describing them as ‘written-out portraits of improvisations'.
Suite Italienne (1932) is a set of six movements for cello and piano, based on music from Stravinsky's earlier Neo-Classical ballet Pulcinella. His starting point was a set of 18th-century pieces by (in some cases wrongly attributed to) Pergolesi. The work opens with two movements - one high-spirited, one a sombre aria - taken from the start of the ballet, while the remaining idiosyncratic movements, all twists on recognisable Baroque forms, come from the end of the work.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 07:30pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Baroque Festival by Candlelight |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 07:30pm Baroque Festival by Candlelight  Vivaldi, Antonio (1678-1741), The Four Seasons: Concerto in E major, "La Primavera (Spring)", RV269, Op.8 no.1 | ||
| Thursday 9-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 74 BBC Proms |
Holloway, Reliquary: Scenes from the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, enclosing an instrumentation of Schumann's ‘Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart’ (BBC commission, World Première) |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 07:30pm Prom 74 To end our Schumann bicentenary survey, Irish pianist Finghin Collins plays the closest thing we have to a second Schumann piano concerto, while Robin Holloway offers a fresh slant on the composer’s final song-cycle, which sets poems and prayers penned in exile and prison by Mary, Queen of Scots. Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic also include masterpieces by two other composers who sadly lived even shorter lives. | ||
| Thursday 9-Sep-10 08:30pm |
Kings Place: Hall Two, London London Sinfonietta - Chamber Music by Tom Ades Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall Two, London, 90 York Way , Opp. Goods Way, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 08:30pm London Sinfonietta - Chamber Music by Tom Ades Born in 1971, British composer Thomas Ades is ‘one of the most imposing figures in contemporary music' (The New Yorker). His compositions range from large-scale operas to intimate chamber works, but each is distinctive for their intricate sound tapestries and elaborately patterned textural layers. Catch (1991) is Ades' first chamber piece: a short, humorous work for violin, cello, clarinet and piano, with an improvisatory nature, the lively nature of the game ‘catch' depicted by numerous syncopated rhythms and apparently arbitrary entrances. The work structures itself around various combinations of the four instruments, with a stationary piano trio taunting and teasing the clarinettist, who refuses to join the game - but who eventually joins in with a burst of jubilantly expressive music.
Court Studies from The Tempest (2005) is scored for the same four instruments as Catch. Written as one continuous movement, the work is formed from six solo numbers taken from Ades's highly acclaimed opera The Tempest and freely transcribed for the four instruments. The pieces depict the leading figures from The Tempest arriving on Prospero's island, with the music conjuring up a rarefied, mysterious world. The work ends with a spine-chilling final section, which ultimately fades out with a mesmerising solo violin phrase.
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| Thursday 9-Sep-10 09:45pm |
Kings Place: Hall Two, London London Sinfonietta - Sinfonietta Shorts Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall Two, London, 90 York Way , Opp. Goods Way, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Thursday 9-Sep-10 09:45pm London Sinfonietta - Sinfonietta Shorts Tickets: £4.50
The London Sinfonietta is a partner in the Re:New Project, in which 22 ensembles across Europe are exchanging pieces of music to broaden the reach of composers from different countries. In this event, London Sinfonietta will perform two very attractive and exciting pieces in the presence of the composers. Marseille-born Regis Campo studied with Gerard Grisey and Henri Dutilleux. Pop-Art for flute, clarinet,
violin, viola, cello and piano was composed in 2002. In Raihala's music influences from rock and jazz are skilfully woven into his own style. Damballa, written for the Ussinta Chamber Ensemble, is scored for flute, clarinet and violin, with the oboist joining them near the end.
For over 40 years, the London Sinfonietta has played a crucial role in the creation and performance of contemporary music. Sinfonietta Shorts is a series of commissions by leading composers in celebration of the ensemble's 40th anniversary. Each piece is scored for a small group of performers, or soloist. This concert showcases new Sinfonietta Shorts by the British composers Luke Bedford (b.1978), Jonathan Harvey (b.1939) and Irish composer Gerald Barry (b.1952).
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| Friday 10-Sep-10 01:00pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Free Lunchtime Concert - Wind Trio |
Works by Muczynski |
| More info... | ||
| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 01:00pm Free Lunchtime Concert - Wind Trio Works by Muczynski, Robert (b. 1929) Koechlin, Charles (1867-1950), Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon (or violin, viola and violoncello) Price type: Free | ||
| Friday 10-Sep-10 02:30pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Mikhail Rudy - Russian Masterpieces: Seasons and Pictures Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 02:30pm Mikhail Rudy - Russian Masterpieces: Seasons and Pictures Tickets: £4.50
The charismatic pianist Mikhail Rudy is well known for his creative programmes, whether it be his dramatisation of The Pianist or collaboration with the jazz pianist Misha Alperin in Double Dream. He's also a worldclass virtuoso, capable of encompassing huge orchestral works on the piano, as we'll witness in his arrangement of Petrushka and performance of Mussorgsky's monumental Pictures at an Exhibition. In these concerts, Rudy delves into his Russian past. As he says, ‘Being Russian myself but living a great part of my life in the West, Russian music is for me a constant emotional link, a way of keeping Russia alive inside me.' He's joined in his second concert by his compatriot the cellist Alexander Ivashkin, a musical tour de force in his own right, being a soloist, conductor and Professor of Music at the University of London.
Tchaikovsky's The Seasons ought to have been called ‘The Months', for the complete cycle contains 12 pieces each named for a month of the year and each written to accompany lines from a poem on that month by a different poet. Published as the musical supplements to a St Petersburg monthly journal from January to December 1876, they were intended to be within the capabilities of amateur pianists, but have sufficient subtleties to interest real virtuosi, too. Their formal simplicity, coupled with the programmatic imagery, was a spur to Tchaikovsky's invention: many of them remind us of his genius as a ballet composer, and it's easy enough to imagine a ballet constructed around their sequence of varied moods and characters.
Unlike The Seasons, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is a visionary work and the sound of a modern Steinway is almost not enough for the range and richness of the colours required, hence the many orchestrations. A grand memorial to his friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann, it takes the form of Mussorgsky himself (a portly figure represented by a ‘Promenade' in ponderous 11/4 time) viewing ten pictures in a memorial exhibition of Hartmann's work which was held in 1874. The sharp delineations of character and colour, vividly rendering scenes and personalities, created a new manner of writing for the piano which was hardly understood for over 50 years, while the monumental finale - ‘The Great Gate of Kiev'- is one of the most majestic culminations in piano literature.
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| Friday 10-Sep-10 03:45pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Mikhail Rudy - Russian Masterpieces: The Russian Cello Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 03:45pm Mikhail Rudy - Russian Masterpieces: The Russian Cello Tickets: £4.50
The charismatic pianist Mikhail Rudy is well known for his creative programmes, whether it be his dramatisation of The Pianist or collaboration with the jazz pianist Misha Alperin in Double Dream. He's also a worldclass virtuoso, capable of encompassing huge orchestral works on the piano, as we'll witness in his arrangement of Petrushka and performance of Mussorgsky's monumental Pictures at an Exhibition. In these concerts, Rudy delves into his Russian past. As he says, ‘Being Russian myself but living a great part of my life in the West, Russian music is for me a constant emotional link, a way of keeping Russia alive inside me.' He's joined in his second concert by his compatriot the cellist Alexander Ivashkin, a musical tour de force in his own right, being a soloist, conductor and Professor of Music at the University of London.
Stravinsky's Suite Italienne (1932) is an arrangement of an arrangement of an arrangement. In it - with the help of the great cellist Piatigorsky - he transcribed a violin-piano suite he'd made in 1925 of movements from his ballet Pulcinella (1919-20), itself founded upon a collection of 18th-century pieces by (or rather, often, wrongly attributed to) Pergolesi. Stravinsky does everything he can to upset the four-square Baroque phrasing by means of displaced accents, prominent syncopations, changes of timesignature, and so on. His rather Cubist re-ordering and re-imagining of the Baroque melodies and harmonies are taken a stage further when transferred to cello and piano, creating a kind of conscienceless neoclassicism, like a burlesque of Pergolesi's own sonatas.
Prokofiev's Cello Sonata is a late work, written in the dark days after February 1948, when the composer (along with Shostakovich) had been denounced by Stalin's henchman Zhdanov for writing ‘formalist, bourgeois decadent, anti-people music'. Though ill and depressed, Prokofiev felt that to be ‘working, always working' would be his personal salvation in this situation, and he was quick to spot the talent of the young Mstislav Rostropovich and to write a work especially for him. Though it does not have the barbaric dissonance of his middleperiod works, its combination of aching lyricism and spiky virtuosity is authentic Prokofiev. There is a defiant youthfulness to this music, rather than the spirit of elegy, encapsulated in his preface quote from Gorky: ‘Man, how proud the word sounds!'
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| Friday 10-Sep-10 05:00pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Mikhail Rudy - Russian Masterpieces: Petrushka Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 05:00pm Mikhail Rudy - Russian Masterpieces: Petrushka Tickets: £4.50
The charismatic pianist Mikhail Rudy is well known for his creative programmes, whether it be his dramatisation of The Pianist or collaboration with the jazz pianist Misha Alperin in Double Dream. He's also a worldclass virtuoso, capable of encompassing huge orchestral works on the piano, as we'll witness in his arrangement of Petrushka and performance of Mussorgsky's monumental Pictures at an Exhibition. In these concerts, Rudy delves into his Russian past. As he says, ‘Being Russian myself but living a great part of my life in the West, Russian music is for me a constant emotional link, a way of keeping Russia alive inside me.' He's joined in his second concert by his compatriot the cellist Alexander Ivashkin, a musical tour de force in his own right, being a soloist, conductor and Professor of Music at the University of London.
Prokofiev made his international reputation as a pianist-composer, an alchemist of brilliant keyboard miniatures, sometimes caustic, sometimes tender or sentimental. Twenty of these make up the Visions fugitives (1915-17), pieces meant to suggest the highly concentrated essence of a kaleidoscope of moods, each just a minute or so long: musical epigrams that stand in for unheard epics. The ballet Romeo and Juliet, by contrast, enshrines the far more expansive and genuinely romantic style of the later Prokofiev, and contains some of his best-loved melodies. We hear three numbers from the set of ten that Prokofiev himself arranged for piano.
Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka originated in the sound of the piano, for he originally conceived it as a Konzertstück for piano and orchestra. In his memoirs, he recalled it all began with his having ‘a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios'. He himself arranged three dances from the ballet for solo piano at the behest of Arthur Rubenstein, so the logic of Mikhail Rudy's own transcription is unimpeachable. In its combination of folksong and urban melodies with daring harmonic and rhythmic experiment, this is Stravinsky at his most subversively brilliant, as well as his great tribute to St Petersburg. As Rudy writes, ‘I completed this suite to make the entire Petrushka less driven by the idea of pianistic tour de force than by the desire to tell the story of the love, jealousy and ultimate death of a piece of wood, the puppet Petrushka, by the means of another piece of wood, the piano.'
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| Friday 10-Sep-10 07:00pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Kings Place Festival: Essence of Enlightenment Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 07:00pm Kings Place Festival: Essence of Enlightenment Price type: Low cost: 50% at £10 or less | ||
| Friday 10-Sep-10 07:30pm |
Royal Albert Hall, London Prom 75 BBC Proms |
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| Royal Albert Hall, London, London, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 07:30pm Prom 75 Four hundred years after Monteverdi published his great collection of church music, the assorted choral, vocal and orchestral splendours of what is now universally known as the Vespers of 1610 bring this season’s Venetian strand to its spectacular conclusion. With performers ranged around the Arena and Gallery as well as the main stage, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Monteverdi Choir return to the music with which they made their Proms debut in 1968, now joined by the expert period instrumentalists of the English Baroque Soloists, and with the additional brass forces of His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts. | ||
| Friday 10-Sep-10 07:30pm |
St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Classic Concertos |
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| St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, London, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 07:30pm Classic Concertos | ||
| Friday 10-Sep-10 07:30pm |
St Cuthbert's Church, London Musica Transalpina: Eighteenth-Century Italian Masters in Britain |
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| St Cuthbert's Church, London, 50 Philbeach Gardens, London, United Kingdom, London SW5 9EB, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 07:30pm Musica Transalpina: Eighteenth-Century Italian Masters in Britain Tickets available at the door: £14 (£10 concessions);
'excellent musicianship' -- Gramophone;
'engaging, entertaining…an enormous amount of atmosphere and character'-- Opera News
Price type: Low cost: 50% at £10 or less | ||
| Friday 10-Sep-10 08:15pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Kings Place Festival: Essence of Enlightenment Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 08:15pm Kings Place Festival: Essence of Enlightenment Price type: Low cost: 50% at £10 or less | ||
| Friday 10-Sep-10 09:30pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Three Violins: Music From Purcell's London Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Friday 10-Sep-10 09:30pm Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment - Three Violins: Music From Purcell's London The thriving musical life of Restoration London attracted many foreign composers and performers. Among them was the German violinist Thomas Baltzar, whose Suite in C major for three violins and continuo introduced to England a popular northern European scoring - though its opening Pavan and Galliard are dances in the English tradition. The same instruments are used in the Divisions, or variations, over a repeating ground bass by the Neapolitan violinist Nicola Matteis, who, as his solo Fantasia suggests, must have been an outstanding virtuoso.
John Jenkins wrote chiefly in the native English tradition of the fantasia in several sections for viol consort; but the lively writing of his Fantasias for two trebles and a bass (completed by 1650) seems more suited to violins than to viols. His younger colleague Matthew Locke added keyboard continuo to this trio sonata scoring, and followed a fantasia with a series of dances, in each of the six suites that he wrote in 1661 for the King's private ‘Broken Consort'.
The great Henry Purcell contributed two early works to the repertoire for three violins and continuo: a Pavan, possibly written in memory of Jenkins; and a set of variations for ‘Three Parts on a Ground' of fertile invention and great contrapuntal ingenuity.
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| Saturday 11-Sep-10 11:00am |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Light: Johannes Moser & Sophie Cashell - Beethoven, Janacek, Messiaen Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Saturday 11-Sep-10 11:00am Light: Johannes Moser & Sophie Cashell - Beethoven, Janacek, Messiaen Tickets £4.50
The young German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser came to the world's attention when he won the famous Tchaikovsky Cello Competition in 2002. He's since performed as a soloist with the world's great orchestras, and also made a name as a chamber musician, inspirational educator and exponent of the electric cello. He's joined by pianist Sophie Cashell, winner of BBC TV's Classical Star competition (2007) for two contrasting programmes exploring core works of the cello repertoire mixed with live improvisation on electric cello and Nintendo Wiimote. Both e-cello works will be created using strands from the other works on the programme through improvisation. Moser will take feelings and themes from each piece to create a link from one work to the next, as he explains: ‘I would like to share my experiments of the past few months with the electric cello, and show that work-in-progress against pieces that have been in my repertoire for years. I feel more and more that these pieces are subject to subtle improvisations constantly, keeping the music fresh and alive. I am very pleased to be working with Sophie since she really knows the repertoire inside out and is a very keen spirit herself.' Beethoven's two late Sonatas (from 1815) are characterised by brevity, compression and the incredible ingenuity of the mature composer. The first, in C major, Beethoven named a ‘free' sonata, his way of accounting for its unconventional design. It opens with deceptively gentle simplicity before plunging into its stormy A minor Allegro Vivace. From out of a dreamily rhapsodic, recitative-like Adagio bursts a spirited, Haydn-like Finale in which the instruments play an exuberant game of cat-and-mouse. Janáček's twinkling Podháka (A Fairy tale) evokes the magical Russian tale of Prince Ivan and his love for Maria, daughter of the King of the Underworld. Drawing on folk song and delightful dance rhythms, it follows the lovers' trials and enchantments leading to their eventual happy union. Louange à l'éternité de Jésus is a movement from Messaien's Quartet for the End of Time, written while he was a prisoner in Stalag 8a during the Second World War. Inspired by the Book of Revelation, this magnum opus, composed for musicians available in the camp, was given its premiere before 5,000 shivering inmates on 15 January 1941. In this movement of mesmerising serenity, the cellist plays a long, sustained cantilena over slowly shifting, pulsating harmonies on the piano. A glowing meditation praising the eternal love of Jesus, it is essential Messaien, while prefiguring a whole wave of Minimalist music that would blossom in the late 20th century. Multi-buy Offers: Book tickets and save money 3+ events save 10% 6+ events saves 15% 10+ events save 20% The same number of tickets must be booked for each event to qualify for the discount. To book using our multi-buy offer please contact our Box Office where you will be offered the discount on the online price. | ||
| Saturday 11-Sep-10 11:15am |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Endymion - For Anton Stadler Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Saturday 11-Sep-10 11:15am Endymion - For Anton Stadler Tickets: £4.50.
The world-class chamber ensemble Endymion always strives to bring the greatest chamber music past and present to a wide audience. Known for the vitality, virtuosity and innovation of its players, Endymion has already made an impact at Kings Place by giving the first public performance in Hall One at the opening Festival in 2008, with a new piece by Simon Holt. Last summer Endymion celebrated 30 years with a major new music project, Sound Census, showcasing 27 premieres during a week of concerts here. This year their festival programmes epitomise the character of Endymion's music-making, contrasting two of the most emotional and engaging classics of the repertoire by Mozart and Brahms with an intriguing recent work by composer and artistic director Philip Venables. Philip Venables's K is a tribute and prelude to Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, which follows in this programme. It takes the first two bars of the Quintet and, in the composer's words, ‘pulls them apart, exposing, reworking, fragmenting, reflecting and elaborating their harmony and gesture'. The fragment on which the piece is based is heard towards the end. Mozart fell in love with the voice-like sound of the clarinet relatively late in life. Clarinet virtuoso Anton Stadler was the catalyst for this passion and inspired both the Clarinet Concerto and this Clarinet Quintet. The first of the Quintet's four movements sets the mood with its charming, conversational exchange between the clarinet and string quartet. The second movement is strikingly similar to the slow movement of the concerto, with the clarinet's lyrical qualities to the fore. A delightful minuet with two trios follows before the theme and variations of the final movement in which Mozart experiments further with all the possible combinations of instruments in a finale of striking inventiveness. Multi-buy Offers: Book tickets and save money 3+ events save 10% 6+ events saves 15% 10+ events save 20% The same number of tickets must be booked for each event to qualify for the discount. To book using our multi-buy offer please contact our Box Office where you will be offered the discount on the online price. | ||
| Saturday 11-Sep-10 12:15pm |
Kings Place: Hall One, London Dark: Johannes Moser & Sophie Cashell - Bach, Takemitsu, Beethoven Kings Place Festival |
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| Kings Place: Hall One, London, London N1 9AG, United Kingdom Saturday 11-Sep-10 12:15pm Dark: Johannes Moser & Sophie Cashell - Bach, Takemitsu, Beethoven Tickets: £4.50
The young German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser came to the world's attention when he won the famous Tchaikovsky Cello Competition in 2002. He's since performed as a soloist with the world's great orchestras, and also made a name as a chamber musician, inspirational educator and exponent of the electric cello. He's joined by pianist Sophie Cashell, winner of BBC TV's Classical Star competition (2007) for two contrasting programmes exploring core works of the cello repertoire mixed with live improvisation on electric cello and Nintendo Wiimote. Both e-cello works will be created using strands from the other works on the programme through improvisation. Moser will take feelings and themes from each piece to create a link from one work to the next, as he explains: ‘I would like to share my experiments of the past few months with the electric cello, and show that work-in-progress against pieces that have been in my repertoire for years. I feel more and more that these pieces are subject to subtle improvisations constantly, keeping the music fresh and alive. I am very pleased to be working with Sophie since she really knows the repertoire inside out and is a very keen spirit herself.' For the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, J S Bach's fifth suite was simply ‘darkness'. Written for a cello with its top A string tuned down to G, it is the most shadowy and mysterious of the Suites, with this Sarabande forming a still point, its measured, falling phrases, unwinding with their extraordinary chromatic logic into the void. For some, this eloquent aria of pain represents nothing less than the Crucifixion. Toru Takemitsu combined a Japanese sensibility with Western techniques inspired by Debussy, Webern, Messaien and Cage. Orion, named after the constellation, is a chamber version of the first movement of his cello concerto, Orion and Pleiades. Moser recalls meeting Takemitsu's long-time recording producer, who explained that his tempi markings were related to the Japanese Qi, which means breathing. ‘So however a performer decides to breathe this music will determine the tempo.' Beethoven's Sonata in D for piano and cello was to be his last in the form. The first movement, with its jubilant rising arpeggio, is driven by optimism and vigour, in sharp contrast to the sombre Adagio, and its memorably dark-hued chorale. The work ends with a muscular fugue, which takes us back to Bach. Multi-buy Offers: Book tickets and save money 3+ events save 10% 6+ events saves 15% 10+ events save 20% The same number of tickets must be booked for each event to qualify for the discount. To book using our multi-buy offer please contact our Box Office where you will be offered the discount on the online price. | ||
