Quietly and steadily rehearsing over the past few months, like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, the newly-founded University Sirocco Ensemble is set to make its debut at the end of this week.
Comprising wind and brass players from amongst the University staff, undergraduate and post-graduate students, the ensemble was founded during the autumn in order to accommodate the wealth of talented members of the University’s musical community. History and Drama students sit next to Anthropology and BioScience lecturers, and we’ve been putting together Gounod’s popular and playful Petite Symphonie.
The nine-piece Sirocco Ensemble will be giving its inaugural performance in a lunchtime concert on Friday 30 March at 12.30pm at St Peter’s Methodist Church, in Canterbury, where it will share the programme with the University Chamber Choir in what promises to be terrific final musical flourish to the spring term.
The concert is free, with a retiring collection; more details here.
Come and support the newest addition to the University’s music-making at the end of the month.
The new lunchtime concert series this term got off to a vibrant start with a virtuoso performance from the St James Quintet in the Gulbenkian earlier today.
The first of Ibert’s Trois Pièces Brèves was deft and dazzling, whilst the second had some sustained and lyrical playing; the third was elegantly crafted, and demonstrated great dynamic flexibility.
Virtuosic youth: the St James quintet
The polished neo-Classicism of Hindemith’s Kleine Kammermusik Op 24 no 2 had great rhythmic verve, with an especially lilting second movement; the mini-cadenzas in the tiny fourth movement saw each player showing great assurety, whilst the final movement had excellent rhythmic punch and good control of the elaborate cross-rhythms.
The programme finished with a poised and refined reading of Reicha’s Quintet no 2 in E flat, including some fearsome agility in the bassoon in the last movement; whilst often an overlooked and neglected orchestral instrument, the bassoonist showed the instrument is no less agile than some of its more melodic brethren!
The group left the stage to an enthusiastic response from an audience clearly astonished at the virtuosity of the young players; throughout the programme the instrumentalists demonstrated controlled and accomplished playing which belies their youthful years. There’s an expressive sense of communication between the players, with some finely nuanced ensemble playing that sees them playing with great individual freedom and commitment, whilst maintaining an effortless unity as a group.
The St James Quintet will be appearing at the Dulwich Picture Gallery later in the year: keep an eye out for them, they are surely an ensemble with a promising future ahead of them.
The series of lunchtime concert begins anew this term with a visit from the vibrant St James Quintet next Monday, in a programme of music by Ibert, Hindemith and Reicha.
Jacques Ibert
Ibert’s Trois Pièces Brèves are a light-hearted and brightly-sonorous addition to the wind quintet repertoire, while the Hindemith occupies a smiliar soundworld to the neo-Classicism of Stravinsky and includes a tiny fourth movement, a mere twenty-three bars, in which each instrument is given a miniature solo, cadenza-like flourish. A lifelong friend of Beethoven, Reicha contributed some twenty-five pieces to the wind quintet repertoire, which in their day were widly performed across Europe, and remain his best-known works.
The concert begins at 1.10p, finishes at 1.50pm; entry is free, with a suggested donation of £3.
The University Camerata and Cecilian Choir teamed up for yesterday’s final lunchtime concert of the term, with Vivaldi’s Winter and Purcell’s ‘Frost Scene’ from King Arthur.
University Camerata with Jeremy Ovenden
Soloist in the Vivaldi, Jeremy Ovenden brought out the brittle, biting aspect of the piece in a strong, confident reading, and the Camerata responded with suitable fragility in the sul ponticello passages.
Making her debut at the Gulbenkian, Music Scholar Paris Noble cast a bright flame as Cupid, scolding the Cold Genius (a welcome return for alumnus Piran Legg) and bringing on a chorus of Cold Revellers to warm them up and spread love throughout the arctic countryside.
In rehearsal: Piran Legg (bass), Paris Noble (soprano) with the Camerata and Cecilian Choir
The Cecilian Choir, looking suitably chilly in winter hats and coats (there had been a fire-alarm that morning, so the musicians ended up waiting outside the Theatre for a while – true method-acting, as one of the altos wryly observed), shambled on before casting aside their winter attire for a heroic closing chorus.
Pictured also is the fine harpischord brought in for the concert (Christmas truly came early for me this year), a Ruckers-Hemsch copy by Ian Tucker, based on an instrument from 1763, which had a soundboard decorated identically to one owned by Handel. Many thanks to Edmund Pickering for delivering and tuning the instrument.
Tucker, after Ruckers-Hemsch
Bravo to all involved: a concert to ‘warm’ the heart…
Next Monday, the University Camerata and Cecilian Choir join forces to perform Vivaldi and Purcell in the last of this term’s Lunchtime Concerts.
François Morellon la Cave: portrait of Vivaldi
The Red Priest’s enduringly-popular Winter, a vivid depiction of the season in its brittle textures, moves in its three movements from shivering amidst winter’s harsh wind to the warmth of sitting by the fire, whilst the last movement portrays racing across the ice before it cracks, seeking refuge behind a bolted door whilst winter’s chill fingers reach through the cracks. The violin soloist will be Jeremy Ovenden, leader of the Symphony Orchestra.
The Cecilian Choir will then join the Camerata for the ‘Frost Scene’ from Purcell’s King Arthur, in which Cupid (sung by second-year Music Scholar and soprano, Paris Noble) battles the Cold Genius (baritone and alumnus, Piran Legg) and his wintry revellers to bring warmth and dance to the frozen scene.
The concert begins on Monday 5 December in the Gulbenkian Theatre at 1.10pm; admission is free, with a suggested donation of £3.
Here’s a little taster of the Vivaldi, featuring a live performance by the Trondheim Soloists…
Be My Guest: an occasional series featuring guest posts and contributions. This week, Music Society President Chris Gray reviews yesterday’s lunchtime recital by Benjamin Frith.
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Frothy Frith: Pictures a plenty!
Top brass: Chris Gray.
During the ever popular Lunchtime Concert series, sponsored by Furley Page, I sat and listened to what was an absolutely outstanding performance by Benjamin Frith of Mussorgsky’s Original Pictures at an Exhibition. The concert not only forward looking to a performance of Ravel’s orchestrated version by the University Symphony Orchestra, but also provided a warming and gratifying experience on an otherwise cold and bleak day on the Canterbury campus.
This iconic piece opens with a simple Promenade played at a quicker tempo than the ear is used to, having been a veteran of many interpretations of the Ravel orchestration. Frith provided a very lyrical and sensitive performance of this renowned motif. The movement was in two sections; the chorale opening bars and the rich density of the harmony to follow, and this was apparent in Frith’s playing as he offered two beautiful passages of playing. Throughout the concert, the pianist had a way of creating different timbres of sounds from the piano, which provided even greater colour throughout the performance.
The next movement, Gnomus, shows off the grotesquery of the toy nutcracker present in this picture. The piano was alive with stunning misshapen motifs that installed terror into the listener. Frith had a brilliant tendency to unleash fury without losing control of his instrument which was apparent throughout the performance.
Following another Promenade between pictures the piece progresses to Il Vecchio Castello which depicts an old castle by night. The continuous pedal note in the left hand imitates the sombre and distant nature of this movement, whilst the reminiscent playing certainly transported the listener to another land.
Once again the listener is transported via an assertive Promenade towards the next painting Tuileries based on a picture of the park of the same name. The dexterity in articulation and delicate tempi changes conveyed the playful nature of the children depicted in the painting. This was in stark contrast to the following movement Bydlo, a huge cart drawn by oxen. The power of the piano itself was apparent throughout this movement and the dynamical contrast reflected the passing of the cart; heavy and unwieldy the playing was a relentless trudging through the thick mud lining the cart’s route, and the dense chords in the left hand mirrored this.
Via a yet another Promenade, Mussorgsky reflects on the previous picture with a reflective and sombre recapitulation of the main theme. Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells lifts the oppressive feeling of the previous movement. Ben showed great skill in not only the speed of his playing but also the accuracy at which he danced across the ivories. It was a great interpretation and the tempi at which Frith played seemed perfectly natural and transported the listener into the gallery. The next painting follows on immediately into an argument between two Jewish gentlemen: Samuel Goldberg and Schmulye. The two characters were exhibited during the movement, with great dynamical contrast between the sections and the different personalities within the music. The next painting Limoges depicts a busy market place and a discussion between a group of women. Again Frith interpreted this brilliantly with dynamic busy playing and reflected the lively nature of the market place. A dark and dank Roman Catacombe is represented by a sheer mass of noise from the piano, daylight could be seen between the piano stool and the pianist himself(!), as the solid columns of sound emitted from the instrument.
Following on from this picture, Mussorgsky reflected on the loss of his close friend with a chant-like, haunting Promenade which leads to an ephemeral ‘Amen’ reminiscent of his friend’s rise to heaven. The penultimate painting The Hut on Fowl’s Legs is of a clock in the shape of the hut of Baba Yaga. This painting provided two distinct sections ranging from evil, demonic and massive playing representing the drama that surrounds the witch Baba Yaga, and the mysterious and suggestive aura that represents the sorcery of the witch.
An eddying chromatic scale propels the user into the Great Gate of Kiev, which is the manifestation of the whole piece. Magnificent spread chords imitate the tolling bells of the Great Gate and the theme returns as a trident triumphant tune very fitting as a memorial to Mussorgsky’s great friend.
As an orchestral player, I felt the piece lacked body, which was probably due to the piano, and the fact that Ravel wrote such a wonderful orchestration of Mussorgsky’s original work. However this did not detract from the simple fact that this was an outstanding performance by a genuinely talented performer. Benjamin Frith transported us to Mussorgsky’s side as he walked around the gallery, and this concert will go down in history for me as an incredibly important one. Not only did it provide an insight into Mussorgsky’s original pursuance of timbre, dynamic and tempi and will prove invaluable to my experience as an orchestral tuba player playing this piece as part of the University Symphony Orchestra.
I hope the next concert is good, it has got a lot to live up to!
Acclaimed international pianist Benjamin Frith returns to the Gulbenkian Theatre next Monday, to perform Mussorgsky’s mighty Pictures at an Exhibition.
In its original version for solo piano, this epic showpiece takes the listener on a musical odyssey through a series of paintings by the composer’s friend, the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann, at an exhibition held to commemorate the artist’s early death at the age of only thirty nine.
Hartmann: Catacombs
From the menacing ‘Hut on Fowl’s Legs’ to the lively ‘Ballet of the Chicks in their shells,’ finishing with the grandiose ‘Great Gate of Kiev,’ the piece represents a dazzling display of virtuosity for pianists.
The concert, on Monday 14 November, starts at 1.10pm, and finishes at 1.50pm. Admission free, with a suggested donation of £3.
There will also be an opportunity to hear Ravel’s brilliant orchestration of the piece at the University’s Symphony Orchestra’s concert in December.
Another packed house last Friday greeted several of the University’s Music Scholars, in their annual lunchtime recital at the Festival Club, accompanied by Deputy Director of Music, Dan Harding.
Heart and Sole: Paris Noble and Sarah Davies display their concert footwear
A rare opportunity to hear not one, but two tubas, with third-year Architecture student Chris Gray, accompanied by his teacher, Steve Wassall, giving a deft reading of a Bach Two-Part Invention and the Minuet and Ecossaise from Catelinet’s ‘Suite in Miniature.’ Not only is Chris a member of the Symphony Orchestra, Concert Band and Chorus, he’s also President of the Music Society this year: as he said to me in rehearsal, ”It’s like I’m doing Music with some Architecture on the side.’ A busy man indeed…
Soprano and second-year Drama student Paris Noble swept on-stage to portray three different damsels in distress: O mio babbino caro from Puccini’s ‘Gianni Schicchi,’ Granados’ coquettish El majo discreto, and finishing with Loewe’s dizzying I Could Have Danced All Night from ‘My Fair Lady.’
Second-year Historian, Kathryn Redgers, principal flautist with the Symphony Orchestra and section leader in Concert Band, then gave a dazzling reading of Chaminade’s Concertino, the piece for which Chaminade is chiefly remembered; a child-prodigy, Chaminade once played some of her compositions to Bizet. Kathryn gave an accomplished performance, showing great skill in matching the challenge of the piece’s virtuosic demands, including a finely-crafted cadenza.
Top brass: Steve Wassall and Chris Gray
Final-year English Literature student Sarah Davies, also in Orchestra and Concert Band and Treasurer of the Music Society this year, gave a suitably poised performance of the second movement of Saint-Saëns’ neo-Classical Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, followed by Gershwin’s jazzy Walkin’ the Dog, which had a swggering, sassy swing.
Chris and Steve then showed the tuba can be as fleet of foot as both the flute and clarinet, in the March and Fugue for two tubas by the prolific Derek Bourgeois.
To end the concert, Paris was joined by soprano Marina Ivanova, in her second year and reading Economics, for two operatic duets, the lyrical Flower Duet from Delibes’ ‘Lakmé’ and the lulling barcarolle, Belle Nuit from the ‘Tales of Hoffmann’ by Offenbach.
As the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Keith Mander observed in his closing remarks, the University has a fine crop of musicians and a vibrant musical life, with the Music Scholars at the heart of all its music-making. With the new Marlowe Theatre having just opened, and the Colyer-Fergusson centre for Music Performanc opening next year to house all the University’s music-making, together with the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, it really is an exciting time for the cultural life of East Kent and the wider community.
Sarah Davies and Kathryn Redgers
Congratulations to all the performers, and thanks to Sarah Passfield from the Festival team who made us all so welcome.
Because it does. Doesn't it ? Blogging about extra-curricular musical life at the University of Kent.
Comprising wind and brass players from amongst the University staff, undergraduate and post-graduate students, the ensemble was founded during the autumn in order to accommodate the wealth of talented members of the University’s musical community. History and Drama students sit next to Anthropology and BioScience lecturers, and we’ve been putting together Gounod’s popular and playful Petite Symphonie.
