Following on from my recent post, last night was our first visit to the National Arts Centre for pianist Radu Lupu's show Rapture and Fire. The pieces performed were: Peter Paul Koprowski's In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski; Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 54; and Brahms Symphony No 4 in E minor Op 98. We went early for the pre-show talk 'Constant Farewells' by music critic Jean-Jacques Van Vlasslaer. Something of a new concept for us, but it was interesting and helpful to have a short explanation of the evening's programme, complete with audio samples. Van Vlasslaer was describing the social and musical links between Schumann and Brahms revolving around (amongst other themes) Schumann's musical theme for his wife, Clara.
Following the talk, we headed into Southam Hall, and were very pleasantly surprised both by the near-capacity crowd and the broad range of people attending. For many of our visits to Cardiff's St Davids Hall and Wales Millennium Centre for similar events, the attendee age range was much narrower towards the higher end. There were a lot of younger faces including a few children, and the row behind us was almost a half row of young ladies. The free concert programme was another unforeseen boon.
The programme was particularly interesting for the first piece, Koprowski's In Memoriam. Another fault of many UK orchestral seasons is the relative paucity of contemporary material, with the exception of the BBC Proms and some London-based orchestras. Neither of us are familiar with Koprowski or his canon, but the piece was very interesting and worth investigating for a second listen. The Schumann and Brahms pieces were more 'traditional' concert fare but very well performed, especially the piano concerto. Southam Hall itself seemed to have pretty good acoustics too. Overall, a highly impressive first visit and we (me in particular!) are looking forward to returning to Southam Hall in February to see Angela Hewitt.
Following the talk, we headed into Southam Hall, and were very pleasantly surprised both by the near-capacity crowd and the broad range of people attending. For many of our visits to Cardiff's St Davids Hall and Wales Millennium Centre for similar events, the attendee age range was much narrower towards the higher end. There were a lot of younger faces including a few children, and the row behind us was almost a half row of young ladies. The free concert programme was another unforeseen boon.
The programme was particularly interesting for the first piece, Koprowski's In Memoriam. Another fault of many UK orchestral seasons is the relative paucity of contemporary material, with the exception of the BBC Proms and some London-based orchestras. Neither of us are familiar with Koprowski or his canon, but the piece was very interesting and worth investigating for a second listen. The Schumann and Brahms pieces were more 'traditional' concert fare but very well performed, especially the piano concerto. Southam Hall itself seemed to have pretty good acoustics too. Overall, a highly impressive first visit and we (me in particular!) are looking forward to returning to Southam Hall in February to see Angela Hewitt.
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