Skip to main content

Rapture and Fire

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Angela Hewitt Week, 14th-20th May 2012

I just received information from a friend about Angela Hewitt Week in Ottawa, 14th-20th May as declared by Mayor Jim Watson. Ms Hewitt is performing with Chamber Players of Canada on Friday 18th May; there will also be An Afternoon With Angela Hewitt on 20th May at the National Arts Centre hosted by the Canadian Friends of the Trasimeno Music Festival .

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...