PrettyInScarlett

A few further notes relating to a previous post about female composers : music website Sinfini Music has a summary article of recommended contemporary female composers  providing an insightful introduction to a vast (and sadly often overlooked) sector of classical music.

With the arrival of the annual Christmas Festival this past weekend, the city started to feel (even) more festive. Walking around the centre after visiting the seasonal food market, there were plenty of carols being performed by choirs, brass bands, big bands...at one point I heard 2 different carols simultaneously at each end of Silver Street!   Some of the hardier groups were still out playing when I returned later for one of the weekend's festive concerts (clearly organised to tie in with the Festival but who can go to different concerts at the same time?), A German Christmas by the Caritas Ensemble , raising money for Diabetes UK. The concert had a seasonal theme but avoiding the more popular end of the carol repertoire.   About 16 of us sat in the very intimate setting of  St Chad's College Chapel for an evening of song and instrumental music for soprano, flute, cello and piano. A very peaceful atmosphere develo...

A piano acquaintance alerted me to the sixth Young Pianist of the North competition which finished on Saturday. Unable to get to any of the competition rounds, I did make the masterclass in Newcastle on Saturday 30th November featuring pianists from the main category with teaching from Pascal Nemirovski , Bernd Gretzke and Françoise Thinat .   Each teacher in turn provided feedback to the young competitors, who played repertoire including sonata movements by Beethoven and Mozart, interspersed with some Chopin. It was interesting to see how the young pianists operated under pressure - those who could successful deconstruct and reinterpret based on teacher suggestions, and those who couldn't!   I didn't purchase a programme so sadly don't have detailed notes of the pieces performed. The standout performer - one to watch, indeed - for me was 17 year old Elizaveta Klyuchereva, who had Pascal Nemirovski in beaming smiles!   The broad themes from comments and sugg...

I read with interest an article by Diana Ambache in the November issue of Classical Music magazine about the (often sadly lacklustre) profile of female composers past and present. Earlier this year I acquired a Schott publication called Klaviermusik von Komponistinnen - a collection of 24 pieces by both familiar and more obscure female composers from the 18th century to the 1980s. It's a great collection with some absolutely wonderful pieces, including Maria Szymanowska's Nocturne in B flat .   For further information on female composers and their works, Ambache has set up the Ambache Charitable Trust  to promote women composers and support performances of such works; plus the online resource Women of Note  which provides biographical and catalogue details of a range of composers.   

Durham Amateur Pianists was featured on Radio 3 Breakfast as part of their incredibly useful  Musical Map last Thursday 18th October. The Musical Map has information on musical groups, events, festivals and more right across the UK.   My compatriots with Ottawa Piano Group held a meeting with a difference last Sunday at Southminster United Church, performing on a 1904 Heintzman grand piano. What a treat! The event was attended and recorded by CBC Radio 91.5 FM. Edited highlights and interviews from the performers aired on CBC Ottawa Morning on Tuesday 22nd October, which is available to listen again online . The clip provides an excellent profile of how piano groups for amateurs function.     

In the spirit of friendly comparison with Ottawa International Writers' Festival, last week M and I went to see a few events at this year's Durham Book Festival . The week started off with an excellent talk at the Gala Theatre on Tuesday 15th October by Dr Lucy Worsley on her new book  A Very British Murder . Humourous and informative, with extra information about her day job and some good questions and comments afterwards (I also found her website, which answered my question, where does Lucy get her coats!?)    Saturday 19th October saw us at Durham Town Hall for 2 events. Stuart Maconie delighted a full house with a  very witty talk about British social history through pop music, themed from but encompassing more than his latest tome, The People's Songs . The following event was entitled 'Discovering the North'. Filmmakers Michael Smith and Maxy Neil Bianco introduced 3 films from their series Another England , exploring the ideas of home an...

Last week I finally had the opportunity to visit Oslo with M. Amongst all the sightseeing and visiting friends, we managed a couple of musical activities. By way of an odd prologue, Thursday evening (autumn equinox) there was a torchlit riverside walk along the Akerselva river into downtown Oslo, complete with random but interesting sound, light and music installations along the way, including a few singer-songwriters, choirs and fire-eaters! light installation on Akerselva Friday evening we went to the Oslo Konserthus to see the excellent Oslo Philharmonic featuring Janine Jansen performing Britten's Violin Concerto Op. 15. From our cheap seats behind the orchestra, we enjoyed the Concerto - including the odd macabre bits - and the opening work, No 1 from Leó Weiner's Hungarian Folk Dances Op 18. For our ears the concluding work, Dvořák's Symphony No 8 was something of a let-down - too formulaic and predictable after Britten. No negatives from Saturday af...

Continuing my week of excellent piano music, last night I logged on to Skype to attend a special meeting of  Ottawa Piano Group , featuring a masterclass by performer and teacher Jenny Regehr . Jenny started the session with a short introduction on the themes of what one wants to say musically and how to say it, focusing on alignment and the importance of listening to what one is playing. She touched on the 'vibrancy' of the OPG - it seems the group has developed quite a reputation! The three brave students for the afternoon were: Christopher, playing Milonga del Angel by Piazzolla; Nick, playing Schubert's Impromptu Op 142 No 2 ; and Julie, playing the 2nd movement from Beethoven's Sonata Op 10 No 1 . All excellent performances, and the common themes from Jenny's analysis included comments on the melodic line and buoyancy in chordal playing - the emphasis being on constant movement and flow. It was certainly an entert...

Since moving to Durham I have been looking for fellow amateur pianists, with some success: the inaugural 'Durham Amateur Pianists' group met earlier this month and another meeting is scheduled for October. I also attended 2 other amateur piano events. Chris Jolley on the Yamaha piano First up on Wednesday was Gateshead Piano Workshop , a montly event held at Caedmon Hall in Gateshead Library. The established workshop features teacher and performer Venera Bojkova . The programme, pre-announced about 2 weeks beforehand, included Brahms' Op.117 Intermezzo in Eb ; andante from Sonata in C K545   and adagio in B minor from K540 by Mozart; and the last 4 from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. A really friendly and informative evening! Something slightly different yesterday, as I went to Manchester for the UK meeting of online group The Piano Cloud . The Piano Could is a SoundCloud and Facebook group whose members encompass all genres and abilities including ...

Laura Beth Salter So far M and I are enjoying our new home in Durham - made it to see the Lindisfarne Gospels and had a fun trip in and around Alnwick. However for a pair of music fans the lack of a proper record shop is probably the biggest downside (although the lovely people at Spillers Records do have an online shop...). We were therefore very keen when I spied that the art & culture folk at Empty Shop were promoting a one-day pop-up record shop, Hot Potato Records. Our first visit around midday saw the transformed premises (formerly used as Blockbuster on North Road) hosting a steady stream of customers browsing the racks of LPs and CDs from Newcastle based Reflex Records as well as labels Discount Horse, Box Records, Plan-It-X, Cruel Nature Records and more. Plus free tea and coffee! Enjoying the vibe and browsing away, between us we chose LPs by Sigur Rós, Bonobo, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club plus 5 curiosities from the bargain boxes. Mixed bag but 3 out of 5 good ...

Cultural activities continued last night with The Caritas Ensemble 's summer concert, A summer sojourn , at St Nicholas' Church in the Market Place. This was my first chamber concert in Durham, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but the group's online description of their performances including lesser-known works caught my eye (as did their aim of raising money for local charities). An audience of about 20-30 had assembled by the start of the concert, which began with a familiar work, Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute, setting the atmosphere for the evening. The lesser-known works were all in the first half, of which I most enjoyed Lennox Berkeley's Six Preludes - pianist Emily Murray performed 'moderato', 'lento' and 'allegro'. A clear debt to Debussy, but still extremely enjoyable. Less enjoyable, for me at least, were excerpts from Richard Rodney Bennett's Sounds and Sweet Aires - a very high quality performance but t...

After our sojourn in Worcestershire, M and I have now relocated to Durham, north-east England. Still early days but I am slowly finding venues and event listings. The end of June saw us at Hill Island Microbrewery 's mini festival at Alington House - fruit beers!! Shades of Ottawa, especially the raspberry.... The last week, along with summer (yay!) saw the opening Streets of Brass from this year's Brass: Durham International Festival . Walking in along Framwellgate Bridge on Saturday 6th we were greeted by the enthusiastic and entertaining performers from Brassy B, whom we could hear down in Fowlers Yard . Fowlers Yard had a 10th anniversary festival/open day; we tried the delights of Leonard's for lunch, plus a swift drink from the Hill Island folk. Our brief Brass experience continued with Oompah Brass in the Market Place. Fantastic playing and also very, very funny; treats included covers of Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', plus 'Crazy Li...

A little quiet on the live music front recently, however I have come across a few little news and blog bits. Firstly, via an email list, I found the blog Through Accepting Limits ; initially I read the author's article on an autism-friendly performance of The Lion King , and having enjoyed that, I delved further. Lots of interesting insights into life with autism  - and beyond.  I also found a listing online for a pen that draws perfect 5-line staves, every time. Very novel - up there with the plastic trombone !  

Sifting through a bunch of emails and blog posts, I came across an interesting article on Sinfini Music earlier today. The title caught my eye by referencing Ólafur Arnalds - but the term 'dreamyism' intrigued me. Reading on, the article by Anna Britten describes a genre of music I very much enjoy, but sometimes struggled to describe. It's definitely worth a read for any fans Arnalds/Sigur Rós/Einaudi et al - not forgetting the somewhat 'dreamyesque' works of John Luther Adams ; The Light That Fills The World is a recurring favourite on my stereo. Moving on from 'minimalism with a heartbeat' to living in the present and today's blog post from Piano-Yoga founder GéNIA. Reading through the post, GéNIA's comments about performing 'in the moment' as a pianist immediately struck me as reminiscent of Barry Green's The Inner Game of Music . Green uses very different language from GéNIA but his book provides fascinating (and very very f...

Following on from a promotion in Pianist magazine (then discovering the value of the tickets!), on Saturday I went for a day to the Institut Français ' new weekend festival, It's All About Piano . After a very picturesque journey through the snowy countryside, I arrived at the Institut's building on Queensberry Place in plenty of time for the 1pm recital by Guillaume Vincent . I hadn't read about any of the pianists I saw, though Vincent's biography is pretty impressive, including a string of prizes. The recital started with a new work for my ears, Alkan's Sonatine Op. 61 . I really enjoyed this - mix of virtuosic passages, more moderate, melodious sections and a good dose of humour. There followed a selection of Rachmaninov's Préludes , however at this point the recital became somewhat uneven. Most of the Préludes were performed with conviction, although running almost continuously; here and during the concluding B Minor Sonata by Liszt, Vincent showed pe...

Quite a long-time fan of Ólafur Arnalds, I was pretty excited to get tickets for his 11th March concert at the Barbican Centre with the Britten Sinfonia . Definitely worth the convoluted travel plan (driving to Oxford to get the train - First Great Western seem to think people at the Vale of Evesham/Malvern end of the line don't go out at night...)! Ólafur Arnalds Something of a culture clash early on once the sold out crowd had sat down. Greg Haines , last night's support act, came onstage pretty prompt and after a quick hello to the audience, sat down and proceeded to play for 30 minutes straight. He received fabulous applause, but there was a small amount of coughing and fidgeting going on... A great atmosphere with the auditorium completely dark except for Greg's spotlights (cue reminiscences of Frank Horvat and Timber Timbre ) - for most of the 30 minutes I was lost in his soundscape. He started with very ambient-minimalist piano sounds and gradually worked ...

Moving house completed - for now - and we are back in the Vale of Evesham. The wonders of Facebook unearthed a live gig and St Richard's Hospice fundraiser by slow-burning band Hidden Witness so off we went for an evening out in Worcester. I honestly can't remember the last time either of us did that.... cue pleasant surprise at our venue for the evening, Keystones Cafe Bar . Quite open and spacious in terms of standing room, reasonably large stage and a bar ensconced in the remaining medieval walls - much more atmosphere than many other small bars... A busy few weeks meant I hadn't had time to check out Hidden Witness' SoundCloud page so I had fresh ears and no expectation. The support band, The Miffs , were ok, with a few engaging covers, but sadly (for my ears) nothing memorable.  After a short break -  in which the background music made me feel both young and old simultaneously - Dan, Chris, Neil and Dan took the stage for an interesting set. A few ...

As a final Ottawa concert and a break from mad packing, M and I attended the Rush Hour Concert: Music Miniatures by the Chamber Players of Canada on 12th February. Our interest piqued by Apartment 613's enthusiastic write-up of Monday evening's concert, we spent a fun hour in St Andrew's Church. The fare varied from lesser known works by Mahler and Prokofiev to relatively obscure composers such as Charles Lefebvre and William Grant Still. I really enjoyed the Mahler selection, Quartet for Piano and Strings - a little miniature by a young Mahler but certainly anticipatory of his later, larger works, with a unison pizzicato ending coming almost by surprise; the opening piano theme was also somehow familiar, as if it has been borrowed many times. M preferred Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes - according to Julian Armour's introduction, it's a rare example of Prokofiev using other melodies as a reference for a composition.  Howard Cable's The Petty ...

Sadly I won't be able to make the new Lenten series of concerts at Southminster United Church ... Roland Graham has programmed a variety of styles and instruments in a series of free Wednesday lunchtime concerts at Southminster United Church between 13th February and 27th March 2013. Admission is by donation.  

Heading towards February and the variety of event choices has increased somewhat; M and I tried out the NAC English Theatre's production of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the inaugural Nature Nocturne at the Canadian Museum of Nature . I heard about Nature Nocturne via Apartment 613 and the concept immediately caught my eye. An adults-only cultural/nightlife event in an amazing building? Tickets bought. The attendees were a very diverse crowd, including a lot of smartly attired people giving the event something of a cocktail soirée vibe (perhaps this says something about the range of events, or lack of them, in Ottawa...). The refurbished tower held a very packed dancefloor and I especially recommend the current exhibition Fury: Portraits of turbulent skies by artist Stephen Hutching. We wandered around the Vale Earth Gallery having fun with the sedimentator, magmanator and metamorphicator machines (fantastic fun!) and trying out artist Greta Grip's kitted QR codes...

A bit of a seasonal and pre-house-moving lull in concerts, but today I came across a useful initiative for UK based people. Learn To Play Day is an annual taster day for those of any age who are thinking of learning a musical instrument, whereby free lessons are provided in participating music stores. I heard about the initiative through this article ; more information is on the Learn To Play Day website. Definitely worth checking it out on Saturday 16th March.