Piano geek day: It's All About Piano

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 periodic laboriousness. The overall impression I received was of a technically very good pianist but with a few performance elements still to work through.

Quickly moving rooms to an afternoon entitled 'Cabinet of Curiosities: From Mussorgsky to Mantovani'. I missed pretty much all of Antoine Alerini's set, but thoroughly recommend Matthieu Acar on the basis of his performance, something like a virtual gallery wherein one encountered Debussy's Danseuses de Delphes; Liszt's Sposalito (from Années de pélerinage); a very interesting 'contemporary art' piece, Dédale, by Bruno Mantovani, and finally Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The unknown piece there was Dédale, a veritable maze of Debussy-esque sounds, ambient minimalism, bells... really good!

The last pianist of the afternoon, Nathanaël Gouin, started with two excellent Nocturnes (6 & 13) by Gabriel Fauré, followed by Maurince Ohana's Trois Caprices. Really good programming - the Ohana pieces seemed to fit as a growth/extension of Fauré. Then followed two pieces by Franck (of whom I am not a fan - it depends on the individual work). The first, Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op 18 (transcr. Friedman) was unexpectedly delightful, however the Prélude, Choral et Fugue less so. At that point a coffee break called - necessary after almost 3 1/2 hours of non-stop music!

My last event (sadly transport issues meant I couldn't stay for Imogen Cooper's evening recital) was Paul Roberts' talk/recital on Ravel's Miroirs. The small Salon was packed and the talk interesting, relating the 5 pieces to both poetry of Léon-Paul Fargue and the Spanish dramatic character of a grazioso. All very well but fighting against the late hour...

Overall a good idea for a mini-festival; judging by some of the people numbers later in the day it seemed pretty popular, so hopefully will become a recurring event!

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 .

Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed

Guitar week: Gitarrissima and Sean Shibe

Almost at the Christmas break and hectic as ever! This last week was a two-concerts week (with a Christmas party in the middle) and it was guitars all round. First up, on 11th December, were Gitarrissima of Vienna at Skipton Music . The quintet (reduced to a quartet on Tuesday due to illness) performed A Christmas Celebration - seasonal music and a very jolly evening all round. The group perform on a mixture of concert guitars, an octave guitar and an acoustic bass guitar and the sound is remarkably rounded, not necessarily to be expected for reductions of orchestral pieces. Each set of pieces was introduced by a different member of the group. In a lot of ways, Gitarrissima reminded me of Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain with their clever arrangements of well-known pieces as well as musical excellence. The programme included excerpts (arranged by the group) of Bizet's Carmen , Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, all of which were performed very well but som

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