Skip to main content

Festive sounds in Durham

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 developed with the opening work, Schumann's 'Langsam' from Fünf Stücke im Volkston performed by Deborah Thorne and Emily Murray. They were afterwards joined by Clare Crinson on flute for Weber's Trio in G minor which includes a shepherd's lament. A wonderful piece (my favourite of the evening) with a touch of Viennese waltz in the scherzo - a little foretaste of New Year's Day...
 
The nearest the concert came to popular carols was a selection from Liszt's piano transcriptions Weinachtsbaum, including adeste fidelis; following Bach's Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (very well performed but not really my thing) the concert closed with Reger's Maria Wiegenlied. Exiting St Chad's and a quiet Bailey heading back to the city centre, I'm sure I head a strain of Jingle Bells...

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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 .
Post a Comment
Read more

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 .
4 comments
Read more

The Venezuelan maestro comes to Cardiff

A highly anticipated evening of entertainment for M and I, we headed to St Davids Hall to see the conductor of the moment, Gustavo Dudamel , conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra . Highly entertaining, too, and the place was pretty full, though possibly not sold out. We had anticipated the first piece to be Antonio Estevez' 'Mediodia en el llano', but a last minute change meant the first work was (I believe - the posters up in the venue were rather short on info!) Berlioz' Roman Carnival. Initially we may have been a tad disappointed but the replacement work was excellently peformed, cue many smiles. Unfortunately, the smiles soon evaporated, as the second, and for us, least interesting piece, was Mozart's Piano Concert No.17 K453 with Emanuel Ax on piano. M described Ax as mellow, I described him as dull. That may be because neither of us are really into Mozart, but compared to previous visits to St Davids Hall to see pianists Noriko Ogawa and Freddy Kempf, we really...
Post a Comment
Read more