Summer serenade: 4 Girls 4 Harps at Auckland Castle

My first trip to Auckland Castle this summer and the music matched the end of a sunny day. When I saw the listing for a harp quartet, I immediately made a note to go. I've previously seen and heard harp quartets in Ottawa (the Four Seasons Harp Quartet at Music and Beyond, if I recall correctly) and enjoyed the sound.

4 Girls 4 Harps are: Eleanor Turner, Harriet Adie, Keziah Thomas and Elizabeth Scorer. They celebrate their 15th anniversary this year. The organisers at Bishop Auckland Music Society had arranged for this concert to be in St Peter's Chapel rather than the Throne Room; the acoustics in the chapel supported the harps really well, creating a wash of sound.

The concert tonight was a super-duper programme of new arrangements, new works and a few favourites. Whilst I enjoyed the favourites (arrangements by Harriet Adie of the 18th Variation from Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini - Rachmaninov - and Waltz 2 from Suite for Variety Orchestra - Shostakovich), the standout parts of the concert were the new works. After Eleanor Turner's arrangement of La Chasse (Sophia Giustina Corri), the birthday piece was revealed for its second performance. Their 15th anniversary commission, entitled Tetra, features 4 movements by 4 female composers, inspired by 4 great women, and all quoting from Henriette Renié's Légende, as follows (as much as my hasty notes will confirm):

Meditation 1 - by Ayanna Witter-Johnson - inspired by Mother Theresa

Tree of Hope - by Alissa Firsova - inspired by Frida Kahlo

Fantasy - Nicola LeFanu - inspired by (I think?) Amelia Fawcett DBE

Lady in the Shadows - Savourna Stevenson - inspired by Josephine Baker

Meditation 1 was a super shimmery piece with vocal overlays; it and Tree of Hope also featured lots of harp drumming. Tree of Hope was explosive, plaintive, angry, and calm in short succession. Fantasy had a weaving, murmuring quality to it; and Lady in the Shadows was very much a slow, bluesy number. Following on from Tetra, we heard the original Renié Légende.

The concert closed with another Adie arrangement, of Tarrega's guitar work Recuerdos de la Alhambra (really lovely piece); and finally an Adie original, Elemental. Elemental's 4 movements were Earth, Air, Water and Fire - very different atmospheres throughout and each based on a theme introduced by Adie (gnomes, caves, ponds, wind and woodland all featured). Mixtures of textures, jazzy elements, polyrhythms - an excellent work.

Each quartet member had a piece, or pieces, to introduce, adding background stories and extra information, all with a good dash of humour. This continued into the encore, a witty arrangement of the Clog Dance from La fille mal gardée. The current concert schedule for 4 Girls 4 Harps continues throughout the year and is available on their website. They are definitely worth seeing!

Au quatrieme fois..

A jaunt en masse down to the Coal Exchange last night (23rd) to see The Subways excel again. For once we weren't massively early (in some ways to avoid the queues of teenagers) so arrived part way through the first support band. They are called Wry, from Brazil even! They were decent and will probably merit listening to further. Best option the ubiquitous myspace . Eagerly anticipated the main support, The Sunshine Underground, of whom I'd heard good words... They more than lived up to their expectations, with my only real niggle about their sound... whether it was the singer's style or sound mix I'm not sure but their show was at parts ear-splitting - explains my slight deafness today! Otherwise excellent, not an easy band to categorise, but my impressions were somewhere between Alabama 3 and the Killers' Hot Fuss album; dancing music too. Well worth going to see - just take earplugs! (or in my case, actually go out and buy some). I believe one can listen to the...

4 and 5

Busy weekend. Number 4 was the 2nd Innercity Pirates night at Clwb Ifor Bach, spread the word to another friend so a highly successful evening! Again, Red City were the (only) support, who were still underwhelming and may even have got worse! Luckily a short set. The main Pirates set was much more polished than the last one, they have been practicing!! Only mishap this time when an overenthusiastic fan accidentally stood on a connector! Quite a different set, this time almost totally from the 3 recent EPs with the only oldies Whisper The Fear, and 'that song' from last time - which is called The Little Pills We Love. For the set list, simply check out the track listings for the 3 EPs on their website ! Number 5 entailed a visit to Coal Exchange to see Mogwai . Luckily the buses were back to normal - well normal for a Sunday ie nothing late at night! Slightly more interesting support band, The Magnificents (sound: a mix between Mogwai, Syntax and The Killers ), although I did ...

From Black Rose to Buena Vista

Two very different but equally impressive live experiences this last weekend. First up, our long overdue homage to the late, great Phil Lynott as Limehouse Lizzy returned to the Point on Friday 2nd March. Certainly on form (and not just lead singer Wayne Ellis, mmmm!) After a late doors, the band came on for a 2 hour set. They started off with Jailbreak (with added pyro), the rest of the main set comprising known songs like Dancing In The Moonlight, Warrior, Emerald, Johnny the Fox, Are You Ready, Killer On The Loose, Cold Sweat, Do Anything You Want To, Out In The Fields, Cowboy Song, Rosalie, The Boys Are Back In Town plus at least 1 early track. The encore included 1 verse/1 chorus from Sarah, Black Rose, Whisky In The Jar and another track. Excellent atmosphere, the place was sold out. The boys are back at the Point in December. Next on to crowd pleasers of a very different sort. M and I managed to get tickets for the sold-out Buena Vista Social Club show at Wales Millennium Centr...

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