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Catching up with autumn - October highlights: The Sacconi Quartet and David Braid

With the change in seasons, my concert calendar has filled up again. Though with all my interests plus a day job writing time is somewhat elusive! My October highlights were the first event of Skipton Music's season, plus David Braid at University of Leeds' International Concert Series.

This year I have arranged for a Skipton Music season ticket. No excuses! The current season is a mix of chamber, song, instrumental and orchestral concerts. First up were Sacconi String Quartet with Robert Plane on clarinet. It is ages (so long I can't recall!) since I last heard a string quartet live, so it was a real pleasure to hear the Sacconi Quartet and their high quality timbres. Their first piece on the programme was Haydn's String Quartet Op. 76 No. 1; lively and humourous in particular with the 'gallop' in the final movement!

Robert Plane joined the Sacconi Quartet for the rest of the evening. The second piece was a truly interesting Phantasy Quintet for Bass Clarinet and Strings by York Bowen.  A one-movement chamber piece from 1932, in which Bowen incorporates the range of a 3 movement sonata. Robert introduced the piece and explained the relative paucity of music for the bass clarinet - this was the only piece in the evening to feature the instrument. Great stuff - at times I found the piece almost as if it had stepped from a Jean Cocteau movie! 

Finishing off the concert we heard Glazunov's Oriental Reverie for Clarinet Quintet - another one-movement piece, this one evoking hazy summer forests of Russia; and Weber's Clarinet Quintet in B flat Op. 34 - a return to a more classical/Romantic sound to finish.

During term time there are regular Friday lunchtime concerts in Leeds University School of Music. My first attendance this academic year was to hear Canadian pianist David Braid. David is an innovative and original jazz pianist/composer, who treated the audience to a concert based on his 2012 album Verge, with which he won a Juno Award. We heard La Phare, El Castillo Interior; and a few prepared piano pieces - 春江花月夜 (Spring Garden Night) and Richmond Square; finishing with Reverence. David has a very witty, at-ease style of presentation and made for a very enjoyable hour's music.

 
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