PrettyInScarlett

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

Since starting to attend Skipton Music concerts the quality has been very high, but this season seems to have started off exceptionally well. The seasons' concerts are in Christ Church Skipton, as the Town Hall is being refurbished, and the ambience and acoustic are very good.  Catching up from 23rd October, adaptable chamber group Ensemble 360 showcased a contemporary piece by Jörg Widmann alongside its inspiration, Schubert's Octet in F,  D803 . The Widmann, an Octet in five movements, was composed in 2004 and references Schubert rhythmically, and also with leanings towards the many hundred songs that Schubert wrote (third movement Lied ohne Worte ). The first movement, Intrada , felt warmly off-kilter and Lied ohne Worte had a fantastic horn solo. However the piece was not that accessible to listen to. Whilst it certainly got the audience talking I'm not sure that may were big fans. The Schubert Octet was more warmly received and I particularly enjoyed the

Another unusual direction with the lunchtime concerts series at University of Leeds, after austraLYSIS, however this time piano-based.  Nightports is based on a simple but unbreakable rule of restriction: only sounds produced by the featured musician can be used. Nothing else. But these sounds can be transformed, distorted, translated, reworked, processed and reprocessed, stretched, cut, ordered and reordered without limitation. Nightports is about amplifying the characteristics of the featured musician and the sounds they make. Today's concert was the live performance of this album.  The four musicians performed on three (prepared) pianos and electronics. The whole effect was very much contemporary piano to ambient electronics, reminiscent of Hauschka, Nils Frahm, plus Ólafur Arnalds in the more introspective sections. There were breaks for applause but the event felt very much like one journey through different sounds and emotions. The prepared piano aspect of the pe

The first few concerts in the new season of events at University of Leeds School of Music have been incredibly varied. The first concert I saw was from folk band VRi . The string trio performed a mixture of traditional Welsh songs and original compositions. Describing themselves as 'chamber folk', their songs varied from simple voice and accompaniment to foot-tapping energetic numbers (sadly no room for dancing in the Clothworkers' Concert Hall...) exploring Welsh folk but with an art music angle, as well as other folk traditions, with a lot of the music on their new album referencing the Welsh chapel tradition. Absolutely worth a further listen and their music is available on Bandcamp . Fast forward a week to something altogether different. austraLYSIS: Torbjörn Hultmark & Roger Dean with soprano trombone, piano and live electronics. Riveting to watch their live electronics! I really enjoyed the piece about Metamorphosis for Time and Space - dots, lines, ?, v

A chance to take an extended break and visit a different part of the University of Leeds campus. I'd not previously been in the Marks & Spencer Archive , and it looks like a really interesting place. Definitely worth a future lunchtime visit. The seminar room in the Archive was pretty full for the pop-up concert. Second round competitors Florian Caroubi and Fuko Ishii performed and took questions from the audience. Florian started off with Liszt's Sposalizio , followed by selections from Schumann's Carnaval . Very fluid and warm playing. Fuko Ishii contrasted with the latter movements of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy D760 .  Following on from the performances, there was a 20 minute question & answer session in which both pianists answered general questions about their musical background and what inspires them. The event was very enjoyable indeed! There are photos on the M&S Archive Twitter feed .

Three years passes pretty quickly! After a busy summer, my cultural activities are starting up again and first in line was the Leeds International Piano Competition . Sadly not enough annual leave left to binge-attend, so I selected one of the second round events (Friday 7th at 7pm) and a semi-final (Sunday 9th at 7pm).  Firstly, I had forgotten how long the rounds take! Each competitor was effectively playing a full on recital. Hard on the audience too, lots of concentration required (so I was very tired indeed on Friday after a full week and then 3 hours of music)! The second round competitors I saw were Chao Wang, Anna Geniushene, Siqian Li and Samson Tsoy.  Chao Wang played a superb Moonlight Sonata   - such balance and softness! All the amateur pianists I know would love to play the first movement with the same sense of movement but stillness. However he didn't have the projection of the other 3 performers so maybe that was a factor in his elimination. Samson Tsoy ple

She may be a jet-setting, world class musician but Kathryn Stott clearly likes to return to her 'home patch' area of Skipton. The audience like it too - Skipton Music's Tuesday 19th June concert (rescheduled from February) was I believe a sell-out. I have read articles about (and authored by) Kathryn in the pages of Pianist Magazine and similar publications so it was a treat to see and hear her in person. The concert theme was Song and Dance - a celebration of an upcoming milestone. The programming was excellent - whilst Kathryn is clearly a pianist of considerable talent, she programmed pieces that are within range of keen amateurs, such as Grieg's Lyric Pieces Op. 52 . Although I've not tried any of the Op. 52 set, I have learned some of the other Lyric Pieces and Tuesday's performance was an example of how the pieces really are songs without words. The first half of the recital moved from the smooth Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and Grieg throu

Continuing the music theme and fresh from GNUF, next stop the Royal Albert Hall ! What a way to experience my first RAH event than with Ólafur Arnalds !  Just going in to the building, there was an incredible atmosphere. Stopped off at the Berry Bros & Rudd bar en route to our seats.  A short support set by composer/percussionist Manu Delago , who was very impressive. Initially I thought he was playing some variant of steel drums, but in fact it was an array of Hang , which are great! A really lush, warm sound. Ólafur's mix of strings, piano with multimedia felt at home in the 'orchestral' setting of the Hall (nearly Proms season!), in particular given that the set was all instrumental pieces. It was interesting to see the sheer variety of people who all have being an Ólafur Arnalds fan in common.  I find that a lot of Ólafur's magic is in the silences and spaces in between notes, and a few times there were audience interruptions - but also, a lot of ti

One of the things on my bucket list when we moved to Skipton was to attend Huddersfield's very own Grand Northern Ukulele Festival - GNUF . Then my busy diary got in the way... This year, I decided what the heck, I was going to go anyway, busy diary or no. Glad I did! Receiving the Queen's Award The full lineup information for GNUF2018 is still on the website. For 2018 there were events Thursday through to Sunday. I made it for Saturday and Sunday daytime. Contrary to my norm, I had not planned on which stage/any workshops etc.  Saturday started well when I bumped into another ukulele acquaintance on the train at Leeds.  Good start! After collecting my wristband and a programme I chilled over lunchtime, catching the vibe on Mim's stage in the LBT courtyard. Including the presentation of the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service!! Early afternoon I attended a talk by Rob Collins of Tinguitar about sustainability in ukulele design. Lots of interesting info

Last year I suffered from stress-related anxiety problems. Since then I've been exploring ways to help myself with the aid of a few stress management/stress reduction courses. So far, so good. One thing I have tried is to go to a concert with no expectations of myself. Somehow, I think I'd fallen into the trap of thinking about what I would write from a concert experience, therefore missing out on being really in the moment. I've tried writing no notes, taking no photos, doing no prior research (sometimes avoiding programme notes), nor listening, leading to some reflections on the recent round of concerts that I've attended.   Last week, 11th March, I attended a celebratory event 'A Life in Music: Celebrating Dame Fanny Waterman' at University of Leeds. The event comprised an extract from Dame Fanny's personal archives (recently donated to the University), a conversation and a concert. The archive documents looked really interesting and there were lots

I emerged from almost 2 months of cold after cold in time for the new year's concert beginnings. Firstly, the still-quite-dark January days were much brightened by Boxwood & Brass ' visit to Skipton Music . As a six-piece group, Boxwood and Brass perform on replica late 18th-century wind instruments (clarinet, horn, bassoon). They use these instruments in performing music of the era, showing how much the colour and texture variety of early instruments was used by composers such as Beethoven, Mozart and Weber. Each instrument was introduced to the audience  - the basics of how they worked compared to the modern instrument, how different keys suited different instruments, and more! Of the programme, I particularly enjoyed the two arrangements (by bassoonist Robert Percival) of two Mozart pieces - the Serenade in C minor K388/406 and the Symphony No 39 in E flat K.543 - character, colour of sound and texture excellently demonstrated (though that's not to say that