PrettyInScarlett

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