New season at Skipton Music: Ensemble 360 and Steven Osborne

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 second and third movements.

Fast forward to 20th November and Steven Osborne, whom I eagerly anticipated. M and I heard Steven perform in 2016 as part of Ribble Valley International Piano Week and enjoyed the performance.

This time, the programme was:

Poulenc       Three Novelettes
Debussy       Images Book 2
Prokofiev   Piano Sonata No.7
Schubert      Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat, D960

I particularly liked the Poulenc pieces - even more so than Debussy! The first two Novelettes are from 1927 and 1928, whilst the third is from 1959. Steven introduced them as evidence that Poulenc didn't care too much for fashion! The third one developed a very eerie, spooky ending.

Ending the first half with Prokofiev, this was very impressively played with a super 2nd movement - to me it sounded like stoicism in the face of disaster.

After the interval, we were treated to a fantastic rendition of Schubert's great last work - described by Steven as the calm release after the homages to Beethoven of Sonatas No. 19 and 20. Certainly, whilst Schubert seemed to be running the full extremes of emotion, there is a pervading sense of ending, of the finite.

The encore was Debussy's Canope from Preludes Book 2, a real treat.

After all this, I am looking forward to December!

Comments

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 .

Lang Lang: a little bit of stardust in Southam Hall

Lang Lang with Anita Pari Like many National Arts Centre regulars, the idea of a Lang Lang concert sounded fantastic... except that for me the Gala tickets are rather too expensive. As a result the turnout for today's masterclass with young artists Anita Pari (Ottawa), Alexander Malikov (Calgary), and Tina Chong (Banff) in Southam Hall was pretty good. No surprises that there were photographers and a TV camera all over the stage... so much so that during Lang's analysis of Malikov's rendition of Transcendental Étude No 8 'Wild Hunt' (Liszt), someone shouted at the cameraman to move. To my mind they seemed a little intrusive on the performances, but none of the artists seemed to take any notice. Lang Lang with Tina Chong Up first and for me the best performance was Anita Pari with the captivating Ballade No 1 by Chopin. In comparison, Malikov's performance did not have anywhere near as much projection. Final performer Tina Chong seemed

New talent at Southminster

As a follow-on from last weekend's excellent Chopin concert, there is an afternoon of New Artists from the NAC's Summer Music Institute at Southminster United Church on 17th June. Entitled 'Dover Beach and other works for summertime', the concert features new artists Katarzyna Sadej , Emily Nenninger , Drew Santini, Hannah Min, Paul Casey , Karen Kang and Bryan Wagorn. I had the chance to hear Bryan Wagorn at one of University of Ottawa's Concerts at the NAC 4th Stage concerts back in February and thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The proposed programme is very enticing: MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 MONIUSZKO Sen (The Dream) Prząśniczka (Spinner Girl) SZYMANOWSKI Lecioły Zórazie (The Swans Were Flying) Ściani Dumbek (The Dark Forest) CHOPIN Piosnka Litewska (Lithuanian Folksong) Moja Pieszczotka

PrettyInScarlett

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