PrettyInScarlett

Almost the end of term and another excellent lunchtime concert. Top violinist Madeleine Mitchell performed a recital of: Grace Williams – Violin Sonata Michael Nyman – Taking it as Read Edward Elgar – Violin Sonata The Elgar and the Williams sonatas were both energetic, intense works, with beautiful slow second movements (Elgar - based on 'wood magic'?; Williams - folk song influenced). In between we were treated to Taking it as Read , which Madeleine commissioned from the composer.   Madeleine is a world-class, award winning musician and her tone definitely showed this - overall a superb hour's music.

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...

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 t...

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. Samso...

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...

...For Leeds University School of Music.  To celebrate the delivery of 27 Steinway pianos,  the School of Music performed a newly commissioned piece  - for 28 pianos! The performance is available to watch again at https://livestream.com/uol/steinway1 Short but snappy - a mix of Reich-style randomness with a Bach style finale. Plus some funky lighting!  Full press release here and photos on Twitter .

Almost the end of November and another term of excellent concerts is almost concluded. The high quality continues  - this Friday, 24th November, featured music for gamelan . I have read with interest about gamelan, notably in the excellent The Other Classical Musics , but have never heard the ensemble live. Leeds music students who had spent this term learning gamelan music, performed a mixture of traditional and modern pieces under the name The Golden Thread. I was NOT disappointed! I liked all of it! But particular mention to the traditional pieces Lancaran Singanebah and Lancaran Tropong-bang - excellent, immersive stuff - and the new pieces, firstly When East Meets West . This used gamelan timbres to sample Western popular music - I'm sure I heard 'Another One Bites The Dust'!! - complete with sunglasses wearing students. The second, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas , added a shadow puppet show to the performance, referencing the traditional artfor...

For a piano geek like me, today's lunchtime concert by Jill Crossland at University of Leeds was a must-see/hear. Jill performed a programme of 18th century keyboard music, comprising D Scarlatti, JS Bach, Rameau and WA Mozart.  After a slightly stressful few weeks it was a really positive experience to sit and hear pure, hopeful music - a cascade of wellness. The very first piece, Scarlatti's Sonata in B minor K19, was like measured droplets of water - a dose of calm to set the pace, followed by the Sonata in G , K146. Jill then delighted the audience with a selection of Rameau pieces and selection from Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier, Book 1 (17, 21 and 23 I think - though I am sure there was a bonus piece!). The final work was Mozart's Piano Sonata in C , K330. Joy and hope and resolution. I was floating!  The sum total of the programme brought to mind the famous quote of Julian of Norwich: All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing...

Bright sunshine and another excellent lunchtime concert. This time the programme was a selection os solo harp pieces with Hugh Webb performing. Hugh was a charming presenter as well as performer, providing interesting information behind his programme of 20th century harp music (but then, according to Hugh, the concert harp is a 20th century instrument). The programme started with the evocative En France by Marcel Tournier. Sounds of the sea - very nice anticipation of summer. Then came Benjamin Britten's Interlude from Ceremony of Carols - a clear sonic difference from Tournier, very simple and direct. Colin Matthews' Little Suite for Harp was possibly my favourite piece of the hour - 3 short movements (march, barcarole, toccata) with preludes in between - from sublime to angular. Similar to the Peter Moore lunchtime concert, the programme here demonstrated the wonderful range of the instrument. Robert Keeley's Farid left me behind a little, but Hugh's own ...

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 B...