A summer sojourn - in concert with the Caritas Ensemble

Cultural activities continued last night with The Caritas Ensemble's summer concert, A summer sojourn, at St Nicholas' Church in the Market Place. This was my first chamber concert in Durham, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but the group's online description of their performances including lesser-known works caught my eye (as did their aim of raising money for local charities).

An audience of about 20-30 had assembled by the start of the concert, which began with a familiar work, Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute, setting the atmosphere for the evening. The lesser-known works were all in the first half, of which I most enjoyed Lennox Berkeley's Six Preludes - pianist Emily Murray performed 'moderato', 'lento' and 'allegro'. A clear debt to Debussy, but still extremely enjoyable. Less enjoyable, for me at least, were excerpts from Richard Rodney Bennett's Sounds and Sweet Aires - a very high quality performance but the works felt a little erratic; possibly the room acoustics (or I have very sensitive ears) but some of the oboe and flute parts were quite harsh at times!

The second half of the evening was themed around song, with excerpts from various operas. Arne's setting of Where the Bee Sucks from The Tempest was excellent; the evening finished with an excerpt from Die Fledermaus - witty repartee between Eisenstein and Rosalinde. Hilariously funny and quite probably the audience favourite!

A summer sojourn was raising money for local charity Heel and Toe, which provides conductive education 6 days a week to children with cerebral palsy, dyspraxia and other motor disorders, whilst reliant solely on donations and fundraising.

All in all a fun evening out and I look forward to more concerts in the city!

Comments

Music, Poetry and Cake (Gateshead and Lanchester)

Piano at the ready! (by M) After a good few months prep, the concert Piano Music and Poetry (organised through the Gateshead Piano Workshop folks) came around pretty quickly. As one of the participants, I was excited and also a little nervous about the prospect of a Paying Audience. The work paid off, as all the performers were excellent! Well appreciated by the compact audience. The format was in relation to National Poetry Day which was on 2nd October. Each performer chose a poem either in direct or indirect relation to their piece. A summary of the programme: Alan - Liszt Consolation No 4 and Mozart Adagio in B minor Graeme - Chopin Nocturne Op. 62 No. 2 with 'Uncertainty' by Adam Mickiewicz me - Clara Schumann, andante con sentimento with 'Clara Wieck und Beethoven' by Franz Grillparzer Jim - R Schumann Kinderszenen 1 and 7 with 'My child, we were just children' by Heinrich Heine Ernie - Debussy Clair de lune with excerpt from 'Fêtes g...

Sounds of JUNOfest

Classical JUNOs performers Something of a musical melange weekend but an excellent set of events! Eschewing some of the bands and artists we knew, we chose less familiar sounds for our JUNOfest experience. First up was the Classical JUNOs in Concert event at the National Arts Centre , featuring both nominated performers and composers. The mix of contemporary music was brilliantly played by Christina Petrowska Quilico , Susan Hoeppner , Heather Schmidt and the New Orford String Quartet . Quilico amazed the almost 100-strong audience with her performance of Derek Charke's Sepia Fragments in a reduction for piano; I found this piece a really captivating mix of earthly and ethereal elements. Quilico's second performance was of Ann Southam's Glass Houses No. 5 , an hypnotic piece which sounded both fiendishly difficult to play but also very clean and unembellished. Susan Hoeppner's excellent performance of Eldin Burton's Sonatina for Flute and Piano got the po...

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 .

PrettyInScarlett

Search This Blog