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!

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