PrettyInScarlett

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...

The first two concerts of Skipton Music's 2017/18 season maintained the high quality I have come to expect of the concert series. First up in October was Doric String Quartet , with a programme of Mendelssohn, Thomas Adès and Haydn. The Adès, The Four Quarters (2011), was probably unknown to everyone except the quartet - but definitely worth investigating. The piece is in a classical string quartet model and follows the process of a day in time, comprising 4 movements: Nightfalls , Serenade: Morning Dew, Days and The Twenty-fifth Hour . I particularly liked Morning Dew - concurrently reminding me of early morning light hitting blades of grass, or morning commuters arriving in a big city imagined as colliding atoms. Days hat 'flap of the day' and 'mid-afternoon meander' aspects to it. The Mendelssohn (Quartet in E flat, Op, 12) and Haydn (String Quartet Op. 20 No. 5) were very enjoyable. Fast forward a few weeks (feels like fast forward!!) to Trio Con Brio...