PrettyInScarlett

Sifting through a bunch of emails and blog posts, I came across an interesting article on Sinfini Music earlier today. The title caught my eye by referencing Ólafur Arnalds - but the term 'dreamyism' intrigued me. Reading on, the article by Anna Britten describes a genre of music I very much enjoy, but sometimes struggled to describe. It's definitely worth a read for any fans Arnalds/Sigur Rós/Einaudi et al - not forgetting the somewhat 'dreamyesque' works of John Luther Adams ; The Light That Fills The World is a recurring favourite on my stereo. Moving on from 'minimalism with a heartbeat' to living in the present and today's blog post from Piano-Yoga founder GéNIA. Reading through the post, GéNIA's comments about performing 'in the moment' as a pianist immediately struck me as reminiscent of Barry Green's The Inner Game of Music . Green uses very different language from GéNIA but his book provides fascinating (and very very f...

Following on from a promotion in Pianist magazine (then discovering the value of the tickets!), on Saturday I went for a day to the Institut Français ' new weekend festival, It's All About Piano . After a very picturesque journey through the snowy countryside, I arrived at the Institut's building on Queensberry Place in plenty of time for the 1pm recital by Guillaume Vincent . I hadn't read about any of the pianists I saw, though Vincent's biography is pretty impressive, including a string of prizes. The recital started with a new work for my ears, Alkan's Sonatine Op. 61 . I really enjoyed this - mix of virtuosic passages, more moderate, melodious sections and a good dose of humour. There followed a selection of Rachmaninov's Préludes , however at this point the recital became somewhat uneven. Most of the Préludes were performed with conviction, although running almost continuously; here and during the concluding B Minor Sonata by Liszt, Vincent showed pe...

Quite a long-time fan of Ólafur Arnalds, I was pretty excited to get tickets for his 11th March concert at the Barbican Centre with the Britten Sinfonia . Definitely worth the convoluted travel plan (driving to Oxford to get the train - First Great Western seem to think people at the Vale of Evesham/Malvern end of the line don't go out at night...)! Ólafur Arnalds Something of a culture clash early on once the sold out crowd had sat down. Greg Haines , last night's support act, came onstage pretty prompt and after a quick hello to the audience, sat down and proceeded to play for 30 minutes straight. He received fabulous applause, but there was a small amount of coughing and fidgeting going on... A great atmosphere with the auditorium completely dark except for Greg's spotlights (cue reminiscences of Frank Horvat and Timber Timbre ) - for most of the 30 minutes I was lost in his soundscape. He started with very ambient-minimalist piano sounds and gradually worked ...

Moving house completed - for now - and we are back in the Vale of Evesham. The wonders of Facebook unearthed a live gig and St Richard's Hospice fundraiser by slow-burning band Hidden Witness so off we went for an evening out in Worcester. I honestly can't remember the last time either of us did that.... cue pleasant surprise at our venue for the evening, Keystones Cafe Bar . Quite open and spacious in terms of standing room, reasonably large stage and a bar ensconced in the remaining medieval walls - much more atmosphere than many other small bars... A busy few weeks meant I hadn't had time to check out Hidden Witness' SoundCloud page so I had fresh ears and no expectation. The support band, The Miffs , were ok, with a few engaging covers, but sadly (for my ears) nothing memorable.  After a short break -  in which the background music made me feel both young and old simultaneously - Dan, Chris, Neil and Dan took the stage for an interesting set. A few ...

As a final Ottawa concert and a break from mad packing, M and I attended the Rush Hour Concert: Music Miniatures by the Chamber Players of Canada on 12th February. Our interest piqued by Apartment 613's enthusiastic write-up of Monday evening's concert, we spent a fun hour in St Andrew's Church. The fare varied from lesser known works by Mahler and Prokofiev to relatively obscure composers such as Charles Lefebvre and William Grant Still. I really enjoyed the Mahler selection, Quartet for Piano and Strings - a little miniature by a young Mahler but certainly anticipatory of his later, larger works, with a unison pizzicato ending coming almost by surprise; the opening piano theme was also somehow familiar, as if it has been borrowed many times. M preferred Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes - according to Julian Armour's introduction, it's a rare example of Prokofiev using other melodies as a reference for a composition.  Howard Cable's The Petty ...

Sadly I won't be able to make the new Lenten series of concerts at Southminster United Church ... Roland Graham has programmed a variety of styles and instruments in a series of free Wednesday lunchtime concerts at Southminster United Church between 13th February and 27th March 2013. Admission is by donation.  

Heading towards February and the variety of event choices has increased somewhat; M and I tried out the NAC English Theatre's production of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the inaugural Nature Nocturne at the Canadian Museum of Nature . I heard about Nature Nocturne via Apartment 613 and the concept immediately caught my eye. An adults-only cultural/nightlife event in an amazing building? Tickets bought. The attendees were a very diverse crowd, including a lot of smartly attired people giving the event something of a cocktail soirée vibe (perhaps this says something about the range of events, or lack of them, in Ottawa...). The refurbished tower held a very packed dancefloor and I especially recommend the current exhibition Fury: Portraits of turbulent skies by artist Stephen Hutching. We wandered around the Vale Earth Gallery having fun with the sedimentator, magmanator and metamorphicator machines (fantastic fun!) and trying out artist Greta Grip's kitted QR codes...