Tim Chick transmogrified from hosting interviewer to musical performer during the latest of Worthing’s International Interview Concerts. He pulled on a jersey, picked up an electric guitar and walked on stage to plug in and play with the two guest classical maestros in front of a full-house audience at St Paul’s on Easter Sunday.

Together they played a short piece he devised himself with violinist Kamila Bydlowska and pianist Varvara Tarasova, improvising along with him.

Chick is taking guitar lessons and was playing in public for the first time. After his and the audience’s final questions, Bydlowska, from Poland, and Tarasova, from Russia, played a Brahms scherzo encore but then came this stunt – the last of several unnamed surprises promised to the audience in the billing.

His purpose, said Chick, was to impress that whatever the instruments used or the material made up on the spot, it is all music, free of outside-imposed categorisation.

The exuberant Bydlowska’s irrepressibly energetic personality and almost carefree versatility fuelled an extraordinary concert that filled almost every seat. Tarasova, celebrated in Sussex after she won its own International Piano Competition in 2015, played an unexpectedly full role in what was a new partnership intuitively brokered by Chick.

Entitled ‘The violin will take you’, the International Interview Concert astonished and entertained with its holiday-escape flavour of music from three continents and its disregard for conventional classical music concert formatting and seating layout.

After a Spanish serenade from de Falla, a full-blooded German romantic sonata from Schumann, a Polish nocturne and tarantella dance from Szymanovski, and a Russian love song from Rachmaninov – another surprise added to the programme on the day – Bydlowska’s penchant for tango leapt into its own.

As well as being a fully-fledged orchestral concerto soloist, and a key member the contemporary London Electronic Orchestra, and a separate classical string trio, the effervescent Bydlowska is in a working tango quartet, La Tango Terra.

Instead of the intended Fantasy on Porgy & Bess Themes by Igor Frolov, she played solo an authentic Argentine Tango piece by the legendary Piazzolla while walking around the enthralled audience. She then pulled up a bar stool to play three semi-improvised tangos with Tarasova, plus an off-the-cuff version of the evergreen Gershwin blues-jazz song, Summertime.

The audience, which included young children listening with their parents, some colouring and drawing, stumbled on a high-spot that dramatically brightened an almost perpetually dull Easter weekend.

Report by Richard Amey, co-devisor of The Interview Concerts

The Dome Brighton, 25 March 2018

The Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra finished the season in fine festive fettle. I don’t often laugh aloud in the concert hall but there was plenty of that in the Dome for this unconventional programme.

Malcolm Arnold’s piano concerto op 104 – new to me, and I suspect, to most of the audience – doesn’t get out much because it was written for husband and wife Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick. Cyril Smith had lost the use of his left arm through strokes so the piece was written for three hands and two pianos – which makes it expensive and impractical for most concert promoters.  Stephen Worbey and Kevin Farrell, who work as a witty and very accomplished duo, have arranged the concerto for four hands on a single piano.

Written in 1969, it’s a very listenable piece. Both orchestra and soloists shone, especially in the middle movement which engagingly alternates schmaltz with dissonance. The last movement, for which Worbey and Farrell changed places, is very jolly with cheerful tuba vamp rather similar to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s (imitative?) Jesus Christ Superstar song for King Herod – written a year later.  Worbey and Farrell are showman musicians who warm the audience up with jokes before they start – it sits somewhere between Victor Borge and pantomime – but it’s good quality fun and their flamboyant playing is riveting. Their Sabre Dance encore – played at prestissimo and more – was a tour de force.

The concert had begun rather more conventionally with the Karelia Suite in which Barry Wordsworth allowed every section to have its moment. The busy repetitive string work in the first movement can, for instance, be hard to make lively but in this performance it did real justice to the soaring brass above it.  The warmth and suitable lushness in the two following movements, when the violins get most of the melody, was strong too.

I presume the programming of the second half was partly to create an end-of-season party atmosphere and partly to encourage people to bring children. It succeeded on both counts. It would have been good to see even more under-11s for Barry Wordsworth’s arrangement of three numbers from Act 1 of Coppelia and the Carnival of Animal, but splendid to see even twenty or so. Coppelia – like all good ballet music – is full of glorious melodies and played well, the music itself dances. Conductor and orchestra gave it their all and it was quite hard to sit still and refrain from humming along.

The concert ended with Saint-Saens’ best known piece, which – if you think about it – is another work which doesn’t get many performances in its entirety. We are very used to hearing its 14 separate sections but it’s a treat to hear all of it in one place. At the heart of it were the inimitable Worbey and Farrell who’d written hilarious Hilaire Belloc-style verses to introduce each bit – except for Pianists when Barry Wordsworth stepped forward and read a verse. Of course it was all beautifully played with accomplished solos from principal cello, principal double bass and, best of all, the xylophone. I enjoyed the off stage clarinet as the moving cuckoo too – with many of the audience looking round wondering where the sound was coming from.

The concert took place on the first day of British Summertime so I left the Dome in daylight with a real spring in my step, a head full of earworms and excitement about the next season which looks excellent – yet again.

St Mary Lamberhurst, Friday 23 March 2018

It is easy to overlook the fact that the clarinet is a recent addition to the range of musical instruments in terms of the history of music. For Mozart it was a novelty which he happily endorsed and for which he wrote many magnificent works – one of them represented here. Emma Johnson, accompanied by Gregory Drott, opened her recital with an arrangement of the final movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet – and a very fine start it made. From there we were quickly transported to the romantic period, though Saint-Saens’ Clarinet Sonata in E flat Op167 is something of an oddity. The composer had such a long life that this late work was written in 1920, though its sound world is redolent of the mid nineteenth century. The opening movement is whimsical if not actually melancholic leading to a warmer Allegro animato. The third movement is the most striking, being almost an arrangement for clarinet and piano of a composition for Cavaille-Coll organ!

By comparison Schumann’s Fantasiestuck Op73 are lighter in texture and carry the listener with ease.

The second half brought us firmly into the twentieth century with Bernstein’s early Clarinet Sonata and three brief pieces by Stravinsky. Perhaps the most pleasing piece, however, was the suite arranged from music by Paul Reade written for Emma Johnson as incidental music for the TV series The Victorian Kitchen Garden. Throughout, Emma Johnson had introduced each work and maintained a gentle intimacy with her audience, despite the need to move from one side of the central pillar to another.

The church was full, despite a miserably damp evening, on this the first event in this year’s Lamberhurst Music Festival. The next concert brings the Ferio Saxophone Quartet on Friday 25^th May.

St Mary in the Castle, Thursday 22 May 2018

It was Ewan MacColl who created the Radio Ballads over half a century ago and The Young’uns evocative Ballad of Johnny Longstaff continues that fine tradition. Their close harmony – three male singers with sixteen songs, most of them specially composed for the event – and the visual impact of the historic photographs, would be enough to enthral in itself. However, this event goes one step further. Thanks to the strength of the oral history movement we have six hours of Johnny Longstaff himself, telling his own story. The Young’uns draw on this, winding their songs throughout the events and giving us a precise emotional encounter with historical events – and what events they are! Losing his job as a boy because of an industrial accident, he joined the hunger marches to London, slept rough by the Thames, joined the English Battalion in the Spanish Civil War and eventually fought in WWII.

Of course most of us have never heard of him. He was just one brave man among thousands, but his story is emblematic of the fight for workers’ rights and for the victory of democracy over fascism.

It was deeply moving and politically apt at the present time. The events spoke for themselves without any need for party political pressure.

The three singers are well balanced but also bring individual skills. Sean Cooney wrote most of the songs as well as leading the trio, Michael Hughes plays piano and guitar, David Eagle adds piano and accordion. A one-night-stand was not really enough to take in the wealth of a life lived so fully, and it would be good to think we might see The Young’uns again soon. More information available on www.theyounguns.co.uk

St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, Saturday 17 March 2018

Hastings Philharmonic have not been lucky with the weather this year but it does not seem to deter their audience who turned out in the bitter cold of Saturday evening for a Mozart concert which included one of his most pessimistic works.

The evening opened on a brighter note with the Sinfonia Concertante K364. The small forces brought a lightness to the score and a fine interplay, not only between the soloists, but also the whole ensemble. The Andante is written in a minor key which, given the weight of the symphony to come, seemed to dominate the evening. The soloists, violinist Aysen Ulucan and viola player Ladislau-Cristian Andris, brought a needed warmth in their playing and provided an admirable rapport between themselves.

Marcio da Silva is adept at introducing new music to Hastings, and the second half opened with a new composition by Philip O’Meara – Flacubal 95 – which is based on material drawn from Mozart’s late G minor symphony which we were to hear immediately afterwards. Those who know the symphony well would have been able to tick off the references, but even without that the piece works very well as a whole in its own right. It starts with a rustic rewriting of the opening theme from the first movement, instantly appealing and approachable. The hunting horns continue this rural idea as does a beautifully reflective section in the first movement. If there is a more introverted feel to the second movement one could hardly call it Brutal and the writing often seems tongue-in-cheek. The finale rushes in where lesser mortals might fear to tread with an instruction to play as fast as possible including a section which seems to reflect Bernard Herrmann rather than Mozart – and none the worse for that. After all the rush, the chaconne-like ending returns us to the gentle placidity of the opening. A fine piece and well worth repeating even without its Mozartian context.

The symphony which followed was crisp and alert to detail, the acidity of the G minor setting never far from our ears. Even the smooth legato of the slow movement had its sinister moments, as did the following Menuetto and the furious impact of the final movement.

Hastings Philharmonic returns on Saturday 14 April for Elgar and Tchaikovsky. Hopefully the weather might have improved by then!

St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, Friday 16 March 2018

Mozart’s The Magic Flute is open to a wide range of interpretations and as long as it is well sung and sensitively staged it will always impress. This was certainly true of Opera Anywhere’s visit to Hastings last Friday. The opera may have been pared down and was without a chorus, but the narrative made sense throughout and many of the voices were exceptionally good.

Director Susan Moore had taken a fairy-tale approach to the work, almost a dream in the mind of Tamino, where singers move role with ease and the unexpected is simply accepted. Doubling the three ladies with the three boys was particularly effective, the Sesame Street boy puppets being delightful as well as creating distinctive personalities.

Using modern dress however can cause some problems. Where Mozart’s racism is simply avoided by making Monostatos as European as the rest of the cast, the latent anti-feminism of the text is more difficult to hide, particularly Sarastro’s oppressive not to say overbearing presence.

One way to soften this is through the characterisation of the Queen of the Night. Here Helen Winter’s fading Hollywood Diva is absolutely at one with the baroque ornamentation of her arias. She is a fish out of water and wonderfully so.

Tristan Stocks’ Tamino is a student growing into his maturity, vocally secure but not yet adult enough to be more than a prince. He is fortunate that his Pamina, Olivia Lewis, is so positive, both vocally and histrionically, despite her obvious youth, that she has the strength for both of them. The tests through fire and water were imaginatively staged, with Pamina delighting in the flames and splashing the water – a lovely touch.

Oskar McCarthy is an amiable Papageno, strong on humour without over-egging his opportunities, in contrast to Mark Horner’s stalwart Sarastro.

The surprise of the evening was Jack Roberts’ wonderfully lyrical tenor as Monostatos, doubling for various priests. He gave us some of the finest Mozart singing of the evening and it would be good to hear him as Tamino.

Accompanied throughout by Louisa Lam on piano and keyboard, and Nick Planas on flute, the additional sound effects were always apt.

Opera Anywhere return to Hastings pier in August with Pirates and Pinafore.

Brighton Dome, Sunday 4 March 2018

It was a concert full of drama, mostly Russian, under Stephen Bell’s incisive baton. The drama included the conductor literally leaping up and down, and part of his score flying off his stand and landing near the leader’s feet during Night on a Bare Mountain which also gave us some frenetic high speed string work, perfectly controlled, slightly exaggerated, general pauses (one of his specialities), perky woodwind interjections, syncopated percussion and mesmerisingly lyrical playing after the tubular bell at the end.

This enticing old friend of a piece was preceded, in an usually structured programme, by something much less familiar: the overture to Glinka’s 1836 opera A Life for the Tsar. Heavily textured melodies and chords – more like Brahms than anything Russian – were played with decisive accuracy and Stephen Bell ensured that the cheerful dance-like passages were a real contrast. The ending of the piece is corny to put it mildly but he delivered it with aplomb.

Then we had a dart forward to the twentieth century and to Armenia – which for most of Alexander Arutunian’s (1920-2012) life was part of USSR – so in a sense his one movement trumpet concerto sustains the Russian theme. Soloist Gareth Small produced a very attractive creamy sound with some beautifully sustained phrasing. The elegant piece is free of atonality and full of lush harmonies and Shostakovitch-like jazzy rhythms. It was a pleasing sixteen minutes.

It is a pity though that Arutunian’s name does not, apparently, fill The Brighton Dome because there were far more empty seats than usual. If you chose not to come you missed a real treat, in the highlight which came after the interval – a breathtaking account of Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony.

Stephen Bell took the first movement at a measured, intelligent tempo with lovingly punctilious attention to balance which made sure, for example, that you heard and noticed the descending scale for horns, the mysterious bassoon passages and the quasi balletic quality of the rhythms. I liked his fluid take on the andante too with its pre echoes of the 6^th symphony which were leant on attentively.

Then – such a contrast – Tchaikovsky’s pizzicato party of a scherzo was beautifully played, bows down. Stephen Bell, without baton, physically rocking from side to side, shaped the dynamic with immaculate precision and wit. The “wind band” sections were imaginatively slotted in too. And so to the allegro con fuoco finale which was certainly played with plenty of fiery passion in this performance. It blazed its way to a very exciting conclusion followed by well deserved, rapturous applause.

I was very glad indeed to have heard this concert, especially the Tchaikovsky.

Susan Elkin

Despite the snow, ice and blizzards the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition continued on its inevitable way towards its two final evenings when the six surviving competitors from the original 160 would seek to go just that bit further to impress the seven international judges seated now in the circle of the White Rock Theatre.

After the second stage the competitors were reduced down to eleven who were invited to perform their own personal choices for a solo recital, and after this the six finalists were announced. If the sudden fall of freezing rain had kept some of the audience away on Friday, there was a full house on Saturday and a real air of expectation given the exceptional quality of the performers. To keep the two final events as even as possible both were introduced by Bill Turnbull, a familiar voice to listeners to Classic FM, who provided succinct introductions and, once the judges had made their decision, presented the prizes.

Both evenings opened with Schubert’s overture to Rosamunde and then on Friday evening Su Yeon Kim chose to play Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op.43, Gen Li Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C major Op.26 and Kyoungsun Park Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major Op.73. On Saturday Fanya Lin played Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C major Op.26, Rixiang Huang Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat major S.124 and Roman Kosyakov Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No 1 in B flat minor Op.23.

Then came the wait, not too long on this occasion, before the results were announced. Frank Wibaut, the Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury, started by thanking the many people involved in the organisation of the competition, not least the many volunteers and host families who made the smooth running such an exemplary undertaking and Yamaha for the loan or a large number of high quality pianos. He then introduced the international jury and from there went straight to the results. This year, rather than announce the full six prizes, only the first three were publicly announced which made for an extra level of frisson within the White Rock.

The Third Prize went to Gen Li from China who I am glad to say I heard in the second round play a splendidly succinct and exciting rendition of Shostakovich’s 2^nd Piano Concerto, one which I would gladly hear with full orchestra. The Second Prize went to Su Yeon Kim from South Korea, who repeated her performance on Friday of the Rachmaninov Paganini variations which she had performed in the Second Stage.

The winner, with a magnificent performance of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto was the young Russian pianist Roman Kosyakov. Though the jury do not at this stage give any immediate feedback, it seemed obvious to me that, where so many of these young performers had given us technical brilliance, his was the only contribution which had a sense of the emotional heart of the work rather than just the fireworks. The second movement was key, its gentle unfolding and romantic core captivating the antithesis of the extrovert panache of the outer movements.

As well as the £15,000 prize he wins a number of key concert dates both in Britain and overseas.

All the finalists were exceptional players, but I look forward keenly to following Roman Kosyakov’s career.

Hastings should be proud that, alongside its regular contribution to music through local choirs, orchestras and festivals, it can mount a competition which has genuine international importance. We look forward to next year.