Daily Archives: 31 March, 2018

ANTON LYAKHOVSKY at Opus Theatre

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The Master Piano Recital

SATURDAY 14th APRIL 2018 – 7.30pm
OPUS THEATRE
24 Cambridge Road – Hastings TN34 1DJ

PHOENIX PIANO SERIES

Celebrating Extraordinary Pianists

Anton Lyakhovsky is a spectacular pianist. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the Special Music High School for Gifted Children and then at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory.
 

Anton continued his postgraduate studies with John Bingham at Trinity College of Music, and as a postgraduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he obtained his Master’s Degree. During his time he won many prizes at international piano competitions, including the Emmanuel Durlet International Competition (Belgium), the International London Piano, the Young Concert Artist International Audition (New York), the “Virtuosi of the year 2000” Festival (St. Petersburg), the Jaques Samuel Intercollegiate Piano Competition (London), the 4th International Prokofiev Competition (St. Petersburg).He also won the Grand Prix at the Jazeps Vitols International Piano Competition (Latvia) as well as a special prize as favourite pianist of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Anton has won many prestigious scholarships including the Tillet Trust, Myra Hess Trust, and Leverhulme Trust.
He has performed at world-class venues, including the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, the Bösendorfer UK, the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, amongst many others.
Anton is regularly invited to be a member of the Jury for International Piano Competitions and in August 2018 Anton has been invited to be on the Panel of the 62nd Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition.
The European Piano Teachers Association regularly invites Anton to read lectures on piano performance and to lead masterclasses.  He has performed extensively across Europe and America and has a large number of Piano Concertos in his repertoire.

He has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, including the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra “Klassika”, Mariinsky Young Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Radio and Television Orchestra and many others

NICHOLAS McCARTHY at Opus Theatre

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The Great Piano Recital
FRIDAY 13th APRIL 2018 – 7.30pm
OPUS THEATRE
24 Cambridge Road – Hastings TN34 1DJ

PHOENIX PIANO SERIES

Celebrating Extraordinary Pianists

Nicholas McCarthy, who was born without his right hand is starting this fantastic new Series. He is the first left-hand-only pianist to graduate from the Royal College of Music in its 130-year history! You’ll be amazed to see him perform. Only £15. Under 16’s free of charge when accompanied by an adult.

My First Swan Lake

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Peacock Theatre, 30 March 2018

Swan Lake, the latest abridged ballet for young children danced by English National Ballet School students, filled the Peacock Theatre to bursting on a wet, cold Good Friday afternoon and that’s splendid to see. I wish more family groups included dads, uncles and grandpas but it’s still terrific to attract such a large, enthusiastic audience and I’m sure that will continue to be the case as the production tours.

Choreographed by Antonio Castilla, this show features some fine dancing by some of the thirty five students in the group. Each is profiled in the programme but they are not identified as dancing specific characters because they switch roles and they don’t all appear at every performance.

The Act 2 set pieces – the Spanish, Hungarian and Italian dances – are memorable. The two girls who did the Italian dance at the performance I saw had a real lightness of touch which highlighted the humour. We also had a very promising Siegfried whose leaps were youthfully spectacular and a truly graceful Odette who several times swanned her way right across the stage en pointe with watery arms waving and at one point managed to pirouette for around twenty bars of music.

As always the real star of the show is Tchaikovsky’s gloriously expressive music. Because My First Swan Lake runs for only 90 minutes including interval, the music, which is pre-recorded, has to be cut and arranged. Gavin Sutherland has generally done quite well with it but there are one or two moments of clumsy abruptness as we switch from one thing to another.

The inclusion of a narrator is a mistake.  Credit where it’s due though: Louise Calf, an actor, does a remarkably good job with the saccharine, rather moralistic script she’s been given. She is naturalistic and warm – but completely unnecessary. She has been directed to walk frequently from the downstage left corner across to the opposite spot, often in front of the action, and it’s very distracting. Moreover no one should be shouting over Tchaikovsky when he’s in dramatic fortissimo mode, as she often has to do. And as for delivering the crucial revelation when Odette, Odile and Sigfried all learn the truth in music-free tableau with just Calf’s voice – it’s a travesty.

Ballet is story telling in music and movement. It doesn’t need words added even for three year-olds. Neither should they be handed the subliminal message that it’s perfectly acceptable to talk over great music.