Monthly Archives: May 2018

NEW HEAD OF MUSIC FOR GARSINGTON OPERA

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Garsington Opera is delighted to announce the appointment of Jonathon Swinard as Head of Music.  He takes up this appointment at the end of the 2018 Season.

Conductor and pianist Jonathon Swinard studied at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He began his career at Scottish Opera as the company’s first Emerging Artist répétiteur  and went on to hold the Alexander Gibson Choral Conducting Fellowship with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus. From 2014 to 2016 he was Solorepetitor and Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater in Nuremberg where he conducted opera, ballet, and musical theatre. In 2016 he returned to Scottish Opera as Chorus Master and répétiteur. He studied conducting with Sian Edwards at Dartington and is the Artistic Director of the Scottish Opera Young Company. Jonathon is a long-standing member of Faculty for both the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto and Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, and is a visiting vocal coach at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

As Head of Music, Jonathon will be Garsington Opera’s Chorus Master and Music Director of the Alvarez Young Artists’ Programme.  He will take over from Susanna Stranders who joins the Music Department at the Royal Opera House.  Over six years, Susanna Stranders has made a transformational contribution to Garsington Opera developing both the chorus and Alvarez Young Artists’ Programme to be an internationally renowned training ground for the best young talent.

4th Sussex International Piano Competition Grand Final

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Sunday 13 May 2018

Many of the supportive audience waiting attentively in the sharp acoustic Worthing’s assembly hall had been following the competition all week. So by the time it reached the Grand Final on Sunday afternoon it was very much a case of “Now sits expectation in the air”.

Three fine soloists played three (different) concertos with the somewhat pared down Worthing Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Gibbons who is also the director of the competition which launched in 2010.

The orchestra did well although it’s a big ask to accompany Tchaikovsky’s First Piano concerto with only three desks of first violins, three of seconds and two each of cellos and violas. B flat minor is hard work for string players at the best of times and when numbers are so low it becomes even more of a strain. Moreover the acoustic of the hall means that brass and timps can sound too loud especially for listeners in the gallery and when strings are relatively thin. These are passing observations though, rather than gripes. In general Gibbons and his orchestra accompanied the competing soloists with warmth, commitment and panache.

First up was Rhythmie Wong from Hong Kong playing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor. Petite and very young looking she played the creamily romantic piece with poised stillness. She brought neat dynamic control especially in the first movement with its passages of rippling 6/8 and in the dancing lyricism of the finale. And it was reassuring to see Gibbons beating the bars during Wong’s middle movement cadenza which she played with so much  rubato that I would certainly have got lost. Good to know that professionals, potentially at least, have the same problem.

Then came Russian Sofya Bugayan with the Tchaikovsky. It is, of course, a magnificent old war horse but that makes it harder to bring off because almost everyone listening knows it. This performance had some fine moments – a very exciting alla breve in the first movement for example and some commendably precise pizzicato work. And Bugayan’s passionate interpretation of the middle movement was impressive. It’s a pity thought that some of the tempi were misjudged which meant that sometimes Bugayan was falling over herself at high speed. In a piece this well known wrong notes show.

The afternoon concluded with Yi-Yang Chen from Taiwan who played Beethoven’s fourth. Totally engaged with orchestra, conductor and audience he played the concerto as if it were chamber music,  alertly and intensively looking up and looking round continually. The first movement was, unfashionably, slightly under the tempo set by Beethoven’s metronome markings which allowed us all to revel in the detail such as the horn interjections, flute passages, bassoon colour and all the rest of it. And Chen, throughout, was totally at one with the orchestra. Rarely have I heard a performance which made it quite so clear that Beethoven is rejecting classical conventions and finding a highly expressive romantic voice. That’s what Chen, young as he is, wanted us to hear and we did.

Gibbons is clearly very accomplished at supporting young, relatively inexperienced soloists. With Chen, who visibly feels every note of the music, it felt much more of an equal partnership

At the end of the concert and the competition my money was firmly on Chen to win. Happily the judges agreed with me and he was, after an interval for them to confer, declared the overall winner of the 2018 Sussex International Piano Competition. He receives a £5,000 cash prize and the opportunity to make a recording at Champs Hill. The audience must have approved too because he also won the Audience Prize.

Susan Elkin

Bexhill Choral Society: Brahms’ Requiem

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De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, Saturday 12 May 2018

Brahms’ Requiem was written for large scale forces. Moreover, it is not a Requiem in the conventional sense as the composer creates a series of meditations based on Biblical texts rather than following the liturgical structure. This should make it more acceptable to a wider audience given the lack of religious belief today and particularly so when it is sung in English.

The performance certainly had the benefit of clarity. Placing the Sussex Concert Orchestra on the floor of the hall with the chorus gently raked behind them, but all in front of the proscenium arch, made for immediacy and helped the impact of the text throughout.

The soloists in particular benefitted from this with Lucy Ashton producing limpidly beautiful tone in Ye now are sorrowful and John Morgan bringing passion and weight to Lord, make me to know and a fine sense of attack to Here on earth.

Brahms really needs larger orchestral forces than were here available though there was some fine playing from harpist Alex Rider and the balance held up well.

The choral forces unfortunately were not as well balanced on this occasion. While the altos produced some fine singing throughout, there were times when the other sections did not make the same level of impact. Tenors and basses made a positive sound singing together but when they were required to sing solo lines they lacked the weight to do so. The sopranos certainly had the right numbers but often sounded hesitant, singing just under the note. When lines flowered with confidence they were fine but often the beauty of Brahms’ lyricism was not in evidence.

Kenneth Roberts guided the whole performance with a convincing sense of pace and dynamic, though as noted the choir were not always up to the emotional outpouring the score requires.

We have heard many fine performances in the past from Bexhill Choral Society and if this was not up to their usual standard we can hope for the future.

The 4th Sussex International Piano Competition: Semi-finals

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The 4th Sussex International Piano Competition, Semi-Finals (last 6) at Worthing Assembly Hall on Friday 11 May 2018 – Antonina Suhanova (Latvia): Mozart, Sonata K311; Prokofiev, Sonata No 8. Kenny Fu (UK): Beethoven, Sonata No 30 in E Op109; Rachmaninov, Sonata No 2. Alon Petrilin (Israel): Liszt, Ballade No 2; Haydn, Sonata in C Hob XVI:48; Barber, Sonata Op 26.

Sofya Bugayan (Russia): Brahms, Six Pieces Op118 (Nos 1-3); Prokofiev, Sonata No 8. Yi-Yang Chen (Taiwan): Haydn, Sonata in Bb Hob:41; Chen, In Memorium: Japan, March 11 (2011); Rachmaninov Sonata No 2; Chopin Mazurka Op17 No 4 in A. Rhythmie Wong (Hong Kong): Haydn, Sonata in Eb Hob XVI:52, Tchaikovsky, Dumka; Ravel, Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit; Stravinsky, music from The Firebird, transcribed by Agosti.

The oldest finalist in the Sussex International Piano Competition, the first competitor at Worthing to include their own composition, and a glowing example of three of the four things the Jury seek. These factors are carried forward into tomorrow’s Grand Final at Worthing Assembly Hall (May 13, 2.45pm) by, respectively, Sofya Bugayan, Yi-Yang Chen and Rhythmie Wong of Russia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

This competition is not ageist.  No limit on years is imposed. It balances a duty to provide opportunity for youth alongside celebrating wisdom and experience. Bugayan became the first SIPC finalist older than 30 when, at 36, she held off a formidable challenge from the second youngest of these final six pianists, Israeli Alon Petrilin, 23.

Visual news footage of the Japanese earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster compelled Yi-Yan Chen, a Juilliard pupil in New York, to write In Memorium: Japan, March 11 (2011). He played it on Friday, sometimes using several unorthodox piano sound devices, including key-struck hand-dampened strings, and glissando sweeps across open strings, in evoking Far Eastern musical sounds.

And with possibly one glissando too many in Agosti’s own arrangement take on Stravinsky’s piano version of his orchestral ballet score The Firebird, Cologne-based Rhythmie Wong swept into the final with more than enough technical ability, quality programming and artistic flair. In the latter two qualities, Chen ran her closest.

His de Falla (Fantasia Baetica) in the opening round already helped mark him out as a leading contender in all three counts, while Wong’s Ravel (La Valse), a similarly extrovert piece, had scored the highest possible marks with the particular audience member I actually misquoted previously.  Now corrected, I can report that ‘The best performance of the piece I have heard in 10 years’ should read “The best playing of ANY piano piece in that time”.

The fourth Jury requirement, ‘ability to connect with the audience’ in dry recital amounts to the sum of the previous three parts. But if Bugayan appeared outstripped by others in variety of programming, which from her amounted to a single work by Schumann (Humoresque) in the first round and selected late Brahms with Prokofiev in the second, she will probably have impressed in the Jury’s search criteria with the absorption, control and intensity of her playing.

Compared with (10 years her junior) Antonina Suhanova’s earlier performance in the day, Bugayan’s Prokofiev 8th Sonata, a war work, seemed to come with softer, more human edges in the initial two mournful and troubled movements, and a iron grip on the bitter, violent, sometimes hysterical finale. Her deep affinity with Prokofiev dates back to childhood.

Petrilin, outstanding in the first half, set up a formidable fence for Bugayan to clear. The apparent dark horse, in a field headed by Chen and Wong’s variety of musical offering, Petrilin created an awe-inspiring atmosphere with Liszt’s Ballade No 2. Then, on the light-actioned, luxuriant Steinway he declined to celebrate Haydn by following the’ brittle sound brigade’ and instead let the instrument have its own unpedantic say on the composer.

Then Petrilin unleashed the startling half-crazed Barber Sonata, written to throw down the gauntlet to that era’s leading virtuoso, Vladimir Horowitz, with the express intention of ensuring him a string of sleepness nights ahead of its first performance.

Kenny Fu, only 20, shares London domestic accommodation with wonder-boy cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s violin-playing brother Braimah at The Royal Academy of Music. Kenny was in only his second open competition. He promised more than experience let him to deliver on the day but indicative of his talent is his Russian teacher Tatiana Sarkissova (wife of Dmitri Alexeev) setting him the high bar of Beethoven’s late Opus 109, and then the Rachmaninov 2nd Sonata, in which he was eclipsed by Chen.

Yet if Fu’s tender years found him out in the Beethoven, the six-years-older Wong’s Haydn showed no shortcomings. From such a young player it displayed everything one might dare ask from a 40-something steeped in Haydn.

Wong’s playing bristled with character of many types. With the pauses of a well-practised humorist, she created anticipation before every paragraph. She kept you guessing if there would be a joke or not. She had you on the edge of your seat. Yet each pause seemed uncontrived, merely a natural break for breath, but still each successive one created more pregnancy.

And late in the finale – the requirement of any genuine Haydn player – more than just smile, she made me actually laugh. An act of supreme musicianship. She even created one astonishing toccata-like section in a blur of two alternating hands that would have ignited the Haydn’s ecstatic London audiences. A super Haydn player, not in the making, but already here.

One stage away from the Final round of chosen concertos tomorrow (Sunday, 2.45pm), this competition is far from over. Hoops and fences remain. Someone may fall at the last. Young pianists come to competitions short on concerto experience. The Worthing Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Gibbons, artistic director both the band and competition, await them with help.

Twice now, we have heard the final three – performing alone. Stalwart Jury member Yuki Negishi made the draw on stage for the playing order. Wong will go first in Chopin’s E minor Concerto, No 1.  In the first round, she played a Chopin Rondo. She seems unerringly to resurrect the spirit of each composer she plays. Doing that in Chopin No 2 was Varvara Tarasova in the previous Grand Final.

Second to go will be Bugayan – the new dark horse. The daughter of Armenian emigrants, a folk clarinettist and an accordionist on her father’s side, 10 years ago she became the youngest piano professor in Rostov-on-Don’s Rachmaninov Conservatory. She is in this final without using dazzlers in the standard solo show-off repertoire. “I wanted to travel, start playing in competitions again, and see the English Channel,” she says, disarmingly. But she brings a weapon of fire: Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto.

Yi-Yang Chen has been in the US for 12 years, now an assistant piano professor at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City. He has played 20 competitions in nine years. Will Beethoven’s 4th Concerto take him to the £5,000 First Prize from the Bowerman Charitable Trust, plus the Champs Hill CD recording? Second prize is £2,000 and third, from Gisela Graham Ltd, is £3,000. The eliminated semi-finalists have received reward from the Worthing Symphony Society.

There can be no clean sweep repeat of Tarasova’s 2015 achievement. The British Music Prize from the William Alwyn Trust for the best interpretation and performance, from memory, of Alwyn’s The Devil’s Reel, has gone to a pianist who was ill on the day. A fact ironical – or instrumental? The winner: Bristolian, Daniel Evans (yes, British).

The Audience Prize, donated by Helena and Ti m Chick, is determined by votes from the audience at the final. Tickets from Worthing Theatres box office 01903 206206.

Richard Amey

 

 

 

CDs/DVDs May 2018

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Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini
Dutch National Opera, Mark Elder
NAXOS 2.110575-76

This production by Terry Gilliam was a great success when first staged for ENO but here, in its original language with the Dutch National Opera, presumably has a better chance of international sales. Not that there is any lessening in my enthusiasm for the production as all the strengths of the original are certainly very much in evidence and the singing throughout is convincing with John Osborn a fine Cellini. It would have been good to have had the original ENO cast but such are the exigencies of recording these days.

Niccolo Jommelli: Il Vologeso
Stuttgart Opera, Gebriele Ferro
NAXOS 2.110395-96

No, I had not heard of Niccolo Jommelli before this recording arrived but I really don’t understand why apart from the obvious problems of history. The score is fluent and frequently heart-meltingly moving as it depicts the emotional turmoil of individual characters. It seems that the reason the scores have been overlooked is that, when they were written in the mid-eighteenth century, the book/libretto and the scenery were more important than the score. Consequently, while there were many different versions of the text set to music, audiences came to the play not the setting. As such, once Jommelli’s setting had been heard a number of times it fell out of favour and a new score was commissioned. Thus almost all of Jommelli’s scores were archived until in recent years an attempt has been made to revive them – an attempt which here shows itself to have been distinctly worth the effort. Hopefully Garsington or Wexford may take up the cause?

Mozart; Don Giovanni
National Theatre Prague, Placido Domingo
CMAJOR 745208

There are two reasons to recommend this recording. The first is Placido Domingo’s handling of the score. The second is that this is the theatre for which Mozart wrote the opera. We were fortunate, when visiting Prague a few years ago, to attend Don Giovanni in the Estates Theatre in this production and it is fascinating to do so as the work comes across very differently from the vast expanses of many major opera houses. That intimacy is found here both in the production itself and the singers. Worth investing in on both accounts.

Schubert: Piano Sonata; Four Impromptus
Marc-Andre Hamelin
HYPERION CDA 68213

Marc-Andre Hamelin’s muscular approach is linked to enormous sensitivity which makes for a highly exciting and engaging performance. The B flat piano sonata is particularly effective with the brooding introspection of much of the opening movement easing into its intense lyricism. All of this is achieved with apparent ease of fluency throughout. His reputation may go before him but is more than justified by this most recent addition to his recorded repertoire.

Smetana: Festive Symphony
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Darrell Ang
NAXOS 8.573672

For all Smetana’s popularity this symphony is almost unknown. This is the result of politics rather than musical appreciation. Soon after its composition, the rise of Czech nationalism found the Austrian national anthem unacceptable and there was no way Smetana could rewrite the work to remove the quotations. As a result it was quietly dropped. A great shame, as this recording shows, for it is a lively and engaging work which sits happily alongside the excerpts from The Bartered Bride which make up the rest of the cd.

Erik Satie: Gymnopedies, Gnossiennes and other works
Giacomo Scinardo, piano
DYNAMIC CDS 7820

Giacomo Scinardo takes a leisurely approach to many of these works with relaxed tempi and many moments of near stasis – all of which is entirely in keeping with the works themselves. The pieces are formed into a convincing programme which splits up the suites rather than recording each as a set in its own right, which makes it easier to hear as a whole, closer to a recital programme than a recording. Highly recommended.

The Romantic Piano Concerto: 75 Ferdinand Ries
Piers Lane, piano, The Orchestra Now, Leon Botstein
HYPERION CDA 68217

Volume 75? Is there no end to the series? Well obviously not when the quality of works continues to impress. Ferdinand Ries was taught by Beethoven, and his own father had taught Beethoven the violin. The influence is clear here but in no sense derivative, the rich romantic writing looking forward to the mid-nineteenth century rather than back to Mozart or Haydn. If you have been following the series this is clearly a fine example of re-discovering works which should never have been lost.

G P Telemann: Concerti
Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra & Chamber Players
CHACONNE CHAN 0821

You might be forgiven for thinking you were listening to Handel’s Water Music when encountering the Concerto Suite TWV 54, so close are they in style and musical ideas. However this is Telemann at his sparkling best  and the recording brings together for the first time the composer’s three remaining Concerti-en-suite. These are closer to a concerto for soloist and ensemble but are built around dance suites rather than the conventional classical three movements. They are charming and engaging throughout.

J S Bach: Partitas WV 825-830
Menno van Delft, clavichord
RESONUS RES10212

These partitas are more familiarly known as Clavier-Ubung though the cd cover makes no mention of this and it is not until one delves into the booklet that one realises that they are one and the same. The two cds cover all six partitas and Menno van Delft brings a bright enthusiasm to his playing throughout. Though there are many versions of these works this is certainly a strong addition to the range.

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas
Angela Hewitt
HYPERION CDA 68199

This most recent cd opens with the Sonata No17 in D minor Tempest followed by No13 in Eb major. This is the twin to the more familiar Moonlight Sonata and as such often overlooked. There is no problem here with relegation as the performance is effortlessly beautiful. Additionally, we have an exhilarating reading of No25 in G major which sparkles throughout and a gentler, more reflective reading of No30 in E major with its unexpected hushed conclusion. A fine recording which I know I will return to.

The Nutcracker and I
Alexandra Dariescu (piano)
Lindsey Russell (narrator)
Jessica Duchen (story)
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD542

It’s an attractive package – a slim CD-sized book, perfect for small hands, with a slot for the CD inside the front cover. The idea of a narrated account of the Nutcracker story with piano transcriptions of the music is interesting too.

The young reader can follow the story in the attractively illustrated (by whom?)  book as she – or let’s hope he – listens to the CD. My children used to love following stories as they were narrated and I think it helped them with reading skills. I shall happily pass this CD and book on to my seven year old granddaughter, who already loves ballet, when I’ve finished with it.

Dariescu plays the transcriptions (by various people) beautifully and some of them require terrific technical skill with contrary rhythms across the keyboard. She also ensures that we hear a lot of colourful left hand work – melodic lines which are often lost in the orchestral texture. The musical interludes are quite long too so that it’s free to be narratively expressive and it feels respectful rather than in any way dumbed down.

Duchen’s story presents Clara as an ambitious child pianist who goes on an adventure with her Nutcracker-turned-Prince. He shows her that she can, with work and determination, be a virtuoso. He teaches her to believe in herself by taking her through doors to exotic countries to hear music and watch dance. Drosselmeyer has gone. The mice are more realistically saurine than the baddies they’re usually portrayed as.  It’s ingenious and attractive with some really pleasing lyrical prose such as flying to the Land of Sweets “on the wings of the music” and admiring the “ornate turquoise tiling and filigree metalwork”. It’s also compelling, uplifting and affirmative – just what children need. Lindsey Russell gets the right  story telling tone too. She sounds slightly breathy, childlike and enthusiastic.

The CD is presented in 14 bands to represent the scenes – pretty much as they occur in the original although of course it’s heavily abridged. It means that you can select just one section if you wish which could be useful for parents and teachers seeking to introduce The Nutcracker by drip feed.This CD and book are a quasi preview of the stage show which Dariecu (also the artistic director and producer for this project) is touring this year. I shall be seeing and reviewing it for Lark Reviews in October.

Susan Elkin

Sussex International Piano Competition – 2

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“That was the best performance of Ravel’s La Valse I have heard for probably 10 years.” One declaration from the audience summed up the excitement mounting as the Sussex International Piano Competition moved last night (Wednesday 9 May) towards its Semi-Final stage.

Hove piano expert and international artiste manager Tony Purkiss was referring to the appearance on Tuesday, the first Quarter-Final day, of Rhythmie Wong, a young woman from Hong Kong. But what would the seven-strong Jury think on Wednesday evening, after the second nine of the 18 competitors had completed their maximum half-hour programmes of solo piano?

Deliberations took more than an hour until at 9.15pm, SIPC artistic director, the Worthing Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor John Gibbons, announced the final six pianists to reappear in the Semis tomorrow afternoon and evening (Friday). Rhythmie Wong – who, as well as playing violin, clarinet and composing, has a sister named Harmonie – made it, but was the last to be named. She also will be the last of the sextet to play in the Semi-Final, according to the draw made by inaugural 2010 SIPC winner Arta Arnicane.

Wong is unobtrusive, thoughtful, quietly-spoken, mild-mannered and gracious. And she was the only competitor across the two days of quarter-finals who sat in The Assembly Hall to listen to all 17 other rivals for the £5,000 top prize from the Bowerman Charitable Trust, with its bonus of recording a CD at the Bowerman base at Champs Hill Records in Coldwaltham, West Sussex. From such a personality it appeared a calm gesture of respect and enjoyment, and far from a forensic surveillance operation.

The other six Semi-Finalists will be:

1pm: Antonina Suhanova, a Latvian at Guildhall School, she has undergone masterclasses from Vladimir Ashkenazy and Yuja Wang among others, and has soloed in concertos with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

2.05pm: Kenny Fu, the only one of four Britons surviving the cut, who has an Elton John Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, and was in the London Purcell School’s Impulse initiative taking classical music performance and workshops into primary schools.

3.10pm: Alon Petrilin, a product of Israel’s Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, he has appeared at St Petersburg’s White Nights festival in Russia and New York’s Carnegie Hall, has broadcast on Israeli radio and given concerts in Western Europe, Mexico and the US.

6pm: Sofya Bugayan, a Russian from Rostov-on-Don, the same home city of 2015 SIPC semi-finalist Anna Bulkina, where Bogayan is the youngest teacher ever appointed at Bulkina’s Rachmaninov Conservatoire.

7.05pm:  Yi-Yang Chen, a Taiwanese competition multi-winner trained in the US and Canada and with a 2014 Masters degree from the Juilliard School, Manhattan’s famous performing arts conservatory – music illumini including Henry Mancini, Barry Manilow, John Williams, Steve Reich, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, Itzhak Perlman, Stephen Hough, Nina Simone, Eric Whitacre, Marvin Hamlisch . . .

8.10pm: Rhythmie Wong, based in Cologne, performances in Germany, US, Italy, Croatia, Norway, UK, Hong Kong, Macau, Cambodia, Dublin, and New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Jordan Hill in Boston, with TV appearances in Hong Kong, including educational, and in Macau.

Haydn has been chosen by an unusually high proportion of the contestants, reflecting the current growth in love and admiration for this composer so long taken for granted and downgraded by generations regarding his heirs and successors as superiors, and by old opinion-shaping killjoys viewing Haydn’s use of humour as trivial and inconsequential in music.

In this refreshing interpretative 18th century classical alternative to the heavyweight romantic and 20th Century music pervading piano competitions, eight of the 18 pianists presented Haydn Sonatas, including four of the six semi-finalists, with three of those choosing Haydn for this crucial final solo round – Petrilin, Chang and Wong.

Now the next intrigue: here is what they will play in the Semi-Finals (previous round choices in brackets, which were performed alongside the compulsory quarter-final piece, Alwyn’s The Devil’s Reel):

Antonina Suhanova (Rachmaninov, Shostakovich): Mozart, Sonata K311; Prokofiev, Sonata No 8. Kenny Fu (Haydn, Scriabin, Prokofiev): Beethoven, Sonata No 30 in E Op109; Rachmaninov, Sonata No 2. Alon Petrilin (Rachmaninov Sonata No 2) Liszt, Ballade No 2; Haydn, Sonata in C Hob XVI:48; Barber, Sonata Op 26.

Sofya Bugayan (Schumann) Brahms, Six Pieces Op118; Prokofiev, Sonata No 8. Yi-Yang Chen (Debussy, de Falla) Haydn, Sonata in Bb Hob:41; Chen, In Memorium: Japan March 11 (2011); Rachmaninov Sonata No 2; Chopin Mazurka Op17 No 4 in A. Rhythmie Wong (Chopin, Ravel) Haydn, Sonata in Eb Hob XVU:52, Tchaikovsky, Dumka; Ravel, Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit; Stravinsky, music from The Firebird, transcribed by Agosti.

The Jury are distinguished pianists, agents and managers. As well as technical proficiency they aim to reward quality of programming, artistic flair and connective ability with the audience.

The Grand Final will be on Sunday 13 May at 2.45pm, the final three competitors playing a concerto each, of their choice from a specified shortlist, with Worthing Symphony Orchestra and John Gibbons at the helm. Tickets from Worthing Theatres box office 01903 202331.

 

 

 

Sussex International Piano Competition

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The special Worthing welcome to highly-talented young musicians from around the world began on Monday 7 May 2018. The fourth tri-annual Sussex International Piano Competition launch evening at the pier’s Southern Pavilion brought together the organisational team and artistic director and competition founder John Gibbons with the competition organisers, the competitors and their hosting families and individuals.

Gibbons, who conducts the competition’s Grand Final Day orchestra, the fully professional Worthing Symphony, once again stressed the integrity of the competition’s conduct, as a declared antidote and reaction to the dubious and undercover practices commonly found in classical musical contests.

Touching on one area of nudges and winks, the entry process is policed along strict anonymity. “Every competitor,” Gibbons assured the launch audience, “sends a CD of their playing, which is then presented to the judges unnamed and just given a number. So those are accepted are entering the competition completely on merit.”

There are only 18 competitors this year – the smallest SIPC field so far – from an original selection of 24. There have been six withdrawals, including one for a hand injury, plus said Gibbons, “a couple who were ill and others who have had problems obtaining visas owing to the political situation.”

Illness has removed Maria Luc, who is from Chichester, but there is Sussex interest in Yasmin Rowe, whose home is Yapton but is based presently in Melbourne, Australia. There is representation from, among others, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Latvia, Russia, Uzbeckistan, and the east and west coasts – and mid-west – of the United States.

Host families include at least eight first-timers, and have come forward mainly from the Worthing area. Their hospitality and the spirit and strict openness of the SIPC ethos shape the competitors’ experience for subsequent word to be taken around the classical music globe.

This year’s competition organisation, headed by Gibbons with assistant John Gander while steered administratively by former co-director Tim Chick, has brought about the 2018 competition thanks to the industry of hosting guide Gill Tucker and her new colleague Jill Silversides.

The Jury includes past winner Arta Arnicane (Latvia, 2010) and Varvara Tarasova (Russia, 2015) and finalist Olga Paliy (Ukraine, 2013). Yuki Negishi (Japan) returns, having been a juror since the inaugural 2010 SIPC. Completing the Jury are Patrick Allen, Toh Chee-Hung, Judith Clark and Dennis Lee. Allen’s behind-the-scenes work and roles in British classical music include being founder The Britten Sinfonia.

The Quarter-Finals run today (Tuesday, 11.30am, 2.45pm, 6pm) and Wednesday  (same times) when the semi-finalists will be announced at around 8.30pm.  William Alwyn’s five-minute technical and artistic test piece The Devil’s Reel confronts each contestant. At the last SIPC, Varvara Tarasova won the prize for this, and the Audience Prize, on the way to First Prize in the Grand Final, in which all three finalists each perform a concerto with WSO and Gibbons. She swept the board after playing Chopin’s Concerto No 2. Will someone emulate her this year?

The Semi-Finals take place on Friday 11 May (1pm, 6pm), the Grand Final on Sunday (2.45, result ceremony at around 6pm). In view of the tests of the Quarter- and Semi-Finals, the Concerto performance will not be the all-governing factor and everything takes place in Worthing Assembly Hall featuring its Steinway piano and renowned acoustic. Tickets from Worthing Theatres include an inclusive one for the three initial days of the two early rounds.

Richard Amey

 

45 Minutes of Music at the Meeting House, Sussex University

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We come to the final concert of this academic year and of the series in which we’ve explored Fantasias written across the centuries…  
Concert V: Wednesday 30 May 12 noon

D’Arcy Trinkwon


BACH Fantasia (‘Pièce d’orgue’) in G, BWV572
SWEELINCK Fantasia Chromatica
FRANCK Six Pièces: I – Fantaisie, Op.16
RACQUET Fantasia     
EBEN Pieces from ‘Faust’ (Song of the Beggar with the hurdy-gurdy – Student Songs: Brander in the Tavern)
VIERNE Carillon de Westminster, Op.54 No.6

So we finish the series of Fantasias...

We’ve got Bach’s great Fantasia in G (now sometimes called Pièce d’orgue) – and two monumental virtuosic works written some years before – one by the great Sweelinck and one by Charles Racquet, who was appointed organist of Notre-Dame in 1618 at the age of 21. He was a musician to Marie de Medici… His Fantaisie – one of the most substantial pieces of the French Baroque was written to “show what could be done at the organ”.

In between there will be the first of Franck’s Six Pièces. (PS. Some wanted a reminder that the complete Franck series starts this Friday, 11 May.)

Whilst I was going to play Eben’s Two Fantasie chorals, I thought we’d have more fun… So I’m going to play two short movements from his Faust. The second of these is a vivid portrayal of the students in the bar becoming more roudy! Probably fairly tame considering some of the student bars on campus, but it’s still quite a piece!

And to end one of Vierne’s Pièces de Fantaisie – the ever-optimistic Carillon de Westminster.   

With thanks for your interest and support during the past season; the new series begins on 26 September – details after the summer.

Kosovo Philharmonic Choir

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Christ Church, St Leonards, Sunday 6 May 2018

Following the exhilaration of performing with Hastings Philharmonic the previous evening, Kosovo Philharmonic Choir gave an a cappella concert to introduce us to a range of music which is almost totally unknown in this country.

They opened with an austere, if ravishingly beautiful, collection of chants written between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. While mirroring the development of Gregorian chant in the western church there are hints of the eastern orthodox and even of Islamic modal qualities here.

Then we leapt forward to hear three twentieth century love songs by Thomas Simaku, Lorenc Antoni and Rexho Mulliqi. The latter’s Nje Lule opens with a wordless seeming improvisation for solo soprano which drifts above a quiet choral drone to stunning effect.

Returning us to more familiar sounds we then heard Victoria’s O magnum Mysterium and John Dowland’s lovely Come Again.

If the opening had been gently challenging the following two works very even more so but entirely convincing at the same time. Mendi Mengjiqi’s Music in the Circle is just that. The choir surrounded the audience and sang from A3 sheets on which the score is printed in a series of concentric circles. The singers slowly rotate the paper as they sing, and the wordless musical lines pass back and forth across the church. A mystical experience and one which would have been different for each of us, depending upon where we were seated.

Baki Jashari’s Pakez ne enderr for narrator and choir is regarded as one of the most important recent compositions for the choir and it was good to have the composer present. Unfortunately there was no translation available so it was impossible to follow the narrative as such though the dramatic impact and power of the piece was not in doubt.

The evening ended on a lighter note with a traditional song, a jolly, up-beat, setting by the choir’s conductor Rafet Rudi, and Jake Runestad’s dancing Nyon Nyon.

A splendid and very well supported event and as John Read said in thanking them, let us hope they are able to return again soon.