Monthly Archives: November 2019

Brighton Philharmonic at Brighton Dome, Sun 10th November, 2.45pm

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The Brighton Phil’s 2019/20 exciting season opener at Brighton Dome on Sunday 10th November showcases the violin in its many guises and blurs the boundaries of classical, tango, jazz and gypsy folk music. We are delighted to welcome violinist Christian Garrick and friends (from his Budapest Café Orchestra and the Christian Garrick Quartet) for what promises to be a memorable collaboration with the Brighton Philharmonic Strings.

Christian Garrick is no stranger to Brighton audiences as he performed Astor Piazzolla’s brilliant and evocative re-working of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at Brighton Dome with the Brighton Phil under Barry Wordsworth in 2006. He is very excited to be performing it again, alongside Piazzolla’s sultry Libertango, one of the composer’s most performed works with a fiendishly familiar melody full of the spicy rhythms of his native Argentina.

Christian is an improvising violinist, composer and bandleader, who is professor of jazz and non-classical violin at three of London’s major music conservatoires, and has made a huge name for himself as a self-styled “Violin Operator”. He is joined on stage by David Gordon on the piano and melodica, Richard Pryce on double bass, Tom Hooper on drums and percussion, Eddie Hession on button accordion, and Adrian Zolotuhin on guitar, saz and domra.

The great jazz saxophonist and composer Sir John Dankworth wrote his bluesy jazz Violin Concerto for Christian in 2005, a rhythmic and expansive piece that bounds along in the spirit of Gershwin’s great jazz orchestral works, centred on the solo violin and a classic piano-bass-drums jazz trio. Christian writes:

“John Dankworth was a guiding figure from an early point in my life. Dad was pianist with Cleo Laine and John for a while in the 1970’s and I went on many of their Wavendon music courses over the years, during which time, John introduced me (aged 10) to a young Nigel Kennedy (25) which ensued in an unforgettable all-out fiddle jazz duel!  Latterly I’ve performed and recorded numerously with the Dankworths so I was honoured that John wrote his concerto with me in mind right after he’d finished one for clarinet for Emma Johnson.”

Another treat will be an orchestral suite of Anne Dudley’s Poldark score. Christian has been playing the solo violin parts for the BBC’s Poldark since the series began in 2015. Oscar-winning composer Anne Dudley scored the beautiful theme tune for Christian to play while the opening and closing credits roll.

The concert will also feature original pieces composed by Christian and a helping of folk-gypsy hijinks from members of the Budapest Café Orchestra, some of whom will be joining us fresh from their 10th anniversary tour.

Tickets from £14.50-£42.50 (50% discount for students/Under 18s) are available from Brighton Dome Ticket Office in Church Street, (01273) 709709 and online: www.brightondome.org

Discounted parking for Brighton Phil concert attendees can be found in NCP Church Street Car Park, a couple of minutes’ walk from the Dome, costing just £6 between 1pm & 6pm.

The Brighton Phil’s next concert, on Sunday 1st December, presents a cornucopia of classics, conducted by Natalie Murray-Beale and featuring Thomas Gould (violin) performing Vaughan Williams’ evocative The Lark Ascending.

 

 

Hastings Philharmonic

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Christ Church, St Leonards, Saturday 2 November 2019

An evening of choral works opened with Finzi’s beautiful Romance for Strings. Almost unknown in comparison to similar works by Elgar or Vaughan Williams, it is a masterpiece of quiet tact and understated joy. We could almost have done with hearing it twice to impress upon us just how lovely it is.

However we were then straight in to Britten Saint Nicolas, with Jonathan Cooke the eponymous saint. His heroic and forceful tones, so different from Peter Pears for whom it was written, gave the whole a cutting edge and urgency which was impressive and seemed to galvanise all the other singers. The men’s chorus were particularly strong in the journey to Palestine with the higher ladies voices adding the waves and the angels. The work may have been written with amateurs in mind but there is nothing simplistic about the writing which is highly demanding throughout. None more so than the parts for younger voices, and here they were very young voices! Antonio Ulucan da Silva sang Nicolas as a boy with authority and passion. He was joined by his younger sister Lara, and Lucy and Matthew Rayner to make up the pickled boys’ chorus. Once again the clarity and purity of sound was exactly what Britten requires.

The percussion came into their own in the final sections, with some bombastic tam-tam playing to bring the whole to a glorious conclusion. Britten includes two hymns for congregational use. In Noye this is normally taken up enthusiastically. On this occasion the audience may have loved the performance but seemed less than willing to sing when asked to do so.

After the interval we heard Mozart’s 1780 Vesperae Solennes de Confessore K339. The short movements do not dwell on the text and the final Magnificat – so often lovingly enhanced by other composers – is here over almost before it starts. Before that comes the only popular section, the Laudate Dominum for which soprano Sophie Levi provided radiant tone.

On a very blustery night it was encouraging to see a large audience in Christ Church and we can hope this will continue for the next event on 1 December in St Clements, which brings works by Bach, Telemann, Schutz and Buxtehude.

Photos: Peter Mould

Ljubica Stojanic

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31 October 2019, Islington

Paul Fincham, composer of The Little Princess, which premiered at Garsington Opera at Wormsley this summer invited me to this private recital by Serbian pianist Ljubica Stojanic in his Islington home. I joined about 30 other like minded people – mostly Fincham’s friends, colleagues and people who sing with him in the London Philharmonic Choir.

It’s a novel joy to hear and enjoy salon music played in a salon. We sat in rows at one end of the house’s large all-through sitting room which Fincham uses as a studio and music room. Stojanic played Bach’s French Overture in its rather lovely entirety including all the movements which are usually omitted. With the piano lid open and Stojanic facing her audience it became a very engaging experience because we felt the music with her intimately.  I admired the way she managed the varied moods, time signatures and tempi with thoughtful silent links. She is, moreover, mistress of Baroque decoration. Rarely have I heard so many grace notes and turns.

Then we repaired to Fincham’s generously proportioned kitchen/dining basement area for a delicious supper (some of the best vegetarian food I’ve ever been offered) before going back upstairs and fast-forwarding nearly 300 years for Rachmaninoff  Preludes Op 23. It was a good choice because they’re a varied set of pieces and Stojanic gave us plenty of colour and mood change all played with precision and warmth. She ran very dramatically with the famous, bouncy number 5 in G minor which worked particularly well after the more lyrical one which preceded it.

The great advantage of hearing this music in a very small space (and with an informed audience) is that you can really hear and appreciate the slow dying away of notes at the end of sections until the release of the sustaining pedal. It fosters attentive listening.

All in all this was a very congenial informal recital and I hope we hear a lot more of the talented Stojanic, still only 24, in the future.

Susan Elkin