Daily Archives: 12 October, 2020

Brighton Early Music Festival 2020

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Watch all events on www.youtube.com/user/brightonemf

Friday 23 October, 7pm (available until Friday 30 October)
POCKET-SIZED CLASSICS
Pocket Sinfonia
Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Beethoven Symphony No. 6, The Pastoral

Newly commissioned animation and film of the natural world accompanies two of the most-loved classics of all times, both arranged and reduced to chamber proportions.

Saturday 24 October, 10.30am (available until Saturday 31 October)
BIRDS, BUGS & OTHER BEASTS – A MUSICAL MENAGERIE
Spiritato with Delyth Taylor – puppeteer

Family programme including music by Heinrich Biber: puppets made from recycled materials meet in the woods.

 

Saturday 24 October, 7pm (available until Saturday 31 October)
ARCADIAN WILDERNESS
Ensemble Augelletti

Comprising musicians, poets and philosophers, the Accademia degli Arcadi was formed in Rome in 1690. Members sought inspiration from pastoral scenes set in Arcadia – an ancient, mythical space of unspoilt wilderness where the inhabitants lived in harmony with their natural surroundings.

This programme is set in the exquisite 15th-century barn of Sullington Manor Farm, and the pastoral landscape of rural Sussex.

 

Sunday 25 October, 3pm (available until Sunday 1 November)
CONNECTIONS
Dirk & Adam Campbell

New and traditional music combining string and wind instruments from Africa and Asia presented and performed by father and son duo Dirk and Adam Campbell.

Sunday 25 October, 7pm (available until Sunday 1 November)
BREMF LIVE! SHOWCASE

Four selected alumni ensembles from our young artist programme BREMF Live! who have progressed particularly well – featuring film footage from their original BREMF Live! showcase in addition to some new material showing more recent activity.

Friday 30 October, 7pm  (available until Friday 6 November)
INTRODUCING THE TRUMPET MARINE
The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments

Meet the trumpet marine, a towering, single-stringed instrument with a host of resonating or sympathetic strings.  It was a trumpet-substitute for nuns and an unusual vehicle for virtuosic musical display in the late 17th century, falling out of circulation in the late 18th century and rarely seen or heard since then, despite its magnificent sound and appearance.

 

Saturday 31 October, 3pm (available until Saturday 7 November)
BIRD CHARMER
James Duncan from Sussex Wildlife Trust with Piers Adams recorders

During this COVID-19 spring, the reduction in traffic noise made more people aware of the beauty of birdsong. Yet in earlier times, birdsong was the ongoing soundtrack of everyday life, and musicians were deeply aware of its rich complexity. Recorder virtuoso Piers Adams plays some of the music composed in imitation of birds.

 

Saturday 31 October, 7pm  (available until Saturday 7 November)
REBELLION!
Joglaresa

We live in an age of protest and rebellion: against environmental damage and climate change, against war and injustice, and over religious and racial difference. But they certainly had their share of rebellion in medieval times: against the Crusades, corrupt leaders, religion and even sexual norms. Joglaresa perform medieval protest songs with some contemporary flavours and vivid animation.

 

Sunday 1 November, 3pm (available until Sunday 8 November)
SWEET AYRES OF ARCADIA
Musicke in the Ayre

Wilton, near Salisbury, was home to Mary Herbert, sister to the Elizabethan poet, Sir Philip Sidney. The house and gardens provided the inspiration for his major pastoral poem, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.

This programme, filmed in the ‘Arcadian’ pastoral landscape of the Sussex Downs and the house and gardens of St Mary’s House, Bramber, reflects on the beauty of nature as a metaphor for love, beauty and constancy.

Sunday 1 November, 7pm  (available until Sunday 8 November)
THE FOUR FACES OF GAIA, A celebration of the earth
Various artists

BREMF’s flagship multi-media production for 2020, reimagined for the digital space.

Four regions of the earth: Africa, India, the Middle East and Europe; and the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water combine in a celebration of music and dance in honour of the planet that sustains us.

 

HASTINGS INTERNATIONAL PIANO CONCERTO COMPETITION ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH ICONIC PIANO MAKER STEINWAY & SONS AND RESCHEDULED COMPETITION DATES

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Hastings International Piano, the charity responsible for the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition and the Hastings International Piano Festival is delighted to announce a new partnership with iconic piano maker Steinway & Sons for the 2021 Concerto Competition in the historic town on England’s South Coast.

The Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition is an internationally renowned biennial competition for young concert pianists from around the world, attracting 170 applicants in 2019 from across the globe, 40 of which came to compete in Hastings during February and March. Their prize: the opportunity to perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on a two-night final and to win a first prize of £15,000.

The next competition dates are now confirmed to be the 17th – 26th June 2021 with successful entrants being selected from video auditions by a panel appointed by our President of the Jury Professor Vanessa Latarche, who is Head of Keyboard at The Royal College of Music in London.

Professor Latarche joined the competition team earlier this year to curate the 2021 competition, oversee the audition process, as well as to preside over the international jury who she has invited to join her in Hastings next summer.

Professor Vanessa Latarche says – “I am delighted that we have managed to re-schedule the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition to June 2021. So many of the world’s musicians have had disappointment due to cancellations of events since Covid-19 began. Although they have become very adept at finding other ways of working, especially by video and streaming through social media, nothing replaces the thrill of live performance both for the artists, and the audience. The competition will provide a beacon of light for these young pianists to work towards, performing live, both solo and with orchestras to our audiences and my distinguished jury colleagues. I am thrilled to be working with Ian Roberts and the competition team to give the musicians these opportunities, and I look forward very much to welcoming them to Hastings, and to hearing them play in person in the summer.”

 

Managing Director of Hastings International Piano Ian Roberts says – “We are delighted that we have the opportunity to work closely with our esteemed colleagues and friends at Steinway and Sons in the lead up to and during our 2021 competition. Moving our competition dates to June 2021 enables us to provide a safe and secure platform for our young pianists to compete on, whilst protecting our audiences and family of volunteers, who give us their un-wavering support during each competition. During the June edition of Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, we will provide enhanced performance opportunities for our pianists, including orchestral opportunities in both the semi-final and final rounds. Our partnership with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra continues in 2021 and we look forward to announcing further news about our exciting competition changes in the coming weeks.”

Hastings International Piano is delighted to also announce today that our new media sponsor for the next competition is International Piano Magazine, a perfect partner for our competition offering a rich mix of inspiration and guidance to pianists and piano fans around the world, from dedicated amateurs and students to professional pianists, teachers and aficionados.

The next edition of Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition takes place in the cultural hub of Hastings, on England’s historic south coast from the 17th-26th June of 2021.

 

Oxford Lieder Festival: Elias Ashmole and the Ashmolean Museum

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The only pre-recorded event in this year’s Oxford Lieder Festival, this film has three “leads”: the ever magnificent Ashmolean Museum, the glorious Kirkman double manual harpsichord (1772) played by Julian Perkins and the claret-rich voice of soprano, Anna Cavaliero.  Then there’s Xa Strugis, director of the Ashmolean who tells us the history of the museum and its collections along with thoughts about how it will develop in the future. It makes for an interesting, well thought out and compelling hour.

The Ashmolean is a collection of collections. The original one was assembled by the Tradescants,  seventeenth century gardeners, with connections in high places, who travelled the world. Elias Ashmole acquired the collection and gave it to the University of Oxford where it opened in a purpose built building in Broad Street in 1683 – a place of art, science, experiment and research. Unprecedentedly and shockingly (to some) it was open to the public from the start.

Since them it has acquired many more collections – through gifts, legacies and purchases –  including the Hill Family’s collection of early stringed instruments. The Ashmolean Museum moved to its current building in the mid nineteenth century.  Today it is working hard at engaging new audiences to tell new stories and at ways of widening its traditionally Eurocentric focus. Sturgis acknowledges that while Asia and North Africa are represented sub-Saharan Africa and Oceana are not and that has to be remedied.

The recital aspect of this enjoyable offering took us from Barbara Strozzi to Haydn who would, Perkins tells us,  have been very familiar with harpsichords of this type. Along the route are songs by Purcell, John Blow, John Eccles and others. The setting is atmospheric with Van Eyck’s Woman and the Bacon Cup behind Perkins and a large canvas depicting a classical scene behind Cavaliero. The room they’re in has a warm, resonant acoustic too.

Strozzi’s L’Eraclito amoroso is sung without pyrotechnics but with plenty of passion, packed in by Cavaliero who is no mean actor. The televisual closeness means that she’s very exposed but she rises to the challenge with aplomb.

She finds some lovely bottom notes in Haydn’s The Spirit Song too and she makes his Das leben is ein traum feel light and charming. Meanwhile Perkins ensures that every song is an elegant duet – and it’s fun to hear him subtly adjusting the dynamics by using the flaps over the strings which are operated with a pedal.