{"id":2928,"date":"2016-04-14T08:05:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=2928"},"modified":"2016-04-14T08:05:36","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:05:36","slug":"pull-out-all-the-stops-4-isabelle-demers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=2928","title":{"rendered":"PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS 4 \u2013 ISABELLE DEMERS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Royal Festival Hall, London, 11 April 2016<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ISABELLE-DEMERS.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2929\" alt=\"ISABELLE DEMERS\" src=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ISABELLE-DEMERS.jpg\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ISABELLE-DEMERS.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/ISABELLE-DEMERS-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This recital was billed as \u2018A celebration of the Music of Max Reger\u2019. Through a selection of Reger\u2019s own compositions, the appreciative audience of around 400 were entertained and entranced by this young North American organist.<\/p>\n<p>The first half of the evening was partly given over to Reger\u2019s arrangements of Bach\u2019s <i>Chromatic Fantasia &amp; Fugue in D minor, BWV 903<\/i>, followed by his arrangements of four of Bach\u2019s <i>Two-part Inventions<\/i>. These arrangements gave an interesting insight into Reger\u2019s compositional world, particularly his desire to draw out individual lines and colours. I have to confess that I prefer my Bach to be \u2018unspoiled\u2019 and so although impressed by the scale and variety of the opening piece I was more drawn to the smaller scale, delicately registered first three <i>Inventions<\/i>. The fourth was rendered in bombastic style!<\/p>\n<p>There followed two of Reger\u2019s own large scale compositions, <i>Chorale fantasia: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme <\/i>and the <i>Introduction, passacaglia and fugue in E minor<\/i>. Both of these works draw on the original thematic material to create immense structures with extremes of dynamic and colourful contrasting registrations. The sound world is neo-romantic with complex and often chromatic harmonies and shifting rhythms.<\/p>\n<p>Although I can\u2019t say this is my favourite music I was entranced by Isabelle Demers\u2019 authoritative performances, her dexterous handling of this instrument and the fact that she seemed so at one with music and instrument. I was especially impressed to see this whole programme performed without a score in sight.<\/p>\n<p>The RFH is very well suited to this music and there were moments when the exposed layout of the pipework produced some lovely more-than-stereo effects. As before it was a pleasure to see such a range of people in the audience \u2013 proof that quality organ performances can be popular.<\/p>\n<p>Another very successful and enjoyable entry in this series. The final concert of the season in on 6<sup>th<\/sup> June. The 2016-17 series has just been announced.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Page<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Festival Hall, London, 11 April 2016 This recital was billed as \u2018A celebration of the Music of Max Reger\u2019. Through a selection of Reger\u2019s own compositions, the appreciative audience of around 400 were entertained and entranced by this young &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=2928\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions\/2930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}