{"id":4911,"date":"2019-02-03T15:34:37","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T15:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2019-02-03T15:34:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T15:34:37","slug":"hastings-philharmonic-french-chamber-music-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=4911","title":{"rendered":"Hastings Philharmonic: French Chamber Music Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christ Church, St Leonards, Saturday 2 February 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Marcio da Silva is such a tour de force in the local music scene it is difficult to accept that there are times when even he will fall ill. He was certainly present with us on Saturday but his voice was suffering and in the event he was only able to sing one cycle \u2013 the briefly moving Le Bestiaire<\/em> of Francois Poulenc. It would be too easy to present these as tongue-in-cheek verses but \u2013 perhaps because of the throat infection \u2013 they came across with the innocent naivety which the composer intended \u2013 charming and ultimately very moving.<\/p>\n

As a result of Marcio\u2019s difficulties the whole evening was gently reordered but such was the quality of the playing I doubt if anyone would have complained.<\/p>\n

Pianist Andre Dolabella had flown in that morning from Germany but seemed bright as a button throughout. He opened with his own arrangement of Debussy\u2019s Prelude a l\u2019apres-midi d\u2019un faune – <\/em>delightfully impressionistic and setting a standard for the whole of the evening \u2013 clear, wistful and engaging. Clarinettist Boyan Ivanov then joined him for Debussy\u2019s Premiere Rhapsodie.<\/em> Written originally as a test piece for the Paris Conservatoire, it is fiercely difficult but its gentle opening and exultant climax were more than easily encompassed in Ivanov\u2019s deft handling.<\/p>\n

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After the Poulenc song cycle the first half ended with Debussy\u2019s familiar Suite Bergamasque<\/em> setting the quintessential beauty of Clair de lune<\/em> within the context of the more austere baroque flavoured movements.<\/p>\n

After the interval we heard Saint-Saens\u2019 romantically charged Sonata for clarinet and piano<\/em> which moves from the heady textures of the opening movement to the playful Allegro animato<\/em> and the lovely fluidity of the final Molto allegro. <\/em>The evening ended with Poulenc\u2019s Sonata for clarinet and piano, <\/em>a favourite of Boyan Ivanov, and obviously so in the loving detail he brought to his reading. The florid jazzy rhythms of the finale reflect the work\u2019s first performer, Benny Goodman, but this is a work which sat very comfortably within the spacious acoustic of Christ Church.<\/p>\n

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If the size of the audience seemed to reflect the outside temperature rather than the enthusiasm of the welcome, I am sure numbers will pick up strongly as this fine season progresses.<\/p>\n

The next concert is on Saturday 23 February when the Chamber Choir and Baroque ensemble will give an all Bach programme again in Christ Church.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christ Church, St Leonards, Saturday 2 February 2019 Marcio da Silva is such a tour de force in the local music scene it is difficult to accept that there are times when even he will fall ill. He was certainly … Continue reading →<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911"}],"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=4911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4914,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions\/4914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}