A new Konstellation programme had its first outing yesterday – Let Us Garlands Bring: music for baritone, oboe and piano by Britten and Finzi was very well received as part of the lunchtime concert series Music on the Green in Esher. A glorious sunny day, the only background noise that drifted in through the open church doors was birdsong!
Glad to hear that extracts from The English Oboe: Rediscovered, recorded with oboist James Turnbull, were played on BBC Radio 3 this afternoon!
Oxford University has released a new film promoting their organ scholarships, featuring interview with current and former organ scholars who have gone onto a range of musical careers – including me! See here to watch the short film.
A new video feature about Silent Opera's performances of Orfeo has been released, here. The 'pre-recorded' music was directed by Christopher Bucknall, featuring a superb line-up of baroque players including the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble. I was roving keyboard player, playing everything from second harpsichord to regale!
Mini Devon tour this week with the Berkeley Ensemble Clarinet Trio, featuring concerts in the Honiton Festival and in Chulmleigh both on the same day! Programmes feature Brahms, Beethoven, Bruch and even Gershwin.
A diverse few days of playing coming up: Weber's Grand Duo Concertante and music by Poulenc and Bliss in London with clarinettist John Slack tomorrow (Munster Square Music Live); an eclectic programme from Handel to Eva Cassidy with countertenor Jeremy Kenyon in Dartmouth on Saturday (Dart Music Festival); and then a reprise of the Konstellation programme Magic of the woods, shimmers of the sea: music by Elgar for violin, voice and piano in Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Promenade Concerts).
Back from a triumphant first Berkeley Ensemble Chamber Course in Somerset. A beautiful long weekend was spent coaching a talented and lovely bunch of players on various aspects of chamber music playing…. plus the small matter of giving three concerts in 48 hours just to keep us tutors on our toes. A very successful weekend and plans are already underway for next year!
Back from another great week on the annual International Cello Gathering course at Bryanston, with sixty cellists this year, all headed up by the tireless Sue Lowe. As usual the schedule was hectic but rewarding, spent playing for classes given by Louise Hopkins, Pierre Doumenge, Sandy Baillie, Matt Lowe, and Tim Lowe, and coaching the cellists on working with the piano. Wonderful repertoire to be immersed in for a week!
Outstanding review from Organists' Review for Tom Bell's new disc, Masters of the Monarchs' Music, which I produed for Regent Records in the autumn. "This is an imaginative idea for a CD, which has brought together vibrant, colourful music with a vibrant, colourful organ, and some exceptional playing from Tom Bell… The listener has plenty of opportunity to enjoy various Harrison and Harrison high pressure reeds on this CD and the whole instrument is recorded with clarity by the Regent engineers… This is a marvellous recording, full of light, from a charismatic and virtuosic musician."
Lovely extensive article by Roderic Dunnett in this week's Church Times about last month's Passiontide at Merton festival, including glowing coverage of the recital with Jeremy Kenyon and Thomas Elwin. Dunnett praises the "four exquisitely accompanied Britten folksongs" and continues "The plum was Kenyon's singing, with his (here) light-touch accompanist Libby Burgess, of Tippett's three Songs for Ariel… Dark, delicate, impish, buoyant, trumpetingly triumphant, these songs typify the best of Tippett, and capture to perfection the best of Shakespeare." The full article is available here.