Programme 2015
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Welcome to the Cowbridge Music Festival
THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL POSSIBLE…
We are delighted you can join us for another festival of great live music. This year we have invited over forty musicians and put together a programme of concerts even more varied than before. Beginning with the mystical sounds of the Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, played by the eight cellists of Cellophony, and ending ten days later in the wildly exciting world of Latin American jazz and the Julian Bliss Jazz Septet, the festival aims to provide you with a wide and colourful spectrum of music.
PRINCIPAL SPONSORS
In pride of place, as always, are the musicians of Wales, and this year we proudly present two young local stars, sixteenyear-old virtuoso violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones and Cowbridge’s very own folksinger-songwriter, Greta Isaac. Also from Cowbridge is composer Gareth Moorcraft, who we have commissioned to write an intriguing new piece for Cellophony.
COMMUNITY SPONSORS
Our chamber groups are now as big as we can fit on the stage. The sixteen string virtuosi who make up the innovative Camerata Alma Viva, our showcase ensemble this year, play with vigour and zeal, anything from Mozart to the Rolling Stones. Solo instrumentalists are well represented by the wonderful Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu and the versatile clarinettist Julian Bliss, who as well as appearing with his jazz septet, wears his classical hat earlier in the week to collaborate with Irish soprano Ailish Tynan. The colourful lineup could not be better completed than by Alice Zawadzki, composer, jazz singer and violinist, with her unique lunarthemed mix of folk, classical and jazz. The schools outreach programme will be in full swing again, taking the music to five more schools in Barry, Bridgend and Cowbridge, thanks to Waitrose Music Matters and The Radcliffe Trust. Music students will take part in two masterclasses, one for flautists with Paul Edmund-Davies, Principal Flautist of English National Opera (and champagne connoisseur), the other for singers with soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, who needs no introduction. You are all warmly invited to drop in and enjoy these illuminating masterclass sessions. Admission free! Finally, as a late encore to the festival in November, it gives us the greatest pleasure to welcome back to Cowbridge our Patron, Nicola Benedetti, with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk, to play much loved piano trios of Schubert and Brahms. We hope you enjoy this evening’s concert! Mary Elliott-Rose, Andrew Elliott, Sam Edwards, Tessa Shellens, Eluned Pierce, Alun Williams Patron: Nicola Benedetti MBE
CHARITABLE TRUSTS
CONCERT SPONSORS
HOSPITALITY AND CATERING COMMITTEE
Tessa and Peter Shellens Chris Beadsworth Peter and Jo Knapp Eluned Pierce and Alun Williams Hilary Senior Chris and Rosemary Samuel Mr and Mrs Sain ley Berry Rachel and Andrew Arentsen Carole and John Sherratt MASTERCLASS COORDINATOR
Charlie MacClure WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO…
Holy Cross Church, David Lloyd Jones and David Thomas CwpanAur Coffee Concerts Peter Shellens Xantippe Sorrento Furnishers
FRIENDS ASSOcIATION (2014-2015) Peter Knapp (Chairman) Nick Broekstra Mrs GHC Clay Mary Gowen David and Christine Hughes Hazel Isaac Pam and Colwyn T Jones Gail and Richard Kennard Christine and Dafydd Lewis Jennifer McLaggan Domini Lipman Mike and Debbie Owen Judith Purcell Patricia Roe Colin Rowland Chris and Rosemary Samuel
Betty Alden Kate Cassidy Michael Clay Stephen Harkett Mr and Mrs Hydon David M John Mrs Gillian Jones Jo Knapp Chris and Christine Pearce Mrs Ann Roberts Arthur and Pam Robins Peter Sain ley Berry Beverly Tonkin Anne Williams Mr and Mrs H Thomas
cellophony Kindly supported by The Fenton Arts Trust
Thursday 17 September, 7.30pm Holy cross church Richard Birchall Matthijs Broersma Pau codina Reinoud Ford Ashok Klouda John Myerscough Ella Rundle Rebecca Herman Prelude to Tristan and Isolde by Wagner Three Songs from Schwanengesang by Schubert Ave Maria Op. 23 No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn Mirrors (I, II, III) by Richard Birchall
INTERVAL Concerto in D Minor – Allegro BWV 1052 by J.S. Bach Seven Inventions by Gareth Moorcraft Adagio Op. 11 by Barber Three World Folk Songs (arr. James Barralet)
cellophony London based cello octet cellophony have rapidly established themselves as the UK’s leading cello ensemble, carving a reputation as accomplished exponents of both the standard cello ensemble repertoire and a diverse array of specially commissioned arrangements and adaptations. This unique repertoire base and its exhilarating delivery on stage have won the group a following across the globe, with acclaimed performances on the festival scene across Europe and as far afield as South Korea.
As finalists of the Royal Over-Seas League chamber music competition and as Park Lane Group Young Artists, cellophony have received universal critical acclaim for performances at some of the UK’s most prestigious venues, including the Southbank centre’s Purcell Room, The Sage Gateshead, and the world famous Wigmore Hall. Their collaborations to date have included sopranos Sarah Fox and Susana Gaspar, tenor Ben Johnson, and violinists Roberto Gonzalez and Sasha Sitkovetsky.
Gareth Moorcraft Gareth Moorcraft is a composer and pianist from cowbridge, South Wales. He has studied composition with Robert Saxton at the University of Oxford (200912) and with Gary carpenter, David Sawer and Simon Bainbridge at the Royal Academy of Music (2012 - present). Gareth has a strong interest in multimedia work and enjoys collaborating regularly with dance choreographers, filmmakers and writers. In 2014, he composed a piece with choreographer Mathieu Geffré for the National Dance company of Wales, and he has recently written a new film score for Ralph Steiner's silent film H2O (1929), which was commissioned and performed by Sinfonia cymru. Gareth's music has been performed regularly in the UK by leading ensembles including the BBc National Orchestra of Wales, the BBc Singers, the cHROMA ensemble, and 'Endymion'. In 2012, his work Rondo for wind trio won a British composer Award and was broadcast on BBc Radio 3. He has also won the prestigious Eric coates composition Prize (RAM) and the Tŷ cerdd Welsh composition competition (2013). Gareth is currently working on his PhD at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He is supported by an Advanced Study Scholarship from the Arts council of Wales.
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) Prelude to Tristan and Isolde (arr. Richard Birchall) Surprisingly, very few original works have been written for cello octet, so the majority of this evening’s programme consists of arrangements made especially for this group. But one of the perks of creating your own repertoire is that you need only choose the very best music to perform! The Prelude to Wagner’s monumental opera Tristan and Isolde is a classic of orchestral writing. Much is made of the ‘Tristan chord’ at the start – but what everybody really looks forward to (as with any piece of music, of course) is the luscious cello tune that comes a bit later… so why not have all the other parts played by cellos too? The Tristan Prelude has become Cellophony’s signature piece.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Three Songs from Schwanengesang (arr. Richard Birchall) Liebesbotschaft Ständchen Aufenthalt
These three well-known songs are all taken from Schubert’s 1828 cycle Schwanengesang, and were written to words by the poet Ludwig Rellstab. ‘Liebesbotschaft’ (‘Lover’s Message’) is addressed to a ‘murmuring brooklet’ which is asked to carry a sentiment of love; ‘Ständchen’ (‘Serenade’) is an amorous twilight monologue; ‘Aufenthalt’ (‘Dwelling-place’) begins with the words ‘Wild roaring wood, stream white with foam, high on the crags I make my home.’ In these arrangements the solo vocal line is passed from player to player, and the original piano accompaniment expanded in a variety of different textures.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Ave Maria Op. 23 No. 2 (arr. Richard Birchall) Mendelssohn's beautiful Ave Maria is the only item in tonight's programme to have originated in the world of sacred choral music. The scoring, for two distinct four-part choirs, gives it excellent scope for redistribution across eight cellos; this arrangement at times preserves the distinct split across two halves of the group (although the groupings themselves vary), and at times blends the music into a full eight-part harmony. Mendelssohn's melodic genius and effortless harmonic manipulation are evident in abundance, and he ventures into a ‘Bachian’ counterpoint in the middle section, where a plainsong chant is balanced firstly with a moto perpetuo bass line and subsequently with a grand fugal development. The piece ends with an ornamented return to the spaciousness of the opening, united by the thread of the solo tenor voice, here allotted to cello no. 3.
Richard Birchall Mirrors (I, II, III) Mirrors, commissioned by the Park Lane Group and written for Cellophony in 2010, is a set of three short studies in musical reflections. Visually this is evident in the interaction between each player and his or her opposite number – but the symmetrical bug infects the music itself, both within individual melodic ideas and in the structure of each piece as a whole. These general concepts feature most prevalently in the first piece, the original Mirrors, where there is an almost constant correspondence across the group and the two minutes of music follow a shape akin to the
melodic swelling and closing at the outset; the second is based entirely around a single four-note oscillating motif (demonstrated initially in glissando pizzicato) and explores its larger-scale implications through a series of episodes; the third, taking the form of a demented tarantella, employs a variety of symmetrical rhythmic and melodic patterns, and briefly revisits the very opening of the whole work before tumbling to its conclusion. Mirrors I was performed at the Northern Chords Festival at The Sage, Gateshead in March 2010; the full work received its premiere at London’s Purcell Room in January 2011.
J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Keyboard Concerto in D minor – Allegro BWV 1052 (arr. Ella Rundle) Despite its renown as a great Baroque concerto for harpsichord, it is likely that this work's original solo voice was not in fact a keyboard. Each of the seven keyboard concertos is thought to have begun life as a concerto for a melody instrument, and Bach transcribed and reworked them in later life to create the set that we now know; this D minor concerto (the earliest of the seven) shows many traits that can be associated with string playing: passages suggestive of string-crossing figurations, and patterns that seem to centre around open strings – and it is widely thought that it was in fact an early violin concerto. There is a satisfying circularity in the music's return to its roots in this arrangement for cellos some three hundred years down the line. It is a tempestuous piece, showing clear elements of the Sturm und Drang style that would emerge in the Classical era.
Gareth Moorcraft Seven Inventions (after Gibbons) I: II: III: IV: V: VI: VII:
TIcK-BOX-BEAT – Farewell all joy [1] HOcKET – Galliarding about [1] Ambition never pleas'd cHORALE – Farewell all joy [2] INTERLUDE Galliarding about [2] Nay, let me weep
The sounds of late Renaissance era viol consort music provided an important starting point for this collection of seven short musical inventions, which are based on themes and fragments from the works of English composer Orlando Gibbons (15831625). Materials from two of Gibbons's galliards and four madrigals (‘Farewell all joy’, ‘I feign not friendship where I hate’, ‘I see ambition never pleas'd’, and ‘Nay, let me weep’) are explored, distorted and combined with musical ideas of my own throughout the work. This process allows a dialogue between old and new to emerge, and this becomes the main dramatic impetus for the work. Occasionally, themes, rhythms and harmonies from the original music are allowed to break through but for the most part, they have been transformed or are hidden beneath the musical surface. The eight cellists are divided into two groups of four and the changing relationships between them are an important dimension of the piece. Sometimes they work together in harmony but at other times, individual players break free and take on solo roles, or the two groups of four are pitted against each other with contrasting musical materials. I would like to thank Mary Elliott Rose, Cowbridge Music Festival, the Arts Council of Wales and the Fenton Arts Trust for supporting this new commission. Gareth Moorcraft, August 2015
Samuel Barber (1910-1981) Adagio Op. 11 (arr. Richard Birchall) Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio was written as the slow movement of his second String Quartet, Op. 11, but in the same year (1936) it was presented as an arrangement by the composer himself for string orchestra as Adagio for Strings, which is how it is most commonly known – though it has more recently also gained popularity as a choral piece, Agnus Dei. The seemingly never-ending flow of singing legato lines is intended to depict the growth of a small stream into a full river; the music here retains its original four-part texture, although the extensive doublestopping in the original work allows natural extension to performance with eight instruments.
Trad. Three World Folk Songs (arr. James Barralet) ‘Porzik a Hegyi Borozda’ is a short medley of three Hungarian folk songs; ‘As I walk Alone Along the Road’ is a traditional Russian melancholic song, which is followed by an improvisatory cadenza leading into ‘Pedlars’, also Russian and better known as the theme of the computer game Tetris.
Flute Masterclass with Paul Edmund-Davies Friday 18 September, 4pm – 8pm Holy cross church Jack Welch carys Gittins cameron cullen
This evening’s programme notes are provided by Richard Birchall.
Rosie Bowker Daniel Jones Accompanist: Susan Bird
Paul Edmund-Davies Paul Edmund-Davies established his international reputation as flautist and soloist in the twenty years that he was Principal Flautist of the London Symphony Orchestra. conductors with whom he has performed concerti include Bernstein, Rostropovich, Boulez and Nagano, and he has played in chamber music ensembles with André Previn. For the last ten years Paul has toured worldwide, giving recitals, classes and performing concerti. He has also cowritten and performed on crossover projects with Neil Percy, Principal Percussionist with the LSO. Their disc, Ball and Biscuit, was released on the Black Box label in 1999, their latest disc, Cuvée Acoustique, in May 2006. A play-along version for one or two flutes (Flute Fusions) was published by Kevin Mayhew in January 2007, giving flautists the opportunity to experience different styles and rhythms from around the world. Paul has also edited several books of music entitled The Flautist’s Collection and has edited and recorded the flute sonatas of J.S. Bach and Handel, as well as works by Telemann and c.P.E. Bach. He is currently working on editions of the complete flute works of the hitherto uncelebrated Giuseppe Rabboni. In June 2007 his latest book was published, The 28 Day Warm up Book for all Flautists......eventually! When not playing the flute, he is director of The champagne Guild, a company devoted to introducing previously unavailable champagnes into the UK. In 2005 Paul took up the position of Principal Flautist with the Philharmonia Orchestra and in 2011 he was appointed Principal Flautist of English National Opera.
Vocal Masterclass with Elin Manahan Thomas Saturday 19 September, 11am – 2pm Holy cross church Grace-Marie Wyatt Sarah choi catrin Raymond Ellen Williams Alys Roberts Accompanist: Susan Bird
Elin Manahan Thomas Born in Swansea, Elin read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and celtic at clare college cambridge before moving to the musical world and a busy career of performing, broadcasting and presenting, releasing her début album, Eternal Light, in 2007 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In 2012 she dazzled an audience of more than a billion viewers worldwide with her performance of Handel's ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’ at the London Paralympics Opening ceremony. Elin first received great acclaim for her ‘Pie Jesu’ on the award-winning Naxos recording of Rutter’s Requiem, and became renowned for her soaring top notes in Allegri’s Miserere in BBc 4’s series Sacred Music. She has performed at the Vatican on Easter Sunday, at the Edinburgh International Festival with the Royal Flanders Ballet and with many of the world's leading conductors, among them Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Andrew Davis, Harry christophers, Paul Mccreesh, Stephen Layton, Sir Roger Norrington, Vasily Petrenko, Thierry Fischer and the late Richard Hickox. On the concert stage Elin has sung oratorio at all the major venues in the UK and many of the major festivals and has toured the USA with Mozart’s Vespers. On television she has appeared in BBc 2’s Birth of British Music, singing ‘Dido’s Lament’ by Purcell, in BBc 4’s series Sacred Music, in channel 4’s How Music Works presented by Howard Goodall, and in BBc 2’s A Musical Nativity on Christmas Day. Elin was also the presenter and main performer in S4c’s six-part documentary Y Sopranos, and the Bafta-nominated Papa Haydn. On the opera stage Elin has played the part of Israelitish Woman in Buxton Festival’s acclaimed staging of Handel’s Samson; Pamina (Mozart’s The Magic Flute) at the Helix Theatre, Dublin and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester; Belinda (Dido and Aeneas) with OAE in the Queen Elizabeth Hall; Ninetta (Mozart’s La Finta Semplice) and Arminda (Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera) in New college, Oxford; Despina (Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte) for Robin Ticciati and cambridge Opera; Mermaid (Weber’s Oberon) and coryphée (Berlioz’s Les Troyens) at the châtelet Theatre, Paris; and Night/Nymph in the Armonico consort’s popular production of The Fairy Queen. Elin has released five acclaimed solo albums, her 2011 Ravish’d with Sacred Extasies being awarded Pizzicato Magazine’s coveted Supersonic Award. Her recordings range from the renaissance to Handel to Elgar and beyond, and future releases include Mozart’s Requiem with King's college cambridge.
Young Artist Recital Sponsored by the Rotary club of cowbridge
Saturday 19 September, 7.30pm Holy cross church charlie Lovell-Jones – violin Simon Lovell-Jones – piano Sonata in G minor by Debussy Suo Gân (traditional) Andante and Allegro from Sonata No.2 in A minor by J.S. Bach Introduction and Tarantelle by Sarasate
INTERVAL Suite Italienne by Stravinsky Caprice No. 11 by Paganini Beau Soir by Debussy (arr. Heifetz) Carmen Fantasy by Waxman
charlie Lovell-Jones Described as one of the most promising young violinists in the UK, sixteen-year-old charlie Lovell-Jones is from cardiff and attends Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf. He began studying the violin at the age of six and three years later won the prize for the highest Grade 8 examination mark on any instrument or voice in South and West Wales. charlie has won numerous competitions including the Gregynog Young Musician competition, the Rotary Young Musician Prize for South, West and Mid-Wales, and for the past six years the Urdd National Eisteddfod String Prize in his age group. This year he was also awarded the Urdd Eisteddfod Scholarship. Last August charlie won the Blue Riband Instrumental Prize for Under 16s at the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli. In 2013 the Swansea Festival awarded him the “Most Outstanding String Player” for players under 20 and he also received the Music in the Vale Prize for young instrumentalists. With the support of cardiff city council and the Welsh Livery Guild, charlie has studied for the past three summers at the cambridge International String Academy with Rodney
Friend, Ida Haendel, Yuzuko Horigome and György Pauk. He led the National children’s Orchestra for three years and was presented with the Vivienne Price Award for the Best Overall Audition and the Dame Ruth Railton Award for an outstanding contribution to the orchestra. During his time with the NcO he was the soloist in Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy and performed as their leader during Jubilee week 2012 for the Royal family. In 2014 charlie gave a broadcast performance as soloist with the BBc National Orchestra of Wales and this year he made his Royal Festival Hall debut performing The Lark Ascending with the NcO. He has also appeared as soloist with the English chamber Orchestra and given recitals at the Llandeilo Festival and in cardiff. charlie studies with Rodney Friend, former leader of the London and New York Philharmonic Orchestras and plays a Guadagnini violin on loan from J & A Beare through the generosity of a benefactor.
Simon Lovell-Jones Simon Lovell-Jones was a choral Scholar at Jesus college cambridge, and was then awarded scholarships to study in Hungary at the International Kodaly Institute and at the Liszt Academy. He was the first Musical Director of Welsh National Youth Opera and until recently was the Director of the choral Scholars at the cathedral School, Llandaff, singing services each week in the cathedral. Other posts include Musical Director of the cardiff Polyphonic choir, cadoxton Opera Society and Voices SA at the University of Wales, cardiff. As a pianist he studied under Joyce Rathbone and has worked with numerous soloists in venues including St. David's Hall, St. George's Brandon Hill and, last summer, was an official accompanist on the cambridge International String Academy. He has also regularly accompanied at the South Glamorgan Festival for Young Musicians. Simon was a Senior Music Officer for the Arts council of Wales. In this capacity he attended and advised musical organisations across the country, sat on the National Opera coordinating committee and adjudicated at many festivals including the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Simon is currently working on a number of composition projects, including a set of accompaniments for works by the renowned percussionist Zivkovic due to be published in Berlin later this year. He also regularly conducts the Treorchy Male Voice choir.
claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Sonata for Violin
Suite Italienne
Allegro vivo Intermède: Fantasque et léger Finale: Très animé
Introduzione Serenata Tarantella Gavotta con due Variazioni Scherzino Minuetto – Finale
Towards the end of his life Debussy planned a cycle of six sonatas for various instruments. He completed only three, of which the violin sonata is the last. To some, these late works seem austere and even severe in comparison with his earlier works. They were written as war was raging across Europe and as terminal illness was taking hold of him. Debussy despairingly said of the sonata ‘…that it will be interesting from a documentary viewpoint and as an example of what may be produced by a sick man in time of war’. The opening movement, Allegro vivo, creates an atmosphere of nostalgia and sadness with a theme of rhythmic and harmonic ambiguity. In contrast, the second movement, Fantasque et legér, is mostly light and capricious with a sensuous second theme. The final movement, Tre`s animé, begins with the slightly modified nostalgic theme of the first movement and has sudden changes of mood, exuberant and lyrical, using the entire pitch range of the violin.
Stravinsky made several instrumental arrangements of music from Pulcinella, his ballet score for chamber orchestra and vocal soloists. In the 1920s he had moved away from the big scores of grand Russian ballet and adopted the ‘neo-classical’ style with leaner textures, his own distinctive harmonies and a respect for the music of the past, especially of the eighteenth century Neapolitan composer, Pergolesi. In spite of its conciseness Suite Italienne retains the wit and joie de vivre of the ballet score with its cast of rascally characters from commedia dell’ arte. It opens with a jaunty Introduzione (the ballet’s Overture), followed by the lyrical Serenata and the lively Tarantella, both derived from Pergolesi’s operas. The Gavotta with its two variations is followed by a brief Scherzino, or little scherzo (now often omitted in performance), and the work concludes with a slow Minuetto full of double stops leading without pause to the exuberant Finale.
Trad. Suo Gân
Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840)
Suo Gân is a traditional Welsh lullaby of uncertain origin. It became widely known when it featured in the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s powerful 1987 WWII film, Empire of the Sun, and there are several evocative arrangements, vocal and instrumental.
Caprice No. 11
J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003 Andante Allegro
Bach’s six works for unaccompanied violin, three sonatas and three partitas, are a cornerstone of the violin repertoire. They were completed in 1720 while he was Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, the period in which he wrote many of his secular works. The Andante and Allegro are the final two movements of the sonata, the first of which (in the relative major key) combines, with one bow, an aria-like melody on the upper strings with pulsing quavers on the lower strings, a heartbeat accompaniment that runs throughout the movement. The Allegro is a moto perpetuo of racing semiquavers.
Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908) Introduction and Tarantelle Sarasate was one of the most celebrated virtuoso violinists of his time, dazzling audiences all over Europe and the Americas and inspiring several of the great composers to write pieces which are now in the standard violin repertoire. He is best known now as a composer of violin show-pieces for which he often drew on the folk dances of his native Spain. Here, as with many of his pieces, the first section is slow and atmospheric, the second fast and brilliant. Popular lore has it that the Italian tarantella began as a dance to cure tarantula spider bites, but it is more likely that it is named after the town of Taranto.
Paganini was not only the greatest violinist of his time, he was also the first superstar performer. With his phenomenal technique and showmanship, immortalised in his compositions, he was universally adored and rewarded with fabulous wealth (which he gambled away) and was even thought at one time to be in league with the devil. Each of the 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, written between 1802 and 1817, explores a different and highly challenging aspect of violin technique. The eleventh caprice starts and ends with an andante melody with accompanying broken chords. It frames a fast passage of leaping dotted rhythms and arpeggios.
claude Debussy (1862-1918) Beau Soir While the violin sonata is almost Debussy’s last work, one of his earliest to survive is the song Beau Soir, a setting of a poem by his friend Paul Bourget, which he composed as early as 1878 when he was only sixteen. ‘…enjoy the charm of being alive’, exhorts the poet, ‘while one is young and the evening is beautiful’.. The song’s gently flowing rhythm and elegiac melodic line inspired Jascha Heifetz to make this transcription for violin in 1935.
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)/Franz Waxman (1906-1967) Carmen Fantasie Numerous composers have written transcriptions of all sorts based on the familiar themes of Bizet’s eternally popular opera Carmen, but among the best known is the Carmen Fantasie by Franz Waxman, a composer best remembered for his 144 Hollywood film scores, including Rebecca, The Philadelphia Story, Sunset Boulevard, Rear Window and Peyton Place. Waxman wrote this piece for Jascha Heifetz to play in the film score of the 1946 movie Humoresque but it was in the end played by a young Isaac Stern.
Julian Bliss and Ailish Tynan
credit: Benjamin Ealovega
Sunday 20 September, 7.30pm Holy cross church Julian Bliss – clarinet Ailish Tynan – soprano christopher Glynn – piano Introduction and Polonaise Brilliante by chopin (arr. Julian Bliss) Songs by Brahms Fantasiestücke Op. 73 by Robert Schumann
INTERVAL Songs by Spohr Ave Maria by Schubert Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 by chopin (arr. Julian Bliss) Morgen by Richard Strauss Shepherd on the Rock by Schubert
won the Rosenblatt Recital Prize at the 2003 BBc cardiff Singer of the World competition. Her opera engagements include Marzelline (Fidelio) under Antonio Pappano and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) at the Royal Opera House, Tigrane (Radamisto) at the English National Opera, Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) at La Scala, and Héro (Béatrice et Bénédict) for Houston Grand Opera, Opéra comique and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; other highlights include Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Nanetta (Falstaff) and Atalanta (Xerses) for Royal Swedish Opera, Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) for Opéra comique and Opéra de Rouen, and Vixen (The Cunning Little Vixen) for Grange Park Opera.
Julian Bliss Julian Bliss is one of the world’s finest clarinettists, excelling as concerto soloist, chamber musician, jazz artist, masterclass leader and tireless musical explorer. He has inspired a generation of young players as guest lecturer and creator of the Leblanc Bliss range of affordable clarinets, and introduced a large new audience to his instrument. He has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras and performed chamber music with Joshua Bell, Hélène Grimaud, Steven Isserlis, Steven Kovacevich and other great interpreters.
Julian launched the Julian Bliss Septet in 2012 at Wigmore Hall and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz club in London and fronted their debut disc, Benny Goodman –The King of Swing, a programme that they have now performed across the world.
Ailish Tynan Born in Mullingar, Ailish studied at Trinity college Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy of Music and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She was a Vilar Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, covent Garden, and a BBc New Generation Artist. Representing Ireland, Ailish
Recent and future engagements include Grace Williams’s Fairest of Stars at the BBc Proms (BBc National Orchestra of Wales); Handel’s Messiah (Royal Scottish National Orchestra); Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and a return to the Royal Opera House for their 2015/16 season. credit: Joanna Bergin
Born in St Albans, Julian began playing at the age of four. He moved to the United States in 2000 to study at Indiana University and subsequently received lessons from Sabine Meyer in Germany. Julian’s prodigious early career included performances at the prestigious Gstaad, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Rheingau and Verbier festivals, and critically acclaimed debuts at London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Lincoln center. His first album for EMI classics’ Debut series (2003) was greeted with five-star reviews and his live recording on Signum classics of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (2014) was classic FM’s disc of the week.
A prolific concert and recording artist, Ailish works frequently with British and international orchestras, including performing on the opening night of the BBc Proms with the BBc Symphony Orchestra under Jirí Belohlávek. She also performs extensively as recitalist at the major venues and at the Edinburgh, city of London, cheltenham and West cork music festivals.
christopher Glynn christopher Glynn is recognised as an outstanding pianist and accompanist, performing regularly with many leading singers and instrumentalists in concerts, broadcasts and recordings throughout Europe and further afield. He was born in Leicester, read music at New college Oxford and studied piano with John Streets in France and with Malcolm Martineau and Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music. His many awards include the piano accompaniment prize in the 2001 Kathleen Ferrier competition and the 2003 Gerald Moore award.
christopher has performed with singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Matthew Best, claire Booth, Susan Bullock, Allan clayton, Ronan collett, Lucy crowe, Michael George, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Jonas Kaufmann, Julie Kennard, Yvonne Kenny, Andrew Kennedy, Ian Partridge, Derek Lee Ragin, Joan Rodgers, James Rutherford, carolyn Sampson, Toby Spence, Bryn Terfel, Elin Manahan Thomas and catherine Wyn-Rogers, as well as with Ailish Tynan. He has also partnered many well-known instrumentalists. Since making his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2001 he has performed there regularly, and he has also appeared in the main United Kingdom concert halls and in major concert venues and festivals throughout Europe and in the Far East christopher has made several cD recordings and many studio recordings and live broadcasts for BBc Radio 3, classic FM and for European radio and television. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Professor at the Royal college of Music, and also works often with the Samling Foundation.
Frédéric chopin (1810-1849) Introduction and Polonaise Brillante (arr. Julian Bliss) The Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, originally for cello and piano, is one of the few pieces Chopin wrote for an instrument other than the solo piano. It is one of his earliest works, written in 1829 when he was nineteen, during a week spent at the country estate of Prince Antoni Radziwil, a cellist and composer. Chopin played chamber music with the Prince and his family and gave piano lessons to his two daughters. He was especially taken with Princess Wanda, and it was for her and her father that he composed this polonaise, adding the Introduction the following year.
Songs Das Mädchen spricht Op. 107 No. 3 Es träumte mir Op. 57 No. 3 Unbewegte laue Luft Op. 57 No. 8 Ständchen Op. 106 No. 1 O kühler Wald Op. 72 No. 3
‘Das Mädchen spricht’ (‘The Maiden Speaks’) is a charmingly naïve song in which a newly-wed girl questions a swallow about married life: ‘Tell me what you twitter about, tell me what you whisper about in the mornings’. The piano's flitting figures evoke the swallow’s movement, while at the end of each stanza the music slows as the girl becomes more thoughtful. ‘Es träumte mir’ belongs to the Op. 57 songs of 1871. They are settings of sensual texts by the poet Daumer, all of which are essentially variations on the same basic subject: that of an ardent yearning that must somehow be suppressed without the promise of fulfilment: ‘I dreamed I was dear to you; but to wake up I hardly dared. For in the dream I already understood that it was only a dream’. The last of the Op. 57 set, ‘Unbewegte laue Luft’ (‘Motionless, Tepid Air’) expresses these desires even more ardently: ‘Nature, deeply at rest; through the still garden-night only the fountain splashes. But in my heart there surges hot desires… Come, oh come, so that we might give each other heavenly satisfaction!’ ‘Ständchen’, composed in 1886, is a cheerful serenade.
The opening chords of ‘O kühler Wald’ (1887) suggest a serene atmosphere, but the words conjure up a dark, echoing forest in which a distant lover wanders. ‘O kühler Wald, wo rauschest du, in dem mein Liebchen geht?’ ‘Oh cool forest, where do you rustle. Oh forest in which my darling walks?’
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Fantasiestücke for clarinet and piano These three Fantasiestücke, like all the ‘fantasy’ pieces Schumann wrote, are characterised by the sudden mood changes typical of much of his music, and indeed of his turbulent emotional life in general. The pieces, written in 1849, are like songs without words, or an instrumental song cycle. The first, in A minor, begins dreamily with a touch of melancholy, but ends more hopefully in A major. The second is playful and positive, with a central section of chromatic triplets; the final piece, in A major, starts in a frenzy of passion and fiery energy. ‘Faster and faster’, writes Schumann on the final page, pushing the movement to an exuberant ending.
credit: Ben Wright
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
The scene is romantic, the moon climbing above the mountain as a trio of musicians serenades a beautiful girl from the garden below, the upward-rushing arpeggiated chords wafting the serenade into her quiet dreams. Whether one of the serenaders is her lover is not made clear.
Louis Spohr (1784-1859) Songs from Sechs Deutsche Lieder for soprano with clarinet and piano Sei still mein Herz Sehnsucht Wiegenlied Wach auf
whom it is mainly associated. The melody is always vocal, with an instrumental-like accompaniment in the left hand. It is embellished with trills and scales when repeated and there are contrasting episodes in the middle section.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) Morgen!
The combination of clarinet, voice and piano was popular with composers such as Spohr in the early Romantic period. Spohr wrote Sechs Deutche Lieder, from which these four songs are taken, in 1837. They are settings of poems by contemporary German poets.
Morgen! (Tomorrow!) is the last in a set of four songs Strauss composed in 1894 as a wedding gift for his wife, Pauline von Ahna, the soprano who inspired much of his writing for the female voice. The words are by the Scottish-born poet John Henry Mackay. They celebrate the tranquillity of nature and the bliss of romantic love.
‘Sei still mein Herz’ (‘Be still my Heart’) tells of thwarted love, the happiness of springtime turning to the sadness of frosty winter: ‘Be still, my heart, and give it no thought; This now is reality, the rest was delusion’.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
‘Sehnsucht’ is a song of longing, of a beautiful place that lures but can never be reached, and the despair of the fleeting of time. In ‘Wiegenlied’ (‘Lullaby’) a mother is putting her child to bed with words of comfort: ‘Close your little eyes, let them be two little buds. Tomorrow when the sun shines they will blossom like flowers’. Then, as if in admonition for the first two songs, ‘Wach auf’ (‘Awaken’) urges us to stop brooding and to awaken instead to the beauty of the world and the wonders of nature.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Ave Maria Written in 1825, Ave Maria (Hail Mary) is part of Schubert’s setting of Sir Walter Scott’s ‘The Lady of the Lake’. The epic poem describes a struggle between Scottish Highland clans during which the young heroine, Ellen Douglas, is forced to hide in a mountain cave, where she prays to the Virgin Mary for help and comfort. It was one of Schubert’s few commercially successful ventures, earning him the handsome sum of twenty pounds.
Frédéric chopin (1810-1849) Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 (arr. Julian Bliss) Chopin composed Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in about 1830 when he was in his early twenties. With its simple yet beguiling opening theme it has become the favourite of his 21 nocturnes. The genre of the nocturne was first developed by the Irish composer John Field, but it was Chopin who gave the form structure and with
The Shepherd on the Rock The Shepherd on the Rock is one of two Schubert songs that include an obligato wind instrument, in this case the clarinet. He wrote it in 1828 just as he was beginning to achieve some public success as a composer and to have at least some of his works published. When one of the most famous sopranos of the day, Anna Milder-Hauptmann, asked Schubert to write her a concert aria, the result was this, one of Schubert's most popular songs. Sadly, he died only weeks after completing the song and never had the opportunity to hear it performed. The song begins in the alpine heights with a young shepherd yodelling across mountain ravines to his lover somewhere below. The clarinet responds with echoes from the depths of the valley. The second section expresses the sadness of life as hope for the future ebbs. Optimism and the joys of spring return in the final section and the song ends in a jubilant cascade of scales and arpeggios for both soprano and clarinet.
camerata Alma Viva Paint it Black Kindly supported by The Radcliffe Trust
Monday 21 September, 7.30pm Holy cross church Violin 1 charlotte Maclet Julian Azkoul Gaëlle-Anne Michel Michael Jones Violin 2 Leslie Boulin-Raulet Florian Perret Amarins Wiersdma Eric Mouret Viola
Marie-Barbara Berlaud Mark Braithwaite Marine Gandon Adrien Bacconier
cello
Mathieu Foubert Paul Rah Arthur Boutillier
Bass
Siret Lust
Divertimento in D major K. 136 by Mozart Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 by Mozart (arr. Eric Mouret)
INTERVAL Chamber Symphony in C minor Op. 110a by Shostakovich (arr. Rudolf Barshai) Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones (arr. Eric Mouret)
camerata Alma Viva camerata Alma Viva was formed in Geneva in 2009, mainly by students of Gabor Takács, first violinist of the famous Takács String Quartet. They were inspired by the Hungarian school of quartet playing and decided to take the quartet spirit to a larger scale, the sixteen musicians playing standing up and without conductor. With players of nine nationalities the group has developed its own sound, philosophy and identity and has become one of the few UK-based string ensembles of young musicians. When not playing for camerata Alma Viva most of them play chamber music (Brodowski, Rothko and Alcea Quartets) or with European chamber orchestras (Manchester camerata, Verbier chamber Orchestra, Mahler chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martins in the Fields and Royal Northern Sinfonia). They regard every performance as an original sensory experience for the listener rather than just a concert. It is a strong belief of theirs that music is a very natural thing that anyone, trained or not, should be able to approach and enjoy. camerata Alma Viva is constantly working to break down the barriers of the traditional concert by playing the pieces in different settings, sometimes playing from around, behind or even within the audience, singing or improvising during the concerts, encouraging spontaneous audience reaction, creating original compositions to link different pieces together and adding poetry or lighting effects. The ensemble is led by French violinist charlotte Maclet. Freeing herself at the age of 15 from the restrictions of the Paris conservatoires and their educational methods, charlotte moved to the United States where she discovered not only her independence but also a passion for chamber music. She went on to study in Geneva and Rotterdam with inspirational teachers including Gabor Takács. Recently she has played as co-leader of both the BBc Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the city of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and appears regularly with other major orchestras such as the Britten Sinfonia, the Scottish chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In April this year charlotte became first violinist of the highly acclaimed Brodowski Quartet.
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Divertimento in D major, K. 136
Chamber Symphony in C minor Op. 110a (based on String Quartet No. 8 in C minor)
Allegro Andante Presto
Mozart wrote three Divertimenti for strings at the age of sixteen. His travels in Italy with his father had introduced him to new musical ideas and it is likely that these works were influenced by the style of the three-movement Italian sinfonias. The exact category into which they fall is not clear, however, but it is possible that they were written for one player per part and therefore represent precursors of his later quartets. Equally suited to the larger ensemble, the Divertimenti have become a staple part of the string orchestra’s repertoire. The D major Divertimento starts in high spirits, the violin sections sharing the bustling semiquavers while the violas, cellos and bass accompany: it would be two years before Mozart heard the Op. 20 Quartets of Haydn and started to give the lower instruments more independent lines. The second movement is a graceful Italianate Andante and the third, where one might expect a rondo, is a lively Presto in sonata form with a short contrapuntal middle section.
W.A. Mozart Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 (arr. Eric Mouret) Allegro maestoso Andante Presto
The Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra was composed in 1779 and published in 1802, 11 years after the composer’s death. Since then the work has appeared in various versions including one under the title Grande Sestetto Concertante for string sextet in which the solo lines are artfully shared among all the players. Tonight’s arrangement by Eric Mouret follows in this tradition. The sinfonia concertante, a popular form in the late eighteenth century, combines features of the symphony with the technical virtuosity of the concerto. Mozart raised it to a new level of beauty in this masterpiece, scored originally for the two soloists, two oboes, two horns and strings, and it is generally regarded as one of his most lyrical works, much influenced by the music he had heard during his visits to Paris and Mannheim a year earlier. It is in the standard sinfonia concertante form of three movements. In the first, where in a concerto the orchestra might introduce the themes to be played by the soloist, here the main themes appear later in the solo lines after the noble introduction. They are then played in a variety of configurations, sometimes in close harmony between the solo lines, sometimes being exchanged back and forth and sometimes with brilliant shared scale passages. The Andante is in the relative minor key. Written as Mozart was coming to terms with the recent death of his mother, a feeling of grief pervades the whole of the movement, but the sadness is dispelled by the final Presto, a brisk rondo which concludes the work in high spirits and virtuoso brilliance.
Largo Allegro molto Allegretto Largo Largo
The String Quartet No. 8 is the best known and most evocative of all Shostakovich's quartets and perhaps the most frequently performed quartet of the twentieth century. Yet it is the work of a tortured, divided soul, a shackled Soviet artist and closet dissident. It was written in 1960 while Shostakovich was visiting the then communist state of East Germany as a guest of its government, at a spa resort not far from Dresden, the city destroyed by Allied bombing. Publicly, he dedicated the quartet to the victims of fascism and WWII, the anguish of the quartet possibly reflecting his thoughts on visiting the ruined city. Privately though, he described it as a eulogy for himself. As other composers such as Robert Schumann had done before him, Shostakovich inscribed his name in the music: the letters from the German version of his name, Dmitri Schostakovich, being equivalent to D, E flat, C, B, in familiar notation, forming the tense theme that runs throughout much of the work. They begin the quartet and dominate the first movement; they haunt the second movement as a frightening ostinato, reappear in the macabre scherzo and languish in the trio of the third movement. At the end they are the main subject of the heart-rending fugue of the finale. In the penultimate Largo three other disturbing notes are repeated against a low drone, evoking perhaps the sound of anti-aircraft fire and the menacing whine of a bomber high above. Or perhaps the knock of the KGB. This arrangement of the quartet for string orchestra, referred to as the Chamber Symphony in C minor Op. 110a, was made by the Russian conductor and violist Rudolf Barhsai and approved by Shostakovich himself.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards Paint It Black (arr. Eric Mouret) ‘Paint It Black’ (originally released as ‘Paint It, Black’) was written by the song-writing partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for The Rolling Stones. First released as a single in May 1966, it was later included as the opening track to the USA version of their album Aftermath. The song became The Rolling Stones’ third number one hit single in the USA and sixth in the UK and since its initial release has remained influential as the first number one hit featuring a sitar. The song’s lyrics are, for the most part, meant to describe bleakness and depression through the use of colour-based metaphors. They tell of a mournful partner at a funeral and take a line from James Joyce’s 1922 novel, Ulysses: ‘I have to turn my head until my darkness goes.’
Early Evening Piano Recital with Alexandra Dariescu Wednesday 23 September, 6.00pm Holy cross church Alexandra Dariescu – piano Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 by Felix Mendelssohn Préludes, Op. 103, Nos. 2, 3 and 4 by Fauré Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53, by chopin
on a Theme of Paganini, a return to Wigmore Hall for a solo recital and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 at the Royal Albert Hall with the RPO on 26 September.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Variations sérieuses Op. 54 Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, completed in 1841, begin with a dignified chorale-like theme that immediately demonstrates his devotion to Bach. It is followed by seventeen seamless variations and a coda, in which the theme is decorated and transformed with astonishing imagination and virtuosity, passages of dazzling technical fireworks alternating with passages of quiet reflection and introspection.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Nine Preludes Op. 103, Nos. 2, 3 and 4
INTERVAL Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a by Tchaikovsky/Pletnev Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31 by chopin
Alexandra Dariescu From the Royal Albert Hall in London to carnegie Hall in New York, the young Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu, recently named as one of ‘thirty pianists under thirty destined for a spectacular career’ in the International Piano Magazine, has dazzled audiences worldwide with her effortless musicality and captivating stage presence. Alexandra has recently been awarded the custodian of the Romanian crown Medal, the youngest person to receive a distinction from the Royal Family of Romania. Alexandra began her piano studies with Michaela constantin and cornelia Apostol at the Special Music School in Romania and moved to the UK at the age of 17 to study at the Pocklington School with Faye Mercer and then at the Royal Northern college of Music with Nelson Goerner, Alexandra Melnikiv, Dina Parakhina and Mark Rey. She studied with Ronan O’Hara at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and took part in the classes of Andras Schiff at the Gstaad Festival in Switzerland, Dimitri Bashkirov and Menahem Pressler in Verbier, Dominique Merlet in Valloire and Phillippe cassard in Sion. Since 2008 Alexandra has won the Verbier cUBS Prize at the Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland, the Guildhall Wigmore Prize, the Prix Maurice Ravel in France and the Romanian Ambassador’s Award for her outstanding contribution in promoting Romania’s image in the UK. She made her carnegie Hall debut in New York in 2011 and was named as a ‘Rising Star’ in BBC Music Magazine. In 2013 she made her debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and her recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (also with the RPO), coupled with the Nutcracker Suite arranged by Pletnev, will be released this season on Signum Records. She will also be releasing her second volume of preludes by Shostakovich and Szymanowski (champs Hill Records) and Mermerism for piano and orchestra by Emily Howard with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (NMc Records). Highlights in this season’s busy performing schedule include a UK tour with the RPO, playing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody
Fauré composed the Nine Preludes in 1909 and 1910 when in his mid-sixties and struggling to come to terms with the onset of deafness. Coming from the French keyboard traditions of Couperin and Chopin, he forged a distinctive style of his own, one that can be considered as a link between the nineteenth century Romantics and the later innovative French composers such as his pupil, Ravel, and Debussy. The second prelude (Allegro), in C sharp minor, is a whirling moto perpetuo, while the third, in G minor, is like a peaceful nocturne. The fourth, in F major, is a gentle Allegretto moderato, a kind of pastorale that casts a spell upon the ear.
Frédéric chopin (1810-1849) Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53 Chopin's eighteen polonaises, composed throughout his short life, are based on the Polish national dance and express both his patriotism and the tragic situation of his native land at that time. In 1832 he moved to Paris and it is not difficult to see how the Polonaise in A flat, composed in 1842-1843, became particularly associated with the defiant spirit of revolutionary France, acquiring the soubriquet ‘Heroic’, although Chopin himself had a reluctance to bestow descriptive names on his music. The grand introduction with fast ascending chromatic notes in both hands sets the passionate mood of the piece and is followed by the familiar polonaise dance theme. In a second theme, the pounding hooves and distant fanfares of the hussars can perhaps be heard. A short lyrical interlude precedes the return of the main theme.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71 (arr. Pletnev) March Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Tarantella Intermezzo (Journey through the Snow) Russian Trepak Chinese Dance Andante maestoso (Pas de Deux)
Tchaikovsky completed The Nutcracker, one of the most popular and frequently performed ballets, in 1892. From the full score he chose the best music to make an orchestral suite, and it is this that the Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev has adapted as a virtuosic concert suite for piano.
Frédéric chopin Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31 Chopin’s second Scherzo, composed in 1837, is the most popular of the four he wrote. Robert Schumann described it as ‘overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt’ while Chopin himself told one of his students that he wanted the opening of the work to evoke the image of a charnel house. With such a macabre interpretation perhaps Chopin’s use of the term scherzo is somewhat ironic, its original meaning being ‘a joke’. After the quiet arpeggios at the beginning, the emphatic chords that soon follow come as something of a shock. The first theme features wide leaps and dramatic pauses while the central section, by contrast, begins in the manner of a heartfelt song. After some lively dance music, the work ends with a variation of the opening music.
Late Evening at The Duke with Greta Isaac Wednesday 23 September, 9.30pm Duke of Wellington Function Room Greta Isaac – vocals / guitar Elan Isaac – vocals Miriam Isaac – vocals Born and raised in cowbridge, 20-year-old Greta Isaac is the youngest child in a musical family. From an early age she was exposed to an array of musical genres which have influenced her own unique style. At the age of fifteen she taught herself to play guitar and within a few months was writing her own material and appearing regularly on the cardiff and South Wales music scene. Her first independently released EP, Down by the Water, has received wide acclaim and was Radio Wales’ Record of the Week shortly after its release. It embodies her love of folk and Americana as well as influences from the American Song Book and the ballads of her heroes such as Randy Newman, Billy Joel and Joni Mitchell. Greta has appeared at many festivals including Sŵn in cardiff, Green Man in the Brecon Beacons and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Last September, she moved from the family home in the Vale of Glamorgan to London where she is studying art and design at camberwell college.
Alice Zawadzki Songs to the Moon Thursday 24 September, 7.30pm Holy cross church Alice Zawadzki – violin, vocals and piano Alex Roth – guitar Alice Purton – cello Sitting somewhere between the pith and pathos of folkloric music, classical lyricism and spacious jazz, the latest project from celebrated vocalist-violinist Alice Zawadzki presents luminous settings of songs inspired by mankind’s age-old fascination with the moon. Brought to life by the multi-hued, kaleidoscopic sounds of guitarist Alex Roth, and the profound sonority of Alice Purton’s cello, their radiant original songs and unique settings of lunar-themed material are at once as solacing as they are quixotic, and represent chamber jazz at it’s most effervescent and romantic. credit: Alex Bonney
Alice being nominated as British vocalist of the year by both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and Jazz FM. Her distinctive voice has led to engagements as a vocal soloist with the Prague Philharmonic (BBc Planet Earth), the city of Oxford Orchestra, and for numerous film and TV credits including Disney's major motion picture African Cats where Alice sang the role of Sita. She sings and plays in several groups including the Moss Project, Sefiroth, and Nightjar, and has toured in Europe, the Far East, the USA and canada. She delivers performances and workshops for the charity Live Music Now, which brings live music to hospitals, special needs schools, care homes, prisons and other places where people have limited access to music. She has taught vocal studies and improvisation at Salford University, RNcM, Gifted+Talented, The Sage Gateshead and Engines Orchestra, and was BBc Jazz on 3’s guest speaker on vocal improvisation in the UK.
Alex Roth Guitarist, composer, improviser, producer and interdisciplinary artist, Alex is gaining a reputation across the UK as ‘one of contemporary music’s most innovative and impressive talents’ (musicOMH). Drawing inspiration from dance, film, literature and visual art as well as a wide range of musical traditions, Alex's work ranges across the genres, from jazz to contemporary classical and includes collaborations with choreographers, designers and digital artists. Alex writes for the ensembles he leads or co-leads, such as his jazztronica quintet Otriad and art-rock band Blue-Eyed Hawk. He has also written for the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. A graduate of both Dartington college of Arts and the Royal Academy of Music, Alex has won many awards, including the 2011 Dankworth Prize for Jazz composition and the Musicians Benevolent Fund’s Emerging Excellence Award. In 2012 he was shortlisted for a BAScA British composer Award.
Alice Zawadzki Vocalist, violinist and composer Alice Zawadzki is a celebrated and individual presence in the creative music scene in London and beyond. Her journey into jazz began at the age of 13 when she met legendary New Orleans vocalist Lillian Boutté, who became her mentor and with whom she was touring as a vocalist by the age of 15. Alongside this, she was studying classical violin and piano, and she went on to the Royal Northern college of Music where she studied violin with a particular interest in chamber and contemporary music. She graduated in 2008 having also been awarded the Hilda collens Prize and the Emerging Artists Residency at cove Park. This period was also a rich and influential time for her activities as a vocalist, and she later graduated with an MA from the Royal Academy of Music where she studied jazz singing and composition with Pete churchill, Norma Winstone and Nia Lynn, supported by a Musicians Benevolent Fund scholarship. Her work as both a bandleader and collaborative musician has garnered her praise and critical acclaim. Her debut album China Lane (Whirlwind Recordings) – toured live at most of the major UK festivals and venues – was made album of the week by BBc 3 and received many four star reviews in the international and jazz press. It was also performed live for BBc Radio 2 at Maida Vale and led to
Alex has played at many of the UK's renowned venues as well as in the US and across Europe, and has appeared at major festivals including the BBc Proms, the London Jazz Festival and the Manchester Jazz Festival.
Alice Purton Alice is a London-based cellist much in demand as a chamber musician, contemporary music performer and improviser. She studied with Karine Georgian and Raphael Wallfisch while taking the prestigious Joint course of the Royal Northern college of Music and the University of Manchester, and then with Melissa Phelps at the Royal college of Music, where she completed her Masters in Performance in 2010. She has also studied with Anssi Karttunen at the Acanthes Academie and with Lucas Fels as part of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Alice plays in a number of ensembles dedicated to the performance of contemporary instrumental and electronic music and is the cellist of the chagall Piano Quartet who were recent finalists in the St Martin in the Fields chamber music competition Alice appears on The Music of Making Strange, a 2013 carrier Records portrait of composer Alex Hills, and on Pneuma, a 2014 collection of Martin Iddon’s works for Another Timbre.
The Julian Bliss Jazz Septet Friday 25 September, 7.30pm cowbridge comprehensive School Theatre Julian Bliss – clarinet Neal Thornton – piano Martin Shaw – trumpet colin Oxley – guitar Tim Thornton – bass chris Draper – drums Will Fry – percussion The versatile clarinettist Julian Bliss makes his second appearance at the festival, this time with his jazz septet to journey through the rich world of Latin American music. Dominated by the influences of cuba and Brazil, this musical heritage stretches back over 200 years with popular styles ranging from the elegant Rumba to the wildly exciting Samba. This project explores the growth of Latin music from the early days of the Habanera to the complexity of modern Salsa rhythms, including Ravel’s Bolero, the 1940s classic ‘Bésame Mucho’ and the famous Brazilian choro Tico Tico, made famous in films by Walt Disney and Woody Allen. Happy, exciting and intense, Latin music has it all. The Julian Bliss Septet will tour the USA in November 2015 and early 2016 and will appear at festivals in Europe and in the UK. The septet has performed in venues across Europe including London’s Wigmore Hall, Ronnie Scott’s, Amsterdam’s concertgebouw and leading festivals. ‘Bliss is capable of swinging mightily and adapting his formidable technique to the task in hand.’ THE JAZZ TIMES
‘The Julian Bliss Septet … captures the vibrant joy of a simple unadorned melody played with feeling and conviction.’ CRITICAL JAZZ
Patron’s concert: Benedetti – Elschenbroich – Grynyuk Piano Trio Thursday 12 November, 7.30pm Holy cross church Nicola Benedetti – violin Leonard Elschenbroich – cello Alexei Grynyuk – piano Notturno in E flat D. 897 by Schubert Piano Trio in B flat D. 898 by Schubert
INTERVAL Piano Trio in B major Op. 8 by Brahms
Nicola Benedetti Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought after violinists of her generation. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and dynamic presence, together with her wide appeal as a high profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today, much in demand with the great orchestras and conductors across the globe.
With her regular duo partner, pianist Alexei Grynyuk, Nicola frequently gives recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and festivals. She is also a devoted chamber musician: her piano trio with Alexei Grynyuk and Leonard Elschenbroich, formed in 2008, has performed at St John’s Smith Square, Amsterdam concertgebouw, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Edinburgh Usher Hall, Glasgow Royal concert Hall, LSO St. Luke's, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Die Glocke Bremen, Hong Kong city Hall, as well as at the Edinburgh, Ravinia, Schloss Elmau, Engadin and cheltenham festivals. Fiercely committed to music education and to developing young talent, Nicola has formed associations with schools, music colleges and local authorities. In 2010, she became Sistema Scotland’s official musical ‘Big Sister’ for the Big Noise project, a music initiative partnered with Venezuela’s El Sistema (Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar). As a board member and teacher, Nicola embraces her position as role model to encourage young people to take up music and work hard at it, and she continues to spread this message in school visits and masterclasses, not only in Scotland, but all around the world. In addition, Nicola recently developed her own education and outreach initiative entitled The Benedetti Sessions, giving hundreds of aspiring young string players the opportunity to rehearse, undertake and observe masterclasses culminating in a performance alongside Nicola. She has also presented The Benedetti Sessions at the Royal Albert Hall and cheltenham Festival and has plans to develop this exciting initiative on an international scale.
Born in Scotland of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of five with Brenda Smith. In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya, after which she continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski and then Pavel Vernikov. Nicola begins the 2015/16 season with her ‘Italy and the Four Seasons Tour’ starting in Scotland and ending in Dublin via Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London. Besides Vivaldi the concerts will feature the world premiere of a work by MarkAnthony Turnage, written for her and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich. Later, in November, she will perform another commissioned work, Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto, with the LSO at the Barbican.
credit: Simon Fowler
She will also be performing concertos with the Israel Philharmonic, Verdi Orchestra Milano, RSO Stuttgart, city of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, BBc National Orchestra of Wales, National Arts centre Orchestra Ottawa, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Tasmania Symphony Orchestra. And with her passion for music of the Italian Baroque she will be giving historical performances realised in collaborations with Andrea Marcon and the Manchester camerata and WDR cologne.
Winner of Best Female Artist at both the 2012 and 2013 classical BRIT Awards, Nicola records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). The enormous success of Nicola's most recent recording, Homecoming; A Scottish Fantasy, made Nicola the first solo British violinist since the 1990s to enter the Top 20 of the Official UK Albums chart. The Silver Violin, also enjoyed a similar success in reaching No. 30 in the UK Albums chart while at the same time topping the classical charts. Her past six recordings on Universal/Deutsche Grammophon include a varied catalogue of works including the Szymanowski concerto (London Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding), newly commissioned works by Tavener and The Lark Ascending (London Philharmonic/Andrew Litton), a disc of virtuosic works (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Vasily Petrenko), Tchaikovsky and Bruch concertos (czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Jakub Hrusa) and most recently Vivaldi, Tartini and Veracini concerti (Scottish chamber Orchestra/christian curnyn). Nicola was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 2013, in recognition of her international music career and work with musical charities throughout the U.K. In addition, she has received eight honorary degrees.
major international music festivals including the Schleswig Holstein Festival where he performed the complete Beethoven cello sonatas with christoph Eschenbach. On tour in South America, he has performed with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro colon and given recitals in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima and Sao Paulo. As a chamber musician, Leonard was a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio, and performs regularly with Nicola Benedetti and Alexei Grynyuk. Together they have performed at the BBc Proms, Royal Albert Hall, Usher Hall, and at the festivals of Hong Kong, Istanbul, Sala Sao Paulo and Ravinia. His debut cD (Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata and Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata), released on Onyx classics in 2013, received 5 star reviews, and latest recordings include Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No.2, recorded live at the concertgebouw with Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Andrew Litton, and Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata with Alexei Grynyuk. Leonard plays the ‘Leonard Rose’ cello made by Matteo Goffriller in Venice in 1693, on private loan.
Nicola plays the Gariel Stradivarius (1717), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.
Credit: Felix Broede
Alexei Grynyuk
Leonard Elschenbroich Leonard was born in 1985 in Frankfurt. He came to the UK at the age of eleven to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School, later studying with Frans Helmerson at the cologne Music Academy. He went on to win several major awards including the Leonard Bernstein and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust awards and in 2012 he became a member of the BBc Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme, a prestigious award offering performances and recordings with all the BBc orchestras. As soloist he has performed with many of the major orchestras throughout the world, including BBc Prom performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2013 and with the BBc Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014. Leonard has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre and the concertgebouw, as well as at a number of
Born in Kiev, Alexei began performing at the age of six and attracted wide attention at thirteen when he won first prize at the Sergei Diaghilev All-Soviet-Union piano competition in Moscow. By then he had already been touring Eastern Europe as a soloist as well as performing Mozart and chopin piano concertos with Ukrainian orchestras. Alexei studied at the Kiev conservatoire under Natalia Gridneva and Valery Kozlov and then at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne. He has won numerous other awards at international piano competitions including first prizes at the Vladimir Horowitz International Piano competition in Kiev and the Shanghai International Piano competition in china. Equally at home in classical, Romantic and twentiethcentury repertoire, Alexei has been invited to give solo recitals at many of the world’s prestigious venues, including the Great Hall of Moscow conservatoire, Wigmore Hall in London, the Salle cortot and Salle Gaveau in Paris and others throughout Europe, the USA, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Morocco. He enjoys worldwide critical acclaim
and has been described in Le Figaro as a ‘…master of transparent and sovereign touch…astonishing personality and absolutely transcendental virtuosity’.
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Notturno Op. 148 (D. 897) Schubert’s Notturno in E flat is performed relatively infrequently. Reminiscent of the Adagio of his better known string quintet it may have been intended as a slow movement for a piano trio, perhaps even for the Trio in B flat. ‘Notturno’ was the title given to the trio by the publisher in 1845 on account of its peaceful crepuscular atmosphere at the beginning. The piano opens with a series of rolling arpeggio chords and there then follows a song-like duet for the strings, repeated by the piano. There is an agitated central section before a return to the main theme and a quiet close.
Franz Schubert Piano Trio in B flat Op. 99 (D. 898) Allegro Moderato Andante, un poco mosso Scherzo: Allegro Rondo: Allegro vivace
The Piano Trio in B flat is the first of two piano trios Schubert wrote during the miraculously productive last years of his short life. Like his other late instrumental works they are remarkable in that they contain hardly a hint of the despair that engulfed him at this time, in contrast to his pessimistic song cycle Die Winterreise, composed around the same time. According to his friend Schober, ‘he frequented the city outskirts, roaming the taverns, at the same time composing the most beautiful music in them, just as he did in hospital too…where he found himself as the result of excessively indulgent sensual living.’ The Trio in B flat is certainly radiant and optimistic in spirit, having something of the freshness of his earlier ‘Trout’ Quintet about it; as Robert Schumann said, ‘One glance at it and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.’ Such optimism could hardly be better conveyed than by the opening of the first movement, the violin and cello playing the lively theme in unison, as well as by the tender second theme introduced by the cello. The slow movement begins with a gently flowing melody, again played by the cello, and passed in turn to the violin and piano, the string parts then becoming delicately intertwined as if in a vocal duet. The third movement’s Scherzo and Trio cleverly juxtapose the two most popular Viennese dances of the day, the ländler and the waltz, of the sort Schubert loved to improvise at soirées for his friends. Although the final movement is called Rondo, it is also like a set of variations that again recalls the famous fourth movement of his ‘Trout’ Quintet.
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Trio in B major Op. 8 Allegro con brio – Tranquillo – In tempo ma sempre sostenuto Scherzo: Allegro molto – Meno allegro – Tempo primo Adagio Finale: Allegro
Brahms was notorious for destroying the compositions he was dissatisfied with and is said to have consigned numerous early pieces of chamber music to the fire. The Piano Trio in B major was the first to survive this fierce self-criticism and be deemed worthy of publication. Monumental in scale, he began writing
it at the age of 21 in 1854, only to return to it thirty-five years later to make substantial revisions. The trio therefore has a special significance in that it is the fruit of both early genius and the wisdom of latter years. In a letter to Clara Schumann from his holiday retreat in 1889 he wrote, ‘With what childish amusement I whiled away the beautiful summer days you will never guess. I have rewritten my B major Trio… It will not be as wild as before - but will it be better?’ The first movement is extensive in scale. The stately opening theme, introduced by the piano and then played by the cello, and the initially peaceful second theme, played by the strings in unison, escalate into a mountainous development, the string writing having a passion and intensity equal to that of the double concerto for violin and cello he had written two years earlier. The Scherzo, the only movement to be left more or less as in the original version, is mysterious and dramatic with sudden Beethovenian fortissimo outbursts and whirlwind piano writing; the close warm harmonies of the central trio provide contrast. The Adagio is a dialogue between the piano and strings, the piano’s ethereal wide spread chords alternating with and then blending with the pianissimo strings before melting into the cello’s soulful melody at the centre of the movement. The main theme of the final movement, Allegro, in the more tragic minor key, is introduced by the cello accompanied by agitated triplets. The original version of the trio had been premiered in 1855 in New York and perhaps a reference to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ can be heard in the second theme played by the piano. After a turbulent development the recapitulation and coda bring the trio to a magnificent, sweeping conclusion, Brahms the pianist in full flow.