Category: Reviews

This was the third time that Boston Concert Club had welcomed Laurence Perkins and the first time for John Flinders. They gave us a wonderful concert at the Grammar School on 21 March. This concert was dedicated to the memory of long-standing Concert Club member, Brenda Lane, who passed away on 10 February 2023. Brenda wrote the Reviews for the concerts for many years and she is a very hard act to follow. In his opening remarks Laurence said that he and John were proud to give this concert in memory of Brenda.

The concert began with Gabriel Pierné’s Solo de Concert for bassoon and piano. The piano began and John made it sound very dramatic and then the bassoon joined in and both of these instruments complemented each other perfectly.

Laurence is a wonderful communicator and told us that this programme of music was all about the imagination. In the next piece, Concertino by Michael Haydn, there was lyrical playing by John with the bassoon singing in the lower register and purring away like a huge cat.

In Catalonia by Paul Reade, the imagination really got going; we were at a Festival in the South of France and a very jolly one it was too with a lot of dancing.

Ravel’s Habaňera was originally written as a vocalese for a mezzo and I thought that the bassoon was the perfect instrument for this. At the end there was the lovely silence as we all came back down to earth.

Before the interval Laurence and John played Carl Maria von Weber’s Andante e Rondo Ungarese. The bassoon sang accompanied by the piano. This is a pseudo-Hungarian rondo but it is a lively piece and must be great fun to play. In fact, I loved imagining all those “Hungarians” clumping round and round! It made me laugh.

After the interval, Laurence and John played Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette. This was enjoyed by at least two members of the audience who bumped shoulders in time to the music! I was reminded at first of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic and then I thought that this is really “circus like”.

The Romance by Saint-Saens was a huge contrast to the previous piece, I found it very peaceful and soothing.

A further contrast followed and this was Laurence playing Alan Ridout’s Caliban and Arial on the bassoon. First, we hear Caliban, the brutish slave of Prospero, earthbound and full of anger and impotence regarding his lot in life:

“This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me and made much of me… …and then I loved thee…
Cursed be I that did so…
For I am all the subjects that you have,Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’th’island!”
In contrast we heard Arial, that airy spirit, also wanting his freedom but in a lighter way:
“All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be’t to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl’d clouds; to thy strong bidding
task Ariel and all his quality.”
Laurence told us that he had given the first performance of this piece in 1975 in Canterbury.

Then there was the lovely melancholy Romance by Elgar, beautifully played by John and Laurence. Laurence is quoted in the Programme notes as ascribing its sadness as arising from the death of two of Elgar’s close friends who were featured in the Enigma Variations, A J Jaeger (Nimrod) and Basil G Nevison (BGN).

The bassoon is well suited to the three following traditional Hebridean Melodies arranged by Laurence, the beautiful ‘Mountain Shadow’, the lyrical ‘My fair-headed Mary’ and the jolly ‘The Cockle Gatherers’.
The final piece of music was Gilbert Vinter’s, “The Playful Pachyderm”. This is laugh-out loud stuff and the image of a dancing elephant was irresistible.
The audience clapped long and hard and there were bravos and cheers and then an encore. Laurence told us that John works with soloists and choirs but he “nearly fell under the table” when Laurence suggested as an encore Quenton Ashlyn’s “The Bassoon Song”. Ashlyn was a star of the Music Hall in Victorian times. Laurence sang the song and the bassoon did the bassoon bits in the song. It was wonderful. We all enjoyed every part of this final concert of the Season and we were left wanting more.

Laurence and John had earlier today visited Gipsey Bridge Primary School and on Wednesday they were to visit Sutterton Primary School. What a wonderful treat for the children.

on 21 February 2023 at Boston Grammar School

The last visit by the Passacaglia Trio to the Concert Club was on 18 December 2018, and the Trio received a very warm welcome from a capacity audience on their return to us on 21 February. The Trio specialise in Baroque Music and are Annabel Knight, recorders and flute; Robin Bigwood, harpsichord and Reiko Ichise viola da gamba.

The concert began with Handel’s Sonata in G major for flute and basso continuo. This was beautifully played with the viola da gamba growling away at the bottom, the flute dancing at the top and harpsichord singing away in the middle. I loved the sound of the viola da gamba.

Robin then played a solo on the harpsichord and this was a set of variations by C P E Bach. The variations are based on a well-known dance tune of the era, La Folia, and the harpsichord showed us all the colours and rhythms in this music.

It was sheer delight to listen to Greensleeves to a Ground from the first part of the Divisions and published by John Walsh in 1701; Divisions means variations and these were played on the recorder supported in the base line by the harpsichord and viola da gamba. Telemann’s Trio sonata for recorder, viola da gamba and basso continuo followed seamlessly and both pieces complemented each other wonderfully.

After the interval, Reiko played J S Bach’s Sonata in G major for viola da gamba and basso continuo (Robin on the harpsichord). This was beautifully played by both and I think that the singing voice of the viola da gamba has a much warmer tone than the cello, which supplanted it in the 18^th century.

Robin then played Couperin’s Les Barricades Mystėrieuses from Ordre 6ème de clavecin. This is a short piece and I was sorry when it ended, I loved the cascading sound of the harpsichord.

Robin was joined by Annabel and Reiko for C P E Bach’s Trio Sonata in F major for bass recorder and viola da gamba. The bass recorder is mighty instrument and I loved the sound it made. The concert ended with Anna bon di Venezia’s Sonata in G minor for flute and basso continuo. Anna bon di Venezia spent some time at the Court of Frederick the Great and I wonder if he played this piece of music. There is a very famous painting of Frederick the Great playing the flute at Sanssouci, his palace outside Berlin. It was a wonderful end to a very enjoyable evening and judging by the applause at the end everyone felt as I did. I hope that it won’t be too long before they make a return visit.

It is not often that the members of the Boston Concert Club give a standing ovation, but that is what happened at the end of a splendid concert given by pianist Victor Lim.

Victor began the concert with Haydn’s Piano Sonata in C major and this was a lively joyful piece of music played with dash and verve. Haydn wrote this music for a friend of his, Therese Bartolozzi, she must have been a very talented player and what a lovely present to receive.

The next three pieces were Nocturn No 3 in A flat major by Fauré, Grainger’s “Ramble on Richard Strauss’s ‘Der Rosenkavalier’” and Nocturn No 13 in B minor by Fauré. These followed seamlessly from one another and the audience paid rapt attention to Victor’s superlative playing.

After the interval Victor played J S Bach’s “Siciliano” as arranged by Wilhelm Kempff. This was a soothing and gentle beginning to the second half. Then we heard Grieg’s Holberg Suite and in the first of the dances the piano roared away at the beginning, Victor creating a very orchestral sound from the Grammar School piano. The second movement was gentler and songlike, followed by a jolly and fast-moving jig. The fourth movement was slower and the final movement was lively and fast moving with a slower section in the middle and finished in great style and at speed.

This was followed by two very contrasting mazurkas, first Chopin’s Mazurka in A minor and then Thomas Ades “Three Mazurkas”. The two pieces of music couldn’t have been more different; I think that I could have danced to Chopin’s despite there being about 50 different steps to a mazurka (and having two left feet), but Ades version was strictly for listening to. There was a section in the Ades Mazurka that was very bell like.

The highlight of the evening was Ravel’s “La Valse”, my goodness it was dramatic and Victor played with such passion, I felt quite breathless at the end. That standing ovation was justly earned.

Victor played as an encore the Prelude in B minor by Bach as arranged by Siloti. A beautiful ending to an exciting concert.

Afterwards members of the audience congratulated Victor on his wonderful performance and expressed the wish that he would come and play for us again.

Concert given on 15 November 2022

The second concert of the season was given by the Calderón Duo who are Florence Hill classical guitar and Holly Melia flute and piccolo; what a splendid evening of music it was. The concert began with Jaques Ibert’s Entr’acte and Florence and Holly played this Spanish style music beautifully with the guitar and flute weaving in an out, this was a lovely beginning to the concert.

Then we had Edward McGuire’s Improvisations on Calderón. Pedro de la Barca Calderón was a Spanish poet and playwright, born in Madrid in 1600 and died in 1681. Florence confirmed that the Duo are named after him. Keith Osborne’s splendid programme notes say that the music commentates on elements of comedy and tragedy in the playwright’s work. This was evident in the music which began with a sad melodic tune followed by rapid trills from the flute echoed by the guitar, both instruments being played with wit and verve. Holly changed to the piccolo and the music speeded up then it was back to the flute.

Next we heard Siciliane by Pergolese, a lyrical, lilting piece beautifully played. This was followed by Piazzola’s Histoire du Tango – Bordel and Cafė these two pieces were very enjoyable, we were tangoed!

Florence has the makings of a very good composer indeed, as shown by her guitar solo of her own Reflections, this was played with great feeling and delicacy and was a highlight of the evening.

The first half ended with Faurė’s Pavane. Faurė never disappoints and this familiar piece sounded fresh played on the flute and guitar. A real delight to listen to.

After the interval Holly paced into the hall playing Debussy’s Syrinx on the flute, this was a dramatic beginning to the second half. Syrinx was a nymph in Greek mythology and known for her chastity, pursued by the god Pan, she ran to the river’s edge and asked the river nymphs for help. They transformed her into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god’s frustrated breath blew across them. Pan cut the reeds to fashion the first set of panpipes, which were thenceforth known as syrinx. The flute was the perfect instrument for this work.

This was followed by another piece by Edward McGuire – Passing Seasons: Summer Murmur, Autumn Leaves, Winter Thoughts and Spring Awakening. I thought that Winter Thoughts were quite melancholic but Spring Awakening was more cheerful with the flute singing away like a whole flock of birds.

We then heard a collection of ten folk songs collected by Cecil Sharpe and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The guitar and flute are well suited to play folk tunes and these were so enjoyable to listen to. The piccolo was much in evidence doing duty as a penny whistle. Holly told me that the piccolo is the loudest instrument in the orchestra! I believed her.

The Folk Songs were followed by Enrique Granados’ Danza Espaňola No 5. This was beautifully played and I was certainly in Spain for a while.The concert ended with Piazzola’s Libertango and such was the warm applause at the end that Florence and Holly gave us an encore. Florence said that this was another of her compositions but that she hasn’t yet given it a name and so she proposed to call it “Boston Groove” in our honour. We were honoured as this is a wonderful piece of music and deserves to be firmly in the repertoire. The audience had a thoroughly good, musical evening.

Our next concert is the Christmas one on 20 December.

CM

Appearing with the kind permission of The Royal Northern College of Music, Laurel Saunders (clarinet) and Angharad Huw (harp) gave the first concert of the Season on Tuesday evening 18 October. It was good to see so many old friends and new faces at the concert, and what a concert it was – full of colour, life and interest. Your reviewer has never come across any of the composers in the programme – except for that Dave Brubeck classic Take Five.

The combination of clarinet and harp is new to the Club, I think, but on checking online I find that numerous composers have written for this combination, Schubert and Schumann to mention just two of them. Others will be mentioned later on in this Review.

The concert began with a piece by Paul Reade “The Victorian Kitchen Garden Suite”. This was a very good beginning and I particularly enjoyed the Prelude and Summer, these were delightful and very evocative of a well doing kitchen garden. Next we heard a short lyrical and peaceful Aria by Aaron Breeze. This was followed by “The Coastal Suite” by Roma Cafolla and was composed especially for clarinet and harp. I found myself on the coast and listening to the sea and the wind in all their varied moods.

Carlos Salzedo wrote “Chanson dans la Nuit” for solo harp and Angharad played this short piece with wit and feeling and it came with some percussive elements.

Béla Kovács’ “Hommage á J S Bach” and “Homage á De Falla” are both works for a solo clarinet, Laurel played these superbly well.

Paul Desmond composed “Take Five” and of course this was familiar to all of us from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. This was most enjoyable and who knew that the harp made a good bass? I didn’t. The first half ended with a Jazz Improvisation by Laurel and Angharad proving once again that harp and clarinet make an ace jazz duo.

After the interval we had a rare event at our concerts, so said Keith Osborne in his splendid programme notes, we had the World Premiere of Aaron Breeze’s “Adagio”. This is a piece which ought to be listened to again as on the first hearing it seemed that the clarinet played discordantly at times and the harp was the bass beat. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. It was followed by Laurel playing Tiberiu Olah’s Sonata for Clarinet and this piece showed very clearly the many different sounds that can be made by the clarinet, particularly by such a fine player as Laurel.

We then came to one of the most enjoyable pieces of music, this was “Six American Sketches” by Skalia Kanga. This is a descriptive and lyrical composition and the harp was very fine in II Running Water, very refreshing! And the clarinet was very grasshopper like in IV and in V Night Stillness the harp was very lovely with the clarinet interjecting. I would have liked to go to No VI the Country Fayre.

The piece of music by Uno Vesje I found fascinating “Life is flashing before my eyes and I realise that it all started with a blackbird”. This was played by Angharad and sure enough there is a real blackbird singing away (a pre-recording), and this was a lovely piece of music to listen to, both blackbird and harp!

We then heard two sections from Armando Ghidoni’s Jazzy-Celtic Suite – III Interlude and IV Celswing. In this the clarinet sounded smooth and the harp lyrical and in Celswing lively with a swing.

The concert ended, with I think my favourite bit. Laurel and Angharad played a folk improvisation and I asked Angharad about the lovely tune they improvised. Angharad wrote it down for me it is a Welsh folk tune “Hen ferchetan”. I looked it up online afterwards and it means old maid.

This was a wonderful beginning to the 2022/23 Season and I very much hope that Laurel and Angharad will be invited to play for us again. I am sure that they both have wonderful careers ahead of them.

CM

REVIEW OF CONCERT GIVEN ON 15th MARCH 2022

The concert given by the Alkyona String Quartet was a wonderful end to this season. The quartet line up was Emma Purslow, violin; Marike Kruup, violin; Claire Newton, viola and Jobine Siekman, cello. This concert was generously sponsored by Steve Boycott.

The concert began with Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 18 No 3 in D major. What a wonderful mellow sound from the cello in the first movement. All the players showed great musicality and what lyrical playing. In the final movement there was such a rich sound – it was like bathing in music.

Then we heard the String Quartet No 7 Opus 108 by Shostakovich, this was composed in 1960 and dedicated to his first wife who had died in 1954. Their marriage, I understand was volatile. The piece has humorous passages and in part an insistent beat. Was she nagging him I wondered, then there was a dissonance on all instruments and it all sounded like a monstrous quarrel; I felt some relief when that was over! This was a piece excitingly played and very colourful.

After the interval came the highlight of the evening; Schubert’s String Quartet D810 “Death and the Maiden”. This was played by the Quartet for the first time in concert and I understand from Steve Boycott that it had been learned specifically for this concert; it was an opportunity to learn it and play it for real and it’s now gone into their repertoire for the future (Emma Purslow). Death and the Maiden is a very dark subject, written in minor keys. Nevertheless it is quite lively in places, a dance of death and finally the maiden succumbs. The second movement shows Schubert’s genius in writing variations and the final movement asks who can stand against death?

The Quartet has a bright sound and the rapport and communication between the players was very evident throughout. The comments from members of the audience after the concert was very positive and it was felt that the players deserved the sustained applause they received at the end. It is hoped that they will make a return visit to us in another season.

CM

15 FEBRUARY 2022

Antoine Prēat the Franco-Belgian pianist is a Winner of the Philip and Dorothy Green Award 2020 and the Concert Club was delighted to welcome him as the soloist in the fifth concert of our Series on 15 February. This Young Musician shows great musicality in his playing and this was greatly enjoyed by the audience.

This concert was dedicated to the memory of a much loved member of the Club and Committee member, Susan Jennifer Oughton (Jenny) who sadly died last year. Jenny would have loved this concert.

Antoine began with Bach’s Partita No 4 in D major and he coaxed some wonderful sounds from the Grammar School piano and he played with great feeling. Next, he played the dramatic Aprés une Lecture du Dante and what an exciting piece this is and played with such expressive lyricism.

After the interval Antoine played that magical Sonata in A major by Schubert. In Keith Osborne’s splendid Programme Notes, Keith quoted from a letter that Schubert wrote to his parents, “Several people assured me that under my hands the keys become singing voices, which if it is true, pleases me very much.” Under Antoine’s hands in this and indeed in every piece the keys became singing voices.

The concert ended with Albèniz Iberia Primo Cuaderno which is wonderfully evocative of Spain this was beautifully played with sensitivity and colour.

Kezia Lovick-Jones amd Martha Cullen are both recent graduates of The Royal Northern College of Music and what talented musicians they are.They began the concert with Sonata No 2 from Telemann’s Six Canonic Sonatas. What a lovely sprightly round it was the music danced along, the soprano saxophones speaking to one another beautifully.

The concert continued with Gregory Wanamaker’s “Zippy!” In the introduction I thought I heard the word “chipmunk”, well that did it! Two chipmunks were chittering and chasing each other throughout the music with Martha on soprano sax and Kezia on Alto sax. It was great fun. What next? It was Marc Mellit’s “Black” played by Kezia and Martha on tenor saxophones; the imagination went off again and there was Pieter Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow, then there was the sound of sawing wood on the saxophones and the hunters all went home.

Next the girls played their soprano saxophones in Matthew Brown’s “A cottage on fire”. Did I hear screams, the fire engines? Then the roof fell in…

Kezia played a solo on her soprano saxophone and this time it was Graham Fitkin’s “Braemar”. That was a lovely piece of music and I’m sure I heard a hunting horn, the call of a stag and was that stag hounds giving tongue? It ended with what may have been an elegy for the stag.

Then we tangoed our way to the interval with three tangos by Piazzola as arranged by Kezia, played on the tenor saxophones with Kezia playing the Allegro Tangabile as a solo.

After the interval we had Handel’s Passacaglia as arranged first by Johan Halvorsen and then by the Idesta Duo, this was played on the soprano saxophones. This has two meanings and old Italian or Spanish dance tune or an instrumental musical composition consisting of variations usually on a ground bass in moderately slow triple time. This was a happy dance to the sound of bells, and let’s face it, Handel never disappoints and the arrangement was delightful.

Martha had arranged the next piece of music, which was by Bartok and was a selection from his 44 Duos for two violins, again played on the soprano saxophones.

Next, Martha played on her alto saxophone a Caprice en Forme de Valse by Paul Bonneau. I think you would have had difficulty in actually waltzing to this, I think that Bonneau had his tongue firmly in his cheek as he went off on a frolic of his own.

Rob Buckland the next composer is, according to the biographies in the Programme, one of the girls’ Professors of saxohone at the Royal Northern. It was a splendid choice and I particularly loved Fjord. Off I went to the fjords and mountains Norway with the music which was very atmospheric. I’m almost certain there was a sea eagle overhead and most definitely the hound music of a skein of wild geese. This was played on the alto saxophones as was Buckland’s next piece Mojito.

The concert ended with Roshanne Etezady’s “Glint” again played on the alto saxophones. In this music I heard a hurrying stream, a glint of fog was seen and surely that was a foghorn and the scream of gulls.

Kezia and Martha are clearly musicians of the highest order given the technique they displayed, not least in the rapid (and apparently accurate) fingering in the fast sections of the pieces they played. Plus their breath control was impressive and the sound they produced was clear and melodic, with no hints of breathiness (which can be a trait in some jazz saxophonists – I don’t dislike that breathiness, depending on the piece, but it’s more appropriate in jazz than in classical pieces, I think). They came to us with an impressive CV and were/are clearly highly thought of at RNCM.

This was an unusual and happy programme of music and everyone I spoke to said how much they had enjoyed the music and the evening.

CM and SB