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The Aaben Duo are Nathan Holroyd Saxophone and Jess Hughes Harp and they appeared at our second concert of the season by kind permission of the Royal Northern College of Music. Saxophone and Harp is an unusual combination of instruments and an effective one.

The concert began with a Nocturne by Lili Boulanger and arranged by Nathan – it was originally scored for viola and piano but it does work very well with the harp and saxophone and was a wonderful beginning to the concert. This was followed by “Eolienne” by Ida Gotkovsky, who was a pupil of Lili Boulanger’s sister, Nadia. This piece was in five movements and I particularly liked the mellow sound that the saxophone made in the third movement. Nathan also showed great skill and verve in the fourth movement Perpetuum Mobile.

The third piece of the evening was Debussy’s “La fille aux cheveux de lin” (The Girl with Flaxen Hair” as I know it best!) This was played beautifully and, although the saxophone appeared to dominate, Jess’s superlative playing of the harp was a joy to listen to.

Then we heard Joseph Bologne’s Sonata for Flute and Harp in E flat major. The harp seemed to be dominant in the first movement, playing a lovely, lilting melody and this was echoed by the saxophone turn and turn about and then as a duo. Both instruments were in harmony during the second movement and the third movement had a lovely tune played turn and turn about by both instruments.

Next, we had Andy Scott’s Sonata for Saxophone and Harp, Nathan told us that Mr Scott is a tutor of Saxophone. This piece was originally written for flute and harp and is in three movements. Keith Osborne’s splendid programme notes says that this music shows influences of Eastern European music and jazz. Which it does. I liked the second movement with a harp solo to begin with – very quiet and then the saxophone joined in the same gentle theme. The third movement was very jazz oriented on both saxophone and harp with the addition of percussion on the harp.

This was followed by a topical piece of music, Jenni Watson’s “Dowpour”, beautifully played on the saxophone by Nathan.

Then Jess played a solo on the harp, this music was a lullaby written by Caroline Lizotte whilst the composer was pregnant. It was a wonderful piece of music superlatively played. But first, Jess told us a little about her harp. It is a pedal harp and the pedals change the pitch of the strings. The harp is made of Canadian maple and the sound board is made of spruce. The strings are made with a mixture of gut, nylon and brass. The red string is C and the blue string is F. Other colours represent other notes. Our Chairman said that this was the best description of a pedal harp that he had heard.

The concert ended with Jess’s arrangement of Sain-Saën’s “Le Cygne” from the Carnival of the Animals. The saxophone is well suited to play the Swan and the harp sounded like running water.

This was a most enjoyable concert and the audience was most appreciative and enthusiastic.

CM

This concert was the penultimate one of the season and what an enjoyable concert it was. Australian, James Blackford plays the Euphonium, this is an instrument which looks like a small tuba and is sometimes called the tenor tuba. James is a winner of the Philip & Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists, and on tonight’s showing is a worthy winner. Other winners of this prestigous award include Steven Isserlis, Elizabeth Watts and Craig Ogden.

James’s accompanist on the piano was Ruth Hollick. The first half of the concert was taken up by familiar works such as Villiers- Stanford’s Caoine a Clarinet Sonata and James played the second movement which has been arranged for the Euphonium. This was a delightful beginning to the concert. This was followed by Hummel’s Fantasy, James played the one on Mozart’s “Non piu andrai” (Figaro), Op.124. This was followed by the lovely Prayer, the first movement from Bloch’s A Jewish Life. Then we heard that wonderful Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky.

After the interval James and Ruth played for us Anthony Brahe’s Tour de Force, this music was written especially for James. It was indeed a a tour de force. This was followed by Piazzola’s tango Café 1930. Another treat followed, Martin Ellerby’s Euphonium concerto and we heard the 3^rd and 4^th movements. The last item on the Programme was Philip Spark’s Harlequin this piece was composed for and dedicated to the Euphonium virtuoso David Childs. It depicts the happy and sad masks of the Comedia dell’Arte, this features Harlequin as one of the main characters, the other eight are Zanni (Giovanni), Pantalone, il Dottore, Pulcinella, Columbina, il Capitano and Brighella. I enjoyed this piece very much and felt that it really showed off the versatility of the Euphonium. Judging by the whoops and loud clapping at the end, the audience felt the same.

We were treated to an encore – a very popular choice for a Lincolnshire audience – part of (another Australian), Percy Grainger’s Lincolnshire Poesy.

James was ably supported by Ruth who is a very fine pianist indeed and she was mentioned especially admiringly by a member of the Club that I met yesterday.

This was a very special concert.

CM

The four young people of The Rosamund Brass Quartet are Seb Williman cornet, Adam Hofland-Ward cornet, Georgia Woodhead tenor horn and Alex Barron euphonium. They are all students at the Royal Northern College of Music and appeared by the kind permission of that College.

This was the third concert in our series and what a concert this was, full of interesting music, some familiar and some new to the audience.

The concert began with Joel Kirk’s Scherzo Piccolo, this was originally a work for brass sextet before being arranged by the composer for Rosamund Brass, in many ways this piece is a homage to the late great Derek Bourgeois.running as one continuous movement, the piece is primarily comprised of both ‘Tango-’ and ‘March-’ influenced themes and also a ‘romanza’ theme (described by Alex as “cheesy!”) infused into one another.

I wouldn’t normally build a review around one piece of music, but in this case, I must really single out Jonathan Bates “This Is the Place”. It is in four parts I Sisterhood Pride, Moss Side evokes the Suffragette movement, II From the Sea, a rush wind blowing, Hulme ; this sounded very Pentecostal and I loved the lyricism of this section. III was Thunderdome, Miles Platting; with Acid House Music backing from the laptop, this was very exciting. But the most moving section was IV In Memoriam. This is the Place …Albert Square. The backing for this section was part of Tony Walsh’s wonderful poem This is the Place. I make no apology for quoting bits of it here:

“This is the place in the North West of England
It’s ace, it’s the best and the songs that we sing
From the stands, from our bands set the whole planet shaking
Our inventions are legends! There’s nowt we can’t make and

So we make brilliant music. We make brilliant bands
We make goals that make souls leap from seats in the stands
And we make things from steel and we make things from cotton
And we make people laugh, take the mick summat rotten”

The music was really an elegy for things past and in particular I thought of the 2017 Manchester Bombing and thinking of that was moved to tears.

“Because this is a place that has been through some hard times
Oppressions, recessions, depressions and dark times
But we keep fighting back with Greater Manchester spirit
Northern grit, northern wit in Greater Manchester’s lyrics

And there’s hard times again in these streets of our city
But we won’t take defeat and we don’t want your pity
Because this a place where we stand strong together
With a smile on our face, Mancunians Forever”

Discussing this at the interval with one of our members, his opinion was that this was the best piece of modern music that he has heard this year. I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

This was followed by Eric Ball’s “Jewels” and had a more traditional feel to it and then Karl Jenkins’ Hymn & Palladio, this was beautifully played and brought me down to earth again.

During the interval the audience enjoyed mince pies, wine and soft drinks and really entering into the Christmas spirit.

The second half opened with Blue by Thomas Ganach followed in swift succession by Mozart’s Andante from the Sonata for bassoon and cello arranged by Alex and played by Alex on the euphonium and Georgia on the tenor horn. Then Peter Graham’s A Capella Duets played by Seb and Adam on cornets, first “Energico”, then “Scoot” with euphonium and cornet. These short duets were written during lockdown in the 2020 pandemic and feature music from some of Peter Graham’s most famous works for brass band: and then a “Time for Love” with cornet and tenor horn. The duos ended with William Alwyn’s splendid Fugue on an Indian Scale, arranged by Alex.

This was followed by Joseph Horowitz’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, being a set of variations on Paganini’s famous Caprice 24. The concert then became very Christmassy with Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, arranged by Alex, Robert Wells’ The Christmas Song arranged by Seb. The concert ended with Alex’s arrangement of Bizet’s Farandole, the 4^th movement of the L’Arlesienne Suite and this was very much in keeping with the Christmas spirit.

The Rosamunds are to be congratulated on a thoughtful, interesting and moving programme of music. Their playing throughout was superb and I found them to be engaging and delightful personalities

CM