Newsletter - April 2010
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Sarah Williamson
Sarah gave an exciting performance last month of an arrangement of Monti’s “Csardas”
for clarinet and orchestra with the Philharmonia in a packed Royal Albert Hall last
month as part of a Classic FM Live concert. She also went to Spain with the Carducci
Quartet to perform in the Ourense Festival. There is a wonderful 2 page interview
with her in the current Clarinet and Saxophone magazine and we are looking forward to
the release of her CD (Copland and Finzi concertos with Orchestra of the Swan) next
month. On 24 April she will perform the Copland with the Covent Garden Chamber
Orchestra in St Peter’s Church, Notting Hill.
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James Barralet
James’s debut CD for Landor is being well reviewed.
“This young cellist- who has also made his mark playing Indian music – offers a
muscular rich sound which dazzles in the Kodaly sonata and the gymnastics of Edwin
Roxburgh’s Partita for solo cello, and then switches on the lyricism for an intense
account of Britten’s third cello suite, including both versions of the first movement.
A brilliant debut disc.” ****
Classical Music Magazine March 2010
“In 2007 British cellist won the Landor Records Competition; this debut disk is the
result. Kodaly’s Sonata opens it in arresting fashion. Barralet, who studied with
Thomas Demenga at the Musikhochschule Basel, plays with energy and poise, judging the
pace expertly. The expansive chords seem to use every available inch of bow and the
many incredible effects that Kodaly draws from his instrument are accomplished with
enviable technique. Barralet, a fresh and charismatic communicator, keen Hungarian
folk dancer and one half of a cello and tabla duo, might be just the ideal performer
for this music. Edwin Roxburgh’s brief 1970 Partita makes its own recorded debut
here. Unfortunately its composition date, a year before Britten’s Third Suite, makes
comparison inevitable. The four concise movements make effective use of a wide range
of techniques that Barralet executes faultlessly, but there is none of the profundity
and soulful eloquence of the Britten, whose mood changes in the Allegro (Marcia) and
‘Dialogo’ are as rapid as flashes of film.”
The Strad April 2010
James will be performing in Balliol College, Oxford on 16 May at 9.00pm with a
programme of Boccherini, Mendelssohn, Faure and Rachmaninoff
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Libor Novacek
Libor’s fourth CD for Landor is also being well reviewed:
The young Czech pianist Libor Novacek's recording of the second, Italian book of
Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage brought him to everyone's attention when it appeared
four years ago, and the release of his version of its earlier, more introverted Swiss
companion has long felt overdue. It's been worth the wait, however. In many respects
Novacek is an ideal Liszt interpreter, technically exacting yet aware that the
composer's aim was not so much to push the player to his limits as to expand the
piano's expressive capabilities and the descriptive and narrative possibilities of
music. You're aware of a fine poetic sensibility at work here, yielding breathtaking
results in the shorter pieces such as Au Lac de Wallenstadt and Pastorale. Yet
Novacek also has the ability to think big when he needs to, so the larger, more
discursive pieces such as Vallée d'Obermann never seem shapeless or out of control.
The filler is the Consolations, in a performance of exquisite refinement, though
darker and less sentimental than most.
Tim Ashley guardian.co.uk, 11 March 2010
Liszt is red meat for the big beasts of the piano. What makes this recital so
arresting is the low-key approach that Libor Novacek takes to the Swiss episodes of
Liszt's travel diaries, as well the later, lesser known Consolations. The meditative,
priestly aspect of Liszt is often eclipsed by virtuosic display. Not here, though.
Softly, reflectively, Novacek portrays a deeper, introspective Liszt, seldom rising
above double-forte.
Norman Lebrecht 2010
On 16 May Libor makes his debut with the LPO in Eastbourne playing Liszt 1.
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Marina Nadiradze
Marina’s next UK concert will be at the Chipping Norton Theatre on 21st May when her
performance will include the Chopin B Minor Sonata. She has been invited to the Frome
Festival this year as musician in residence where her concerts will include both
Chopin Concertos on 15 and 16 July and a solo recital in Longleat House on 14 July.
She will also appear in the Harrogate International Festival on 19 July in a Yamaha
presentation concert.
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Madeleine Mitchell
Madeleine returned to the USA recently for a tour of recitals and master classes
including California, Florida and Oregon. She was invited to Bahrain to judge the
Young Musician of the Gulf competition and she recently stepped in at the last minute
for a concert in the Hall for Cornall with her London Chamber Ensemble and a programme
of Mozart - G minor Quartet, Mahler - Piano Quartet and the Schubert Trout.
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Carducci Quartet
They are about to embark on another tour of the USA, following which they will appear
at Kings Place on 15 May with Matthew Barley. This will be a totally unique concert-
going experience! In the first half they play movements of Schubert, Haydn and
Sachiado, and in between Matthew will improvise responses on his electric cello,
creating other worldly contrasts and surprises. During these improvisations, John
Metcalfe will be noting compositional ideas on a computer that Matthew will see via a
monitor, which will also be visible to the audience. This means that there will be a
‘creative transmission' in real time from composer to performer to audience that will
be entirely transparent - the audience will be able to see and hear exactly how that
process works, thanks to the advanced technology being used. Subtle and improvised
lighting from the Kings Place lighting crew will enhance the effect of a magical
musical journey. In the second half, Matthew and the quartet join forces for a
collection of premières of imaginative and sumptuous re-workings of Metcalfe by young
composer Misha Mullov-Abbado.
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Galliard Ensemble
The Galliards gave two rousing and lively children’s concerts last month in Oxford,
where the programmes were The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch and Making a Musical Cake. A
fun time was had by all concerned! They are at Leighton Buzzard on 17 April and next
month includes a mini residency at the RWCMD and a concert in Naunton on 14 May.
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Katona Twins
Next month the twins will take part in the Channel Classics 20th Anniversary concert
in Eindhoven. They have recently returned from a very successful mini tour of
Scotland and another trip to San Francisco as part of their residency there.
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Leslie Howard
Leslie Howards’s Wigmore Hall concert last year has been very well reviewed:
The prize for the performance of the year should surely be awarded to Leslie Howard
for his playing of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata Opus 106 at the Wigmore Hall on
November 8. Intellectually, physically, virtuosically and emotionally this was a
towering performance...Opus No 6 is the Mount Everest of music; very few pianists can
achieve the perfection that Howard exposed for us.. Leslie Howard is an amazing
performer.
John Amis, Musical Opinion 2010
Next month Leslie Howard will be touring Italy and them off to Bulawayo for the
festival.
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