2011
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23nd January – The
With enthusiastic applause only
slowing dying away, Lucy Shimidzu of the London Trio
told the audience at a Tilford Bach Society concert at Farnham Castle on 28th
January that the ensemble would give them a “lollipop” (the word
Sir Thomas Beecham used for an encore at the end of his concerts). They then
played a piece of Scott Joplin ragtime and the Tilford Bach Society members
went home humming that and many other tunes they had heard that evening.
The food analogy seemed appropriate – this had been the musical
equivalent of comfort food, similar to gorging oneself on a wonderful box of
chocolates or a favourite dessert.
Everything in the repertoire of the London Trio seems to be a classic
that is either familiar or easily followed and enjoyed.
Starting with Bach’s Jesu Joy
of Man’s Desiring, adapted for a trio from the piano version of Dame
Myra Hess, the audience then heard a Handel Sonata and a Mozart Divertimento.
After the interval, Elgar’s Salut
d’Amour was followed by the equally famous Massenet Meditation from Thaïs.
Haydn’s Trio in C finished the
main programme and completed a programme that was pure delight to all present.
Everyone deserves a real treat every so often, and this was a concert
that cheered up a good number of Farnham’s music lovers who all had
braved a very cold and miserable evening to go out.
Richard Smith (violin), Lucy Shimidzu (piano)
and Penelope Sapiro have been together as a very
popular and successful musical trio for many years, and this was their third
visit to TBS. They are accomplished musicians who know what an audience wants
and can deliver a very good concert, and they will almost certainly be
returning.
Ian Sargeant
29 January 2011
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25th
February – Due Corde
Among
the celebrities of eighteenth century
The resulting sound delighted and intrigued the
audience at Farnham Castle as the duo performed works in a wide range of styles
by little-known baroque composers who were all performing ‘super
stars’ of their day. Among
the many sonatas performed was one by the better-known Corelli which included
an exquisitely bright, singing fugue and breathtakingly challenging vivace. Castrucci, who worked with Handel in
The scholarship of these two young musicians and
their dedication in bringing these little-known works to light impressed
everyone present, but above all they provided their audience with an
entertaining and varied musical feast.
Rosemary Wisbey
26 February 2011
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25th March –
Since the founding of the Tilford Bach Society in
1952 a succession of Music Directors with academic connections means that the
society has been privileged to enjoy performances from some of the most
talented music students in the world. On Friday March 25th,in the Great Hall of
Farnham Castle, Adrian Butterfield brought the Royal College of Music Chamber
Orchestra, eleven singers and instrumentalists who combined in various groups
for an evening of Baroque music.
Telemann’s writing was so prolific he was said
to have had an output of about two items per day. His Quadro in G minor was thought to be one of his best, and it gave recorder
player Isobel Clarke the chance to shine. Sadly it was her only appearance
during the evening.
Handel’s Trio
Sonata Opus 5 featured violinists Anne Marie Christensen and Sophia Anagnostou, with continuo provided by cellist Richard
Phillips and Aidan Phillips at the harpsichord. It featured arias from some of
his opera,s if you could spot them.
Handel’s Cantata
Diana Cacciatrice, Diana the Huntress, made for a spectacular end to the first
half with soprano Louise Alder in fine voice, occasionally joining in close
duet with a natural trumpet played by Russell Gilmour whose clear and accurate
playing gave the piece a real sparkle. And up in the gallery, using the Great
Hall’s acoustic to advantage, echo soprano Kristi Assaly
joined in a reverberative trio with soprano and trumpet.
Telemann’s Concerto
for 4 Violins was just that – four violins, no basso continuo. So
instead of the usual duel between soloists and orchestra the violins weave
around each other in a tight-knit delight. Anne Marie and Sophia were joined by
Olga Popova and Magdalena Loth-Hill.
William Boyce was appointed Master of the
King’s Music in 1755, but after his death his music was largely forgotten
and is still not played much today. Difficult to believe if his Trio Sonata in A Minor is anything to go
by, particularly the last movement. Played by Olga and
Appropriately for the Tilford Bach Society the last
item was Bach’s cantata Jauchzet
Gott in allen landen, Praise God in all lands.
Not much to say really – a stunning soprano performing with an ace
trumpeter, and four violinists, viola, cellist and harpsichordist all playing
out of their socks. Brilliant! One comment heard from the audience afterwards,
“We’re stuck in our seats; we’re just mesmerised!”
Pete Wisbey
27 March 2011
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15th April – The Mediterranea
Trio
Piano, violin and cello make an exciting combination
and The Mediterranea Trio made a welcome second visit
to
The choice of music was guaranteed to excite the
music lovers – Schubert’s Piano
Trio in E flat Major was an excellent starter with its demanding changes of
tempo and virtuoso piano playing. The group tackled the entire piece with total
confidence and great finesse. The climactic final movement had pulses racing as
much in the audience as amongst the performers.
Haydn’s “Gypsy”
Piano Trio was also well received with, once again, a very demanding score
that rose to a final movement with a gypsy rondo that had everyone’s
adrenalin flowing.
The final work was a contrast on more than one
level. The Argentinian composer Piazzola’s Four Seasons may be inspired by
Vivaldi’s work with the same name, but the similarity stops there. A
modern work, it both surprised and excited the audience, not least because the
final part Summer comes to an abrupt
halt, unlike the previous pieces where we can see the terminus of our journey
dozens of bars before the end.
This group delivers wonderful music with great
confidence. Elenlucia Pappalardo is an outstanding pianist and she is matched
by Markella Vandoros on the
violin and newcomer Michael Wigram on cello.
Ian Sargeant
Saturday, 16 April, 2011
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15th
July – The New London Opera Group
Cast
of The Zoo, left to right: Chris
Cann, Kirsty Bennett, Robert Felstead, Paul Guinery
(accompanist), Catrine Kirkman & Graham Rogers
The July summer concert of the Tilford Bach Society
on 15 July was ground-breaking in two respects. It was the first of the summer
concerts to be open to non-members and it was the first TBS concert to include
exclusively the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan. If it had been a glorious summer
evening for people to enjoy their picnic in the grounds of Farnham Castle, that
would have been a hat trick of exceptional circumstances.
However, a little light drizzle outside did not
detract from the warm glow felt by a very large audience inside the castle. The
first half was the performance of a short opera rarely heard – The Zoo. Described as a musical folly in
one act, the libretto was by Bolton Rowe, the pen name of B.C. Stephenson, a
dramatist of the Victorian era.
Sullivan’s music for this piece was as delightful
as most of his other works and the performance by members of The New London
Opera Group was excellent in all respects. Professional singers who can all act
with great confidence produced a totally professional performance. We will not
dwell on the story of the opera, which was as daft as anything W.S. Gilbert produced, but there were many amusing moments
and it was wonderful entertainment.
After the one hour interval for food and wine with
many brave members eating outside, Gilbert & Sullivan aficionados were then
well sated in the second part of the concert with a selection of songs and
choruses from various G&S operas. Some were very
well known and others less so. The well trained operatic voices of the five
singers produced some wonderful moments in the reverberant Great Hall of the
castle.
Catrine Kirkman (soprano) delivered a superb The sun whose rays are all ablaze from The Mikado that sent shivers down the
spine. A portly Chris Cann (baritone) delivered two of the patter songs with
great effect (I am the very model of a
modern major-general from The Pirates
of Penzance and the Nightmare Song
from Iolanthe).
Robert Felstead is an
excellent tenor and his performance of I Shipp’d d’ye see
from Ruddigore
was a highpoint of the second part. Ruddigore was also the opera that includes the duet in which
we heard, with much pleasure, the delightful voices of the other two singers,
Kirsty Bennett (mezzo-soprano) and Graham Rogers (bass-baritone) when they sang
There grew a little flower. The
member of the company who worked hardest was Paul Guinery, whose musical
accompaniment was highly accomplished.
The New London Opera Group delivered a memorable
evening of entertainment to a very high standard, both musically and with good
dramatic impact. It may have been a first for this kind of programme at TBS,
but will probably not be the last.
Ian Sargeant
Saturday, 16 July, 2011
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29h
September –
It always gives me great pleasure as
chair of the Tilford Bach Society when so many of our visiting musicians,
particularly the younger ones, ask to come back. When the London Pleyel Trio
came to open our Autumn season they were familiar faces. Violinist Clara Biss
came in a quartet several years ago, and cellist Sheida
Davis and pianist Helen Reid were making their third visit.
There’s not much to say about Haydn’s
trio in A major. It’s a magnificent example of the composer’s
talent and beautifully played with great drive and passion, particularly by
Clara getting the best from her 18th century violin.
It’s a rare pleasure to hear contemporary
music at the Castle and especially so when the composer is there to talk about
his piece. Dominic Sewell wrote his trio whilst a composition pupil with Joseph
Horovitz who apparently greeted Dominic on their
first meeting with the words “I like tonal music, do you?” The trio in one movement is strangely
marked moderato because there is much variation in the tempi. It is written in
arch form with references to a number of composers from Bach to Shostakovich.
When he heard the trio, Horovitz damned it with faint
praise saying “Yes, OK, but
don’t burn the rest of your music”. The TBS audience were much more
forthcoming with their praise both for the composer and the brilliant
performance by the Pleyel Trio.
After the interval Helen Reid played Chopin’s
nocturne in C sharp minor which he wrote for and dedicated to his sister to
help her play his piano concertos. It’s marked op.posth
because his house was burned down by the Russians and much of his music was
lost. To please a girl friend he wrote out this nocturne for her, and it was
only published after his death.
The evening ended with Chopin’s piano trio in
G minor. This is a powerful work and the first movement was played with such
fire and drive that on the last chord you could feel the audience were
desperate to applaud. There was a certain anger you could feel in the writing;
I wonder if he was still mad at the Russians for burning his house. It was a
great evening with three highly skilled musicians in full flow. That’s
what life at the Tilford Bach Society is all about!
Pete Wisbey
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21st October – Tim Lowe & Stephen Gutman
Promising young musicians who need
performance experience benefit greatly when they get the assistance of The
Countess of Munster Musical Trust. So do music societies such as the Tilford
Bach Society because they get to hear these professional musicians at a lower
cost than might otherwise be the case.
On 21 October at
The opening piece by JS Bach was a Gamba Sonata that totally suited the
audience, particularly because it has echoes of the 3rd Brandenburg Concerto in
the first movement.
Gabriel Fauré’s Sonata was slightly rhapsodic and gave enormous scope for both
performers to display their particular skills. Tim Lowe delivers wonderfully
controlled vibrato in slow passages and, if you close your eyes, it is often
impossible to know where the bowing is changing.
Stephen Gutman played some challenging virtuoso
piano sections with total ease when they played the Sibelius work Malinconia, a sad piece with the
mournfulness delivered by the cello whilst the piano ripples away in massive
arpeggio runs. The final work was a Chopin sonata that was also slightly
melancholic, this being the mood that is so well interpreted on a cello.
There was a strong feeling that Tim Lowe is destined
for ever greater success as a chamber musician and general agreement that we
will be hearing of him in coming years.
Ian Sargeant
23 Oct 2011
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18th
November – David Wright
Bach’s Goldberg Variations were
reputedly ‘composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits’ and
that was certainly their effect on the music lovers of the Tilford Bach Society
in Farnham Castle. A whole evening
given over to a single work on one instrument may not sound very exciting but
in the hands of harpsichordist David Wright it proved an amazingly varied and
rewarding experience.
It was all the more amazing because, until the age
of sixteen, David was entirely self-taught, having learnt to play by ear during
his childhood in Bethnal Green. Yet
in 2003 he graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music, having
already won several prestigious awards.
Since then he has gained international renown as a soloist and performed
with some of the world’s leading musicians.
Performing the Air and 30 variations on his own
instrument, a reproduction of the type of harpsichord for which J. S. Bach
designed the work, David amply demonstrated just what the composer achieved in
his later years, and communicated the enjoyment and satisfaction Bach must have
experienced in creating ever more intricate versions of the simple basic
theme. The moods varied from the
sombre and profound to the skittish, many sections zipping along at lightning
speed and demanding fiendishly difficult techniques. After this major tour de force David
still had the energy to reward the audience’s enthusiasm with a popular
Scarlatti piece as an encore.
Rosemary Wisbey