As a continuation of my enjoyment of music at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario, I have been attending quite a number of performances at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham.
The latest concert (11th March 2011) was given by the University Chamber Orchestra. They played Pelléas et Mélisande by J. Sibelius and Siegfried Idyll by R. Wagner, but the the Dance of the Yao People by Mao Yuan and Liu Tieshan was definitely the most fun. Here is a lovely rendition of the tune - the University Chamber Orchestra will have to practice a bit more to reach this level of performance, though. Back in November 2010 they tried their skills on L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 - a pleasant, if not mind-blowing experience.
On 4th March the Centre for Early Music Performance and Research at the University of Birmingham put on a variety programme spannig from the Bamberg Codex, H. Purcell and G.P. Telemann to D. Scarlatti, J.S. Bach and W. A. Mozart. The students played some quaint instruments: cornett, sackbut and theorbo, as well as many different recorders and two harpsichords. It was an altogether pleasant concert.
On 11th February I listened to Sacconi Quartet - and they were great. I liked their version of A. Dvořák's String Quartet in F, op. 96 'American' so much that I bought a recording of theirs. Unfortunately not pieces by Dvořák or Haydn, but a recording of Ravel, Lalo and Turina String Quartets - a CD I don't at all get on with.
In January I attended a Czech concert: two excellent musicians Jan Souček (oboe) and Martin Fila (piano) played tunes by 19th century composers. The pieces I liked best were R. Schumann's Fünf Stücke im Volkston, op. 102. This concert was sponsored by the Low-Beer Trust, a family with roots in Brno in the Czech Republic. I could have visited that town in winter, but chose not to, and found the unexpected resurfacing of that location amusing.
Last year in December I treated myself to a performance by the Kit Downes Trio - a traditional jazz outfit; when I closed my eyes I was right back in the Wolf Performance Hall - brilliant!
In early December I enjoyed Kenneth Hamilton's lecture-recitals: Mozart through the ages.
This Reader in Music knows his stuff and explained and demonstrated with gusto W.A. Mozart's style and how it was appropriated by various other composers. He might even have mentioned François Devienne, the "French Mozart". With a bit more prior knowledge on the subject I would have learned even more. As it was, I just watched in fascination as the man played and talked and waved his hands about a lot.
0 comments:
Post a Comment