Yesterday evening I went to two concerts on the last evening of the Aldeburgh Festival.
I used to go to the Festival quite a lot in the late 90s and early 2000s but had rather got out of the habit . It is a bit of a trek fromYorkshire.
As a fully paid up member of the Vilde Frang fan club however and as the concert was a Saturday evening I booked to see her play the Britten with BBCNOW and Mark Wigglesworth. I was intrigued to see that it was to be followed by a 9.30 concert in the Britten studio with Pat Kop and family playing Moldovan music plus Tzigane and the Third Enescu Sonata.
My responses to PK have been mixed . I could not stick her Beethoven or Tchaikovsky concertos - but her Gramophone award winning Bartok, Eotvos and Ligeti disc is extraordinary as is her Stravinsky /Prokofiev 2 .
Well , both concerts were wonderful . These two violinists must be pretty near the top of those playing nowadays . VF gave a passionate , idiomatic and moving account of the Britten. If you have her award winning CD you will know how well she plays it .
PK was as dazzling and as batty as one might expect. The Moldovan dance numbers with her violinist mother , cimbalom playing father and sister on the double bass were as wild and footstamping as could be. Then ten duos for violin and cimbalom by Kurtag was a beguiling shimmering set of effects - never heard a violin play like air being let out of a balloon before.
The two big pieces with Amy Yang at the piano ( she seemed to be having a whale of a time smiling at PK's handling of a phrase were also stunning . Tzigane was played with a great deal of soul as well as pyrotechnics to take your breath away. PK often leaning over the piano to heighten the sense of a duo playing . The Enescu might not have been a performance for everyday again very high octane and never boring as this can be in second rate hands. The audience loved it .
Interesting also to see Vilde Frang sneaked quietly into the hall to watch the second half judging by the beam on her face at the end of the Enescu she enjoyed it as much as the rest of us.
PS I saw a couple of audience members go up to VF in the interval to congratulate her on her playing of the Britten she seemed genuinely touched . A great evening.
PPS the BBC were there to record the BBCNOW concert shame they did not nip in to record PK too. It will be on Afternoon on 3 so look out for it . It also included two pieces by Emily Howard - the impressive Magnetite from 2007 and the rather less impressive Sphere from last year - which sounded more like an angry wasp to me. Finally, a piece I suspect seldom played at the Festival- Dvorak 9 as a part of the Britten in America theme. I doubt Mark Wigglesworth conducts it all that often - which showed in performance the very opposite of routine played for all it was worth.
I used to go to the Festival quite a lot in the late 90s and early 2000s but had rather got out of the habit . It is a bit of a trek fromYorkshire.
As a fully paid up member of the Vilde Frang fan club however and as the concert was a Saturday evening I booked to see her play the Britten with BBCNOW and Mark Wigglesworth. I was intrigued to see that it was to be followed by a 9.30 concert in the Britten studio with Pat Kop and family playing Moldovan music plus Tzigane and the Third Enescu Sonata.
My responses to PK have been mixed . I could not stick her Beethoven or Tchaikovsky concertos - but her Gramophone award winning Bartok, Eotvos and Ligeti disc is extraordinary as is her Stravinsky /Prokofiev 2 .
Well , both concerts were wonderful . These two violinists must be pretty near the top of those playing nowadays . VF gave a passionate , idiomatic and moving account of the Britten. If you have her award winning CD you will know how well she plays it .
PK was as dazzling and as batty as one might expect. The Moldovan dance numbers with her violinist mother , cimbalom playing father and sister on the double bass were as wild and footstamping as could be. Then ten duos for violin and cimbalom by Kurtag was a beguiling shimmering set of effects - never heard a violin play like air being let out of a balloon before.
The two big pieces with Amy Yang at the piano ( she seemed to be having a whale of a time smiling at PK's handling of a phrase were also stunning . Tzigane was played with a great deal of soul as well as pyrotechnics to take your breath away. PK often leaning over the piano to heighten the sense of a duo playing . The Enescu might not have been a performance for everyday again very high octane and never boring as this can be in second rate hands. The audience loved it .
Interesting also to see Vilde Frang sneaked quietly into the hall to watch the second half judging by the beam on her face at the end of the Enescu she enjoyed it as much as the rest of us.
PS I saw a couple of audience members go up to VF in the interval to congratulate her on her playing of the Britten she seemed genuinely touched . A great evening.
PPS the BBC were there to record the BBCNOW concert shame they did not nip in to record PK too. It will be on Afternoon on 3 so look out for it . It also included two pieces by Emily Howard - the impressive Magnetite from 2007 and the rather less impressive Sphere from last year - which sounded more like an angry wasp to me. Finally, a piece I suspect seldom played at the Festival- Dvorak 9 as a part of the Britten in America theme. I doubt Mark Wigglesworth conducts it all that often - which showed in performance the very opposite of routine played for all it was worth.
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