What was your last concert?

[Andrew Slater]

A late-night piano recital of light music given by Radio 3's Paul Guinery at the English Music Festival.

[smittims]

He's very good, isn't he? I often play something from his CD 'Delius and his circle' on Stone records. Some rare pieces there.

[Andrew Slater]

Yes, very good.

He included one or two pieces which he'd come across in manuscript and which might never have been performed publicly before. EM records (the festival's own label) has issued 3 CDs of his, including the pieces in yesterday's recital.

Surprisingly the recital included a light piece by Frank Bridge. Apparently at the beginning of his career he produced several such pieces - publishers were of course more interested in this kind of music from young composers than symphonies!

[rauschwerk]

Sunday May 19 in St. Mark's Church, Broomhill, Sheffield: 'Visions' - an afternoon of choral music. The Abbeydale Singers cond. Lucy Joy Morris with Ensemble 360 and others.

Fauré/Messager: Messe des Pêcheurs de Villerville
Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine
Franck: Prelude, Fugue and Variation for organ
Augusta Holmès: La vision de la reine

Some adventurous programming here. The Mass setting was revived in 1980 and published as recently as 2000. Most of Franck's organ music I can take or leave, though this was perhaps not heard at its best on an English church organ. I had not realised that Augusta Holmès was a composer and would quite like to hear more of her work. All this music was very well performed to a capacity audience.

Monday May 20 in the Sheffield Crucible Studio: Ensemble 360.

Mozart: String Quintet in G minor
Schubert: Piano Trio in E flat.

A very substantial programme, beautifully performed. Robin Ireland (the Lindsay Quartet's violist for 20 years) played second viola in the Mozart. Tim Horton explained that they would play the shorter version of the Schubert finale, though I confess I still became a little impatient in the final bars.

[ostuni]

Last night, at the Wigmore, the combined Belcea and Ébène quartets, playing the Mendelssohn and Enescu Octets. Absolutely brilliant, powerful playing - I urge anyone who loves these pieces to listen to R3 in Concert, Tue 4th June, recorded last night. Mark Pullinger, who was in a more expensive seat than mine, noted (on Twitter) piano royalty in the next rows to his: Brendel, and Perahia.

A few notes for quartet nerds like me. Corina Belcea was playing violin 1 for both pieces - possibly because the Ébène's leader is temporarily out of action: Jonathan Schwarz (leader of the brilliant young Leonkoro Quartet) was the substitute. And the Belcea's violist, Krzysztof Chorzelski, is a magnificent player (something that came across 3 weeks ago in the same hall, where I saw the Belceas, together with Tabea Zimmermann & J-G Queyras, in the Brahms Sextets).

[Old Grumpy]

Swaledale Festival of Music Arts and Walking - music:

London Tango Quintet @ St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth

Star performers all - really pushed the boat out.

A great evening - tangfastic!

[rauschwerk]

Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra - Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe

This was the choice of an extended family member to mark a birthday. I went along to see what it would be like. A pleasant young woman sang with her guitar for about half an hour, then the band came on after the interval. I found it relentlessly loud and stylistically monotonous, to say the least. The intonation of some of the band soloists was not above reproach, but the worst offender was the last singer who sang very loudly all the time and sharp as hell.I wouldn't go again, though my wife and the rest of the party were much more enthusiastic. So were the capacity audience.

There's no accounting for taste.

[rauschwerk]

Swaledale Festival of Music Arts and Walking - music:

London Tango Quintet @ St Andrew's Church, Aysgarth

Star performers all - really pushed the boat out.

A great evening - tangfastic!

I'm very much looking forward to their visit to Bury St. Edmunds next year.

[gurnemanz]

Ian Bostridge's staged Winterreise at the Ustinov Theatre in Bath with Julius Drake accompanying, devised in collaboration with Deborah Warner, is a compelling experience both musically and visually. An old man is sitting inconspicuously at the front of the stage, like an extra member of the audience. He turns out at the end to be the Leiermann. A crow perches ominously above the action. When our wanderer rests for the night in the charcoal burner's hut, he lies down half underneath the piano and delivers his Frühlingstraum from that position.

Well worth catching (five stars in Guardian). It's coming back in the autumn.

[rauschwerk]

June 21 at Snape Maltings:
'The Kanneh-Masons and Friends'
Braimah, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason plus Edgar Francis and Toby Hughes.

Mendelssohn: Cello Sonata in No. 1 in B flat
Brahms: Piano Trio No 2 in C
Schubert: 'Trout' Quintet

An exhilarating evening in which a good time was had by all. Fast tempi in the Schubert, but never really rushed. My only real criticism was that the violinist was a bit underpowered in relation to the other musicians.

The next night I went to Curlew River at Blythburgh, but have mentioned that elsewhere.

[hmvman]

Was in Crail last week and attended two concerts in the church as part of the East Neuk Festival.

June 26th Opening Concert:
Hisako Kawamura (piano), Doric Quartet

Ravel: Sonatine
Beethoven: Quartet in G, Op. 18 No.2
Schumann: Piano Quintet Op.44

June 28th 'Meetings with Great Composers 1'
Boris Giltburg (piano), Pavel Haas Quartet

Rachmaninov: Morceaux de fantasie Op. 3 Nos 2 and 3
Tchaikovsky: Quartet No.3 Op. 30
Brahms: Piano Quartet Op.26

Excellent playing all round. The Schumann quintet is one of my favourite chamber works and it was given an exhilarating performance.

Both concerts were very well attended, the church being almost full. Sadly, not many (if any) young faces in the audience.

This was my first visit to the East Neuk and next year they will be celebrating 20 years with performances of all five late Beethoven quartets as well as other works. I'm planning a return!

[gradus]

Steven Osborne playing wondertfully well, two late Schubert sonatas with some short Judith Weir pieces at Snape. It was recorded so will probably feature on R3.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Steven Osborne playing wondertfully well, two late Schubert sonatas with some short Judith Weir pieces at Snape. It was recorded so will probably feature on R3.

In fact it went out live Gradus . The A major was excellent as indeed was the Bflat but I think he rushed his fences a bit in the final few pages of the latter and unfortunately started dropping a few notes. Overall though wonderful.