Previous Concerts at St Lawrence
Saturday 15th September 2007 - 7.30pm
James
can certainly be proud of the way his baby performed on Saturday - his baby
grand, that is, christened Phyllis for reasons best know to James, but allegedly
a reference to fair Phyllis in some madrigal. Under the tender ministrations of
Ivan Yanakov, the new Reid-Sohn baby grand sounded magnificent and looked
wonderful, gleaming blackly in all her ebony splendour. She would have gleamed
even more lustrously had James remembered to bring the furry mitt that came with
her, to help polish her to perfection.
Bulgarian born Ivan now lives in London and is musical director at a church in Maidenhead. He admitted he has never given a piano recital there, as they don’t have a piano that is good enough. (Guess that made James feel a tad smug).
Ivan managed to squeeze the performance at St Lawrence in between a concert in Sarajevo earlier in the month, and rushing off to Berlin for two recitals there the following week.
He had become so used to the warmer temperatures on mainland Europe that he found St Lawrence distinctly on the chilly side. So much so that he disappeared a few times between pieces to warm his hands in a sink full of hot water!
Ivan’s recent globe trotting has taken in Italy, France, Japan, Germany and Bulgaria over the last year. In 2001, he won the Artists International Debut Winners Series in New York City, where he studied at the Mannes College of Music.
His brilliant performance on Phyllis gave us a taste of some of the best in Romantic piano music - Beethoven’s Pathetique, a Chopin nocturne and etudes, some Liszt and, of course, some Rachmaninoff. He swopped a planned Chopin etude for one by Scriabin, written for the left hand only. It sounded stunning when you thought it was for two hands, but was awe inspiring when you realised one hand was doing all the work.
Sadly, baby Phyllis won’t grow with the passage of time, but she will mature the more she is played and if that’s by the hands of masters like Ivan, we certainly have a lot to look forward to.
Elizabeth Bedford
Saturday 23rd June 2007 - 7.30pm
The Perry Parsons Big Band
For those of a delicate disposition or with sensitive hearing, St Lawrence was not the place to be on Saturday 23rd June. Even James on the organ with all the stops out and the boxes open as wide as they can go, could not rival the sheer volume of sound produced by the Perry Parsons Big Band.
They were big in every way. Definitely big on sound, big on numbers (nineteen musicians) and big on talent. The Band is a collection of musicians with a passion for jazz and a love of playing great music. And they offered us a great variety of tunes, from early swing to easy listening and modern big band, spanning the 1920s to the present day.
They were clearly a popular choice, as the concert attracted the largest audience we have had so far in our series. While most of the regulars were there, a number of new faces appeared, obviously attracted by the rather different musical fare on offer from our earlier concerts.
For more than the first half, the band coped admirably without a conductor. When a stranger appeared part way through the second set, we thought it was a member of the audience turning up late. But no – it was Perry Parsons himself putting in a late appearance, after having spent the earlier part of the evening conducting another part of the band at a different venue. These Perry Parson players certainly know how to spread themselves around.
So now we have a break before our next concert on 15th September when the wonderful, black, shiny and totally amazing new baby grand piano, christened Phyllis by he who arranged for her presence among us, will have her inaugural performance, given by Ivan Yanakov, winner of the Artists’ International Debut Winners Series in New York City. Be there.
Elizabeth Bedford
Saturday 26th May 2007 - 7.30pm
The Trix Consort
Actually they weren’t up to their old tricks at all, but some completely new ones, as we were privileged to witness the debut of an entirely new singing group, the Trix Consort, at our May concert.
Nine talented singers came together under the auspices of our very own James Mooney-Dutton to perform unaccompanied a delightful variety of choral offerings. Two sopranos, three altos, a pair of tenors and a couple of basses blended their voices in harmony to bring us a range of songs.
The Trix Consort (and I defy anyone to guess the origins of their name – answers on a postcard or by e-mail) is made up of music students, teachers, organ students and choir members, some of whom have professions outside music (including a high-flying City worker) but who all share a love for singing and making music together.
Some of the faces were known to us – apart from James, there was Hannah Allchin-Kolyszka, who has performed at St Lawrence on a number of occasions. Zoe Collins and Henry Deacon have also sung added strength to our choir in the past. It was good to welcome back Rachel Ridout, in a different guise from her last appearance when she was one of the saxophonists in our April concert.
The first half of the programme was mainly sacred music, ranging from Stanford and Parry to Hassler and Viadana, with plenty of stuff about Maria and glory thrown in, spanning the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.
The second half introduced a lighter note designed to keep the heathen philistines in the audience happy. Cole Porter and Billy Joel mixed with Richard Rogers, and the piece de resistance was a brilliant rendition of the Highway Code performed as an Anglican chant.
We look forward to welcoming the consort back when they have learnt some new trix.
Elizabeth Bedford
Saturday 28th April 2007 - 7.30pm
Music for Saxophones - Given by students from the Royal College of Music
Clearly the four saxophonists at the concert in April were endowed with two sets of lungs. There can be no other explanation for their apparently inexhaustible supply of breath. The trills, the runs, the flurries that emanated from their instruments, powered by their lungs, had to be heard to be believed.
The quartet originally advertised sadly couldn't make the concert owing to reasons beyond their control. Tapping into his vast network of musical contacts and using all his powers of charm and persuasion, James managed to convince four extremely talented musicians that there was nowhere they would rather spend a Saturday night than blowing their socks off at St Lawrence’s.
All
four are students at the Royal College of Music and have a stunning array of
musical accomplishments. Rachel Ridout has achieved five grade 8s with the
Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music – in saxophone, clarinet, flute,
piano and theory.
Eloise Marson studied at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and won a scholarship to study saxophone at the RCM.
Rachael Moorhead is in two saxophone quartets, one of which won the woodwind ensemble competition prize at the RCM last year.
Lauren Hamer is also a prize winning performer and has played with Aled Jones and performed for Radio 5 and Dame Shirley Bassey.
The composers whose works they played at our concert - Jean Jean, Graham Fitkin, WF Ferling, Robert Planel, Pedro Iturralde and Eugene Bozza - may be household names to the cognoscenti of the saxophone world, but not to the audience. However, they were heard with delight, amazement and in some cases amusement. The rapturous applause bore witness to the fact that we had notched up yet another very successful concert in our ongoing series.
Elizabeth Bedford
Saturday 17th March 2007 - 7.30pm
Hannah Allchin-Kolyszka and Celeste Cronje-Richardson
Down on the decibels
The second in our series of concerts to raise money for the organ fund featured Hannah Allchin-Kolyszka and Celeste Cronje-Richardson, who are both reading for Bachelor of Music degrees at City University, London and studying singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
While the decibels might have been down on the last concert, the quality of music certainly wasn’t. Hannah’s rich, full-bodied tones blended well with Celeste’s light, clear and pure soprano. James not only accompanied them sensitively, but also added his own contribution in the form of some Bach organ pieces.
The theme of the concert was Lenten music, and included Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, a very appropriate choice as the following day was Mothering Sunday. Handel also featured, with each of the girls singing a solo from Messiah.
The concert gladdened not only the ear, but also the eye, as Hannah and Celeste were resplendent in glamorous full-length evening gowns, and James, not to be outdone, popped out briefly from behind the organ curtain in D-J, cummerbund and bow tie. And not a whiff of mothballs.
While there were many familiar faces in the audience, some who were there admitted that it was the first time they had ever been to St Lawrence’s. It’s good if our concerts are attracting music lovers from further afield. And some of our first time visitors who are frequent concert goers had the wisdom and foresight to bring a little portable padding for their nether regions. Essential if a numb bum isn’t going to detract from the enjoyment of the musical offering.
The third concert is on Saturday 28th April and will be given by the Sirocco Saxophone Quartet from the Royal College of Music.
Elizabeth Bedford
Saturday 17th February 2007 - 7.30pm
James Mooney-Dutton - Organ
Stripping off the paint
The rafters rang as they had not done for many a decade at the inaugural concert of the series launched in February to raise money for the organ fund. Was it just James’ fiendish ability to get more noise out of the organ than anyone else? Well, partly, of course, but also the discovery on the afternoon of the concert that the shutters on the organ loft which face the congregation were not permanently sealed, but only stuck up with paint. The application of a little judicious brute force – always a good remedy – succeeded in opening the shutters. The only snag was that they could not be opened remotely from the organ, so Andrew had to go up to the organ loft at the appropriate moment so that the full force could blast out. Remember, if you see Andrew sneaking up to the loft in mid-service, get your ear plugs out.
James entertained an appreciative audience with a light-hearted selection of pieces spanning five centuries, and composers living and dead. Louis Lefebure-Wely’s Sortie in E flat had people positively itching to skip in the aisles, and Rawsthorne’s Hornpipe Humoresque cunningly combined the Hornpipe, Widor’s Toccata and Rule Britannia had at least one member of the audience’s shoulders shaking with laughter. Who would have thought an organ recital could be so jolly.
Interval refreshments doubtless contributed to the merriment of the evening, and James had again selected a nice little number, this time from Majestic Wine Warehouse, to make sure everyone enjoyed the interval as much as the the actual performance.
The organ fund appeal got off to a healthy start, and hopefully as word of the quality and entertainment value of the concert series spreads, future events will be even better attended and we can aspire to an even bigger organ from which James can produce even more noise. The second concert, by Hannah Allchin-Kolyszka and Celeste Cronje-Richardson, accompanied by James, will be reviewed in the next magazine.
The third concert is on Saturday 28th April and will be given by the Sirocco Saxophone Quartet from the Royal College of Music.
Elizabeth Bedford