Music in our Church

This page brings together news about our programme of lunchtime music recitals and evening concerts.

Lunchtime Recital Friday 5th May 2023 at 12.30 pm
Alan Dorn (piano)

The recital will be followed by a special “Coronation Charity Lunch”.

Lunchtime Recital Friday 3rd March 2023

Our next recital on the 3rd Feb. is a piano and clarinet programme from Phoebe (Long Ching) Yu – as follows:


1. Pierre-Max Dubois – Romance
2. Camille Saint-Saëns – Sonate pour Clarinette et Piano
3. Henri Rabaud – Solo de Concours
4. Francis Poulenc – Sonate pour Clarinette et Piano
5. Jules Semler-Collery – Rêverie et Scherzo

Aeolian Singers Christmas Carol Concert

Thursday 8th December at 7.00 pm

Lunchtime Recital Friday 2nd December at 12.30 – Thomas Jesty (piano) and George Cooke (cello)

Programme

Schumann – Fantasiestücke for Cello and Piano
Dvořák – Silent Woods
Nin – Chants d’Espagne
Granados – Goyescas: No 4, Quejas o la Maja y el Ruiseñor
Debussy – Cello Sonata

Lunchtime Recital Friday 7th October at 12.30 – Gina Kruger (piano) and Jean-Samuel Bez (violin)

 

Programme

Violin Sonata No 1 in A major –  Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Fantaisie élégiaque – Gustave Samazeuilh (1877-1967)

Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano César Franck (1822-1890)

1) Allegretto ben moderato
2) Allegro
3) Recitativo-Fantasia: Ben moderato
4) Allegretto poco mosso

BIOGRAPHIES:

Jean Samuel Bez, violin:
Born in Pontarlier (France), Jean Samuel attended the Royal Conservatory of Music of Brussels (Belgium) where he passed his diplomas with High Distinction and was granted the Pappaerts Prize in 2016. He then attended the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (Performing Arts) in Vienna.

Jean Samuel is a laureate of numerous prizes, scholarships and international competitions, ap pearing as soloist including the Ensemble Orchestral of Dijon (France), the University Orchestra of Burgondy (France), the Budweis Philharmony (Czech Republic) and the Sotiropoulos Camerata of Brussels (Belgium).

As a chamber musician, Jean-Samuel plays regularly within various groups throughout the world. During the last few years he had the opportunity to play with Jean-Claude Vanden Eyden, Hagaï Shaham, Gil Sharon, and Istvan Varga. Reflecting his interest in contemporary repertoire, in 2015 Jean Samuel was the laureate of the Young Bozar Project within the Alternative Violin Duet 2Väinö. With this duet he explores new alternative formulas to traditional concerts, mixing arts and means of expression. He also plays regularly within the Icelandic group Arstiđir.

Gina Kruger – Piano
Gina holds degrees in piano from the United States and a post-graduate diploma from the Royal College of Music, London. During her studies at the Royal College of Music, she won the Fossat Award for Chamber Music which resulted in performances for the Queen of Denmark and a residency in France. She continues to appear as a recitalist locally and internationally. Her performance in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, featuring Spanish repertoire was deemed a ‘finely turned performance’ by the Irish Times in 2010. Other international venues have included solo performances in Altdorf Switzerland and in the Vienna Conservatory. She has performed extensively in Croatia, as a soloist, and with guitarist Igor Paro.

Lunchtime Recital Friday 1st July at 12.30 – Charity Lunch to follow.

Lunchtime Recital Friday 6th May 2022 at 12.30 pm – Piano and Violin – Anna Le Hair & Arwen Newband

Programme:

Schubert Sonata in A major D 664

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Andante
  3. Allegro

Kreisler Variations on Corelli’s La Folia

Rebecca Clarke – Midsummer Moon

 Not necessarily in that order!

Anna Le Hair is a pianist and piano teacher based in Tring, Hertfordshire. Anna gained an honours degree in music at Edinburgh University where she studied piano with Colin Kingsley, and harmony with Kenneth Leighton. Her postgraduate studies were at the Royal College of Music, London, where her professors included Peter Element and Hubert Dawkes.
Since then, Anna has enjoyed a busy and varied career as a performer, teacher, accompanist, adjudicator, conductor and ABRSM examiner. She gives regular performances both as a soloist and with her regular duo partners, and also as a chamber musician, playing in many venues in Britain and abroad. Anna has performed at many festivals in Britain, most recently in Kings Lynn, and including the Edinburgh Fringe and Buxton, where she was nominated for the title of ‘Performer of the Fringe’. She has also recently played at festivals in Spain and Croatia.  In February 2014, she gave a recital tour in New Zealand with her duo partner, the violinist Arwen Newband. The Icknield Trio (Anna, Arwen and Sarah) opened the Piano Trio Society’s Festival in Notting Hill last year, and are performing this summer in the St Lawrence Jewry summer Festival in the City of London.

Arwen Newband started to learn the violin at the age of 6. A New Zealander, she attended Auckland University where she studied with Mary O’Brien. She freelanced  with the Auckland Philharmonia  before gaining a scholarship which enabled her to study with Emanuel Hurwitz in London. She then embarked on a career which has included freelancing with various English orchestras as well as performing as a soloist and chamber musician.  She has performed concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Khachaturian, Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi and has given many chamber music concerts, recently forming a duo with pianist Anna Le Hair, with whom she has recently returned from a Recital tour of New Zealand. She is also a  committed teacher, enjoying bringing the challenges of music to children (and adults) of all ages and abilities.

Lunchtime Recital Friday 1st April 2022 at 12.30 pm – Cello Recital: Molly Parsons-Gurr

Stainer’s Crucifixion by the Good Friday Choir – Friday the 15th April 2022, at 19.00

Lunchtime Recital by Michael Broadway – Friday 4th March at 12.30

Michael Broadway – Pianola

        Programme                                                                              

                                                   *************************

Michael Broadway has made a study of Pianola performance for over thirty years, and has played at the Purcell Room, the Barbican, St Paul’s Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral,  St John’s Smith Square and  Symphony Hall Birmingham, as well as broadcasting on Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC1. Concerts abroad include Rome, Prague, Budapest, and in Venice for La Biennale di Venezia.

This afternoon he is playing his Orchestrelle Company ‘Push-Up’ Pianola of 1914, coupled to the church’s piano. Many would think this no different from listening to a CD; simply switch it on and it plays. Reproducing pianos such as the Duo-Art or the Ampico certainly do this, as they are operated by an electric motor, but the music rolls for those instruments have been recorded by a pianist, and therefore contain all dynamic and tempo changes encoded into the paper music roll.

Here we have something different. The rolls being played today were made as direct transcriptions of the musical score, note for note on to graph paper in a mathematical and mechanical way, and require the intervention of a player to coax a musical performance from the bare notes. If the roll were simply set going, all that would result would be an  a tempo rendition played at the same volume throughout, and the use of the pedals and levers on the instrument assist the player in avoiding this. Thus it is possible to explore the entire dynamic range of the piano being played, as well as subtle nuances of  tempo rubato.

Today’s performance, as with all live music, will be unique; in the hands (and feet) of another player, the same music could sound completely different.

For more information please visit http://www.pianola-part.freeuk.com                                                                                                                                                 

Lunchtime Recital by Gina Kruger – Friday 4th February 2022
at 12.30

Gina Kruger’s Recital Programme for 4th February 2022

Gabriel Fauré  1845-1924

 Faurè was eventually admired as the most important composer of his time in France.  He was influenced and encouraged by Saint-Saens. Eventually, Faurè devoted summers to composition as his duties, as an organist, and as Director of the Paris Conservatoire, left little creative time during the academic year.

  • Nocturne  In E- flat (Op.36 Number 4)
  • Impromptu  (Op.34 Number 3)

Debussy 1862-1918

One of the most influential composers of the 20th century, Debussy took inspiration from Eastern music, and stretched the harmonic boundaries of Western classical music with innovative use of harmonies and colours.  He did not see himself as an ‘Impressionist’ but aligned himself with the Symbolist poets. The first, well known work below is from Suite Bergamasque, after a poem by Paul Verlaine:

  • Clair de Lune
from Preludes:
  • La fille aux cheveux de lin   inspired by a poem by Leconte de Lisle
  • Ondine    The legend of the water-nymph, and her powers to seek revenge
  • Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest  An impression of the violent wind, which was revolutionary writing  for the piano in  Debussy’s time. The title is inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Garden of Paradise”
  • Les Collines  d’Anacapri      Inspired by the village in Capri, with bells echoing through the hills

from Image:

  • Poisson D’Or  from an image of a fish on a Japanese lacquer panel

from Children’s Corner: (Pieceswritten for Debussy’s daughter Chou Chou).

  • Snow is Dancing

Olivier Messiaen  1908-1992

The organist and ornithologist who, continuing Debussy’s shift from conventional harmonic and melodic models, influenced scores of composers through his own musical language and his teaching, and saw music in colours. Integrating chant, new scale patterns, bird song, whilst using new rhythmic devices, Messiaen’s music, much loved (sometimes criticised), continues to mystify  audiences– as its foundations suggest it should .

  • X.  Regard de l’Esprit de Joie from Vingt Regard sur L’Enfant-Jesus    Contemplation of the Holy Spirit…a dance.

We were pleased to welcome Stephen Jones and his harpsichord back to kick off our Autumn series of Friday Lunchtime Recitals. In November we welcomed organist Ivan Linford.

Our next Lunchtime recital is on the 3rd December at 12.30 when we welcome back Gina Kruger with her colleague Orpheus Leander Papafilippou.

Retiring Collection: There will be a plate inside the church for you to express your appreciation.