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Weather
makes Water Music fitting theme for recital
On
Sunday, January 19th, Blenheim Concerts presented a programme
of piano music given by Mary Bruce under the title of Water
Music. It was billed as a Lecture/ Recital and took the form
of introductions to the Individual composers. Unfortunately
although Mary Bruce has a pleasant voice and manner, it was
difficult for those further back always to hear what she was
saying.
The
idea of water music was a fruitful one. This was not the province
of Handel’s royal entertainment but rather water as the symbol
of change, of the journey from the light of youth with its
vitality and vigour, through contented stillness or the defiance
of storm and stress, to the unfathomable seas that end life’s
journey. So we had fountains, tempests, mists and showers
of rain, and the mystery and enchantment that goes with tone
poems and whole-tone scales.
It
was Liszt who developed the tone poem that dominated the afternoon’s
music and we had both the dazzling arpeggios of the fountains
of the Villa d’Este and the fierce rumblings of his “Orage”.
Janacek’s “In the Mists” followed. Shapes drifted through
woodland, undefined as yet, but hinting at his animal opera
"The Cunning Little Vixen”.
It
was the French composers who dominated the programme. First,
Gabriel Fauré with a Barcarolle, a vivid description
of a boat rocking on the sea, and then his pupil Ravel’s “Jeux
d'eau" beautifully played with all the rush and sparkle
that such pieces demand. Miss Bruce’s obvious love of these
composers brought life to the Water nymph “Ondine” and coloured
Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” so that the echoing forms floated
on the clear surface of the water. There followed “La Cathédrale
Engloutie” which was vividly shaped, so that the clamour of
the bells, rising and falling with the ebb and flow of the
sea, emerged unmistakably from the tide of notes, and “Jardins
sous Ia Pluie” where the slanting rods of a sudden shower
interrupt the singing of children at play. These provided
a fitting prelude to our own departure into the rainy evening.
David
Shavreen.
The
next concert of the 2003 Season will be given at 3.30 p.m.
on Sunday, 16th March, In the Chiswick Catholic Centre by
Maria Zacharladou, Cello, and Richard Shaw, Piano. They will
play works by Brahms, Schumann, Bridge and Prokofiev.
Fiorini
Trio delight full house
An
Afternoon of Delightful Music from a Guitar and Voice Duo
More
details about Blenheim Concerts
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