It is the 19th year that Chetham's have held their International Summer School and Festival For Pianists, and the third year that a part of this festival is a concert given by the young students of Chetham's Music School playing the piano compositions of Ronald Stevenson.
This concert therefore took place at 5pm before the main body of evening concerts and we watched 6 young students take their turn at the piano. Aged between 10 and 16, and still obviously very much in-training, these 6 youngsters gave a remarkable concert.
Cassandra Alampo was first, and played Three Scots Fairy Tales, with a lightness of touch on the keys which was both mature and astounding. Three Scottish Ballads came next and were played by Alexander Crawford, and Edward Harris-Brown followed these with A Ghanaian Folk Song Suite. Both showed great confidence and skill with these tricky folk melodies. It should also be noted that none of these three needed the sheet music either and so it was all from memory.
Following these we heard Rebekah Tan play a suite of Chinese Folk Songs, Madeleine Brown play A Carlyle Suite, and the concert finished with Danile Lu playing 3 movements from Eugene Ysaye's Sonata No 3 transcribed for piano by Sevenson. Again all three pianists showing skill and maturity beyond their tender years.
As for Stevenson's music it is contemporary and yet flirts with classical style. Tonality and harmonic shifts meaning the piece doesn't resolve the way you expect, and sometimes was very reminiscent of the works of composer Lord Berners. There is a feeling that both music and composer aren't taking themselves too seriously, even in the mock heroic passages.
Reviewer - Chris Benchley
on - 22/8/19
No comments:
Post a Comment