Continuing the RNCM's commitment to keep live music playing, and their students performing, despite the current circumstances, their regular Monday lunchtime concerts are now being streamed live through their website.
This afternoon's concert was one of two halves. First it was the turn of the strings, as four of the school's students sat observing social distance in the otherwise empty Concert Hall at the school and played two movements from Schubert's String Quartet No 13, often known as 'The Rosamunde Quartet'.
Alice Flannery, Ely Clapperton, Beth Willet, and Alec Smith did a remarkable job under the trying circumstances, and keeping the piece light and flowing, despite Schubert's strange false endings in the first movement, played with skill and dedication making it lyrical and enjoyable.
After a short break, it was the turn of the school's Arcus Saxophone Quartet; four fellow students who between them play all the different saxophones: Carys Nunn, Ellen Pointon, Dan Gribbin, and Ben Jackson.
They played three short pieces, each one completely different in style and genre, showcasing their quartet delightfully. I have never heard of any of the threee composers nor their works before, and so I was thrilled to be listening to three pieces completely new to me.
First was a folk-jazz movement from Jean Absil's 'Suite Sur Des Themes Populaires Roumains' (op90) which took traditional Romanian folk songs and turned them into quasi jazz set pieces for this suite. Following this was a work which required a much more symphonic approach to their playing. Despite only four instruments the whole sounded much more like it ought to have been scored for a large orchestra (perhaps it is). This was Guillermo Lago's 'Cuidades' (Cities). here the quartet played just two movements, Sarajevo and Addis Ababa. Structurally they were much more like a tone poem, each movement evoking the people, culture, heritage and indeed the music of his chosen places and making an imagined narrative from them. Finally, the ensemble's showpiece finale, a novelty piece really, which was a fast and flowing 'Hoe Down' by Will Gregory taking us (or should that be U.S.) to a yeehaw finale.
These were not easy pieces, and playing them so far apart from each other must add yet another difficulty to overcome, I take my hat off to you all. It really is amazing and remarkable how we are able to adapt and adopt new ideas and techniques in order to overcome difficulties. None of them are ideal, but until normal service resumes, I applaud you all loudly and vigourously, and thank you all for continuing to make live music happen.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 23/11/20
No comments:
Post a Comment