AMATEUR MUSIC REVIEW: Chetham's School Of Music Showcase - The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

The first concert of the new season of lunch-time concerts hosted by The Manchester Mid-day Concerts Society - after a long and covid-imposed break - was a 50-minute melange of solo and duet works performed by three older students from Chetham's School of Music on the main stage at The Bridgewater Hall. 

The aims of the concerts in this new season of mid-day events is to mix something adventurous, with something cross-genre, and something more traditional; and if that is indeed their ethos, they couldn't have found three pieces better equipped to fit into this. 

The concert started with the third piece in an extended set of compositions by French composer Olivier Messiaen. His 'Catalogue D'Oiseaux' (Catalogue Of Birds) is a set of 13 in-depth pieces for solo piano, in which each pieces' title is the name of a wild bird from a particular region of France, in this case The Blue Rock Thrush (Le Merle Bleu), but the composition doesn't necessarily stay with that particular bird; instead we listen to many of the regions' birds, and are taken on a journey across the regions' landscapes at different times of the year and in different weather conditions. You could say that these pieces constitute an aural nature documentary of 13 of France's regions.

We are obviously in a rocky region full of high dramatic cliffs and raging sea below for this, his third movement, as the piano starts with crashing discordant chords before giving us the movement's theme. Among the birds I was able to identify during this 15-minute soundscape were cuckoo, thrush, pippit, shrike and swallow. A very atmospheric and intelligent piece of writing which works as much in your mind's eye as it does upon listening to it. Played this afternoon with great skill and obvious understanding by Chetham's student Jeremy Chen.

We moved then from the 'adventurous' to the 'cross-genre'; and to a work for vibraphone and piano by a German composer born in 1987, by the name of Alexej Gerassimez. And just as his name does not bely him being German, the title of this work, 'Piazonore' doesn't bely the music. Composed in 2014, this showy jazz-infused piece was a clear delight. The work is in three shorter sections played without a break, and it starts with a vibrant syncopated upbeat jazz theme; bright and melodic, which moves into a more reflective, slower and more lush Romantic central section, before returning to the jaunty fast-paced jazz rhythms and a flourish of a finale. It's a fun piece and showcases the capabilities of the vibraphone to excellent effect. The piano part this afternoon being played by Elena Nalimova, whilst the vibraphone was played with accomplished ease by Chetham's srudent Eric.

The concert finished with the 'traditional'. Sonata no 1 for Cello and Piano (opus 38) by Brahms. Brahms was not afraid of wearing his compositional heart on his sleeve, and his deeply emotive and fully Romantic music has remained a staple of many a concert hall. Even when faced with just two instruments, he manages to make the sound so full it could almost by symphonic. The concerto is in the classical form of three movements: allegro non troppo, allegretto quasi menuetto, allegro. To say that the piece starts with dark, brooding chords and sweeping Romantic melodies would be an understatement; and this is developed throughout the first movement. The second is almost - but not quite - a minuet. Somewhere the beat and the rhythm don't quite make the dance; it's almost as if Brahms was being ironic and shunning the dance in favour of something more dour or sinister. The joviality returns thank goodness however, for the final movement which starts with a fast and furious fugue, which is then developed and becomes more brooding and dark again, before a powerful conclusion. The pianist here was Gemma Webster, whilst the cello was performed by Chetham's student Hairu Wang. It is interesting to note that in this sonata Brahms has deliberatly gone against convention and tried to make the two instruments much more equal in their importance. A Classical sonata would have a solo instrument with piano accompaniment, and of course, the 20th century has seen that turned inside out and upside down; however, here with Brahms's piece, written in 1865, we see the renegade at work, and a taster of things to come. Wang proved to be a versatile and talented cellist who was able to elicit a huge range of sound quality and emotion out of her instrument. 

A most enjoyable concert.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 7.3.22