Music on Thursdays
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Thursday 1st May 2025
12.30 lunchtime
Venue: Leatherhead Methodist Church KT22 8AY
Parking: Swan Centre multi storey KT22 7RH
Gwenllian Llŷr
Welsh harpist
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Programme
...avec mes amis... No man is an island; this is certainly true in the music world. This rich and varied programme explores the interesting relationships and friendships that connect composers and performers, some of whom are well known to us and others who flew under the radar. We will delve into inspiration and muses, premieres and untimely deaths. Sit back and marvel at how a single thread connects each piece to the next, yet the music keeps evolving as time marches on. Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845-1924) Impromptu Op 86 (1904) Alphonse Jean Hasselmans (1845-1912) Chanson de Mai, Romance sans Paroles Op 40 (1897) May Song, Romance without Words John Parry (?1710-1782) aka Parri Ddall, Rhiwabon Blind Parry of Ruabon Sonata No 1 in D major (1761) Allegro Andante Gavotte Ann Griffiths (1935-2020) Fantasia on a Welsh Folk Song 'Beth yw’r Haf i Mi?' What is Summer to Me? Thomas 'Tom' Suárez (b1951) Ten Miniatures on an Imagined Troubadour Theme dedicated to the memory of Lubna Alyaan Franz Liszt (1811-1886) arr Henriette Renié (1875-1956) Un Sospiro A Sigh S144/3 LW A118/3 Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849) Introduction, Cadenza and Rondo Concert duration approx: 45+ minutes Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455 |
Gwenllian Llŷr
Welsh harpist Gwenllian Llŷr is quickly gaining international recognition for her charismatic and engaging performances. Gwenllian was twice a prize-winner at the USA International Harp Competition in Bloomington where she was highly praised for her musicianship. She has also won many prizes more locally, including the Len Lickorish Memorial Prize for a String Player of Promise at the Royal Over-Seas League AMC 2018, as well as becoming an Artist with City Music Foundation in 2017.
Gwenllian has had the pleasure of studying with wonderful teachers in some of the best institutions in the world, including the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, The Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music. In addition to substantial financial support from scholarships and grants, Gwenllian also received many accolades during her studies, such as the William Schuman prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music from The Juilliard School.
Her career has taken her across the globe with performances in prestigious venues such as St David’s Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, and alongside renowned artists including Rebecca Evans, Imogen Cooper, Al Jarreau, Matthew Rees and Bryn Terfel. Gwenllian relishes the chance to display the harp’s versatility, from a solo performance on the Ffestiniog Railway for Live Music Now to a workshop on brand new music with composers at Cardiff University as a guest with Riot Ensemble.
Gwenllian’s love of the harp extends beyond the stage, as a teacher, composer/arranger, and as a workshop leader. She has over two decades of experience teaching students of every age and ability, and enjoys using her composing skills to write short pieces and exercises to help her students flourish. Two of Gwenllian’s solo harp compositions have been included on the newly published ABRSM Harp Syllabus and her CDs are played frequently on both BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Cymru. She is also enjoying performing as one half of Aliara Duo with flautist Sirius Chau, including recitals, school workshops and performances of the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto. For more information about recent and upcoming performances, please visit her website: www.GwenllianLlyr.com.
Gwenllian has had the pleasure of studying with wonderful teachers in some of the best institutions in the world, including the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, The Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music. In addition to substantial financial support from scholarships and grants, Gwenllian also received many accolades during her studies, such as the William Schuman prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music from The Juilliard School.
Her career has taken her across the globe with performances in prestigious venues such as St David’s Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, and alongside renowned artists including Rebecca Evans, Imogen Cooper, Al Jarreau, Matthew Rees and Bryn Terfel. Gwenllian relishes the chance to display the harp’s versatility, from a solo performance on the Ffestiniog Railway for Live Music Now to a workshop on brand new music with composers at Cardiff University as a guest with Riot Ensemble.
Gwenllian’s love of the harp extends beyond the stage, as a teacher, composer/arranger, and as a workshop leader. She has over two decades of experience teaching students of every age and ability, and enjoys using her composing skills to write short pieces and exercises to help her students flourish. Two of Gwenllian’s solo harp compositions have been included on the newly published ABRSM Harp Syllabus and her CDs are played frequently on both BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Cymru. She is also enjoying performing as one half of Aliara Duo with flautist Sirius Chau, including recitals, school workshops and performances of the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto. For more information about recent and upcoming performances, please visit her website: www.GwenllianLlyr.com.
Recordings of the works in today's concert
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845-1924)
Impromptu Op 86 (1904) [9:00]
We open with Fauré's Impromptu, played here by Sonia Bize. Sonia participated in The Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, 2017-2018. The School and the Conservatory are located in Yorkville, Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Impromptu Op 86 (1904) [9:00]
We open with Fauré's Impromptu, played here by Sonia Bize. Sonia participated in The Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, 2017-2018. The School and the Conservatory are located in Yorkville, Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
Alphonse Jean Hasselmans (1845-1912)
Chanson de Mai, Romance sans Paroles Op 40 (1897)
May Song, Romance without Words [3:00]
From South Korea's Kumho Art Hall's Prodigy Concert Series, we next hear Janice Hur:
John Parry (?1710-1782)
aka Parri Ddall, Rhiwabon Blind Parry of Ruabon
Sonata No 1 in D major (1761) [6:30]
Allegro • Andante • Gavotte
The famous 18th Century Welsh harpist John Parry was born completely blind and played the Welsh Triple harp. This harp, which derived from the double-strung Italian harp, has three rows of strings with a total of 97 to 98 strings.
Playing his music on the modern double-action harp is very different from the sound Parry would have heard, as the Triple Harp had a much clearer but thinner sound.
Parry originally published his series of four Sonatas as A Collection of Welsh, English & Scotch Airs with new Variations, also Four new Lessons for the Harp or Harpsichord in 1761.
These were edited by Sioned Williams in 1982.
That note comes from Stien de Neef (pronounced Steen de Nayf) and her 2021 recording comes from the Birmingham Conservatoire:
Ann Griffiths (1935-2020)
Fantasia on a Welsh Folk Song 'Beth yw’r Haf i Mi?'
What is Summer to Me? [5:40]
From her CD Soliloquies for Harp, this is Gwenllian Llŷr:
Thomas 'Tom' Suárez (b1951)
Ten Miniatures on an Imagined Troubadour Theme
dedicated to the memory of Lubna Alyaan
First, we must explain who was Lubna Alyaan. This paragraph from a Financial Times article dated March 14 2024, by FT journalists Heba Saleh in Cairo, Mai Khaled in Rafah and Raya Jalabi in Beirut tells Lubna's tragic story:
. . . 14-year-old Lubna Alyaan, a talented violinist killed with dozens of her family members in an air strike on November 21 on her aunt’s house in Nuseirat, south of Gaza City. The schoolgirl, who attended the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Gaza, had impressed her teachers with her diligence and skill [on the violin], leading to lessons with global musicians such as Tom Suarez, a former member of the Baltimore and American symphony orchestras. ©The Financial Times Limited 2024.
You can read the full article, which mentions many other lost Gazan talents, on this link.
Gwenllian Llŷr has recorded the work:
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
arr Henriette Renié (1875-1956)
Un Sospiro A Sigh S144/3 LW A118/3
Our recording of this beautiful piece of music comes from the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall in Serbia. The harpist is Nadja Dornik who is also known as a pianist after studying both instruments at the Paris Conservatoire and gaining Master's degrees in each of them!
arr Henriette Renié (1875-1956)
Un Sospiro A Sigh S144/3 LW A118/3
Our recording of this beautiful piece of music comes from the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall in Serbia. The harpist is Nadja Dornik who is also known as a pianist after studying both instruments at the Paris Conservatoire and gaining Master's degrees in each of them!
Elias Parish Alvars (1808-1849)
Introduction, Cadenza and Rondo [8:10]
Parish Alvars was bon in Devon, couldn't afford to study at the Royal Academy of Music under Bochsa, so the professor of harp gave him private lessons which the young man financed by teaching and by working in dance halls. He went on to study in Paris and in Florence. By 1836 we find him as first harp of the Vienna Opera.
Liszt wrote of Alvars "From beneath his forehead speak his dreamy eyes, expressive of the glowing imagination which lives in his compositions"; Berlioz called him "the Liszt of the harp"
For our final work in this concert, then, we hear a France Musique recording from their series 'Géneration jeunes interprètes' (Generation Young Artistes). This is a 2018 recording of Swiss harpist Tjasha Gafner who, like Gwenllian, studied at the Juilliard School of Music, New York, after completing her Master's degree.
Introduction, Cadenza and Rondo [8:10]
Parish Alvars was bon in Devon, couldn't afford to study at the Royal Academy of Music under Bochsa, so the professor of harp gave him private lessons which the young man financed by teaching and by working in dance halls. He went on to study in Paris and in Florence. By 1836 we find him as first harp of the Vienna Opera.
Liszt wrote of Alvars "From beneath his forehead speak his dreamy eyes, expressive of the glowing imagination which lives in his compositions"; Berlioz called him "the Liszt of the harp"
For our final work in this concert, then, we hear a France Musique recording from their series 'Géneration jeunes interprètes' (Generation Young Artistes). This is a 2018 recording of Swiss harpist Tjasha Gafner who, like Gwenllian, studied at the Juilliard School of Music, New York, after completing her Master's degree.
Previous concert
24 April 2025 - Faccini Piano Duo (piano4hands) - click here
Next concert
8 May 2025 - Basil Alter, violin, Dafydd Chapman, piano (both RAM Masters students) - click here
