Music on Thursdays
|
|
Thursday 31st October 2024
|
|
Meera Maharaj
flute
Marcus Cumberbatch-King
steelpan
Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Invention No 4 in D minor BWV 775 (1720)
Invention No 8 in F Major BWV 779 (1720)
Invention No 13 in A minor BWV 783 (1720)
Lord Kitchener (born Aldwyn Roberts, 1922-2000, Trinidad)
Pan in ""A"" minor
Medley
The Mighty Sparrow
Born in 1935, Slinger Francisco, "Little Sparrow" as a young performer, on going professional became "Mighty Sparrow". He uses his song-writing and lyrical skills to put political messages into his music. Multiple Calypso King, and King of Kings, born in Grenada, he was brought to Trinidad as a 1-year old. After a massively successful career he now lives in New York and once wrote a calypso treating talk of his death as mere gossip - which it was, and still is.
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (b1930)
St Thomas
Traditional English song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" evolved into a nursery rhyme in the Virgin Islands, and the folk song "Sponger Monkey" in the Bahamas. After successive possession by Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, Britain, and even Brandenburg-Prussia, today St Thomas is one of the three US Virgin Islands. Sonny Rollins' song is based on the song his mother sang to him as a child.
Concert duration approx: 40 minutes
Please donate to help fund these concerts at: cafdonate.cafonline.org/14455
Meera Maharaj
Meera Maharaj enjoys a diverse performing career. Competition successes include first prize in the Royal Academy of Music Flute Competition and Dutch International Flute Competition, plus the Sussex Prize for Woodwind in the 2023 Royal Overseas League competition.
Her duo with pianist Dominic Degavino featured as Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, Tunnell Trust and Park Lane Group artists. Since 2013, she has frequently performed with guitarist James Girling, as the Meraki Duo. They won the Concurs Internacional de Música Cambra Flauta & Guitarra. She also plays with harpist, Lucy Nolan as Hathor Duo and she co-founded the flexi-ensemble – Meliora Collective.
She graduated with Distinction in her Masters, studying with Michael Cox at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2017, she graduated from the RNCM, studying with Wissam Boustany and Laura Jellicoe. Meera has played at the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and at the BBC Proms. She is Co-principal Flute of Chineke! Orchestra.
Her duo with pianist Dominic Degavino featured as Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, Tunnell Trust and Park Lane Group artists. Since 2013, she has frequently performed with guitarist James Girling, as the Meraki Duo. They won the Concurs Internacional de Música Cambra Flauta & Guitarra. She also plays with harpist, Lucy Nolan as Hathor Duo and she co-founded the flexi-ensemble – Meliora Collective.
She graduated with Distinction in her Masters, studying with Michael Cox at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2017, she graduated from the RNCM, studying with Wissam Boustany and Laura Jellicoe. Meera has played at the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and at the BBC Proms. She is Co-principal Flute of Chineke! Orchestra.
Marcus Cumberbatch-King
awaiting updated biog
Recordings of the works in today's concert - not adjusted
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Invention No 4 in D minor BWV 775 (1720)
Invention No 8 in F Major BWV 779 (1720)
Invention No 13 in A minor BWV 783 (1720)
We may not find steelpan and flute recordings for these Bach Inventions, so let's take a look at other unusual instrumental renditions. First, here is Erik Ryde who gives us comment on this recording:
This is probably my favorite invention so far! I love the way this piece modulates from major to minor, and there's a great deal of interesting melodic patterns that were hard to get under my fingers.
Gear:
-Strandberg
-My back yard
-Gym shorts (I left all my pants in Boston)
Hours: 9,784
Did he really spend all that time on this recording. Perhaps it just felt like it!
Invention No 4 in D minor BWV 775 (1720)
Invention No 8 in F Major BWV 779 (1720)
Invention No 13 in A minor BWV 783 (1720)
We may not find steelpan and flute recordings for these Bach Inventions, so let's take a look at other unusual instrumental renditions. First, here is Erik Ryde who gives us comment on this recording:
This is probably my favorite invention so far! I love the way this piece modulates from major to minor, and there's a great deal of interesting melodic patterns that were hard to get under my fingers.
Gear:
-Strandberg
-My back yard
-Gym shorts (I left all my pants in Boston)
Hours: 9,784
Did he really spend all that time on this recording. Perhaps it just felt like it!
... and then we found this recording by Siya Xotyeni, from the Eastern Cape, South Africa. He warns that the pace is slower and inconsistent!
Invention No 8 in F Major BWV 779 (1720)
Here come the French steelpan duo Chroma Steel with this very familiar piece of Bach:
Invention No 13 in A minor BWV 783 (1720)
This is professional Italian recorder player and teacher, Aldo Bavo, from Turin plying both the descant and tenor recorders. He makes the point that it is a difficult piece because of all the # sharps. Tricky fellows, sharps, on a recorder !
Lord Kitchener (born Aldwyn Roberts, 1922-2000. Trinidad)
Pan in ""A"" minor
Pan in ""A"" Minor composed by Lord Kitchener; arranged by Jit Samaroo; adapted for the Humboldt Calypso Band by Eugene Novotney.
Performed by the Humboldt Calypso Band directed by Eugene Novotney and featuring special guest, Ray Holman.
This performance was recorded live in the John Van Duzer Theatre on the Cal Poly* Humboldt campus in Arcata, California on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
*=California Polytechnic State University
We'll throw you a challenge here. Can you sit perfectly still throughout this? No jigging, nodding, tapping, rocking, clicking, foot swinging... impossible, surely!
Just look at the mix of pleasure and concentration on these players' faces.
Medley
The Mighty Sparrow
This may not be the medley we shall hear at the concert, but the singer is the Mighty Sparrow himself. Enjoy some of his magic. Sorry, he won't be showing up at the concert. He is 89 and lives in Queens, New York.
The Mighty Sparrow
This may not be the medley we shall hear at the concert, but the singer is the Mighty Sparrow himself. Enjoy some of his magic. Sorry, he won't be showing up at the concert. He is 89 and lives in Queens, New York.
|
Artist: Mighty Sparrow Album: Salvation Soca Ballards Arranged By: Errol Ince Released: 1993 Genre: Calypso/Soca Country: Trinidad & Tobago |
I'll be There
Let It Be Dream Dream Dream Dancing Queen Wonderful World Under the Boardwalk Put Your Head On My Shoulder When Will I See You Again Torn Between Two Lovers Send For Me |
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (b1930)
St Thomas
To round off our selection, here's a solo performance of St Thomas, with backing tape, by steelpan player and performer Emmanuel Joseph, from Trinidad and Tobago.
St Thomas
To round off our selection, here's a solo performance of St Thomas, with backing tape, by steelpan player and performer Emmanuel Joseph, from Trinidad and Tobago.
Previous concert
24 October 2024 - Alastair Penman, saxophone & Jonathan Pease, piano - click here
Next concert
7 November 2024 - David Massey, classical guitar click here
