Music on Thursdays
|
2015 Season Sponsor: Patricia Morgan Optician Supported by: Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society |
Góðan daginn herrar mínir og frúr. Velkomin í Leatherhead Methodist Kirkju. Velkomin á tónlist á fimmtudögum. |
Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome to Leatherhead Methodist Church Welcome to Music on Thursdays |
Programme
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Sonata in C major for Recorder and Harpsichord, Op 1, No 7, HWV 365 (? before 1712)
1 Larghetto
2 Allegro
3 Larghetto
4 A Tempo di Gavotti
5 Allegro
Atli Heimir Sveinsson (b1938)
from Dimmalimm
Intermezzos 1 and 2
Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)
Sonatina Op 13, for recorder and piano
Moderato
Adagio
Allegro Moderato
Solo Piano works:
Jón Leifs (1899-1968)
Vökudraumur Reverie for solo piano (1913)
from Four Pieces for solo piano (1921)
No 2 Icelandic Preludium Ísland farsælda frón
Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson (1847-1927)
Idyl
Daniel S Wood (appointed LSO 1st flute, 1910)
Valse Caprice (1909)
Emily Andrews
In 2010 Emily Andrews graduated with Distinction from her Masters degree in flute performance at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Clare Southworth and Kate Hill. An unusual career path: Emily’s first degree was in Mathematics at Cambridge University, and she worked as IT consultant for two years before becoming a full-time musician.
Emily is a passionate chamber musician as well as a soloist. She has performed second flute with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Concert Orchestra and Scottish Opera, among other orchestras, and she has performed recitals in many prestigious UK venues including the Wigmore Hall and St Martin in the Fields, as well as abroad.
Emily's "exquisite phrasing", beautiful singing tone and natural musicality have been noted by many prominent musicians, - Lorna McGhee, Ransom Wilson, Mark Van de Wiel, Neil Black OBE, and William Bennett OBE. The British Flute Society's review of her performance of the Liebermann flute concerto cited Emily as "definitely one of Britain's most promising young professionals".
Her prize-winning flute and guitar duo, the Andrews Massey Duo, recently brought out its third CD. For more information, please visit: www.emilyandrewsflute.com
Emily last performed at LMC with her duo partner, guitarist David Massey. You will find recordings from that concert here.
Eva Þyri Hilmarsdóttir
Eva þyri (Thyri) Hilmarsdóttir started taking piano lessons at the age of 11 with Thorsteinn Gauti Sigurdsson and continued with Halldor Haraldsson at The Reykjavik College of Music. She graduated with a Diploma from the Piano Teacher’s Department and a Diploma in Piano Performance.
She also studied at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium (Jutland, Royal Academy of Music) in Aarhus, Denmark, where she finished an Advanced Soloist Diploma with Professor John Damgaard. She continued her studies at The Royal Academy of Music in London with Michael Dussek, and graduated from the MA Piano Accompaniment course with a Distinction and was awarded a DipRAM and the Christian Carpenter Piano Prize for an outstanding final recital.
She has participated in masterclasses with Geörgy Sebök, Einar Steen-Nökleberg, Martinu Tirimo, Jeremy Menuhin, Sven Birch, Eero Heinonen, Clelia Sarno, Luiz de Moura Castro, Vitaly Margulis, Paul Baura-Skoda and Boris Berman.
Eva þyri gives solo recitals regularly and has performed as a soloist with orchestra. She has also played in various orchestras and ensembles and has given numerous first performances of Icelandic and Scandinavian compositions, appearing in festivals such as Dark Music Days in Reykjavik, Ung Nordis Musik (Young Nordic Music), Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin and Young Composers Symposium, London.
She takes an avid interest in chamber music and lieder. Eva þyri has performed in the Royal Academy’s Song Circle, participated in masterclasses with Barbara Bonney, Sir Thomas Allen, Helmut Deutsch, Roger Vignoles and Audrey Hyland, as well as being involved in The North Sea Vocal Academy in Denmark.
Among her more recent projects are first performances of songs by Áskell Másson, Atli Heimir Sveinsson, and Oliver Kentish; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn; a solo Recital and a Piano Duo Recital in Salurinn (Iceland's first purpose-built concert hall); many concerts in the CCCR series (Classical Concert Company Reykjavik); Pearls of Icelandic Song in Reykjavik's new Harpa Concert Hall; and a recital with chamber music by Thorkell Sigurbjornsson.
Do take a look at Eva’s youtube channel where you will find several videos of her playing.
ContrastsFrom the land of ice and fire, integrated piano keys join with notes of English flute in pastoral expression free. These two ladies work together, honed experience they share; music graduates distinguished play unique and varied fare. Sparsely populated country joins with one a hundred times denser – such a range of feeling gives a spaciousness to find. Known composer's new arrangement leads to those we've never heard; slow and stormy, bare fifths crunching, dark and jagged thoughts are stirred like the waves on rock-forms crashing in a wilderness so vast, resonant to bleak horizons – life ephemeral outlasts. Now the scene is flowing, florid, lyrical and light of touch; decorated trilling sequence brings a climax full of such effervescent joy of Higher Being – ice subsumed in fire. Peter Horsfield 8/8/2015 |
Inspired by the lunchtime concert or English and Icelandic music
performed at Leatherhead Methodist Church on 6th August 2015
by Emily Andrews, flute; and Eva þyri Hilmarsdottir, piano.
performed at Leatherhead Methodist Church on 6th August 2015
by Emily Andrews, flute; and Eva þyri Hilmarsdottir, piano.
Concert at Home
If you are unable to come along to today's concert, here instead is a selection of links to recordings of the same or similar works for your listening enjoyment.
This week's Concert at Home opens with a performance of Handel's Sonata in C for Recorder and Harpsichord,
Opus 1 no 7, with the celebrated Dutch recorder player Frans Brüggen.
The cellist is Anner Bylsma, with Gustav Leonhardt at the harpsichord:
This week's Concert at Home opens with a performance of Handel's Sonata in C for Recorder and Harpsichord,
Opus 1 no 7, with the celebrated Dutch recorder player Frans Brüggen.
The cellist is Anner Bylsma, with Gustav Leonhardt at the harpsichord:
On the left you will find Atli Heimir Sveinsson's Intermezzo from Ur Dimmalimm.
Ur Dimmalimm is a story popular among Icelandic children. Here Sveinsson's piece is heard on violin and harp.
As he is a new composer to these concerts, we've added on the right another of Sveinsson's works,
Meditation III, from the ballet, Time and Water (Aeg ja vesi). There are several more works to explore on youtube.
|
|
|
Surprisingly, English composer Lennox Berkeley has not been heard in these concerts before.
Here is his Sonatina for Recorder and Piano, played here by Tim Bingham,
who is studying at Leeds University School of Music.
The button on the right will take you to his Finalist Recital at Leeds University. There are large gaps in this live recording,
and sadly no programme notes are offered. But he's still worth hearing, two years on from the first recording:
Sometimes it is difficult to propose a good quality recording of a work. That is the case with Jón Leifs Vökudraumur (Reverie). There is a tiny snippet on this page which will give you the flavour of the piece.
Next we have an orchestral recording of Leifs' delightful third and fourth Icelandic Folk dances. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Osmo Vänskä. You may like to hear all four of these dances - don't be put off by the image of Landekot Catholic Church. These dances have plenty of the raw Nordic feel we expect from Iceland:
|
|
|
Although we haven't quite matched the content of the live concert,
we hope you are enjoying this Icelandic composer who is so little known in Britain.
On the left below you will find Leifs' Icelandic Dances, Op 11, Rimnadaslog: II. Tempo giusto.
On the right, his Vita et Mors is a more substantial work. The movements are Childhood, Youth, and Requiem, Eternita.
|
|
|
There being a more limited cultural scene in Iceland in his time, composer Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson spent much of his life overseas, principally in Edinburgh. We have found for you a recording of Nína Margrét Grímsdóttir, playing both Idyl and
Víkivaki, during a tour of China:
Daniel S Wood was a celebrated flautist in the first two decades of the 20th century. His practice pieces to develop flute technique are still used by students today. We know he was appointed 1st Flute of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1910, having written Valse Caprice in 1909. If you know - or can find out - more, then you might like to set up a wikipedia page for him.
The recording of Valse Caprice linked below has been recommended by Emily Andrews. The pianist is Seungwon Lee who played at LMC in November 2014, accompanying violinist Sara Cubarsi. Here she accompanies flautist Kate Bateman in their St-Martin-in-the-Fields recital:
EXTRA: After this concert of English and Icelandic music there was a call from the audience for the Icelanders present to perform their National Anthem. Well they resisted on the grounds that it is quite complicated to sing.
Here is a full choral performance of this lovely anthem - and the recording even has English subtitles:
Here is a full choral performance of this lovely anthem - and the recording even has English subtitles:
We hope you have enjoyed your Concert at Home
