Tag: Harpsichord

Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival

A look back at Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival.

I have had a very busy weekend – Saturday was Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn festival, and on Sunday I was involved with a fund-raising event at Norton Hill, and there was a family meal in the evening. This post deals with the Saturday.

HOW EARLY MUSIC DAY WORKS

Early Music Day at the King’s Lynn Festival comprises three concerts – a short one at noon, a longer one that starts at 7PM and a final short late evening concert that gets underway at 9:15PM. I attended with my mother, and we had lunch out after the noon concert. I then went home between that and the evening concerts to catch up on progress in the test match that was going on between England and the West Indies. The end of the early evening concert and the start of the late evening concert are so close together that one cannot do very much in the gap between them.

THE MIDDAY CONCERT

This was an organ recital by Harvey Stansfield and he had chosen some excellent works. Featured composers included JS Bach and the man he once walked 200 miles (each way) to see, Dietrich Buxtehude, among others. The organ at St Nicholas chapel is a superb instrument, and Stansfield’s performance was 100% worthy of such an instrument. Unfortunately attendance at this concert was both very small and very old – my mother looked younger than most of the audience, never mind me. Those who did the find the time to attend got a real treat. The full programme was: Bach, prelude and fugue in E Flat, Buxtehude, Praeludium in D Major, Coleridge-Taylor, Impromptu in F, Schumann, canonic studies 2&3 and Mendelssohn, Sonata no3 in D Major.

THE LUNCH

We had lunch at Marriotts, sat outside overlooking the Great Ouse (unfortunately the scene was marred by the river being at rather low tide which meant that lots of mud was on display). We were joined by my father who had already eaten, but who did indulge in a drink, and my nephew who both ate and drank. I, knowing that my arrangements for the rest of the weekend pretty much ensured that my next proper meal would be the Sunday supper had a steak and chips, which was a gargantuan meal.

THE EVENING CONCERTS

The early evening concert featured the European Union Chamber Orchestra and two guest recorder players, Tabea Debus and Miriam Monaghan. Being a chamber orchestra and hence limited in size the lead violinist, Hans-Peter Hoffman led the orchestra. The programme was Handel, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Corelli, Concerto Grosso Opus 6 Number 1, Telemann Concerto for Recorder in F, Vivaldi, Concerto for two violins in A major, Opus 3 Number 3, Telemann, Suite Perpetuum Mobile and Bach, Brandenburg Concerto number four. This was much better attended than the earlier event, and was just as enjoyable in its own different way.

The late concert was a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in their entirety, by Masumi Yamamoto on a harpsichord (the same harpsichord that had featured in the early evening concert, but a different player thereof). This music when played on a harpsichord by a really expert player (and she is certainly that) is superb, and certainly knocks the spots off any version of it on a piano.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My photo gallery for this post is purely St Nicholas Chapel (where all three concerts took place) and musical instruments…

The organ at St Nicholas Chapel.
The Harpsichord all set for the final concert.
The double keyboard – which comes into play in a big way in the Goldberg Variations.

Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival

A look back at yesterdays Early Music Day concerts at the Lynn Festival, a link from this day last year and lots of photographs.

Yesterday was Early Music Day at the Lynn Festival. This featured three concerts, all held at St Nicholas Chapel. This post looks at all three concerts.

CONCERT ONE: AN ORGAN RECITAL

The Organ at St Nicholas Chapel is a truly magnificent instrument, designed and constructed by the London firm of Henry Willis & Son, and completed in 1900. David Flood proved to be a magnificent performer as well, and he chose pieces all of which could have been played on this organ when it was first completed in 1900.

CONCERT TWO: THE ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

This concert did not feature a full orchestra, it was a smaller ensemble, all of whom belong to this orchestra. This means that rather than a conductor being present they took their lead from the First Violinist. The concert was excellent, featuring some splendid music.

CONCERT THREE: HARPSICHORD AND VIOLA DA GAMBA

Masumi Yamamoto was on the harpsichord and Ibrahim Aziz on the viola da gamba, an instrument much closer in shape and size to a modern cello than it is to a viola, in spite of the name. The concert both started and ended with them playing together, but each also played solos in the middle. Here are some photographs (quick reminder, all photos can be viewed at full size by lcikcing on them) specifically relating to these concerts…

St Nicholas Chapel
The organ.
An information board about the organ.
This picture and the the next show controls for the organ.
The wooden angels in the inside roof of the chapel presented and interesting challenge.

FROM THE ARCHIVE AND GENERAL PHOTOGRAPHY

A year ago today I published my all time XI of players whose surnames begin with the letter E. Since then a new name has appeared on the scene: Abhimanyu Easwaran produced a succession of big scores in Indian domestic cricket. I am not yet prepared to break up my opening pair of J Edrich and Elgar just yet, but the latter is under threat, especially if Easwaran gets his opportunity to perform at a higher level and delivers. Now for my usual sign off…

Cricket, Aeroplanes and Music

A brief account of the state of play in the current test match, an account of the fly by and two concerts tthat were part of the 65th King’s Lynn Festival, some cool links and some impressive and imortant infographics.

INTRODUCTION

As well as my subject matter as indicated above including photographs, I also have some links and infographics to share with you.

ENGLAND STRUGGLING AT LORDS

Yesterday was the third days play in the second test match between England and Australia at Lords. It was England’s least bad day of the match so far, but they were so far adrift going into it that they needed rather more than a decent day. Australia at 108-0 in their second innings lead by 362 and the obvious plan for them is to lash up as many runs as they can in the morning session and then leave England a mountain of Olympus Mons proportions to climb in the final five sessions of the game.

A FLY BY AT VERY CLOSE RANGE

My outside space was an ideal position from which to view the advertised fly by happening as part of the King’s Lynn festival. It was on the aeroplane’s third pass that I was finally able to get some pictures (six in total)…

All the publicity about this event referred to a spitfire, but apparently, according to some who have already seen my pictures on twitter it is actually a Dakota.
All the publicity about this event referred to a spitfire, but apparently, according to some who have already seen my pictures on twitter it is actually a Dakota.

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TWO CLASSICAL CONCERTS

Once the day’s action had finished in the cricket it was off to King’s Lynn Minster for the first of two concerts taking place yesterday evening. There was a blanket ban on photography at the event, so I have few pictures…

Some detail about the first concert.
Some detail about the first concert.

The one internal pic I got before being told about the no photography rule.
The one internal pic I got before being told about the no photography rule.

This concert was splendid. The Vivaldi and Manfredini pieces were particularly impressive, while the Vejvanovsky was a splendid introduction to a composer that few of us had previously heard of. The lead violinist, Bojan Cicic by name, proved to be a quite superb performer.

At the end of this concert we just had time to visit my aunt’s house before the start of the second concert, a violin and harpsichord duet playing works by Telemann (the most prolific of all composers), Buxtehude and J S Bach (who as young man walked 200 miles each way for the privelege of witnessing Buxtehude in action – no recordings in them thar days!).

This mini concert was every bit as good as the first one had been – no evening of two halves this time. I got some photographs of the Minster’s light show (one of several dotted around the town)…

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LINKS

My first two links both come courtesy of Vox Political:

1)The Lords earning their £400 per day.

2)Continuing to heap pressure on the government re death toll after fit for work tests.

My next three links concern a 38 Degrees petition on the subject of fracking:

1)The petition itself

2)The link to share on facebook

3)The link to share on twitter

My next link is by way of a shout out to my most recent follower on aspiblog, and takes to you to their site, luckyottershaven.

My last two links relate to electoral reform and segue nicely into the the infographics:

1)The original petition

2)The Thunderclap, to which you can still add your voice for about another eight hours.

INFOGRAPHICS

Voting Reform

My next infographic is a reminder of what things were like before trade unions existed:

BTU

The third and final infographic I am sharing in this post is about housing today and comes by way of London mayoral candidate Tessa Jowell…

HH

EPILOGUE

I hope that you have enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating it and that some of you will be inspired to share it!