Piano recital by Alan Dorn. 9th April 2025. Alan shared with us a feast of the Romantic repertoire, focussing on four composers born between 1809 and 1811. Of these Mendelssohn only lived to 38, Chopin to 39, and Schumann to 46, and we tend to forget that these were all composing in the age of the wood-framed piano, with its light sound which quickly died away. But Liszt lived till 1886 and the age of 75 by which time the…
The December recital by Bridget Kerrison (soprano), Tom Caldecote (clarinet) and Trevor Hughes (piano) was a feast of lovely music, avowedly made up of the performers’ favourite items, which came across in their warm interactions with each other and with the audience. The substantial first item: the Clarinet Sonata by Saint-Saëns, explored all aspects of the interplay between the instruments, exploiting the full capability of the clarinet from the lowest to the highest pitches, from whisper quiet to dramatic…
The Letchworth Music Club’s new season got off to a wonderful start on October the 12th with a concert by ‘Quartet Camerata’. They began the first half of their programme with Haydn’s Quartet in D major (Op. 76 No 5), whose skittish playfulness set a lovely note for the whole evening. They followed this with Beethoven’s Quartet in C minor, (Op. 18 No 4). This work was written in Vienna at the very end of the 18th century and was published…
LETCHWORTH MUSIC CONCERT REVIEW: 2021-22 SEASON: 13th April 2022 Live Music in Congenial Surroundings: Experience the Magic: You’re All Most Welcome! A sparkling end to our Concert Season was provided by Duality – Emma Abbate & Julian Perkins ‘four hands on one piano’, ‘Across the Pond’, European duets eliding into an American post-interval ‘program’. Emma enjoys varied roles including accompanist and chamber music, keenly advocates contemporary music and is a Professor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Julian Perkins, a Cambridge…
Supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the 9th March 2022 Letchworth Music Concert at Howgills was exceptional on all levels. With 24 hours’ notice the pianist, Kaoru Wada, Ionel Manciu’s pianist wife had to withdraw for family reasons. On the morning of the concert the pianist, Gamal Khamis, stepped in to save the day. (He had accompanied the oboist, Amy Roberts, in November). Beethoven’s Third Sonata for Violin and Piano was substituted for the Fifth (‘Spring): fortunately the…
Live Music in Congenial Surroundings: Experience the Magic: You’re All Most Welcome! February 10th saw the return of the English Piano Trio to Howgills. It’s hard to believe that they are playing in their 27th Season: Jane Faulkner (violin), Pál Banda (cello) and Timothy Ravenscroft (piano). Their repertoire has a broad scope, and they kicked off with a late Piano Trio by Joseph Haydn (always a good aperitif). Their introductions were exemplary. Jane told us that this was written after his…
Letchworth Music Club’s first concert of 2022 was a return to Howgills for the Belgian pianistsduo b!z’art, known to their friends as André Roe and Geoffrey Baptiste. Their programme, entitled “From the Palais Garnier to the Mariinsky Theatre”, focused on French and Russian composers and provided a tour around some of the less well-known corners of the piano duet repertoire, as well as more familiar favourites. We began with a rarity – an arrangement (by the composer) of Borodin’s…
On Wednesday 8th December 2021 an audience of 40 witnessed and acclaimed the third programme in our 2021 Season…
What a treat we all had when Amy Roberts, oboe, and Gamal Khamis, piano, gave us an electrifying performance at Howgills last Wednesday evening. This was the second concert in the new season’s series after the cultural desolation of Covid lockdown. Here again was another opportunity for us all to realise the magic of live music. The subtle interplay between performers and an audience that listens creatively makes a concert more than the sum of its parts. Both contribute…
On Wednesday 13th October 2021 the first programme in our 2021 Season was given by the Astaria String Quartet: Shulah Oliver – violin and leader; Kelly McCusker – violin; Kate Bickerdike – viola, and Sean K. Gilde – cello. An audience of 55 was present. Shulah told us that the quartet were proud that their first music club post-lockdown gig was in the historic Meeting Room at Howgills. Her announcements for each item in the varied programme brimmed with enthusiasm and…