Cordelia Williams launching our new Sunday Morning Piano Series on 31 October
Another day at the office closes so whilst I wait to go and see Habit of Art next door I thought I'd use the time productively and post another entry. One thing that strikes me about this season - by adding what seems like just a few concerts it's made things feel a whole lot busier. On Sunday we were watching Cordelia Williams launch our Sunday Morning Piano Series and then, two days later, Natalie Clein was giving her first performance of Barber's cello concerto with sinfonia ViVA. And next Monday Lars Vogt is with us for our first evening recital.
Not that I'm complaining. I'm sure that if you were there to hear Cordelia's performance you'll have felt as privileged as I was to hear pianism of that quality and enjoy her assured and engaging introductions to the pieces. I have to thank Kevin Appleby from Turner Sims concert hall for this because, whilst I was looking for some rising stars to perform in the Sunday Series, he gave me the tip-off that Cordelia was a brilliant talent and also a persuasive advocate for the piano. And right from the start she was really great to work with and brought bags of positive energy to the project. She's now working on a project called Cafe Muse in London, where she's taking the classical piano into cafes and bars in search of new audiences. To find out more visit http://www.cordeliawilliams.net/. I'm sure that London's cafe culture is in for a treat. I'm still savouring the memory of Gaspard de la Nuit, a big favourite of mine and one of those pieces that seems to require an extra brain to perform (the photo above is my rather poor effort to capture it on camera). The same could be said of Jenny Lin's late nighter on 7 October - another astonishing performance.
Last night's performance by sinfonia ViVA gave us more evidence of how less can be more. A smaller orchestra than our usual bands performed to a smaller audience (still over 1000, but I always find it difficult to take comfort in that) but for me it was one of the most rewarding concerts I've heard at the Royal Concert Hall. For one thing, the programme - a rich mix of diverse twentieth century masterpieces - really played to ViVA's strengths. The impact of Andre de Ridder in inspiring the kind of incisive and committed performance we heard last night has been deep and far-reaching. The dialogue with Natalie in Barber's concerto was as gripping as an episiode of Mad Men with inspiration flowing in both directions. And it was fantastic to see so many people stay on for the After:Hours performance. Those who did will certainly have had their money's worth from Natalie, whose Bach Cello Suite No.2 was wonderfully articulated throughout. It's great to see an artist so immersed in a performance and able to connect so stringly with the audience. Speaking to her afterwards she remarked once again on how warm the audience is here. And she's right, of course.
One last thing - I'm delighted to be getting a few comments now on how good the Steinway is sounding now. It's taken a little while to settle down but, following a day of fine-tuning from Ulrich Gerhartz, Steinway's Director of Concert and Artists Services (a really nice chap by the way) it is now in fine form. Which is just as well because Lars Vogt will be working his magic on it this Monday.
I've got 20 spare minutes now - better get the next press release written! Bye for now.
Neil
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