Chamber Music Concert

[Fiona B]

New Impressions

Music lovers are invited to experience a distinctive musical experience on Saturday 18th April at St.Bartholomew's Church Sydenham, from the new and innovative chamber group Spectrum Ensemble London.

Be prepared to experience familiar and much loved chamber works arranged for an unusual collection of instruments: two flutes, four clarinets, and two bassoons, in a programme of Ravel, Debussy, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Massenet, and Schulhoff, all originally written for solo piano, piano and orchestra or string quartet.

Fiona Bryan, a local resident, founded the group in 2013, they gave their first performance at the Crystal Palace Overground Festival in june of the that year and will appear again this year with a whole day of activities- workshops, classes, 2 concerts and an art exhibition.

For more information see their website:
http://www.spectrumensemblelondon.com

The concert will begin at 7.30 and ticket prices are £12, concession and under 16's free.

[Tim Lund]

Highly recommended

[Tim Lund]

Bump - with programme, courtesy SydSoc enewsletter

7.30pm Saturday 18 April
St Barts Church, Westwood Hill SE26 6QR

Tickets £8 (£6 concs; under 16s free) on door or reserve your ticket in advance at spectrumensemblelondon@gmail.com

Eight musicians who play for the capital's top orchestras present an evening of music specially arranged for an octet of clarinets, bassoons and flutes.

Erwin Schulhoff - Dansante en Jazz - Stomp

Rachmaninoff - String Quartet no.1 Romance and Scherzo

Ravel Pavanne Pour Une Infante Defunte

Erwin Schulhoff - Dansante en Jazz - Straight

Mozart - Piano Concerto KV 488 2nd Movement

Debussy - La Puerta del Vino

Debussy - Reflets dans L’Eau

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Ravel - String Quartet in F major

[chrisj1948]

I attended the concert yesterday evening. It was a very accomplished performance which demanded high standards from the musicians. The adaptation of a range of pieces for wind instruments was extremely well done and, on occasion, quite ingenious.

It was disappointing that it was not better attended. An octet of wind instruments might be a more specialised taste than, say, a string quartet but I suspect that lack of advance publicity was the main culprit. I was impressed by them and will, commitments permitting, be attending their next appearance for the Crystal Palace Overground Festival on June 28th at St.John the Evangelist.

Regards
Chris

[Robin Orton]

I thought of going, and might well have done so had I not been feeling rather weary yesterday evening after having got up at 3.30am to take people to Gatwick for an early flight and then having spent much of the rest of the day taxiing around and entertaining small grandsons. But I must say the prospect of a whole evening not of original settings but of arrangements for this odd combo of what looked like rather mainstream works did not sound all that inviting.

[Tim Lund]

I'll lend you the CD Robin. They were great. Listening to some of the Debussy, originally for solo piano, I wondered why on earth anyone wouldn't want such music more richly orchestrated. There's also always something special with chamber music played by top level players - that feeling of individual skills combining in a shared enterprise.

Their version of Ravel's Pavanne pour une enfante defuncte was incredibly moving.

[chrisj1948]

...... originally for solo piano, I wondered why on earth anyone wouldn't want such music more richly orchestrated..

I guess that is what Ravel felt when he orchestrated 'Pictures at an Exhibition'. I confess I prefer the original Mussorgsky version for piano.

Regards
Chris

[Robin Orton]

Listening to some of the Debussy, originally for solo piano, I wondered why on earth anyone wouldn't want such music more richly orchestrated. There's also always something special with chamber music played by top level players - that feeling of individual skills combining in a shared enterprise.

I've nothing against arrangements as such, which can often cast new light on the original. But I'm a bit sniffy about 'rich' arrangements of pieces originally written for a solo instrument or a smaller ensemble. A bit like drowning a delicately flavoured dish with HP sauce, I sometimes feel. (Ah, I now see that Chris may feel the same. Another example might be Wagner's Wesendoncklieder . I have a wonderful recording of Flagstadt singing the original version with piano accompaniment.)

But I very much agree with your second point. My dream job would be playing second violin in a professional string quartet.

[Tim Lund]

I'm sure you'd not really want to play second fiddle