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There aren't many musicians who run two Festivals simultaneously with conspicuous success; however, conductor George Vass is certainly one of this rare breed of exceptional musicians. In 1992 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts, an annual 6-day event held in the Powys border town of Presteigne. This festival is uniquely well-known for its commitment to contemporary music and to young artists, and has been regularly nominated for the annual Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. It was short-listed in 2003, only to be beaten by the London Symphony Orchestra.From the Archive
Satie, forty years after
By Ronald Pearsall
It is said that Delius divided critics into two camps; those who did not know his works and disputing the opinions of those who did. In the case of Erik Satie, critics are also divided into two portions; those who think he is a joke and those who don't, and in this year, the fortieth anniversary of Satie's death, it might be interesting to see what effect this strange petit mâitre has had on musical life. That he has had a musical effect, and that this effect was predicted, can be demonstrated quite easily. Many years ago, George Auric, one of the French composers of the 'twenties included in the group 'Les Six' and now known as a talented composer of film music to the wider audience, wrote: 'Satie's works, although written without reference to the prevailing taste and style of the day … have in reality anticipated those tastes and styles … with the most astonishing precision.'
This is even more true today than when Auric wrote. Although Satie's fame as a composer rests on a choral work (Socrate), a ballet (Jack in the Box) and a handful of piano pieces, the kind of person and the kind of composer he was has influenced the present generation of composers. Why should this be? Why should a composer who is about the only one to emerge unscathed from the pages of Constant Lambert's classic Music Ho! have had such an impact on the musical world of 'sixty five.
Briefly, Satie was a composer who played it cool. He was an eccentric, a joker, not afraid to make a fool of himself, and a dabbler. He was a serious musician who could yet write a music-hall ditty without feeling infra dig, who lived in a squalid room in the unfashionable Paris suburb of Arcueil, a room into which none of his friends was allowed, a man who, when he came into a small inheritance, spent it on a dozen suits of grey velvet, most of which were consumed, unworn, by moths.
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Christopher Nupen on Karim Said
Judith Monk finds out more
"In 2000 Daniel Barenboim asked me, in Weimar, to hear a young pianist he thought was special, Karim Said, then 11 years old. I was so taken with both the playing and the personality that I asked first Karim and then his parents whether they would allow me to make a film about him. At first reluctant, they later agreed and I have been filming him for 7 years now."
Christopher's DVDs have consistently won awards, three times DVD of the Month in leading UK magazines, three times the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in Germany, the Diapason d'Or in France and this January DVD of the Year Award, Documentary Category at Midem in Cannes: the third time in four years that a Nupen DVD has won this top award. His website gives a quote I cannot better: "In the words of Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the first Chief Executive of the UK's innovative Channel 4 Television network and later Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House: "Christopher Nupen pioneered a style of filming musicians and music-making in which his excellence has rarely been equalled and never excelled. Of that genre he is the undoubted master. His films will endure forever as reference documents to the executant's art in the 20th-Century and as constant sources of musical delight." Just so.
I visited Christopher to discuss his latest project. For seven years he has shadowed a young pianist, Karim Said. I wanted to know why?
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John Amis takes a trip to the Royal Ballet
Why do we call afternoon shows matinées? Probably too late to change it now but wouldn't après-midiens be more accurate? Anyway, I went on Saturday, 2 February, to a Royal Ballet performance in Covent Garden which began at 12.30pm and it was absolutely packed, lots of children. What the little dears made of a tough programme I would like to know; they probably found it easier to take than some of the older ones.
The first item was only the sixth performance of the sensation of 2006: Chroma, choreography by Wayne McGregor, sets by the architect John Pawson, lighting by Lucy Carter - all three need to be mentioned as highly commended. The set was described as "in a sense, charged limbo", a rectangle with another one raised, towards the back, excitingly lit and frequently metamorphosed.
The choreography, ah! difficult to describe. It is classical dancing thrust forward in language; legs, arms, neck, head and trunk move in ways not seen before: fluid, rippling, bending, curving, twining, but you really have to see it and I sincerely hope you will, for this is something new and exciting, an extension of the ballet language. What that language is saying is not quite clear but perhaps that is not so important as the sensation of seeing it.
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Leslie Howard at 60
Robert Matthew-Walker on Britain's favourite Aussie pianist
"My God, that's a hefty programme!" said the chap standing next to me at the Wigmore Hall, as we perused the upcoming publicity leaflets at the beginning of April. "What's that?" I asked and he handed me a leaflet advertising the recital there on 30 April by Leslie Howard, coincidentally marking the pianist's 60th birthday. To judge by the photograph, Howard wears his years lightly, as he does his scholarship as well as his virtuosity.
His choice of programme should be no surprise to Howard's many admirers, for he has a reputation for finding works by leading composers which have somehow lain unheard until he has sought them out. Thus, the 60th birthday recital opens with what is probably the UK premiere of Beethoven's extraordinary Six Minuets WoO10, of which no record exists of them ever having been played publicly in Britain before, and, just to round things off, the programme ends with Liszt's monumental 12 Transcendental Studies. By way of more traditional fare, there is another rarely heard Beethoven work, the wonderful F major Variations Opus 34.
Mention Leslie Howard to most music lovers and the first composer who springs to mind will be Liszt. That's fair enough, considering Howard's astounding accomplishment, unequalled by any solo artist in recording history, of a 97-CD survey for Hyperion Records of the complete known piano music of Franz Liszt. This took almost 15 years to complete, including works prepared by Howard from Liszt's still unpublished manuscripts, many of which have been unheard since the composer's lifetime, as well as more than 300 works recorded for the first time, thanks to Howard's assiduity in tracking down, preparing the scores and committing them to CD. The completion of this Herculean Liszt project has brought Howard an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, Six Grands Prix du Disque and the Medal of St Stephen, the Pro Cultura Hungarica Award, and a mounted bronze cast of Liszt's hand, all presented to him by the President of Hungary.
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Carbon fibre is new Black Beauty
The World's first production grand piano with carbon fibre soundboard by Steingraeber-Phoenix was shown at the recent Frankfurt Music Fair.
Two years ago we wrote an exclusive article announcing the new concept Steingraeber-Phoenix pianos with bridge agraffe under the title "Stunning Blonde Enraptures the Piano World". At the invitation of Richard Dain of Hurstwood Farm Piano Studios we had listened to a recording being made by Eric Himy from the USA on this uniquely beautiful natural rosewood piano. That recording has itself been a land mark in piano music, gaining the accolade of becoming BBC Music Magazine's Recording of the Month in America with double 5 star rating but also gaining the comment from American critic Dave Holmes of Audio Emporium "This is likely to be the best sounding piano disc you have yet purchased."
On 3 March 2008, Hurstwood Farm Pianos Studios with Steingraeber won the prestigious Bavarian State Government Award for Innovation in the Arts for their innovative Stunning Blonde concert grand.
A year later we announced a "New Baby for the Steingraeber- Phoenix range". This little piano packs a huge punch resulting from further development of the Hurstwood Farm Studios concept of bridge agraffes which enable elimination of acoustically restrictive down bearing loads on the sound board. Most people who play these tiny 170 cm baby grands compare their performance to that of a traditional seven foot six inch half concert grand.
To see the whole article subscribe to Musical Opinion
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