2006
17th November – TheClerihew Trio
Three talented young musicians calling themselves
the Clerihew Trio presented a unique concert of extreme variety to a large
audience in
Five short
pieces for clarinet and piano by Gerald Finzi delighted the audience as did a
series of short musical jokes called the Clerihew Songs, written for the trio
by musical educationalist Paul Harris.
The second half
of the concert was equally varied including Israeli music and music of the
planets by Alan Hovhaness. The finale comprised three songs from musical shows
and films. Popular songs delivered by classically-trained musicians have a
polish that can be very appealing and the TBS audience certainly appreciated
these items.
These three
excellent musicians gave Farnham music-lovers a wonderful evening.
Ian Sargeant
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20th October –
Gonçalves Quartet
Four musicians from the Royal College of Music
presented a concert of Baroque music by composers from
The combination of instruments; two flutes, cello and harpsichord,
enabled the quartet to give a very varied programme, including pieces for the
full ensemble as well as works that gave individual players a chance to shine. Marta Gonçalves’ flute
playing sparkled in the allegro movements of Bach’s Flute Sonata in E
minor and Montserrat Colome gave a sensitive performance of Gabrielli’s
Cello Sonata in A major. Anthony
Goode won rapturous applause for his solo harpsichord renditions of two Bach
preludes and fugues.
After the interval a suite of
dances by the little known composer Marin Marais transported the audience to
the elegance of 18th century
Rosemary Wisbey
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22nd September – Chiaroscu String
Quartet
In the best tradition of the musical events presented by the Tilford Bach
Society, the Autumn season of concerts at
The Chiaroscura String Quartet is a group of four young ladies who came
together at the Royal College of Music in November last year with an acclaimed
performance of Mozart’s “Dissonance” quartet (K465). For this
work they had been coached by Sir Roger Norrington and Farnham music lovers
were privileged to hear a repeat
performance of this well-known work. Before this, the musicians had played
Haydn’s “Reiter” quartet and the Mozart string quartet in D Minor (K421) to the great
satisfaction of the audience.
The rapport between the players was a delight to behold and included not
just great sympathy in the music making, with the repeated eye contact that is
the mark of a well-rehearsed
ensemble, but even carefully programmed page-turning for each other when
required. The performance was marked by some excellent virtuouso playing and,
in many places, good attack contrasting with lightness of touch.
Ian Sargeant
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21st April – Daniel de Borah
It is not often that the Tilford Bach Society is able to offer a piano
recital to its members. On Friday 21st April, the talented young Australian
pianist Daniel de Borah performed at
His opening pieces were Bach organ works adapted to piano. Deprived of an
organ’s extra manuals and pedal board, and playing an instrument that
delivers a totally different acoustic profile, it was astonishing to hear such
pieces being rendered so effectively, with the different voices coming through
clearly across the whole compass of the instrument. This performance was of
particular interest to the various church organists who were in the audience.
The second half of the concert comprised a performance of Kreisleriana by Robert Schumann, a piece
in eight movements, describing the eccentric moods of a fictional, half-mad
musician. The tempo and tone of the piece varies rapidly from moment to moment
reflecting the mercurial behaviour of the musician. Daniel de Borah performed
this work with great passion and virtuosity.
The audience went home feeling that this pianist is someone to watch out
for as his skilled and expressive playing combine well with great confidence.
Still in his early twenties, he has much great music to deliver over coming
years.
The concert was presented with the support of the Countess of Munster
Musical Trust.
Ian Sargeant
___________________
10th February 2006 – Rachel Brown & Laurence
Cummings
JS Bach spent a lot of time composing music.
He also spent a lot of time just drawing lines on sheets of paper creating the
music staves into which he then wrote his compositions. When he had written one
particular concerto, he was left with three spare staves of music at the bottom
of each page. Not wanting to waste this scarce resource, he composed his Sonata
for Flute and Harpsichord in A. Some time later a person, perhaps Bach himself,
took scissors and cut out these bars of music from certain pages leaving an
incomplete first movement and the work is therefore rarely performed.
However,at this members’ evening concert
held at
But this was just one of many musical items in
a fascinating concert that quite captivated the TBS. Rachel Brown, with Laurence
Cummings on the harpsichord, delivered a sequence of interesting pieces ranging
from Quantz (famous in his day as flutist and composer in the court of
Frederick the Great) to Couperin, Handel, Telemann and Bach. Vignettes of
historical background on each piece were offered to an appreciative audience.
Rachel Brown’s recorder playing of the
final piece, a Telemann sonata, was quite stunning, giving the impression of
two separate instruments being played at the same time. Laurence Cummings, as
one of the country’s leading baroque performers, both complemented the
flutist to perfection throughout and delivered his own virtuoso sections with
consummate ease.
Both of these artistes are, of course, well
known to our society, but their appearance together at a
Ian Sargeant