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PREVIEW CLASSICAL COLLABORATION PARAGON ENSEMBLE – THE SPIRITS OF SOUNDS AT THE TEENAGE FAIR CCA, Glasgow, Wed 29 Jul
✽✽ Rose Street Quartet Four become five as pianist Andrew Johnston joins the popular Edinburgh string quartet for quintets by Shostakovich and Elgar. It’s the first time that the RSQ have staged a full-length evening recital in the capital’s city centre and hopefully the first of many. Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, Sat 1 Aug. ✽✽ William Howard More top class summer chamber music as the Music at Paxton Festival nears its close for this year. Pianist William Howard, founder of the Schubert Ensemble of London, goes solo on this occasion, but pays homage to Schubert with his B minor Sonata alongside some of the other 19th century piano repertoire that is his particular passion. Paxton House, Berwickshire, Sat 25 Jul. ✽✽ Organ Recital: Peter Backhouse Hear St Giles’ magnificent Rieger organ, built specially for the cathedral in 1992, in the last of this season’s celebrity recital series. Putting it through its paces in virtuoso organ music by Mendelssohn in his bicentenary year and JS Bach student, Johann Ludwig Krebs, is the church’s own assistant organist, Peter Backhouse. St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Wed 5 Aug.
Sunday 26
Glasgow FREE Kelvingrove Sunday Organ Recitals Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Argyle Street, 276 9599. 3pm. Sunday promenade concerts with different organists.
Edinburgh FREE Sunday Morning Music National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, 225 7534. 10.45am. Enjoy a stroll through the National Museums to the talents of young musicians from Live Music Now! Scotland. Today, it’s clarsach player and singer Jennifer Port. ■ St Giles’ at Six: Maelasta St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 6pm. Retiring collection. The violin and guitar duo of Feargus Hetherington and Matthew McAllister gives a recital of traditional Scottish music in celebration of Homecoming. Berwick Upon Tweed ■ Navarra String Quartet with Alexander Boyd Paxton House Picture Gallery, Paxton, 473 2000. 7.30pm. £16
82 THE LIST 23 Jul–6 Aug 2009
The title comes from the Dusseldorf group of which Wolfgang Flür was drummer prior to joining the German band that pioneered popular electronic music, Kraftwerk, in the early 70s. Still very much active in electronic music, Flür would surely be fascinated by his old band’s place, albeit a somewhat oblique one, in the inspiration of a brand new, cutting edge, online interactive composition system. Commissioned by Paragon Ensemble from Glasgow-based artist Simon Yuill, The Spirits of Sounds at the Teenage Fair is, says the group’s Creative Director, Ninian Perry, ‘very exciting. Simon has created a programme for us, using sample sounds and graphic interface to make it a rather unusual commission.’ The sounds have been recorded in sessions with la grande dame of
percussionists, Heather Corbett, and singer Hanna Tuulikki. ‘I’m interested in the combination of voice and percussion,’ explains Yuill, ‘and they produced a vocabulary of sounds which we are using in the samples.’ The percussion is mostly tuned – marimba and vibraphone predominantly – with the voice of Tuulikki crossing over into their territory. ‘Hanna, who has a folk background but is interested in experimental singing styles,’ says Yuill, ‘is sometimes deliberately imitating the vibraphone.’ Perry describes her voice as ‘flexible, wonderful. She’s a great singer.’
In a workshop the day before the performance, members of the public can compose their own pieces using Yuill’s software. There is also the potential to unlock musical creativity in hundreds of school students through Paragon’s educational use of the programme. As Perry says, ‘It is a great fit with our policy of commissioning new Scottish works and at the same time helping people to make their own music. It will allow any web- user to put together their own piece, no matter where they are in the world.’ (Carol Main)
(£8). The ensemble is joined by pianist Alexander Boyd in a programme of works by Haydn, Schubert and Mendelssohn. The Quartet received the ‘Outstanding Young Artist Award’ at the MIDEM Classique Awards in Cannes in 2008. Part of the Music at Paxton Festival. Kilberry ■ Scottish Chamber Orchestra Winds and Brass Crear: Space to Create, Crear, 01880 770369. 3pm. £22 (includes drinks and canapés; children free). Must be booked in advance. See Sat 25.
Lochearnhead ■ Balquhidder Summer Music Balquhidder Church, Balquhidder, 01877 384338. 7pm. £7 (£6; under 15s free). The Dalmeny Trio performs a programme of works for violin, clarinet and piano, including Debussy’s Violin Sonata, Poulenc’s Clarinet Sonata and Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale. Stirling FREE Organ Recital Church Of The Holy Rude, St John Street, 01786 475275. 3pm. Iain McGlinchey gives a recital.
Wednesday 29 Glasgow FREE The Spirits of Sounds at the Teenage Fair Workshop CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 2pm. Workshop in which Simon Yuill introduces the public to his interactive
composition system. Go along and compose your own music by selecting combinations of sampled sounds that can be arranged into structured musical forms through a visual graphic interface. And there’s even a chance that it will be heard in tonight’s performance. ■ The Spirits of Sounds at the Teenage Fair Concert CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, 352 4900. 7.30pm. £8 (£5). A performance of Simon Yuill’s new online interactive commission, which allows users to compose their own works, as well as performances of works by Cage, Reich and Barker by percussionist Heather Corbett and vocalist Hanna Tuulikki. Ages 18+. Edinburgh ■ Organ Recital: Tom Bell St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 8pm. £7 (children free). The London-based organist performs Bach’s Ich ruf zu dir, Johnson Manning’s Puck, MacMillan’s Le tombeau de Georges Rouault and works by Mendelssohn, Ligeti and Bonnal.
Saturday 1
Edinburgh ■ Lunchtime Concert St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 12.15pm. Retiring collection. RSCM Edinburgh Cathedral Course. ✽✽ Rose Street Quartet Canongate 702265. 7.30pm. £10 (£5). Pianist Andy Johnston joins the ensemble for Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G Kirk, 153 Canongate, 07719
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minor, one of the best known of the composer’s chamber works, as well as Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A minor and Rachmaninov’s Romance and Scherzo. Dunblane FREE Organ Recital Dunblane Cathedral, The Cross, 01786 823388. Noon. Local organist Steven McIntyre gives a recital, followed by refreshments in the hall.
Sunday 2
Edinburgh ■ St Giles’ at Six St Giles’ Cathedral, Royal Mile, 226 0673. 6pm. Retiring collection. Organist Jennifer Chou gives a recital of works by de Grigny, Mendelssohn, Robert Ampt and Petr Eben. Lochearnhead ■ Balquhidder Summer Music Balquhidder Church, Balquhidder, 01877 384338. 7pm. £7 (£6; under 15s free). Talented classical guitarist Simon Thacker and young jazz vocalist Daisy Chute perform jazz- and folk-influenced classical pieces and popular song from the likes of Gershwin, Bacharach, Ellington and Baez.
Monday 3 Glasgow ■ The Sound Institute Summer Workshops Cardonald College, 690 Moss Park Drive, 272 3291. 10.30am–1pm and 1pm–4pm. £40 for ages 6+/£45 for ages 16+. Top value five-day music workshops, covering a range of instruments and songwriting. See http://thesoundinstitute.co.uk for details.
Tuesday 4
Glasgow ■ The Sound Institute Summer Workshops Cardonald College, 690 Moss Park Drive, 272 3291. 10.30am–1pm and 1pm–4pm. £40 for ages 6+/£45 for ages 16+. See Thu 23. Perth ■ Basque National Youth Orchestra Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, 0845 612 6324. 7.30pm. £10 (£6). This exciting young orchestra has toured China and Europe, and visits Perth for its first Scottish concert. Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto is followed by a musical trip to the exotic East in Rimsky Korsakov’s lushly orchestrated Scheherazade.
Wednesday 5
Glasgow ■ The Sound Institute Summer Workshops Cardonald College, 690 Moss Park Drive, 272 3291. 10.30am–1pm and 1pm–4pm. £40 for ages 6+/£45 for ages 16+. See Thu 23.
Backhouse St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh ✽✽ Organ Recital: Peter Royal Mile, 226 0673. 8pm. £7 (children free). The organist performs Krebs’ Trio in F, Carter’s Passacaglia, Mendelssohn’s Sonata No 1 and works by Jackson and Atkinson.
Thursday 6
Glasgow ■ The Sound Institute Summer Workshops Cardonald College, 690 Moss Park Drive, 272 3291. 10.30am–1pm and 1pm–4pm. £40 for ages 6+/£45 for ages 16+. See Thu 23. Edinburgh FREE Harp Recital National Gallery Complex, The Mound, 624 6200. 6pm. Acclaimed harpist Aline Bzhezhinska presents a programme of jazz and world arrangements from her new harp book.