Arts festival: marvellous music

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Melanie Gall: Ingénue, Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin 

Melanie’s one-woman show was a dazzling mixture of drama, singing and in-depth knowledge. She has written a book Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin and the Golden Age of Hollywood about these two singers and knows her subject inside out. Using the framework of an unexpected journalist’s visit to her home in France, Melanie allowed Deanna to tell the true story about her friendship with Judy Garland and the largely media-confected rivalry between the two, played out in newspapers and magazines at the time. The tale was interspersed with beautiful performances of some of the hits of both stars and the final duet between a Deanna recording and Melanie was very moving. What a wonderful afternoon’s entertainment.

Melanie Gall Deanna Durbin

Cordelia Williams: piano recital

The programme here was of music from the Romantic period: Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Schumann. Cordelia Williams introduced the pieces, commenting on her engagement with them and revealing the careful thought and consideration that proved also to be a hallmark of her playing. The Beethoven Six Bagatelles, a very late work, did, as she suggested, seem a distillation of the composer’s craft and his influence could be felt in all the other works we heard. The playing throughout with lucid yet passionate, following, for example, the mercurial changes of mood in the Schumann Fantasie op. 17 with wonderful alacrity. At the end of each piece there was that deep silence which speaks of an audience utterly caught up in the moment and of compelling playing. This was a recital that will linger long in the memory and which it was a privilege to hear.

Cordelia Williams

 

Ensemble Hesperi and Richard Robbins (tenor)

This concert whisked us off to Venice, exploring music by both the well-known – Vivaldi and Handel, for example – and composers less familiar. What a talented ensemble this is. The programming gave each player an opportunity to shine and demonstrate technical accomplishment but equally winning was the constant interplay between the musicians, the shared glances in response to the ebb and flow of the music, and above all the evident enjoyment experienced by all of them. Their collaboration with Richard Robbins brought a winning variety to each half and the appreciation of an enthusiastic audience was obvious.

Ensemble Hesperi

Image Credits: Kt bruce .

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