Salon concert recalls great homecoming for Buckman
Trio will include tributes to epic 1922 tour
It is three years since Paeka¯ka¯riki’s Mulled Wine Concert series featured the Hammers and Horsehair duo of Robert Ibell (cello) and Douglas Mews (piano).
But now they have joined forces with the well-known soprano Rowena Simpson and are due to make their return for another concert.
They will present a salon concert intended to give the audience a taste of what famous Kiwi soprano Rosina Buckman’s tour would have sounded like a century ago.
“New Zealand has a long history of classical music and this year, 100 years will have passed since the singer — who in her day attracted audiences of 10,000 or more to concert halls around Europe — undertook an epic tour of the entire country to celebrate her return to the Southern Hemisphere,” concert organiser Mary Gow said.
“Rosina and her accompanists, cellist Adelina Leon and pianist-composer
Percy Kahn played 110 concerts in 1922 to enthusiastic audiences around Australia and New Zealand, most of which were sold out.
“The 2022 programme is called Homecoming and will offer high-level music interspersed with funny and enchanting anecdotes from the 1922 Buckman tour comparing life on the road then and now including some vignettes of Ka¯piti life then.”
“We’re looking to create a special atmosphere,” pianist Mews said.
“We will play a piece and chat to the audience as if we were playing in their sitting room at home.
“People will be able to hear the music much as it would have been heard by audiences when it was performed 100 years ago“.
On the musical side, the group will present some of the period music from the original tour, notably Arditi’s Il Bacio and a piece composed by Molly Carew for soprano and piano Love’s a Merchant.
There will be an arrangement by Percy Kahn of Ave Maria, and other pieces for cello, piano and vocals.
The group will also present some of their own favourites including Brahms’ Intermezzo in B flat and Offenbach’s L’Etoile scored for soprano, cello and piano.