Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Rich, wonderful and exhilarating
As the Canterbury Festival approaches, we highlight the pick of the sublime choral, heady classical and intimate chamber music in the first weekly Festival Focus
This year the Festival opens with the energy and high passion of Russian romance from the legendary St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra (October 21, Marlowe Theatre, 7.30pm).
Joined by internationally acclaimed cellist Tim Hugh, the orchestra’s crowd-pleasing repertoire includes Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet, Shostakovich’s rich and wonderful Cello Concerto No. 2, and RimskyKorsakov’s exhilarating Scheherazade.
Charismatic Russian-born pianist Mikhail Rudy’s creativity and poetic imagination have wowed audiences the world over, and he’s coming to the festival with Chagall – The Sound of Colours at the Colyer-fergusson (October 29, 7.30pm).
There’s more of a flavour of Russia from Pianist Freddy Kempf (October 24, Shirley Hall, 7.30pm) who returns to the Festival with a heady rendition of the great Russian composer Rachmaninov’s Etudes Tableaux and Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. Explosive, sensitive and utterly absorbing, one not to miss. internationally-acclaimed English Chamber Orchestra as part of the We Looked for Peace concert with Canterbury Choral Society, conducted by Richard Cooke (November 4, Cathedral Nave, 7.30pm).
In further events dedicated to Stanford, the Cathedral Quire hosts Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: A Cathedral Celebration (November 3, 8pm) to mark the visit to Canterbury by the Stanford Society. The concert is introduced by the Dean of Canterbury – featuring the Dean’s favourite Stanford pieces, including the Te Deum Laudamus in B Flat.
One of the world’s finest vocal ensembles, Tenebrae (October 28, 8pm), performs Path of Miracles by Joby Talbot, a work based on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and which received dazzling reviews when it premiered in 2005. This will be a spinetingling, beautiful performance, set to candlelight. since established a reputation for her portraits of composers in words and music, collaborating with the likes of Juliet Stevenson, Simon Russell Beale, Simon Callow, Jane Asher, Jeremy Irons, Dominic West and Charles Dance. Nocturne: The Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin (October 27, Shirley Hall at 7.30pm) stars Dame Harriet Walter and Henry Goodman – and promises to be revelation.
The three hooligans (a loose translation of Trio Apaches) are three of the UK’S most respected soloists: violinist Matthew Trusler, Thomas Carroll on cello, and pianist Ashley Wass. Their performance of Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Mendelssohn’s Trio No. 2 in C Minor and Ravel’s Piano Trio in A Minor will be full of virtuoso playing (October 26, St Gregory’s Centre for Music, 7.30pm).
Another intimate evening, Emma Johnson (clarinet) and Friends (November 1, Shirley Hall, 7.30pm) will be an absolute treat for chamber music enthusiasts. Her handpicked friends are successful artists with international careers: the Carducci Quartet, double bass player Chris West, horn player Michael Thompson and bassoonist Philip Gibbon.
Emma comes hot-foot from recording a live CD of the Beethoven Septet; expect also a life-enhancing performance of Brahms’ Quintet for clarinet and strings, and Weber’s Theme and Variations for clarinet and string quartet.
Canterbury Gregorian Music Society’s hour-long concert Theodore and Hadrian (Saturday, October 21, St Mildred’s Church, 1pm) celebrates the extraordinary lives of the two great seventh-century scholars and theologians, Theodore of Tarsus, who was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in Rome in 667, and Abbot Hadrian, a Berber from North Africa.
They arrived in Canterbury in 669 and founded a school, which became famous for academic excellence. Helen Nattrass, musical director, Ian Williams, principal cantor, and readers Mark Bateson and Philippa Jevons, celebrate the lives of Theodore and Hadrian with chants for Bishops and Abbots and contemporaneous writings by Bede and Aldhelm.
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