A top crop of concerts on show at St Mary’s
SEPTEMBER was another bumper month of weekly lunchtime concerts at St Mary in the Baum.
As reviewed by Steve Cooke in the Observer at the time, September 6 brought the sensational POLARIS harp and saxophone duo. Sounding superb in the acoustic at St Mary’s, Elinor Nicholson’s angelic harp blended wonderfully with Gillian Blair’s range of saxes – soprano, alto and baritone.
They were followed on September 13 with three seasoned professionals who are regular visitors David Butterworth on piano, John Resek on violin and Dr Rachael Gibbon on clarinet.
They teamed up in a delightful mixed programme of solos, duets and trios. Two movements from the trio by Milhaud formed the bookends of the concert, which included Beethoven’s Sonata No 4 for violin and piano, Crusell’s Concerto for clarinet and piano and piano solos by Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
On September 20, the recitalist was prizewinning pianist Olga Paliy who graduated from the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kiev before coming to the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), where she gained further distinctions including a recent award of a PhD, an extraordinary honour for a performer.
Her playing was of the highest order, in a thoughtfully conceived and brilliantly executed programme of piano works based on songs from Mozart, ChopinLiszt, Olovnikov, Glinka and Rachmaninoff.
September 27 brought oboist George Strickland and pianist Hector Leung. Both have recently graduated with masters degrees from the RNCM.
George is now branching out as a player and conductor. Hector was a prize-winning pianist in Hong Kong before coming to Manchester and has just gained his Fellowship of the Royal Schools of Music diploma with distinction.
So, two more young musicians at the top of their game. The oboe is admirably suited to the acoustic at St Mary in the Baum, as seen in Dring’s Three Piece Suite.
Sonatas by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns were further rare treats in live performance, along with Britten’s monumental Temporal Variations for solo oboe.
Concerts are held on Wednesdays from 12.30pm to 1.30pm at St Mary in the Baum. Admission costs £4 and refreshments are available from 11.30am.