New piano sees Lorn Live score biggest ensemble
Lorn Live Chamber Music Festival stages its largest ensemble this month, thanks to Oban Music Society’s new Steinway piano.
Artistic director Andrew Dunlop said: ‘This year’s festival takes place over two long weekends and welcomes musicians of international repute.’
On the first weekend of concerts, Quinn Patrick Ankrum makes a welcome return to Argyll, flying in from Cincinnati, USA, joined by Scottish soprano Jemma Brown, on Friday August 10 at 7.30pm in St Columba’s Church, Poltalloch, and then on Sunday August 12 at 3pm in St John’s Cathedral, Oban.
Andrew said: ‘Over two evenings in Oban and Poltalloch, the ladies will delight audiences with arias and duets from much-loved operas including Così fan tutte, Rusalka, Norma and Madama Butterfly before entrancing with musical theatre selections from Sondheim, Lloyd-Webber and This is Me from the recent smashhit musical The Greatest Showman.’
The second weekend of concerts features music for piano and strings in Oban and Mull. Andrew continued: ‘I was honoured to help Oban Music Society select its beau- tiful new Steinway model B piano, which influenced and made possible the choice of programme for piano and strings. Featuring the largest ensemble to grace the ‘Lorn Live’ stage, the concert opens with Beethoven’s final essay in the concerto genre, his ever-popular and titanic Emperor Concerto in an arrangement for piano and string quintet.
‘The second half of the concerts open with a movement from Rossini’s Duo for cello and double bass – an unlikely combination of instruments. Composed when he was only 22 years old, Schubert’s Trout Quintet, which gains its appellation from his earlier Lied Die Forelle, concludes the programme.’
These concerts will take place in St John’s Cathedral, Oban, at 7.30pm on Saturday August 25 and in An Tobar, Tobermory, at 2pm on Sunday August 26.