at St John
Baptist, Danbury
20.09.2014
An
intriguingly eclectic programme for the keynote concert of this
year's Festival, the
fourth celebrating the work of this 20th
Century Essex composer.
The
central work is
Armstrong Gibbs String Quartet in G Minor, known as Kenilworth. It
dates from his wartime exile in the Lakes, and has a very English
feel, especially in the folk-inspired Vivace. Echoes of Elgar in the
Lento, shades of RVW in the finale, where the Maestoso theme is
re-stated. Played
with passion and insight by Robert
Atchison and David Jones from the
London Piano Trio [the go-to-guys for Gibbs chamber works], with
Jacqueline Hartley, violin, and Bill Hawkes, viola.
The
programme ended with an energetic reading of Dvorak's much-loved
Second Piano Quintet [Olga
Dudnik at the piano],
but it began with something much more arcane – 1919, by Ryuichi
Sakamoto: six movements from his album 1996,
for Piano Trio. Pretty
certain I wasn't alone in not knowing what to expect. Turned out to
be very enjoyable versions of his melodious movie minimalist hits,
including Oscar-winning Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Rain, from The
Last Emperor, and The Sheltering Sky, with
haunting romantic lines for the strings.
This
year's Festival has also featured Tea With Dr Gibbs [with soprano and
pianoforte], a new eco-opera for children, a book launch and a Flute
and Piano recital by Kia Bennett and Tim Carey, including a Suite by
Armstrong Gibbs, two of his piano postcards from the Lake District,
and a substantial sonata by the “English Rachmaninov”, Gibbs'
contemporary Edwin
York Bowen.
Two
years to wait for the next Festival in Danbury, but you can hear Tim
and Kia's programme again this Friday, 26 September, in a lunchtime concert at St Thomas, Brentwood.
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