Hampstead and Highgate Festival
Various

THE Hampstead and Highgate Festival gets off to a contemplative start this evening (Thursday) with a recital from cellist Ralph Kirshbaum, accompanied by Carole Presland on the piano.
Festival composer-in-residence David Matthews has penned a piece especially for the evening, entitled Journey Song.
An avowedly accessible composer, he recently assured this paper that he was looking forward to mingling with concert-goers after the work’s airing, so be sure to be thinking of suitable adjectives as you sit through it. His compositions will be appearing throughout the 10 days of the festival – indeed the next day, as pianist Helen Reid has been practising the intriguingly-titled Dionysus Dithyramb for her recital at Channing School in Highgate Hill.
Beethoven’s late, great E major sonata and Debussy’s L’isle Joyeuse are a couple of other highlights in a busy programme.
Two ends of the keyboard spectrum will be covered on Sunday: American jazzman Julian Joseph will be riffling through the jazz standard songbooks at Hampstead Town Hall and at the same time Carole Cerasi, over at Pond Square’s United Reformed Church, will play Bach as perhaps it should always be played: on the harpsichord.
See next week’s New Journal for reviews. Full festival listings can be seen at www.hamandhighfest.co.uk

Festival listings – first week

Hampstead and Highgate Festival concerts – week one

THURSDAY 12
OPENING Concert – Ralph Kirshbaum (cello) and Carole Preland (piano) join the festival orchestra: Debussy, Matthews, Shostakovich, Beethoven. St John-at-Hampstead Church, Church Row, NW3 (SJaH). £5-£14. 7.45pm.

FRIDAY 13
HELEN Reid (piano) – Scarlatti, Ravel, Matthews, Beethoven and more. Channing School, Highgate Hill, N6. £5-£10. 7.45pm.

SATURDAY 14
HIGHGATE Choral Society and the New London Orchestra – Poulenc’s Gloria, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. All Hallow’s Church, Savernake Road, NW3. 07952 508 234. £9-£20. 7.30pm.

SUNDAY 15
CLARIPHONICS – the all-clarinet ensemble play Mozart’s La Traviata Overture and Curtis’s A Klezmer Wedding etc. Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, N6. 020 8348 8716. £7/£5, children £1. 11.30am.
LUCY Jeal (violin) and Gretel Dowdeswell (piano) – Mozart, Debussy, Walton and world premiere of Lloyd Moore’s Three Part Invention. Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Rosslyn Hill, NW3. £9/£5. 3.30pm.
CAROLE Cerasi (harpsichord) – Bach, Couperin, Albéniz, Couperin and more. United Reformed Church, Pond Square, N6. £13/£3. 7.45pm.
JULIAN Joseph – the American virtuoso pianist plays Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. Hampstead Town Hall, Haverstock Hill, NW3. £13/£5. 8pm.

MONDAY 16
DANTE String Quartet – Beethoven, Matthews, Ravel. SJaH. £5-£14. 7.45pm.

TUESDAY 17
YOUTH Choirs in Concert – young Camden musicians perform Walton, Holst, Andrew Downes and Brahms. SJaH. £5-£10. 7.45pm.

WEDNESDAY 18
FAÇADE – a celebrity concert – Ravel, Matthews, McDowall and Walton. Great Hall, University College School, Frognal, NW3. £5-£14. 8pm.

• The box office for all concerts is 0870 033 2733 unless otherwise stated.