 |
Julian Joseph
Hampstead Town Hall
THIS was no frills: just one man and a grand piano.
And Julian Joseph doesn’t need anything more. As soon
as he launched into his first tricky composition, it was
obvious that Joseph’s talent is rare and beautiful.
The jazz pianist’s set was billed as featuring classics
by the likes of Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, but
this was no concert featuring covers of standards: each
number he launched into was done in his style, which means
contemporary jazz.
The pianist did the gig partly as a favour to the Weekend
Arts College he learnt his trade at: formerly based in Dalby
Street, Kentish Town, but now up the road at Hampstead Town
Hall. What was noticeable was the amount of young music
enthusiasts in the audience who had come to be inspired
by a down to earth performer who has genius written all
over him.
The front row was full of WAC students who had popped up
from their workshops downstairs. He answered their questions
politely, as if he remembered what it was like to watch
and learn, and judging by their attentive looks they were
all imagining seeing themselves up there on stage one day.
For the layman, many of the tunes were barely recognisable
from the original. He noticed and asked afterwards if people
could tell what the piece was, like Rolf Harris doing a
cartoon.
He kicked off the second part of his set with Gershwin’s
Nice Work If You Can Get It – but it sounded hugely
complex. The well-known refrain was hidden in there somewhere,
and it was a little ostentatious – but when you’ve
got it, you may as well flaunt it. And his compositions
are just as good. He made the Steinway sing with My Brother
– which brought smiles from his two brothers who were
listening attentively in the audience.
The thumping lower bass notes in the tune For Him showed
a funky sensibility. Quietly spoken, he greeted the audience
as friends. Most of them seemed to have followed him before
and this made his chat between the numbers seem personal
but did not sell his character, nor his obvious passion.
No matter. This is one musician whose music really does
all the talking.
Great balance in challenging work
Lucy Jeal and Gretel Dowdeswell
Rosslyn Hill
by Coriander Stuttard
Sunlight flooded through the beautiful stained glass windows
of the Rosslyn Hill Chapel for Lucy Jeal and Gretel Dowdeswell’s
Sunday afternoon recital.
Disappointingly, Lloyd Moore’s Three-Part Invention
which had been specially commissioned for the festival was
not to be part of the programme after all, but there was still
plenty to keep the audience happy.
Right from the opening bars of Mozart’s B-flat Sonata,
this was clearly a partnership of two enormously musical minds.
Jeal’s playing was clean, phrases were well tapered
and she recovered superbly from a couple of moments where
her concentration was disrupted by noisy latecomers or problem
page turns.
Dowdeswell accompanied delicately, although in the Mozart
and a few passages of the Debussy which followed, some of
the articulation which was so well intended was slightly lost
by the piano lid being open on its full stick.
In Debussy’s sonata, both players were able to gauge
wonderful nuances, bringing out strong contrasts between mysterious
shady tones and strong articulation. Jeal’s sound particularly
in the higher register was wonderfully sweet but also powerful
where required – despite the piano lid – balance
between the performers was never a problem. The last movement
rang out with rhythmic exuberance and clarity.
Walton’s Violin Sonata is a more difficult piece to
grasp – it reflects his deeply troubled emotions while
composing it and it is full of switches in character and disjointed
writing. Although much of the work was superbly played by
Jeal and Dowdeswell, it somehow didn’t work quite as
well as the rest of the programme had musically.
Nevertheless, there were some beautiful moments and Dowdeswell
changed the variations between the quirky and spiky writing
with great assurance.
The Faure Berceuse played as an encore was a treat and left
the audience with memories of an assured performance.
Festival Listings
Friday 20
FRENCH Organ Music – Francis Marchal plays Franck, Saint-Saëns,
Langlais, Grunenwald. St Dominic’s Priory, Southampton
Road, NW5. 07950 932 703. 7.30pm.
GUILLAMI String Quartet – Debussy, Graham Williams and
Walton. United Reformed Church, Pond Square, N6. 0870 033
2733. £12/£5. 7.45pm.
Saturday 21
FESTIVAL Finale: Hampstead and Highgate Festival Orchestra
with György Pauk (violin), Yuko Inoue (viola), Suzanne
Willison (harp) and George Vass (conductor) – Haydn,
Walton, Debussy, Mozart and David Matthews.
St John-at-Hampstead, Church Row, NW3. 0870 033 2733. £5-£16.
7.45pm.
Other Classical Listings
FRIDAY 20
GABRIEL Keen (piano) – Debussy, Ives, Schumann. Swiss
Church, 79 Endell Street, WC2. 020 7836 1418. Free. 1pm.
COMPETITION for strings, guitar and ensembles – part
of the Czech and Slovak Music in London Festival. St Andrew’s
Church, Thornhill Square, N1. Free. 5pm.
BORODIN Quartet play Borodin, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.
Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Street, W1. 020 7935 2141. £10-£22.
7.30pm.
GEMINI Ensemble play Mozart and Ravel in aid of Musicians
Against Nuclear War. St James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly,
W1. 020 8455 1030. £9.50/£8. 7.30pm.
SATURDAY 21
BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus – Shostakovich’s
Symphony No 15, Rachmaninov’s The Bells. Barbican,
Silk Street, EC1. 0845 120 7500. £8-£16. 7.30pm.
DREAMLIVES – Elizabeth Claxton (soprano) and Sergey
Rybin (piano) perform Strauss, Berg and Schoenberg. 8.30pm.
£10/£8. Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Rosslyn Hill, NW3.
020 7586 7913.
BORODIN Quartet – Shostak-ovich’s String Quartet
No 15. Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Street, W1. 020 7935 2141.
£10. 9.30pm.
SUNDAY 22
ROSA Mundi Duo – Songs for lute and theorbo. Lauderdale
House, Highgate Hill, N6. 07939 229238. £8/£6.
7pm.
BORODIN Quartet – Rachmaninov, Glazunov, Schubert,
Dvorak. Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Street, W1. 020 7935 2141.
£10-£22. 7pm.
LSO plays Bernstein’s On the Waterfront suite, Shostakovich’s
Cello Concerto No 1 (Han-Na Chang soloist) and Rachmaninov’s
Symphony No 2. Barbican, Silk Street, EC1. 0845 120 7500.
£5-£25. 7.30pm.
MONDAY 23
HAGEN Quartet – Haydn, Beethoven, Shostakovich. Wigmore
Hall, Wigmore Street, W1. 020 7935 2141. £10/£8.
1pm.
TUESDAY 24
CHRISTINE Schäfer (soprano) and Graham Johnson (piano)
play Schubert. 020 7935 2141. £12-£25. 7.30pm.
FRIDAY 27
HELSINKI Baroque Orchestra plays Handel and Bach. Wigmore
Hall, Wigmore Street, W1. 020 7935 2141. £12-£24.
7.30pm.
|
