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| Adès, Carter, Copland and Ligeti If this 3½ hours triple-decker is a portent, 2007 may be a vintage year for PLG, which was founded across the road from Hyde Park in 1956, at 45 Park Lane, and has served highly talented young artists (many of them having become internationally famous) for 50 seasons. The heart of the evening was the centre panel, with a deliciously refined account of Thomas Adès' Arcadiana (seven pieces for string quartet, 1994) and Aaron Copland's major song cycle. The Heath Quartet were strong advocates for the Adès, and afterwards impressive in the more daunting asperities of Ligeti's 2nd quartet, though that would better have been placed straight after the interval, before the audience began to tire. Karina Lucas' name is one to remember. She entranced us Karina Lucas was partnered by Simon Lane in perfect style, and with sensitivity to the difficult acoustic of the Purcell Room. Alasdair Beatson, with John Myerscough (cellist of the Doric String Quartet) confirmed memories of his masterly Dutilleux piano sonata last year with clarity of articulation and judicious pedalling, but was inclined to brutal ffs in the Carter cello sonata. Nor was the Purcell Room helpful to Myerscough in creating the "hypnotic and other worldly atmosphere" of Sciarrino's Ai limiti della notte, though his control of the tremolo artificial harmonics, amongst the extended techniques deployed throughout, was impressive. Recommended recordings:
More PLG Young Artists Of several other individuals and groups heard during the week, the Aquilon Trio was outstanding and presented an integrated programme which held the attention throughout. Great pains were taken to stage Musgrave's Pierrot, with masks from Venice for the trios's characterisation as Pierrot, Columbine and Harlequin, with movements around the platform for the various sections. However, we were not alone in giving up on trying to sort it out from the synopsis of the eight sections played continuously. As in the case of Rorem's After reading Shakespeare suite reviewed earlier this week on CD, the selection of specific events were perhaps more for stimulating Musgrave when composingn the piece than for illumination for listeners? The ladies quick-changed for the rest of their programme; first the premiere of an "unquiet, flickering" little piece by Salter preceding an earlier "non-virtuoso" commission for flexible instrumentation; both given here on violin, bass clarinet and piano. They were swiftly eclipsed by a quite exceptional account of Bartok's Contrasts, with Di Trolio, in perfect balance with his companions, standing in for Benny Goodman (from the famous premiere and first recording with Szigeti and the composer). It was one of those performances which serve to make one revalue the importance of a particular work in a composer's oeuvre; if they can recapture the spontaneity and precision of this outing, they should certainly go on to record it. All three pursue separate careers, and I am especially keen to hear again Eulalie Charland in solo recital. The Bartok (dating from 1938) will also be remembered for supplying the most "modern" sounding of all the music heard during this evening of ostensibly contemporary music, and it was good that the PLG rules allowed for its inclusion as an example of "early 20th century repertoire". There was nothing so stimulating in what we heard subsequently from guitarist Milos Karadaglic and the violin/piano duo that followed him. Brouwer's bland music was said to have been inaugurating the search for 'new simplicity' shared with many non-European composers; Bingham's early little piece did little to substantiate the writer's claim that 'she can now be considered as a most successful composer...' And Gorb's sonata was decidedly less interesting in the hearing than as presaged by the programme note. These evenings are long, and we did not stay to the end. The multi-national Lendvai Trio gave us a stimulating and well prepared hour on the The high promise of the first evening was not maintained through the week, according to what I heard myself, and what I gleaned from other reviews and conversations. PLG needs to address why their venerable and worthy annual series continues to attract such very small paying audiences. Peter Grahame Woolf See also Peter Grahame Woolf's more recent annual reports of PLG Young Artists New Year Series More about PLGYA 2007 from Mark Dennis: Bella Tromba & Daniel Browell Monday 8th January-7.45 pm The second concert on Monday featured performances by an all female trumpet quartet that originated at the Royal Academy of Music and a young English pianist also with Royal Academy connections. The concert featured some fine playing and a couple of fascinating pieces, notably a fine new piece for the trumpeters from Paul Max Edlin entitled The Four First Trumpets, which explored the sonic and emotional possibilities of four players at the end of time, and a rare performance of the mighty Inventions by Andre Tchaikowsky, one of the first pianists to have played at Queen Elizabeth Hall and known for the macabre tale that he had bequeathed his skull for future performances of Hamlet! The sheer proliferation of pieces in this programme, with the the overwhelming number of trumpet fanfares and the dislocation brought about by mixing pieces by both forces in each half led to an unsatisfactory recital. Please in future - one half for each set of distinct pieces when mixing a programme as diverse as this piano/trumpet evening and, please, some discretion in repertoire selection. Bella Tromba would have had a much better showcase with four or five pieces instead of the ten plus performed. M.Dennis Another overview of 8 of the 10 concerts:
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Park Lane Group Young Artists 2007
with a great performance of Copland's Emily Dickinson cycle, rarely given in its entirety, persuading some of us hard-boiled critics that it is fully the equal of some canonic masterpieces by composers whose names begin with Schu... 
last day, encouraging me to explore further the prolific conductor/composer Leif Segerstam, whose 100 chamber works 'constitute the most extensive body of works written by a single composer in the history of Finnish music' - another project perhaps for BIS after they have finished recording '
