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Ravel’s Shéhérazade and songs by Fauré, Poulenc and Rachmaninoff. Ilona Domnich soprano - Simon Callaghan piano Hiro Takenouchi & Simon Callaghan piano duet 13 January 2013 A marvellous concert for the new year reunion of Conway Hall's Sunday loyalists. Some regulars there might though have been wary of a song recital, as the audience was only of moderate size. Ilona Domnichi is a fine soprano with a lovely voice and platform manner, "plucked from St Petersberg to the Royal College of Music in London", and a thorough grasp of French and Russian. It was good to hear Shéhérazade in its piano accompaniment version. English texts supplied made it easy to follow the French songs - less so for those in Russian. She finished, after the second group of piano duets, with Rachmaninoff's well-known wordless Vocalise [see R, with Kathron Sturrock, who was at Conway Hall for this concert]. Punctuating the songs with two lovely piano duet suites by Ravel & Peter Grahame Woolf
Beethoven: Trio in B flat Op.11
Tempest Trio: Conway Hall, 14 Oct, 2012 0ne of the most exciting trios on the international scene, virtuoso, dynamic, vitality... bracing, high-wire chamber music performances http://www.tem A powerful recital to launch Simon Callaghan's 2012/2013 season at Conway Hall, this American-based group tore into their Beethoven opener (actually the clarinet trio !) at a high-octane level which suggested that they are used to larger concert halls? The pianist was rather overwhelming, the violinist's steely tone emphasised his modern violin's E string, and attention was drawn to the cellist, who held his own*. Three Bloch's mellifluous Nocturnes were new to me and welcome to "collect". After a brief first half, we were surprised to learn that the Tempests had opted for the much later 1890 revision of the young Brahms' Op 8 trio of 1854, his first major work and the first of Brahms’ pieces to be heard in America**. However, it was a persuasive account and better balanced than Beethoven; it transpired that Amit Peled had recently acquired a cello owned by Casals, and his contribution was the most memorable and enjoyable throughout. Keeping up their intense delivery, the Tempest Trio's encore was one of the more vigorous movements of Dvorak's Dumky Trio, which sent the audience out happy and animated! Peter Grahame Woolf *Hear the Tempest Trio in the finale of the Archduke Trio **q.v. 1. "It is quite a treat to hear the original version because, although both scores are part of the modern chamber music canon, the 1890 revision is far more commonly performed." q.v 2. check out also Brahms Op 8 original version's orchestral arrangement by Joseph Swensen, which is very successful) N.B Links are integral to MusicalPointers' reviews and reports ! PGW
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Fauré was a brilliant notion, and it was good to see the friends Callaghan & Takenouchi (they often serve as page-turners for one or other at these concerts) in partnership at the keyboard. 