Husband and wife pianists Emma Abbate and Julian Perkins will be offering a classical alternative to the Eurovision Song Contest in Rickmansworth Baptist Church on Saturday, May 13.
While millions will be watching the Eurovision Grand Final in Liverpool, Emma and Julian will be presenting 'Duality: four hands on one piano', a programme that will include some of the finest compositions ever written for duetting musicians.
Emma is from Naples and has been described as "an amazingly talented pianist" by the leading Italian magazine, Musica. She is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Julian is artistic director of the Cambridge Handel Opera Company and was recently appointed to the same role at the Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon.
Emma and Julian have given duet recitals at many prestigious venues, such as the Royal Opera House and St John's Smith Square. They have also performed for the Mozart Society of America, and their album, 'Tournament for Twenty Fingers', showcasing works by 20th century British composers, received a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine.
Their Three Rivers Music Society concert will feature masterpieces by Schubert and Beethoven and other compositions that are less well known.
The Schubert piece, his Fantasia in F minor, was written in 1828, the last year of his short life. It is regarded as one of his greatest works. The Beethoven composition, Sonata in D major opus 6, is one of the Bonn-born composer's most light-hearted pieces.
The programme will also include Ravel's 'Mother Goose', written for the children of close friends, and four works by less celebrated names - the Italian composter Muzio Clementi, the 20th century British composer and broadcaster Stephen Dodgson, Amy Beach, the first successful American woman composer, and John Field, an Irish pianist who is said to have influenced some of the 19th century's greatest musical figures, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann and Liszt.
The Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Sonata for piano four hands in C Major K. 521
1. Allegro; 2. Andante; 3 Allegretto
John Field (1782-1837)
Variations in A minor on a Russian Air
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Fantasia in F minor, D.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ma mere l'Oye
1. Pavane de la Belle au Bois dormant; 2. Petit Poucet;
3. Laideronnette; 4. Imperatrice des Pagodes;
5. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bete; 6. Le jardin feerique
Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Summer Dreams, op.47
1. The Brownies; 2. Robin Redbreast; 3. Twilight;
4. Katy-dids; 5. Elfin Tarantelle; 6. Good Night
Stephen Dodgson (1924-2013)
Tournament for twenty fingers, part 2
1. Allegretto in F major; 2. Cradle Song; 3. A Bohemian Entertainment
It will begin at 7.30 pm. Tickets £ 16 on the door incl. free concert programme. Reduced prices for TRMS Members/Patrons, online and advance booking. Free entry to all under the age of 25.
Nicolo Paganini... A Night of Myth Mystery Magic & the op.1 Caprices played by
THOMAS BOWES Narration by STEVEN HALLS
Thomas Bowes is one of the UK's finest violinists, very active in the realm of cinema, and millions have heard him on the soundtracks of his numerous (200+) film credits.
Tom's recording of the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas was released in 2018 on the Navona label to great critical acclaim, with Laurence Vittes in Gramophone Magazine noting it was 'deeply human…unusually communicative…a succession of miracles.' His 'Bach Pilgrimage' is a feature of every season and future events will take him all over the world. In 2019 Tom was given a 'Sebastian Award' by the Ars Ante Portas Civic Association of Bratislava, Slovakia for his 'Extraordinary contribution in maintaining public appreciation of the work of J.S. Bach'.
His concerto appearances in the UK, Germany and the USA have included highly praised performances of concertos by Elgar, Britten, Szymanowski and Walton. In 2023 he recorded the Elgar Concerto at Abbey Road Studios, which were opened by Elgar himself.
Navona also released Tom's recording of the complete Ysaye Solo Sonatas in 2020. Critics noted a depth of interpretation and characterisation. The recording was nominated for the solo instrumental category of the International Classical Music Awards.
It will begin at 7.30 pm. Tickets £ 16 on the door incl. free concert programme. Reduced prices for TRMS Members/Patrons, online and advance booking. Free entry to all under the age of 25.
The Programme Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Sonata in D minor for violin, cello & continuo op.5 no.12 La Follia
Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Piano Trio No.1 in C minor op.8
Andante - Moderato
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Three Miniatures Set 2 H88
1. Romance: Andante; 2. Intermezzo: Allegretto; 3. Saltarello: Allegro vivo;
4. David Halls (b.1963) Passacaglia on the second set of Miniatures by Frank Bridge
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Piano Trio No.2 in C minor op.66
1. Allegro energico e con fuoco; 2. Andante espressivo;
3. Scherzo - molto allegro quasi presto; 4. Finale - allegro appassionato
It will begin at 1.00pm. Tickets £ 6 on the door incl. free concert programme. Reduced prices for TRMS Members/Patrons, online and advance booking. Free entry to all under the age of 25.
The John Donegan Jazz Sextet played a selection of tunes from their recent albums.
Steve Fishwick, Trumpet
Alex Western-King, Tenor Saxophone
Jamie O'Donnell, Alto Saxophone
Paul Jefferies, Bass
Clark Tracey, Drums
John Donegan, Piano (Composer)
Students from the Purcell School in Bushey, who are among the most talented teenage musicians in the UK, returned to Rickmansworth on Wednesday, March 1 to give another of their hugely popular lunchtime recitals.
The Purcell School is the country's oldest specialist music school and it has produced no fewer than three recent winners of the BBC Young Musician competition.
This will be the ninth in a remarkable series of concerts that the school has given for Three Rivers Music Society.
The one-hour concert included music by Dvorak, Bach, Chopin and Rachmaninov, as well as works by two lesser-known composers, Marseille-born Henri Tomasi, one of the first conductors to perform on the radio, and Belgium's Eugene Ysaje, known as the "King of the Violin" in the early years of the 20th century.
Jacqueline playing Ysaje's Sonata No. 3 in D minor
Teodora playing Bach's Prelude and Fugue in c minor, WTC II, BWV 871 and Rachmaninoff's Prelude in b flat minor, Op.32 no.2
Yazdi playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op.32 No.1 in C Major and Chopin's Polonaise in A-Flat Major Op. 53 No. 6
The Purcell School once again provided a selection of their supremely gifted pupils at TRMS's final concert of 2022. A large audience, including 40 extremely well-behaved pupils of Shepherd Primary School at Mill End, were entertained first by Tessa Ractliffe on the Saxophone, an instrument rarely heard in the concert hall. Movements from the JS Bach Sonata in C major BWV 1033 originally for flute were followed by a movement from Lawson Lunde's intriguing Sonata for Saxophone.
Even rarer at TRMS than the Sax is the Accordion, and it was a treat watching and listening to the Russian accordionist Mikhail Pankinion tackle the Second Sonata by Zolotaryov, like Lunde, a composer never before encountered at a TRMS concert, and the playing and the work itself delighted everybody.
Two pianists followed, playing widely contrasting works: Anastasia Gould tackling Ravel's impressionistic Jeux d'Eau with atmospheric finesse followed by Zev Sebastian playing the first two movements of Beethoven's Sonata No. 8 in C minor, op.13, 'Pathetique', which was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old. The enthusiastic applause clearly indicated the audience would have liked to hear the last movement as well.
Max Bruch's famous Kol Nidrei, op.47 for cello and piano was sensitively played by Ivanna Oliinyk and the concert was brought to a superb end by Shlomi Shahaf's virtuosic rendition of the Adagio and Fugue from JS Bach's Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor.
All in all, a fitting end to our first full post-Covid season, and the presence of performers from both Russia and Ukraine lent a poignancy to the event, showing once more that music transcends national boundaries.
On the rain-soaked evening of Wednesday 16 November, the Romanian pianist Verona Maier did Romania and its music a great service on her return visit to TRMS with a beautifully judged, well-planned and superbly executed recital specially prepared for the Society. Following the wonderful recital for us with the violinist Thomas Bowes in October 2021, Verona was immediately engaged to deliver this solo recital in 2022.
Entitled Dancing with Bach to Bucharest and Back, not one of the works played had ever before been presented to a TRMS audience in its over 40 - year existence.
Bookending with two dance suites by JS Bach, the French Suite in G major BWV 816, and the Partita No.1 in B flat major BWV 825,...
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Verona gave us a survey of exciting and varied miniatures from the giants of Romanian music - George Enescu, Constantin Silvestri and Paul Constantinescu - through the 96-year old Carmen Petra Basacopol, the distinguished multi-talented Sigismund Toduta, Sabin Dragoi and Dan Dediu through to the young Andrei Petrache (born 1998) and Irina Pernes (born 2001). To the appreciation of the well-filled hall, Verona gave us an encore with Myra Hess's arrangement of JS Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring from the cantata BWV147, a fitting end to a memorable evening.
In the words of a Committee member "What a concert that was ... I hope that Verona will pay us another visit next year."
Chorleywood jazz pianist who creates melodies that linger
Modern jazz pianist and composer John Donegan, one of the star performers at this autumn's international jazz festival in Limerick, brought his highly rated sextet to Rickmansworth on Wednesday, October 19.
The sextet performed some of the stand-out tracks from two of John's most recent albums at a concert organised by TRMS.
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The first album, A Kite for Kate, released in 2019, was dedicated to John's youngest daughter. The second, Shadows Linger, was premiered at the Limerick Jazz Festival on September 25.
This brand-new album includes tracks that John worked on during the Covid lockdowns. "Not being able to play with other musicians and in front of an audience was a real loss," he admitted. "However, the lockdowns also gave me an opportunity to be creative. I am sure many other musicians would say the same."
On Friday 29 September we welcomed the internationally famous Maggini String Quartet for the 7th time.
THEY PLAYED STRING MUSIC BY BEETHOVEN, JOHN IRELAND AND DVORAK
They played Beethoven (Quartet in C Minor Op.18 No.4), John Ireland (Quartet no. 1 in D Minor) and Dvorak (String Quartet in A flat op.105) followed by encore - Mozart's String Quartet No 17 in B flat major K 458, which is nicknamed 'The Hunt' as encore. This was the fourth of the quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn. It dates from 1784.
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Formed in 1988, the Maggini Quartet is one of the finest British string quartets. Its acclaimed recordings have won international awards including Gramophone Chamber Music Award of the Year, Diapason d'Or of the Year and a Cannes Classical Award, and they have twice been nominated for Grammy Awards. The Quartet's most recent project has been recording the complete Mendelssohn quartet cycle for Meridian Records. The Quartet's commitment to new music has led to important commissions by James MacMillan, Robert Simpson, Eleanor Alberga and Roxanna Panufnik. Their collaboration with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in his ten 'Naxos Quartets' was hailed as "a 21st century landmark".
The Quartet appears frequently in prestigious concert series at home and abroad and makes regular media broadcasts. Recent international visits have included Dubai, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and France. They also have an annual summer tour in Norway and returned to Denmark for a major tour in 2017.
The Magginis are renowned for their interpretations of British repertoire and 'The Glory of the English String Quartet' continues to be an important ongoing initiative, drawing upon the wonderful repertoire which the Quartet is committed to bringing to a worldwide audience. In addition to their concert activity, the members of the Quartet have an international reputation as chamber music coaches. They hold several UK residencies and have worked at the UK's senior music institutions.
On Wednesday 29 June we welcomed Purcell School Students for the 7th time.
THE TALENTED YOUNG MUSICIANS OF THE PURCELL SCHOOL RETURNED TO TRMS TO PLAY-
Their extraordinary talent and musical ability never ceases to amaze and impress the discerning Rickmansworth audience.
...As is customary, TRMS invited 30 Year 6 boys and girls from a local primary school (at no cost). The aim is not only to help the children familiarise themselves with classical music but also to give them inspiration from the young students with remarkable musical ability from Purcell School who are not much older than themselves. On this occasion, TRMS invite Year 6 pupils of Maple Cross JMI and Nursery School.
Specially invited Year 6 pupils from the local Maple Cross Primary School enthusiatically enjoyed the Q & A session after ther concert.
on Thursday 26 May we welcomed that seldom-seen creature, an organist, to play in one of our lunchtime concerts. Samuel Bristow, now of Salisbury Cathedral and formerly from St. Paul's is more used to the mighty (and recently gloriously refurbished) Willis organ in Salisbury's vast acoustic, but he produced colour and variety on the Baptist Church's much more modest instrument, making light of any deficiencies of the instrument and giving us a performance to savour.
Commencing majestically with two Bach masterpieces, the Prelude and Fugue in C minor and the Chorale Prelude 'Schmucke dich', he moved onto rarities by Wolfgang Mozart: the Fantasie in F minor and his own Chorale Prelude arrangement of 'Ach Gott vom Himmel' from The Magic Flute. It was disarming to hear a virtuoso admitting the technical difficulty of these works, which latter was not apparent at all to my ears, so he must have overcome them with ease.
Felix Mendelssohn's Organ Sonata in D was a fine conclusion to the first, 'serious' half of the programme which was made more notable by Samuel's fluent and expert introductions to the works in the concert.
...Traumerei from Robert Schumann's 'Kinderszenen' (arranged by Alexandre Guilmant) and William Strickland's arrangement of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings gave us a new perspective on these favourites from other musical forces. Unlike like all the other works in the programme, none of which had been heard before at all in TRMS's 40+ year history, only these two works had featured in a previous season (2007 and 1981 respectively).
All this led up to two other works from the Twentieth Century. Full disclosure: David Halls is my brother as well as being the Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, and my fraternal admiration was kindled by Samuel's graceful nod to his Salisbury colleague in programming two movements from David's The Salisbury Suite. The high-spirited twitterings of the junior members of the Cathedral Choir were evoked as they prepared to go into the sublime Cathedral, where they sang Evensong with solemn professionalism then exited the building to resume their antics. Quite charming.
As a tribute to Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, Samuel programmed The Queen's Procession, a fitting tribute but even Her Majesty's many titles and honours could not compete with the name of the loyal composer - Soorjo Alexander William Langobard Oliphant Chuckerbutty. When shall we hear in the TRMS concerts another work from this neglected composer?
Symphonia Academica came back to TRMS, Rickmansworth for the 3rd time and put on another exhilarating performance including Interpretation of Four Seasons by two composers almost 300 years apart..
The Programme included Vivaldi's Four Seasons successively intermingled with Piazzolla's Buenos Aires version of Four Seasons. They ended their performance with two short pieces of encore.
Daphne and David appeared in October 2019 to begin the cycle of Dvorak's piano trios and returned to TRMS, Rickmansworth with the more tragic No.2. David is Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral and received national media attention with his organ playing for the queues receiving their Covid jabs in the Cathedral.
The Programme included Vivaldi's Sonata in C minor for Violin, Cello and Continuo, Bridge's Three Miniatures Set, David Halls's Quodlibet on Bridge's Miniatures and Dvorak's Piano Trio in G minor.
On Saturday 26th February 2022, we welcomed for the first time to our series the violist Rachel Roberts accompanied by the pianist Tim Horton. Rachel is Professor of Viola at Guildhall School of Music and Drama who has given masterclasses at the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme, Dartington International Summer School, Chethams School of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
They began their recital with Robert Schumann's Marchenbilder, and gave characterful interpretations of these widely differing works.
They then tackled a work never before heard in our series, the Sonata for Viola & Piano in F min. op.120 no.1 by Johannes Brahms. One of the pieces composed in a final flare of creativity, this work was beautifully delivered, with a heart-stopping slow movement.
Tim re-joined Rachel to deliver one of the most eminent works in the repertoire, the sonata by the great violist Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). For those who had never heard of her, Clarke in 1912 became one of the first female musicians in a fully professional (and formerly male) ensemble, when Henry Wood admitted her to the Queen's Hall orchestra. In 1916 she undertook a US residency that included extensive travel, performing and she also achieved fame as a composer with her Viola Sonata (1919) and Piano Trio (1921), both runners-up in competitions that were part of the Berkshire (Massachusetts) Festival of Chamber Music, sponsored by the American patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.
This sonata is a tremendous work and the duo deservedly received enthusiastic applause at its conclusion.
We at TRMS finished our 2021 concerts on Wednesday 1st December, when the Purcell School presented a concert in a different format from previously: instead of solos with their School accompanist, the marvellously talented pupils took the reins themselves, starting with the string quartet of Yinong Xiao and Maria Noskova (violins), Elsa Rapisarda (viola) and Tianao Pan (cello) performing the first two movements of Maurice Ravel's String Quartet in F Major. Starting a little nervily, they really hit their stride in the second movement and we were left regretting they did not play the complete work.
The same musicians were then joined by clarinettist Lily Payne to perform one of Johannes Brahms' last works, the piercingly beautiful first movement from his Clarinet Quintet in B minor. It might have been the stage layout but the balance was less than ideal making it difficult to hear throughout the excellent playing of Lily Payne, but it is always lovely hearing such musicians tackling one of the pinnacles of the chamber music repertoire.
Tha advertised programme ended with an immensely stylish and bravura performance by Zaki Osahn (clarinet) and Djordje Jovanovic (piano) of Darius Milhaud's three-movement Scaramouche, the final Brasileira drawing enthusiastic applause.
As a delightful unexpected addition to the concert, Momo Alnajjar modestly sat at the piano and stunningly played Chopin's Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor. Again, the applause was long and loud.
The concert ended with the young people from Arnett Hill School, Rickmansworth - and some of the more senior audience - enjoying a question & answer session with the friendly young musicians.
Thomas Bowes is one of the UK's finest violinists. He is very active in the realm of cinema, and millions have heard him on the soundtracks of his numerous (200+) film credits.
Verona Maier (piano)
Prize-winning pianist, harpsichordist, organist, teacher, academic, prize-jury member and adviser to movie and TV productions, it's hardly surprising that Verona Maier was awarded in 2004, the "Cultural Merit Medal - First Class" by the President of Romania.
The sextet played a selection of tunes from John's last album - A Kite for Kate. The sextet also played a few tunes from the Siamsa Suite from John's previous album.
During lockdown John was busy writing 2 new Sextet albums, a new Siamsa Suite album and a new Elegy Suite (album).
The sextet also played some of this new material at the concert.
John Donegan - Piano
Steve Fishwick - Trumpet and Flugelhorn
Steve's twin brother - Matt - Drums
Jamie O'Donnell - Alto and Soprano Saxes
Alex Hitchcock - Tenor Sax
Paul Jefferies - Double Bass
The one-hour recital by English National Opera violinist Jayne Walker and cellist
Steven Halls was the first event that Three Rivers Music Society had staged since
the initial Covid-19 lockdown began in England in March 2020.
Jayne Walker Piano Trio returned to Rickmansworth for her second concert.
The programme included Piano Trio in G minor, op.17, by Clara Schumann and two trios by Haydn. The concert was performed at the the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH on Wednesday 29 January at 1.00pm to a loyal and enthusiastic audience.
Lunchtime concert by gifted music students
Young musicians from the Purcell School in Bushey – Britain’s oldest specialist music school -- gave a lunchtime concert in the Baptist Church at Rickmansworth on Wednesday, December 11. As is customary in such concerts, Year 6 pupils from Chorleywood Primary School attended the concert as special guests.
Yena Gook (cello) playing Bach Cello Suite No 6 in D
The Maggini Quartet led by Julian Leaper (violin), Ciaran McCabe (Violin), Martin Outram (Viola) and Michal Kaznowski (Cello) returned to Rickmansworth for the 6th time to play Beethoven, Frank Bridge and Mendelssohn string quartets. The concert was held in the the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH on Friday 29 November with the Pre-concert talk by Dr. Steven Halls followed by the main concert at 7.30pm.
John Donegan returned with his Jazz Sextet to Rickmansworth including the much acclaimed saxophonist Tomasso Starace. The sextet played John's new compositions from his recently released album called A Kite for Kate dedicated to his youngest daughter Catherine at her wedding in Tuscany in August 2019. The concert was held in the the Baptist Church, High Street, Rickmansworth WD3 1EH on Tuesday 19 November at 7.30pm.
For the first time ever, David Halls, Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, his daughter Caroline and his brother Steven came with their long-time friend and professional colleague, Daphne Moody to present a unique programme on Saturday 26 October and included Dvorak’s first piano trio, a baroque cantata for soprano and strings, Elgar’s obbligati to popular songs written for violin and cello.
Louise Thomson's Harp Recital on Friday 3rd May 2019 at 7.30 pm at the Baptist Church in Rickmansworth was not only the unique first of this type but was a huge success with the full audience thoroughly enjoying the whole programme including in particular, Theme from Tchaikovsky's Opéra Eugène Onégin.
TRMS welcomed back the John Donegan Jazz Quartet to Rickmansworth with John himself on the piano, highly-regarded Italian Saxophonist, Tommaso Starace, Steve Riddle (Bass) and Greg McCarthy (Drums) on Wednesday 3rd April 2019 at 7.30 pm.
The programme included compositions by John Donegan from his recent compilation CD Album.
The concert took place at the Baptist Church, High Street Rickmansworth with full audience who enjoyed new showcase pieces from John's latest composition - Siamsa suite soon to be released.
TRMS with its longstanding partnership with the internationally well-known Purcell School of Music in Bushey organised yet another, 4th lunchtime concert with its students performing solo recitals on trumpet, cello, flute, piano and violin to a packed audience. We had to use the overflow balcony for the first time in 3 years.
The concert was held at the Baptist Church, High Street Rickmansworth, 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm on Wednesday 13th February 2019.
As is customary at these concerts, TRMS invited the Year 6 boys and girls from Holywell Primary School to attend the concert and both the primary school pupils as well as the audience were really impressed with the the skills and talent of the Purcell Scool student musicians.
Bach Italian Concerto, BWV 971, arr. Tochio (I and III) and Ferio (II) Bach Sheep May Safely Graze, from Cantata BWV 208, arr. Iain Farrington Bach Air from Suite no.3 in D major, BWV 1068, arr. Iain Farrington Bach Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 in G major, BWV 1048, arr. Iain Farrington Interval Reinhart Quartet in F minor for Saxophone Quartet Lago Ciudades (selection): Montevideo; Sarajevo and Herzegovina; Addis Ababa
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