 Concerts in the West |
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Concerts in the West
July concerts:
Thursday 29 July - Glorious Arias - Axminster, Devon
Friday 30 July - Glorious Arias - Hestercombe, Somerset
Friday 30 July - Glorious Arias - Ilminster, Somerset
Saturday 31 July - Glorious Arias - Hatherleigh, Devon
September concerts:
Thursday 23 September - The Eloquent Oboe - Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, Dorset
Friday 24 September - The Eloquent Oboe - Ilminster Arts Centre, Somerset
Saturday 25 September - The Eloquent Oboe - Hatherleigh Community Centre, Devon
please see details on the 2010 page and Booking page
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This page was updated on 26 July 2010
Dates and performers are listed on the 2010 page.
'Exquisite gems'
Concerts in the West is an annual series of concerts, inaugurated in 2006,
organised by Catherine Hodgson
Director of the London Handel Festival.
There are nine concerts tours in 2010, monthly from February to July and one in September and October. The performers are drawn from the most highly regarded young professional musicians making their mark on the music scene in the UK and abroad. They perform a very varied repertoire of classical music and Jazz giving the audience a different musical experience on each occasion.
Most concerts are performed at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, the Ilminster Arts Centre at the Meeting House and the Hatherleigh Community Centre at Hatherleigh, in Devon, on consecutive nights. Sandroyd School and Woodroffe School joined the series in 2008. The Orangery, Hestercombe Gardens & Lower Pulworthy were new venues for 2009 and 2010. |
Concerts in the West
Patrons
Sir Neville Marriner
Laurence Cummings
Concerts in the West
John Bartholomew Chairman of Lyme Arts Community Trust
Jane Francis
Catherine Hodgson Festival Director, London Handel Festival
Director of Concerts in the West
Peter Lansdown Publicity
Anthony Pither programme notes/musical adviser
Adam Swainson |
LOOKING BACK at Concerts in the West 2009
The 2009 season brought us six most stimulating concerts.
Catherine Hodgson has the knack of knowing who - amongst young professionals - is heading to the top of their tree.
There’s no substitute for experiencing music live. It’s the physical images that stay with you. In that regard the most recent concert was the most compelling: the way Matthew Hunt (clarinet) and Alasdair Beatson (piano) worked together, literally leaning towards each other and dovetailing each other’s contribution, as they brought out the last drop of Romanticism from Schumann’s Soirèestücke, or played Saint-Saëns’s Sonata to the edge of its musical boundaries.
By contrast, Daniel Browell’s economy of movement in his piano recital in May, allowed us to concentrate our minds on the amazing boldness of Beethoven’s early E flat major Sonata.
With the spectacular rise to fame of Laurence Cummings, who recently conducted at Glyndebourne, it was not surprising that he was in his element guiding us through music by Purcell and Handel on the harpsichord – and particularly engaging in his spoken asides. The delightful and delightfully-voiced Ana-Maria Rincon revealed how much at one she is in songs of the Baroque masters.
The harpsichord was also central to the Baroque trio Triologue’s recital. They too knew the power of expressing their unity of purpose through physical gestures.
And physicality is nothing if not central to any worthwhile evening of jazz! But Douglas Marriner (grandson of local celebrity Sir Neville) is no run-of-the-mill percussionist. Such was the subtlety of his playing and that of his Quintet, we became involved in their fine music-making – a result of their youthfulness and already extraordinary combined experience.
For many of us it was probably the first time we had heard Brahms’s enormously long Piano Quartet in A major live performed by an ensemble led by violinist Sara Deborah Struntz. The real test was to make time stand still while we were stimulated by Brahms’s luxuriant harmonies and subtle rhythms.
Looking back at the past six months these were some of the highest points of the series? Based on the high quality of this and previous series, we have no doubt that 2010 will bring new names yet to be discovered, musicians on the brink of greatness.
Anthony Pither 2009 |
You can find individual reviews of the 2008 & 2009 concerts on the 2008 & 2009 series pages.
Meeting House Arts Centre, East Street, Ilminster, Somerset
Marine Theatre, Church Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset
Hatherleigh Community Centre, Hatherleigh, Devon
The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, Axminster, Devon
Bampfylde Hall, Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset
Lower Pulworthy, Highampton, nr Hatherleigh, Devon
Sandroyd School, Rushmore, Tollard Royal, Salisbury
Woodroffe School, Lyme Regis
For information about
Hatherleigh please go to www.hatherleigh.net
for Lyme Regis go to www.lymeregis.com
for Sandroyd School go to www.sandroyd.org
for Ilminster Meeting House go to www.themeetinghouse.org.uk
for Woodroffe School go to www.woodroffe.dorset.sch.uk
for the Marine Theatre go to www.marinetheatre.com
for Hestercombe Gardens go to www.hestercombe.com
Bookings are made via the individual venues and details of these are shown on the Bookings page. |
Contact details for general information about the series
Catherine Hodgson
Horton House
8 Ditton Street
Ilminster
Somerset
TA19 0BQ
Tel & Fax: 01460 53500
Click here to email
We would like to thank all those who have helped put on these concerts during the four seasons. | |
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