Coffee Concerts at the Islington Festival
What a lovely way to spend a weekend morning – a nice pub in Islington, excellent coffee, delicious chocolate brownies and Haydn quartets. That is exactly where I was last Sunday morning – listening to Fran Barritt and Joana Ly, the violin part of the quartet, in full Haydn swing with Sofia Sousa on viola and Pedro Silva on cello to their left.
And I am happy to say that that is exactly where I will be next Saturday morning too as the Islington Festival is offering us another coffee concert – this time Beethoven trios (Opus 9 in G, no.1 and Opus 9 in D, no.2) with Joana on violin, Dorothea Vogel on viola and Kirsten Jenson on cello. This time at The Green in Clerkenwell. The concert starts at 11am but I’d suggest being there a bit early to get in a second cup of coffee – and maybe even a second brownie! And to give yourself a chance to check out what else will be on offer in the last week of the festival.
Go here to book for the Coffee Concert on Saturday 19th and all other festival events.
The Vauxhall Band’s Basset Horns
The previous Sunday we had had a delightful evening here at Hampstead Lane with the Basset Horn Ladies of the Vauxhall Band accompanied by Chris Rawley and his bassoon.
Despite Mozart and his good friend Anton Stadler’s enthusiasm for them, the bent, light wood basset horns that they favoured got edged out over the 19th century and little music was written for them. As a result our basset horn ladies, Katherine Spencer, Sarah Thurlow and Fiona Mitchell rarely get to play their delightful 18th century horns. So a whole evening devoted to the music that would have been played at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens by the Czech basset horn players Dworschak, David, and Springer on their visit in 1789 was as much of a treat for the ladies as it was for us.
And who can resist an instrument as delightfully quirky (if horribly difficult to play) as this elongated clarinet with a bend in the middle and a little horn on its end!
For more on the music played at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and the Vauxhall Band, go here.
Bellot Ensemble at the Oxford Early Music Day
Unfortunately I could only make it to one of the three events at the Oxford Early Music day last weekend, a joint initiative between the Continuo Foundation and the Oxford Festival of the Arts. However, it was the one I wanted to get to as it was the Bellot Ensemble some of whose members, I am delighted to say, will be playing for us next Janaury.
Bellot are an early instrument group who specialise in 17th century music – and who, apart from releasing their first album, Cupid’s Ground Bass, have been making waves recently: the BBC’s New Generation Baroque Ensemble 2025/7 and artists on the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme.
On Sunday the full group, with the addition of tenor Kieran White, gave us a fascinating selection of instrumental and operatic extracts from Cavalli, Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi and Marco Uccellini. I hope that some at least of these pieces will be on the programme in January when we host the limpid voice of soprano Lucine Musaelian with her viola da gamba and Daniel Murphy with his theorbo.
To get a feel for their music look here on their site where you can listen to a number of videos.
Jazz garden party – 31st August
If the summer continues to broil us I cannot promise anything as green as this in the garden by the end of August. But hopefully the apple tree will still shade Sol Grimshaw and his trio while they entertain us, and our cool top patio will protect all those cheeses and luscious fruits over the course of the day.
Join us any time between 1.30pm and 8pm on the 31st August – go here for more details and to book.
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