Korros and Elizabeth Poston

Boris and I were delighted to welcome guests through the doors of the newly completed 33 Hampstead Lane last Thursday for the Korros Ensemble’s long delayed Elizabeth Poston concert.

Since we first discussed this concert nearly nine months ago Korros have recorded many of the pieces (see Nostalgica on Convivium Records) as part of their tribute to female compsers of the 20th and 21st century. But they started the evening, a little surprisingly, with an arrangement of Scarlatti’s Sonata in D Major k.96 no.465. Although, in the context of ground breakers, maybe not so surprising.

As Nick said in his introduction, although it may just sound beautiful to us, in  Scarlatti’s time the sonata would definitely been considered wacky, weird and wonderful with lots of quick keyboard changes from major to minor and a great deal of leaping around the keyboard – re-created by Eliza’s flute.

Korros’ unusual combination of instruments (Eliza on flute, Camilla on harp and Nick on clarinet) means that there has been relatively little music written for them – with the exception of Elizabeth Poston of course. So the next three pieces were all arrangements made by the composer: the harpist Catrin Finch’s Nuntii, Howard Blake (he of The Snowman fame)’s development of a Welsh folk tradition, Pennillion, and Cheryl Frances Hoad’s Vocalise. Hoad wrote this piece as a 15 year old for a competition; a competiton that she won and which set her on the road to success. Unlike most composers who are chary of allowing their earliest works see the light of day, she was happy to revisit it and arrange the soprano part for Nick’s clarinet.

And so to Elizabeth Poston.

Elizabeth Poston who died in 1987 aged 82, was a composer, writer and musicologist with over 40 compositions for BBC radio alone. She also had a highly accomplished career as an academic and presided over the Society of Women Musicians from 1955 to 1961. During World War II her work for the BBC included using gramophone records to send coded messages to allies in Europe although the exact nature of this work still remains secret.

It was Korros’ lockdown search for repertoire suited to their instruments that introduced them to Poston’s work. Not only did they find that she had composed a Trio specifically for flute, clarinet and harp (thought to be the first ever of its kind; Stravinsky’s came a year later) but they also discovered Poston’s solo harp work, Forma, dedicated to celebrity harpist Maria Korchinska and, although played by Korchinska, never published.

Their final discovery – Three Pieces for Flute and Harp – had been thought to be lost – until a very elderly harpist who had worked with Poston back in the ’50s found the original manuscripts in his music library at his home in Wales.

And we got treated to all three of them. To give you a taste, here is the second movement of the Trio for Flute, Clarinet and Harp.

And then for an encore, something entirely different! Shostakovich’ Waltz no 2 from his Jazz suite – which had fond memories for them all as Eliza told us in her introduction.

Waltzing all done, it was time for supper which, thanks to a delightfully balmy evening, could be had in the garden, the darkness concealing the fact that although the structure is there, all too much of the garden still resembles a poorly ploughed field.

I am afraid that I failed totally to take any pictures of supper but for those who are interested, the menu was rare roast beef and horseradish on rye; black and red quinoa with smoked mackerel, black olives – and much else; basmati rice with fresh ginger, water chestnuts, mange tout, rocket – and much else; cheese and delicious cherries. And then….

Nick’s birthday fell on the following day so we thought we would have a little late night celebration.  A peculiarly delicious carrot cake with pistachios – Nick’s favourite!