It was only last night as I was on my way to my first concert of this year’s Starry Nights Islington Festival that I realised, to my horror, that I had totally failed to alert you all to the wonderful things that were going on in Islington over these two weeks. (My excuse is that the festival opened on the same night as our Thomas Hardy concert so I had other things on my mind!)
Anyhow, all is not lost as although the first week’s concerts are now over there are three excellent evenings at Christ Church Highbury to look forward to next week.
The theme of next Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s concerts is The Popular and the Rediscovered in which three much loved Mozart piano concertos are paired with three less known romantic works for Quartets. So on:
Thursday 20th – 7pm
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19 in F, k 459
is paired with
Alexander Zemlinsky’s String Quartet no. 1 Opus 4.
(Zemlinsky was an Austrian Jewish composer, conductor and teacher born in Vienna in 1871. A pupil of Brahms and a close friend of Schoenberg, Zemlinsky had a successful career in Berlin and then Vienna. But although his family had converted to Protestantism in 1899 he was forced to flee to the US in 1938, dying there, all but unrecognised, only four years later.)
Friday 21st – 7pm
Mozart’s Piano concerto no 21 in C, k467 (remember that Elvira Madigan theme?…)
is paired with
Robert Kahn Piano Quartet No 2 in A minor, opus 30
(Kahn was a German Jewish composer and pianist born in 1865 in Mannheim. Another admirer of Brahms although never his pupil, Khan also lived and worked in Berlin where he taught many of the best known musicans of the 20th century – such as Arthur Rubenstein and William Kempff. He was a prolific composer of chamber music and of Leider. Like Zemlinsky he was forced to leave Germany in 1939 to come to England where he continued to compose but lived in relative obscurity until his death in 1951.)
Friday 22nd – 7pm – Grand finale!
For the last night of the festival, two great and much loved works:
Mozart Piano Concerto no 23 in A, k488
is paired with
Schubert’s String Quartet no. 15 in G, D887
Romantic but definitely not undiscovered!
Playing for us each night:
Joana Ly & Tamaki Higashi – Violins
Dorothea Vogel – Viola
Kirsten Jenson – Cello
Martin André – Piano
PLUS………
Two late night concerts with the wonderful Dmitrii Kalashnikov who was such a hit at last year’s festival. Dmitirii will be playing all 22 of Chopin’s Nocturnes over two late night concerts. So:
Thursday 20th – 9.30pm
Nocturnes – including Opus 72, Opus 9 (nos. 1, 2 & 3), Opus 15 (Nos. 1, 2 & 3), Opus 27 (Nos 1 & 2) and Opus 32 (Nos 1 & 2)
Friday 21st – 9.30pm
Nocturnes – including Opus 37 (Nos 1 & 2), Opus 48 (Nos 1 & 2), Opus 55 (Nos 1 & 2) Opus 62 (Nos 1 & 2) and Oubliée in C sharp minor
All concerts take place in the lovely Christ Church Highbury and start at 7pm and 9.30pm for the late night concerts.
For more details see the festival site – or to book go straight here.
Upcoming posts:
A report on our sell out Thomas Hardy poems concert.
Upcoming concerts:
9th September – Highgate School chapel – The Voice Trio – Lighter Patterns of Love. Book here.
24th September – to be confirmed. Hampstead Lane. Madeleine Mitchell – Violin Conversations and other pieces.
4th November – Hampstead Lane. Nathaniel Mander – the Baroque Spinet. More details to come very soon.
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