Tag Archives: mirzoev

Broken from the Happenstancers

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The Happenstancers latest gig; Broken, played on Friday evening at Redeemer Lutheran. Getting back to their core mission, this concert explored the relationships between baroque music and contemporary repertoire and the plusses and minusses of combining music, instruments and techniques from both.  So, interspersed between sonatas by Johann Rosenmüller; originally scored for strings and continuo but played here by various combinations of oboe/cor anglais, regular and bass clarinet, strings and accordion, we got contemporary pieces.

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I Saw a New Heaven

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wemmf-isawanewheavenThe second programme in this year’s West End Micro Music Festival had its first performance at Redeemer Lutheran on Friday night.  It was a mix of contemporary instrumental and vocal works with some unusual Hildegard von Bingen and some interesting lighting (Billy Wong) and staging.

First up was a set for Lenny Ranallo on electric guitar and soprano Danika Lorèn wrapped in a sheet.  It was certainly different, and surprisingly effective, to hear von Bingen on electric guitar.  This was followed by Danika singing Sofia Gubaidulina’s Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen with electronic backing.  This sets short fragments of german text and was presented with great precision.

Next was Cassandra Miller’s Perfect Offering.  This is scored for chamber ensemble (violins – Julia Mirzoev, David Baik; viola – Hezekiah Leung, cello – Peter Eom, flutes – Sara Constant, clarinets – Brad Cherwin, piano – Joonchung Cho with Simon Rivard conducting). It’s based on a peal of bells from a convent in France and is rather beautiful in a minimalist sort of way as you might expect fro something based on bells. Continue reading →

ReGENERATION – July 21st part 2

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So back to Walter Hall at 4pm for the last of the Regen concerts featuring song.  This time Renee Fajardo and Jinhee Park kicked things off with a very fine set starting with Herr Schumann’s sinister Die Soldat and Frau Schumann’s Die Lorelei.  This was all smoothly and elegantly sung bar a slight tendency to push high notes.  There was some very impressive pianism here too.  The set concluded with Schoenberg’s Galathea; a bold and interesting choice, where Renee managed to create an almost cabaret timbre without ever sacrificing accuracy.  Nicely done!

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ReGENERATION – July 21st part 1

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The last two ReGENERATION concerts featuring song took place in Walter Hall yesterday at 1pm and 4pm.  Both featured four singers doing a set with piano, a vocal piece with chamber accompaniment and a chamber piece.  All the members of the Artsong Academy programme appeared at least once.  First up was tenor Joey Jang with Frances Armstrong at the piano with a set of Schubert and Schumann.  He sounded OK, if a bit underpowered, in Liebesbotschaft with its fairly fast rhythmic lines but technical issues showed up in the slower pieces requiring real legato.

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