A few fabulous musical events this week and next, all of which deserve that elusive thing called an audience but, being at Kings Place, are not as yet assured of having one. I reckon music-lovers just haven't clocked yet that this terrific venue exists -- it's not in a place where you can exactly bump into it. Get on your hiking boots and balaclavas and head for Kings Cross:
Today til Saturday: BIG HUNGARIAN LISZT BICENTENARY FESTIVAL with ace fiddler Barnabas Kelemen, Dezso Ranki & Edit Klukon who will play the Faust Symphony on 2 pianos, brilliant clear-toned pianist Denes Varjon, the Joyful Company of Singers and many more. Barnanas is first up this evening, and there's a pre-concert talk by Karl Lutchmeyer. But please ignore the note online saying that Barnabas is playing Liszt's 'finest violin sonatas' - you're right, there aren't any - he is actually playing Liszt's own violin version of some great piano pieces. And Bartok Romanian Dances and First Rhapsody & Faure's Sonata No.1. Full programme here.
Next week: TASMIN LITTLE AND FRIENDS in 'VIOLIN JOURNEYS'. Tazza, John Lenehan, Piers Lane, Paul Watkins, David Le Page and more in a fiddletastic whirl, plus mesmerism, masterclasses and Messiaen. (Infuriatingly, I am going to be elsewhere next week, but if I wasn't, I'd be there.) Here is Tasmin's sneak preview podcast.
BUT even if you do nothing else today, please read this inspirational and impassioned speech by the fabulous author Philip Pullman about the perniciously stupid, absolutely misguided current plans to close down our libraries.
3 comments:
It's what is frequently known as London Overkill; tonight's superb-looking Kings Place concert clashes with more Hungariana - Bartok, in brief - from Esa-Pekka at the RFH and with the Dude at the Barbican. Just as bad a logjam as the other Sunday, when you and I both had to opt for what we were closest to out of Kavakos/Pace, Ivan Fischer and Andre Previn...
So as most of us will be elsewhere, we rely on you for a report of the Faust Symphony transcription.
Alas, I can't go to the Faust Symphony transcription...a friend booked us in for 'Black Swan' several weeks ago, before I'd clocked the Lisztfest. But actually the audience last night was excellent, the best I've seen at KP. And they had a treat...stand by...
On my last trip to London, I made a point of catching a few of the short afternoon concerts at King's Place, to check out the venue for myself. Admittedly, the hall was far from full and the acoustic struck me as a bit harsh. But I was glad to see the place, and go some place that most tourists wouldn't check out. I agree that the location is one main debit, as it's slightly out of the way and not obviously visible, in the way that the RFH or Wigmore Hall are. I suppose that the location is comparable to getting to Cadogan Hall, in being slightly off a main street and more on a "side street".
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