An overview of I Fagiolini with Amuse-bouche at Cambridge Summer Music Festival
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23 July
A quick overview, by Tweet (and free text), of I Fagiolini’s performance of their programme Amuse-bouche, under the directorship of Robert Hollingworth, for Cambridge Summer Music Festival at Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge, on Saturday 23 July at 7.30 p.m.
A still from I Fagiolini - Ode à la gastronomie
Directed by John La Bouchardière and made by Polyphonic Films
Directed by John La Bouchardière and made by Polyphonic Films
-> In addition to Poulenc's Hôtel and Sept Chansons, a side of Darius Milhaud to complement the usual La Création du monde - in Deux poèmes— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 23, 2016
In both halves, we also heard from Anna Markland (as well as her voice in the ensemble) on piano, with two of Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes (Nos 4* and 6, respectively), and, to close the first half, with Roderick Williams’ arrangement for piano and choir of the central movement (marked Adagio assai) of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major
-> One of Verlaine (Clair de lune), one in his cast (Silvestre's Le secret), before @ifagiolini performed more Poulenc in Un soir de neige— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 23, 2016
Taking four poems from Poésie et verité (again by Éluard), once more the language of seasons, weather, times of day. https://t.co/QPNPbe9agK— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 23, 2016
Not only a world-premiere recording by @ifagiolini (and of the Milhaud, from 1919), but also a full film version :https://t.co/UPe7pRzwOI— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) July 23, 2016
All in all, whether one wants to relate to the majority of the texts that we heard before the Françaix as surréaliste, or in some other stylistic or genre terms, these composers brought out qualities in them, and likewise the members of I Fagiolini under Robert Hollingworth’s direction, that made them compelling, and highly inviting of our interest :
In his Lieder, Franz Schubert sometimes transformed poems to which one might otherwise not have devoted much attention : here, it was not that the poems of Éluard or Apollinaire were unattractive, but that interpreters such as Poulenc could, in and through their sound-world, cause their visions to open up – in a way that, beforehand, their words on the page, even in the French, did not easily allow one to experience…
And then tomorrow hopefully @ifagiolini at Emmanuel URC https://t.co/2ut25qiEoI for Amuse Bouche. A Weekend of Cultcha.— Rachael Beale (@FlossieTeacake) July 22, 2016
Yes, off we go, crossing Continents to get to @cambridgemusic https://t.co/pRqYCjQORz— Robert Hollingworth (@ifagiolini) July 23, 2016
To conclude by way of an encore, after the well-received strangeness of Jean Françaix’s text and its treatment, something more familiar still than the Satie pieces : ‘Baïlèro’ from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne.
Very much a Post-script - Schumann, Surrealism, and Satie [in Satie’s Parade] :
In @BBCRadio3 from @cheltfestivals 2016, good to hear Pascal and Ami Rogé play Satie's Parade (for piano 4 hands) :https://t.co/2Ddgk4hhXs
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) August 16, 2016
Does one miss the seeming vividness of hearing orchestra, let alone the klaxon :
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) August 16, 2016
Now more like Davidsbündlertänze ? https://t.co/GSXjhlBiXI
Schumann's Opus 6, now being listened to, played by András Schiff - come and join me ! :https://t.co/mvsDLL46x7 https://t.co/c4h8U0LNhf
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) August 16, 2016
According to @Wikipedia, Guillaume Apollinaire described Parade as 'une sorte de surréalisme' (a kind of surrealism) in the programme-notes.
— THE AGENT APSLEY (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) August 16, 2016
One can read more about András Schiff here [from Kirshbaum Associates Inc., his representatives in North America], and Wikipedia® on Parade, Satie's Opus ??, here...
End-notes
* Regarding which the audience, wrongly, seemed almost more enthusiastic than the preceding Sept chansons (by Francis Poulenc)… ?
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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
