I have scraped that review to Ogblog just in case – here.
We were really impressed with Olivia Chaney, who confessed to being relatively inexperienced as a concert performer in 2010. I’m glad, writing in 2017, that it seems to be going well for her at this stage – click here.
Janie was on one of her classical guitar kicks at that time (pretty much perennial, they are, but she was especially on one of those that year), so we booked this Purcell Room concert, even for a Friday night.
It was very much part of a cultural programme through the Latin American and Caribbean Cultural Society (LACCS) and the Chilean Embassy, so the great and the good from the Chilean community were out in force.
Friday evening after work, but the stresses of the week soon faded away as we listened to this wonderful music.
Did I mention that this geezer could play? Well, you can decide for yourself, as the LACCS maintains an amazing archive – so you can hear some clips on this link…
…or if you would simply like to look at the programme and the programme notes, the LACCS has spared me the trouble of amateurish scanning by providing the programme here. Jolly decent of them, as my dad would have put it.
The thing I remember most about this lovely concert was the fact that Rabbi Philip Ginsbury was there and I ascertained that the soloist, Sharona Joshua, was his guest in London. That is about as cool a thing as I could ever imagine finding out about Rabbi Ginsbury, formerly the Rabbi at Brixton and subsequently at Streatham Synagogue.
My theological (or perhaps I should say atheological) journey with Rabbi Ginsbury, in a section labelled “Ginsbury talk”, is included in the piece below:
Anyway, Sharona Joshua was, at that time, an emerging artiste who was a fine exponent of keyboard instruments of various kinds, including the fortepiano which seemed suitable for these classical pieces from the era when the fortepiano was still holding strong [did you see what I did there?] against the piano forte.
We heard:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerto in A major K414
Joseph Haydn – String Quartet in D major Op 71 No 2
Joseph Haydn – Piano Sonata in G minor Hob XVI/44
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano Concerto in C major K415
Here is a version of the A major concerto being played in the small scale with fortepiano more or less as we heard it that night:
Here is the Haydn String Quartet:
Here is a recording of the Haydn Piano sonata on the fortepiano:
Here is the C major concerto also on original instruments not least fortepiano:
