Tag: St John’s Smith Square

Les Nations: Couperin the Internationalist, Musica ad Rhenum, St John’s Smith Square, 20 May 2012

What better way to enjoy spring in London than a day at the Lord’s test on the Friday…

England v West Indies, 1st Test, Day Two, Lord’s, 18 May 2012

…then following the test match for the rest of the weekend, then rounding off the weekend with some early music at SJSS?

That was a rhetorical question, people. There is NO better way.

We went to see Musica ad Rhenum under Jed Wentz. I always worry about people named Jed, because I am so regularly having my pseudonym, Ged, mis-spelt as Jed. My life would be easier if these J-people chose not to abbreviate their names to Jed. I don’t think I am asking too much there.

But I digress.

The music was mostly Couperin – see extract from the programme below.

It was part of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music that year – we just chose the one concert. It was one delightful concert too.

Yes, Janie and I did have a giggle at one of the pieces being named “La toilette de Venus”. Yes we can both be very childish.

For some reason, Jed Wentz and Musica ad Rhenum have put an enormous amount of their Couperin instrumental music into the public domain, so you can listen here:

The closest I can get to a sample of the lovely soprano, Andréanne Paquin, is the following choir piece, which includes her, singing Charpentier/Lully – not a million miles from Couperin:

Anyway, the above is a really lovely short vid. If you don’t like it, you can metaphorically flush it down La Metaphorical Toilette de Venus by not playing it.

Charlotte Bonneton & Karim Said, St John’s Smith Square, 29 September 2011

Mum, Angela, Janie and Me

Late in life, mum formed an unlikely friendship with the young, extremely talented pianist, Karim Said. I can’t remember exactly how it came about.

I know I recorded some BBC4 programmes about young musicians, which mum loved and watched over and over. Karim was one of those featured artists.

I think mum then watched those programmes with Angela Broad and I’m pretty sure Angela knew Karim, perhaps because he was one of the Tabors’ sponsored artistes…so the rest is history…

…anyway, mum and Angela had been to see and had met Karim before this gig. Mum and Karim had also had some exchange of correspondence, I seem to recall.

A very young Karim, I think from mum’s earlier outing with Angela to see him

Mum the groupie. I don’t suppose artistes at Karim’s stage have that many groupies either.

When this concert came up, it was most fortuitously located and timed for me; lunchtime at St John’s Smith Square. As a friend of the venue, I get a fist-full of free passes for those lunchtime concerts. I was also able to organise my work around a visit to Church House that morning, which was maximally convenient.

Here’s the order of play:

Charlotte Bonneton And Karim Said at St John’s Smith Square. The violinist and pianist perform Beethoven’s Sonata For Violin And Piano No 3, Boulez’s 12 Notations For Solo Piano and Faure’s Violin Sonata No 1 In A.

My taste in music did not/does not always coincide with mum’s and Angela’s, but on this occasion we were as one. We all enjoyed the Beethoven and the Fauré; we none of us liked the Boulez, which seemed in any case to make poor Karim’s fingers bleed.

“I’m going to tell him if no-one else will…” said Angela afterwards, in the matter of the commercial sense (or lack thereof) in Karim pursuing the work of composers like Boulez.

No matter.

Mum had a cracking good time. Karim was extremely pleasant and attentive after the concert. He even introduced us to his fellow musician, Charlotte, making mum ever so pleased by describing mum as his friend.

Curious about Karim? Here is a link to his website…

…and here he is performing something that is to my taste – click here or below:

Telemann And The Gypsies, St John’s Smith Square, 20 May 2011

We didn’t book much of the Lufthansa Festival that year, sadly, as the programme was excellent, but we did book this one superb concert by Ensemble Caprice.

No problem buying CDs of the music we heard at this one:

We also invested in Vivaldi and the Baroque Gypsies from the same stable – click here.

I still listen to these albums quite a lot. The Telemann is the more interesting but both are good.

We miss that Lufthansa Festival now its gone – the scaled down spring baroque festival at SJSS is a very modest affair by comparison. A shame we mostly missed out that year but at least we got to see one good’un in these visitors from Montreal, Ensemble Caprice.

Ensemble La Fenice, A Pilgrimage To Santiago, St John’s Smith Square, 21 May 2007

Wow, we loved this concert.

The last of our visits to the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music that year, this one really inspired us.  It comprises religious baroque music from the places people would visit on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.

The lovely Arianna Savall sang and played the renaissance harp.  She is the daughter of Jordi Savall and Montserrat Figueras.

So insired by this concert were we, that we made our own “pilgrimage to Santiago” the following spring, after visiting nephew Paul in Barcelona – click here for our pictures of Santiago.

Disappointing though, was the fact that we were unable to buy a recording of the music we heard.  All that was available for purchase on the night was mum and dad’s “Homenatge Al Misteri D’Elx – La Vespra” – interesting music but not the beautiful stuff we heard that night.

Surprised and delighted was I, therefore, to discover just now, while researching this blog piece, Ensemble La Fenice/Arianna Savall released a recording of the very stuff we heard that night, a mere four years after our concert.  I immediately purchased and downloaded the album and am listening to it as I write.  It really is lovely music.

Ensemble La Fenice

La Risonanza, St John’s Smith Square, 11 May 2007

Just two days after our last visit to the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, we’re back to see another.  Janie is a sucker for a countertenor and we are both suckers for visiting European baroque troupes we haven’t heard before.

Typically of SJSS and its artistes, the fabulously-named Fabio Bonizzoni can only sell us recordings of the Scarlatti stuff we heard performed by other people a couple of days ago.

Still, I buy that CD and some other La Risonanza stuff.  We were neither disappointed by the concert nor by the CDs.

Fabio and La Risonanza rock.  Guest singers Roberta Invernizzi, Emanuela Galli, Xavier Sabata also rock.

Well, they don’t rock, let’s be honest, they are baroque musicians, none of them rock.  But this was a really enjoyable concert.

Here’s the stuff they played us that night:

La Risonanza 11 May 2007

Don Domingo Scarlatti – An Anniversary Celebration (I) and (II), St John’s Smith Square, 9 May 2007

The Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music was a regular “must visit” for us for several years.  Sadly, the sponsorship ended (I think 2014 was the last year) so the festival is now a shadow of its former self.

On this evening, Janie and I attended both concerts; Carole Cerasi on the Harpsichord early evening and then London Baroque later.  Domingo Scarlatti was the theme (how did you guess?).

Both excellent gigs, well worth the long evening at SJSS.  The relevant extracts from the programme so you can see exactly what we heard are shown below.

Carole Cerasi 9 May 2007London Baroque 9 May 2007