November 9th, 7pm
Schott Music
48 Great Marlborough Street, W1F 7BB
£12 (concert and reception) – please call 0207 534 0710 to reserve
All this and a Steinway
In less than a week I’ll be performing some of my all-time favorite classical music with the extremely talented Elspeth Wilkes (see bio below – she’s amazing) on piano – won’t you join us?
A chilly Autumnal night seems the perfect time for some lush German (and Polish) Romanticism, a glass of wine, and one or more Black Forest brownies. We’re pairing our favorite songs by Schubert and Brahms with solo works by Chopin and Brahms – and finishing the evening with the work of the Second Viennese school which is closest to my heart, Schoenberg’s Book of the Hanging Gardens.
Those of you who haven’t heard or studied this work before – it’s hard to express in a few words just how special this piece is. A good place to start would be with Schoenberg’s visual art, rather than his music. The hallucinatory colours, disintegration of order and piercing emotional scrutiny are common to both – as a synesthesiac, performing The Hanging Gardens feels dizzying – like falling through the back of your own head into a swirl of different kinds of darkness. It’s strange, and somewhat creepy, and utterly beautiful – like the best kind of nightmare. You don’t have to be an expert on atonal composition to love it – you just have to like the really of having your mind blown by something bizarre and wonderful and new.
The Red Gaze
The concert will be a little over an hour long – please stay to talk about music/art/baking etc. – can’t wait to see you there.
Born in Leigh-on-sea, Essex, Elspeth Wilkes studied at King’s College, London, Trinity College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music winning the Scott Huxley Accompaniment Prize and Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize amongst others.
As a pianist, Elspeth has performed at venues including St John’s Smith Square; Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House; Soho Theatre; Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; St James’, Piccadilly and St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh and has worked with the Royal Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company and Southbank Sinfonia amongst others.
Elspeth was accompanist for BBC Wales’s Lesley Garrett and Friends and works as accompanist/assistant conductor with London Oriana Choir, Barnes Choir and Thurrock Choral Society.
As musical director/repetiteur, Elspeth has worked with companies including Co- Opera, Riverside Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Opera up Close, Longborough Festival Opera, English Touring Opera and Chelmsford Opera. Elspeth is chorus master at Opera de Baugé, Loire Valley, France and also played continuo on their productions of Barber Of Seville, Orfeo ed Euridice, La Finta Giardiniera and Giulio Cesare.
She is a member of the Argento Trio (soprano, clarinet, piano) performing specially commissioned works in London and the South East.
Filed under: classical music, London
