Performing widely as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician, James Sherlock regularly appears at festivals throughout the UK and abroad. In the past season these have included the Edinburgh Fringe, Leeds International, Harrogate, Ryedale, Deal, Chelsea Schubert, Cambridge Summer Music, Music Festivals at Sea, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square and the Barbican Hall, alongside visits to Japan, South Africa and Brazil.
Winner of the Royal Overseas League Piano Competition, BBC Fame Academy and Gold Medallist at the Marcello Galanti International Organ Competition, James studied at Trinity College Cambridge and with Joan Havill and Pamela Lidiard at the Guildhall School of Music. In 2011 he was selected by Making Music and Park Lane Group for their Young Artist Programmes. As an accompanist he has performed and broadcast with the classical-chart-topping groups Tenebrae, Voces 8 and Blake.
Programme for 20th November,2012
Chopin – Barcarolle
Mozart Sonata in E flat – K.282
Schumann – Romance in F# & “Widmung”
J.S.Bach Chaconne from D Minor Violin Partita arr. Busoni
I N T E R V A L: 20 minutes
Maurice Ravel – “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales”
Francis Poulenc – “Mélancolique”
Claude Debussy – “Images” – Book I
Date:- Tuesday, 20th. November 2012
Time: – 7.15p.m.
Venue:- Sunderland Pottery Room(Ground floor)
Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £12(Students /UB40’s £6 No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
The internationally acclaimed classical pianist Sarah Beth Briggs returns to her roots to join the 70th. Birthday Celebrations of the Sunderland Pianoforte Society. She grew up in Sunderland district and began her professional career as a solo pianist here. Now,years later she is a mature artiste famous around the world for her solo recitals, her concerto performances, work in accompaniment and Chamber Music,and master classes. As a member of York University Faculty of Music where she teaches and lectures, it is easy to see why her verbal introductions to the music she plays have been highly praised. She is also famous for her imaginative programming, in which she frequently plays music neglected by others, but always maintaining the highest quality.
Sarah will play for us a programme of music by Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Debussy and Chopin.
Sarah Beth Briggs
We are delighted this distinguished musician is able to play for us to celebrate a continuous 70 years of classical piano music played by the world’s top professionals. Join us to hear top quality performance of fine music at very reasonable prices.
Date:- Tuesday,16th. October 2012
Time: – 7.15p.m.
Venue:- Sunderland Pottery Room(Ground floor)
Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £12(Students /UB40’s £6 No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
Unique to this country – possibly to Europe – Sunderland Pianoforte Society’s record of presenting the highest quality of professional music is flawless.
Over the past 70 years pianists from around the globe have played for us, to enjoy producing wonderful performances of the world’s finest classical music on a concert grand piano which is certainly unique.
Three recitals will be given by pianists well-established worldwide artistes: Viv McLean,
Sarah Beth Briggs & William Fong. Another three will be given by younger generation real stars of the future – all international prize winners in important piano competitions.
We hope this contrast in styles will please and entertain our members and friends.
The opening concert will be given by an old friend of Sunderland:
Viv McLean
Viv plays music by Mozart, Schubert and Chopin, and Sunderland’s Chairman (Laurie Giles),
Date:- Tuesday,11. September 2012
Time: – 7.15p.m.
Venue:- Sunderland Pottery Room(Ground floor)
Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £12(Students /OB40’s £6 No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
Kiryl Keduk was born in Grodno in Belarus in 1987 and made his public debut with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus at the age of ten. From 2001 he was a pupil of Waldemar Wojtal at the Music Academy at Gdasnk and since 2007 he has studied under Boris Petrushansky at the Accademia Pianistica Incontri Col Maestro at Imola in Italy. Kiryl was the winner of the James Mottram International Piano Competition at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2010, with an outstanding performance of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Owain Arwel Hughes.
Kiryl has won numerous awards. In 2004 he was a prizewinner in the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Bydgoszcz in Poland, subsequently winning first prizes in national and international piano competitions in Minsk, Bucharest, Antonin, Danzig, Varna and in Marsala. He has also been a prizewinner at the Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition in Kiev. Already Kiryl’s international career has taken off brilliantly and he has played as soloist with orchestras in Florence, at the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo, the Sala Verdi in Milan, with the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra at the Opéra de Nice, also in Israel and at the Steinway Hall in New York. He has played in the Mozarteum in Salzburg, at the National Philharmonic Halls in Kiev and Warsaw and in the Philharmonic Hall in Krakow, among many other venues.
Date:- Tuesday, 6th. March ,2012 Time: – 7.15p.m.
Venue:- Sunderland Pottery Room(Ground floor) Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £11 (Students /OB40’s £5) No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
Scotland is well-known for its export of Doctors, Dentists, Engineers, Soldiers and many other things that could fill paragraphs.
It is not so well-known (south of the border) that it also has a high reputation in the world of serious music, with outstanding music schools, Conservatoires and University Departments producing world-class talent of all musical types.
Such a brilliant young Scot is pianist Christopher Guild who is to give the next recital at Sunderland Piano Society. He has won competitions, and prizes, already has two degrees (from the RCM, London) and is working on an advanced Diploma.
He will give a varied programme of music by Beethoven, Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin and Respighi. A lively mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar. Something for every music lover to enjoy.
Christopher Guild
(Sponsored by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust)
Date: Tuesday, 7th. February, 2012
Time: 7.15p.m.
Venue: Sunderland Pottery Room (Ground floor)
Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £11 (Students /OB40’s £5) No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
Christopher’s complete programme is as follows:
Beethoven (Sonata Op. 13 “Pathetique”)
Respighi (Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriane)
Liszt (paraphrase on “Gounod’s Faust”)
Debussy (“Children’s Corner” Suite)
Scriabin (Sonata No. 3 Op.23)
As a special treat for those unfamiliar with Ottorino Respighi’s “Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriane” a video playlist as performed by Konstantin Scherbakov is featured below.
Sunderland Pianoforte Society continued its 2011-2012 season on Tuesday 6th. December 2011 by celebrating the 200th. anniversary of the birth of the great Hungarian Pianist/Composer Franz(Ferenc) Liszt. The Society had decided that this was an opportunity to invite back Antony Peebles for this celebration. He last played for the Society in 1972 and since then has played in 131 different countries around the world and has become a specialist in, and advocate of, the work of Liszt.
Antony also acknowledges the problems being faced by small classical music societies across the whole of England, and sympathises with them to the extent that he offers his services at a much-reduced fee for small groups such as Sunderland. This presents a wonderful opportunity to obtain the highly experienced and much praised work of one of England’s foremost soloists who has held himself at the highest level in both solo recital and concerto work throughout one of the longest careers on the classical music scene.
Needless to say, Antony did not disappoint, talking to his audience before every piece, he opened his programme with two of Liszt’s many piano transcriptions: Schubert’s songs “Litany” and “Hark!Hark! The Lark”. This second was a special favourite in early Victorian Britain, when he visited the country, coming to the North East by way of Scotland. Antony Peebles has a specially personal way of bringing Liszt’s brilliance to the fore in these ever-creative and intensely clever transcriptions. He makes it clear that these are not mere “arrangements”, they are re-creations of Schubert’s work in Liszt’s own inimitable style, and highly satisfying as solo piano pieces in their own right.
Then came the major work that completed part 1 of this grand recital: the fabulous Sonata in B minor; surely one of the greatest works ever created for the piano keyboard.
Breaking new ground in almost every bar, this huge one-movement work (almost half-an-hour long) grew magnificently under the brilliantly controlled fingers of Antony Peebles. We have heard this sonata at Sunderland many times over the years played by some of the world’s finest pianists. It always remains a fresh mystery of creation, and no more so than in this performance. Antony made the sonata’s architecture grow before our very eyes without pressure or stress of any kind. This is a fiendishly difficult work demanding every piano technique (as you might expect from Liszt!) but it is also especially challenging for the soloist to make an integrated “performance” of such a mammoth piece. This Antony Peebles did quite magnificently. He even talked to the audience in his introduction about Liszt’s very original use of his basic materials, demonstrating at the piano how they were completely transformed throughout the work into what appeared to be new melodies as the work built and progressed through its various moods. It takes someone of great knowledge and experience to make abstract musical ideas, as complex as these, so clear. The whole performance was a marvel that had the appreciative audience on the edge of their seats with tension and excitement.
The second half was filled by another transcription – this time of a great piece of orchestral music by Wagner (Liszt’s son-in-law) and two original pieces for solo piano.
The Wagner transcription is rarely heard probably because it is so difficult to “bring off”
as Liszt transcribes pure orchestral sound into terms the keyboard (and ten fingers!)can cope with. This amazing piece transcribed the “Liebestod” which forms the actual conclusion of Act III of Wagner’s opera “Tristan und Isolde”. It is a “tall order” to expect to transform this huge vocal and orchestral score into terms that a mere ten fingers on two hands can express satisfactorily. Again, amazingly done so well and so sympathetically by Antony. He really enjoyed losing himself in the beauties of Sunderland’s glorious Steinway concert grand. He said afterwards that he was really taken with the instrument and he showed great interest in the fascinating historical story of this unique piano.
The two original pieces by Liszt were the “Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude” and the ever-so-famous “Hungarian Rhapsodxy No.2” . The first of these was the third of a set of pieces that (in fact) were Liszt’s own favourites that he published in 1853 under the title “Harmonies poétiques et religieuses”. This is by far the longest of the whole group and offers great challenges to the interpretational aspects to the soloist. Of course, as in all of Liszt’s works, there are plenty of challenges to sheer finger techniques. Antony took all of this in his stride and presented a wonderfully polished and moving
version of the piece.
Clearly Antony chose the “Hungarian Rhapsody No.2” not only because of its familiarity but because it offers a lighter yet completely stimulating finale for any concert.
It is, of course, full of marvellous tunes and piano virtuoso technique and Antony’s performance brought all the rhythmic aspects of Liszt’s passionate “Hungarianisms” well to the fore. The Sunderland audience simply loved the excitement of it all. Their enthusiastic and generous applause made up for the small number in the room. Antony
responded with a lovely Brahms encore: the Waltz in A flat from Op.35.
The Sunderland audience had enjoyed a wonderful series of presentations from an “elder statesman” of British pianism who is renowned across the globe for his Liszt interpretations. This really was a fine tribute to commemorate the 200th. anniversary of
that great composer’s birth.
Laurie Giles.
For the very special occasion of the 200th. anniversary of the birth of the great Hungarian Pianist/Teacher/Composer Franz Liszt Sunderland Piano Society has managed to book the distinguished “elder statesman” of the world of English Classical Piano: Antony Peebles.
He last played in Sunderland in 1972 when he was a brilliant young star of the keyboard. Since then he has enjoyed a vastly successful career playing in 131 different countries around the whole world, and he has become a world-renowned specialist in the music of Liszt. He is coming to Sunderland to play an exciting programme entirely devoted to that composer’s music, and he is looking forward to playing Sunderland’s famous Steinway Concert Grand Piano that is unique in all of Europe. This is an important music event not to be missed!
Date: Tuesday 6th December 2011
Time: 7.15p.m.
Venue: Sunderland Pottery Room(Ground floor)
Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £11 (Students /OB40’s £5) No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
Sunderland Pianoforte Society had the privilege of listening to Szczepan Konczal as he opened the 2011/12 Season. We’re enjoying these videos from 2010 and just wanted to share them with you all.
Sunderland Pianoforte Society continued its 2011-2012 season on Tuesday 8th. November
2011 by responding to its members’ suggestion and inviting the young Irish pianist David Quigley to return to the city for the third time.
His recital programme was refreshingly different and quite original. He called it “Transcriptions and Paraphrases” and built it from music that had been especially transcribed for the keyboard by various composers from other composers works written for different musical forces. The “mix” was highly varied and proved very popular with the Sunderland audience in the Museum and Winter Gardens. David talked about every item before he played it.
He began with tributes to Franz Liszt on his 200th. anniversary: so the first three transcriptions were by the great Hungarian. He started with Schubert’s ever lovely “Ständchen” (Serenade) and Schumann’s “Widmung”(Dedication) which he did with great delicacy building the Liszt paraphrases into great climaxes of sound.
He told the audience at the outset that he was glad to be back in Sunderland playing “your wonderful piano”, and he certainly demonstrated what could be done on the fine instrument.
Then followed a rarely heard piece: the Liszt paraphrase on Verdi’s opera “Aida”. This was beautifully done and quite a rare opportunity to enjoy this moving piece. Liszt created plenty of “paraphrases” (cleverly constructed selections ) of popular operas, but, strangely, this “Aida” medley is seldom heard.
David Quigley performing the Aida paraphrase July 4, 2011 Ferreirola, La Alpujarra, Spain
Then followed (because it is 50 years since his death) three transcriptions by the brilliant
Australian Percy Grainger. David played two songs by Fauré (“Nell” & “Après un rêve”) and then George Gershwin’s “Love Walked in”. These Percy Grainger arrangements (transcriptions is a better word for such masterly writings) were stunning, and David’s interpretations were a joy to hear. The audience applause got warmer as the evening went by.
The first half ended with the second world performance of a piece written by the Irish composer Philip Hammond (an important musical figure in Northern Ireland) especially for David Quigley. The work “Miniatures and Modulations” was specially commissioned by the Queen’s Belfast Music Festival to celebrate the composer’s 60th. birthday. It had been given its world premiere only two weeks ago, and the Sunderland audience is the second in the world to hear this music. Of the fourteen pieces (Old Irish harp songs from a 1792 collection) David selected five to lead us to the interval. A clever idea because there was plenty for friends to talk about during the pause. The general consensus appeared to be that although “modern” in style (as we might expect) the music was rhythmic and with plenty of intriguing effects on the keyboard.
David presented them by playing the original 1792 song/dance in each case before its free transcription by Philip Hammond. This added clarity to the musical experience and the audience was shown in each case what the composer was achieving. Very much appreciated and received very warmly by everyone.
David’s second half consisted of a complete performance of Elgar’s own piano transcription of his ever popular “Enigma Variations”. David pointed out how well written for the piano Elgar had made the work. The whole performance was a triumphant success and everyone present, hearing this rarely played version for the first time ever, were delighted and astonished that such an important and well-scored major orchestral work could be so effective as piano music. David’s treatment brought alive all those “Friends pictured within” as Elgar put it in his dedication.
The Sunderland audience had enjoyed wonderful pianism from a young Irish virtuoso who is not only equipped with clever fingers but is also a thoughtful musician to his finger tips who always presents immaculately thought-out interpretations.
After two “curtain calls” David played as an encore another transcription by Percy Grainger – a simply gorgeous transcription of George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love”.
A wonderful evening was had by all and David Quigley was kept busy afterwards signing all the CDs of Philip Hammond’s music that he brought with him. People were especially pleased to note that David was also one of the people who appeared to have enjoyed the evening.
Born in 1977 in Ireland, David Quigley came to international attention as far back as 2002, when he was still only 24 years old. He has since been successful in national and international competitions and has played with distinguished orchestras and conductors
throughout the world.
He has already played twice at Sunderland Piano Society and has been asked back (at members request) for a third time.
David is not only a clever pianist of virtuoso brilliance but is a thoughtful musician whose interpretations are always immaculately presented.
He has prepared a fascinatingly “different” programme which he entitles “Transcriptions and Paraphrases” in which he brings music that was not originally created by its composers for the keyboard, but all transcribed for the piano by other great composers.
One exception to this is a rare opportunity to hear Sir Edward Elgar’s own version for
piano of his own “Enigma Variations” in full performance. Can such a thing be done?!
Elgar thought so. And there is Philip Hammond’s “Miniatures & Modulations” too.
This will make a wonderfully interesting evening of a highly varied nature, mixing music
by Schubert, Schumann, Verdi, Fauré, Gershwin as arranged by Liszt, & Percy Grainger.
Date: Tuesday 8th November 2011
Time: 7.15p.m.
Venue: Sunderland Pottery Room(Ground floor)
Museum & Winter Gardens, Burdon Road, Sunderland.
Tickets: at the door £11 (Students /OB40’s £5) No other concessions.
Accompanied Children (up to 16 years) come free (with teachers or parents)
Performing widely as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician, James Sherlock regularly appears at festivals throughout the UK and abroad. In the past season these have included the Edinburgh Fringe, Leeds International, Harrogate, Ryedale, Deal, Chelsea Schubert, Cambridge Summer Music, Music Festivals at Sea, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St John’s Smith Square and the Barbican Hall, alongside visits to Japan, South Africa and Brazil.
