Powell concerts

[jpowell]

29 October Bauer & Hieber, 48 Gt Marlborough St, London W1F 7BB, 6.30pm
Ives Sonata no.2 ‘Concord'
Sorabji Villa Tasca

Nordjysk Musikkonservatorium | Ryesgade 52 | 9000 Ålborg, Denmark
19 November 19.30
Fauré Nocturne no.13
Alkan Symphonie pour piano seul
Ives Sonata no.2 ‘Concord'

20 November 16.30
Sorabji Villa Tasca, preceded by introductory talk

21 November 16.30 with Jørgen Hald Nielsen, two pianos
Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
Gnattali Brasiliana no.8
Bentzon Propostae novae

23 November, De Toonzaal, Prins Bernhardstraat 4-6, 5211 HE 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Ives Sonata no.2 ‘Concord'
Sorabji Villa Tasca           

18 December, Bauer & Hieber, 48 Gt Marlborough St, London W1F 7BB, 6pm
Sorabji Sequentia cyclica I‒XVIII

[rob47]

So is it impossible for you to come to North America?

I would travel FARRRRRR to attend any of your concerts if you came (i live in Canada) you rule!

Best wishes

[retrouvailles]

I'll have to get my friend in the Netherlands to attend that one! Surely something I wouldn't want to miss (if I wasn't 5000 miles away). Villa Tasca and the Concord Sonata is one massive program!

[Kassaa]

I'll have to get my friend in the Netherlands to attend that one!

who?

[thalbergmad]

I have checked my diary and i am free.

Hold on, i am on every other night as well.

Count me in.

Thal

[birba]

I've never heard you, but I bet your awesome.

[ahinton]

All I will say to forum members is that, wherever you may be, do try to get to at least one of these events and I promise unequivocally that you won't stand so much as a snowball's chance in Hell of being disappointed for a second; I wish that I could attend all of them myself!

Best,

Alistair

[Etude]

I've never heard you, but I bet your awesome.

Oh he is!

[retrouvailles]

who?

Not you, but another friend in the Netherlands. Utrecht, more specifically. Someone you probably do or do not know. I have no idea if that's close or not to where Jonathan is playing. You can go too if you can, hehe. But then I'll hate you.

[general disarray]

you won't stand so much as a snowball's chance in [Hell] of being disappointed for a second

Best,

Alistair

Language, Mr. Hinton, language.  Sarah Palen might be trolling here for stuff like this.

p.s.  jpowell should consider letting me represent him as his agent over here in the US.  It's not fair that we have to cross an ocean to hear him.  In my case, 1.5 oceans.  Will you ask him for me, please?

[ahinton]

Language, Mr. Hinton, language.

Yes, that's what I customarily have recourse to when writing anything other than music...

Sarah Palen might be trolling here for stuff like this.

It's Palin, actually - and if she's looking at this forum, she will arguably be spending her time more usefully than she would otherwise. But who cares?

p.s.  jpowell should consider letting me represent him as his agent over here in the US.  It's not fair that we have to cross an ocean to hear him.  In my case, 1.5 oceans.  Will you ask him for me, please?

Since he is a member here, he may already have seen your request. He's worth crossing oceans to hear, but that is no reason for him not to perform in a locale far nearer to you!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

He's worth crossing oceans to hear

Really?

How about climbing over a mountain range or braving a crocodile infested swamp?

Or even worse, how about getting on the 5.15pm Gravesend to Charing Cross train?

Thal

[ahinton]

Really?

How about climbing over a mountain range or braving a crocodile infested swamp?

Or even worse, how about getting on the 5.15pm Gravesend to Charing Cross train?

Thal

Absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as Mr Powell is scheduled to play in a venue close to Charing Cross at a time of day commensurate with such a train journey - although despite the fact that he has done this on a number of past occasions and will do so again in the near future, no Thalbergmaddening presence at any such event has yet been witnessed...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

The last time i went to 48 Gt Marlborough St it was a sheet music shop run by the ever helpful Eric Forder.

Where is the bleedin concert hall?

Thal

[ahinton]

The last time i went to 48 Gt Marlborough St it was a sheet music shop run by the ever helpful Eric Forder.

Where is the bleedin concert hall?

Thal

No blood letting is involved and I understand (although I have yet to visit it) that it is more or less directly beneath where you apparently used to go, although I may be corrected on the detail of that by someone who has indeed been there.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Well, i have never been to an underground concert hall before. Must have good acoustics. I wonder if Myra Hess used it during the blitz.

I hope it is bigger than one of his practice rooms as once the piano is in, there will be about enough room for 12 people. 6 if they are as big as me.

Wouldn't it be better to use the Wigmore?

Thal

[ahinton]

Well, i have never been to an underground concert hall before. Must have good acoustics. I wonder if Myra Hess used it during the blitz.

I hope it is bigger than one of his practice rooms as once the piano is in, there will be about enough room for 12 people. 6 if they are as big as me.

That many?

Wouldn't it be better to use the Wigmore?

Thal

Probably - and many dozens of times more expensive, so if you'd like to open your wallet and those of sufficient others as well, then perhaps...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

This is silly, you cannot hold a concert in a room about as big as a cubicle in a public shithouse.

I will have a word with Eric and ask if we can knock the walls down.

Thal

[thijsu]

I'm surely gonna try to be there the 23th of November in the Netherlands. It's about a 20 minutes drive from where I live so that shouldn't be a problem

[ahinton]

This is silly, you cannot hold a concert in a room about as big as a cubicle in a public shithouse.

I will have a word with Eric and ask if we can knock the walls down.

Thal

While you're about it, ask him also if he can invite an extra few hundred people in for the time of thier pianistic lives...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

An extra few hundred!!!!

That would be worse than the Black hole of Calcutta.

Its a sheet music shop, not the Tardis.

Thal

[ahinton]

An extra few hundred!!!!

That would be worse than the Black hole of Calcutta.

I don't understand; I had no idea that Great Marlborough Street had moved from London to that city.

Its a sheet music shop, not the Tardis.

Thal

I do not understand your meaning or reference here; can we return to the thread topic, please?

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

I don't believe it, he has never seen Dr Who.

Thal

[richard black]

i have never been to an underground concert hall before

There's a rather interesting one just about to open behind Kings Cross Station - it's called Kings Place and I had a preview of it a couple of weeks ago. 2 floors below street level, no less, practically underneath the Grand Union Canal. It would be impressively quiet, but you do hear the odd Piccadilly Line train. Pretty place, though, probably seats about 1000 and houses what looks to me like a brand new Steinway D.

[ganymed]

what a pity that you play in denmark  .
Why dont you pay us a visit in Berlin ^^?

[ahinton]

I don't believe it, he has never seen Dr Who.

Thal

I meant that I do not understand the purpose of your reference rather than the reference itself - sorry...

Best,

Alistair

[franzliszt2]

Furthermore, I find it fascinating that such an advocate for so-called avant garde music is so utterly retrograde in his political sensibilities.  Could you ever imagine John Cage campaigning for McCain and Palin?  What on earth has happened to the idea of "America"?  Whatever happened to a relatively ego-less culture where the Common Good, as opposed the the individual's rapacious enrichment, prevailed?  When did that die?  And when did something like a Palin become a "hot" ideal?     

I don't actually think Cage would care to be honest. I find it amusing to imagine him at a campaign.  What is the idea of America?

[notturno]

Anyhoo,

I hope that Jonathan Powell is able to perform in the US sometime in the near future.  Canada would work too.  I just found some samples on the Sorabji archive from Powell's live performances.  They speak for themselves so I won't bother.  I'll leave it to A. Hinton to provide info on that, but I thank him for putting them there. 

There were hints way back when that there would be a recording of the O.C. Is this still in the works?

I don't actually think Cage would care to be honest. I find it amusing to imagine him at a campaign.

Totally.  I was just picturing a Convention with him as keynote performer?  Not possible for several reasons, but funny all the same.

[retrouvailles]

That is really sad if that is true. I don't assume someone is a high school drop out because I don't know otherwise.

https://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/sra/lowres/sran36l.jpg

Whatever.

Back on topic, please do consider coming to the states, perhaps even the west coast, Jonathan. You would have quite an audience here, for there are many people here that are interested in new music or obscure music. We have some festivals to prove that.

[franzliszt2]

29 October Bauer & Hieber, 48 Gt Marlborough St, London W1F 7BB, 6.30pm
Ives Sonata no.2 ‘Concord'
Sorabji Villa Tasca

I will look forward to this concert, I live within walking distance, so I have no excuse for not attending.

I wish I could come to the one in December, but I am out of London on that date 

[ahinton]

Whatever.

Back on topic, please do consider coming to the states, perhaps even the west coast, Jonathan. You would have quite an audience here, for there are many people here that are interested in new music or obscure music. We have some festivals to prove that.

I do not seek to speak for Jonathan when he's more than capable of doing that for himself, but I'm quite certain that he'd be delighted to be invited to play in US; his performance of Opus Clavicembalisticum in New York in June 2004 was an outstanding success and was attended by quite a few people who had travelled hundreds (or, in my case, thousands) of miles to hear it.

Best,

Alistair

[jpowell]

Whatever.

Back on topic, please do consider coming to the states, perhaps even the west coast, Jonathan. You would have quite an audience here, for there are many people here that are interested in new music or obscure music. We have some festivals to prove that.

Dear Retrouvailles
Of course: I always consider coming to the States. But I would need some concert halls to play in, dates arranged, travel organised. I simply don't know people there really enough to do all that myself. And many thanks for the encouragement.

[ahinton]

In any case, since 2001 we've gotten rid of two horrific regimes, replaced them with nascent democracies, and slain thousands of murderers. 

Yes, OK but, in the meantime, have "we" (whomsoever that may be) gotten Jonathan Powell any recital dates? (sorry to be so rude as to intrude in this manner by returning to the thread topic, but I just thought that I'd politely ask...)

Best,

Alistair

[franzliszt2]

I'm just browsing the forum now whilst lying on my bed reading The composer pianists Hamelin and the Eight, and there is a very funny story on page 36 about Mr Hinton. Reading Mi Contra Fa on a train and ending up 250 miles farther than he intended. That amused me a lot.

Sorry I just had to add that, since I just read your post, and then continued reading the book and that story appeared.  Did you both (Mr Hinton and Mr Powell) meet Sorabji? I have only spoken to Yonty Solomon about Sorabji, and it would be amazing if you two also met him.

[ahinton]

I'm just browsing the forum now whilst lying on my bed reading The composer pianists Hamelin and the Eight, and there is a very funny story on page 36 about Mr Hinton. Reading Mi Contra Fa on a train and ending up 250 miles farther than he intended. That amused me a lot.

Sorry I just had to add that, since I just read your post, and then continued reading the book and that story appeared.  Did you both (Mr Hinton and Mr Powell) meet Sorabji? I have only spoken to Yonty Solomon about Sorabji, and it would be amazing if you two also met him.

I first corresponded with him in 1972 and met him for the first time later that year; I visited him many times after that. Jonathan Powell sadly did not meet him. Had Sorabji lived to hear even a relatively small proportion of what Mr Powell has done for his work, he would have been beside himself with joy - at least after he had gotten over his initial astonishment...

Best,

Alistair

[franzliszt2]

Did you ever hear him play? Did you ever hear Yonty play Sorabji's music live? That is one thing a really wish I could have heard! He has the most amazing sound I hav ever heard!

[ahinton]

Did you ever hear him play? Did you ever hear Yonty play Sorabji's music live? That is one thing a really wish I could have heard! He has the most amazing sound I hav ever heard!

Several times in private in Sorabji's case and on quite a few occasions in public in YS's, some of which were from a page-turning position...

Best,

Alistair

[jimpenn]

I'm not entirely sure that it's appropriate to use jpowell's post for this announcement (and I haven't seen this anywhere else on the forum, so apologies if I've missed it), but as the conversation had got onto Yonty Solomon, perhaps it's a reasonably logical, if unfortunate, continuation...

Sadly, Yonty Solomon passed away on Friday. There's a statement on the front page of the Sorabji Archive website, including a brief link to an announcement from the RCM.

[franzliszt2]

Yonty's death is a sad loss to the world, he was a very nice man and a truely great musician and pianist.

[communist]

so is it impossible for you to play something tonal?

[Etude]

so is it impossible for you to play something tonal?

...


...

[retrouvailles]

so is it impossible for you to play something tonal?

Yeah, we know you are joking, so I won't be hard on you. If you pay any attention to his programs, you will see many tonal pieces.

[birba]

I've never seen such an eclectic choice of works in a piano recital anywhere else. Spanning centuries.  Pollini used to combine stockhausen with Beethoven, but they were more or less "standard" fare.

[communist]

Yeah, we know you are joking, so I won't be hard on you. If you pay any attention to his programs, you will see many tonal pieces.

half joking 

[thalbergmad]

I will be there if anyone fancies meeting up for a few beers afterwards.

Thal

[jpowell]

Thu 5 March 2009 – 7.30pm

Pushkin House
5a Bloomsbury Square
London WC1A 2TA
020 7269 9770

Rachmaninoff, Scriabin And Their Contemporaries: Russian Piano Music Of The Serebraniy Vek

Jonathan Powell ‒ piano

Programme:
Sergey Rachmaninoff | Etudes tableaux, op.33
Anatoly Lyadov | Barcarolle
Sergey Taneyev | Prelude
Konstantin Eiges | Sonata no.2 ‘Poema’
Alexander Scriabin | Sonata no.2
Georgy Conus | Five pieces
Felix Blumenfeld | Sonate-Fantaisie

This programme brings together both luminaries and now-forgotten names from that richest of epochs of Russian culture ‒ the period of Symbolism, and one of transition between Romanticism and Modernism. Alongside classics of the piano repertoire by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, this concert explores rediscovered treasures by Eiges, a friend of Rachmaninoff, Conus, Scriabin’s first teacher, and Blumenfeld, Horowitz’ teacher and cousin of Neuhaus and Szymanowski. We also hear pieces from influential composers Taneyev and Lyadov, whose music is frequently heard in Russia, but still rarely heard in the UK.

Jonathan Powell has developed a special interest in Russian music of this period, and has spent time in libraries and archives unearthing pieces that he then presents on the concert platform. He has performed across Europe, while his appearances in Russia have taken him to the Moscow Conservatoire and Gnesin Academy (in a festival devoted to the pianist and composer Samuil Feinberg), the house of the publisher Jürgenson (in Kitai Gorod), and the Sheremetevsky Dvorets (St Petersburg), among others. 2009 will see him play in Denmark (with duo pianist Jørgen Hald Nielsen), Kiev, Finland, Vienna, Slovakia (with ‘cellist Rohan de Saram), and Holland (with another all-Russian programme). His most recent CD release is the first ever recording of solo piano works by Alexander Goldenweiser, in whose tradition of playing Powell was educated.

Tickets: £10.00, conc. £8.00

[pianowolfi]

Really this makes me yearn. *checks flight options*

[naturlaut]

JP, awesome programme! 
But why Scriabin 2nd 
Be sure to upload a recording here afterwards!

[jpowell]

JP, awesome programme! 
But why Scriabin 2nd 
Be sure to upload a recording here afterwards!

Thank you!
Scriabin 2nd was chosen because it sits well with Taneyev, Lyadov and Rachmaninoff (in a way that later sonatas wouldn't, being stylistically more distant); also because this year I hope to learn the remaining sonatas that I haven't played before, so it was "on the list", and so this concert seemed a good place to play it. Hope that makes sense! Will see if it will be recorded.

[gep]

I'm surely gonna try to be there the 23th of November in the Netherlands. It's about a 20 minutes drive from where I live so that shouldn't be a problem

Sorry to reaspond so late, just signed up! Did you go to that concert? I was there too, and was pretty blown away hearing JP live!
Curiously, I too live some 20mins away from the venue (not counting parkings time or, in this case, negotiating the fearsome weather....)