JESSIE ANN RICHARDSON (cello)
SIMON CALLAGHAN (piano)
17 April 2016 at 4.00 pm
(Supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust)
Beethoven:
Bruch: Phibbs: Chopin |
Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 5 No. 2
Kol Nidrei Sonatine (2011) Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19 |
Jessie is establishing herself at the forefront of young instrumentalists here and all over Europe, both as a soloist and as a founding member of the renowned Piatti String Quartet who played for us in 2014.
Her accompanist, Simon Callaghan, is recognised as an exciting performer of the new generation.
Her accompanist, Simon Callaghan, is recognised as an exciting performer of the new generation.
Review
The final concert of Octagon Music Society’s 36th season was a recital last Sunday afternoon by cellist Jessie Ann Richardson and pianist Simon Callaghan. This broke new ground for OMS in a number of ways : none of the works had previously featured in our programmes, Jessie was giving her first recital for us, and Simon was making his first appearance here. Add to that a substantial change of programme at five day’s notice, another ‘relocated’ interval, and we had a mix to keep a large and eager audience on its mettle. The concert was supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust which gives opportunities to young musicians to gain concert experience but, young as Jessie and Simon may be, they are certainly not lacking in musical maturity nor in the presentational skills which an audience expects. They gave us a memorable afternoon of contrasting musical styles, together with vivid advocacy of four works from outside the concert mainstream.
The first half included Beethoven’s Cello Sonata Op 5 No.2, an arrangement of Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei and a Sonatine (2010) by the young British composer Joseph Phibbs. The Beethoven shows him in full early maturity, with ideas spilling out as fast as he could write, to which Jessie and Simon responded with verve and spontaneity. The Bruch and the Phibbs works were, in the event, well paired – both are suffused with a sense of sorrowing, Kol Nidrei with a full-on lush 19th century romantic sadness, the Sonatine with its spare textures presenting a more personal response to sorrow and loss. The Sonatine’s second movement was written in memory of the young American singer/song writer Lhasa de Sela who had died from cancer on New Year’s Day in 2010 at the age of 37. In the first movement the players separately set out contrasting material, meeting only at the final bars. The third movement was a cello solo with a lyrical melody slowly evolving out of improvisatory figures, finally dying away to silence, a silence in which the audience seemed complicit; an intriguing and persuasive new work for us to ponder.
The second half was devoted to one work, the Cello Sonata of Sergei Rachmaninov. Like the Beethoven, this was a young man’s work, and, written immediately after his second Piano Concerto, it takes on the same brash outgoing nature, with richly impassioned high emotion never far from the surface. It was here that the differing strengths of cellist and pianist became most apparent. To all the music, Jessie brought a sense of balance and restraint which always remained under control. Simon, in contrast, responded with imagination and verve to each fresh challenge, relishing the virtuoso demands made by the composer. It made for fascinating music-making and a compelling climax to their concert. Not quite the close, as they gave us, to the audience’s audible approval, an encore in Rachmaninov’s Vocalise where Jessie took the opportunity to display the soul which only the cello can truly portray.
Jessie’s burgeoning career is now becoming more focused on the growing worldwide reputation of the Piatti String Quartet of which she was a founding member. Members will remember the Quartet’s concert for OMS in October 2012 when they played Mozart, Frank Bridge, and Beethoven’s Op 132. They now have an increasingly busy, not to say manic, schedule – last Friday they were playing Brahms in Paris, on Sunday morning they gave a Coffee Concert at 11.15 at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford (Haydn and Brahms), followed by a drive down the M40 to Watford and immediately into rehearsal with Simon! Simon’s life is no less busy: he had been on a three week Caribbean cruise (working, you understand) before flying back from Antigua on Saturday, arriving at Heathrow at 8 am, two hours at home, then taking the Met line to Watford and strolling down Shepherds Rd to meet Jessie! ‘No problem, I slept on the plane’ was his downbeat comment. And then at 5.30 am on Monday morning, Jessie was tweeting from home before heading off to fly to Basle for more work with the Quartet! Such is the professional musician’s life.
We are very sorry that our programme did not contain any biographical details about Simon, but we all now know that he is pianist of great artistry and imagination. He’s also a workaholic; he has concerts in Holland before the end of the month, then a song recital in Leamington, violin duos in London and Gloucestershire (different violinists), piano quintets in Shropshire with the Carducci Quartet, the Whittington International Chamber Music Festival, then violin, trios and quartet concerts in Sudbury and Colchester. And that’s just to the end of May! He has a debut concert recording with the BBC Scottish Orchestra with Martyn Brabbins in July, then masterclasses and concerts for a fortnight at the Ingenium Summer Academy in Winchester where he is Head of Piano. And when he’s not playing or teaching, he’s the Artistic Director of London’s Conway Hall Sunday Concerts, the longest running chamber music series in Europe where he puts on 36 concerts each year. Before all that, he studied at Chetham’s in Manchester with Bernard Roberts and then at the Royal College with Yonty Solomon, two teachers who were themselves wonderful pianists. He has already made appearances at all the UKs principal concert halls and during the next year is undertaking concert tours to Germany, Austria, Holland and Switzerland.
Both Jessie and Simon were warm in their appreciation of the qualities of the Clarendon Muse which we, as the audience, are so lucky to enjoy. Unusually, for a new building (2008) there is no record in the public spaces of the team who were responsible for its design. The architects were the London office of Tim Ronalds. They have much experience in designing school and civic buildings, and were also responsible for the Grammar School Sixth Form Centre and for the Sports Centre. The Muse won a Royal Institution of British Architects Award in 2008. You can find a fascinating account and architectural explanation from Jonathan Glancey, the Guardian’s Architecture Correspondent by googling ‘Clarendon Muse architect’. But the article makes no reference to the acoustic qualities which we regard as making it such a great space for our concerts. The acoustic consultant engaged by Tim Ronalds was Raf Orlowski who was Acoustic Director of Arup Acoustic for 19 years from 1990. Mr. Orlowski was a close professional colleague of Derek Sugden who was a strong supporter of OMS for many years. Both were involved in the new Glyndebourne Opera house, and Mr.Orlowski is currently responsible for overseeing the revamping of the Sydney Opera house. At the Muse, the original intention was that the interior of the Hall should be clad in timber but financial constraints ruled that out. The walls are formed from thick layers of plasterboard, the vertical panels of which are set at a slight angle to each other – what looks like a flat surface is in fact a succession of unaligned panels, which the two tone surface shades artfully disguise. It certainly is a visual and artistic success.