Photo: Kaupo Kippas
TASMIN LITTLE (violin)
Programme to include:
Telemann -Allegro
Bach- Chaconne from the D minor partita: Movements from E major partita.
Albeniz arr. Jennings/Little “Leyenda”
27 November 2016 at 4.00 pm
Tasmin Little is of course well known as one of the finest violinists of her generation. Tonight she presents her project "The Naked Violin" designed to show, on her magnificent Guadagnini instrument, the huge range of styles and expression that a single unadorned violin can produce.
REVIEW
It seems unlikely that any of Sunday’s audience could have been ever-present at OMS concerts over 37 seasons, but for those who were at The Muse on Sunday afternoon to hear Tasmin Little present her Naked Violin concert, most will be happy to remember it as one of the most satisfying and inspiring concerts OMS has presented.
She had launched her project , aimed at reaching out to lovers and, crucially, potential lovers of classical music, in 2008 by launching a free download of solo violin music, and, with carefully selected music played by a superb violinist, it proved a huge world-wide success. She has taken this to new audiences and has introduced classical music to people (including the music-loving hippopotamus in the Zambezi!) for whom it had been a closed book. If you weren’t there on Sunday, stop reading now and go to www.tasminlittle.net – if you were there, well, you can experience much of the concert all over again. But what you may not get online is the sense of personality and joy in music-making which suffused her live concert, with her ability to draw in an audience and make them not just present at, but part of, the experience.
‘Lecture Recital’ conjures up a picture of academic instruction: this concert was as far from that template as could be imagined, yet Tasmin imparted much information, demonstrating many of the techniques which a supreme violinist can command. She introduced her chosen pieces by placing each in the context of its composition, and alerting us, by ‘pre-performance’, to the technical demands of the music – we had a privileged insight into the artist at work in the act of re-creation.
Introducing herself with a brief Allegro by Telemann and telling us about the Naked Violin project, she moved on to the Luslawice Variations by Paul Patterson; it was a great pleasure to welcome Paul to the concert. He had been commissioned by the Polish composer Krystof Penderecki to compose a work for the 1984 Luslawice Festival where it received its premiere from Konstanty Kulka. The work made superhuman demands on the performer, all the easier and clearer to appreciate for Tasmin’s guidance; it was a fascinating and accessible work by a master of his craft. Paul is now a Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Academy of Music, but this work (and his delightful Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood and much else) show that he is no ivory tower composer – he writes music for the listener and performer.
To conclude the first half of her recital Tasmin played the great Chaconne from Bach’s D minor Partita, one of the monuments of classical music. Sir Yehudi Menuhin, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year, called it ‘the greatest structure for solo violin that exists’ and Tasmin’s performance of grave beauty held her audience rapt for over 15 minutes as she led us through the full range of tonal and dynamic contrasts.
In the second half, she moved to lighter Bach with three movements from the E major Partita, the latter two movements, the Gavotte and Gigue, being recognised by the many violinists in the audience as performances they might hope to emulate…keep practising! What made this so much more than a recital, and created an afternoon of active participation was her then calling for questions from the audience. No embarrassed silences here – she fielded a barrage of questions from the technical (pizzicato with the left hand, heavy bow v light bow), personal ( how long do you practise each day?), very personal (how many cups of coffee do you have each day? how do you choose your dress?), all answered with great good humour and humility.
Then back to the music. Rachel Jennings, a composer, violinist and teacher from Nottingham, had arranged a well-known piano piece ‘Leyenda’ (Legend) by the Spanish composer Albeniz for solo violin. She and Tasmin then collaborated to produce a wonderfully colourful evocation of Spain, and of the flamenco tradition – totally idiomatic, it sounded as if it could only be a violin solo. Again, we were delighted that Rachel was present to hear the work to which she had given new life.
It had been Tasmin’s intention to finish the concert with the Belgian composer Ysaye’s Ballade, a classic violin showpiece. But since planning her programme, Tasmin has taken into her repertoire a new piece ‘Hora Bessarabia’ by the British composer Roxanna Panufnik. This was commissioned to mark Yehudi Menuhin’s centenary and was played by the semi-finalists at this year’s Menuhin Competition and a public premiere at Royal Festival Hall in May. Tasmin had played it at a concert in Dartmouth last Thursday and so well was it received (and so much had she enjoyed playing it) that she decided to let us have her fourth public performance of the work on Sunday. It made a suitably rousing climax to her concert: the composer had drawn inspiration from Menuhin’s love of Eastern European gypsy music, even down to fancy footwork. It was an exhilarating and pulse quickening end to the concert. But the audience was never going to let her go without another piece – she duly obliged with one of Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances, carrying on from the vibrant rhythms and drama of the Panufnik.
A superb concert – there was a freshness and spontaneity to Tasmin’s playing which made one feel she was playing as much for her own pleasure as for ours. She transmits her great love of music so directly that she draws us in to make us all feel partv to her music-making. A wonderful and generous artist indeed.
After the concert, Tasmin tweeted ‘I really enjoyed the concert and also the fact that so many teenagers were there, asking such interesting questions’. And Paul Patterson has written to say ‘It was lovely to be with you last night, what a fantastic concert and a wonderful receptive audience’.
But none of this would have been possible without the encouragement and support of Ian Scleater and the generosity of his Lawton Trust. How marvellous that 230 people were able to enjoy this extraordinary music making through this act of community involvement.
Tasmin’s concert-giving takes her all over the world, but, by a strange chance, her next concert is in Cardiff on Thursday when she plays the Delius Concerto for Violin and Cello with Paul Watkins. The strange chance? Delius wrote this concerto in 1915 when he was living in Watford whilst exiled from his home in France during the Great War – he had taken a cottage in Grove Mill Lane, just a mile or so away from The Muse across Cassiobury Park!
Tony Bramley-Harker
It seems unlikely that any of Sunday’s audience could have been ever-present at OMS concerts over 37 seasons, but for those who were at The Muse on Sunday afternoon to hear Tasmin Little present her Naked Violin concert, most will be happy to remember it as one of the most satisfying and inspiring concerts OMS has presented.
She had launched her project , aimed at reaching out to lovers and, crucially, potential lovers of classical music, in 2008 by launching a free download of solo violin music, and, with carefully selected music played by a superb violinist, it proved a huge world-wide success. She has taken this to new audiences and has introduced classical music to people (including the music-loving hippopotamus in the Zambezi!) for whom it had been a closed book. If you weren’t there on Sunday, stop reading now and go to www.tasminlittle.net – if you were there, well, you can experience much of the concert all over again. But what you may not get online is the sense of personality and joy in music-making which suffused her live concert, with her ability to draw in an audience and make them not just present at, but part of, the experience.
‘Lecture Recital’ conjures up a picture of academic instruction: this concert was as far from that template as could be imagined, yet Tasmin imparted much information, demonstrating many of the techniques which a supreme violinist can command. She introduced her chosen pieces by placing each in the context of its composition, and alerting us, by ‘pre-performance’, to the technical demands of the music – we had a privileged insight into the artist at work in the act of re-creation.
Introducing herself with a brief Allegro by Telemann and telling us about the Naked Violin project, she moved on to the Luslawice Variations by Paul Patterson; it was a great pleasure to welcome Paul to the concert. He had been commissioned by the Polish composer Krystof Penderecki to compose a work for the 1984 Luslawice Festival where it received its premiere from Konstanty Kulka. The work made superhuman demands on the performer, all the easier and clearer to appreciate for Tasmin’s guidance; it was a fascinating and accessible work by a master of his craft. Paul is now a Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Academy of Music, but this work (and his delightful Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood and much else) show that he is no ivory tower composer – he writes music for the listener and performer.
To conclude the first half of her recital Tasmin played the great Chaconne from Bach’s D minor Partita, one of the monuments of classical music. Sir Yehudi Menuhin, whose 100th anniversary is being celebrated this year, called it ‘the greatest structure for solo violin that exists’ and Tasmin’s performance of grave beauty held her audience rapt for over 15 minutes as she led us through the full range of tonal and dynamic contrasts.
In the second half, she moved to lighter Bach with three movements from the E major Partita, the latter two movements, the Gavotte and Gigue, being recognised by the many violinists in the audience as performances they might hope to emulate…keep practising! What made this so much more than a recital, and created an afternoon of active participation was her then calling for questions from the audience. No embarrassed silences here – she fielded a barrage of questions from the technical (pizzicato with the left hand, heavy bow v light bow), personal ( how long do you practise each day?), very personal (how many cups of coffee do you have each day? how do you choose your dress?), all answered with great good humour and humility.
Then back to the music. Rachel Jennings, a composer, violinist and teacher from Nottingham, had arranged a well-known piano piece ‘Leyenda’ (Legend) by the Spanish composer Albeniz for solo violin. She and Tasmin then collaborated to produce a wonderfully colourful evocation of Spain, and of the flamenco tradition – totally idiomatic, it sounded as if it could only be a violin solo. Again, we were delighted that Rachel was present to hear the work to which she had given new life.
It had been Tasmin’s intention to finish the concert with the Belgian composer Ysaye’s Ballade, a classic violin showpiece. But since planning her programme, Tasmin has taken into her repertoire a new piece ‘Hora Bessarabia’ by the British composer Roxanna Panufnik. This was commissioned to mark Yehudi Menuhin’s centenary and was played by the semi-finalists at this year’s Menuhin Competition and a public premiere at Royal Festival Hall in May. Tasmin had played it at a concert in Dartmouth last Thursday and so well was it received (and so much had she enjoyed playing it) that she decided to let us have her fourth public performance of the work on Sunday. It made a suitably rousing climax to her concert: the composer had drawn inspiration from Menuhin’s love of Eastern European gypsy music, even down to fancy footwork. It was an exhilarating and pulse quickening end to the concert. But the audience was never going to let her go without another piece – she duly obliged with one of Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances, carrying on from the vibrant rhythms and drama of the Panufnik.
A superb concert – there was a freshness and spontaneity to Tasmin’s playing which made one feel she was playing as much for her own pleasure as for ours. She transmits her great love of music so directly that she draws us in to make us all feel partv to her music-making. A wonderful and generous artist indeed.
After the concert, Tasmin tweeted ‘I really enjoyed the concert and also the fact that so many teenagers were there, asking such interesting questions’. And Paul Patterson has written to say ‘It was lovely to be with you last night, what a fantastic concert and a wonderful receptive audience’.
But none of this would have been possible without the encouragement and support of Ian Scleater and the generosity of his Lawton Trust. How marvellous that 230 people were able to enjoy this extraordinary music making through this act of community involvement.
Tasmin’s concert-giving takes her all over the world, but, by a strange chance, her next concert is in Cardiff on Thursday when she plays the Delius Concerto for Violin and Cello with Paul Watkins. The strange chance? Delius wrote this concerto in 1915 when he was living in Watford whilst exiled from his home in France during the Great War – he had taken a cottage in Grove Mill Lane, just a mile or so away from The Muse across Cassiobury Park!
Tony Bramley-Harker