6.7.11
Avante guarde music to celebrate Independence Day and Beyond!
Tamsin Waley Cohen was delighted to be appointed Musical Director of this year’s summer season of concerts in Florence and has chosen a relevant theme of Tyranny and Freedom for this series of concerts starting just after Independence Day and continuing until the 17th July.
Each “Musica per la Liberta” concert will feature a mix of the classic and the Avante Garde, which makes a refreshing change for Florence where – if it could be accused of any fault (not that I would dare!)it might be that Avante Garde is not a term naturally associated with this City, still profiting magnificently from being the seat of the Renaissance over 600 years ago.
Tonight’s concert, held in the newly renovated Murate , featured 24″Miniature” interpretations of Beethoven,Brahms, Chopin and Schumann cleverly strung together with more modern music makers such as Huber, Bartok, Gershin and Gwyn Pritchard – the latter being in the audience and available to take a bow for Natalia Benedetti’s performance of his Nocturnes.
The second half of the concert was the famous Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time. written in 1941 by Olivier Messiaen (1908-92)
The quartet was premiered in Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, Germany in 1941 whilst all the performers and most of the audience were inmates within the Concentration Camp. Messiaen said at the time that never was one of his performances listened to with such rapt attention.
But “rapt attention” is what this piece merits and this evening’s performance was no exception to this. I remember listening to the discordant piano -plaintiff cello combination thinking how beautifully moving it was just as it was surpassed by the soaring poignant strains of Ben Nabarro’s violin, which completed the piece. Bitter sweet though this music is it is still filled with love of life and hope for a better future – a very fitting choice for the subject of Tyranny and Freedom.
The next concert at 9pm on Friday 8th July will be held in the courtyard of the Bargello and features Bartok, Beethoven, and Dvorak.
Final concerts in the series are:-
10 July in the Church of San Stefano – featuring Kagel, Poulenc, Piazzolla and Dohnaniy
17 July – the opera The Tribune by Kagel
For further opportunities to see Tamsin perform on her 1721 ex-Fenyves Stradivarius violin, look out for her presenting and playing in a chamber music concert one Sunday each month in The Tricycle Theatre, together with other members of the Honeymead Ensemble.
