Libby Burgess, a former organ scholar at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, performed the complete Bach Preludes and Fugues over three days in Cornwall from Friday 3rd March to Sunday 5th March. She began in the Main Hall at Chycara a wedding venue and holiday park near Carnon Downs, in at atmospheric cabaret type venue with a small but very attentive local audience. Libby did not choose to perform the Preludes & Fugues in their sequence in the two pubished volumes but she mixed and matched between the two separate books with some interesting and surprising contrasts between the normally sequential key performances . It was the first time she had played in this sequence which (she confessed afterwards) gave her a few surprises (but no missed accidentals that I noticed). Bach on the piano (as opposed to the harpsichord or the clavichord) had as its most popular and some say idiosyncratic 20th century interpreter the American Glenn Gould, Libby is a far more lyrical and express
Julien van Mallaerts and Tim Dean gave a highly entertaining and beautifully crafted song recital at the Chapel Street Methodist Chapel series in Penzance on 29th May 2022. An enthusiastic audience gathered to hear a programme of English song including well known settings by Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams on Sunday afternoon as part of the Piano Go Round series of concerts. So much of the enjoyment in a song recital is to be had from the presence and drive of the performers and right from the opening thrills and whistles of Britten's Plough Boy and Oliver Cromwell contrasted with Sally Gardens, the audience was riveted with a presentation that was always entertaining.. This is a rich voice but also very subtle with wonderful diction and superb pianissimo, bringing to the performance of well known folk song repertoire a freshness which sparked interest which kept us on the edge of our chairs wanting more of the superb top range...but never overblown. Julien had just