Skip to main content

Review of Graham Fitkin’s Lecture Recital for Roseland Music Society on 9th October 2021

By Tim Smithies







Its not often you get to hear a composer talk about his or her music with such clarity and sincerity as Roseland Music Society heard from Graham Fitkin in their first music event since lockdown  last Saturday 9th October.    This was a rocket fuelled launch to a season of 8 concerts the society has lined up until July 2022.  An increasingly engrossed audience  experienced a huge range of creative ideas performed with illustrations from the piano,  recordings of concert work (from the Proms, Tokyo, the USA) featuring unusual combinations of instruments introducing new sound worlds e.g. for three marimbas,  sampled music with vibraphone, but also full symphony orchestras and memorably a cello concerto (for YoYo Ma) inspired by one note…B flat.


After a rapid trot through his Cornish musical education (his mother taught piano in West Penwith and he is fulsome about the variety and scope of  musicmaking opportunities available to him when young in Cornwall):  he began dabbling in piano, violin (set aside), clarinet and percussion,  leading to studying composition at Nottingham University and subsequently at The Hague with one of the early adopters of minimalism Louis Andriessen…..A common denominator which Graham explained began to shape his own musical identity as composer,  was employing formal mathematical  and rhythmical structures, stripped down economy of expression, layering of thematic materiall with Stravinsky and other minimalist composers like Steve Reich as critical influences.  


At that point the audience  had a live performance by Graham and his partner Ruth Wall (happily on hand) in Steve Reich’s classic Clapping Music (1972).   We were stunned and clapped too (albeit not quite so rhythmically)..


A lively Q&A session then took place with audience keen to know more about the realities of being a composer. 

The talk ended with Graham’s account of the development of his latest commission, (from Cornwall’s  Three Spires Singers) to be performed in Truro Cathedral in November…with narrator Sam West, multiple choirs ……and the title “Humphry Davy…the Age of Aspiration”.   The Cornish engineer’s self-experiments with hazardous gases and  breathing apparatus and experimentation was Graham’s  starting point fo the new work ………. to find out the outcome .don’t miss this red letter day on the Cornwall musical calendar.


This format of asking a contemporary composer to speak about and demonstrate his music seems one that is popular with our audience.  We will be inviting Ian Stephens to introduce his music next year on 18th March in Tregony Church Hall




The next two concerts at the Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall are on 12th November….Chapel Street Ensemble plays Schumann Piano Quintet, Faure Piano Quartet, Judith Weir and Richard Strauss.

26th November – William Howard concert pianist plays a programme of Czech Music and Chopin- more details at www.roselandmusicsociety.org.uk and on Facebook.    


All are welcome  tickets can be booked at Cornwall Riviera Box Office (01726) 879 500or in person at Truro, St Austell and St Mawes Tourist Information Centres or online 



(Note  Tim Smithies is now programming the Roseland Music Society series so declaring and interest)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Music Biennale South Bank Centre, London : Intro and Peter Edwards' jazz workshop

@SouthBankCentre @PRSforMusic @BBCRadio 3 Free tickets to a showcase of "a snapshot of what is going on in contemporary music" at the South Bank Centre was too good a offer to miss. I spent a happy summer's day 10th July 2017 on the South Bank listening to the third and last day of a weekend of contemporary music programmed by South Bank's music director Gillian Moore and featuring a broad range of music and new compositions by Simon Holt, Mark Simpson, Jennifer Walshe, Brian Irvine and Mica Levi First session of #NMB17  was a Jazz composition workshop led by Peter Edwards (a musician unknown to me but a bandleader, composer and arranger whose work had been commissioned by Turner Sims).   He had an admirably pragmatic approach to explaining how he went about creating music. Peter sat at the electronic keyboard with laptop perched on it, a whiteboard to the side and a projection screen over his shoulder. The workshop highlighted a critical proble...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jaclarabag Premiere at the Acorn and then at Roseland Music Society

  Hi, we all loved the show (group of five) on Thursday evening - my kids and friends too making a beeline for the gig.... from the Gallery at the Acorn....and the music of @ClareIngleheart  Jim Carey   Giles King . Thank you for pushing a new boat out and best of luck to @Jaclarabag. It was great to hear both some familiar tunes of Jim's and some new tunes - action movie soundtracks, Romanian dances, processional music not adopted by Helston yet, Englsh folk song. Astonishing versitility on those clarinets, bagpipes, drums, guitar, sax, fiddle, etc etc. and some lovely singing too. The packed audience (nearly a sell out) clearly of BIG fans added to the knockabout and improvised joy of a sparky new band ready to break the mould. For all Those tunes may be £0.38p tunes but there were some humdingers and there were some gem "links" or as Jim would say "pure gold". Will you come to the Roseland next year to play? pm me
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shape of the Pain by Rachel Bagshaw and Chris Thorpe Edinburgh Summerhall

Summerhall was the centre of much interesting Edinburgh Fringe Programming this year The phenomenon of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome  affects present day sufferers and this play cleverly conjures the dilemmas that sufferers and their partners encounter in dealing with this very real experience but one which tests the nature of our beliefs.   This one woman play developed by Rachel Bagshaw and Chris Thorpe and performed with delightful candour and openness by Hannah McPake is gripping and fascinating On the surface it is an attempt to describe the realities of phantom pain sufferers and its effects on their social and personal releations.  It  has also had the benefit of a fistful of medical Professors who have collaborated on the background.    A remarkable monotone screen and set provides a digital text and graphic accompaniement allowing the audience to "enter the pain" not in a sadistic way but to understand its pervasiness and some of its di...
Post a Comment
Read more