Skip to main content

Libby Burgess plays Bach Preludes and Fugues at Chy Cara 10th March 2023







 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 expressive interpreter.  

Even the name of the collection "The Well-Tempered Klavier" shows that J.S. Bach himself was striving for something at the edge of the new baroque developments in instrument design sophistication.  


Prelude and Fugue in     F major    BWV 856    Book 1

Prelude and Fugue in    C minor    BWV 871    Book 2

Prelude and Fugue in    G major    BWV 884    Book 2

Prelude and Fugue in    G minor    BWV 885    Book 2

Prelude and Fugue in     D sharp minor    BWV 877    Book 2   

Prelude and Fugue in    E flat major        BWV 852    Book 1


Interval

Prelude and Fugue in    F sharp major    BWV 882    Book 2

Prelude and Fugue in.   F sharp minor    BWV 859    Book 1

Prelude and Fugue in    A minor             BWV 865    Book 1 

Prelude and Fugue in. C sharp major    BWV 848    Book 1

Prelude and Fugue in    B major            BWV 868    BOOK 1   

Prelude and Fugue IN    F Minor        BWV 857    Book 1   

Prelude and Fugue in     A flat major    BWV 862    Book 1


The concert was promoted by Metronome Recordings Ltd (located nearby) and made possible by the generous offer of the hall from former professional clarinettist David White












   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cornwall Cello Voices

Friday 7th February 2020 Truro Catholic Church Cello Voices. Liz Brazier - widely regarded as the mother of cellists  in Cornwall  as Barbara Degener, the ensemble leader , called her at the close of this concert, has for some years run a cello weekend in the new year where cellists of all ages and abilities meet to work  and play together.   (she is actually the mother of Ben Hoagley one of the other performers - and celebrated a significant birthday today) Cornwall Cello Voices is a group of  eight of the rather more accomplished performers who have given concerts at the end of the weekend.   The sound of 8 cellos playing together in harmony is thrilling as recordings by the cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic in the 90s attest.  And this concert was certainly extremely well delivered with ensemble and balance between a frequent myriad of parts well judged. The cello's sonorous register makes it a favourite with many but the compar...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jennet Campbell MBE

On Friday we celebrated the life of Jennet Campbell in Gerrans Church with a tribute led by Emma Campbell her daughter, and readings by daughter Sally and friends.  Local poet and county councillor Bert Biscoe gave the eulogy. Jennet Campbell was a critical influence on the development of many musicians in Cornwall, either directly or indirectly - through her own teaching or through the work of the  Radford Trust and the instrument provision scheme they have provided for many children coming to music for the first time. She received and MBE and was created a bard in the Kernow Gorsedd for her contribution to music in Cornwall.  She was the niece of musicians Maisie and Evelyn Radford, the two sisters who had settled St Anthony in Roseland and founded Falmouth Opera Group in the 1930s.  She inherited their studio and Coastguards in the village and it was from this Cornish centre of operations that her remarkable contribution to music at parish level (formation of ...
1 comment
Read more

Carn to Cove's brings Cornwall's All Boys Dance and Panta Rei Danse Teater together in Newlyn

Its a wet Februany Saturday in Newlyn Cornwall and dynamic Cornwall youth dance group All Boys Dance and Panta Rei Danse Teater,  the Norwegian dance company  are about to perform the outcomes of the ground breaking mini-residency on the Wharves and in The Centre in Newlyn.   Panta Rei Danse Teater are now regular visitors to Cornwall thanks to Carn to Cove - they have performed  "I Wish Her Well"; "House Gran Nabo",  "We Fiction and Private Rites" in spaces from the Lisekerret Centre, to the Guildhall St Ives   .  This time they  performed with a 3  male dancers and two brilliant live musicians cellist (Gustavo Tavares)  and pianist/composer (Sverre Indris Joner)  on stage a work called "Lullaby" Lullaby explores the prickly relationships that men and boys develop in their friendship groups....joshing, messing about, facing off, fighting.     The male subject matter of the dance "Lullaby" was the springboard for Rob M...
Post a Comment
Read more