Festival Showcase, 20th - 22nd November 2003

at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts, Halifax, West Yorkshire

With its new, more flexible format, the 7th Festival Showcase continues to provide us with an opportunity to present programmes that would not usually form part of a chamber music festival. Thus, a solo recital of 20th and 21st-century piano music opens the Showcase. Then, the night after, in the year of the centenary of the death of Hugo Wolf - one of the greatest of Lieder composers - we are able to mark the anniversary by a rare complete performance of the series of miniature masterpieces that make up his 'Italian Songbook'. And on the final night, a performance of quartets by two of the great exponents of the genre — Haydn and Bartók — is an appropriate jumping-off point for the main Festival in March 2004.

Food will be on sale in the Square Chapel bar before (from 6.30 pm) and after each performance.

Thursday 20th November, 7.30pm

Kate Dixon, piano

• Ravel, ‘Sonatine’ pour piano
• Debussy, from ‘Préludes’:
  • ‘Canope’ Bk 2, No.10
  • ‘Des pas sur la neige’ Bk 1, No.6
  • ‘Bruyères’ Bk 2, No.5
  • ‘La danse de Puck’ Bk 1, No.11
  • ‘La cathédrale engloutie’ Bk 1, No.10
  • ‘Général Lavine - eccentric’ Bk 2, No.6
• Messiaen, ‘Le traquet stapazin’ (from ‘Catalogue des oiseaux’, Bk 2, iv)
• Anthony Gilbert, Piano Sonata No.3 (‘Autour des palombes’)
• Ian Vine, ‘Postcards from Chicago’ Nos. 1, 2, and 3 (World première)
• Paul Clay, ‘Basis’
• Paul Clay, ‘Elements of pop up’ (World première)

One of the leading exponents of the contemporary repertoire for piano, Kate Dixon plays a challenging programme which contains world premières by two young composers.

Preceded at 6.30pm by a free pre-concert talk by Dr. Anthony Gilbert on his recently-completed Third Piano Sonata.

There will also be a late afternoon workshop (5.15-6.00pm) by Kate Dixon for pianists, piano teachers and their pupils.

About Kate Dixon, Paul Clay and Ian Vine

Full Programme notes

Friday 21st November, 7.30pm

Victoria Lambourn, soprano
Marcos Carvalho, baritone

Royal Northern College of Music

with pianists Tetsu Mashiko and Jonathan Ellis

• Hugo Wolf's ‘Italian Songbook’

A rare chance to hear the complete collection of forty-six miniature masterpieces that together make up this extraordinary work.

Preceded at 6.30pm by a free pre-concert talk by Professor Douglas Jarman on the ‘Italian Songbook’ and the unjustifiable neglect of this great composer.

About Victoria Lambourn, Marcos Carvalho,Tetsu Mashiko and Jonathan Ellis

Full Programme notes

Saturday 22nd November, 7.30pm

Navarra String Quartet

Royal Northern College of Music

Xander Van Vliet, violin
Marije Ploemacher, violin
Simone van der Giessen, viola
Nathaniel Boyd, cello

• Haydn, String Quartet Op. 33 No. 5 in G major
• Schnittke, String Quartet No.3
• Bartók, String Quartet No. 6

About the Navarra String Quartet

Full Programme notes