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Mahler 4 with the Bridgewater Sinfonia

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Clare McCaldin takes a curtain call with Steve Joyce Myall and the Bridgewater Sinfonia

It’s been an unrelentingly cold start to the year and the chill drove through into the start of March. It was going to take a special sort of concert to warm through St Peter’s Church, Berkhamstead… but, of course, that’s exactly what the Bridgewater Sinfonia managed to rustle up, under the clubbable direction of conductor Steve Joyce Myall.

The first half was a strong account of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, forging ahead under the bow of Nathaniel Anderson-Frank. Clare was involved in the ambitious second half performance of Mahler’s 4th Symphony, which scores its final movement with a high solo voice. The song Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn is an unburdened reflection on life on earth, which brings a particular glow to the previous, bucolic movements that the considerable and committed audience clearly appreciated.

Revolution!

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I’m off to the Stroud Festival later this month for a concert with two of my long-time friends and collaborators, Paul Sheehan and Paul Turner. This year’s Festival is themed on Revolution in the Arts so we have created a new programme exploring this idea in three dimensions – aesthetic, harmonic and socio-political. Inevitably there’s a lot of overlap but we will be offering everything from Beethoven to Cathy Berberian, via Ravel, Wagner and Weill. It’s a terrific range of repertoire, full of interesting juxtapositions, and we think that even the most knowledgeable members of our audience will make discoveries.

As the concert is taking place on the day when the UK may or may not be leaving the European Union, Revolution seems a very appropriate theme and we are assuming that anything could happen!

Tickets available via the Stroud Festival website: https://stroudfestival.org/

Happy 25th Birthday!

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The Swindon Recital Series celebrated its 25th year on Sunday evening. It’s a remarkable achievement to have sustained this strand of high-quality music-making in the face of many local pressures on the classical music audience. The celebratory concert featured series founder and artistic director Paul Turner, with other performers who have been regular contributors over the years.

Music of Renown Ensemble

Members of the Music Of Renown Ensemble performed with me in a reprise of William Walton’s Façade, which we first presented in 2012.

with Paul Turner

Paul and I also performed a much-loved staple of our recital repertoire, A History of the Thé Dansant by Richard Rodney Bennett. The jazz theme was maintained with Schulhoff’s “hot” saxophone sonata and an arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue for the same forces as Façade.

Here’s to another 25 glorious years!