Saturday 16 May - Parish Church - 19:30
‘Entente Cordiale’
Music for Flute & Harp from France and England
The inaugural concert in the Wadhurst Summer Music Festival on Saturday16
May in the Parish Church was an outstanding success. Some 120 people,
including a contingent from our twin village of Aubers, listened in rapt
silence to a varied and beautifully balanced concert of French and English
music for harp and flute (played by Anna Wynne and Lianna Jeffrey respectively)
and soprano (Ansy Boothroyd).
![Our soloists [©M Flegg]](../../images/soloists0615.jpg)
Much
of the programme was probably unfamiliar to many in the audience but the
sheer technical brilliance of all three performers will have won many converts
to the music of the last century. As soloists, both Anna and Lianna
showed off the full range of their instruments with consummate virtuosity. The
programme notes for Eugène Bozza’s ‘Image’ for
flute solo commented: “His chamber music for winds show great familiarity
with the capabilities of the instruments, often demanding a great deal of
technical skill, without losing the expressive, melodic style typical of
20th Century French chamber music”; Lianna’s breathtaking performance
revealed a faultless technique, always used in service to the emotional demands
of the music. In Benjamin Britten’s ‘Hymn’,
Anna showed off to perfection her skill on the harp. As a duo, their
sensitive understanding of each other’s musical instincts produced
a programme of great subtlety and expressive range. Ansy’s choice
of songs - from the traditional (‘Scarborough Fair’)
to the sophistication of the French repertoire (by Fauré and Tournier)
- showed her musical talents to the full, sensitively accompanied by the
harp. MJH
The full programme was:
Jacques Ibert Entr'acte
John Marson 3 Romances
Marcel Tournier La lettre du Jardinier
Eugène Bozza Image for flute solo
Benjamin Britten Hymn from Suite for Harp Op.83
Trad. (arr. David Watkins) Scarborough Fair
Trad. (arr. David Watkins) Barbara Allen
Thomas Morley (arr. Watkins) Now Is The Month of Maying
André Caplet Divertissement à la française
Georges Bizet Minuet from L'Arlésienne
Entr'acte
from Carmen
Gabriel Fauré: Après un rêve -
Lydia -
Les Roses d'Ispahan
Claude Debussy Syrinx
William Alwyn Naiades: Fantasy-Sonata for Flute and Harp
Encore: George Shearing Lullaby of Birdland
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Lianna Jeffery flute
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Anna Wynne harp
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with
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