Biting satirical lithographs and empathetic depictions of people going about their everyday lives are displayed alongside sculptures and paintings in the Royal Academy’s new autumn exhibition of work by French artist Honoré Daumier, the first exhibition of Daumier’s work in the UK for fifty years.
Read my full review here
My local music society based at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington is proving a rich and varied source of fine music this autumn. Last month I attended excellent concerts by Helen Burford, in an eclectic programme of mostly contemporary music, and Joseph Tong who played works by McCabe, Sibelius and Ravel, and ended with a rollicking ‘Wanderer Fantasy’ by Schubert. For the first concert of November, pianist Madelaine Jones returned to the NPL to give a lunchtime recital of works by Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and little-known female composer Louise Farrenc.
Now in her final year at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich, south-east London, Madelaine studies with my piano teacher, Penelope Roskell (I first met Maddie at one of my teacher’s weekend courses, some three years ago). A busy performing musician, Madelaine is now looking beyond next summer to where her musical studies might take her next: this recital was an opportunity for her to perform her programme for forthcoming auditions at the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music, Trinity, and Yale, amongst others.
Madelaine introduced her programme, explaining that Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ is considered to be the Old Testament of music, while Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are the New Testament. As it happened, her programme contained works from both, and the opening Prelude from the Prelude & Fugue in D minor BWV 875 from Book 2 of the WTC was played with vigour, colour, and crisp articulation (Madelaine also plays the harpsichord, evident in her lightness of touch in the Prelude). The Fugue was more thoughtful, with sensitive attention to the strands of counterpoint (in her introduction, Madelaine described a fugue rather charmingly as “voices chasing each other”). This was an authoritative account, and a splendid opener for the concert.
Beethoven’s Opus 10 Piano Sonatas were published in 1798. The first and the third of the Opus are serious and tempestuous (the Op 10, no. 1 prefigures the Pathétique Sonata), but the middle sonata of the triptych, Op 10 no. 2 in F major, is more light-hearted, a “cheeky” first movement which amply displays Beethoven’s characteristic wit and musical humour. Madelaine was alert to the rapid shifts of mood, dynamics, and orchestration in Beethoven’s writing: a sprightly first movement gave way to an elegant minuet and trio, followed by a fugal finale, nimbly played by Madelaine. Sparing use of the pedal, precise articulation and musical intelligence resulted in a very colourful and enjoyable account of this early period sonata.
In a change to the printed programme, Stravinsky’s second Piano Sonata (1924) came next, again engagingly introduced by Madelaine. Composed while Stravinsky was resident in Paris in the 1920s, this Sonata harks back to Baroque and Classical models, and it was an inspired piece of programming to place it straight after the Beethoven, which helped illuminate the classical elements inherent in Stravinsky’s writing (a first movement in Sonata form – exposition, development, recapitulation – followed by a slow movement). Indeed, the slow movement, as Madelaine put it, was written as if Stravinsky had taken a typical Beethoven slow movement and simply “allowed the hands the wander around the keyboard”. Madelaine’s precise attention to detail, tonal clarity, energy of attack, and musical understanding made for a most interesting performance.
To finish Madelaine played the Air russe varié, op. 17 by Louise Dumont Farrenc, a French composer who, according to Schumann, writing in his Die neue Zeitschrift für Musik showed great promise, but who has fallen into obscurity. And indeed the work Madelaine performed was redolent of Schumann’s own music with its contrasting and varied movements and musical volte-faces. This work was proof that Madelaine is equally comfortable in Romantic repertoire, delivering a performance that caught the full emotional sweep and virtuosity of this music: a committed, bravura performance founded on solid technique and undeniable musicality.
Details of Madelaine’s forthcoming concerts can be found on her website:
My Meet the Artist interview with Madelaine
Forthcoming concerts at the National Physical Laboratory Musical Society:
6th November – Corrine Morris, cello and Kathron Sturrock, piano
11th November – Alice Pinto, piano
18th November – Nadav Hertzka, piano
22nd November – Kathron Sturrock, piano
26th November – Frances Wilson (AKA The Cross-Eyed Pianist), piano in works by Bach, Cage, Debussy, Liszt, Elgar, and Messiaen
Concerts take place in the Scientific Music, Bushy House, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington TW11 0LW, and start at 12.45pm. Tickets £3 on the door.
Who or what inspired you to take up the harp, and make it your career?
My older sister began learning the harp when I was 2 years old so I grew up to the sounds of her playing which was the original inspiration to learn. I think since then I always knew I wanted to make it my career, as there was never anything which gave me that same thrill.
Who or what were the most important influences on your playing?
I’d have to say hearing recitals by famous Welsh harpists from a young age (especially Catrin Finch) inspired me to want to work harder and eventually become like them, and competing at the Welsh National Eisteddfod every year gave me a lot of national pride.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
I think anyone who decides to become a musician knows that there will be a lot of hardships to go through, especially the beginning of your career – these last few years at music conservatoire have really put me through my paces as the level between playing in local competitions as a teenager and playing at conservatoire-standard competitions is huge.
Which performances are you most proud of?
I’m very self-deprecating and am always my harshest critic after a performance, but I think one of the few times when I came out of a concert feeling truly proud of my playing was after my concerto debut at Eton College, playing Gabriel Pierné’s Konzertstück with the school orchestra.
Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in?
I’ve been studying at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón in Zaragoza since September and have played with the orchestra at the Sala Mozart del Auditorio de Zaragoza and it is just the most beautiful venue to perform in; the acoustics are fantastic and the size is perfect to make it feel impressive and yet still intimate.
Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?
I’m a romantic at heart and love anything that makes the audience really feel something; my favourite composer to perform is Debussy (who I truly believe was writing for the harp when writing his piano pieces!) and my favourite to listen to is probably Messiaen.
Who are your favourite musicians?
My favourite harpists are Catrin Finch, who has revolutionised the harp and just always been an inspiring figure to me, and Marie-Pierre Langlamet, principal harpist of the Berlin Philharmonic with whom I was lucky enough to partake in a masterclass last year and whose playing for me is flawless and stunningly beautiful. I also have to include my teacher Gabriella Dall’Olio who has opened my eyes these last few years and never fails to astound me in her ability to create magical sounds on the harp. As far as non-classical musicians go, I love Sufjan Stevens, Björk, Arthur Russell, Bon Iver, and so many more, and hope to one day get a chance to play with artists such as these as well.
What is your most memorable concert experience?
I used to wear glasses when I was younger and once, after finishing a concert in Swansea when I stood up to take a bow, and my glasses fell off, so I reached down to pick them up but obviously without being able to see and in my state of nervousness and humiliation couldn’t find them… I guess it could have been worse; they could have fallen off during the performance!
What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?
One of my favourite things about teaching young children is their enthusiasm and sheer joy at being able to create stories and emotions through music; I think it is so easy to forget this joy as you get older, as music turns into just another way to make money and pay the bills. Sometimes it’s nice just to be a child again and play for the love of playing without worrying if it’s good enough to win this prize or to be successful in that audition.
What are you working on at the moment?
Currently I am trying to build my repertoire and am working on a lot of new pieces at once, which can get frustrating as the learning process can be tedious when all you want to do is be able to play the pieces! The pieces are C. P. E. Bach’s Sonata in G for harp, two Scarlatti sonatas (k208 and k209), Henriette Renié’s Legende, Berio’s Sequenza II for harp, the Prélude, Fugue et Variation originally for organ by César Franck, and with my trio we’re learning Sofia Gubaidulina’s Garten von Freuden und Traurigkeiten and the Sonata for harp, flute & viola by Debussy.
What do you enjoy doing most?
I love traveling, exploring new places and meeting new people, so hopefully one day I’ll have a career that allows me to go to all the places I’ve dreamed of going to.
Born in Cardiff in 1991 Tomos attended Ysgol Pencae, Llandaff, a Welsh medium primary school, where he studied harp and piano lessons from 5 years old. After four years as a choral scholar at The Cathedral School, Llandaff he gained a major music scholarship to Eton College on harp and piano where he studied with Helen Radice for the first three years and Sally Pryce for the final two.
Tomos was then awarded a scholarship to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance to study with Gabriella Dall’Olio. He is currently spending the 3rd year of his undergraduate degree on the Erasmus programme at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón in Zaragoza with Gloria Martinez, returning to London in June to complete his final year at Trinity Laban.
Tomos Xerri’s Facebook fan page
Despite the bad weather, the gales, and the cancelled trains, I managed to get into central London yesterday (thanks to the District Line which was fully operational from Richmond) to view the ‘Honoré Daumier: Visions of Paris’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (review to follow), and to hear French pianist Alexandre Tharaud in a lunchtime concert of music by Bach, Schubert and Chopin. I had been much looking forward to this particular Wigmore lunchtime recital because the programme was all music I know well and love.
There is perhaps a lesson in here, for the concert was a disappointment, and it made me wonder whether I should, in future, select concerts which do not feature music I know well……
Read my full review here
The Cross-Eyed Pianist 