The Inaugural Hastings International Piano Festival has announced an exciting partnership with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) to launch their ambitious 2020 educational offer. In the lead up to the 2020 Piano Festival, Hastings Piano will host a series of inspirational workshops with NYJO Associates in three local secondary schools: Hastings Academy, Ark Alexandra and St Richards. This work has been made possible by the generous support of the Isabel Blackman Foundation. Each school will receive 3 visits from a group of NYJO practitioners who will work with children of varied musical ability, developing young musicians’ skills and musical confidence. At the end of the project the children from all three schools will join together for a massed rehearsal ahead of a concert/sharing session for other students. These workshops will address the fundamentals of jazz performance practise such as; feel, ensemble skills and improvisation. All young musicians will learn melodies by ear, explore harmonic possibilities and gain confidence improvising. This partnership marks the launch of an extensive range of Youth Engagement Opportunities that Hastings International Piano is offering alongside the inaugural Piano Festival. This includes free tickets to many of the festival concerts as well as a wide range of workshops, school visits and inspirational talks from the international artists. The 2020 Hastings International Piano Festival will take place from February 26th – 8th March 2020 at the White Rock Theatre and St Mary in the Castle, featuring some of the most celebrated artists including headliner Rufus Wainwright with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jazz Queen Claire Martin with guest artist Liane Carroll, Oscar winning film composer Rachel Porter, Sam Smith’s song-writer and collaborator Reuben James with his 10 piece band, songwriter Guy Chambers, The Puppini Sisters with The Pasadena Roof Orchestra, Actors Patricia Hodge and Alex Jennings with pianist Lucy Parham, BBC Young Musician of The Year Martin James Bartlett and film critic Mark Kermode and his band The Dodge Brothers. The Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition returns in 2021.
Daily Archives: 11 January, 2020
Hastings Philharmonic
St Mary in the Castle, Friday 10 January 2020
After the excitements of Christmas the second half of Hastings Philharmonic’s Season got off to a richly romantic start before an exceptionally large and enthusiastic audience at St Mary in the Castle.
The evening opened in the depths of the Wolf’s Glen with the dark tones and opulent horn calls of Weber’s Overture to Der Freischutz. This set a tone for the whole performance with its almost brash and extrovert sense of engagement coupled with exemplary playing.
The orchestra was crowded very tightly onto the platform, making it difficult for Marcio da Silva to approach the rostrum, but this seemed to help the sense of ensemble and balance. This was particularly evident in the main work of the first half – Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. Roman Kosyakov made a welcome return as soloist, following his success in the 2018 HIPCC. He seemed both more engaged and fluent in his approach, willing to take the tiny risks which add to the frisson of his playing as well as captivating us with the wide range of tone he was able to produce. The opening Moderato had plenty of power and passion, with many sections hard driven but never at the expense of the overall musical development and balance. The central Adagio sostenuto was gently convincing without ever lapsing into sentimentality. If for very many of us the concerto has indelible links with the bitter-sweet Brief Encounter this is not necessarily a problem as the sensitive use of the score in the film brought the work to the attention of millions who would otherwise never have encountered it. The final Allegro scherzando was attacked with a flourish and many outbursts of florid fireworks. Magnificent. A whimsical encore followed – just the sorbet we needed. Let us hope he returns soon.
The second half brought us Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Though the piano had been moved there was still a sense of crush on the platform but this added to the excitement with a vibrancy of attack and colour throughout. Though Dvorak is picking up themes from his time in America it is fascinating how often his homeland creeps through – none more so than in the delightful central section of the third movement when we are right back in Bohemia.
Marcio da Silva’s control of his forces never flags and the immediacy of the results is always engaging and utterly convincing. Thankfully, there are still a lot of evenings to look forward to between now and the summer.