Previous Concerts
The King's Flutes
held on Saturday, 26 October, 7.30pm
The Old Church, Stoke Newington Church St, N16 [venue]
Ensemble Phaedrus
International early music group Ensemble Phaedrus presented The King’s Flutes, an enchanting programme of music from the court of Henry VIII for renaissance flutes with lute and voice.
King Henry VIII's acquisition of no less than seventy-two transverse flutes shows that the flute held a place of some significance at his court. The Tudor monarchs employed members of the famous Italian Bassano family, one of the most beloved wind instrument-making families in Europe, for over 125 years. The instruments used by Ensemble Phaedrus in 'The King's Flutes' are copies of a traverso consort made by the Bassano family, now in the Accademia Filarmonica in Verona. The music they performed encompasses both the celebratory and the more intimate styles of music performed at the English court.
The Pear Tree on the Top of the Mountain
held on 23 November 2023 to a sold-out audience
at the Old Church, Stoke Newington
The Consone Quartet
Aria Prasad, recorded audio
Festival favourites, the Consone Quartet, returned with a programme of string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven. The presentation of this concert was be a little unusual, the music being framed by a creative adaptation of Virginia Woolf's short story "The String Quartet," recorded by Aria Prasad.
-
Beethoven's string quartet in F major Op. 59, No.1
-
Mozart's quartet in G major, K. 156
Les Violoncelles Réunis
held on 8 October 2023 to a sold-out audience.
at the Old Church, Stoke Newington
Henrik Persson and Kinga Gáborjáni (baroque cellos) with harpsichordist Steven Devine perform French baroque music.
-
Jean-Baptiste Barriere (1707-1747)
Sonata no 1 in A minor for cello and continue, from Book II
-
Jean-Pierre Guignon (1702-1774)
Sonata no 5 in D major for cello and continuo
-
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (1689-1755)
Sonata in D minor for two bass instruments
-
Jean-Baptiste Barriere (1707-1747)
Sonata no 3 in E minor for cello and continuo from Book II
-
Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Treizieme Concert Royaux for two bass instruments
-
Michel Corrette (1709-1795)
Sonata no 4 in B flat mjor from Les Delices de la Solitude
A LOVING HEART BY MOONLIGHT
held on 17 February 2023
at the Old Church, Stoke Newington
Jonathan Brown, baritone
Steven Devine, fortepiano
Jonathan Brown, baritone, and Steven Devine, fortepiano, gave a superb recital of late 18th and early 19th century music to a packed audience. As a gesture to St Valentine, the programme featured Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) and the famous Moonlight Sonata, alongside songs about love by Haydn and Montgeroult and solo piano works by Mozart. Steven gave wonderfully insightful introductions to the solo piano works and stunned the audience with his virtuosity on a Viennese model fortepiano, reading the music from his iPad. (Both devices require pedals!)
CONCERT FOR UKRAINE
held on 21 April 2022
at St Augustine's Church, Highbury
Our SPRING EXTRA! concert for Ukraine raised £1,927 for the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. This concert was generously supported by Michael Naik Estate Agents, who covered the venue hire, as well as making a significant donation. Publicity was kindly covered by RUDE Design.
The musicians who gave their time and talents to this event were: Emma Murphy, recorders; Zoe Shevlin, bassoon; Pavlo Beznosiuk, violin; Annette Isserlis, viola; Rachel Stott, viola d'amore; Ibrahim Aziz, viola da gamba, and Paula Chateauneuf, theorbo.
The programme included works by J S Bach, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, Biagio Marini, and arrangements of Ukrainian traditional songs by Annette Isserlis and Rachel Stott.
