01/07/2024
The GREAT COMP MUSIC FESTIVAL
kicked off on Saturday night with the fabulous Ferio Saxophone Quartet who delighted a full house with a wonderfully varied programme.
The foursome opened with Iain Farrington’s exquisite arrangements of well-loved works by Bach and Handel, moving on to selections from a lesser-known piece by Hugo Reinhart, written specifically for four saxophones. They wound up the first half with their take on Elgar’s Serenade for Strings which (once this audience member got over her inherent string bias) delivered moments of unadulterated acoustic bliss…
And then, outside, for a breath of summer evening air, with a glass of bubbles and a little pot of delicious artisanal Taywell ice cream. It was a welcome opportunity to have a quick catch-up with friendly faces from last concert season before taking our seats for the second half of the evening’s musical delights.
The quartet treated us first to a lively rendition of a suite arranged from Bernstein’s West Side Story. Those snazzy, jazzy mixed metres and mad modulations infused with all the requisite joy and humour had the audience whooping! Next, we were privileged to hear the Ferio’s first public performance of excerpts from an amazing new work by saxophonist Josie Simmons, based on Irish folk tunes. This really showcased the technical prowess of each member of the quartet and made me, for one, really keen to find out more about this composer and hear the work in its entirety. (Something for Nigel to consider for next concert series perhaps? I believe she has her own quartet..!)
Our artistes du soir came back to great applause and performed an absolute banger of an encore called Hoedown- a wild and wonderful end to super-saxy evening!
NEXT SATURDAY
Is going to be very special. There are still a few tickets available to hear the Marmen Quartet “explore the intriguing sound worlds of Takemitsu and Debussy” followed by Beethovens (middle quartet of the Middle Quartets) No. 8 in E minor. The Takemitsu work A Way A Lone is reason enough to make sure you don’t miss this performance. It is a wonderous, watery work written in 1981, when Takemitsu was evolving his “sea of tonality” and if that sounds intriguing… it really is. A brief Google is liable to send one down a Tōru Takemitsu rabbit hole- fascinating stuff. He refers to Debussy as his “great mentor”, often expressing his indebtedness to the French composer, so it is exciting to have these two greats performed alongside each other, especially in the intimate setting of the Great Comp venue. Try all you can to grab a ticket while there still are a few, so as not to miss this rare opportunity.
See you at the Great Comp Music Festival!
