This concert is another in our series ‘Stars of the Future’, in which we showcase younger musicians who are at the beginning of what will surely be considerable careers as performing artists. Ruiqi, Zhijing and Reynold are all outstanding students from London’s Royal College of Music and have already gained considerable experience playing as a trio. Friendships formed at university often prove to last a lifetime and there is no doubting the unusual connection between these three virtuosic young performers.
The lutenist Toby Carr is already being recognised as a remarkable talent and his first CD is currently available, a collaboration with Helen Charlston, the mezzo-soprano who gave such a wonderful performance of Schumann’s Dichterliebe for us last November. He has devised a new programme called Softest Thunder, which we will present by candlelight in St Mary’s, demanding as it does an intense and intimate atmosphere. We will also include a new version of a work of my own called The Sound of Rhubarb Growing, an essay in gentle, perfect, tiny sounds realised by all four of these remarkable musicians… This promises to be a rather unusual evening.
Richard Sisson (Chair of Luton Music)
PROGRAMME
The first half of the programme will include music for clarinet, cello & piano:
Mikhail Glinka – Trio pathétique
Richard Sisson – Breakfast Sonatina
John Ireland – Trio in D for Clarinet, Cello & Piano
INTERVAL
Softest Thunder
Francis Poulenc – Sarabande
Robert Ballard – Dances from Diverses Piesces Mises sur le Luth (1614)
Erik Satie – Première Gnossienne
***
Robert Johnson – Allmayne (the Prince’s Allmayne ‘hit it and take it’)
Daniel Bacheler – En me revenant
John Dowland – Viscount Lisle’s Galliard
Erik Satie – Deuxième Gnossienne
***
Robert Johnson – Pavan
Laura Snowden – Blue
John Dowland – Tarleton’s Resurrection
John Eccles – Aire
Richard Sisson – The Sound of Rhubarb Growing
Here is what lutenist Toby Carr has written about his chosen repertoire:
‘An Englishman has acquired a beautiful old large Bologna lute for me from France (…) the best I have ever played. In its belly is housed the softest thunder one can hear. I cannot describe it better.’ – Constantijn Huygens, 1648
Softest Thunder is a new solo lute programme uniting repertoire from the 17th century with a new commission by Laura Snowden and lute transcriptions of masterpieces of French early modernism. This seemingly disparate repertoire is carefully curated to reveal aesthetic similarities and create a luxurious listening experience.
Bringing together music spanning hundreds of years, united by a common sense of soft-edged, delicate but resonant beauty, this programme offers a unique audience experience.
ARTISTS
Reynold Yang (clarinet)
Zhijing Wu (cello)
Ruiqi Fang (piano)
Toby Carr (lute)
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