{"id":462,"date":"2018-03-15T07:03:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T07:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=462"},"modified":"2018-05-11T07:39:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-11T07:39:00","slug":"martin-widden-red-pilling-the-music-industry-one-concert-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/martin-widden-red-pilling-the-music-industry-one-concert-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"MARTIN WIDDEN: \u2018RED PILLING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, ONE CONCERT AT A TIME\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review: Kathryn Stott<\/span><\/p>\n

It is often asserted that the sound of a violin improves in a period when it is being played quite intensively. And not only the violin – similar claims are made for other stringed instruments. Such claims are widely believed by musicians, but although careful scientific tests have been done to examine the truth of them, unfortunately no one has managed to prove that such improvements actually occur.<\/span><\/p>\n

A piano is a very different case, because every piano is a complex mechanism, which could suffer if it is not given some exercise. The University’s Steinway concert grand, which sits silent in the corner of the Great Hall more than 99% of the time, could undoubtedly benefit from being played more.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Steinway was given plenty of exercise at the recital given on 1 March by the pianist Kathryn Stott. The three Danzas Argentinas by Ginastera (1916-1983) are percussive and highly original compositions, written by Argentina’s foremost composer when he was aged only 20 – the pianist clearly enjoyed playing these exuberant pieces. Another test for both pianist and the Steinway was provided by Percy Grainger’s arrangement of the love-duet between Sophie and Octavian, from Der Rosenkavalier, by Richard Strauss. As the programme note said, Grainger particularly admired Strauss’s music for its ‘sumptuous vulgarity’: there is no way to perform this music without luxuriating in this, and Kathryn Stott did so.<\/span><\/p>\n

To prepare the audience’s palate for these excesses, she opened each half of her concert with two arrangements of works by Bach, the Siciliano arranged by Wilhelm Kempff from the second lute sonata, and the cantata Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, arranged by Myra Hess. These pieces are very far from vulgar, and Kathryn Stott played them excellently, demonstrating both her own versatility and that of the piano.<\/span><\/p>\n

The arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring had been played by Hess herself in London’s National Gallery on 10 October 1939 in the first of the long series of lunchtime recitals she curated every weekday without fail throughout the Second World War, and beyond – a total of almost 2000 concerts spanning a period of more than six years. She was supported in this by Kenneth Clark, the then Director of the Gallery, and was created DBE by King George VI for her contribution to maintaining the morale of the people of London during the War. Incidentally, those concerts were very informal. There was no advance booking, and audience members were free to walk in and out as they pleased between movements, or indeed to stroll around, lean against the walls, or sit on the floor. And why not?<\/span><\/p>\n

Contributed by Martin Widden.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review: Kathryn Stott It is often asserted that the sound of a violin improves in a period when it is being played quite intensively. And not only the violin – similar claims are made for other stringed instruments. Such claims … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[65,263,262,264,63],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contributed-article","category-review","tag-classical-music","tag-concert","tag-issue-175","tag-kathryn-stott","tag-martin-widden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-7s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":957,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/04\/02\/an-exceptional-piano-recital\/","url_meta":{"origin":462,"position":0},"title":"AN EXCEPTIONAL PIANO RECITAL","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 2 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Review by Martin Widden Some years ago, with help from the Friends of the Lancaster Concerts, the University bought a new Steinway concert grand piano for the Great Hall. Our old Steinway had reached the stage where good pianists were complaining about the state of it, and seemed quite likely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":861,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/martin-widden-wielding-his-pen-like-a-knife-to-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":462,"position":1},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘WIELDING HIS PEN LIKE A KNIFE TO THE HEART’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 17 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Leeds Piano Competition Winner gives first-class recital The Great Hall concert on Thursday 1 November was a solo piano recital by Anna Tsybuleva, winner of the 2015 Leeds Piano Competition. The Leeds competition has become, in its short life of just over 50 years, one of the world's foremost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/02\/19\/widdens-review-piano-quartet-concert-in-the-great-hall\/","url_meta":{"origin":462,"position":2},"title":"WIDDEN’S REVIEW – PIANO QUARTET CONCERT IN THE GREAT HALL","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Martin Widden This concert on 30 January 2020 was given by a quartet of violin, viola, cello and piano - a fairly unusual combination, because the modern concert grand can easily drown out the three strings. But Mozart, that brilliant pioneer in all things musical, wrote three works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/martin-widden-the-man-with-the-golden-ears\/","url_meta":{"origin":462,"position":3},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: \u2018THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN EARS’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Kabantu at the Nuffield Five young musicians in line across the stage of the Nuffield, one of them squatting over a bongo drum. This was Kabantu, the Manchester-based band that played in the Lancaster Arts Concert Series on 17 February. As well as the drum, the line-up consisted of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":540,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/10\/martin-widden-snowflake-musician-melter\/","url_meta":{"origin":462,"position":4},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘SNOWFLAKE MUSICIAN MELTER’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 10 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Debussy 100 The present year, 2018, is being observed as the centenary of Debussy's death right across the musical world. Why the fuss about Debussy? Debussy's music is unlike that of any previous composer. Indeed, the music critic Paul Griffiths has written that 'if modern music may be said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":157,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/martin-widden-he-pulls-no-punches-and-tells-it-like-it-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":462,"position":5},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘HE PULLS NO PUNCHES, AND TELLS IT LIKE IT IS’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Scarlatti and Cage in the Great Hall Domenico Scarlatti (born Naples in 1685, and so an exact contemporary of J S Bach) wrote over 500 sonatas for harpsichord, nearly all of them short and in just one movement of simple AABB form - two halves, each of them repeated.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}