Spectrum Ensemble London

[Tim Lund]

Couple of interesting gigs coming up

Free, this Sunday, 4.30 at the Horniman



and a ticketed event, Saturday 19th April, 7.30 at St Barts



One of the clarinettists is a friend of mine, and writes:

It's a very exciting project whereby our bassoonist has discovered that she is a phenomenal arranger of obscure works! So she has arranged repertoire such as Debussy piano repertoire for wind group, (fiendishly tricky!)... Ravel string quartets and even Shostakovich 5th symphony for 16 piece wind and brass group. Who knew strings were surplus to requirements?! She also 'paints' the pieces which are lovely pieces of art work.

For more on the ensemble and what they do

http://www.spectrumensemblelondon.com

[somerandombloke]

Keith Chegwins looking good. Never knew he could play the clarinet!

[pip]

Na, Thats Ricky from Eastenders.

[Tim Lund]

Well, since one of the performers was a friend of mine, I'd not say if the concert this afternoon was rubbish - but it wasn't; it was really good. Most of the pieces were arrangements of Classic FM type favourites - Debussy Pavane pour une enfante defunte, Massanet, Thais Meditation, Mozart Piano Concerto 23 Andante, as well as some jazz inflected pieces by Schulhoff, who I'd never heard of.

I was surprised how well the sound blended - something I don't expect with wind ensembles, unless the instruments are all of the same family, as with recorders. My friend commented afterwards that the arranger - Fiona Bryan on bassoon - had a bit of a thing against oboes, which makes sense of this. I love the sound of oboes, but they cut through almost anything, so will upset the balance of other wind instruments.

So, I'm definitely going to go the concert at St Barts 18th April.