Posts tagged: harp
Diverting Debussy-inspired trio charm a responsive audience at Lower Hutt
Te reo Maori for the numeral 3 is toru; thus ‘Toru Trio’ is a redundancy. This instrumental trio comprises harp, viola and flute, modelled on Debussy's war-time piece; all are players in Orchestra Wellington. All the pieces were composed in the last 100 years (though the Debussy himself was a couple of years outside that frame). Their arrival on stage made a striking impression: Karen Batten in a dramatic gold...Big lunchtime audience for interesting programme from professional musicians
A large audience greeted a wonderfully varied line-up of professional musicians – and of music. The opening work immediately grabbed one’s attention; Ginastera’s work was delightful and full of subtle animation. Especially notable was the floating, uprising flute part. The programme note describing its ‘gentle, romantic, quasi-impressionist harmonies’ was apt indeed. Which leads me to comment how excellent was the acknowledgement at the end of the printed programme of...Diverting harp duo recital affected by too much musical competition
This harp duo was enjoyed by all those present, but the atrocious weather and the number of other music events on in the city may have contributed to the rather small audience – approx. 40 people. The Thomas piece made a good opening work for the concert with its robust tones, demonstrating that harps are not just other-worldly instruments. The beginning could have been a hymn tune, with cheerful chords...Trombone meets harp – the intractable made enjoyable!
I suppose there must be even more outlandish combinations of pairs of musical instruments than trombone and harp playing somewhere else in the world at this very moment, though none would, I think, bring together and reconcile such profound differences more successfully than did Peter Maunder and Ingrid Bauer with their respective instruments.
Each player performed a "solo" at the programme's beginning, seeming to tease us further with... read more