Musée national Port-Royal des Champs

I'm extremely happy to announce the venue in which I'll be recording the Caprices.  I've recently heard from the sound engineer I'm working with (Hannelore Guittet) that it's confirmed that we will be at the Musée national Port-Royal des Champs for 3 days in late November. 

The photos of the place looks amazing and the best news is that we'll be basically living, sleeping, eating there for the whole time which makes life a lot easier in many ways. 

Concert - 1.10pm 7th of December 2010

Just a quick update.  It's just been confirmed that I'll be performing the Caprices as part of a lunch time series in Farnham later this year.

This will be part of the Music at Lunchtime series held at Farnham United Reformed Church, South Street, Farnham, Surrey.  For a map showing directions please click here.

As this concert will be after my trip to Paris and the recording it'll be interesting to see how the whole programme has "bedded" down.  The first time I played the whole set was earlier this year in April - it now seems so very long ago! It's been enjoyable keeping on coming back to the repertoire.  Bursts of activity and bursts of performances of the pieces then something completely different for a while.  For example currently I'm focussing on Schumann for a project in October (just before I go to France) and it feels a bit like weight-lifting.  I'm using a beautiful Uhlmann instrument, an original rotary horn from the 19th century.  It feels a bit "tight" at the moment ie it feels difficult to get the air through but I've got a bit of time this week to hopefully get to know it better.

A truly exciting aspect of the project is that I'm going to have a lot more time to focus on one thing.  If I include yesterday in the space of seven days I'll be playing four horns (modern Alexander 103, Raoux hand horn, Webb/Halstead baroque horn and Uhlmann rotary horn) and one of them (the Raoux) will be needed at three pitches (415, 430 and 440).  There is always a certain amount of "faff" associated with all this - even if it's only making sure you've got the right horn, in the right case, in the right place with the right bits!  So an extended period of more or less focussing on one instrument and one type of repertoire really is quite a luxury.

Other Caprices

A few weeks ago I was in Warsaw and visited the Chopin Museum.  A fascinating place, newly opened and full of so many beautiful and interesting things.  I was utterly delighted to discover the above lithograph by Lemercier there.  It features a number of famous musicians from 1832.  

Top row (left to right): Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner (pianist), Gustave Vogt (oboist), 

Middle row (left to right): Jean-Louis Tulou (flautist), Nicolas Paganini (violinist), Frederic Berr (clarinetist).  

Bottom row (left to right): Jacques-Francois Gallay (horn player),  Pierre-Marie Baillot (violinist) and Henri Herz (pianist).

Part of the reason that this was so interesting to me is that the Caprices by Gallay are so very much in the tradition of solo, virtuosic Caprices in which Paganini wrote his violin works.  And to see Gallay there as part of the same group of "virtuosi" that included Paganini seems to make this association even stronger.   As part of my project I'm very much enjoying getting to know other solo, unaccompanied repertoire for other instruments.  A few months ago I read Eric Siblin's book "The Cello Suites: J.S.Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece" which sparked off many thoughts and was full of repertoire for other instruments which I didn't know such as the Franchomme solo Cello Caprices.  I've spoken to a number of violinist colleagues about where I should start in trying to find out more about a stylistic approach to Paganini and there have been a number of recommendations including Ivry Gitlis, James Ehnes and Thomas Zehetmair.  I've been listening a lot to the Gitlis recording and the other two are on their way.  The musical language is so similar to the Gallay Caprices though I feel Gallay seems to balance the virtuosic with the lyrical more successfully.