Newbury Weekly News 110517

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Newbury Weekly News

Painting by music Newbury Spring Festival

JANE Austen was a frequent visitor to Kintbury, so St Mary’s Church in the village was the perfect place in which to enjoy an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by writer and resident Gill Hornby, narrated by actress Hayley Mills to music by Carl Davis, to mark Austen’s bicentenary. This was a reminder – if ever we needed it – that Austen is one of the world’s greatest writers and Pride and Prejudice her masterpiece. Gill Hornby has produced a sharp, clear, clever adaptation of the novel, retaining all the author’s wit and forensic social observation while moving the plot forward in a series of word and sound pictures. The text was intelligently and vivaciously read by Hayley Mills, clearly relishing Austen’s incisive characterisation and humour. We enjoyed again the stops, starts and misunderstandings of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy’s courtship (“He would lay aside his sense of her inferiority”); the glorious foolishness of Mrs Bennet; Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s hauteur, as she patronises the Bennets “for being so persistently poor”; and the oleaginous Mr Collins, one of the literary world’s greatest bores. “Mr Collins pounced. Lizzie recoiled… He was engaged to Charlotte Lucas within a week.” Composer Carl Davis has adapted and added to his celebrated score of BBC Television’s much-heralded mid-1990s production of Pride and Prejudice for this new venture. Pianist Ashley Wass and violinist Matthew Trusler, both international performers, played with panache, but, equally important, with sensitivity to the integrity of the spoken word, Wass almost imperceptibly cueing words and music together. The text was read both with and without musical accompaniment, giving colour to the production and varying its pace and feel. A technical problem with the sound balance between music and voice in the first half was happily resolved for the second. The production is touring, but will be back in Kintbury on June 24, for the Jane Austen Festival. Find out more about the Kintbury connection in Out&About magazine inside the NWN on May 25. LIN WILKINSON Austen masterwork celebrated in word and sound Newbury Spring Festival Pride & Prejudice, at St Mary’s Church, Kintbury, on Sunday, May 7

Stephen Hough, at the Corn Exchange, on Sunday, May 7 “CONTRAST and opposition”, Stephen Hough’s own words to describe the music chosen for his Spring Festival recital. Not only is he a world-class pianist, he has also had articles published by The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent . His recordings have won eight Gramophone Awards, he has performed in the world’s most famous concerts halls and, being a true 21st-century man, his performance of the Liszt Sonata was released for iPad by Touch Press in 2013. The piece, recorded by multiple cameras, allows us to view the performance from all angles and to call up the score at the touch of a button. The Economist hails Hough as one of 20 living polymaths, he has performed at the BBC Proms no fewer than 25 times and, to cap it all, he was made a CBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours. Sporting one of his trademark Mandarin-style jackets, he sat at the piano, closed his eyes and drew us gently into the world of ‘picture- painting-by-music’ with Debussy’s beautiful Clair de Lune . The auditorium fell immediately silent and so entranced were we by his mastery, you might have been forgiven for thinking he was play- ing to an empty hall, until the applause rang through the rafters after the final chord. Images (Series 2) followed and the sound of Debussy’s beautiful dissonance washed over us before Hough wowed us with the flashy Poissons d’or. Fast and furious, I now know where Scott Bradley found his inspiration for some of the fabulous Tom and Jerry cartoon incidental music. In total contrast, Schumann’s Fantasia in C major closed the first-half and Hough showed us why he is in demand the world over. Hinted shades of Beethoven’s Pathétique sonata gave us a taste of things to come in the second-half and we hurriedly ate our ice creams, not wanting to miss a thing. Images (Series 1) began with Reflets dans l’eau, one of my favourites and Debussy’s pianistic genius, once again, gave us the chance to close our eyes in order to ‘see’ the shimmering colours in the music. The third movement ( Mouvement ) allowed Hough to demonstrate his phenomenal technique in this relentless toccata-like piece. Beethoven’s Opus 57 Appassionata sonata closed the programme; a total change of mood and a demonstration of Hough’s remarkable ability to interpret the different composers’ musically diverse styles. I tweeted Stephen to tell him how much I had enjoyed his recital. He tweeted back almost straight away. Wow, a 21st- century polymath – and a really nice guy. FIONA BENNETT

DutchSwingCollege Band

Jazz with a Dutch touch PICTURE the scene; in a cellar in Nazi-occupied Holland, a group of musicians meet to play jazz. Jazz is banned and if they are caught they will be shot. On Liberation Day, in 1945, they came out and played their first public performance and the stylish trad jazz we heard in Newbury did those pioneers proud. Rag . No tired copies of American standards here: absorbing arrangements, many by Kaper, kept us entertained from the moment they arrived on stage in their neat suits to the final medley from William Tell to Way Down Yonder in New Orleans . In those last Newbury Spring Festival Dutch Swing College Band World Tour, at the Corn Exchange, on Saturday, May 6 Entertaining band brings fresh treatment to US standards

bars we drooled at the cool soprano sax of David Lukács, the third of the band’s shining new stars. His clarinet duos with Kaper and his bari sax had a superior tone. element was an extraordinary drum solo by Anton Burger. Members of the audience were amazed at its length and variety, his lightness of touch, dexterity and mesmeric performance, all delivered with the humour beloved by fans of this great band. We hope Newbury Spring Festival will not wait another 12 years before inviting this fabulous outfit back to Newbury. EILEEN CASTER vocal, aided and abetted by Mark Aston’s tart tenor sax and Rodney Mendoza’s fleet lines at the keyboard, where he chose to use an organ sound. The vocalist’s other choices were Busy Line , the novelty song made popular by Rose Murphy and A Raggy Waltz by Dave Brubeck. Together with selections by Phil Craddock, a local pianist and composer, it made for a varied musical programme. She also did well with Billy Strayhorn’s marathon torch song Lush Life with, once again, good supporting solo work from Mendoza. A final Strange Meadowlark by Dave Brubeck found her in good voice and at the end she answered questions from the audience. DEREK ANSELL We enjoyed guitarist Ton van Bergeijk’s vocals. The surprise

The band brought fresh treatment and superb solos all round to every number from Apex Blues , first recorded on 78rpm vinyl, to Tiger ...absorbing arrangements, many by Kaper, kept us entertained from the moment they arrived on stage in their neat suits to the final medley from William Tell to Way Down Yonder in New Orleans not naming them. Someone offered to title his song and he said: “Well – You Needn’t.” One record producer made the mistake of asking Monk if he’d like to name his song now “or worry later”. Guess what the title of that one became... As to Lyle though, she got around the odd contours of Monk’s spiky compositions very well. Straight received a crisp and clear Jazz Tea & Cakes concert series: Lea Lyle, Love That Jazz, at the Old Bluecoat school, Thatcham, on Sunday, May 7

First in the line-up, two familiar faces from their appearances in Marlborough and at The Mill at Sonning; genial double bass Adrie Braat, the rhythmic anchor man and powerhouse of the outfit Bob Kaper, clarinet, alto sax and vocals – musical director since the death, in 1990, of Peter Schilperoort. The youngest additions to the band bowled me over with their superb musicianship: Keesjan Hoogeboom, trumpet and vocals and Maurits Woudenberg, trombone. The latter’s solos had this amateur trombonist on the edge of her seat. His outrageous glissandi and smooth improvisations were a delight. School from the Angel, Woolhampton, where she was last seen singing in this area. She arrived with a sturdy jazz combo, which featured Mark Aston on tenor and soprano saxes and Rodney Mendoza on keyboard. Terry Davis was the bassist and John Sergeant was on drums. Resplendent in a bright silver dress, Lyle made immediate verbal contact with the audience before launching into her first selection, Straight No Chaser by Thelonious Monk. There were two other pieces by the Monk, Round Midnight , arguably his best- known composition and Well, You Needn’t . That last title came about owing to Monk’s eccentric manner of naming his compositions, or rather,

Lea Lyle ’s teatime assortment JAZZ singer Lea Lyle made the short journey to the Bluecoat

“We have just had two hampers of apples from Kintbury, and the floor of our little garret is almost covered.” Jane Austen October 1808

StephenHough

Picture: SimCanetty-Clarke