A month in classics: April
Our guest classical music picker, Huw Lewis selects some spring treats to tempt you to the concert hall this April
Good morning, good tunes and goodbye from papa Haydn
There was a time not so long ago when Joseph Haydn’s symphonies seemed to have all but vanished from the concert menu. Light and tasty as a soufflé, these 18th century delicacies didn’t fit well with the red meat of big 20th century orchestras.
Thankfully, a new generation of musicians has stripped back the string sections, let loose the modest woodwind forces and brought them back to the table.
You may have to move fast to bag tickets for Maria Włoszczowska’s all-Haydn concert on Saturday evening, (April 4) in the small hall at The Glasshouse – but get there if you can.
The radiant Sixth Symphony starts the show, the novelty 45th Symphony ends it, with the players leaving one by one as the music dwindles away.
Details and tickets here.
Schubert at his best – and there’s nothing fishy about that
Beyond his unique gift as a songwriter I struggle with Franz Schubert, the Viennese composer who lived in the huge shadow of Beethoven and died young.
To me he is too often a bit, well, stodgy – but before you scream at your screen let me concede the Trout Quintet for piano and string quartet is a fizzing spring-enthused masterpiece full of charm and humour, and you can catch it at Queen’s Hall Hexham (April 13) and Alnwick Playhouse (April 14).
The Rossetti Ensemble are the performers and they bring with them much less familiar works by the English 20th Century late romantic composers Arnold Bax and Ralph Vaughan Williams to complete the evening.
Harry Potter live – with themes hard-wired into our souls
John Williams’ score for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone must have a claim to be the best-known orchestral music written this century – hard wired into the souls of the children who grew up with it and their parents.
On Saturday, April 18 there’s the chance to see the film on the big screen at The Glasshouse with Benjamin Pope conducting the Royal Northern Sinfonia live beneath.
Take your scarf of choice.
Details and tickets here.
Its Johann Sebastian, Jim, but not as we know it…
When you’ve been part of the culture as long as the Baroque composer JS Bach (now into his fourth century of godlike status) you can expect your music to be pulled about a bit.
The Neil Crowley Trio, appearing at the Fire Station in Sunderland on Tuesday, April 21, bring a smooth, jazz-like and improvisational approach.
This is not straight re-interpretation of Bach’s famous pieces, more free inspiration, so it may not be to everyone’s taste, but Crowley brings a special charm to what he does.
Details and tickets here.
An evening of sweeping tunes to make you swoon
There are some concert programmes that just make you say, ‘Oh yes’ when you read them – the Sinfonia’s Jean Sibelius double bill on Friday, April 24, is definitely in that category.
Conductor Thomas Zehetmair kicks off with Finlandia, the fanfare come march that Sibelius wrote as a protest against Russian imperialism, and which made him an overnight national hero.
That’s followed by the Finnish composer’s Second Symphony, his grandest and considered by many his best. The cream on the cake is sandwiched in between: The irrepressible, lyrical and, in its final movement, adrenaline-packed ride which is Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. Oh Yes!
Details and tickets here.