Thursday 9th November 2023, 7.30pm
St. Michael & All Angels, Pond Road, Blackheath SE3 9JL
Thursday 9th November 2023, 7.30pm
St. Michael & All Angels, Pond Road, Blackheath SE3 9JL
Celebrate LIFEM’s 50th anniversary!
Join us for a gala recital by harpsichordist Jane Chapman performing works by Bach, Rameau, Handel, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Louis Couperin, Froberger, Frescobaldi, Royer and Purcell.
Tears No More by Roxanna Panufnik, inspired by and constructed around William Byrd's arrangement of John Dowland's 'Pavana Lachrymae', will receive its world premiere.
Equally passionate about baroque and contemporary music, Jane Chapman has collaborated with ground-breaking composers, artists and dancers, working with musicians from the worlds of Indian music, jazz, the avant-garde and HIP. She is Professor of Harpsichord at the Royal College of Music.
Jane’s recordings of 18th-century English music, The Lady's Banquet, and of the 17th-century French Bauyn Manuscript, offered the first extensive overviews of important sources previously unexplored on disc. Her CD of transcriptions of Indian music from 1789, the Oriental Miscellany, was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik, as was her recording of Berio’s Rounds. Described in The Independent on Sunday as ‘Britain’s most progressive harpsichordist’ Jane has premiered more than 200 solo, chamber and electroacoustic pieces, and pioneered the first disc of electroacoustic works for harpsichord by British composers – WIRED (NMC). Recent releases include Zoji with electric guitarist Mark Wingfield and Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale.
Performed on a Taskin harpsichord with its rich timbre, this gala programme explores the vast repertory of contrasting harpsichord music. La Volta by William Byrd was most likely composed for virginals and Roxanna Panufnik’s new work inspired by Byrd’s Pavana Lachrymae is conceived for the double manual harpsichord with all its colourful registration.
Vocal music and song is a central theme, from Roxanna’s take on Dowland’s Flow, my tears to Hindustani Airs – evocative transcriptions of Indian songs first published in Calcutta for harpsichord in 1789. Babell’s arrangement of Vo far guerra from Handel’s opera Rinaldo was performed in London by Signora Pilotti who is referred to in the score, and reimagines Handel himself improvising at the harpsichord.
Byrd, birds and Bird all come into play with the delicacy of the lovelorn nightingale by François Couperin and energy and humour of Rameau’s La Poule with the actual sound of the chicken getting the piece underway – co co co co co coco dai. Purcell’s Chacone has an extraordinarily catchy bass line and was most likely played on a spinet.
Fantasy and expressive freedom comes to the fore in early keyboard toccatas, and unmeasured preludes by Frescobaldi and Froberger and JS Bach's daring Chromatic Fantasy.
Jane Chapman, harpsichord