Michael Collins (clarinet) and Michael McHale (piano)
It's a great privilege to welcome back these two wonderful Wigmore Hall artists, bringing their magical playing to a programme of Stanford (Sonata), Poulenc (Sonata), Finzi (Bagatelles) and a tribute to the late Joseph Horowitz (Two Majorcan Pieces/ Sonatina).
Chamber music of this prestigious quality is hard to come by outside top venues in London. We're very excited.
Tickets are just £18 in advance, and £20 on the door.
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/mkctw/michael-collins-michael-mchale/e-zayzpk
If you'd like to watch a clip of them in action, try here on YouTube.
About the programme: Michael McHale in conversation with Michael Waggett
MW: It’s a joy to have the Collins/McHale duo at King Charles!
MM: And always a joy for us too. We very much like performing in such a beautiful church with its lovely ambience and good acoustics - and always helped by the great local audience!
MW: Your thoughts when putting together this programme?
MM: We wanted to present a mix of masterworks by great composers for clarinet and piano and combine those with works that aren’t performed quite so often but which are all really fantastic pieces of music
MW: Starting with eminent composer Charles Villiers Stanford
MM: Stanford was born in Dublin. He went on to become a titan of Anglican church music and a leading figure in British music and education with positions at Cambridge and the RCM in London. His students included Vaughan Williams, Howells, Bliss and Holst. Though his chamber music is influenced by Brahms he never forgot his Irish roots, as is evident in the sonata’s second movement which evokes an Irish lament and is subtitled “Caoine”.
MW: Next that great sonata for clarinet and piano by Poulenc
MM: This sonata is one of the finest in the repertoire, full of Poulenc’s sparkling and witty melodic writing in the outer movements, and deeply lyrical and touching in the central Romanza. It is always a joy for us to perform this work!
MW: After the interval you are playing the five bagatelles by Finzi in honour of a much loved mayor of Tunbridge Wells, the late Julian Stanyer, whose widow Annie will be with us.
MM: We both remember vividly our concert to celebrate the Twinning anniversary in 2019 and, having been unavailable last year, Michael Collins would like to remember Julian on this first anniversary of his passing by playing one of Julian‘s favourite pieces of music.
MW: The concert concludes with Joseph Horowitz and his Two Majorcan Pieces and Sonatina
MM: We wanted to pay a tribute to Joseph Horowitz, who died earlier this year aged 95. He had an incredible life, fleeing Vienna with his family as an Austrian Jew in 1938 and emigrating to England where he worked for decades at the RCM. It was there that Michael Collins met him as a teenage student in his theory class, and he would often come along to our recitals at Wigmore Hall – a truly lovely man and a supremely talented composer.
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