There has been so much going on that this report is going to be rather brief. Between us we got to three concerts.
My husband went to hear Winterreise in the Guildhall, performed by Roderick Williams and Roger Vignoles, which he enjoyed, although he felt that the chosen keys weren’t quite right. The interpretation moved towards the resigned rather than the despairing.
Later we went with a party of mathematicians to a generously long lunchtime concert also in the Guildhall of music for piano four hands, played by Simon Crawford-Phillip and Philip Moore (not the composer of that name). This paired Mozart’s variations K501 and Sonata K497 with Ravel’s arrangement of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Philip Moore’s own arrangement of the Firebird suite (or rather, of extracts from it). The Ravel arrangement of Debussy probably came off best. The two pianists swapped positions between pieces.
Angela Hewitt played Scarlatti, Mozart and Beethoven in the Assembly Rooms and my husband luckily got a return. There was some grumbling in the audience about her Fazioli piano, but she’s a regular here and clearly enjoys visiting.