A delightful performance of Beethoven’s delicious set of variations on the aria ‘Bei Mannern, welche Liebe Fuhlen’ from Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, got this varied programme off to a heart-warming start on a very cold evening, and sent out the message that the members of the audience were in for a treat. They were not to be disappointed. Australian cellist Pei Jee Ng and Taiwanese pianist Chiao-Ying Chang proved more than capable of filling the hall with stylish sounds to be enjoyed live and remembered with enjoyment.
The wit, elegance and poise of Beethoven’s approach in manipulating Mozart’s tune were obviously central to their interpretation of this music. Beethoven cannot often be accused of being light-hearted! But here he is decidedly enjoying himself with playful moments showing his appreciation of Mozart’s genius. The performance actually seemed to take the audience by surprise, for the applause suggested unexpected pleasure.
Samuel Barber’s Cello Sonata is an introvert work with much powerful melodic material for the cultured voice of a cello to sing, as well as elegant and aggressive manœuvres to execute. Pei Jee Ng found this voice and convinced us that the song was beautiful, strong and enduring. He was encouraged here, as throughout the concert, by the sensitivity and accomplishment of his collaborator at the piano, Chiao-Ying Chang.
The same can be said of Alfredo Ginastera’s PampeanaNo.2 which began the second half of this exploration of the repertory from three continents. A cadenza-like evocation of the sights and sounds of his native Argentine pampas lands, this cadenza-like music held the audience into its spell and brought an enthusiastic response at its climax.
After music with Austro-German, American and Argentine - the latter admittedly born out of the Spanish and Italian origins of Ginastera’s parents - accents, the concert ended with a fine account of the unmistakably personal César Franck Cello Sonata in A, adapted from his Violin Sonata in the same key.
Franck was born in what is now Belgium - but was then under the control of the Netherlands - and lived and worked for the most part in Paris. Whether this hybrid background explains his particular genius or not, his music certainly almost always sounds like some other and no other composer’s at the same time! Like Bruckner’s, it has elements of melodic and harmonic simplicity and sophistication so fused together by the intense, creative fire of the composer’s personality that an audience might well be left wondering whether they should be embarrassed or not by their instinctively positive response to such entrancing music. I for one think not. And so did everyone who was privileged to be present in the Heywood Civic Centre on this occasion.
Rochdale Music Society’s next concert will be on Saturday, March 24th at 7.30pm in the Heywood Civic Centre, when two musicians of international acclaim will combine to bring more fine music to the Borough of Rochdale: Leland Chen (violin) and John Lenehan (piano) will be playing works by Schubert, Debussy, Wieniawski and Gluck as well as more of the César Franck.
Graham Marshall
Friday 18 November 2011 HEYWOOD CIVIC CENTRE
YITZAK
Not quite at full strength and lacking something of their usual verve, nevertheless the Yitzak players opened up a fair amount of colourful, eastern European gipsy and klesmer musical territory to the enjoyment of those present throughout an evening choreographed cabaret style.
Saturday 01 October 2011 7.30pm HEYWOOD CIVIC CENTRE The Fujita Piano Trio
It still surprises me to discover just how in tune with 18th and 19th century European music so many of our contemporary performers from such a different background as China and Japan can be. Like the three Fujita sisters from Japan, Arisa (Violin) Honoka (cello) and Megumi (piano), who were able effortlessly to bring to the ears of a receptive audience in the Heywood Civic Centre on Saturday October 1st convincing and polished accounts of Trios by Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann as well as that of Mozart.
Mozart is all about precision and elegance. The sisters showed these in abundance throughout the three movements of this short Trio in C, which might be regarded as a light-hearted companion to his great ‘Jupiter’ Symphony in the same key and written around the same time. It provided a mouth-watering opening to an evening during which the musical possibilities of combining violin, cello and piano were well realised.
The G Minor Trio of Clara Schumann, the remarkable wife of Robert Schumann. Her work as a composer would surely have been very much more productive had she not devoted herself to supporting her husband and family of eight children by working for over 50 years as a concert pianist – one of the 19th century’s greatest. As it is, performances of her music are comparatively rare. The Fujita sisters do us all a great service by bring this essentially warm-hearted and beguiling work to our attention.
Mendelssohn, like Mozart, had but a brief life. Yet he left us a wealth of musical experiences to be enjoyed over and over again. The D minor Trio is a work filled with flowing and flowering melody in its outer movements, gently impressing in its slow lullaby-like second movement, and almost breath-taking in its mercurial scherzo. It is not the kind of masterpiece to set alongside Mendelssohn’s symphonies, Violin Concerto, Oratorios like ‘Elijah’ or the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But, as the Fujita sisters amply demonstrated by their impassioned account, it is an excellent and substantial ingredient in a Piano Trio concert.
Those present will have been captivated by the musicianship and artistic insight of the performers on this rewarding occasion. I would have to say that it was a pity that Rochdale Musical Society members and friends were not offered another 15mins or so of actual programmed music. Maybe another time? - Graham Marshall
SEASON 2010 - 11
Saturday 11 June 2011 7.30pm ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, ROCHDALE
Rochdale Music Society’s 2010-11 season came to a most satisfying conclusion on Saturday 11 June with a programme of music for Flute and/or Guitar arrangements performed in St. Andrew’s Church, Rochdale, by the accomplished musicians: Lucille Burns (Flute) and Vincent Lindsey-Clark (Guitar).
Flute and guitar duos have become a regular feature of local music societies’ concerts up and down the country in recent years. Quite apart from the fact that the performers tend to ask very reasonable fees for their work (and there is no piano to have to hire at great expense), the interplay of these instruments offers a very rewarding opportunity to explore of a wide range of delicate to rasping sounds. Much music written originally for other instruments and ensembles can be arranged to provide audiences with great artistic satisfaction when played by this combination of blown and plucked instruments.
Most of the items in the programme were arrangements of music with a definitely ‘Latin’ flavour. Examples of the Spanish composer/poet GasperSanz (1640-1710), whose pioneering music for guitar at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries has influenced composers ever since, led on through dances culled from the stage works of early twentieth century Manuel da Falla (1876-1946) to the Argentine Piazzolla (1921-92) whose monumental Histoire du Tango was the main and concluding item in the second half of the concert.
All these were brought to the audience with an obvious delight in performing them and a with commanding technique and presentation. As were also the charming Roumanian Dances of Bela Bartok (1881-1945) which followed the mysterious ‘off-stage’performance of Syrinx, a solo flute piece written by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) for behind-the-scenes performance in a theatrical production in 1913.
In the first half there had been some original pieces for guitar written by Vincent Lindsey-Clark himself. Five Pictures of Sark, the happy outcome of musical reflection on his honeymoon on that smallest of the Channel Isles, and Spiral Dance, a substantial single movement work for Flute and Guitar written only months ago and with Lucille Burns in mind, both revealed his mastery as composer as well as guitarist.
Saturday 7 May 2011 7.30pm ROCHDALE PARISH CHURCH
Graham Marshall writes:
Two world premières and new-to-Rochdale arrangements of classics enriched the musical feast served up in style in Rochdale Parish Church on 7 May by the New London Chamber Ensemble at this penultimate concert in the Rochdale Music Society’s 2010-11 season.
The ensemble members, Robert Manasse (flute), Melanie Ragge (oboe), Neyire Ashworth (clarinet), Stephen Stirling (horn) and Adam Mackenzie (bassoon) are all distinguished soloists and orchestral section leaders who come together from time to time to provide audiences with the fine fare of music in wide-ranging styles performed – sometimes choreographed – with the ultimate in technical precision and interpretive discernment.
An arrangement of one of Mozart’s pieces for barrel organ began the concert in ebullient, street-wise fashion. More delicately presented and with delicious tonal colouring, a selection of movements Ravel’s Mother Goose suite followed. Then Mozart returned in the form of his Serenade in C minor, which brought the first half of the concert to a handsome conclusion. To begin the second half the players positioned themselves among the audience in different areas of the nave as they engaged in an enchanting performance of the oddball, American street musician Moodog’s “Birds of Paradise”.
Then they seated themselves to give the first performance of my Wind Quintet (2004), which was warmly received by the attentive audience. I have to say that the performance exceeded my imagination. And I am enormously grateful to these splendid musicians for having spent the considerable time and energy needed to bring to such a colourful and vibrant surface the inner conversations in musical terms that a composer seeks to share when putting notes on paper! I found myself asking, “Did I write that?” as they moved seemingly effortlessly and convincingly through the intricate web of melodic and harmonic challenges I had presented them with!
Ending the concert with Jim Parker’s “Mississippi Five” was just the right thing to round off an evening which had given obvious pleasure to audience and players alike. This five movement suite of tributes to classic jazz features was expertly executed with each player contributing his or her moment of bravura to a total display of the most New Orléans street-wise finesse.
The last concert in this Rochdale Music Society season will take place on Saturday, June 11th in St. Andrew’s Church, Smith Street, Rochdale at 7.30pm, when the artistes will be Lucille Burns (flute) and Vincent Lindsey-Clark (guitar).
Saturday 9 April 2011 7.30pm MIDDLETON ARENA
NORTHERN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA with MARTYN JACKSON (Violin)
The Rochdale Music Society, with the most generous support of the late Doris Knowles, was able to engage the Northern Chamber Orchestra led by Nicholas Ward, and also the extremely talented violin soloist, Martyn Jackson, for a popular and well-loved programme of Beethoven’s Overture: Coriolan, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. Popular and well-loved is only half the story, as the standard of excellence for this orchestra and soloist made up the other half. The thirty members of the orchestra displayed an amazing, seemingly effortless facility to sound as one and with full command of the most exquisite expression under the leadership of Mr. Ward. It was hard to believe that he was able to achieve this precision and subtlety from his leader’s seat in the orchestra. That, of course, is the sign of a really good orchestra and one which listens well.
The young Martyn Jackson matched the orchestra’s brilliant ensemble with his own expressive and virtuosic talent. There is no doubt that the music world will hear more of this rising star. - Shirley Mitchell
Saturday 12 March 2011 7.30pm HEYWOOD CIVIC CENTRE
OPERA GALA
Enthusiasm knew no bounds for neither artistes nor audience as an Opera Gala evening organised by Rochdale Music Society got into full swing on Saturday 11 March in the Heywood Civic Centre.
From Bizet to Bernstein, Carmen to West Side Story, creaming off some of the best arias, duets and other ensembles of the musical stage and has become a much appreciated source music-making and receiving in recent years.
A joy to perform for singers of quality with an eye as well as ear for what can be sequenced in the concert hall. A delight for audiences of discernment and imagination. No stage trappings are needed to attract , or be enticed into the always exotic and frequently erratic world of emotional display that such occasions encapsulate. A richly satisfying experience is almost certainly guaranteed, without needing to have recourse to the latest display technologies.
So it was on this occasion. The members of Opera Gala, Emma Johnston (soprano), Helen Sherman (Mezzo-soprano), Richard Pollock (Tenor) and Oliver Dunn (Baritone) all put their developing voices and sense of place and purpose to full use. They were judiciously accompanied by Malcolm Forbes-Peckham (piano) in a wide-ranging programme that included favourites from Europe’s and North America’s composers covering three centuries of their most memorable productions.
Mozart, Bizet, Donizetti, Offenbach, Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Leoncavallo - all were featured in a carefully structured offering of critical and turning-point moments in the course of true love which is usually the subject of such music. Add to these the equally substantial contributions of Sullivan, Victor Herbert, Rodgers and Bernstein and you have a near perfect formula for success.
All that is needed, perhaps, on such an almost breath-taking occasion is a champagne moment, and such was provided as the singers came together to make their final item Strauss’s “Champagne Chorus” – a rousing climax to an evening that brought rapturous applause from the appreciative audience.
Rochdale Music Society’s next concert will be on Saturday, 9 April in Middleton Arena, when local, rising star violinist, Martyn Jackson, will be soloist in Mendelssohn’s ever fresh Violin Concerto with the Northern Chamber Orchestra. Tickets are available from Middleton Arena box office.
Saturday 5 February 2011 7.30pm HEYWOOD CIVIC CENTRE
ALEXANDRA DARIESCU (piano)
Impeccable technique and refined musicianship throughout characterised the playing of the young pianist, Alexandra Dariescu, who captivated the audience in the Heywood Civic Centre gathered for the first of this season’s four concerts organised by the Rochdale Music Society.
From the unusually quirky expression of Beethoven’s E flat sonata Op.31 No.3, with which the concert began, to the heights of concentrated brilliance of Chopin’s Grand Polonaise, Op.22, which brought the music-making to a breath-taking conclusion, Alexandra Dariescu demonstrated the exceptional talent that has already won her acclaim not only in her native Romania but all over Europe. Silky smooth performances of Chopin’s two Nocturnes, Op.27, his Andante Spianato and Schumann’s Abegg Variations complemented the challenging heights and depths of emotion she evoked as the invitation to join her in experiencing the delirium of Debussy’s ‘L’Isle joyeuse’ , the conflict story of the tone-poem Ballade No. 2 of Liszt and the tragic ecstasy of the Liebestod from Wagner’s ‘Tristan unde Isolde’ as transcribed by Liszt – all of which were executed with flawless precision and deeply conceived attention to inner musical details. The resulting effect was compelling in every case.
This was an occasion when those present needed no persuading to enter with the performer into that extraordinary world of kaleidoscopic delights that great music of any age or kind can provide.
Rochdalians have much to be grateful for in the provision of the Rochdale Music Society, whose next concert, a musical evening of favourite opera arias, duets and ensembles with lighter operetta and musical theatre numbers, will be given by Opera Gala on Saturday 12 March – again in the Heywood Civic Centre. Book your tickets now!
Saturday 6 November 7.30pm MIDDLETON ARENA
CHETHAM'S SCHOOL OF MUSIC BIG BANDS with JEAN TOUSSAINT (saxophone)
An almost capacity audience of enthusiasts gathered in the Middleton Arena on Saturday, November 6th for a spicy mixture of Big Band music and Jazz played by members of Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, Big Bands One and Two. The concert had been organised by Rochdale Music Society in co-operation with Link4Life, Rochdale.
Internationally acclaimed saxophonist Jean Toussaint added his personal touch of what has been called ‘liquid crystal’ sound to several of the numbers. But the accolades on this spectacular occasion of musical accomplishment must go the youngsters - each and every one of them. Under their discreetly energetic Conductor, David Iles, they showed themselves equal to the best in a long and spectacular tradition of music-making designed to thrill.
In a challenging programme that moved seemingly effortlessly through classic examples of music demanding the highest degree of concentration and collaboration between players these young musicians demonstrated, as Toussaint himself said in thanking them for their collaboration with him, that Jazz is still very much alive today and will be in the future. There could be no doubt that every instrumentalist was not only already accomplished technically at an early age, but also filled with the artistic sense that goes along with technical proficiency to produce an experience that has to be called a ‘real performance’. Each work played was addressed with such skill and understanding as left the audience enthralled by the sense of musical ambition and accomplishment.
Let’s hope this will have been only the first of many such occasions in the calendar of Rochdale Music Society , whose next concert is scheduled to take place on February 5th in the Heywood Civic Centre, when the pianist Alexandra Dariescu will be playing Music by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy.
Thursday 7 October 7.30pm ROCHDALE PARISH CHURCH
CONCERT OF MUSIC BY MEMBERS OF THE NORTH WEST COMPOSERS ASSOCIATION
The 2010-2011season of concerts presented by the Rochdale Music Society began on Thursday, October 7th with a programme illustrative of the lively mixture of styles to be encountered among the music of composers who belong to the North West ComposersAssociation. The concert of music by North West Composers revealed the good acoustic properties of the building, which lends itself perfectly to the kind of instrumental and vocal sounds enjoyed this by the attentive and appreciative audience on this first collaborative occasion bringing the RMS and NWCA together.
Piano music by Colin Bayliss (chairman of the NWCA) and David Forshaw (Secretary NWCA) was deftly played by Christopher Pulleynand the composer respectively. John Peace joined Christopher in some energetic duets by Graham Marshall (Vice-Chairman NWCA), whose ‘Five Whimsies’ were sung with great sympathy by the countertenor David Solomons and Pietà an icon for organ performed with conviction by Parish Church Master of the Music, Phlip Lowe.
David Solomons ( also a member of the NWCA ) accompanied himself on the guitar in performances of four delightfully whimsical songs of his own.
Geoffrey Kimpton(Treasurer NWCA) was the committed viola soloist in his own arrangement of a substantial and lyrical four-movement work he wrote originally for cello and piano, ‘Scope’, in which he was accompanied by John Peace.
Flautist Lesley Reading played the first movement of a Sonatina for Flute and piano by Colin Bayliss, and also joined Graham Marshall in his Haitian Lullaby with Variants for Flute and guitar, a work written earlier this year as part of a disasters’ fund-raising project by the Delian Society, an internet group of composers from all over the world. The harpsichord voicing of an electronic keyboard made a perfectly acceptable substitute for the guitar in this balanced performance.
This was the first time that Rochdale’s ancient Parish Church of St. Chad had been used as a venue for an RMS concert. A further concert in St. Chad’s is already planned for May 7th 2011, when members of the New London Chamber Ensemble will include in a varied programme the world première of local composer Graham Marshall’s Wind Quintet, ‘Moods’.
SATURDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2012 HEYWOOD CIVIC CENTRE 
Saturday 01 October 2011 7.30pm HEYWOOD CIVIC CENTRE
Rochdale Music Society’s 2010-11 season came to a most satisfying conclusion on Saturday 11 June with a programme of music for Flute and/or Guitar arrangements performed in St. Andrew’s Church, Rochdale, by the accomplished musicians: Lucille Burns (Flute) and Vincent Lindsey-Clark (Guitar).
Two world premières and new-to-Rochdale arrangements of classics enriched the musical feast served up in style in Rochdale Parish Church on 7 May by the New London Chamber Ensemble at this penultimate concert in the Rochdale Music Society’s 2010-11 season. 
The Rochdale Music Society, with the most generous support of the late Doris Knowles, was able to engage the Northern Chamber Orchestra led by Nicholas Ward, and also the extremely talented violin soloist, Martyn Jackson, for a popular and well-loved programme of Beethoven’s Overture: Coriolan, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony.
Impeccable technique and refined musicianship throughout characterised the playing of the young pianist, Alexandra Dariescu, who captivated the audience in the Heywood Civic Centre gathered for the first of this season’s four concerts organised by the Rochdale Music Society. 