Even Stephens

Steve Corke and Stephen Page at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Hollington  Saturday 23rd September 2017

St John’s Church Hollington welcomed an audience of over a hundred to a captivating evening presented by Steve Corke, a leading member of the Hastleons, and Stephen Page, well known local organist and pianist. Their followers came with high expectations and were not disappointed.

“On with the Show…”   opened with a rousing organ medley including There’s no Business like Show Business, and I do like to be beside the Seaside.  Stephen continued with Bach’s Toccata in D minor, thus introducing us to the versatility of the organ, which was further demonstrated by John Addison’s A Bridge too Far. By contrast, Stephen played the church’s digital piano for Monti’s dance Czardas, familiar even if one couldn’t name it!  The evocative Dream of Olwen, and Shostakovich’s popular Romance followed, and Stephen’s dexterity in Billy Joel’s Root Beer Rag dazzled us all!

Steve’s voice delighted, moved, and amused by turns, and his sensitive characterisation transported us into the contrasting worlds of the musicals. We experienced the fairground, the Opera, the French Revolution, and the Cold War. We enjoyed favourites like This Nearly was Mine, Anthem, Stars and The Impossible Dream, indulged our nostalgia with For Once in my Life, and remembered less familiar shows like The Fantasticks.

There were engaging surprises! Reminiscent of Just William, the pair gave a hilarious rendition of Terry Scott’s My Brother (“Who put fireworks in the coal? Who put a real live toad-in-the-‘ole?)  During Godspell’s pacey but thought-provoking All for the Best, Stephen left the piano to sing with Steve, and the instrument continued apparently playing itself!

Steve and Stephen’s infectious enthusiasm and relaxed enjoyment of performing together, suggested years of experience, though this was their first full-length collaboration since schooldays. The appreciative audience clearly hoped the duo would continue, and that St John’s Hollington would develop as a concert venue.

Donations were earmarked for church roof repairs.   As this work will soon start, the organ recital by Stephen Page at 3.00 pm on October 14th, will now take place at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Parkstone Road, TN34 2NT.  Hope to see you there!

Chris Edwards

 

Musicians of All Saints

Southover Church, Lewes, Saturday 23 September 2017

As a contemporary composer, Peter Copley has a wonderful knack of creating music which is immediately accessible and yet has hidden depths which demand to be explored. His most recent composition – a double concerto for two violins and strings – was given its premiere performance at the start of the Musicians of All Saints new season, alongside works by Elgar, Holst and Mozart, and I have no hesitation in saying it was perfectly at home in this company.

Before the concert commenced he spoke about his approach to the work and in particular his interest in the baroque. While many composers have used earlier music as a basis for their own compositions there is always the danger of pastiche. Peter Copley avoids this by using the structures, one might say the grammar, of the baroque while applying to it a contemporary vocabulary. Skimming the score visually, it could be by Couperin, Bach or Purcell, but a closer look reveals a more challenging harmonic structure and melodic lines which could only have been written since the late twentieth century. The frisson was telling and superbly caught by the two solo violinists, Jenny Sacha and Laura Stanford, who threw themselves into the whirlpool of sound which emerges from the outer movements. Between these is a superb Largo, its faint hints of the Bach double violin concerto just there in the background while the melodic overtones seem to lean towards Rachmaninov. In so many ways it should not work – but it really does.

I very much hope to hear it again soon – and better still that others will be encouraged to take it up, to the profound enjoyment of both players and audience.

Conducting the Musicians of All Saints, Andrew Sherwood had put together a well-balanced programme opening with Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, with its hushed, translucent slow movement gently filling the church with its warmth. Holst is to be the featured composer throughout this series, with lesser known chamber works in every concert. The first brought us the more familiar St Paul’s Suite which seemed almost too loud after the Elgar but also brought some very well judged crescendos and changes in dynamic impact.

Mozart’s Divertimento in F major K138 was the only work which seemed slightly out of place amidst all the English music surrounding it. If the slow movement had an over-serious intensity, the finale smiled on us. This was a splendid start in a very fine venue.

The next concert in the series is on Saturday 11 November in St Michael’s, Lewes, with works by Holst, Mozart, Dvorak and Haydn.