This was the third event in the ongoing Musica Viva concert series in the University of Plymouth’s Levinsky Hall.
The series had opened with a solo piano recital, followed by a piano and violin duo, and now a complete classical chamber ensemble, including a concertante work for piano and orchestra.
The Arts Institute and its Director of Music, Bob Taub, have been working really hard to transform the former Lecture Theater One into Levinsky Hall, ever-mindful of the building’s necessary dual function as a lecture hall during the day, and an up-to-date concert venue in the evening.
The somewhat larger Levinsky Hall, now equipped with specially-designed mobile acoustic panels, does pose a slightly greater challenge for the instrument. Taking into consideration the musical resources required for each of the three concerts so far, I would say that it is possibly at its best in the chamber music environment. It certainly held its own in the present concert, and should still remain effective in music from the early-Romantic period. Of course, momentarily playing devil’s advocate, it would be interesting to hear how a full-size Model D concert grand would cope, especially in a solo recital of music across the whole time scale.
Getting the acoustic just right, is difficult even when starting from scratch in a purpose-built venue, and will always be a matter of trial and error. Similarly the Model B Steinway Grand, that resided at the top of the nearby Sherwell Centre, benefitted substantially from the fact that the original roof of the former church, still remained in situ, thereby providing a nigh-perfect acoustic for the size and power of the instrument.
Christopher Churcher
The concert opened with a short piece by nineteen-year-old Christopher Churcher, a first-year music undergraduate at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. To celebrate the inaugural season of concerts in Levinsky Hall, Musica Viva had promoted a Composition Competition, and Christopher’s overture, entitled ‘Breakwater’ won first prize, which included a premiere performance with London-based Southbank Sinfonia, under conductor Mark Forkgen.
Bob Taub joined the Sinfonia in Beethoven’s eminently poetic Piano Concerto No 4, leaving the composer’s Seventh Symphony, one of his favourite works, to conclude a most enjoyable evening’s music-making.
Gaining a reputation
When you now hear people asking each other ‘whether they’ll be at the next concert in the Levinsky’, you know it’s gaining a reputation of being the place to be, as far as top-class classical music in the city is concerned.
And, if you’d like a sneak-preview of what’s coming next, let me enlighten you further, about the next event in the series on Saturday March 11, featuring some New Music.
Bob writes: ‘Join us for an exciting evening of works of our time performed by the translucent London-based Trio Kurtag and the premiere of a new composition commissioned by Musica Viva from David Bessell. David specialises in electronic music, and Trio Kurtag performs a wide range of repertoire ranging from Purcell to the present.
Unique promise
This promises to be a unique concert – a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in music that is being performed and heard for the first time, along with other rarely performed works.
In addition to featuring a new composition by David Bessell, the programme includes the String Trio of the Czech composer Gideon Klein, a work that he composed whilst imprisoned in Terezin concentration camp in 1944, as well as string trios by the Romanian composer George Enescu, the French composer Jean Françaix, and two remarkable Fantasias by Henry Purcell’.
Meanwhile, you can read my full review of Southbank Sinfonia’s concert here at Seen and Heard International.
top image: Southbank Sinfonia with Robert Taub (piano)
Philip R Buttall
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