St Mary's Perivale Events details

Sunday 26 January 3.00 pm

Soundscapes - A narrated concert

in memory of Paul Robertson (1952–2016)
In support of Music Mind Spirit Trust

Fenella Humphreys (violin)
Viv McLean (piano)
Anthony Pinching (narrator)

The music has been chosen for connections and affinities with Paul
– this will be apparent from the narration.

Bach: Prelude from Partita no 3 in E BWV 1006 (4')

Introduction; The Violin; The Medici String Quartet (3')

Ravel: Violin Sonata no 2: Allegretto (8')

Beethoven (2')

Beethoven: Cavatina from String Quartet Op 130 (arr. for Violin & Piano) (7')

Sir Clifford Curzon (2')

Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor Op 82 (2nd movt) (9')

The Space between the Notes (1')

Debussy: Preludes Book 1 no 6: Footprints in the snow (5')

How I was taken ill and Died (1')

Bach: Gavotte en Rondeau from Partita no 3 in BWV 1006 (3')

Interval (5')

Coma and Recovery (2')

Beethoven: Violin sonata in F Op 24 ‘Spring' : 1st movt (10')

Tavener (2')

Tavener: The Lamb (3')

Final Years (2')

Bach: Chaconne from Partita no 2 in D minor BWV 1004 (13')

Letting you go; Two Birds (2')

Janacek: In the Mists (1st movt) (4')

TS Eliot: Little Gidding v. (1')

Bach (arr. Schumann) Largo from Solo Sonata no 3 in C BWV 1005 (5')

Come along to St Mary's Perivale
or watch LIVE on YouTube or Facebook
or watch the recording on YouTube

Viv McLean suggested this narrated Charity Concert, and he and his close colleague Fenella have generously supported these performances for Music Mind Spirit Trust (MMST). This concert launches the 20th-Anniversary of MMST, a charity seeking to enrich lives & communities through music, working in close collaboration with leading scientists, medical & management experts. Founded by the late Prof Paul Robertson & Dr Chika Robertson, its award-winning crosscurricular & intergenerational programmes have engaged people from all backgrounds with families, schools & communities since 2004. The inclusive ethos generates a sense of self- & collective identity, celebrating multi-cultural and social perspectives through music and biographical stories. The charity's current focus is to support and train professional musicians, teachers, promising young singers & instrumentalists. In the British Opera Academy, MMST's unique flagship performance programme, young international professional singers are being equipped to further new career paths in Musical Leadership, Health & Wellbeing. In turn, they are mentoring and inspiring MMST's Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (Royal Academy of Music), who are learning to take music into care homes & other protected environments using MMST's tried and tested intergenerational SongTrees methodology. This afternoon's funds will support scholarships & performance opportunities through the British Opera Academy of Music Mind Spirit Trust, directed by Dr Chika Robertson & Prof Mark Ross Clark. https://musicmindspirittrust.com/donate

Fenella Humphreys, winner of the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording Award, has attracted critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her remarkable performances. With her playing described in the press as “alluring”, “unforgettable” and “a wonder”, Fenella is one of the UK's most established and versatile violinists, having also won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award. She enjoys a busy career combining chamber music with solo work, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world and is frequently broadcast on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala Radio and international radio stations. Fenella performs widely as a soloist. Her recent album of Sibelius' solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and George Vass has been featured in BBC Radio 3's Building a Library, Gramophone Magazine's Guide to the Concerto, and was Album of the Week on Scala Radio. BBC Music Magazine has written of the recording: “it takes an unusually fine artist to be able to bridge the two extremes. Fenella Humphreys's playing is a genuine revelation in the way it brings out the music's dark and introspective qualities, with no shortage of technical panache meanwhile.” Her 2024 album, Prism on Rubicon Classics was chosen as BBC Music Magazine's Instrumental Choice Album for June 2024, and Gramophone Magazine advised "when each piece moves to the next with such an organic, spell-holding flow, you're missing out if you don't listen end to end." Also released in 2024, her recording of Adrian Sutton's Violin Concerto with BBC Philharmonic and Michael Seal was chosen as BBC Music Magazine's Orchestral Choice Album, with the Strad Magazine writing “Humphreys brings her endlessly unfurling violin lines taut, silvery weightlessness.” The concerto was written for her in 2023, and premiered at the Southbank Centre with the RPO. For the launch of Apple Music Classical in April 2023, Fenella was one of a handful of artists invited to record a ‘Classical Session' at home, alongside Daniel Barenboim, Beatrice Rana and Gautier Capuçon. Fenella plays on a beautiful G.B. Guadagnini violin kindly on loan from Jonathan Sparey.

Viv McLean was described by Le Monde as "possessing the genius one finds in those that know how to forget themselves", since winning First Prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona, British pianist Viv McLean has performed in all the major venues in the UK, as well as throughout Europe, Japan, Australia & the USA. He has performed concertos with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva, Orchestra of the Swan & the Northern Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of such conductors as Daniel Harding, John Wilson, Wayne Marshall, Christopher Warren-Green, Owain Arwell Hughes, Carl Davis, Chloe Van Soederstede, Rebecca Miller & Marvin Hamlisch. Viv often plays with the Adderbury Ensemble and has also collaborated with groups such as the Leopold String Trio, Ensemble 360, the Ysaye Quartet, the Sacconi String Quartet, members of the Elias, Allegri, Carducci & Tippett Quartets, as well as with artists such as Natalie Clein, Fenella Humphreys, Daniel Hope, Lawrence Power, David Le Page, Adrian Brendel & Mary Bevan. Viv has appeared at many festivals including the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Festival des Saintes in France, Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden in Norway & Cheltenham International Festival in the UK.He has recorded for labels such as Sony, Naxos, Nimbus, Signum Classics, Lyrita, Stone Records, RPO Records & ICSM Records and has also recorded regularly for BBC Radio 3, as well as for radio in Germany, France, Australia, Norway & Poland.

Anthony Pinching is a retired clinical academic. Educated in the West Country, at Oxford University & Medical School, & Royal Postgraduate Medical School, he held posts as Senior Lecturer/Reader in Clinical Immunology at St Mary's, Professor of Immunology at St Bartholomew's, & Associate Dean for Cornwall at Peninsula Medical School. He was much involved in HIV/AIDS & chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) – including clinical care, teaching, research, & public policy, with interests in medical ethics, and in medical humanities – drama, poetry & music. For the latter, he worked closely with violinist Paul Robertson. He has a deep and long-standing interest in music. He now directs Pinner Music Festival and Music in Pinner Series, and he is Chairman of Ludlow Song (for Ludlow English Song Weekend). After retirement, he returned to writing poetry, reflecting on his witness during a diverse life. A member of Herga Poets for ten years, he is now a member of Harrow Phoenix Poets; he reads his poems at local events and has published some. He assembled the libretto for Secular Requiem for Russell Pascoe (2013 & recorded by Regent, 2022) the beginning of a productive creative partnership. This includes assembling/writing the song cycles Three Masks, One Face (Pessoa) (2015) & To be a King (Shakespeare) (2017), and A Sequence for Remembrance (2018); and writing the substantial cantata A Different Child (based on the Apocryphal Infancy Gospels) (2015) and St Eustachius Triptych (2018), as well as various anthems and carols. For Martin Bussey, he wrote the libretto for solo cantata, A Brother Abroad (2021), recording just released by Resonus Classics.

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