Sunday 19 July 4 pm (please note time)
Fenella Humphreys (violin)
Viv McLean (piano)
Jessica Duchen (narrator)
Ghost Variations: The Strange History of Jelly d'Arányi
Jelly d'Arányi (1893-1966) was one of the greatest violinists of her day, her charismatic intensity inspiring new works from Bartók, Ravel, Elgar and many more. The great-niece of the legendary Joseph Joachim, friend and inspiration to Brahms, she was born in Budapest but spent most of her life and career in Britain before World War II. She is inextricably associated with Ravel's Tzigane - but also with the Schumann Violin Concerto. In 1933 she received a message via a Ouija board supposedly from the spirit of Robert Schumann, asking her to find and play this long-suppressed work. Ultimately her quest escalated into a race to the premiere between her, Yehudi Menuhin and the Nazis, reaching the highest echelons of the British government and the Third Reich and becoming the strangest detective story in the history of music.
In a dazzling mix of narration and music, based on Jessica Duchen's novel ‘Ghost Variations', every piece has been selected for its associations with d'Arányi and her circle - and of course part of the Schumann itself.
Works to include
Schumann: Geistervariationen – Theme [piano solo]
Bartók : Romanian Folk Dances
Gluck : Dance of the Blessed Spirits
Frederick Septimus Kelly : Serenade Op. 7 – Gigue
Brahms arr. Joachim : Hungarian Dance No.2
Ravel: Tzigane
Elgar : Salut d'amour
Schumann: Violin Concerto – second movement;
Schumann: Geistervariationen – Theme (reprise) [piano solo]
Come along to St Mary's Perivale
or watch LIVE on YouTube or Facebook
or watch the recording on YouTube
Fenella Humphreys, winner of BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2025, 2023 and 2018, has attracted critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her remarkable performances. She performs widely as a soloist. Her recent album of Sibelius' solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales has been featured in BBC Radio 3's Building a Library and Gramophone Magazine's Guide to the Concerto. BBC Music Magazine wrote of the recording: “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.” 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 Chandos recording of Adrian Sutton's Violin Concerto with BBC Philharmonic and Michael Seal won BBC Music Magazine's 2025 Premiere Award, 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. Artist in Residence at Wigmore Hall for the 2025/6 season, Fenella has been enjoying premieres of new works by Sally Beamish, Tom Coult, Stephen McNeff and Anna Berg as well as performances with orchestras including CBSO and London Mozart Players.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.
Jessica Duchen is a music critic, author and librettist. Her latest book, the biography Myra Hess – National Treasure (Kahn & Averill 2025), won the Presto Music Book of the Year Award and was praised as ‘magnificent' by The Spectator. She contributes to The Times and Sunday Times, the I News and BBC Music Magazine, among others. Her earlier books include seven novels on music-related topics, among them Ghost Variations , about the violinist Jelly d'Arányi and the unearthing of the Schumann Violin Concerto. She has created and presented many narrated concerts with musicians including Viv McLean, Fenella Humphreys, David le Page, Philippe Graffin and Steven Devine. Performances have taken place at Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, The Glasshouse and festivals across Britain, France and Australia. Her librettos include Silver Birch and Dalia for the composer Roxanna Panufnik at Garsington Opera, as well as two for Garsington Youth Opera, The Happy Princess with Paul Fincham and The Selfish Giant with John Barber. Jessica's work with Panufnik has also included a song cycle and several large-scale choral works: Across the Line of Dreams was commissioned by Marin Alsop and performed in Baltimore, Sao Paolo and the Ravinia Festival.
‘ Jessica Duchen has demonstrated that she, like her heroine [Myra Hess] , is a jewel in the crown of the British music scene' ( CD Choice ).
PLEASE DONATE to support our musicians and maintain our beautiful church
We receive no external funding and all our team are unpaid volunteers.
Thank you for your support.
We photograph, livestream and record every concert at St Mary's Perivale.
You may be identifiable in some of the images and, by attending our concerts, you are giving your consent to this. Please don't film the performance on your phone. This is distracting for both the musicians and audience. Thank you.
Events
Home | Events Archive | Musicians | History | Pictures | ideo | Friends | Contact Us
Search