Music Chamber

Cervello is a Catalan composer whose contemporary music respects historic traditions. While at the Badalana Conservatory he authored ‘Fundamental principles of violin technique’.

 

Ian Stewart Impromptu for 2 Violins (*world premiere*)

 

Ian writese "During the composition of this work I spent many hours, at different times of day, walking along the coast near Colonia Sant Jordi, a small town in the south of Mallorca. The coastal path continually changes, beaches with people followed by small fishermen's houses, followed by deserted rocks and coves. The light and sky also changed continually. These random experiences felt consistent. Maybe this experience influenced the impromptu nature of this work, a term usually used to described a solo piano piece. The theme played in the first five bars is continually developed and transformed, and the melodic writing, although sometimes abstracted, is highly structured and organised."

 

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) Sonatine for 2 Violins

 

Honegger’s Sonatine for 2 violins was completed in 1920 and premiered by the composer and his friend Darius Milhaud, the dedicatee of the score. Lasting just under eight minutes the title of Sonatine infers a rather modest work that disguises the durability and energy of the music. In the opening movement there is an angular detachment to Honegger’s writing that also manages to maintain a certain charm and I was impressed with the level headed calmness of the Andantino. In the closing movement - marked Allegro moderato - a chill wind blows through a bleak urban landscape. The dramatic impression of the music made me shiver. Perhaps in homage to J.S. Bach a cunning little fugue appears in the central section.

 

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) Sonata for 2 Violins in C Major op 56

 

Whilst in exile in Paris from his Russian homeland Prokofiev composed his uncompromising four movement Sonata for 2 violins, Op. 56 in 1932. It was intended for the inaugural recital of Triton - a Parisian music society group who supported new chamber music in the city. Ironically the actual premiere took place in Moscow a few years later. The opening movement, an Andante has a mysterious, almost eerie highly controlled sound-world. With spiky and headstrong rhythms, the Allegro is played with an earnest enthusiasm that contrasts with the Andante which has a cool tranquillity and just a suggestion of anxiety. The finale movement - a Presto - has folksy rhythms that Prokofiev develops into a more serious and complex character.

 

Guillem Calvo began learning the violin at the age of four with Albert Sàrrias. He continued his musical studies at the Liceu Conservatori in Barcelona with Evelio Tieles and then at the Royal College of Music with violin professor Yossi Zivoni. He is currently studying with Shmuel Ashkenazy as part of the Advanced Course for Soloists at the Lübeck Musikhochschule in Germany. Guillem has toured Spain, Italy, France, Germany and England as a member of various chamber groups. He has also performed with internationally renowned conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Bertrand de Billy, and Valery Gergiev in orchestras including "Orquestra de la Òpera del Liceu", and the London Symphony Orchestra with whom he made his debut as a soloist in November 2007.

 

Kokila Gillett studied violin at: Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning the 2001 Lutine Prize; Purcell School, 1997-2002; and Royal College of Music as a Foundation Scholar, studying with Dr. Felix Andrievsky. In 2006 she gained a First Class BMus Honours Degree and won the Isolde Menges Solo Bach Prize. She joined Live Music Now in 2007; with her violin/violin-piano duos, and performs in community venues: special needs and mental health institutions, hospices, senior citizens's venues, schools and prisons. In 2008, returning to SW1 Radio, Kokila commemorated the Nightingale as muse for literature and music, featuring pianist Pavel Timojevsky and herself improvising simultaneous to the live reading of Oscar Wilde's 'The Nightingale and the Rose'. Kokila leads the Gillett Quartet, freelances with British orchestras and teaches violin.