Review: Steven Joseph Hickey at The Capstone Theatre, 17th Feb 2012

Steven Joseph  HickeyBack in 2010 Liverpool Guitar Society were making plans for a showcase performance of Society players and ensembles at the Capstone Theatre that May. Amongst the various ideas being discussed was the notion of inviting a special player along to play, a Liverpudlian we knew from performances at the Royal Northern College lunchtime concerts, namely Steven Joseph Hickey. Preliminary discussions began but the idea was shelved when we realised that the date of our concert coincided with a Steve Reich event at the RNCM with the composer himself present and amongst the pieces being performed was Reich’s multilayed piece for guitar and backing tape, Electric Counterpoint by a certain Steven Joseph Hickey.

So cut to nine months later and after discussing the idea of a gig with Steven at a performance of his at Manchester Guitar Circle, and discussions with Hope Univeristy, LGS were able to promote a concert for Steven at the Capstone Theatre with a support set supplied by ensembles from Liverpool Guitar Society.

The Liverpool Guitar Society’s ensembles played for 30 minutes or so with two full ‘guitar orchestra’ pieces top and tailing the set – the opening Sabre Dance by Khatachurian and the finale being Handel’s Passacaglia – both arranged by our Musical Director Richard Harding. Despite the excellent acoustics of the venue, we’re still struggling to get good positioning of 12 guitarists so that each player can hear all parts (ideas welcome!). Better were the performances of selections from Praetorius’ Terpsichore – a ‘renaissance classic’. 5 short pieces were performed across two quartets. Given that for some of the players this was their first concert within a ‘proper theatre’ these were performed very well. The reminder of the set featured an arrangement of a J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue by Stanley Yates; Andrew York’s ‘Lotus Eaters’ previously performed by the amazing Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and our own arrangment of Metallica’s One – as Richard pointed out in the introduction, “there simply isn’t enough heavy metal at classical music concerts”.

Liverpool Guitar Society Full Ensemble

Liverpool Guitar Society Full Ensemble

Video links of Liverpool Guitar Ensemble’s performances:

Sabre Dance – Khatachurian | Terpsichore – Galliardes and Bransle Double | Prelude & Fugue – Bach | Lotus Eaters – Andrew York | One – Metallica

The headliner,Steven Joseph Hickey, then took to the stage. He announced in his introduction, this was to be his first concert in his home town of Liverpool, adding that his first ever guitar teacher was in the audience to see him, and this would be the first time he has ever seen Steven perform! Both events long overdue suggested Steven.

He opened with La Catedral, Augustine Barrios’ tribute to Bach which Steven played with very nice tonal variation. The exceptional sound quality of the 2010 Lattice Stephen Hill guitar (borrowed from his friend Manus Noble whilst his own is being built) became immediately apparent in the moden venue of the Capstone. Steven’s use of harmonics rang brilliantly clear and dynamic changes were pronounced and used to excellent effect.

Next up was Quatre Pieces pour la Guitare by twentieth century English composer Lennox Berkeley. I was not aware of these pieces in the classical guitar repertoire and as Steven introduced them as being written in 1928 for Andrés Segovia by Berkeley, who was at that time only twenty five. Apparently Segovia never peformed them and in fact they were not discovered until after the famous guitarist’s death amongst his papers in 2001.

The four pieces comprise of about 10 minutes of music in total and were reminiscent of pre-war neo classical works. I have subsequently read Berkeley was greatly influenced by Ravel and taught by Nadia Boulanger which comes across in further listening to this collection with its very French feel. Again, use of differing tones Steven really brought the pieces to life

Railroad by Gary Ryan was something of a very pleasant surprise. Contemporary guitarist and composer, and at times Steven’s teacher, Ryan is not a household name but on the evidence of this piece should be. Railroad is from a collection of pieces inspired by North America. This one has a ‘cowboy music’ feel. Full of Copeland-esque effects with tuneful melodies accompanied by harmonic effects from the blues and country and western genres rarely heard in classical guitar recitals. This was a superb lyrical piece, extremely listenable and played with assured confidence by Steven. I got the feeling that this was many people’s favourite of the evening and it showed good programming judgement of Steven to include it in what was a extremely diverse programme from a style perspective but not at all incongruous.

Following the break Steven and the Liverpool Guitar Society performed Contingency Music, written by our Musical Director Richard Harding. The piece is improvisation in nature, in which each guitarist chooses which phrase to play and when. As the pieces overlap a shifting sound landscape emerges. It was good to do a piece together with Steven as a celebration of this successful collaberation (though unfortunately the video was cropped too tight to capture him onstage)

The final piece of the programme was Electric Counterpoint. I wasn’t quite sure how this personal favourite of mine would come across in a live environment. I was not disappointed. The way the score has been created, and the projection Steven acheives from his guitar, meant that the solos line really stood out. The juxtaposition of Pat Metheny’s recorded backing on electric guitars and the audiences position quite near to performer in the Capstone gives a different feel to the piece from the recordings I’m familiar with (most notably Metheny’s and David Tanenbaum’s). Steven’s concentration throughout was very evident and required to keep in time rhythmically. He got the feel of then dance-like syncopations spot on.

The crowd called him back for an encore in which he treated us a great rendition of the Prelude from Suite BWV998 by J.S. Bach

The classical guitar is a strange instrument. Seemingly very popular if Classic FM and It’s work with Craig Ogden are anything to go by. Barely an hour goes by without at least one guitar piece included on the radio station. And yet, because of the instrument’s perceived weakness of repertoire , concerts are hard to promote, and rarely generate huge audiences outside of the biggest names and the ubiquitous Rodrigo concerto. For those appreciating superb musicianship it is their loss. We were very proud to have put on an event and to promote a young musician so comfortable in his delivery of the pieces and confident in his introductions. We hope Steven can go far as a performer, not an easy task with so many guitarsts competing. We would like to thank him for agreeing to our ensemble’s appearing on the bill, for the Master Class he gave to the Society the following day and we look forward to hopefully working together again in the future.

Katona Twins Become Liverpool Guitar Society Patrons

It is with great pleasure that we can announce that the Katona Twins have become the patrons of the Liverpool Guitar Society.

The twins have given recitals in the major concert venues throughout the world including performances at the Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo,and the Philharmonie in Cologne.

In 2009, as the soloists of the “Night of the Proms” they performed live to half a million people in arenas across Europe, and have won over ten international prizes at major competitions in New York, London, Germany, France and Hungary.

The wide repertoire of the duo spans from Bach, Piazzolla’s tango music to their own arrangements of pop classics. Their programmes also include concertos for two guitars and orchestra by Rodrigo, Vivaldi, Piazzolla and Tedesco. Several contemporary composers have written for and dedicated works to the Katona Twins.

The duo studied in Budapest, Frankfurt and in London. They have been invited on numerous occasions to record for the BBC and other international television and radio stations and have numerous CD releases to their name.

It is a great honour for us to have Peter and Zoltan, such distinguished virtuosi, behind us in our continuing quest to bring the classical guitar to new players and audiences across the region.  In the coming months we will be liaising with them to bring guitar articles and news to the website, and we are hopeful that the due will come and show the members of the society a thing or two about the skills needed to play in ensemble. You may even see them at our next concert on 17th February at the Capstone.

Peter Katona had this to say about the society: “Just five years ago, we were invited to play a concert for the University of Liverpool. We were also asked to give a masterclass, which we were very much looking forward to as we thought we would meet some of the city’s classical guitarists. There were 6 players: three electric guitarists, two steel string acoustic guitarists and only one classical player. Therefore it was a great surprise when a student of mine told me about the newly formed Liverpool Guitar Society last year. A great development we thought and we were even happier when we were recently asked to become patrons. We feel truly honoured to be chosen and hope that this society will flourish in the years to come.

If you have never seen the twins play live, take the opportunity to catch them this year at St.Georges Hall in June.

Liverpool Guitar Society FREE Concert at Liverpool’s Sefton Park Palmhouse 12/02/12 2pm!

Liverpool Palm House

Liverpool Palm House

We are pleased to announce that members of Liverpool Guitar Society will perform solos, guitar quartets and as a full guitar orchestra at Sefton Park’s Palm House in Liverpool on Sunday the 12th of February from 2pm.

http://www.palmhouse.org.uk/whats-on.php

The performance will span 2 hours with an interval and will feature pieces by soloists and the Liverpool Guitar Society Ensemble.

A wide range of classical guitar standards will be performed, with music ranging from the rennaisace, with a Lute performance of a John Downland piece, through to the Spanish classics of Sor, Tarrega, Granados, Albeniz. In addition Liverpool Guitar Society’s Ensemble will play arrangments of Praetorius; Bach; Handel; Debussy; Khatachurian; and Metallica!

Admission is free and refreshments will be on sale.

Recently refurbished, Sefton Park is one of Liverpool’s finest attractions, wandering around Sefotn Park is a great way to spend an afternoon. With its fabulous cast iron and glass-panelled Victorian architecture and amazing collection of plants from around the world, the Palm House is a place of great calm and tranquility. Please pop down and enjoy this fantasic environment supplemented with the ambience of classical guitars :)

Save Pacific Road

As Merseysiders in general may know, and Wirralites will certainly know, the Pacific Road Arts centre in Birkenhead is now closed with the council putting the building up for sale. This has been (and still is in many opinions) a great venue, which has hosted a variety of acts large and small. It’s certainly been one of the major venues used during the hosting of the International Guitar festival and is the only venue of its type in the Birkenhead area. It’s unlikely that a buyer will be found that will want to keep it as a performing arts site.

There is more information on this facebook page. If you want to show your support for the venue, and let the council know that you feel it should be retained as a great performance venue, then sign the ePetition here. You do have to register to prove you’re a real person, but the process takes 2 minutes max.

Review: Xuefei Yang at Pacific Road (27 Nov 2011)

Xuefei Yang

The final event of the 2011 International Guitar festival heralded a return to Merseyside of Xuefei Yang, the Beijing-born classical guitarist.  She has had many-a-concert in Liverpool but this is her first visit to Birkenhead.

Fei’s programme was an all-Spanish affair (with a little Leo Brouwer thrown in for good measure).  So often, classical programmes are a mix of styles from various eras, with the player trying out some lesser known composers or pieces to see how they work out, and it makes me wonder if the Spanish pieces are sometimes thrown in to give the audience something to recognise.  Here, though, was a programme dedicated to a celebration of some of the great Spanish composers.  Tarrega, Albeniz, Malats, De Falla, Sainz De La Maza and Rodrigo formed the basis for the performance.

Two pieces from Franciso Tarrega were performed.  The first one, opening the show, was the Fantasy on Themes from La Traviata; seven minutes of evocation straight into the heart of Spain to get us in the mood for the programme.  This piece is a beautiful demonstration of the techniques needed to play Tarrega music, notably the motion-blurred speed of the right hand (for right handers) which Fei demonstrates with apparent ease time and time again.

Following the Albeniz suite (see below) Fei went on to play the second Tarrega piece, the madness that is the Variations on the Carnival of Venice.  If you’ve never heard or seen this, I suggest you follow the link.  It is a circus of Tarrega technique that will, I’m sure, amaze and astound.  It was great to see this played beautifully and expertly before our very eyes by Fei.

It’s very easy to forget that Isaac Albeniz was a talented pianist and composer for piano.  When heard on CD, the notes of Albeniz’s music arranged for guitar flow out of one’s speakers like water flowing down a babbling brook, with areas of turbulence throwing out little swirling eddys between other areas of smooth calm.  The music is so quintessentially the sound of the Spanish guitar that it is hard to imagine it even being played on another instrument let alone it being originally composed for one!  But even this pales ino insignificance when the same music is played before your very eyes and ears by one so talented as Fei.  Her deft touch extracts every ounce of emotion from the pieces in a way that is quite breathtaking. Only the keen-eyed amateur guitarist would note the dropped D tuning and those tendon-wrenching counter melodies and think “hang on, what sadist would write guitar music like this?”…answer: Albeniz, on his piano.

Fei played the Suite Espana – Seis Hojas de Album Op.165 (not to be confused with the Suite Espanola Op.47) consisting of:-

Preludio
Tango
Manageuna
Serenata
Capricho Catalan
Zortzico

Type any of the the above composers names into Google and you’ll get a Wikipedia hit somewhere near the top.  All except Joaquin Malats.  There is an entry on the Spanish Wikipedia site which I could translate but, alas, my Spanish is trés…er…baddio?  In fact, the recurring hits you will find are the freely downloadable score for Fei’s next piece, the Serenata Espanola.  Malats was another virtuoso pianist and composer and, in fact, Albeniz wrote the Iberia Suite especially for Malats.  This piece was later transcribed for guitar by Tarrega.  I was berated by Fei later in the evening for admitting to not knowing this piece – hey, at least I’m honest.

The pianist theme continues with the next piece, the Spanish Dance from the one-act opera written by Manuel De Falla, La Vida Breve (Life is Short).  This is most often seen arranged as a duet (you can see the Bream and Williams version here) which is indeed impressive, but Fei has transcribed this for solo guitar and this sight read as her first public performance of it, which to me was equally impressive.

For yours truly, the next piece was the highlight of the show.  I was so far on the edge of my seat for this one that I nearly fell off completely.  Fei’s performance of Rodrigo’s Invocacion y Danza (Invocation and Dance) was simply astounding.  She admitted that she know the piece so well, and it showed.  In this dark homage to De Falla, Rodrigo hints at the works of De Falla (Le tombeau de Claude Debussy, El sombrero de tres picos, El amor brujo) and one could literally imagine the invocation of the ghost of the subject’s dead lover, and the nightly dance that they have.  The ghost fades away with the coming of the dawn.  Fei’s delivery of this piece was spellbinding.

The last Spanish composer to feature in the set was Regino Sainz De La Maza (not to be confused with his younger brother, also a guitarist, Eduardo).  One of the younger composers in the set, Sainz De La Maza was friend to Segovia and was a world travelled performer.  Fei gave us splendid performances of three of his pieces.

El Vito
Petenera
Zapateado

The final piece for the programme (straight out of left field) was the Sonata by Leo Bouwer.  This is one of the few sonatas written for guitar and is in three movements, the Fandangos and Boleros, Sarabande of Scriabin and the Pasquini Toccata.  All played with exquisite precision and control, this was an exciting (tho slightly odd choice) ending to a memorable concert.

Fei returned to the stage to much applause to play a Chinese piece for us called Yi Dance.  Originally written for a Chinese instrument called the pipa, this was very evocative of Chinese music (not that I know much about Chinese music) and was a very beautiful piece which belied its complexity.  If tremelos are too easy for you, try it with two strings instead of the usual one to up the difficulty level.

I play golf. Tiger Woods plays golf. We both do the same thing…we get a metal bat out and smack a small white ball three, four, five hundred yards.  I’m a 28 handicapper, he’s the greatest golfing talent the world has even known.  What’s the difference?  Well, surprisingly little; better contact with the ball, better decision making, a keener eye, better consistency; all little things.  But those things are what separate a doofus like me from a world champion.  And so it is with the guitar.  How hard it it to pluck a string?  Most folks could have a go at that.  But the way Fei plucks the things, you’d think she had made a pact with the devil.  The perfect control of tone and dynamic is nigh on impossible for us 28 handicappers, for reasons unknown.  It is the musical knowledge and sheer artistic talent that drives Fei to be a great musician, but in the end it is that elegant mastery of simple physics that turn what is a basic machine into music that can make a grown man weep.  How she and others do it, I guess I will never know.

Steve Gaskell
LGS