ABERDEEN CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS
THE SANCTUARY, QUEEN’S CROSS CHURCH
Monday 9th May, 2022
HOLLAND SAVALONI DUO:
Lee Holland Flute
Sacha Savaloni Guitar
PROGRAMME:
C. P. E. Bach (1714 – 1788) Hamburger Sonata – Allegretto and Rondo
Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) A selection of Dances from D 365
Enrique Granados (1867 – 1916) Danza Espaňola No.5, Op.37 (Andaluza) Guitar Solo
Astor Piazzolla (1921 – 1992) Histoire du Tango: 1. Bordello 1900,
2. Café 1930, 4. Concert d’aujourd’hui.
John Dowland (1563 – 1626) 2 Renaissance Dances
J. S. Bach (1685 – 1750) Partita in a minor – Corrente. Flute Solo
Christoph Gluck (1714 – 1787) Dance of the Blessed Spirits
Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875) Carmen Fantaisie arranged François Borne French flautist and professor at the Conservatoire de Musique de Toulouse. Recognised for technical improvements to the flute. (1840 – 1920)
Monday’s concert was the last in the current season for Aberdeen Chamber Music Concerts. Many audience members spoke to me afterwards to say that for them, this was the ideal concert to set a seal on the entire season. To begin with, all the music without exception was thoroughly engaging. It was both tuneful and rhythmically captivating. It was not just Sacha Savaloni’s guitar with playing that went way beyond mere accompaniments, in the Schubert Dances for instance, but Lee Holland’s flute playing seized hold of the rhythmic core of her music making it swing in such a vital manner. Right from the start in the ‘galant’ opening Allegretto of C. P. E. Bach’s Hamburger Sonata, her phrasing in every detail was a delight. Then she made the following Rondo go tripping along with an admirable lightness of foot.
Schubert’s Dances arranged by Anton Diabelli, Austrian publisher and composer, were deliciously tuneful and equally lightsome.
‘Andaluza’ Danza Espaňola No.5 by Granados was originally composed for the piano but Sacha Savaloni in his performance proved that this was in essence the consummate guitar music. A pianist could possibly have matched the details of his varied dynamics but his apparently limitless variety of guitar voicings could not be achieved on a piano. Could I say that Savaloni took a splendid but perhaps monochrome piano piece and gave it to us in full technicolor – a real high point of the performance.
I have heard Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango on all sorts of instrumental ensembles but today’s version for flute and guitar was one of the most atmospherically powerful. The sheer variety of the music was utterly seductive with the final ‘concert d’aujourd’hui’ lively, almost like a scherzo, that got a sparkling performance from both the Latin rhythms of the guitar and the free singing flute.
After the interval, the Duo took us back in time to the Renaissance with two Dances by John Dowland. As Sacha Savaloni said, Dowland’s music was often melancholy and indeed ‘Lachrimae Pavan’ did project that feeling to begin with, yet I felt that Lee Holland’s flute introduced a ray of sunshine to the first dance and the flute became almost playful in the second.
With her performance on solo flute of the Corrente from J. S. Bach’s ‘Partita in a minor’, Lee Holland had chosen a most lively movement to which she also brought considerable elegance.
The word ‘dance’ is also at the forefront of Gluck’s ‘Dance of the Blessed Spirits’ but rich melody was also a familiar attraction in the Duo’s performance of this piece.
Up to this point, all the performances had certainly been excellent but with François Borne’s arrangement of music from Bizet’s Opera Carmen, his ‘Carmen Fantaisie’, we were in an entirely different world. This piece is a work in its own special right, quite apart from the opera. Here our two performers presented us with a musical firework display second to none. It was an extended showpiece. The guitar powered us along but it was the flute that sent showers of musical sparks soaring through the skies.
There is not really a polite word for how good this was so I won’t say it, but just imagine! The audience responded enthusiastically and were rewarded with a special encore, Schubert’s song ‘Ständchen’ arranged for flute and guitar confirming the stamp of fine melody on Monday’s concert and closing Aberdeen Chamber Music Concert’s season with a real bang.
Will our next season be able to match this one? Why not find out by coming to the first concert of our 2022 – 2023 season. It will be on Monday 19th September with a performance by piano duettists Sarah Beth Briggs and James Lisney in Queen’s Cross Church as usual. See you all there then!