Our Music at Lunchtime series continues with a recital by exceptional violinist and Form 6 music scholar, Lucy. Lucy’s recital opens with Bach’s Giga. It is really clear to see and hear how Lucy embraces the dance metre of the music. The large space of the chapel allows for her fantastic tone to be amplified and accentuated. The chance to get used to performing in a bigger acoustic is a valuable opportunity to learn how to work with space and make performance decisions based on how the space receives our sound. The dynamic echo effects can benefit from exaggeration in such a space.
In the Mendelssohn we hear Lucy very much in technical control as the melody requires projection across the ranges, nimble scalic passages and broken chords, whilst Ms Bolt does a good impression of an orchestral part. Performing to a camera helps to take away some performance pressures, it can be the case that real, in-person audiences give us that expressive point of focus, for which there are few useful substitutes. Lucy does well to communicate her musical expressions in these artificial circumstances. In the Tchaikovsky, we hear a beautiful lyrical melody, showing a nice contrast to what came before. Jan’s accompaniment shows great control and maturity; he understands where to play out and has a strong grasp on tempo and balance, utilising a lovely rubato in solo passages.
Finally, we hear some of Bartok’s Folk Dances. Again, we hear some excellent playing from Lucy and Ms Bolt. These pieces are full of character and demand the utmost of audacity, if not arrogance in execution. Lucy’s technical and expressive control shows a glimpse of her love for the repertoire and for playing. We look forward to hearing her again very soon!
The full recital and programme can be found here.
