Please support the CMF Artists as they begin to perform for in-person audiences once again.
We have concerts for you to attend for the next three Wednesdays, featuring the music of Schubert, Beethoven, Telemann and a wide variety of music from Mexican composers. Please join us to support our Mexican Scholar Marcos Nicolás Sosa and our exchange programme with Anglo Arts on Wednesday!
CITY MUSIC FOUNDATION PRESENTS...
FREE Lunchtime Recital Series
Marcos Nicolás Sosa (Flute) Wednesday, 14th July 1pm
Great Hall Barts Hospital
Mexican Flautist and City Music Foundation-Anglo Arts International Scholar Marcos Nicolás Sosa is ready to perform his lunchtime recital in the Great Hall, Barts Hospital as part of City Music Foundation’s series in partnership with Barts Heritage. Accompanied by fellow CMF ArtistAlexander Soares, Marcos will present a programme featuring work by Telemann, Schubert and Reinecke, and introducing us to pieces by Mexican composers Eduardo Gamboa, Manuel Ponce and Quirino Mendoza y Cortes.
**PLEASE NOTE**
There will be NO livestream for this event, you can only experience the concert on the day
Marcos has performed with a wide range of orchestras in Mexico including the Carlos Chavez Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas and the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. We are excited to welcome him to Barts Great Hall and to take this opportunity to hear music Marcos has chosen to give a taste of Mexico to English audiences.
Marcos will also perform at the Fidelio Café near Farringdon later in the month, with a different programme of music soon to be announced.
As part of his exchange programme with CMF Marcos has been enjoying a busy schedule of activities, including coaching sessions with Principal Flautist of the Royal Opera House Margaret Campbell and CMF Alumnus Emma Halnan at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. He’s also attended our successful launch event with Barts Heritage, further concerts at Deal Festival and La Bohème at Covent Garden, alongside a healthy amount of sightseeing!
Beethoven 251 Foyle-Štšura Duo play Beethoven Sonatas Wednesday 21st July 7pm, Barts Great Hall
Michael Foyle and Maksim Štšura are looking forward to their performance in Barts Great Hall on Wednesday 21st July to celebrate the launch of their second volume of Beethoven’s Complete Sonatas on the Challenge Records Label. Their Beethoven 250 tour in 2020 was unable to take place because of the pandemic, but Michael and Maksim have just returned from playing at Deal Festival and we are delighted to be able to hear three of their favourites to City Music Foundation’s concert: E flat No. 3, C minor No. 7 and the popular 'Spring Sonata' F major No. 5.
Unlike many chamber musicians, violinist Michael and pianist Maksim both perform everything from memory, providing increased intimacy between the performers, and an unusual intensity of communication with the audience. Join us to mark Beethoven’s 251st anniversary after a year of postponed celebrations - Beethoven’s ‘struggle to victory’ narrative archetypes and emotional scope speak to us now with more relevance than ever. Watch the video below about the process of making these recordings during lockdown.
CMF ARTISTS FORTHCOMING CONCERTS Sir John Tomlinson and Rozanna Madylus, Buxton International Festival,
Friday 23rd July 7:15pm
City Music Foundation Mezzo-Soprano Rozanna Madylus joins international superstar Bass Sir John Tomlinson for an evening at Buxton Opera House to perform the world premiere of John Caskin’s The Shackled King, a work based on King Lear which allows Tomlinson to personify the aging, delusional king in a musical setting that incorporates Shakespeare’s text in the form of speech, sprechstimme and singing. Rozanna features as the Fool, Cordelia and her sisters at different points throughout the piece.
The programme seeks to draw comparison between King Lear and Wagner’s Wotan, and in the second half Rozanna stars in a cycle of works named Brünnhilde’s Dream, featuring music by Wagner, Fanny Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Berg, Szymanowski, Zemlinsky, Rebecca Clarke, Othmar Schoeck, Vilma von Webenau and Johanna Müller-Hermann. This evening of music old and new centred around great and unstable kings promises to be a highlight of the festival and showcases Rozanna alongside one of the country’s finest singers and the exciting ensemble Counterpoise. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear them together!
The Eblana String Trio’s new disc, The King’s Alchemist, works by 20th century British composers features prominently in the recent edition of BBC Music Magazine, awarded a 5* review. The String Trio launched their album with a sold-out concert with City Music Foundation at the Charterhouse in June, and reviewer Daniel Jaffé describes their playing on the CD as possessing ‘incisiveness combined with a patient concentration’.
BBC Music Magazine has also reviewed CMF Artist Toby Hughes’ (double bass) album Elegy extremely positively in the latest edition, awarding it 4 stars. Described as a ‘fine showcase of double bass virtuosity’, the album features little-heard Adolf Misek, Reinhold Glière and Alfred Desenclos in a variety of musical forms, from arias to sonatas, from scherzos to tarantellas.
Both The Guardian and Gramophone Magazine, to be released in August, were full of praise for the recording and Toby’s playing which brings out the ‘many deep golden colours of the double bass to brilliant effect’.
Emily Sun (violin) and Andrea Lam (piano) Debut Album Success
Emily Sun’s Debut Album has been extremely successful, reaching No. 1 in the Australian Classical Music Charts, ARIA. The album, Nocturnes: Intimate French Music for Violin and Piano, was recorded with pianist Andrea Lam and features the music of Fauré, Franck, Debussy and more.
Emily has also been awarded 4 and a half stars for her 'lush sound, firm attack and purity of tone' in the Sydney Morning Herald. The reviewer praises the repertoire, the individual playing and the collaboration between the pair. The newspaper features Emily as their standout headline release, inviting readers to 'fall in love with the romantic French music of an Australian prodigy'.
