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Classical Music
- Westgate Chapel Series
The bassoon is usually an orchestral instrument: it’s
very rare to see a bassoon up close and personal in a recital
setting, as you can tonight at the Westgate Chapel. It is a
very strange animal indeed, a woodwind instrument with the same
pitch frame as a cello. It is usually made of maple and is over
eight feet in length, though it doubles up to four-foot plus.
Its distinctive tone makes it suitable for plaintive lyrical
solos (like Ravel’s Bolero) and more comical
pieces (like the grandfather theme in Peter and the Wolf).
Tonight’s concert features local bassoonist Ian Glen and
Canadian pianist Glen Capra, who will perform five very different
pieces. Best known is Vernon Elliott’s Ivor the Engine
for Bassoon and Piano, which most of you will remember
as the music accompanying the 50’s-70’s children’s
cartoon about the accident-prone anthropomorphic Welsh steam
locomotive. Another well-loved piece on tonight’s schedule
is a bassoon version of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata.
The card is concluded by lesser-known pieces: Johann Friedrich
Fasch’s Sonata, Alexander Mossolov’s
Four Pieces and Roman Morishnikov’s Scherzo.
The concert is one of seven this year offered as part of the
Westgate Music Series. The chapel, built in 1596, is a wonderfully
intimate setting for a concert, seating 80, with fine acoustics
born of its high roof and old wood. AL |
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Yours for a tenor: a rare chance
to hear a bassoon recital at
Westgate Chapel |
