My favourites: Christ Church’s 2024’s Midweek Music - Summer Programme

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Last week I attempted to gauge which performers the audience at Christ Church liked best by going off their applause, an admittedly terribly flawed way to measure such a thing. Today, I’ll share my personal favourites, in chronological order, after the disclaimer that I do tend to favour the flute and the baroque, and that since I started covering concerts in 2015 I’ve been mostly exposed to great pianists who have mastered an instrument I (unsuccessfully) studied for more than a decade.

  • Pip Clarke & Havilland Willshire:

    I was transported by Ms. Clarke violin, and I still remember her performance of Clarence Cameron White’s Nobody knows de trouble. I felt very grateful while enjoying this concert, as I then had no idea of the calibre of artists that would grace Christ Church, but with Ms. Clarke I understood that Southport’s size is by no means proportional to the artistry its stages support.

  • Elena Orsi & Juanjo Blázquez:

    Lets consider this anecdote recounted by Henri Bergson, who, when attending a funeral, was surprised by the sternness of a man who, amongst a hall full of tears, had managed to keep his eyes dry; when he inquired as to why the man wasn’t crying with the rest of the attendees, he was told that it was because he did not belong to the parish. There is something to living a shared experience: after all, one does laugh lauder in a crowded theatre; so when Orsi and Blázquez played Cinema Paradiso by Ennio Morricone maybe so many of us audience members were moved to tears because of the shared experience of receiving together such a heartfelt rendition. I can’t say for sure what caused it, but the result is undeniable. In the four years I covered concerts in Barcelona, I don’t remember having ever seen a similar reaction to a musical presentation.

  • John Gough & Tom Kimmance:

    What I enjoyed most about this concert is that it was fun. Now, concerts are meant to be many things, but you’d never describe a good concert as «funny». However, this piano four-hands presentation —beyond being technically proficient— was rather funny, which has also made it very memorable; Messrs. Gough and Kimmance have not only studied the piano, but developed a good amount of repartee between them, which has made their act standout above others.

But this is what is behind us. I can’t wait to see what Christ Church will bring this autumn, which opens with the ethereal hands of harpist Heather Stark this 18 of September at 13h00.