Chamber Music For Flute, Bassoon & Harp

Chamber Music For Flute, Bassoon & Harp

The Meltemi Ensemble

A note about this event from our flautist, Joanna Lewis:

Over the past few months I have been working on a performance project with other members of The Meltemi Ensemble, as part of my studies for the Postgraduate Diploma in Music Performance at the University of Leeds.

The Meltemi Ensemble is a flexible, professional ensemble and for this performance event I have chosen to explore the possibility of adapting some existing pieces for performance on flute, bassoon and harp.

In honour of the centenary of the composer’s death, the central work in the programme is Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, with the viola part being transcribed for bassoon. In fact Debussy had originally intended to write this particular sonata for Flute, Oboe and Harp, but was seduced by the more melancholy tones of the viola and the intriguing combination of wind, bowed string and plucked string. We were fascinated, therefore, to discover the effect of going back to Debussy’s original double reed idea, but with the deeper tones of the bassoon, which will be more akin to the viola.

Two shorter pieces will accompany the Debussy, which will again be on slightly different instrumentation than that originally intended by the composers. The first is a work by German-American Composer, Tim Jansa (to whom we would like to extend our grateful thanks for permitting us to adapt his piece), entitled Three Miniatures for Flute, Bassoon & Piano. This atmospheric piece, originally entitled ‘Three Nocturnes’, evokes images of night-time through a sombre song, a dialogue of bird song in the dark and a night-time journey. The second piece is Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla. Oblivion is a piece which Piazzolla wrote in 1984 for the Italian film, Enrico IV (Henry IV) and has been arranged for many different combinations of instruments since then.

The programme will be performed by myself, Joanna Lewis (Flute), David Baker (Bassoon) & Rhian Evans (Harp).

Please note that the bar adjacent to the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall will be open before the concert from 12pm. Admission to the concert is free of charge.

This performance will be livestreamed, so if you’re unable to make it, you can watch via the link which I will post nearer the time.