Duo Aerius
Review By Donald Judge
Who goes to hear classical Chamber Music in the morning? The answer is a lot, even on Sundays. Springbank Arts in New Mills have sold theirs out for several years. On Saturdays, Didsbury Chamber Concerts have been going for even longer and are now approaching 800 fortnightly concerts. Of course, the promise of coffee, cake, often homemade, and a friendly atmosphere helps. And so Bollington Arts Centre saw a very respectable crowd (in both senses!) for the violin and guitar Aerius Duo on a bright and almost warm Sunday morning. It’s just a shame that more grownups didn’t bring a child, as both could attend the concert for half the price of an adult ticket. The hour long, varied programme would be an ideal way for young people to enjoy live music making.
Whether the name Aerius is inspired by a crocus of that name, or a medication for rhinitis, the audience wasn’t told. But it was told plenty about the music, mostly by violinist Chris Karwacinski while guitarist Chris Goddard meticulously tuned his instrument. Ask most listeners to name a piece for violin and guitar and most would be stumped. At least Sunday’s audience will now be able to say that Paganini wrote a lot: indeed the very attractive Sonata Concertato in A major was the only piece originally written for the combination, by a man whose 24 Caprices, and one in particular, eclipse his virtuosity as a guitarist and composer for that instrument. Paganini was also a violist who famously refused to play Berlioz’ Harold in Italy because there were too many rests in the solo part, and too much showing off by the orchestra. But in this duo, both violin and guitar were equals, in a duo of equal skill and virtuosity
The rest of the programme was entirely arrangements, from the simple substitution of violin for flute in Eugène Bozzo’s often arresting Trois Pièces to a famous violin work with an orchestral reduction for guitar. That outstanding achievement was Chris Goddard’s own arrangement of the accompaniment for Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, one of the most popular pieces of classical music. Any sense of being short changed was soon dispelled by the imaginative use of the guitar and its varied colours – the tremolandi being particularly memorable.
Three other arrangements made up this delightful programme. One was a piece Fritz Kreisler owned up to instead of pretending his music was by various little known Baroque composers – his Praeludium and Allegro. Béla Bartók’s brilliant take on Romanian Folk Dances, originally for piano solo, captured perfectly the melodic and rhythmic character of Transylvanian music. Music by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla has become extremely popular in all sorts of arrangements, and one of his best known, Libertango, provided an ideal conclusion.
The next coffee concert is another duo, of flute and harp, where more arrangements may be expected. The Aerius Duo was proof that this age-old practice does not diminish music but simply makes it accessible to more players and audiences. Sunday 8 June will be a busy day for the Arts Centre and music lovers, as the Festival Choir and its new conductor Christopher Cromar is performing some delights of English choral music – Coleridge-Taylor, Elgar and Parry – in the evening. An exciting new series of Saturday evening Chamber Concerts has already been announced, with season and individual tickets on sale.