Plymouth University’s Levinsky Hall is to be the new venue for a programme of classical music.
The showcase venue on the ground floor atrium of the Roland Levinsky Building, will present the Musica Viva Concert Series which brings internationally acclaimed performers to the Plymouth community to inspire, educate, challenge, and unite audiences by presenting leading musicians in public concert performances, open rehearsals, and informal talks.
With a Steinway Model C Grand Piano now in Levinsky Hall along with new on-stage acoustic panels, the two Autumn concerts – Romantic Piano and Virtuoso Violin kick off an exciting season that highlights both compositional and instrumental virtuosity in works ranging from the Romantic era to the present day that are fresh and daring in their expressive qualities.
Dr Robert Taub, director of music, The Arts Institute said:
“I’m very excited about our upcoming concerts in the beautiful Levinsky Hall. It’s a very comfortable place to enjoy concerts, and its ample stage area allows us to bring in internationally acclaimed ensembles as well as soloists and chamber music. The concert hall itself is a wonderful addition to the art gallery and cinema already in place in the atrium of the Roland Levinsky Building.
“One of the perspectives of our Musica Viva concerts is to play old music as if it is new, and new music as if it is old. In other words, play old music with the same excitement and freshness as new music with ink barely dry on the pages, and new music with the same deep convictions that we bring to music that has already withstood the tests of time.
“Colleagues suggested that I play the opening concert in Levinsky Hall in October, and I’m particularly pleased and honoured to do so with a programme of exciting works that use the piano to its utmost. And for the November concert, we’re all thrilled to be bringing in the brilliant young London-born virtuoso violinist Mathilde Milwidsky.”
Concert Listings:
Romantic Piano Levinsky Hall Saturday October 15; Pre-concert talk: 7pm; Performance: 7.30pm
Robert Taub, piano with a programme of Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op.13 Pathétique; Schumann: Davidsbundlertanze, Op.6 and Chopin: Sonata in B minor, Op.58.
Romantic Piano brings together expressive, intimate, passionate and exciting music. In this special programme of works by three composer/ pianists, Robert Taub will start with the stormy Pathétique Sonata of Beethoven, a proto-Romantic work that was an immediate hit: it sold out of its first printing almost immediately. Next is a set of highly personalized musical characterisations of an imaginary society by Schumann, his Davidsbundlertanze, with vivid musical symbolism of his yearning for his beloved Clara. The concert concludes with the thundering sonorities of Chopin’s mighty Sonata in B minor, the final of his three sonatas, composed five years before he died at age 39. Each work on this programme is deeply involving and expressive; the programme as a whole is a journey into the gripping soul of Romanticism.
Virtuoso Violin Levinsky Hall Saturday November 12 Pre-concert talk: 7pm; Performance: 7.30pm
Featuring Mathilde Milwidsky, violin and Huw Watkins, piano performing Bartok’s Rhapsody for violin and piano No.2; Huw Watkins’ Arietta for violin and piano; Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 for solo violin and Huw Watkins’ Partita for solo violin.
After the interval they will perform Walton’s Sonata for violin and piano and Ravel’s Tzigane for violin and piano.
Fresh from a summer of concert performances throughout the UK and abroad, Mathilde Milwidsky continues the inaugural Musica Viva season with an imaginative programme of exciting violin works – both solo and collaborative.
Mathilde is performing with pianist and composer Huw Watkins in expressive, stirring and demanding works of Ravel, Bartok, Walton, and Watkins himself. And ever an adventurous virtuoso, Mathilde is also playing two solo violin works: Paganini’s 24th Caprice, a violin showstopper and Huw Watkins’ dramatic 2006 composition Partita for solo violin, commissioned by the BBC.
For tickets or more information visit www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/events or call 01752 600600.
