Well that was another fabulous evening. Maybe all string quartets develop the sort of chemistry that Methera have but as someone who hasn’t seen many other quartets it feels like there is definitely something special about the way Methera watch each other, move and play.
Simon (mostly) lugged 8 of the stage blocks over from the Community Centre so we had a proper raised stage for them to sit on. They brought their own fairy lights and the scene was beautifully set.
As usual each of the band members took it in turns to tell us about the pieces they were about to play and at the end of each trio of tunes all four members would stand up and move round a place. We had a varied set, from traditional tunes, Swedish tunes, flute pieces transcribed for strings, band compositions and reinterpretations of old tunes.
The curry made by absentee chef Bev was delicious and the brownies in the interval were lovely and bountiful.
All in all another fantastic house concert.
We’re delighted to welcome Methera back for their third visit to Ryepiece Barn on Friday March 17th. Methera are four individually wonderful musicians who come together all too rarely to create something truly magical. They sit in tight circle watching each other’s every move and spark of each other’s playing to take the string quartet into a whole new place.
If you’ve not seem them before then here they are performing at a house concert last year:
Since they were last with us they’ve recorded a new album – Vortex – which has had great reviews.
fRoots magazine said:
Never a dull tune, never repetitive, constantly interesting and most melodious, Methera is to be celebrated in both folk and classical music worlds.
While Songlines was even more gushing:
The invention and interplay throughout is breathtaking, and sets Methera beside the very best instrumental groups of the decade.
The quartet are:
Lucy Deakin * Cello
John Dipper * Fiddle
Emma Reid * Fiddle
Miranda Rutter * Viola
Tickets are £12 and as always include one of Bev’s delicious suppers. You can buy tickets at Ettington Stores or via WeGotTickets.com here. Bring a bottle of your favourite tipple and a glass to drink it from. It’ll be a great night.
Friday 10th February was the first concert of the year and it started quietly with the whispered hello of Barney Morse-Brown who is (currently) Duotone. Barney is a classically trained cellist who writes his own songs and then weaves them into beautiful soundscapes with guitar, cello, his lovely voice, hand claps and electronics.
Our audience likes to connect with artists and find out more about the music and the performer. So even the normally very quiet Barney was drawn into fascinating stories of touring in Berlin, his milliner father, his tiny white caravan and beards.
The music gradually drew everyone in and the belting version of ‘Greetings Hello’ that closed the first set took everyone by surprise and created a real buzz.
Barney is working on new material inspired by the work of an artist (who’s name I can’t remember!) who has in tern been slightly obsessed with a a Scottish sheep farmer (the subject of James Rebanks’ book ‘The Shepherd’s Life’). This wonderful new piece ‘Martha’ is the first fruits of this new material which will be out on an EP soon.
Duotone are appearing at interesting venues across the land and you can find out more on the website hereand on twitter here.
On Friday 11th November we were delighted to welcome pianist, composer, song writer and all round renaissance man James Reynolds.
James writes music for all sorts of settings from TV soundtracks, to advertisements for the likes of Crisis and for use in plays and various other dramatic productions. He’s also somehow found time to record two albums full of beautiful Erik Satie-esque piano pieces.
There was lots of discussion about what James should play and sing for us in November. We hoped we’d come up with a programme that would have something for everyone….piano pieces, folk songs for guitar and voice and then something very special to finish off the evening……with the Queensgate Quartet emerging from the audience to sing some incredibly varied acapella songs.
You can hear lots of James’ music on his website here or on his Soundcloud page here.
This piece, called Butterfly, was featured in an episode of the tv drama Poirot.
This is a piece called Life in Slow Motion that was used in a video promoting an arts project backed by Crisis.
Doors open at 7.15pm with plenty of time for you to enjoy a lovely supper (by inhouse chef Bev Faulkner-Gant) before the music starts at 8.00pm.
Tickets are available from Ettington Stores or by emailing us to reserve at ryepiecebarn@gmail.com . As usual they are just £10 including supper.
You can even get tickets online now from WeGotTickets. Pay online, print off your ticket and bring it along on the night. 5 people did it for the Fleetwood Cave concert….worked a treat. Just follow this link.
NB It really helps with catering if we know a few days in advance how many are coming along.
On Friday 7th October we welcomed this mini folk supergroup to Ryepiece Barn.
We were treated to an evening of beautiful songs and incredible playing. Marion and Gregg both play guitar and sing – and their voices blend perfectly together. Marion also plays a mean fiddle. Whether you missed the concert and want to catch up….or loved it and want to relive some of Marion’s wicked humour….you’ll love these videos from the night.
They’ve just finished recording their debut album ‘People Like Us‘ and songs from the album featured prominently at the concert. (The album won’t be out till just before Christmas and will then be followed by an extensive Spring tour)
On Friday 6th May we welcome this great traditional blues band to Ryepiece Barn.
David Bristow played a solo set here at the first ever concert back in 2007 but he is now part of a great three piece band (with Darren DJ Mather and Andy Dent) who are building quite a reputation on the blues circuit.
They’ve just finished recording their debut album ‘Shades of Blues’ and songs from the album will feature prominently at the concert. Here’s them performing one of the new songs ‘Trouble in Mind’ at a recent gig in Birmingham.
Doors open at 7.15pm with plenty of time for you to enjoy a lovely supper before the music starts at 8.00pm.
Tickets available from the usual outlets but also direct from David and Rachel Bristow. Just £10 including supper.
We have a real treat for you this month. It’s our first ever classical concert and features some amazing musicians playing pieces you’ll know and some that will be new to most of us. Pianist Lynn Arnold (née Carter) will be joined by friends Peter Mallinson & Matthias Wiesner (of the BBC Symphony Orchestra) both on the viola.
Doors open at 7.15pm with plenty of time for you to enjoy a lovely supper before the music starts at 8.00pm.
– Handel: Queen of Sheba
– Telemann: Concerto in G
– Jacob:Sonatina*
– Trad. arr Thorp: Greensleeves*
– Trad. arr Thorp: Fiddling Around* (*all 2 viola, no piano)
– Bach: Brandenburg No 6
INTERVAL
– Bridge: Three Sketches (April, Rosemary, Valse Capricciese) – solo piano
– Leclair: Sonata for 2 violas
– Prokofiev: Serenade Matinale & Danse aux Mandolines
– Bulakohov: Barcarolle
– Khatchaturian: Masquerade – Waltz
A bit about the artists:
German-born Matthias Wiesner studied the violin with Ida Bieler at the Robert Schumann Conservatoire in Düsseldorf and the viola with Alexander Zemtsov at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Matthias has won prizes at both national and international competitions including a broadcast on German radio. He regularly appears in festivals in the UK and Europe.
Peter Mallinson enjoys both modern and period viola performance. As a soloist Peter has given many premières including the UK première performance of Sally Beamish’s That Recent Earth for unaccompanied viola, and the world première of Robin Holloway’s Suite en Saga for solo viola – a work he later performed at the Ravenna Music Festival in its original incidental music form.
Lynn Arnold relishes her performing career in both solo and chamber capacities, delights in her highly sought-after piano teaching in Warwickshire and London and is Staff Accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music, Junior Department. Lynn makes regular appearances at concert societies and with orchestras, most recently performing Dohnanyi’s ‘Variations on a Nursery Rhyme’.
A real treat to kick off our latest batch of House Concerts.
Manchester guitarists Mike Walker and Stuart McCallum both have international reputations – Mike for his work with The Impossible Gentlemen and Stuart with The Cinematic Orchestra. They’ve known each other for nearly 20 years when Stuart was Mike’s student. They bumped into each other again a couple of years back and picked up where they’d left off, recording their first album Beholdenand starting to gig together across the UK.
Their playing is beautiful and Mike is a great story teller…ask him to tell the one about the coin operated TV. They’ll give us a very special evening.
“Quiet but compellingly lyrical music.” The Guardian
“Grey skies and rain-soaked red bricked terraces as seen through a cosy cup of hot, sweet tea.” Jazzwise
Here’s a recording of the duo playing the title track from Beholden.
Stuart performing ‘Breathe‘ with The Cinematic Orchestra at the Barbican Centre back in 2007.
Mike performing ‘Laughlines‘ with his band The Impossible Gentlemen.
You can listen to Beholden on Spotify and you’ll be able to buy a copy on the 18th for £2 less than Amazon are selling it!
Mike and Stuart are both best known for their work on electric guitar. However, for this new duo they use four different acoustic guitars to re-imagine and re-sculpt their own original compositions and some well-known jazz standards into fresh shapes. Walker and McCallum admit to shared Influences from Pat Metheny to Bill Frisell, Bon Iver to Jerry Douglas and Gerald Finzi to Kelly Joe Phelps, and by embracing each other’s musicality and wealth of experience they evoke a combination of chilled-out bliss and sublimated yearning, creating music that is a balm for the soul.
Highlights from the album include Walker’s ever-popular composition Clockmaker, which was written for saxophonist Iain Dixon’s father, who was a clockmaker. The contrasting arrangements of the well-known standard When I Fall in Love showcase the guitarists’ differing styles – from Walker’s harmonically complex improvised accompaniment in Part I, to McCallum’s folk influenced arrangement in Part II that wouldn’t sound out of place on the BBC4 Transatlantic Sessions. The title track, Beholden, demonstrates the duo’s ability to create exquisite melodies and textures with just two acoustic guitars. Throughout the album, the duo explore space, spontaneity and beauty to create intelligent camp-fire music that is characterised by focus and restraint.
Mike Walker
Most acclaimed as the guitarist for The Impossible Gentlemen, Mike is an internationally respected guitarist and teacher, having performed and recorded with many of the leading jazz musicians of today, including Kenny Wheeler, Mike Gibbs, George Russell, Vince Mendoza and John Taylor. His debut album ‘Madhouse and the Whole Thing There’ was released in 2008 – ‘a soaringly confident piece of idiosyncratic contemporary fusion.’ (The Guardian). Also in 2008, Mike was commissioned to write ‘Ropes‘, a suite for a 22 piece string orchestra and jazz quintet. This was performed at the RNCM in Manchester to a packed theatre, receiving a standing ovation. The Impossible Gentlemen, (Mike Walker, Gwilym Simcock, Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum), released their second album in 2013 and are currently touring to promote the release.
Stuart McCallum
Best known as the guitarist for The Cinematic Orchestra, Stuart has performed internationally with and contributed to the writing of the band’s critically acclaimed albums ‘Ma Fleur’ and ‘Live at the Royal Albert Hall‘. As a solo artist, Stuart has released 4 albums. ‘Distilled‘, Stuart’s third solo album, was released in 2011 – ‘this record is a stunning, self assured work that showcases someone who has mastered their trade and is completely comfortable with his style.‘ (AAA music). The 40 date European tour that followed the release of the album, culminated in the recording and release of Stuart’s fourth solo album, ‘Distilled Live’, on NaimLabel in November 2012. Stuart has performed and recorded with some of the most prominent jazz artists of today, including Ari Hoenig, Kenny Wheeler, John Surman, Mike Gibbs, Gwilym Simcock, and Tim Garland. As well as lecturing part time at Leeds College Of Music, Stuart is currently collaborating with UK drummer and producer Richard Spaven on a follow-up album to Distilled, and writing and producing an album with Irish folk singer Rioghnach Connolly.
