Another evening at RAM:
Mozart & Clementi at the Piano Gallery - Marimba recital in Duke's Hall 5th May 2006

- - the freshest experiences, and indeed the centre of London's musical life - -

Public events at RAM occur with such profusion that late arrivers to the Historic Piano Soirée complained about its clashing with the simultaneous illustrated lecture-recital on Seventeenth-Century Italian Organ Music which they had been sampling.

Three "thinking pianists" shared the Soirée, with informal discussions about piano making in Vienna and London, demonstrations by Elena Vorotko of Mozart on four early pianos of RAM's great collection, a plea on behalf of Clementi's best sonatas by Jeremy Eskenazi, and finally Daniel-Ben Pienaar discussing Mozart interpretation on modern piano illustrated by Lili Kraus's recordings, and on RAM's 1920s Steinway a carefully considered account of the great C minor fantasia which provoked vigorous audience reaction!

Problems of visibility (pianos in out of the way corners) and audibility (noises off and air conditioning, essential for the pianos) could be usefully addressed for future presentations, perhaps by bringing the audience forward amongst the instruments?

Then straight down to the Duke's Hall for an enthralling marimba recital by Eric Sammut, with his own composition Ameline so melodious and evocative as to make you believe that the marimba was not a percussion instrument at all! His range of colours and timbres in arrangements of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet were remarkable, and hearing this familiar orchestral music encompassed by four mallets was as memorable as Stravinsky's Petrushka at RAM on accordion duet.

Sammut's CD includes items from this recital and Italian opera arias - something there for singers to learn?

Friday 5th May
David Josefowitz Recital Hall 6:00pm
An opportunity to hear the Academy’s rare Neapolitan organ of 1763 in a lecture-recital given by Italian organist Riccardo Bonci.

Friday 5th May
Piano Gallery, York Gate Collections 6:00 pm
Historic Piano Soirée ‘Influences and differences: composers and fortepianos in late Classicism and early Romanticism’

Friday 5th May Duke’s Hall 7:30pm
Eric Sammut, marimba professor at the Academy and principal timpanist with the Orchestre de Paris: debut concert at the Academy