Manchester Evening News Article 17 July 2015

THINGS may have quietened down after Manchester’s International Festival, but in Buxton they’re still going strong.

The festival there has more than a week still to run, with opera performances every day and a kaleidoscope of classical attractions as well.

One of those has a distinct Manchester branding – the Hallé Soloists (July 20, St John’s church, Buxton, 12 noon). Formed and led by Hallé Orchestra leader Lyn Fletcher, it’s made up of principal players from the orchestra, and is to perform one of the great creations to come out of the Second World War – Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet For The End Of Time.

The piece was composed (mainly) while Messiaen was a prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-A and written for piano (which he played himself), clarinet violin and cello, professional players of which were in the camp at the same time. Its premiere was to an audience of prisoners and guards, and Messiaen said afterwards: “Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension.”

Among other performers in the week are soprano Rosalind Coad (July 20, St John’s church, 3pm), The English Concert directed by Robert Howarth (July 21, St John’s church, 12 noon), the Elias String Quartet (July 21, St John’s church, 3.30pm), and Vivaldi specialists La Serenissima, who include the version of The Four Seasons known as the Manchester Manuscript from its preservation in the Henry Watson Music Library here (July 22, Buxton Opera House, 7.30pm).

Soprano Gillian Keith, who’s been a favourite of festival opera productions in recent years, appears with pianist Simon Lepper and directed by Nina Brazier, in a special presentation she has written herself, about Debussy And His Muse – the French singer Marie-Blanche Vasnier: that’s on July 23, at the Pavilion Arts Centre, from 12 noon.

The Frith Piano Quartet are in the same venue at 3.30pm.

Stephen Hough, the north west born and Manchester trained piano virtuoso (also composer, writer, painter and more), who’s been returning to our part of the country increasingly often, appears at the Pavilion Arts Centre on July 24 (12 noon) in a programme of Schubert, Franck, Debussy (Estampes) and Liszt – the 10^th and 11^th Transcendental Studies.

And Manchester contemporary music specialists Psappha are at St John’s church on July 25, with a programme including John Adams (John’s Book Of Alleged Dances), Brahms (String Sextet no. 1) and Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht.