Sunday 19 July 4 pm (please note time)
Fenella Humphreys (violin)
Viv McLean (piano)
Jessica Duchen (narrator)
Ghost Variations: The Strange History of Jelly d'Arányi
Jelly d'Arányi (1893-1966) was one of the greatest violinists of her day, her charismatic intensity inspiring new works from Bartók, Ravel, Elgar and many more. The great-niece of the legendary Joseph Joachim, friend and inspiration to Brahms, she was born in Budapest but spent most of her life and career in Britain before World War II. She is inextricably associated with Ravel's Tzigane - but also with the Schumann Violin Concerto. In 1933 she received a message via a Ouija board supposedly from the spirit of Robert Schumann, asking her to find and play this long-suppressed work. Ultimately her quest escalated into a race to the premiere between her, Yehudi Menuhin and the Nazis, reaching the highest echelons of the British government and the Third Reich and becoming the strangest detective story in the history of music.
In a dazzling mix of narration and music, based on Jessica Duchen's novel ‘Ghost Variations', every piece has been selected for its associations with d'Arányi and her circle - and of course part of the Schumann itself.
Works to include
Schumann: Geistervariationen – Theme [piano solo]
Bartók : Romanian Folk Dances
Gluck : Dance of the Blessed Spirits
Frederick Septimus Kelly : Serenade Op. 7 – Gigue
Brahms arr. Joachim : Hungarian Dance No.2
Ravel: Tzigane
Elgar : Salut d'amour
Schumann: Violin Concerto – second movement;
Schumann: Geistervariationen – Theme (reprise) [piano solo]
Come along to St Mary's Perivale
or watch LIVE on YouTube or Facebook
or watch the recording on YouTube
Fenella Humphreys, winner of the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording Award, has attracted critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her remarkable performances. With her playing described in the press as “alluring”, “unforgettable” and “a wonder”, Fenella is one of the UK's most established and versatile violinists, having also won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award. She enjoys a busy career combining chamber music with solo work, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world and is frequently broadcast on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala Radio and international radio stations. Fenella performs widely as a soloist. Her recent album of Sibelius' solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and George Vass has been featured in BBC Radio 3's Building a Library, Gramophone Magazine's Guide to the Concerto, and was Album of the Week on Scala Radio. BBC Music Magazine has written of the recording: “it takes an unusually fine artist to be able to bridge the two extremes. Fenella Humphreys's playing is a genuine revelation in the way it brings out the music's dark and introspective qualities, with no shortage of technical panache meanwhile.” Her 2024 album, Prism on Rubicon Classics was chosen as BBC Music Magazine's Instrumental Choice Album for June 2024, and Gramophone Magazine advised "when each piece moves to the next with such an organic, spell-holding flow, you're missing out if you don't listen end to end." Also released in 2024, her recording of Adrian Sutton's Violin Concerto with BBC Philharmonic and Michael Seal was chosen as BBC Music Magazine's Orchestral Choice Album, with the Strad Magazine writing “Humphreys brings her endlessly unfurling violin lines taut, silvery weightlessness.” The concerto was written for her in 2023, and premiered at the Southbank Centre with the RPO. For the launch of Apple Music Classical in April 2023, Fenella was one of a handful of artists invited to record a ‘Classical Session' at home, alongside Daniel Barenboim, Beatrice Rana and Gautier Capuçon. Fenella plays on a beautiful G.B. Guadagnini violin kindly on loan from Jonathan Sparey.
Viv McLean was described by Le Monde as "possessing the genius one finds in those that know how to forget themselves", since winning First Prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona, British pianist Viv McLean has performed in all the major venues in the UK, as well as throughout Europe, Japan, Australia & the USA. He has performed concertos with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva, Orchestra of the Swan & the Northern Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of such conductors as Daniel Harding, John Wilson, Wayne Marshall, Christopher Warren-Green, Owain Arwell Hughes, Carl Davis, Chloe Van Soederstede, Rebecca Miller & Marvin Hamlisch. Viv often plays with the Adderbury Ensemble and has also collaborated with groups such as the Leopold String Trio, Ensemble 360, the Ysaye Quartet, the Sacconi String Quartet, members of the Elias, Allegri, Carducci & Tippett Quartets, as well as with artists such as Natalie Clein, Fenella Humphreys, Daniel Hope, Lawrence Power, David Le Page, Adrian Brendel & Mary Bevan. Viv has appeared at many festivals including the International Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the Festival des Saintes in France, Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden in Norway & Cheltenham International Festival in the UK.He has recorded for labels such as Sony, Naxos, Nimbus, Signum Classics, Lyrita, Stone Records, RPO Records & ICSM Records and has also recorded regularly for BBC Radio 3, as well as for radio in Germany, France, Australia, Norway & Poland.
Jessica Duchen (author & narrator) Jessica Duchen writes about music for the Sunday Times, the I News and numerous magazines. She is the author of ten books, including a biography of Gabriel Fauré (Phaidon Press), and as a librettist works often with the composer Roxanna Panufnik. Their community opera Dalia, premiered at Garsington Opera in summer 2022, won an Excellence in Music Education Award. Silver Birch, also for Garsington, was shortlisted for an International Opera Award in 2018 (“Jessica Duchen's libretto is powerful and poetic” – The Times). Her books include Immortal (2020), capturing the tragic love story behind Beethoven's ‘Immortal Beloved' letter (“electrifying historical fiction” – Amanda Craig), and Ghost Variations (2016), based on the true story of the Schumann Violin Concerto's discovery in the 1930s (“a thriller yet also a tribute” – Sir András Schiff). Her narrated concerts often feature at music societies and festivals, plus the Wigmore Hall, The Sage Gateshead and Kings Place. Original concert dramas include Between Two Worlds, the story of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, commissioned by the Brundibár Festival 2023, and Being Mrs Bach, created in 2018 for the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (“…a beautifully crafted retelling of the ‘Bach' story with a lot of heart” - Limelight Magazine). Jessica studied music at Cambridge and lives in London with her violinist husband and cat
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