Category: Reviews

Anne-Isabel Meyer plays Bach at Edinburgh’s Fringe

Published on by LivLeave a comment

For three weeks every summer, you can feel Edinburgh buzzing as the International Festival and the Fringe take over the city. Just yards from the noise and bustle of the street, I found a gem of serenity in St Cuthbert’s Church, at the West End: a recital of all six of Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed by Anne-Isabel Meyer, over three consecutive days.

Despite the grandeur of its ornate decoration, St Cuthbert’s feels like an intimate setting for unaccompanied cello. Its acoustic is resonant but clear and Anna-Isabel Meyer obviously loves playing here. This London-based cellist has a calm demeanour and she played with a warm tone. Each day, I felt even more privileged to hear how she allowed Bach’s music to speak with precision and clarity – no adornment or over interpretation here. Throughout the performance, the intricate melodic patterns of the preludes flowed freely, as did the dance-like quality of the allemandes, sarabandes, minuets and gigues. The famous bourrées of the third Suite just danced for joy.

Her performance of the Sarabande of Suite 5, for me, epitomised her sensitivity to Bach’s score. The music of this movement is apparently simple, no chords, no accompanying figures, trills or dotted rhythms. Meyer simply let the natural rise and fall of the phrases create their own meaning, allowing us to make what we would, of Bach’s perfectly crafted melody. I found it profoundly moving.

The sixth suite, written for a five stringed cello, truly tests the cellist. Playing this on a four-stringed cello, you have to create the higher sounds using the thumb in place of the extra string. She explained to the audience how at first this is painful and can lead to a blister on the thumb – I’ve had that blister too! Watching closely from the front row, I observed her meticulous technique, as she created the chords and inner harmonies and allowed the melodies to dance above them.

“Playing Bach’s cello suites is like going on a journey” Anne-Isabel Meyer tells us, “and next time it may be completely different.”

Here is a cellist with a deeply musical sensitivity. I look forward to joining her next year when she returns to St. Cuthbert’s to make that journey with the Bach Suites once again.

Gnawa Trance Fusion at Edinburgh’s Festival Fringe 2019

Published on by LivLeave a comment

“Do you want trance or happy?” Omar Afif asks the already happy crowd in Edinburgh’s Nomad’s Tent, (a shop by day turned venue by night). We are surrounded by their wares, colourful rugs and wall hangings. “Happy”, we call back. “I only do trance”, he says, plucking the strings of his guembri, a three stringed bass made from a carved-out log. “Andy does happy!” Andy Cooke plays his customised Ugandan xylophone, baladinda, its sound and style deceptively playful.

Omar leads the band Gnawa Trance Fusion, their rhythms tapped out on qraqeb (traditional iron castanets) by Mohamed Lkhanfoufi. A mouth harp adds to the timbre and already a few people have been lured from their seats by this enticing music, to join dancer Heather Muchamore, who plays a shekere (beaded gourd) and just can’t stop smiling.

So is Gnawa Trance Fusion happy or trance? It’s both, and there’s jazz in there too, as Steve Kettley, picks up his sax and melds a soaring improvisation over the sounds of Gnawa* music, with its repeated rhythmic riffs, and call and response melodies. This evening’s line-up includes Ghanian musician, George Ato Williams on drumkit and Allal Yamine, also known as the ‘Mad Nomad’ playing a dome-shaped drum made from a calabash.

Some songs begin with the bass sounds of the guembri followed by a gently tuneful thumb piano, the Ugandan ndongo. Then Mohamed wanders into the crowd, with his qraqeb clattering like horses hooves. The heartfelt vocals and the whole percussive array build up momentum, and more people join in the dancing. This global mix works well, the musicians, blending instruments and voices, create a feeling of celebration. Someone unfurls a Moroccan flag to the delight of Moroccan-born Omar who clearly enjoys sharing his musical culture with band and audience alike. A cheer goes up in appreciation.

It’s a warm evening on the last weekend of the Edinburgh Fringe and the proprietor brings a tray of glasses of water for the sweltering audience. The atmosphere is buzzing, driven by the cumulative rhythms and expressive singing of the whole band. Omar switches to a smaller, higher-pitched guembri, there’s time for one last number and almost everyone is dancing or clapping along to this fusion of good feelings, joy and happiness. We are at one with the world.

 

Find out more:

Omar Afif

Gnawa Trance Fusion

The Mad Nomad

The Nomad’s Tent

*Gnawa music is a North African traditional music associated with ritual poetry and dancing. It combines a unique mix of Berber, Arabic and Islamic rhythms. Its characteristic instruments are the three stringed guembri and the iron castanets known as qraqeb. This music, with its use of repeated rhythms and chant-like vocals can inspire feelings of euphoria, originally forming part of a ritual to induce a spiritual trance.

Thanks for reading. To receive new articles consider subscribing to Liv’s Music World. Scroll for details.

Peter Hudler – ‘Cello on Fire’

Published on by LivLeave a comment

When Peter Hudler plays his cello, “it almost sets on fire” he says, “it’s a question of cost!” The pizazz of his playing, strikes you from the moment his bow lands dramatically on the lower strings at the beginning of his opening piece, Stonehenge by Peter Pejtsik. It’s clear we are in for an exciting show.

His repertoire spans from the 18th century, with a piece by Giuseppe Dall’Abaco, (in Hudler’s opinion a ‘more sensual’ Bach) to the present day, with a contemporary jazz piece by John Zorn. Hudler’s cello becomes a flamenco-style guitar in one piece and bluegrass fiddle in another. The next moment it takes on a flute-like quality for Debussy’s Syrinx. Hudler’s choice of programme highlights the cello’s expressive range. His virtuoso skill and his sheer enjoyment are on display, as his bow bounces or rocks across the strings with ease and rapidity, his fingers whizzing along the length of the fingerboard. His tone ranges from warm and velvety to whisperingly soft. Special effects come from flutey sounding harmonics, percussive bowing, percussive finger-tapping, and detuning a string in some pieces to create chords with powerful pedal-notes.

His enthusiasm and warm personality shine through the whole performance and he even invites us to meet him after the show if we have any questions. There was just time for an encore, Song of the Birds (based on a Catalan song arranged for cello by Casals) a simple melody, alternating with trilling bird sounds.

Cello on Fire at Edinburgh Fringe at the Space Triplex, 18.15 until 24 August.