Early Music Performance

Inside Out Festival 2012 is delighted to be hosting a series of joint events with King’s College London’s Arts & Humanities Festival 2012 – Metamorphosis: Transformations and conversions, which is running from 13- 27 October.

Jane Chapman Harpsichord Recital: The Transforming Power of Music – madness, magic and ecstasy

Joseph Kuhnau  (Bach’s predecessor at St Thomas Church, Leipzig),  paints a vivid and dramatic picture of Saul’s restored peace of mind from a state of melancholia and madness, through the magic of David’s harp playing in his ‘Biblical Sonata’. The harpsichord becomes a giant musical box in ‘Walzing in the Ether’ by Stephen Montague. Philip Glass’s ‘Metamorphoses’ composed originally for a staging of Kafka’s work induces an hypnotic trance, and Handel’s ornately decorated ‘Air’ and increasingly virtuosic variations from ‘Suite No.3′ transforms a simple chord structure. All topped with more treasures from the Foyle Special Collections Library.

Described in the Wall Street Journal as ‘one of Britain’s most distinguished classical harpsichordists’ Jane Chapman is equally passionate about baroque and contemporary music, and is involved in cutting edge collaborations with ground-breaking musicians and visual artists, exploring innovative approaches to performance. Her CDs of 18th century English music, The Lady’s Banquet, and of the 17th-century French Bauyn Manuscript, offered the first extensive overviews of important sources previously unexplored on disc. Recent recordings include Berio’s ‘Rounds’, and ‘Three Windows’ (with electric guitarist Mark Wingfield and saxophonist Iain Ballamy). Her latest CD, WIRED, features new works with electronics by leading British composers.   

Sharing the recital will be Steven Devine, a member of the Historical Performance department at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and an established solo artist. He is the harpsichordist for London Baroque, the co-principal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and many groups. He also has a fine solo career on harpsichord, clavichord and fortepiano.