I tend not to take photos during church recitals - it feels intrusive and inappropriate. I did take one of church organist Benjamin Horden in Temple Church, but he was facing the other way. I also took one from the back of Southwark Cathedral with the children in the foreground, but was told to stop - although I was given the option of buying a photography pass to start again.
Today's recital at St Bride's off Fleet Street, by oboe and harp duo Caroline and Harriet Adie (they're sisters), was particularly intimate. The pews face inwards along the length of the aisle...is that the correct word?...I must invest in a dictionary of church architecture terms before the year is up... could be the nave actually...Anyway, they face inwards and not towards the altar (pretty sure that's the correct term), so that there is room in the nave for the recitalists to perform. Caroline and Harriet were situated in the centre in front of six rows of chairs. So it was very obvious and rather toe-curling when an audience member stepped out into the narrow aisle between the seats, moved to within ten feet of the musicians and flashed her camera. After the piece Harriet very politely asked that no-one did that again.
I don't know a lot about music for oboe and harp, so it was good for me that the extremely elegant Adie sisters, as well as being fine musicians, were also keen to pass on their knowledge between pieces. Harriet, for example, demonstrated how to draw unusual sounds out of her harp. She also revealed, perhaps not surprisingly, that her sister finds it easier to play oboe pieces that allow her to breath - apparently not all composers take into account breathing space between notes. Oboe and harp, Caroline told us, is not a common combination, so the pieces they play are often originally for oboe and piano. One such piece, which I took a particular liking to, was by Saint-Saens. Unfortunately I've mislaid the programme so can't tell you what it was at the moment, but Caroline described it as pastoral. And she was right, it was pastoral. But why it was pastoral, I don't know. Was it because I have an idea in my head what pastoral classical music sounds like, and it sounded like that? Or was it more integral in the music...the sound of the oboe soaring and wheeling above us like swallows swooping and flitting over meadows...or something?
I don't know a lot about music for oboe and harp, so it was good for me that the extremely elegant Adie sisters, as well as being fine musicians, were also keen to pass on their knowledge between pieces. Harriet, for example, demonstrated how to draw unusual sounds out of her harp. She also revealed, perhaps not surprisingly, that her sister finds it easier to play oboe pieces that allow her to breath - apparently not all composers take into account breathing space between notes. Oboe and harp, Caroline told us, is not a common combination, so the pieces they play are often originally for oboe and piano. One such piece, which I took a particular liking to, was by Saint-Saens. Unfortunately I've mislaid the programme so can't tell you what it was at the moment, but Caroline described it as pastoral. And she was right, it was pastoral. But why it was pastoral, I don't know. Was it because I have an idea in my head what pastoral classical music sounds like, and it sounded like that? Or was it more integral in the music...the sound of the oboe soaring and wheeling above us like swallows swooping and flitting over meadows...or something?
More at harpist-uk.co.uk/chamber.htm
