Études 01

If I'm quick, just time to write about the first set études before the next concert. Flavia Casari played Tim Cooper's postcard piece, sort of minimalist in its repeated sections, but without the scented-candle harmonies; a study in keeping-going perhaps. Joshua Payne's piece, played by Alasdair Macaskill, was kind of a jazz free association piece, jazz without the four bar phrases, longish, clearly structured. Duncan Strachan's étude, played by George Duthie, started out with very dry two part material with driving and insistant rhythms, before making an unexpected turn to more lyrical material before, also quite unexpectedly, stopping.

John Roy Garrod's piece, played by Sage Pearce Higgins, sounded quite odd to me, rhapsodising warmly but puzzlingly between very conventional-sounding chords and very wrong-sounding ones. Finishing up with a rather beautiful, intense and poetic approach by Carlisle Anderson-Frank to what seemed to the ear quite trivial material in James Black's piece, revolving cipher-like around continually repeated pitches in the right hand.

As for the informal setting of the concert in the café; I kind of liked it, although I'm a little worried as to whether the pianist's voice will be heard clearly in my piece tomorrow.