A London performance of Seven Fantasies on Turning the Tide

Bobby Chen will include this in his upcoming recital for the Chopin Society on Sunday March 23rd at 4.30pm at Westminster Cathedral Hall, (behind the Cathedral). All welcome.

The programme will also have music by Schubert, Haydn, Liszt and Chopin. For full details see The Chopin Society.

Seven Fantasies based on ‘Turning the Tide’

Turning the Tide was a Darlington Piano Society commission composed for Bobby Chen in 2007. It is is a tone poem inspired by a visit to the coastal area to the East Durham. An imaginary path is traced from the original wildness of the landscape, through the ravages of coal mining, and back to the calmness of the nature reserve it has become.

The Seven Fantasies are as follows:

1. Waves – an undulating theme capturing the timeless quality of a remote seashore.
2. Birds – a contrapuntal movement in which evocations of birdsong in a forest pop up in different registers.
3. Machines – a vigorous piece inspired by the random rhythms of pile driving on a Durham building site.
4. Calm – a piece that invokes the eerie stillness of the dry riverbed at Castel Eden Dean left untouched by the coal mining.
5. Machines Dance – a jig like piece and a recognition of the vigour of the coal miners.
6. Celebration – a reflection of the liveliness of the supporting community at that time.
7. Reflections – brings us back to nature distilling the timeless themes already introduced in Waves and Calm.

Butterfly Concerts will return when possible.

The Cobweb Orchestra visits Hove!

On Saturday 5th October a contingent of the Cobweb Orchestra came to Bishop Hannington Church, Hove to play Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Read about the event.

The Cobweb Orchestra is an open access, multi award winning orchestra based in the North of England where it comprises a regional network of local community groups meeting weekly, and a programme of weekend events open to all.