Stapleford Granary Arts Centre + Venue in Cambridge, EN

MARTIN ROSCOE

Saturday 22 October | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends 9:00pm, no interval

Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/martin-roscoe and Box office 01223 849004

Martin Roscoe, piano

Joseph Haydn - Andante and Variations in F minor, HobXVII/6

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Rondo in A minor, K511

Johannes Brahms - 3 Intermezzi, op. 117

Ludwig van Beethoven - Sonata in A flat, op. 110

With an extraordinary career spanning over five decades, Martin Roscoe is unarguably one of the UK’s best loved pianists. He has a repertoire of over 100 concertos, performed or recorded, and works regularly with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, touring extensively every season as recitalist and chamber musician. Martin has made over 600 broadcasts, including seven BBC Prom appearances and many commercial recordings for labels including Hyperion, Chandos and Naxos. He has recorded the complete piano music of Dohnányi, Nielsen and Szymanowski and four discs in the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series. For the Deux-Elles label, Martin has recorded the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, which received unanimous critical acclaim. Martin is Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Artistic Director of Ribble Valley International Piano Week and the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society.

?Martin's programme is drawn from the heart of the Austro-German Classical repertoire for which he is especially loved. Haydn's subtitle 'un piccolo divertimento' belies the intricacy and ingenuity of his F minor Variations; and the Mozart Rondo which follows is similarly deft, a composition of depth and intensity from the composer-virtuoso at the height of his mature style. A triptych of suitably autumnal pieces by Brahms offers an interlude of warmth and contemplation before this glorious programme concludes with the drama of Beethoven's towering late A flat Sonata.

ESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO

Friday 14 October | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends c. 9:00pm, no interval

Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) Book Online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/espen-erikson-trio or Box Office 01223 849004

Espen Eriksen, piano | Lars Tormod Jenset, double bass | Andreas Bye, drums

'Superb musicians on top of their game'

- Spencer Grady, BBC Music

Espen Eriksen Trio was formed in 2007 and has released six critically acclaimed records on the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon. The trio’s unique and acclaimed sound is founded upon highly melodic and lyrical instrumentals, described by the Independent as 'delicate, ambiently inclined'.

The trio has an ongoing collaboration with British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, resulting in the 2018 album Perfectly Unhappy and multiple sold out tours in Europe, including two concerts at the London Jazz Festival broadcast by BBC Radio. Espen Eriksen Trio’s latest studio album, 'End Of Summer', was recorded during lockdown and is a collection of captivating and lyrical songs, often melancholic and uplifting at the same time described by Jazz Journal as 'impeccably performed, full of crisp, beguiling melodies and improvisations that are thoughtful without neglecting feeling'.

'Captivating sense of lyricism, something of a lost art'
- Jazzwise

This concert is presented in association with Cambridge Modern Jazz

LIAM NOBLE TRIO

Sunday 9 October | 12:00pm

Doors 11:00am | Concert 12:00pm, ends c.1:00pm, no interval

Tickets £18 / £9 (under 25) Book online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/liam-noble-trio and Box Office 01223 849004

Liam Noble, piano & keyboards | Tom Herbert, electric bass | Sebastian Rochford, drums

'pianist Liam Noble’s terrific ‘The Long Game’ is a rhythmically wily, electronics-steeped adventure'

- The Guardian

Liam Noble has earned a reputation as one of Britain’s most versatile and inventive pianists, as a soloist, leader and sideman, combining knowledge of the tradition with a willingness to experiment. His most recent album, ‘The Long Game’, recorded with the iconic Polar Bear rhythm section, has gained numerous 4 and 5 star reviews. It’s a compelling mix of acoustic piano and electronics, an abstract yet vibrant set of compositions, both intricate and loose.

After studying music at Oxford University and jazz at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, Liam Noble started to build a reputation of note. He became the regular pianist with Stan Sulzmann and went on to work with Anita Wardell, Harry Beckett, Bobby Wellins, Kenny Wheeler and John Stevens as well as recording and touring with cult minimalist composer Moondog. During this period he also performed with John Taylor as part of Stan Sulzmann’s two piano quintet. His first album ‘Close Your Eyes’ contained a mix of standards, originals and improvisations and this mixture of approaches has characterized his music ever since. In 2004 Liam recorded the acclaimed 'Romance Among The Fishes' with guitarist Phil Robson. His 2009 trio album ‘Brubeck’ gained an almost unprecedented 5 star review in The Guardian and was described by the dedicatee Dave Brubeck as 'an inspiration and a challenge for me to carry on in the avenues that you have opened'.

This concert is presented in association with Cambridge Modern Jazz

APOLLO SAXOPHONE QUARTET: JOURNEY ACROSS THE IMPOSSIBLE

Friday 7 October | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends c. 9:00pm, no interval

Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) Book Online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/apollo-saxophone-quartet Box Office 01223 849004

Rob Buckland, soprano saxophone | Carl Raven, alto saxophone | Andy Scott, tenor saxophone | Jim Fieldhouse, baritone saxophone

Journey Across the Impossible: Music with Silent Film

The Black Imp - Rob Buckland
The Dancing Pig - Andy Scott
The Acrobatic Fly - Rob Buckland
The New York Hat - Rob Buckland
The Birth of the Big Gun - Will Gregory
The Collapse of the Bridge over The Tacoma Narrows - Will Gregory
The Man with a Rubber Head - Carl Raven
The Infernal Cake-Walk - Jim Fieldhouse
Journey to the Moon - Jim Fieldhouse / Carl Raven
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend - Will Gregory

'A unique virtuosic banquet'

- Classical Music Magazine

Quirky, thought-provoking and often bizarre, Journey Across the Impossible has been created by the award-winning Apollo Saxophone Quartet combining old silent film with enthralling new music. This captivating and intriguing programme is performed live by the quartet, without click tracks or any electronic synchronisation, re-creating the original ethos of performing music to accompany silent film, reacting and responding to the images on the screen in the absence of any dialogue.

Georges Melies’ Trio of Cinema Wonders features three experimental films from 1906: The Black Imp (which uses early freeze frame techniques to create the Imp’s magical powers), the witty and unforgettable The Dancing Pig and the slightly disturbing The Acrobatic Fly.The Collapse of the Bridge over the Tacoma Narrows is an early disaster movie using extraordinary archive and amateur footage and the comedic Dream of a Rarebit Fiend is a live-action film adaptation of the original comic strip by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. Mary Pickford, one of the most famous actors of the early silent film era, stars in the charming New York Hat depicting a tale of neighbourhood gossip in early 20th century USA.

Formed in 1985 at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet has been at the forefront of the contemporary music scene for over 35 years. They have generated the largest contribution to the saxophone quartet repertoire in the UK, commissioning and premiering over one hundred works, many of which have become core repertoire and are performed by quartets worldwide. Naturally innovative and exploratory, their bespoke projects include educational work and cross-genre collaborations. The group has recorded seven CDs of commissioned music including a DECCA (Argo) CD that reached number 3 in the classical charts.

DALLAHAN

Saturday 1 October | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends 9:00pm, no interval
Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) Book Online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/dallahan and Box Office 01223 849004

Andrew Waite, accordion | Jack Badcock, guitar / vocals | Benedict Morris, fiddle | Ciarán Ryan, banjo / mandolin / fiddle

'Some of the most exciting trad musicians to emerge in recent years'

- Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

Dallahan is one of the most distinct forces in the international folk music scene. Forged in Scotland and Ireland's traditional music community and drawing on the traditional music of the Balkans and North America, they create an original and seamless musical montage, blended with contemporary influences from jazz, funk and pop music.

Following the release of their 2014 acclaimed debut album 'When The Day Is On The Turn', the band toured extensively in North America and Europe, captivating audiences at prestigious international events such as Milwaukee Irish Fest, Celtic Connections and Tonder Festival. 2019 saw the release of their third album Smallworld, with songs that explore themes of unrequited love, famine and racial inequality with instrumentals that move from traditional Irish tunes and Roma Gypsy melodies to genre-defying originals.

'This is original, bold and brave music making'

- fRoots

LAURA JURD - THE BIG FRIENDLY ALBUM

Friday 30 September | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends 9:00pm, no interval
Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) Book online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/laura-jurd-s-big-friendly-band Box Office 01223 849004

Laura Jurd, cornet/piano | Martin Lee Thomson, euphonium | Danielle Price, tuba | Alex Haines, guitar | Ruth Goller, bass |
Corrie Dick, drums

'Simply stupendous ... a glorious, shifting collage of sound'
- BBC Music Magazine

We are delighted to welcome Laura Jurd to the Granary with her new brass-fuelled Big Friendly party band. This acclaimed trumpet player and composer breathes new life into Celtic folk traditions with a sprinkling of the blues and alt-rock alongside her band of world-class instrumentalists. Find big friendly tunes and grooves-a-plenty as Laura Jurd celebrates the release of her fourth album as a leader.

Composer-performer Laura Jurd's distinct voice as an improvising trumpet player is at the heart of everything she creates. Her music celebrates and innovates the rich traditions of jazz and folk music, whilst often reflecting her love of The Beatles and Stravinsky to name two notable influences. As a composer she has collaborated with the London Sinfonietta, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the Ligeti Quartet. She regularly performs throughout the UK, Europe and beyond with her Mercury-nominated band Dinosaur and can also be heard playing alongside London jazz band Kansas Smitty's. Recent collaborators include drummer Seb Rochford, pianist Huw Warren and accordionist / sound-artist Martin Green.

'Composer Jurd with her band of co-virtuosos have now pulled-off what might be considered a masterpiece'

- All About Jazz

This concert is presented in association with Cambridge Modern Jazz

GEMMA ROSEFIELD & NICOLA EIMER

Sunday 25 September | 12:00pm

Doors 11:00am | Concert 12:00pm, ends c.1:00pm, no interval

Tickets £18 / £9 (under 25) Book online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/gemma-rosefield-nicola-eimer or box office 01223 849004

Gemma Rosefield, cello | Nicola Eimer, piano

Felix Mendelssohn - Variations Concertantes, op 17

Leoš Janá?ek - Pohádka

Frédéric Chopin - Sonata in G minor, op 65

Cellist Gemma Rosefield has been described by The Strad as ‘a mesmerising musical treasure’, and by the London Evening Standard as ‘a phenomenal talent’. Her recording for Hyperion of Charles Stanford's complete works for cello and orchestra with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was hailed as being ‘superbly played’ (BBC Music Magazine), whilst Gramophone wrote that Gemma ‘plays with disarming character and freshness’. Gemma is cellist with the acclaimed Ensemble 360 and the Leonore Piano Trio. She plays on a cello made in Naples in 1704 by Alessandro Gagliano, formerly owned and played by the Prince Regent.

Pianist Nicola Eimer performs as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, Asia and America and has played at major UK venues including the Barbican and Wigmore Hall. She has won both the chamber music and solo awards in the Royal Overseas League Music Competition and enjoys an active partnership with the Swedish violinist Johan Dalene with whom she has made Radio 3 recordings for the BBC’s New Generation Artists scheme. Her 2019 album So Many Stars (with violinist Fenella Humphreys) was released on Stone Records and was Strad’s Recommended Recording of the month.

Their programme for the Granary comprises three brilliant and contrasting works for cello and piano. Janá?ek’s evocative Fairy Tale (Pohádka) dates from 1910 and is loosely based on scenes from The Tale of Tsar Berendyey by the Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky. Chopin's Cello Sonata and Mendelssohn's Variations Concertantes were written just 17 years apart. Mendelssohn's sweet, simple theme and subsequent variations shows the influence of Mozart and Beethoven but there is a final forward-looking outburst of Romantic fervour at the end. Chopin's great sonata is one of his last completed pieces. A composer best known for his miniatures (Mazurkas, Preludes, Waltzes), he is also supremely confident with the large-scale structural demands, and this sonata is full of glorious melodies developed with astonishing imagination.

MARK CROOKS QUARTET

Sunday 18 September | 12:00pm

Doors 11am | Concert 12:00pm ends 1:00pm, no interval

Tickets £18 / £9 (under 25) https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/mark-crooks-quartet and box office 01223 849004

Mark Crooks, clarinet & saxophone | Dave Newton, piano | Jeremy Brown, bass | Matt Home, drums

Four virtuoso and award-winning players perform arrangements of jazz standards, swing and bossa nova classics. Mark has released three highly-acclaimed albums to date and has worked on collaborative projects including Salud! Tom Jobim with vocalist Georgia Mancio and Jazz At The Movies featuring Joanna Eden.

Mark is a member of the superb Back To Basie Orchestra and the celebrated John Wilson Orchestra with whom he regularly performs at the BBC Proms. He was the featured clarinet soloist in the TV special A Swingin’ Christmas and on the John Wilson Orchestra Gershwin in Hollywood album, recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016. He has performed with artists ranging from Tony Bennett to Sir Simon Rattle, Lady Gaga to Dame Cleo Laine and at venues including Ronnie Scotts in London and the Lincoln Center in New York.

This concert is presented in association with Cambridge Modern Jazz

GESUALDO SIX

Friday 16 September | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends 9:00pm, no interval

Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) Book online https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/gesualdo-six and call box office 01223 849004

Owain Park, director | Guy James, countertenor | Joseph Wicks, tenor | Josh Cooter, tenor | Michael Craddock, baritone | Sam Mitchell, bass

The Flower of the Italian Madrigal

'Ingeniously programmed and impeccably delivered, with that undefinable excitement that comes from a
group of musicians working absolutely as one'
– Gramophone Magazine

Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the Gesualdo Six formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge. They now have an international profile, performing at major festivals across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia. Notable highlights include a concert as part of the distinguished Deutschlandradio Debut Series, a Wigmore Hall debut and tour of the USA in 2021, and collaborations with the Brodsky Quartet, London Mozart Players, Luxmuralis, William Barton and Matilda Lloyd.

The group released their debut recording - English Motets - on Hyperion Records in early 2018 to critical acclaim. Other releases include a festive album of Christmas favourites, Josquin’s Legacy and Carlo Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories for Maundy Thursday.

'Exciting, inventive, vibrant'
– MusicWeb International

Their programme traces the evolution of the madrigal from Renaissance composer Bartolomeo Tromboncino, through Palestrina and Monteverdi to Gyorgy Ligeti. The pioneering Monteverdi led the way in a new expressive style of composition, emphasising words as much as harmony and laying the foundation for many of the stylistic conventions of the Baroque. Ligeti's Nonsense Madrigals parody earlier madrigals by using old compositional techniques as vehicles for humorous portrayals of texts from children's literature by Lewis Carroll and William Brighty Rands.

The Flower of the Italian Madrigal
Bartolomeo Tromboncino - Viva amor, viva el fuoco
Philippe Verdelot - Italia Mia

Jacques Arcadelt - Il bianco e dolce cigno

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Io son ferito, ahi lasso

Maddalena Casulana - Morir non può

Vittoria Aleotti - Al turbar de’ bei lumi

Alessandro Striggio - Misero Ohime

Luca Marenzio - Potrò viver io più se senza luce

Luca Marenzio - Senza il mio sole

Carlo Gesualdo - Felice primavera

Luzzasco Luzzaschi - Quivi sospiri pianti ed alti guai

Carlo Gesualdo - Moro, lasso

Claudio Monteverdi - Ch’ami la vita mia

Ronald Corp - Venite a intender

Judith Weir - Madrigal

György Ligeti - The Lobster Quadrille (from Nonsense Madrigals)

CORDELIA WILLIAMS PIANO CONCERT STAPLEFORD GRANARY

Friday 9 September | 7:45pm

Doors & bar 6:45pm | Concert 7:45pm, ends 9:00pm, no interval

Tickets £22 / £11 (under 25) BOOK ONLINE https://www.staplefordgranary.org.uk/whats-on/events/cordeliawilliams call box office 01223 849004

Cordelia Williams, piano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Fantasia in D minor, K397

Franz Schubert - Sonata in C minor, D958

Thomas Tomkins - A Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times

Bill Evans - Peace Piece

Robert Schumann - Songs of Dawn, op 133

'Consummate artistry… touching real greatness'

- MusicWeb International

Cordelia Williams is recognised for the poetry and conviction of her playing and the depth and maturity of her interpretations. She has performed all over the world, including concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as recitals at Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Beijing Concert Hall. Her recordings of Schubert, Schumann, Bach and Arvo Pärt have been highly acclaimed: 'Schumann’s 21st- century interpreter and soul-mate': 'a superb concept… brilliantly realised'. Her 2021 album Nightlight received rave reviews across the board and was awarded Critics' Choice (International Piano) and Recording of the Year (MusicWeb International).

Cordelia's programme for the Granary takes inspiration from her Nightlight album. Spanning four centuries, from Thomas Tomkins’ melancholic A Sad Pavan for These Distracted Times to jazz virtuoso Bill Evans’ exquisitely hypnotic Peace Piece, the recital moves from the dark, conflicting moods of Schubert's late C minor Sonata to waking hopes for a new day in what Williams describes as 'the shimmering hope, glory just beyond the horizon' of Schumann’s Songs of Dawn.