Improvisations on Classics Music performed yesterday at the Marama Hall lunch time concert was something new to most of the audience, as Trevor Coleman (piano, trumpet) and Nick Cornish (alto and soprano saxophones, cor anglais, flute) performed improvisations on popular works from classical repertoire.
Regular audience and students were full of praise. I had gone along fearing what they would do to Beethoven, only to come away intent on pulling out superlatives to compliment the musicians on their contemporary renditions of some of my favourite music.
Liberally decorated themes from Adagio cantabilelose, the slow movement from Beethoven's sonata Pathetique, retained their basic shape through tasteful extension, with original snippets emerging reassuringly from time to time, and Bach would have been impressed with the ingenious counter-melodies (especially by the soprano saxophone) woven into the mix, in Air from Suite D major BWV.1068, and Jesus bleibet meine Freude - BMV147. Morsels of original material received due passion and integrity throughout.
Liberal "blues" treatment veneered the piano chordal texture of the famous Largo, from Xerxes, by Handel, with subtle syncopation and rhythmic improvisation underpinning legato saxophone melody.
Paradise, an original Coleman piece, featured a section where trumpet and cor anglais played into the piano, with released dampers creating interesting harmonics effects.
The first movement of Moonlight Sonata, by Beethoven, was comfortingly recognisable, especially at the recapitulation, after diverse modifications and an outstanding climax along the way.
Gymnopedie No 1, by Satie, incorporated a busy flute obligato, while the familiar steady pulse was retained, but with syncopated and changing harmonic progressions.
It was a stimulating and innovative performance, never too loud, and I loved every note of it.
- Elizabeth Bouman
