Trunch Concerts in St Botolph’s Church. Season 2018

Veronica Henderson (cello)

Jill Morton (piano)

French Extravaganza Evening:
Chopin, Saint-Saens, Debussy,  Messiaen

Saturday 14th July 2018, 7.30pm
Licensed bar from 6.30pm

As 14 July is the French national day, Veronica Henderson and Jill Morton have put together a programme mainly consisting of extravagant French cello music.

Veronica and Jill performed a suite by Marin Marais, who was a musician at the court of Louis XIV (and more recently the subject of the novel, and then the film, “All the Mornings of the World” – Tousles Matins du Monde). The concert also included music by Saint-Saens, Debussyand Messiaen.

The concert  was attended by about 50 people. It was a deeply moving experience, especially the audience liked the masterpieces of Debussy, Messiaen and Chopin. Takings on the door were £413 before expenses, thanks to everyone who attended the concert. Photos of the concert are here.

Veronica Henderson is a well-known figure in the Cambridge musical scene where she teaches – and gives public concerts there, in London and elsewhere.
Veronica  studied music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and then specialised in the cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
She has appeared many times in the Cambridge Summer Recitals and at Anglia Ruskin University. She played in 2010 for the Cambridge Szeged Society in a concert of Hungarian and British music, and for Strathclyde University. In 2013 she gave 5 performances of Ravel’s Duo Sonata with the violinist, Gwen Owen Richer, and performed the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the K. 239 Chamber Orchestra in Cambridge. In 2014 she performed Rütti’s “Lieder der Liebe” again, in the presence of the composer in St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh. Last year she was running a series of concerts entitled “Perspectives on the Bach Cello Suites”.

The two Saint-Saens pieces are from very different periods in the composer’s life.
The Messiaen is the culmination in the mid-20th C of the movement via Debussy, going right back to the French baroque, of a desire for a uniquely French style, while obviously being associated with the theme of war.
To remind us of the country that we live in, Veronicaand Jill also played a sonata by an English composer, Frank Bridge (1979-1941). The Bridge Sonata was written around a similar time to the Debussy, but shows within a few years of writing a marked change within the work.
The Chopin (Polonaise Brillante) is an example of a foreigner in Paris…and a more sparkling mood to finish the concert!

All concert proceeds  donated to St. Botolph’s Church conservation and restoration projects.