A Happy New Year to all readers! Owing to a family illness, among other things, this blog has lain dormant for about half a year- not that it has gone unread! I will presently add a resume of musical events for the latter part of 2014; however, my musical year began this afternoon in Aberdeen with a piano recital at a familiar venue, namely St Andrews Episcopal Cathedral. The opening item was by the relatively local Morris Pert, his 1973 “Moon Dances” being an excellent opening piece; while I did play the first movement,”Io” at Musica Scotica 2014 in Aberdeen University, this was very probably the first complete performance in the Granite City. Next came “Zodiacs” a short piece from 1997 by one of Pert’s numerous erstwhile colleagues, the late Sir John Tavener- comprising three 12 pitch tone rows, it makes an ideal introduction to the principal item on the programme, Stockhausen’s “Tierkreis”(signs of the zodiac) which I performed in celebration of its 40th anniversary. This was the third time I have played the whole sequence in recital and the first on piano, as opposed to organ, and the first beginning with Capricorn. The next performance of Tierkreis in what wiil be a year long project will be at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh on 30th January at 12.15pm, and will begin with Aquarius.
Mark Spalding musicblog 