pOLyPhoNiCA Recorder Trio

St Luke's Church
Market Street
Hoylake
Wirral
Saturday 9th May 2009

Recorders: instruments of limited range and inability to sound interesting: Surely a concert of recorders would be boringly repetitive!

Wirral Recorder Orchestra disproved this in a sparkling joint concert with pOLyPhoNiCA recorder trio.

Introduced to the full range of the recorder family from Sopranino through to Sub Contra Bass, we were presented with a wide ranging programme which switched between styles eras and continents, the orchestra alternating with the trio. They took us on a journey: Through the well known, Fauré's Pavanne and Fossiles from Carnival of the Animals into (for me) the intriguing unknown.

pOLyPhoNiCA spanned from the medieval to an amazing African Suite. The culmination, a most enjoyable performance of an intriguing triple concerto by Steve Marshall. This brought the forces of Orchestra and pOLyPhoNiCA together to demonstrate their vibrant appreciation of the piece through unusual rythymn patterns, percussive elements and lyrical passages (things I had thought impossible for the recorder).

I later found, in the programme notes, that Grace Barton, Simone Curley and Michael Piraner who are pOLyPhoNiCA will perform in Utrecht, Kettering and Brighton and will also include this triple concerto in a concert in Stuttgart. Those audiences are in for a treat!

Chris Brown (Wirral) (Autumn 2009 edition of The Recorder Magazine)

King's School Ely
Barton Square
Ely
Cambridgeshire
CB7 4DB

Saturday 7th November 2008

"A highlight of the King’s School professional concert series: Robert held a large and appreciative audience with his mesmerizing tone and seductive phrasing. Sensitively accompanied by the equally accomplished members of pOLyPhoNiCA, the performances effortlessly transcended any particular period or style."

Graham Griggs, (Director of Music, King’s School Ely.)

All Saint's Church
Midland Road
Wellingborough
Northants
05th April 2008

I would just like to say how pleased I was to have attended the concert on 5th April 2008 in the beautiful All Saints Church in Wellingborough, performed by pOLyPhoNiCA. As a trio, they produced one of the best classical performances I have heard for a long time.

Their first piece (O Virgo Splendens) was performed off stage, this gave a refreshing and imaginative start to the concert, making the most of the impressive acoustics of the building and adding a slight mystery to this haunting piece.

This special start was by no means let down by the concert that was to follow. Throughout the evening the tuning and timing of the ensemble was top class, and the wide range of repertoire and instruments gave all three members a chance to show off both their talent and flair! Their performance of each piece was only enhanced by the introductions given to the pieces performed, and their knowledge of the instruments that they were performing on (no less than 20 in total!) this all demonstrated to the audience their passion and interest in their art.

The performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘Concerto No. 3 L’Autumno’ was outstanding with clear articulation and tight ensemble skills even in the most difficult of passages. The concert was given a fitting end with a faultless performance of “Pina ya Phala – African Suite No 2” by Soren Sieg.

The hospitality of the venue was very friendly, and the drink and nibbles in the interval certainly put the cherry on top of the already very big cake - thank you pOLyPhoNiCA!

Paul Betts (Northampton) (Summer 2008 edition of The Recorder Magazine)

Croston Old School
Croston
Preston
Lancashire
19th May 2007

An ancient church, a river running by and song thrushes giving their evening concert made the perfect setting for a very entertaining springtime occasion.

pOLyPhoNiCA, the recorder trio comprising Grace Barton, Simone Curley and Michael Piraner gave an excellent performance of Baroque, Renaissance and Modern music on Saturday 19th May in the Old School Hall in the charming village of Croston, deep in the heart of Lancashire.

The hall was filled with people from far and wide and across the age groups, all of whom enjoyed the unique sound of the recorder. The perfectly balanced trio caught and held the audience's attention with their clarity of tone and range of style played on beautiful instruments.

The enchantment of the recorder was certainly felt on this lovely evening

Pauline Dickinson & Helen Stephen (Autumn 2007 edition of The Recorder Magazine)

Summer Serenade (Recorder Concert)
Birkenhead Priory, Priory Road,
Birkenhead
20 August 2006

Established in 1150 by Baron Hugh de Mascey and dissolved in 1547 at the behest of Henry VIII, Birkenhead';s sandstone priory on the banks of the Mersey provided an excellent venue for the recital given by Grace Barton, Simone Curley and Michael Piraner as part of the series of Summer Serenades taking place on the Wirral.

A gem of a concert, it was performed by three talented musicians who demonstrated a polished mastery of their art. The programme was well chosen so as to be readily accessible to the audience, whilst occasionally challenging preconceptions as to what recorder music is all about.

The elegant solemnity of the opening, "O Virgo Splendens"; played on voice flutes, suited the monastic setting perfectly and delighted the audience with its unadorned simplicity providing the perfect foil for the piece that followed.

"Sonate B-Dur" by Louis Antoine Dornel, played with deceptively effortless grace and precision on Baroque-pitch instruments, was a splendid example of baroque recorder music, closely woven, sparkling and a pleasure to hear.

Given the eventual fate of the priory, it was appropriate that the next section included three songs by Henry VIII as well as music by Barbireau and van Ghizeghem, a piece of irony appreciated by the audience.

Played on G-alto, tenor and bass, these songs illustrated a different era of recorder music and lent support to the picture of England's most turbulent monarch as a true Renaissance man; soldier, scholar, linguist and fine musician.

If Baroque music proclaims the certainty of man's place at the centre of the universe, written in 1942, "Trio" by Harald Genzmer seemed to proclaim man's place at the centre of a world torn by war. It was probably the most challenging item of the concert for the audience, but the skill of the players, particularly Simone Curley on soprano, presented the piece with its subtle dissonances, unsettling to an untrained ear, as a glorious whole that swept through the room and held the audience spellbound.

"L'alouette" or "sus, or sus"; by Clement Jannequin which followed on was a jeu d'esprit, sunshine after the rain. The title is drawn from an old French virelai in which the poet reproaches his lady for staying in bed too long and exhorts her to get up and listen to the lark! The music mimicked not only the song of the lark but several other avian friends including the cuckoo, in a Renaissance dawn chorus enjoyed by players and audience alike.

An elegant rendition of Johann Mattheson's "Sonata VI in G minor" carried us through to the final item in the concert; a bravura performance of Soren Sieg's "Pina Ya Phala - African Suite No2"; "ka go sale moso" (Early in the morning). Based on traditional African rhythms, it demanded a manual dexterity and synchronicity of playing that was at times quite breathtaking and drew a rapturous response from the audience; an exciting end to a sparkling and multi-faceted performance.

Sue Jones (Meols, Wirral)