Neil Cowley Trio (+ dinosaur) doing their buggering up Bach thing (+ few greatest hits ha ha) at an unfortunately rather sparsely attended Apex Bury St Eds. All good fun - excellent band and he’s a great pianist and anecdotalist.
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Just out from performance of Madama Butterfly at Richmond Theatre, London, by Ukraine Kyiv opera company. Beautiful staging and performance.
Brought a tear, left a glow: Ukrainian national anthem sung at the end.
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Tonight at Cadogan Hall - guitarist Bill Frisell and (on viola) Eyvind Kang in duet. A gig rescheduled from LJF last November. Alas, no photos by order of the venue management but what a lovely performance, well received by the audience. The last time I saw Frisell was 30 years ago and he has matured like a fine wine, with his own unique sound world. Kang is an excellent, sympathetic foil for him. I was scratching my head trying to identify one maddeningly familiar tune that they did and later identified it as ‘You Only Live Twice’ by John Barry. A great version that they have worked out.
The only downer was the London tube strike and getting re-aquainted with the bus system to get to Paddington. Back To The Future circa 1980. 
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Joshua Idehen at KOKO in London last night. What a joyous, life-affirming gig with a fantastic crowd. I’ve never been to KOKO before but it’s a beautiful venue with an amazing bar. Will definitely return
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Nice! the added Akita, the dog to the cast.
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Yes, she was a good dog. Played Yamadori’s Akita. Her real-life name is Ingrid.
Imogen Cooper
Program
Schubert 4 Impromptus D. 899
Beethoven Bagatelles No. 1 to No. 5 Op. 33
Beethoven Bagatelles No. 6 and No. 7 Op. 33
Schubert 4 Impromptus D. 935
After listening to her Schubert on a radio, turned out she was going to be stopping by at Nijmegen for her Farewell Tour.
Well, she looked great when she stepped on to the stage but her first half of performance clearly she was not up to her usual standard. I appreciated the clarity and transparency as usual but she made too many mistakes delivering notes shattering the illusion.
Back half of program was better with less misplaying but my confidence was gone.
She played Allegretto in C minor one of my fave Schubert piece but it was lacking in tension underlying sadness through out the tune. My reference is Richter so that’s hard to top that, however.
I was glad to see her live but I see now why she’s quitting the recital circuit.
P.S. I just realised that I will be seeing her one more time in Chicago along with Jane Glover playing Mozart PC. She is extending the Farewell tour.
Concertgebouw De Vereeniging
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That is a shame, I hadn’t realised her age.
I know. I usually do not mind small slip ups but it was just too much.
I wonder if @EJS made it to the recital. 
No, I’m planning to see her in Amsterdam (although I won’t be in NL rest of that week - hope I’ll be able to make it)
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If you made it, do report back!
Katherine Priddy at Union Chapel (North London) last night. A really talented young (just turned 30) folk singer-songwriter, backed by electric guitar and keys/violin. She played some of her older songs and showcased most of the album she released in March, really good songs played really well and sung superbly. The venue was sold out and she got a well deserved standing ovation, great gig.
Union Chapel vies with the Wigmore Hall for my favourite London venue, the whole show looked great (although the pews are a bit hard after a few hours).
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Hope the bus back afterwards was OK ! 
Luckily I’m not far from a train to Highbury. 
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Going there tomorrow to see Bros Landreth
Enjoy.
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great to know the venue, thanks
Martin
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Juraj Valčuha Dirigent
Frank Peter Zimmermann Violine
Ludwig van Beethoven Konzert für Violine und Orchester D-Dur op. 61
Béla Bartók Tanz-Suite für Orchester
Maurice Ravel »La Valse« Poème chorégraphique
In Bamberg last night. Almost missed it as I had not looked at my calendar, luckily my better half reminded me. Frank Peter did a great Beethoven - he is always on a high level, never heard a weak concert from him. The conductor was new to me, but both the pieces after the break where great ….., while Bartok could have been even a bit more snappy….
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Baskery at LVLS (Hackney, London) last night. 3 sisters from Sweden, they call themselves “the queens of banjo-punk”, I’d say they’re slightly psychedelic influenced high energy folk rock. A set of excellent self penned numbers and a couple of Neil Young covers made for a great set, excellent playing throughout, lovely harmonies from all 3, lots of energy and charisma, fantastic gig. Elder sister Greta is impressive when she takes lead vocal and lead banjo while also playing kick drum.
The support act was a new musician to me, folk singer Maria Mihailik, good songs, well sung in a beautiful voice, nice line in self-deprecating humour between numbers, I’ll look out for her.
Edited to note the venue was new to me as well. It’s a basement club under a canal-side bar, black painted and minimalist, it felt like a real venue, no frills and good music. The food in the bar upstairs looked quite nice as well.
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