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Oh boy, it's an oboe recital
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Don't miss the oboe concert tomorrow by Catherine Pluygers, a renowned musician from England, says SATISH KAMATH.
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Catherine Pluygers with her prized instruments.
LOVERS OF Western classical music in Bangalore have a treat awaiting them. The Bangalore School of Music presents an oboe- piano recital tomorrow at 7 p.m., featuring the renowned British oboeist, Catherine Pluygers. The silky and seductive sound of the oboe is rare to come by in India.
Catherine was born in Colchester in 1955. She studied oboe at the Royal College of Music with celebrated oboeists, and later with Ray Still (one of the best oboeists in the world). She has a Bachelor of Music Honours as well as a masters degree in composition from the University of London.
Catherine started her career as a oboeist in the BBC Radio Orchestra. She has played with Sadler Wells, Opera North, and other major orchestras of England. In 1985, she co-founded the now-famous Thomas Arne Players. That year, she founded the New Wind Symphony Orchestra and New Wind Summer School (NWSO). The NWSO went on to win the International Theatre Company (ITC) Business Award. She is also the recipient of the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Worshipful Company of Musicians Award. Apart from being a soloist, Catherine is also a composer and a teacher in her own right. She has presented her compositions in different parts of the world.
In Bangalore, she will play over a dozen pieces, accompanied by the piano. She will open her programme with sonatas by Martini and Besozzi. There are also works transcribed for the oboe. "The Joachim Andantino'' is an oboe transcription of a piece by this famous violinist. We will also get to hear the ever-popular "Swan'' from the Carnival of Animals by Saint Saens, transcribed from the original cello composition. That should be interesting.
Being British, she will include the 17th Century work of Henry Purcell ("When I am laid in Earth'' from Dido and Aenneas), the 20th Century Benjamin Britten work ("Six Metamorphoses'' and a Sonatina by Gordon Jacob). Rather amusing to note that there were no "great'' British composers between these two (Handel was German).
No wonder that England was called "Das Land Ohne Musik'' (Land without Music) by the other Europeans of the 18th and 19th centuries, till Arthur O'Sullivan came along.
What one really yearns to hear are the nine Norwegian folksongs by the Norwegian national composer, Edvard Greig. These are wonderfully lyrical pieces derived from Norwegian folk music.
The pianist of the evening is our very own Rebecca Thomas. Becky is a versatile musician, who is both an accomplished pianist and a teacher.
She has accompanied artistes from India and abroad. She has been a member of the faculty of the Bangalore School of Music since 1990. She specialises in children's creative music and holds a masters in music education.
Donor passes and tickets (priced at Rs. 99 and Rs. 50) are available at the Alliance Francaise Hall, Bangalore School of Music, and Supermarket on Brigade Road.
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