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Ensemble

Plangent Atmosphere

A duet recital by
Mariko Brown and Julian Jacobson,
heard by MALCOLM MILLER

 

The Reform Club's sedate grandeur and elegance, as manifest by Phileas Fogg before and after his eighty day world tour some one-hundred-and-forty years ago, was transformed into an atmosphere of expressive Romanticism and jazzy revelry at a superb duet recital by pianists Mariko Brown and Julian Jacobson on 29 October 2014. It is not widely known that this historic institution on London's Pall Mall hosts internationally acclaimed artists, but on this occasion the large audience comfortably seated in the high-ceilinged and ornately decorated library were regaled in a majestic setting with leading artists interpreting a varied range of works for duet as part of a regular concert series (with a range of impressive international artists) presented by the Music Club, on a powerful and admirably resonant Steinway concert grand which had formerly adorned the Wigmore Hall.

The programme, framed by two major works with shorter pieces in between, began with a treasure of the duet repertoire, Schubert's F minor Fantasy D 940, projected with richness and expression, formidable vigour and weight, as well as textural lucidity in the contrapuntal sections. The Jacobson-Brown duo impelled the final fugue with clarity and colour, the trills with delicacy...

Copyright © 31 October 2014 Malcolm Miller,
London UK

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JULIAN JACOBSON

PIANO MUSIC

UNITED KINGDOM

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