PlayFest

A day of informal music making.

Following the success of previous years, which reveald some wonderful performing musicians in our community, PlayFest returns for 2022.  A full day of performances split into 4 sessions.

Introducing this year, a Cross-Arts session, welcoming artists, photographers and poets to participate.

Family Concert with
Grand Union Orchestra

Berlioz: L’Enfance du Christ

Poulenc: Litanies à la Vierge Noire
Berlioz: L’Enfance du Christ

The Academy Choir and London Mozart Players

Immensely popular since its first performance in Paris in 1854, Berlioz’s great oratorio in three parts tells the story of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt.

The programme begins with a stunningly beautiful work for women’s voices by Poulenc.

The Soldier’s Tale

Music: Igor Stravinsky
Libretto: Charles Ferdinand Ramuz
Conductor: Robin O’Neill
Narrator: Robert Maskell
Choreographer: Kamara Gray

A revival of WIMF’s acclaimed 2014 production.
A fully choreographed, dramatic performance of Stravinsky’s iconic tale of a soldier’s encounter with the devil, re-imagined as a computer game, with the iphone as the source of all wealth and knowledge.
“A splendidly imaginative production…incisively witty text… It’s a theatrical tour de force that deserves to be widely seen” (Barry Millington, Evening Standard)

Brodsky Quartet

THE BRODSKYS CELEBRATE 50 YEARS
Three Astonishing String Quartets

Haydn: String Quartet Op. 54/2
Shostakovich: String Quartet No.8
Schubert: String Quartet in D minor, D.810 ‘Death and the Maiden’

Haydn’s Op 54 No 2 has been called the ‘most extraordinary string quartet of the 18th century’.

Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ is a wondrous masterpiece, many people’s favourite string quartet of all.

Shostakovich’s iconic autobiographical Eighth represents his ‘Testament’, using the four-note motif DSCH, Dmitri Schostakowitsch.

Pre-Concert Talk (6.15pm):  Given by two members of the Brodsky Quartet, Paul Cassidy and Jacky Thomas

Piano Recital

Antonio Oyarzabal

“La Muse Oubliée”

This is a joyful discovery of some truly remarkable keyboard music written by female composers, who are at long last finding new young performers delighting in championing them.

This splendid young Spanish pianist’s discoveries range from Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729) Amy Beach (1867-1944); Marianna Martines (1744-1812) admired by Mozart; to Mana Zucca (1885-1981) via Fanny Mendelssohn, Lili Boulanger to Vitezslava Kapralova, pupil and only muse to Bohuslav Martinů.

Lieder Recital

Benjamin Appl baritone
Sholto Kynoch piano

Amatis Piano Trio

Three Masterworks

Shostakovich Piano Trio No 1, Op. 8
Schumann Piano Trio No.3, Op. 110
Suk Élégie Op. 23
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No.1, Op. 49

One of the few permanent piano trios, the Amatis have been winning prizes and performing extensively throughout Europe.  They offer three masterworks for their return visit to Wimbledon.

Spanish Glories of the 16th Century

Tenebrae

Victoria: Requiem Mass, 1605
Lobo: Lamentations Jeremiae Prophetae

Tomás Luis de Victoria’s Requiem Mass is a masterpiece. For many, it represents what Renaissance polyphony is, what it sounds and feels like, and how expressive it can be. Some would say it sits comfortably beside works like Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mozart’s own Requiem Mass, and even Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as one of the truly great achievements in the history of music.

Connaught Brass

Connaught Brass are a thrilling young quintet who are quickly making a name for themselves as a fresh talent in the chamber music world with a vibrant and bold approach to their music – earning them 1st prize in the inaugural Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition in 2019.  Their varied programme ranges from the18th century Italian composer Pergolesi to the music of Florence Price, the first African- American woman to be recognised as a major composer, and finishes with the distinctive jazz voice of Kurt Weill.

The Pasadena Roof Orchestra

WIMF Jazz Evening, Cabaret Style

For over 50 years, to widespread acclaim across the UK, Europe and beyond, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra have been re-creating the sounds of the 1920s and 1930s, with songs from Irving Berlin, Ray Noble, Cole Porter and their contemporaries.  Relive the electrifying hot jazz from Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, and enjoy a special evening of live music, with more than a dash of wit and humour.

The Magic of Mozart With

Howard Shelley – Piano

Wiener Kammersymphonie –

Part One – The MARRIAGE OF FIGARO – 4.00pm

Divertimento K.137
Piano Concerto No.24, K. 491
Overture to Marriage of Figaro
Arias from Marriage of Figaro

Interval – Pre-booked Themed Dinner at LIGHT HOUSE Restaurant
As previous year, book directly with restaurant 020 8944 6338 – 75-77 Ridgway, SW19 4ST

Part Two – The MAGIC FLUTE – 8.00pm

Divertimento K.157
Piano Concerto No.9, K.271
Overture to the Magic Flute
Arias from Magic Flute

Bizet Carmen

Regents Opera

Directed by: Johan Ribbing and Paul Higgins
Musical Direction:  Ben Woodward
Carmen: Kassandra Dimopoulou
Don José: Howard Hutt
Micäela : Jillian Finnamore

Bizet’s Carmen was ground-breaking in its realism, putting the lives of ordinary people, gypsies, smugglers, deserters, factory workers and various ne’er-do-wells centre stage.

Scorned by early critics, Bizet died convinced that he had written the greatest failure in the history of opera.

But, as predicted by Tchaikovsky, it rapidly became one of the most popular operas of all time, with its many memorable songs, such as the “Toréador Song” and “Habanera.”

Lortie – Mercier Piano Duo

Astonishing Piano Duos

Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K.448
Ravel: La Valse
Stravinsky: Le Sacre due Printemps

Mozart’s only sonata for two keyboards is not only one of his most entertaining works but at the same time one of the most profound and mature of all his compositions.

Paris was the place to be for art, dance, and music in the early 1900s. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for the Ballets Russes, in 1913,  is one of the icons of the 20th century; and Ravel, in 1920, saw in his  disintegration of the Viennese waltz a metaphor for the collapse of society following the Great War.

The Yehudi Menuhin School

This always popular concert showcases the talents of some of the finest young musicians from around the globe. 

The celebrated violinist Yehudi Menuhin founded his school to develop their students’ talents to the highest degree within a nurturing and stimulating academic environment, regardless of their economic background. 

Celebrity Violin Recital

Charlie Siem violin, Itamar Golan piano

The Zemstov Viola Quartet

The Zemtsov Viola Quartet consists of four members of a remarkable family all playing the viola. All four quartet members studied with the great viola virtuoso Michael Kugel. Each of them has developed a distinguished international career.

They bring an unusual, but ravishing programme specially conceived for four violas.

Louis Lortie – Piano

A celebration of Preludes

“Chopin’s Preludes are compositions of an order entirely part… they are poetic preludes, analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams…” Liszt
Scriabin, whose 150th anniversary we celebrate this year, also wrote an outstanding set of 24 Preludes, modelled on Chopin’s.
We also celebrate the 200th anniversary of César Franck with his Prelude, Choral et Fugue, a masterpiece of imposing breadth and depth.

Barbican Quartet

Schumann – Bartók

First prize winners of the 2019 Joseph Joachim International Chamber Music Competition as well as the 2018 St Martin in the Fields Chamber Music Competition, the Barbican Quartet are quickly establishing themselves internationally.

Chineke!  Chamber Ensemble

Philharmonia Orchestra

Solo Oboe: Timothy Rundle
Conductor: Robin O’Neill

Elgar:  Serenade for Strings, Op 20
Dvořák:  Nocturne for Strings, Op 40
Vaughan Williams:  Oboe Concerto
Bartók:  Romanian Folk Dances
Mahler:  Adagietto from 5th Symphony
Elgar:  Introduction and Allegro

Two of Elgar’s masterpieces bookend this concert of exceptional works for string orchestra, full of nostalgia for time and place. The ravishing Adagietto, Mahler’s love song full of longing to his wife Alma;  Elgar for his beloved Malvern Hills; Bartok for the folk music of his native Hungary; and Dvorak’s reflective gem.

The lyrical Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto, written for the great Leon Goossens, is one the outstanding works for the instrument.

Brahms: A German Requiem

The FINAL concert of the OSJ Voices

Jeremy Jackman, Conductor
Sarah Tynan, Soprano
Roderick Williams, Baritone

This distinguished choir that has performed frequently at St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall, and the Proms, has invited WIMF to host its final concert, featuring one of the most popular of all choral works, the Brahms Requiem, in the 1871 London Version with piano 4-hands. Brahms was just 20 years old when Robert Schumann pronounced: “He has come; a young man over whose cradle Graces and Heroes have stood watch. His name is Johannes Brahms.” 15 years later, with his German Requiem performed in front of an international audience Schumann’s prophecy finally came true.

Screening of Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘King of Kings’

Organ: David Briggs
‘One of the world’s great contemporary organists’ New York Times

The 1927 American silent epic film, produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, depicting the last weeks of Jesus before his crucifixion.