Following an acclaimed concert at Trinity College Chapel in 2022, Alexander Baillie and Nigel Yandell will once again perform Wavesongs as part of a special concert being held at St George’s, Hanover Square, London to celebrate the CD launch.
Recorded in 2021 by Hughes Hall Director of Music Nigel Yandell and cellist Alexander Baillie at Alpheton New Maltings, Suffolk, this event marks the culmination of a long project, conceived and led by Hughes Hall, with support from Trinity College Music Society.
Nigel and Sandy; the cover of the Wavesongs album
Nigel Yandell spoke about the original Gordon Crosse piece: ‘Wavesongs is an important, large-scale work for cello and piano, composed in 1983 by Gordon Crosse and premièred in the same year by cellist and dedicatee Alexander Baillie and pianist Kathron Sturrock in Oxford and at the Wigmore Hall, London. A 22-minute tone poem, it is breath-taking in its originality and power; there is nothing quite comparable in the twentieth-century repertoire for cello and piano. Following the performance at Trinity College Chapel, it seemed appropriate to give the work longevity by producing a recording. We decided to present it in concert and on the disc alongside music by two French composers, Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel. The work by Ravel is a lesser known, but nonetheless noteworthy piece, his first Violin Sonata of 1897 in a rarely-heard transcription for cello.
Sandy Baillie added ‘this revival of the piece was intended to have been for Gordon’s 80th birthday in 2017, but the events around Coronovirus and Lockdown caused the project to be postponed on several occasions. Then Gordon died at the age of 83. This performance is dedicated to his memory’.
Cellist Alexander ‘Sandy’ Baillie and Hughes Hall Director of Music Nigel Yandell
All are welcome to attend the concert on Tuesday 5th March at 7.00 pm (St George’s Hanover Square, London W1S 1FX) in which the following programme will be performed.
Alexander Baillie – Cello
Nigel Yandell – Piano
Schubert – Sonata (Arpeggione)
Gordon Crosse – Wavesongs
Maurice Ravel – Sonata Posthume (1897)
Gabriel Fauré – Sonata for cello and piano No 2 in G minor.
Ticket details can be found at: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/alexander-baillie-cello
For more information on music at Hughes Hall, see www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/about/news/music-at-hughes-in-full-swing.
