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4.30 pm Mark Bebbington, piano - Music by Erik Satie, Hugh Shrapnel and Alan Hovhaness
Conway Hall £8 (£5 concessions) admits to whole festival

You are earnestly requested to bring food and drink to share

Mark Bebbington, piano

Mark Bebbington is one of the leading pianists of his generation, sustaining an exciting International career and achieving distinction for both his work as soloist and for his concerto work with many of the world¹s leading orchestras.

Described by Aldo Ciccolini as "... quite simply one of the most stunningly gifted young pianists I have been privileged to encounter..." Mark has established a particular reputation as an exceptionally refined and elegant exponent of French music and under the auspices of the Kirckman Concert Society, he has given critically acclaimed South Bank recitals that have laid special emphasis on French Nineteenth and Twentieth Century pianistic traditions. His Erik Satie café concert, featuring the UK première of "Sports et Divertissements" in its original version for narrator and piano toured festivals in this country during Spring 2002, before playing two sold out performances at "le chat blanc" cabaret club in Paris.

His passionate advocacy of unjustly neglected composers was reflected in a fifteen-concert European recital tour during autumn 2001, featuring premières of major works by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Mark¹s programmes also demonstrate a commitment to the music of our time and during 2002/2003, he performed the solo piano repertoire of Judith Bingham, Toru Takemitsu, Julian Anderson and Paul Max Edlin.

Over recent seasons, Mark has toured extensively throughout Central and Northern Europe, the Far East and North Africa and has appeared as soloist with the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras at the Barbican and Royal Festival Halls.

He has worked with many leading conductors, including Sir Georg Solti, Marco Zambelli, William Boughton, Norman del Mar and Grant Llewellyn, and has appeared both as concerto soloist and recitalist on BBC Television and Radio and also on Radio France.

Writing in The Times of his Wigmore Hall debut, Hilary Finch described him as "... an artist who has clearly already made his mark. Bebbington always uses his virtuosity as a means not an end." His Paris debut recital in 2001 at the Musée des Invalides - Grands Interprètes, Premières Armes Series - elicited an equally enthusiastic critical response and his distinctive artistry has been further confirmed by concerto performances at Birmingham¹s Symphony Hall and Three Choirs Festival with the English Symphony and London Concert Orchestras and his inclusion in numerous International recital and festival series.

In October 2003, Mark began a major South Bank and St John's Smith Square five-recital retrospective of the British Piano Sonata in the twentieth century. The series, which is the first of its kind in London for over fifty years, mines a seam of pianistic riches, including works by Bax, Bridge, Hurlstone, Benjamin Dale and York Bowen.

His CD debut release, which appeared last August on the Somm "New Horizons" label, features a critically acclaimed première recording of major works for solo piano by the twentieth century Italian composer, Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Born in Coventry, Mark studied at the Royal College of Music with Phyllis Sellick and Kendall Taylor and later in Italy with Aldo Ciccolini.

Alan Hovhaness (1911 - 2000), (b. Somerville, Massachusetts (USA); 8 March 1911) was a great pioneer in integrating influences from the far east into symphonic and chamber music, predating the term world music by decades. Rarely performed outside the USA, this is an opportunity to experience his soundworld in concert.

Hovhaness (also spelt Hovaness) was an American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent; and perhaps the most distinctive figure in contemporary music... also one of the most prolific, with an opus tally hovering around 400.

Chronologically, part of the generation of composers who followed pioneers such as Henry Cowell, Gershwin, Virgil Thomson, Carl Ruggles, Copland and the rediscovery of Charles Ives (therefore roughly contemporaneous with William Schuman, David Diamond, Lukas Foss, Bernstein, etc); but stylistically a maverick, whose music reflects a love of Western counterpoint and a personal fascination with by Indian, East Asian and Armenian music more obviously than any contemporary musical thought.

Hovhaness is said to have begun composing aged four; then studied with Frederick Converse at New England Conservatory and with Bohuslav Martinu%G¡%@ at Tanglewood. Despite an early interest in Indian music, his compositions prior to the Second World War tend to suggest a mixture of Baroque structures and late Romantic (particularly Sibelian) melody. The early "Exile" symphony (Symphony No. 1) (1939) and the String Quartet No. 1 ("Jupiter") (1936) - which includes the original version of his "Prelude and Quadruple Fugue" - are surviving examples (see below) of this early period of composition.

Rethought his approach to composition while working (as composer, organist and teacher) in Boston (1940-1952); partly in response to criticism of his work by Copland and others at Tanglewood. The imput of the mystic painter Hermon DiGiovanno (after whose work the "Celestial Gate" symphony (Symphony No. 6; 1959) was written) also became significant at this time. It should also be noted that much of Hovhaness's music during this period was written with a specific student ensemble in mind... like the Baroque composers Hovhaness admires, he found inspiration in the technique of writing for the musicians to hand.

Hovhaness's mature style was first revealed in a work for piano and string orchestra entitled "Lousadzak" ("Dawn of Light"; 1944); which introduced Hovhaness's quasi-aleatoric Senza Misura technique (often called "Spirit Murmur") to a wider audience. In this technique, individual sections of the orchestra are instructed to continuously repeat a cycle of melody without temporal reference to other members of the ensemble. Most obviously, this technique (one of the most common components of the "Hovhaness style"), creates a gorgeous sense of rhythmic mystery from which (in "Lousadzak") the solo piano slowly emerges... at other times, the technique clearly foreshadows the work not just of modern minimalists such as Terry Riley and John Adams but also the entire Ambient/New Age school of composition (indeed, Hovhaness later recorded a disc of his own piano music - "Shalimar" (see below) - for a "New Age" label).

(Composer Lou Harrison once claimed that the New York premiere of "Lousadzak" "... was the closest i've ever been to one of those renowned artistic riots.... In the lobby, the Chromaticists and the Americanists were carrying on at high decibels. What had touched it off, of course, was the fact that here came a man from Boston whose obviously beautiful and fine music had nothing to do with either camp....")

During this period, Hovhaness also lit the first of his legendary carthartic bonfires; and destroyed a large number of early works. While this gesture certainly reflected the depth of his stylistic rethinking, it's also true that the scale and terminality of these bonfires have grown with each retelling... at least one reference claims that more than a thousand works were destroyed in this particular flame. Hovhaness was also able to recycle supposedly destroyed works in later compositions: the Allegretto Grazioso third movement in his "City of Light" symphony (Symphony No. 22; 1970) originally derives from an operetta written and performed in 1920s.

Through the subsequent half-century, Hovhaness has tended to refine rather than fundamendally change his basic musical approach. This doesn't mean his music has been stylistically static (the New Grove has subdivided Hovhaness's musical career into five distinct periods)... rather, that underlining the differences in his musical texture has been a clear and uniform "voice". Extensive travel throughout India and Asia casts an obvious shadow over much of his music from the fifties and sixties, coloring but not disguising the composer's distinctive palette ("Korean Kayageum" (Symphony No. 16; 1962) was written for Korean percussion and strings); while the works of his "retirement" (from the early seventies onwards) have tended to return more to Western models... still, the composer of the early "Exile" symphony remains recognisably the same composer of the "Mount St Helens" symphony (Symphony No. 50; 1982).

The basic characteristics of the "Hovhaness sound" are easier to recognise than define; but one of the most obvious "markers" is the strong mystic/religious "feel" to all his works. Another is Hovhaness's distinctly "vocal" style (rather like Chopin, oddly) - even his orchestral work tends to sound as if it's being "sung"... an effect accentuated by Hovhaness's regular use of exposed solo lines over transparent string continuo (to use only the most obvious example, "The Prayer of St Gregory" for trumpet and strings from the opera "Etchmiadzin"; 1946). Again like Chopin, Hovhaness is primarily a minaturist - the longest "through-composed" work of his presently available on disc would be the "Majnun" symphony (Symphony No. 24; 1973), which in Hovhaness's own recording (see below) runs 48 minutes; but even this consists of nine distinct movements played with pause (the "St Vartan" symphony (Symphony No. 9; 1950) consists of no less than 24 sections).

Hovhaness's music uses consonant harmonies, organised modally or chromatically rather than tonally; and balances out the rhythmless sound of Senza Misura ("Spirit Murumur"; see above) with an almost riotous love of counterpoint. His music is generally and deliberately easy to play; although the exposed solo lines in works such as "The Prayer of St Gregory" can be subtly terrifying for the soloist. Throughout his career, Hovhaness has continued to find musical inspiration in the practical challenges of "gebrauchsmusik"... most famously, perhaps, in the "Symphony for Metal Orchestra" (Symphony No. 17; 1963), which was commissioned for - and premiered at - a Cleveland metallurgical convention (the symphony was therefore scored for the unique ensemble of six flutes, three trombones and metallic percussion). One of Hovhaness's most famous works - "And God Created Great Whales" for prerecorded whalesongs and orchestra (1970) - may also fit into this category; having been commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz (a regular patron of Hovhaness's music) to "fit around" a set of pre-existing tapes of whalesongs.

In the United States, at least, Hovhaness has generally been considered a popular composer; although in most other territories, his music is usually only available in recorded form. As more of his music becomes available on disc, it can only be hoped that non-American ensembles will be more willing to take on the subtle challenges of his music. ~">Robert Clements

The English composer Hugh Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, England in 1947.

In the late 1960s Shrapnel studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music London with Norman Demuth and Cornelius Cardew and had some private lessons with Elizabeth Lutyens. At the RAM he became friendly with fellow composition students including Eddie McGuire, Brian Ferneyhough and Chris Hobbs. Up to 1968 Shrapnel composed in the Schoenbergian 12 tone tradition, but influenced by Boulez and Stockhausen. Soon afterwards, under Cardew¹s influence, Shrapnel moved away from serialism to embrace the experimental tradition of Cage, Feldman, Woolf, Riley, La Monte Young and Cardew himself.. Riley and La Monte Young in particular, as well as Cardew, were powerful influences on Shrapnel¹s music at the time. The late 1960s were a heady ferment of new music in England with Cardew very much the leading figure. Shrapnel took part in numerous concerts and events at this time including the landmark first British performance of Terry Riley's In C with fellow musicians including John White, John Tilbury, Chris Hobbs, Michael Chant, Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons. These activities sowed the seeds for the formation in 1969 of the influential Scratch Orchestra, founded and led by Cornelius Cardew.

During these years Shrapnel wrote many "experimental" pieces from multi-media environmental works to pieces using a very restricted number of pitches, including a whole series of "white note" pieces all composed in 1970. Also in 1970 he was the co-founder of the "Promenade Theatre Orchestra", with fellow composers/performers John White, Chris Hobbs and Alec Hill, developing a peculiarly English brand of minimalism with its unusual line-up of toy pianos, reed organs, wind instruments and percussion.

In the early 1970s Shrapnel, along with many other composers of the time, notably Cardew himself began to move away from the experimental tradition and take up music in support of socialism and working people¹s struggles for a better society. During this time he began to take a strong interest in folk and popular music traditions from England, Ireland and many other countries; this has made a lasting impression. In 1974 Shrapnel, along with Cardew, Laurie Baker, John Marcangelo, Keith Rowe & Vicky Silva, performed in People's Liberation Music a rock/folk band specialising in songs of struggle from all over the world. At this time Shrapnel composed various songs and instrumental pieces based on anti-war and anti-fascist themes. Throughout the 1970s Shrapnel taught music in secondary schools in London and Birmingham.

During the 1980s and 1990s Shrapnel composed various instrumental works Combining melodic material from various popular idioms with the exploratory idiom of the experimental years. In 1991 he was commissioned by the Wise-Taylor Partnership to provide music for the exhibition Unity at the Slaughterhouse gallery in London. Also in 1991 he founded the Redlands Consort with Michael Newman (viola), Simon Allen (percussion) and Francesca Hanley (flute), a group specialising in experimental music together with Renaissance and folk music from around the world. In 1993 the Redlands Consort put on a very successful Cage Memorial concert at the Conway Hall, London.

For the past 10 years Shrapnel has collaborated closely with the composer and pianist Robert Coleridge, putting on many joint concerts of their works and of other composers. Around the same time he formed Amethyst, an electronic keyboard ensemble together with pianist Sarah Walker. In 1994 Shrapnel became Composer in Residence at Musicworks in south London, a music school for children and young people from poor and deprived backgrounds for which he wrote several educational works including and recorder pieces. In 1996 a very successful concert of Shrapnel¹s works was put on at the Blackheath Concert Halls in South East London including the suite for piano duet "South of the River". In 1999 Music Now released a CD of Shrapnel's music "South of the River".

In 2000 Shrapnel took part in a series of educational workshops in Edinburgh organised by the Irish pianist and Suzuki specialist Mary McCarthy. These events included a concert of music by Shrapnel together with pieces by the Scottish composers Ronald Stevenson and Eddie McGuire. Since 2000 Shrapnel has worked closely with the composer and baritone Richard Churches who has performed many of his songs. In September 2002 his early experimental piece "Silence" was performed in the new music festival "Activa Neuer Musik" in Berlin. In 2003 Shrapnel formed the ensemble "Vermilion" with Robert Coleridge, Richard Churches and flautist Claire McKenna that gave its successful inaugural concert at St Cyprians Church in central London in April 2003. Alan Zimmerman performed shrapnel's 1991 work for solo vibraphone "After 4 years" in New York in January 2004.