CATHERINGTON CONCERT 2009
This took place on Sunday 21st June featuring, as is traditional, students from the Royal College of Music. This time Jordan Black and Jaymee Coonjobeeharry treated us to wonderful interpretations of works by composers ranging from J S Bach to John Rutter. Jordan is a young British clarinettist who spent the first eleven years of his life in Africa, where he started learning his instrument at the age of seven. When he was ten he won the Young Musician of Kenya competition (Junior Category). Jaymee studies the flute, piano and harpsichord at the RCM. In Autumn 2008 he was awarded the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music's Gold Bursary for achieving the highest mark in the country in 2007 for his Grade 8 flute.
The Society is very grateful to the Royal College of Music and Peter Hewitt (director of the Junior Department) for providing these immensely talented soloists who delighted us all with their performances. We are equally grateful to Captain Harwood and his wife Julia for hosting the event in their lovely garden, as they have been doing for the last ten years, enabling us to raise substantial funds for El Centro Karen, one of our charities in Uruguay (see About Us, Charitable Giving).
This event provided members with a wonderful Summer's day out - the opportunity to meet and picnic together whilst enjoying high quality music in the most delightful of settings.
THE SOCIETY CELEBRATES AT EL INSTITUTO CERVANTES
As part of the jubilee celebrations, the Society organised a highly successful and well attended cultural event at the Instituto Cervantes, on Saturday 14th May. First, there was a fascinating exhibition illustrating the history of Uruguay: exhibits ranged from early maps and beautiful engravings of Montevideo and Colonia, through documents relating to the independence struggles, to twentieth-century images of Montevideo city centre. Then there was an exhibition of documents relating to the Society’s own history: the first membership list, letterheads from corporate sponsors, among which figured the evocative names of shipping lines from a past age. This section also included early bills: for the 1958 asado members only paid 17 shillings! We were also privileged to have the opportunity to show the work of two Uruguayan painters, Miguel Nuñez Rauschert and Susana Vida, as well as the fine photographic studies of present-day Montevideo, taken by Mirta Alaggio de Pither. To complete the cultural panorama, there was a series of videos, perhaps the most memorable being the highly informative study of Figari’s painting, and the delightful documentary on the restoration, in the 1990’s, of some of the most important buildings in Montevideo’s ciudad vieja. After such a cultural feast, physical refreshment was a welcome prospect, and Margaret Quigley did us proud, offering typical snacks, among them ‘Martin Fierros’, accompanied by Uruguayan wine.
It wasn’t just an Uruguayan day, though: during the week, at the festival of Uruguayan film, El ultimo tren, El viaje hacia el mar, and 25 Watts were screened.
PAUL JORDAN
ANNIVERSARY RECITAL at FISHMONGERS’ HALL
Everything we hoped for was in place and, except for the unavoidable absence of Gonzalo Acosta, who originally suggested all our celebrations, everything was as we had planned: a magnificent setting with stunning views offering the most delicious buffet supper in the company of members, selected friends and some family, to hear a well chosen programme of music which had us all enthralled.
The first step into the entrance and up the grand staircase of this rare example of an English Greek Revival (1800-1820) building didn’t quite prepare me for the opulence to come. I loved seeing the Doggett’s Men in their scarlet tunics with a large silver badge on the left sleeve (to show that each of them had won the oldest and longest boat race in the country if not the world) on the stairs. It was awesome to walk through the vestibule into the ornate Court Dining Room for greetings and drinks and then move into one of the most impressive of Livery Halls in the City of London, the Banqueting Hall, with two stained glass windows and the seating in a semi-circle around the piano, the musicians having the big windows behind them. Here we had a brief welcome speech from our Chairman, Rob Hendrie, and a handsome few words from HE the Ambassador of Uruguay, Ricardo Varela, thanking and heartening us to continue our charitable work for Uruguay.
We settled to hear Charlotte Swift, Principal Clarinet with the National Youth Orchestra and a student at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, who at 18 years old has been offered a place at Emmanuel College, Cambridge to read Music. She was partnered on the piano by Michael Dussek, Professor and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music; what an honour – we were in for a treat. And indeed, a Fantasy-Sonata by John Ireland, and Claude Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano and then, in three movements, the Clarinet Sonata No.2 in Eb major, Op.120 by Johannes Brahms, virtually his last work. What a treat! At the end, flowers and gifts and congratulations flowed…
Supper followed, taken in the Court Drawing Room overlooking the Thames where we sat watched over by the magnificent Annigoni portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth II – a sobering and thoughtful portrait, understandably famous, set among ever more opulent and gilded surroundings. It was a memorable evening, not only celebrating with music, but, in such a setting, realising how overwhelmingly important Uruguay is to us.
JENNIFER BEAZLEY
