This concert is now sold out. Keep an eye on Concert Diary for another concert at Leith Hill with similar programme in October.
Midori Komachi and Simon Callaghan, both internationally noted for their performance and research of 20th century British music, will perform and talk about Ralph Vaughan Williams' works for violin and piano in the the extraordinary surroundings of Leith Hill Place, where the composer spent his childhood. The event is part of Midori Komachi's RVW Project, which aims to bring Vaughan Williams' music to a wider audience in the UK and Japan through publication, recordings, film and events in the 150th anniversary year of his birth.
The violinist, writer and composer Midori Komachi has developed a diverse career in bridging UK and Japanese cultures through music. As part of her RVW Project, a new album is to be released on 1 July, alongside a Japanese translation of the composer’s biography by Simon Heffer. There will also be related concerts in both Britain and Japan.
The lyrically beautiful The Lark Ascending, performed here in the original version for violin and piano, the folk-infused Romance and Pastorale and 6 Studies in English Folksong, are programmed alongside the troubled tensions of the less well-known Violin Sonata.
“Through this performance and recording, I hope that listeners will be inspired by Vaughan Williams's complete sound world, which not only illustrates the beauty of nature and folksongs, but also reveals the most conflicted human emotions. His music speaks to us directly, and this is why I believe it resonates beyond national boundaries” says Midori Komachi.