The June meeting of the Shipston Music Society was held in St. Edmund’s Church as part of the Shipston Proms fortnight. The performers were Craig Ogdon and his wife Claire Bradshaw. Australian born classical guitarist Craig is one of the most exciting artists of his generation and in 2004 became the youngest instrumentalist to receive a Fellowship Award from the Royal Northern College of Music. He has performed concertos with many of the world’s leading orchestras and his recordings have received wide acclaim. Claire Bradshaw studied at the Royal Northern College of Music before completing her training at the National Opera Studio and was a finalist in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards. She has performed in concert, oratorio and opera throughout the world.
They presented a mixed programme beginning with “Music for a While” by Purcell – an ideal choice to highlight Claire’s rich mezzo voice. This was followed by some beautifully sustained singing in “Lascia ch’io Pianga by Handel and two Venetian Lieder by Schumann.
Before Craig began his solo guitar section he spent a few minutes explaining a little about the instrument and the need for regular re-tuning throughout the programme. Then he began with movements from J.S. Bach’s Lute Suite no.3 which provided the opportunity to show his amazing technical skill: the melody was always clear above the intricate finger-work of the accompaniment. “Sevilla” by Albeniz captured the lively, rhythmic characteristics of the flamenco style with its contrasting major and minor sections and the loud spread chords. Two pieces by Gary Ryan followed. “Lough Caragh” a soft, rather wistful piece and “Rondo Rodeo”, as the name suggests, fast, and exciting with extra “percussion” from Craig’s right hand and played with great aplomb!
The programme ended with a section for voice and guitar. Two folk songs arranged by Benjamin Britten; “I will give my Love an Apple” and “O Waly Waly” with some lovely “sotto voce” singing in the final verse. “Aranjuez” was Rodrigo’s own arrangement for voice and guitar of the main theme from his concerto, with text by his Turkish wife but translated into French! It was performed with a real feeling of longing. Finally two songs by Jerome Kern completed the programme. “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” and “All the Things You Are” were sung with a lightheartedness and demonstrated the ease with which Claire can slip from the traditional, trained style of singing into the more widely heard jazz style.
After much applause our two performers treated us to “It had to be You”. It was a fitting encore to a wonderful concert by two very talented (and busy!) people and I’m sure that many in the audience, like me, felt extremely privileged that Craig and Claire had found an opportunity in their schedules to perform in the Shipston Proms.
