One week earlier than usual, we met on April 11th in the Methodist Church in New Street to hear Japheth Law, a young Malaysian flautist accompanied by Charles Matthews.
Japheth began his flute lessons with Iun Chen Kim in his hometown, Kuching and later studied in Kuala Lumpur. In 2015 he was accepted into the highly acclaimed flute studio of Trevor Wye. Later that year Japheth became the youngest graduate of that studio. He completed his studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with distinction in 2024. Having already won many awards he has been generously supported by the Leverhulme Arts Scholarship and was a recipient of the 2022 Musicians’ Company Award. His accompanist for this recital was Charles Matthews, organist of St. Catharine’s Church, Chipping Campden and tutor of organ at the RBC. He has won numerous awards in international piano and organ competitions in Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. He works extensively with young people and acts as an accompanist for students at the RBC. He is Musical Director of the Camden Chorus and Patron of our Music Society.
Japheth began with a short introduction about himself before playing Elgar’s well-known “Salut d’amour”. Immediately one was impressed by Japheth’s lovely phrasing and clear tone quality. “Fantaisie Pastorale Hongroise” by Franz Doppler (1821 – 1883) was a lively contrast. Doppler was a flute virtuoso, famous for his flute compositions. This piece with very fast scale passages demanded a secure and confident execution which Japheth was able to deliver with ease. “Madrigal” by Philippe Gaubert with imitation between the two performers, was a more modern sounding piece although it was composed within the same timescale as those by Doppler. “Chanson” by Yiqing Zhu was an exciting piece for the listener with very rapid scale passages which Japheth was able to play at such speed that they almost became glissandi! A most exciting performance to discuss during the interval.
The second part of the evening began with the very well-known John Rutter and his “Suite Antique”, movements 1-4. These short contrasting movements, “Prelude”, “Ostinato”, “Aria” and “Waltz” had all the lyrical quality that one expects from Rutter. Japheth obviously enjoyed playing them and his beautiful legato performance was a delight. Next on the programme, “Signs of the Zodiac” by Charles Matthews. We heard just five of these pieces, “Aries”; “Libra”; “Scorpio”; “Aquarius”; and “Pisces” but they captured the characteristics of each title so well. The evening ended with “Earth” by Takatsugu Muramatsu which again highlighted the high level of performance that we had all enjoyed throughout the evening from Japheth and Charles. It was outstanding – and was rewarded with rapturous applause.
