Harmony Beyond Music – Outsiders

Reiko Fujisawa (piano) fuses the sensibilities of a musician raised in the Far East who trained in the West. She has appeared at venues and festivals all over the UK and overseas including Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, King’s Place, Stoller Hall, Brighton Festival and Hebden Bridge Piano Festival, and was a featured artist at the Japan 2001 Festival. Reiko has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and her recordings include an acclaimed CD of music by Bach, Beethoven and Schubert, which The Arts Desk found “irresistible”. Her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations also received a glowing review from The Record Geijutsu, Japan’s equivalent to The Gramophone, describing it as an “unpretentious, clean and refreshing performance with a refined dignity”.

Wind Principals from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. A rare treat for audiences, this ensemble of principal wind players of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with Reiko Fujisawa first appeared together during the inaugural season at Cadogan Hall in 2006 and have since performed together around the world.

Featuring: Emer McDonough (flute), Patrick Flanaghan (oboe), Katherine Lacy (clarinet), Richard Ion (bassoon) and Alex Edmundson (French horn).

Peter Quantrill writes on music for Gramophone, Opera, The Strad and other specialist classical publications. His programme notes have been published by the Salzburg, Edinburgh and Cheltenham festivals, and by record labels including Delphian, Signum and Brilliant Classics. Peter reviews for The Arts Desk and BachTrack.

A quartet of composers who never fitted into polite society. Satie and his music took a sideways look at Belle Epoque Paris, while Rued Langgaard stuck to his Romantic voice in a Danish world of music dominated by Carl Nielsen. Growing up as a labourer’s son on a small island, Nielsen himself never fitted other people’s ideas of a sophisticated artist, while Beethoven tugged at the strings of patronage which dictated the terms of a composer as servant to his masters. Compromise was an alien word to all four composers, and their music is proud to be different.

‘Outsiders is the latest instalment of ‘Harmony Beyond Music’, a series of chamber music concerts exploring themes of equality and diversity, performed by Reiko Fujisawa and friends, and presented by Peter Quantrill.’

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