Portsmouth Cathedral, 10 April – Catherine Lawlor (violin) & Valentina Seferinova (piano)
Valentina Seferinova talks about this recital.
Catherine and I have been collaborating on a CD recording entitled “Myths and Legends” since 2020 – it’s been a long journey… And finally, after more than five years, we are launching it at the 10th April lunchtime recital at Portsmouth Cathedral!
The audience will not only be able to enjoy listening to some of the pieces we have included in our CD, released on Willowhayne Records, but will also be able to purchase a CD or order it from their website. Naxos Music UK will be releasing it for physical distribution on 6 June 2025. We are very excited!
This recording originally was the brainchild of Catherine Lawlor and Mark Hartt-Palmer of Willowhayne Records, and they approached me to collaborate. Absolutely thrilled, I said “Yes!”. As the idea developed, it has become a more and more interesting and exciting project.
We were really eager to record the music of Karol Szymanowski – the 3 Myths in particular, as a centre piece of the CD. However, when we were planning the rest of the repertoire, we contacted Gareth Vaughan, music producer and musicologist, for suggestions as to how to expand our ideas and include some lesser-known and forgotten works and composers. It was him who suggested Otto Malling and many other virtually unknown pieces and composers that we have now included on the CD. The repertoire includes many pieces (from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries) that are really well written for both instruments, challenging us both as performers, as well as a duo.
As the 10th April lunchtime recital is really the launch of our Myths and Legends CD, we will be playing a few of the pieces inclined the CD, but also pieces we’ve not played before, one of which is Distance de Fée by Toru Takemitsu, so we are both looking forward to performing it!
And as I briefly mentioned before, we also have included a 21st century piece, which will be performing on 10 April as well: Anemoi by our friend and brilliant composer Ian Schofield, a piece he wrote especially for us and which is dedicated to our Myths and Legends recording. It’s inspired by a legend that describes the meeting of the four winds – Eurus, Zehphyrus, Notus and Boreas…
We will conclude our lunchtime recital on 10th April with Szymanowski’s ‘Narcisse’ from The Myths.
Which leads me tell you a bit more about the CD cover, which is an original work by Antonio Yotsov, a son of a Bulgarian friend of mine, who is a fantastic artist. There are many paintings of myths and legends, particularly from the 18th – 19th century, but we wanted something new and fresh.
Antonio depicted beautifully Narcissus looking at his own reflection in the water, and Echo – on the other side of the river, dreaming of being in love with him. The music on the CD generates certain kinds of colours and Antonio felt inspired by them and integrated them amazingly well in his painting.
And here is our programme for 10th April Lunchtime Recital at Portsmouth Cathedral:
Norse Legend H. 60 – Frank Bridge (1879 – 1941)
Distance de Fée – Toru Takemitsu (1930 – 1996)
Mélodie from Orfeo and Euridice – C. W. Gluck (1714 – 1787), arranged by Kreisler (1875 -1960)
Anemoi – Ian Schofield (1949)
Legend – Henryk Wieniawski (1835 – 1880)
‘Narcisse’ from The Myths (1915) – Karol Szymanowski (1882 – 1937)
I am looking forward to seeing many of you and some familiar faces amongst the audience, and of course to share with you the music Catherine and I enjoyed researching, learning and performing together.
Photo: Mark Hartt-Palmer, Valentina Seferinova, Ian Schofield, Catherine Lawlor (credit Mike Bradley)
