On the occasion of Fiori Musicali’s performance of their ‘Vivaldi’s Venice’ at Bilton Grange Chapel, I thought I’d have a chat with one of the main instrumentalists of the evening, Heidi Fardell. Heidi’s instrument is quite familiar for many of us. It’s often the first experience that we have playing music. ‘London’s Burning’ might give you a clue.
It's that time of year where the summer's drawing to a close. But suspend your dismay, summer is still in full swing!
As you know, it's Fiori's 30th birthday. There have been some gorgeous summer performances to mark the occasion and the celebrations continue next month.
- Amanda Babington, Baroque, Canon's Ashby, Classical, Composers, Corelli, Handel, History, Instruments, Music, Northamptonshire, Players, Strings, Venues, Woodwind
Fiori Musicali have a residency at Canons Ashby which saw them perform at the National Trust several times last week. Every performance there is special but it was even more so this week as it was to celebrate the opening of the newly restored baroque gardens and to commemorate 300 years of baroque composer Corelli.
- Amanda Babington, Baroque, Classical, Composers, Gail Hennessy, Heidi Fardell, History, Instruments, Music, Players, Sally Holman, Strings, Venues, Warwickshire, Woodwind
Considering I’m ‘Fiori Fan’, it's pretty bad that I’ve not seen Fiori Musicali play live despite them being local. So I put that to rights on Thursday when I took a nice drive over Bilton Grange, a lovely old school in Dunchurch, Warwickshire. Friendly greeting from Fiori Musical at Bilton GrangeI was greeted by a grand building and some friendly students who eagerly opened the door for me - a great first impression. Service with a smile!
Did you catch '2Day' on Friday? Radio 2 mixed things up for the day, changing the scheduling to showcase the variety of music played by the station with this year's focus on the 'Orchestra'. Each programme looked at the groups of instruments in an orchestra throughout the day.
I liked that I was learning as well as enjoying a brilliant mix of music. For example did you know that an orchestra does not include a saxophone?
Handel is one of the giants of the baroque. But I don't know much about him. Now, we can't be having that can we especially around Christmas when his famous work Messiah is prominent? So I asked Penelope Rapson, Director of Fiori Musicali, what she knows about the composer. It might be easier to ask what she doesn't know but here's what she told me.
