Huw Wiggin & Oliver Wass

Programme

• • Kovács – Sholem-alekhem, rov Feidman!
  • Couperin – Le Rossignol en amour
  • Arvo Pärt – Spiegel Im Spiegel
  • Charlotte Harding – Euphotic
  • Harp solo
  • Bach – Aria from the Goldberg Variations BWV 988
  • Andy Scott – Sussurros Brasileiros

Interval

• Philip Glass – Façades
• Gershwin – Someone to watch over me and Summertime
• Tarrega – Recuerdos de la Alhambra
• Bernstein – somewhere
• Fauré – Pavane
• Borne – “Carmen” Fantasy

You can see a review of this wonderful concert here.

Huw and Oliver wowed us with their concert here in 2022, and Oliver in 2023 with the excellent Pelleas Ensemble.

Harp and saxophone is a combination that really works. With Oliver’s harp playing, you can forget angels and princesses in flowing dresses: what you get is the greatest music, played by a performer at the very top of his game. And saxophone? Who doesn’t like saxophone? Played by a professor of the instrument, you know you are in for a real treat.

They have chosen some wonderful pieces, too.

Although Francois Couperin lived 300 years ago, his music has a freshness and spirit that still means something to the modern ear.

Did you know that Arvo Pärt is the world’s most-performed contemporary composer? Nor did we; but it’s easy to understand why. Spiegel Im Spiegel takes the listener to a heavenly meditative plane (OK, maybe a bit of angelic influence, then!) Bach’s Goldberg Variations are another slice of heaven. If your ear is more attuned to rock, Philip Glass is a great place to start with classical music (he has worked with the likes of Brian Eno and David Bowie). You do, of course, know and love Gershwin’s “Summertime”. And “Somewhere (There’s a Place For Us)” from West Side Story. Add in Fauré’s Pavane and other pieces less familiar, perhaps, and you have an evening of music that you are certain to enjoy.

Huw Wiggin & Oliver Wass

Since forming their duo in 2016, saxophonist Huw Wiggin and harpist Oliver Wass have continued to develop and refine their programmes of music for this unusual pairing of instruments. Huw and Oliver particularly enjoyed their recent concerts for Absolute Classics and Gower Festival, and have developed a reputation as warm communicators who draw audiences into their intimate and engaging performances.

The duo features on Orchid Classics disc ‘Reflections’ which received a four-star review from BBC Music Magazine and five stars from Robert Hugill, who described the duo as ‘a seemingly unlikely combination that works real magic’. The disc reached no. 2 in the UK Specialist Classical Chart and no. 6 in the iTunes Classical Chart. Shortly after the release they were also featured by Classic FM, who filmed and released a video containing a selection of items from ‘Reflections’.