Curry Rivel Music

Gerard Flotats & Julian Chan
2026-09-26 19:00 UTC | St. Andrews Church, Church Road, Curry Rivel, Langport, TA10 0HQ
The programme will include sonatas by Fauré and Mendelssohn, and Ligeti’s Solo Cello Sonata.

We are grateful to the Countess of Munster Musical Trust for their support to this concert.

Gerard Flotats – cello
Prize-winning Catalan cellist Gerard Flotats is a versatile young musician performing a wide spectrum of music, from Baroque on historical instruments to contemporary works with electronics. Winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Strings Competition, he has also been selected for the Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist, Tillett Debut, and Munster Trust Recital schemes, giving him ample performance experience from a young age. His recent engagements include concerts at venues such as Wigmore Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, King’s Place, and the Pierre Boulez Saal.

Gerard recently graduated with an Artist Diploma from the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, where he studied with Professor Frans Helmerson, with whom he continues to work at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona, Italy. He previously graduated with honours in both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, studying with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Academy of Music. There, he won various prizes in both solo and chamber settings, including the Regency Award, Homi Kanga for the best strings final recital, Duo, and Craxton Prizes. At the Academy, he also studied Baroque cello with Andrew Skidmore and chamber music with John Myerscough. He is indebted to many esteemed cellists for their guidance, especially his previous mentors Richard May, Peter Thiemann, and Xavier Roig. Gerard has participated in masterclasses with cellists such as Steven Isserlis, Mischa Maisky, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miklós Perényi, Jens Peter Maintz, Steven Doane, Gary Hoffman, Natasha Brofsky, Colin Carr, and Sung-Won Yang. Flotats has been invited to perform at international music festivals, including Yellow Barn, IMS Prussia Cove, Mendelssohn on Mull, SHMF, and the Santander Encuentro. An avid chamber musician, Gerard has collaborated with renowned artists such as Daniel Hope, Anthony Marwood, Alasdair Beatson, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Gilbert Kalish, Jens Peter Maintz, Linus Roth, and the Doric Quartet. As a soloist, Gerard has performed many of the core cello concertos, including those by Dvořák, Haydn, and Saint-Saëns, with the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, AIMS Festival Orchestra, OCCI, and the Cornwall Symphony Orchestra. Through innovative performances, Gerard aims to make classical music more relevant and resonant for today’s audiences. He is passionate about showcasing lesser-known pieces and collaborates with composers to introduce contemporary music to new listeners. Gerard plays on an Amati cello from the 1680s.

Julian Chan – piano
Rapidly developing a reputation as one of the most innovative pianists of his generation, Julian Chan has given performances at numerous prestigious venues across Europe and Asia, including Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Nanjing Poly Theatre, and Palau de la Música Catalana. Performing music by a particularly diverse range of composers, he has given alluring recitals featuring works by figures from Sweelinck to Messiaen, from Alkan to Rzewski, unifying these various styles in a captivating manner.

Julian has performed with numerous artists of international renown, including Anthony Marwood, John Myerscough, Dénes Várjon, Richard Lester, Dale Barltrop, and Charlie Lovell-Jones; distinguished conductors with whom he has performed include Jessica Cottis, Dominic Grier, Ryan Wigglesworth, Ben Glassberg, Jonathan Berman, and John Gibbons. Recently, Julian has been awarded First Prize and Sonata Prize at the Nanyang International Music Competition, Singapore, Second Prize at the Jazeps Vitols International Piano Competition, Latvia, the Royal Over-Seas League Collaborative Piano Award, First Prize at the Norah Sande Award, and First Prize at the Coulsdon and Purley Festival with his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto.
A passionate composer and performer of new music, Julian has collaborated with eminent composers such as Hans Abrahamsen, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Jörg Widmann, Deborah Pritchard, Elena Langer, and Peter Seabourne. Julian had his first book of compositions published at age 6, earning him the title of Malaysia’s Youngest Composer. In 2024–25, Julian was recipient of the Aud Jebsen Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, where he previously studied with Ian Fountain and Michael Dussek. He is graciously supported by the Royal Over-Seas League and the Keyboard Charitable Trust.

Tim Horton, piano
2026-04-25 19:00
Programme

Franz Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D. 935 no 1
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata no. 3 in C major, op. 2, no. 3 (Allegro con brio; Adagio; Scherzo: Allegro; Allegro assai)

Interval

Frédéric François Chopin: Polonaise in F sharp minor, op. 44
Frédéric François Chopin: Waltz in A flat major, op. 42
Frédéric François Chopin: Three Mazurkas, op. 56
Frédéric François Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise, op. 22

Tim Horton
Tim Horton is one of the UK’s leading pianists. He is usually to be found at major festivals and series across the country, and has performed with orchestras such as the RLPO, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. So we are very lucky to have him play for us in Curry Rivel!
If you enjoy classical piano music, want to find out more, or simply love music, you really couldn’t do better. And you don’t need to travel to London for it!

A recent reviewer said “Horton places a huge amount of emphasis on intensive preparation for a concert and it showed. Without the score in front of him, Horton gave an air of playing instinctively, as if coming to the Scherzos for the first time. A terrific performance! He received an ovation.”
Here he is playing Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A major:

The music
Franz Schubert: Impromptu in F minor
Franz Schubert’s Impromptus are a series of eight pieces for solo piano composed in 1827. They are considered to be among the most important examples of this popular early 19th-century genre.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata no. 3 in C major
Beethoven’s piano sonatas have been called “one of the most important collections of works in the history of music“. This sonata is referred to as one of Beethoven’s earliest “grand and virtuosic” piano sonatas.
There are four movements: Allegro con brio, Adagio, Scherzo: Allegro, and Allegro assai. At around 25 minutes long, it seems that Beethoven Beethoven was aspiring towards composing a symphony.
Chopin
The second half of the concert is dedicated to the music of Frédéric François Chopin. Tim Horton is undertaking a six-concert cycle of Chopin, which started in 2024 and ends this June. He says of Chopin: “His appeal is based, fundamentally, on complexity of emotion. As with all great art, his music exists in ambiguity – there is never just one way for a phrase or piece to be interpreted or “felt.””. You can read an interesting interview with him at https://tashmina.co.uk/review/a-terrific-performance/.
You can read about Frederic Chopin in our April Newsletter.

Huw Wiggin & Oliver Wass
2026-03-21 19:00 - 20:00
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’.
