Music Among the Bookstacks

"I think Elgar must have been a morning person," Alen commented in the interval, after we'd just been listening to the Chanson de Matin. We had a chance to compare it later with his Chanson de Nuit, which was lovely, but not as well known.
It was the latest concert at Booth Books, being given by Katherine Thomas on harp and Laurence Kempton on violin, both of them soloists for the Mid-Wales Chamber Orchestra.
The highlight for me was when Katherine Thomas explained how her harp works. There are 47 strings, colour coded so she can tell instantly what they are, and seven pedals! And each of the seven pedals has three positions to change the notes of the strings, which was why she looked a bit hot and bothered after the Corelli dances, because she'd been doing the job of an entire orchestra, and had been pedalling like fury! It was at this point that she played a short harp piece, La Source by Hasselman - because up until then she'd been pretending to be a whole orchestra or a harpsichord, but never a harp.
Laurence Kempton said he felt quite guilty that he only had 4 strings to tune - but his violin is very old and Italian, and doesn't like English weather, so while Katherine was doing her solo, he had put a tube of water inside his violin so it didn't dry out too much.
They also played some Handel, film music from Shindler's List and Ladies in Lavender, and a beautiful piece called Romance Opus 26 by Johan Svendsen, which was my favourite of the evening.
There will be two more concerts next month. On Friday 12th August Louise Thomson will be playing harp, and on Saturday 13th August, Rory Russell will be playing classical guitar. Tickets are £10 each from Booth Books. And the Mid-Wales Chamber Orchestra will be playing in Brecon in September, at Theatr Brycheiniog.