Guitar Concert at Hay Castle

 I have a new favourite composer for classical guitar!  His name is Mauro Giuliani, and Michael Poll played his Variations sur Les Folies d'Espagne last night.

The entrance hall at the Castle was packed out, and the applause throughout the evening was enthusiastic.

Michael Poll was just stopping off in Hay - he's just returned from a tour of Poland, and is heading off to play somewhere in the UK next.  He started off with a seven string guitar, which was made for him - it's a sort of hybrid between a modern guitar and the historical instruments, and he used it to play the Three Pavannes by Luis de Milan (the oldest pieces he played) and the Suite BWV 995 by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Then he switched to a modern six string guitar for the Giuliani and the more modern pieces in the second half.

He started off with something very Spanish, the Suite Catellana by Federico Moreno Torroba, from the 1920s - he was a friend of the great guitarist Segovia.

I'm not a great fan of Benjamin Britten, but the next piece, by him, was fascinating.  Michael Poll explained a bit about each piece before he played them, and this was a set of variations on an original tune by John Dowland called Come, Heavy Sleepe, from a book compiled in 1597.  Unlike most variations, the original tune comes last in the sequence.  It was composed for the guitarist Julian Bream, who first performed it at the Aldburgh Festival in 1964.  

And finally, Michael performed one of his own pieces, bringing the concert right up to date.  This was a set of variations on a melody called Vltava, from Eastern Europe, and he was inspired by Benjamin Britten and Giuliani.  In this case, the original tune went in the middle rather than at the end.

He said he appreciated the chance to play in a building as old as Hay Castle, where the walls must surely have been witness to something like the earliest pieces he played.

Other music coming soon:

There were flyers at the concert for some up-coming musical events.

The Early Days of Bing Crosby will be performed in Hay Church on Sunday, 3rd September from 3pm by Thomas "Spats" Langham.  Tickets are £15.

And on the weekend of September 15th to 17th, The Fitzwilliam String Quartet will be performing several concerts at St Mary's Church, while at Hay Castle there will be a guided walk, folk music in the Great Hall at 8pm on the Saturday, and a showing of Disney's Fantasia at Booth's Cinema on the Sunday morning at 11am, with a guided walk around Hay with music in the afternoon, starting from the Castle at 3pm.

There will also be an art exhibition in the Parish Hall throughout the weekend by local artists.

Tickets are available from www.thefitzwilliamathay.com