Hearing Double

On Thursday 14 June the small acoustic version of the acclaimed Gavin Bryars Ensemble (electric guitar, viola, cello, bass) will perform with Ex-Hilliard Ensemble tenor John Potter in the intimate setting of our Goldmark Frontroom. Together they have toured all over the world gaining an international reputation. 

 

Gavin Bryars (pictured playing the double bass) is recognised as one of Britain’s most important composers, mixing classical jazz and modern influences in an intellectual yet accessible way. His first major work as a composer was The Sinking of the Titanic (1969) originally released on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975 and recently performed at the Barbican Hall in London to mark the centenary of the maritime disaster. 

Novelist Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) has said of Bryars "[His] music falls under no category. It is mongrel, full of sensuality and wit and is deeply moving. He is one of the few composers who can put slapstick and primal emotion alongside each other. He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle. With a third ear maybe. . ."

To reserve your place and see the programme visit our music website.

Then if you're still in the musical mood, swing by our Raoul Dufy page to see this lithograph from his Concert des Anges series.

Coastal Devotion

Calling himself a cross between a scrap man and a dating agency, Sid Burnard scours the beaches of the Welsh coast in search of forgotten treasure. Finding beauty in discarded materials, he marries disparate items to create extraordinary sculptural pieces that are lovingly brought to life.

In the documentary below Sid welcomes us in to his weird and wonderful world of beachcombing. Through his eyes we see how an old fragment of driftwood transforms into an elegant neck of a bird, or how a washed up lavatory seat takes on a new life as a boat:  ‘The Loo-seat-ania’.

It is a warm and humorous insight into a creative mind with an astonishing gift of seeing what others do not. Witty, playful and often surprising, Sid's birds, boats and mythical beasts will make you smile while you admire their serious artistic merit.

Exhibition opens Saturday 26th May. 

A Star is Born

Not only is Rembrandt recognised as one of the greatest painters of all time, his skills as an etcher are arguably unmatched.

The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds

The example here is a scene in the New Testament: The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds. It is Rembrandt’s first etched nocturne and displays his astonishing ability to depict contrasts of light and dark.

Christopher White discusses this early etching in his book ‘Rembrandt as an Etcher’*

"He achieved the richness of tone for which he sought, and gave the plate a quality which is essentially that of etching and not a mere approximation of a painting. In doing so Rembrandt had abandoned traditional methods, and the procedure he evolved in this print was to colour his work for some years hence."

To see more of that work, including other bible scenes and his famous self-portraits, click here.

*Rembrandt as an Etcher, Christoper White, Yale University Press, 1999, p37