Myra Hess Festival
Clare Hammond: Concert to accompany 'Radical Harmony'
Tickets
| Standard: | £18 |
| Concessions: | £12 |
Please book a ticket to attend this event.
Please arrive in good time to access the building and find the event. Bookings close ten-minutes before the event.
Concessions are for full-time students, jobseekers, and disabled adults.
This event is open for House and Exhibition Members priority booking until Thursday, August 21, 2025.
About
Join pianist Clare Hammond for a captivating concert featuring music by French composers writing from 1897 to 1916, with Ravel’s 'Miroirs' as the centrepiece. Ravel’s music is often associated with impressionism yet, if an artistic correspondence is to be found, pointillism seems more pertinent. Like Georges Seurat, Ravel combined heightened sensibility with an almost mechanical precision and logic. He constructs textures systematically from small, repeated units that, in combination, produce landscapes of striking breadth and luminosity. The music of Gabriel Fauré and trail-blazing composer Mél Bonis forms a luxuriant contrast, with its enigmatic shifts from shadow to light. 'Autrefois', by Cécile Chaminade, is a touching tribute to music of the past.
Programme
Mél Bonis 8 Selection from 'Femmes de légendes' (1898, 9’) i. Phoebe ii. Desdémona iii. Mélisande
Gabriel Fauré 8 'Nocturnes' Nos. 12 and 8 (1916, 1902, 9’)
Maurice Ravel 8 'Miroirs' (1905, 25’) i. Noctuelles ii. Oiseaux tristes iii. Une barque sur l’océan iv. Alborada del gracioso v. La vallée des cloches
Cécile Chaminade 8 'Autrefois' (1897, 4’20)
Maurice Ravel 8 'Sonatine' (1905, 10’)
Clare Hammond
Acclaimed as a 'pianist of extraordinary gifts' (Gramophone) and 'immense power' (The Times), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances. In 2016, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 'Young Artist Award' in recognition of outstanding achievement.
Recent highlights include Grieg Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Moussa and Carwithen with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Concert Orchestra and recitals at the Aldeburgh Festival, Palazzetto Bru Zane in Venice, Husum Festival in Germany, and in Denmark and Norway with Henning Kraggerud.
She has performed Grace Williams’ Sinfonia Concertante with Jac van Steen and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Rachmaninoff Paganini Variations with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Lionel Bringuier, works by Piers Hellawell and Samy Moussa with the Ulster Orchestra and Jamie Phillips, and recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Lammermuir Festival and Festival Baroque de Pontoise, among others. She took Ghosts and Whispers, a performance piece for piano and film with composer John Woolrich and animators the Quay Brothers, to Fundación Juan March and to the Barbican, and continues her collaboration with actor and writer Tama Matheson.
Clare’s discs for BIS have been widely praised with Variations commended for its 'shimmering pianism and lightly-worn virtuosity' (BBC Music Magazine) and 'artistry of the highest order' (Musical Opinion). Her disc of Hélène de Montgeroult’s work was released in November 2022.