Brighton-based guitarist and teacher Jon Rattenbury has been organising his "Platform" events down here for some years now. Billed as "an afternoon of guitar music by local amateur musicians", the events are a great opportunity for guitarists of all levels to perform for their peers. Most - but not all - of the performances are classical guitar-based, and range from solo pieces to duets and small ensembles. Jon's own Brighton Classical Guitar Group, comprising many of his own students, are often the centerpiece of the afternoon.
I've been playing at the event for some years now, doing my first one 18 months or so after taking up the instrument. I've played solo, in Jon's ensemble, in a duo with Tina Oberman, and in (if memory serves) four iterations of the Brighton Classical Guitar Quartet, directed by my own teacher Gregg Isaacson.
What's so great about the event is how mutually supportive it is. Some of the less experienced players are clearly putting themselves through this as a bit of an ordeal (making their performances all the more impressive, to my mind), and they receive nothing by encouragement from the audience.
Anyway, the event has been on hold for a couple of years, for all too obvious reasons. Jon actually revived the event at the end of last year, but Omicron kept some of us away. So yesterday's event felt like the real return of something of an institution.
Unfortunately, the BGQ couldn't play, but two of Gregg's other quartets did - and were in great form. My buddy from the BGQ, Olivier Thereux played two lovely pieces: Katharina Sydney Pratten's "Forgotten" and Julian Arcas' "Bolero". As for me, I was feeling a little reluctant to perform, to be honest, especially after my "shaky" performance (thanks, James) in the Springboard competition a couple of months back; a broken boiler incident on the morning of the event, with its attendant momentary breakdown in marital bliss rather shook me up as well. In the end, ST insisted I took part and I'm glad I did. I rolled out Turina's "Hommage À Tarrega" again and was reasonably happy with the results. Of course, adrenalin was there in spades, but for once it didn't completely wreck my right hand, which was just as well given the very fast triplets in the piece's second half.
So, huge thanks to Jon for organising and to everyone else for throwing themselves into the proceedings so wholeheartedly. Here's to the next one.
Oh, and here are some pics from the event:
Comments