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Joanna MacGregor

 


 

 

Date 6 August 2005 at 11am Venue First Baptist Church

Reviewer John Jane


Red Butterfly
Festival Vancouver 2005

It's indeed a testament to the success of Joanna MacGregor's independent operation and her reputation as a unique artist that she was able to pack the First Baptist Church on such a beautiful August Saturday morning. There is a level of irony, that she bears a physical resemblance to Ani Difranco, another enigmatic artist who performs at the opposite end of the musical spectrum and has made a career out of refusing to follow convention.

Suitably attired for "Saturday AM" in white jeans and her long hair braided in cornrows, she performed some of the most profound and inventive music in the piano repertory. From the beginning of her 60-minute recital with the delicate Baroque extravagance of William Byrd's Hughe Ashton's Ground to ending with Astor Piazzolla's famous tangos, her performance was laden with bravura technique tastefully put to individual interpretation.

Byrd's Hughe Ashton's Ground was juxtaposed with Thomas Ades's Traced Overhead . Although they were written about 400 years apart, the works, Macgregor cleverly demonstrated, had a unifying theme.

 

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Next were six typically tiny, heroic pieces by Howard Skempton. The first, Quavers 3 was a minimalist, percussive item that left many wondering how the Steinway could still be in-tune. The second piece, Eirencon (Icon of Peace) was, in total contrast, a delicate tone poem.

Ms MacGregor rarely engages her audience with casual banter. She appears to maintain almost “searchlight” focus on the music. It was 45-minutes into her programme before the audience heard her voice for the first time, revealing a charming South England accent.

Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor
After some impassioned playing and aggressive “off the keys” improvisation of her own neoteric transcriptions of a quartet of Piazzolla tangos, Michelangelo 70, Hora Cero Buenos Aires, Milonga del Angel, and Libertango Macgregor departed leaving her audience ecstatic.She returned to offer an encore - an epigrammatic rendition of Somei Satoh's Incarnation, that seemed influenced by a kind of Zen - haunting and perplexing.

Joanna MacGregor is to be applauded for bringing a challenging and diverse program to a new audience who may not be regular classical concert-goers.

© 2005 John Jane