Tuesday 15 February 2011

Milos Karadaglic/The Ivy Club

A lunchtime showcase for Milos Karadaglic, a twenty something guitarist from Montenegro recently signed by Deutsche Grammophon. Despite its ubiquity, the guitar's profile as a solo instrument doesn't match that of the piano or the fiddle. Presumably DG believe there is a gap in the market so who better to fill it than a Mediterranean dish like Milos.

OK, so it was only a show case but it would have been more refreshing if he had come up with something other than Romance, you know, that tune favoured by buskers the world over? But it was Valentine's day, he reminded us.

Laydees, form an orderly queue....

Sunday 6 February 2011

Ivana Gavric/The Forge

Lordy, another new(ish) venue to check out. The Forge is a chapel sized concert venue located at the back of a flashy Italian restaurant in Camden. So far in its relatively short life it has played host to a healthy mixture of jazz, world and classical music, all done, it would seem, without a penny of public subsidy. Good luck with that!

Stepping into the beige coloured hall this weekend is Ivana Gavric, a young Sarajevo born pianist who has been doing great things since leaving the Royal College of Music in 2005. As curator of The Forge's mini Janacek Festival, In The Mists, she devoted an evening to virtually all of Janacek's solo piano works (there would be more, she told us, were it not for Janacek throwing them into a river in an unsatisfied rage). What remains is still some of the best music Janacek ever wrote. Gavric might have imposed herself on Janacek's angular rhythms more forcefully at the beginning but she settled into her role as story teller with great tenderness, helped, I'm sure by The Forge's welcome intimacy.