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Lucy Parham
"NOCTURNE"
(The Romantic Life of Frédéric Chopin)
Exeter School
Sunday 6 November |
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| Alex Jennings |
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| Lucy Parham |
On
Sunday 6 November, at
3pm, the 1984 BBC Young Musician of the Year,
Lucy Parham, will be at Exeter School to perform a recital from her '
Composer Portrait Series'. She will be joined by Royal Shakespeare Company actors
Alex Jennings and
Dame Harriet Walter.
The now-familiar format will be readings from the letters and diaries of composer Frédéric Chopin and novelist Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant (née Dupin), better known in the literary world by the pseudonym 'George Sand'.
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| Dame Harriet Walter |
As well as being internationally acclaimed theatre and film actors, Alex and Harriet recently appeared together in the BBC Drama "This is Going to Hurt" which is an autobiographical account of the experiences of author Adam Key as a House Officer training in an NHS labour ward. Alex is the Senior Consultant, Mr Lockhart, and Harriet is his mother, Veronique.
Chopin and Sand were introduced to each other by Franz Liszt in 1837. An initially tentative relationship led to a 'honeymoon' in Mallorca. Chopin, despite severe pulmonary illness, which the locals suspected was caused by tuberculosis, used the time to compose his cycle of 'Préludes' for the piano in all the major and minor keys.
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| Frédéric Chopin |
Sand spent five months of each year with Chopin at her country house at Nohant in the Indre Valley. She nursed him and helped him complete many of his compositions. In 1847 they separated and Chopin struggled to complete any further work, while his health quickly deteriorated. His last concert coincided with the 'Révolution de Février' in 1848, which gave rise to the Second French Republic.
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Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevan
a.k.a. George Sand |
The event is part of the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, and is sponsored by Exeter School. Tickets are £28, with a concessionary price of £25 for students. Tickets are available from TicketSource - ticketsource.co.uk/booking/select/RdiEJKhzXNnT. Any disabled person needing personal assistance can obtain a free ticket for their assistant from the Festival organisers (email festival@budlitfest.org.uk).
Many thanks to Festival coordinator David Cornes for this press release.
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