International pianist returns to his roots

WELCOME HOME: David James pictured performing in 1965. James will be playing at St Andrew’s Church on Sunday at 2pm. Gisborne Photo News, no. 127, January 28, 1965

Four Spanish pieces feature in pianist David James’s programme for a concert on Sunday at St Andrew’s Church.

“I like Spanish music,” says the former Gisborne man.

“I studied Ernesto Lecuona’s Malaguena in Gisborne when I was 15 or 16. The piano I’m playing on this Sunday was orginally in the family home in Whitaker Street. I probably learned Malaguena on that piano.”

Malaguenas are a flamenco dance style from the Andalusian city of Malaga in the southeast of Spain. Andalusia is said to be the birthplace of flamenco. Although the term flamenco did not come into use until the 18th century the musical form is believed to have originated in the 8th to 15th centuries, when Spain was under Arab domination.

Also on James’s programme is Isaac Albeniz’s Elpuerto, a work from Book 1 of the early 20th century Spanish composer’s piano suite Iberia. Inspired by the Andalusian town El Puerto de Santa María, Albeniz’s composition is a zapateado, a style of dance “with lively movement”.

Early 20th century, French composer Joseph Maurice Ravel’s Alborada del Gracioso also features among the four Spanish works. Alborada del Gracioso is the fourth movement in Ravel’s five-movement suite for solo piano, Miroirs (Mirrors). Each movement was dedicated to a fellow member of the French avant-garde artist group Les Apaches. Alborada del Gracioso (The Jester’s Aubade) was dedicated to talented polyglot Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, and is described as “a technically challenging piece that incorporates Spanish musical themes into its complicated melodies.”

Also among the Spanish works James will perform as part of St Andrew’s Concert Series is Manuel de Falla’s 1915 Danza ritual del fuego (Ritual Fire Dance), a movement from the ballet El amor brujo (The Bewitched Love). Because of its fast, repetitive trills and ornaments the work is associated with Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1910 Flight of the Bumblebee.

The harmony and rhythm of Spanish music is what appeals to James.

“It’s based on Spanish dance, like flamenco. In the piano music you can hear the castanets and tambourine.’

The first part of the programme is made up of 18th century Austrian composer Franz Peter Schubert’s Sonata in A minor, and Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin’s 1841 Nocturne in C minor, a work German pianist and composer Theodor Kullak described as “a masterly expression of a great powerful grief.”

Now living in the US, James arrives back in his hometown tomorrow, Chopin’s birthday.

Former Gisborne pianist David James returns to his roots to perform in St Andrew’s Church on Sunday at 2pm. Admission free/koha. James will lead a master class at St Andrew’s Church on Saturday from 2pm. Music teachers have provided students but people are welcome to watch. $10 admission fee.