Kate Semmens (soprano) and Steven Devine (piano)Our final weekend
event at the Georgian House in association with the exhibition _Music
& Migration in Georgian Edinburgh: The Story of Felix Yaniewicz_,
celebrating the co-founder of the first Edinburgh music festival of
1815.Kate Semmens and Steven Devine bring to life the intriguing story
of the musical collaboration between the Polish-Lithuanian composer,
violinist and impresario, Felix Yaniewicz, and the most famous
operatic soprano of the day, Angelica Catalani. Yaniewicz was a
musical entrepreneur of great energy and flair, and soon after his
arrival in Britain around 1790, he was organising concerts up and down
the country. Demonstrating a keen instinct for fashionable taste,
his activities as an impresario were shaped by the musical appetites
of contemporary audiences, involving a fine balancing act between
musical integrity and commercial appeal. His partnership with the
great diva Mme Catalani richly illustrates the perils of consorting
with a musical superstar. As a celebrated violinist, Yaniewicz
himself was renowned for virtuosity, but La Catalani gave the term a
whole new meaning, with a level of lavish ornamentation and display
that put her performances on a knife-edge between astonishing bravura
and what one reviewer termed ‘fantastical excess’. Drawing on
original concert programmes and contemporary reviews, this
entertaining recital using the Yaniewicz & Green square piano c.1810
recreates their colourful partnership for a modern audience, and
offers a fascinating insight into Yaniewicz’s influential role in
Georgian musical culture.This event has been generously supported by
the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh.Kate
Semmens (soprano) is in demand as a soloist specialising in historical
performance. She has sung operatic roles from Monteverdi to Mozart,
and regularly performs with Steven Devine in song recitals with
harpsichord and pianoforte. Their recordings together include two CDs
of seventeenth-century English song, and Music from Anna Magdalena
Bach’s notebook.Steven Devine is Principal Keyboard Player with the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and performs regularly with
early music ensembles all over Europe. He has recorded over 30
ensemble discs, and 6 solo discs including widely acclaimed recordings
of Bach’s WellTempered Clavier and Goldberg Variations. As a
conductor, he has directed the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
at the Proms, the Mozart Festival Orchestra, New Chamber Opera, and
the English Haydn Festival
