Fenella Humphreys & Antonio Oyarzábal VIOLIN & PIANO

Ravel’s World

7th March 2025 marks the 50th birthday of the extraordinary French composer and teacher, Maurice Ravel. This intriguing programme places music by Ravel alongside that of his teacher, Gabriel Fauré and students Germaine Tailleferre and Ralph Vaughan Williams. There will also be music by Lili Boulanger and Dutch composer, Rosy Wertheim who lived in Paris in the 1920s. Faversham Music Club regular, Fenella Humphreys, returns with pianist Antonio Oyarzábal.

Ralph ⁠⁠Vaughan Williams – Romance

Rosy Wertheim – Sonata

Lili Boulanger – Nocturne

Maurice Ravel – Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré – Berceuse op 16

Germaine Tailleferre – Sonatine

Maurice Ravel – Sonata no. 2

Fenella Humphreys, winner of the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Premiere Recording Award, has attracted critical admiration and audience acclaim with the grace and intensity of her remarkable performances.With her playing described in the press as “alluring”, “unforgettable” and “a wonder”, Fenella is one of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists, having also won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award. She enjoys a busy career combining chamber music with solo work, performing in the most prestigious venues around the world and is frequently broadcast on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala Radio and international radio stations.

Fenella performs widely as a soloist. Her recent album of Sibelius’ solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and George Vass has been featured in BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library, Gramophone Magazine’s Guide to the Concerto, and was Album of the Week on Scala Radio. BBC Music Magazine has written of the recording: “it takes an unusually fine artist to be able to bridge the two extremes. Fenella Humphreys’s playing is a genuine revelation in the way it brings out the music’s dark and introspective qualities, with no shortage of technical panache meanwhile.”

Most recently her recording of Adrian Sutton’s Violin Concerto has been released on Chandos with Michael Seal and BBC Phil. The work was written for Fenella in 2023, and premiered with the RPO at London’s Southbank Centre. “Humphreys, Seal and the BBC Philharmonic have its [Violin Concerto] linguistic number. Humphreys brings her endlessly unfurling violin lines taut, silvery weightlessness. The recording beautifully captures her duets with woodwind, and a tremendous dynamic range…” (The Strad)

Antonio Oyarzabal was born in Bilbao in 1989. He started studying piano with Sor Cecilia Keller and continued with Guadalupe López completing high school with honors and obtaining the highest grade in piano. Later, he entered in Musikene, in San Sebastian. At this school he obtained his bachelor degree under the pianists Marta Zabaleta and Miguel Borges, and trained in contemporary piano repertoire with Ricardo Descalzo. Antonio also completed a harpsichord Diploma degree wit Honors, training with Loreto F. Imaz. He assiduously received lessons from pianist Denis Pascal and the Armenian master Anahit Simonian, with whom he worked on piano improvisation.

Antonio has recorded three albums. All have received the Golden Melomano Award from Melomano Magazine and very positive reviews. The last one, La Muse Oubliée, was recorded with Ibs Classical record label and features piano works written by women. It has received a 5 star rating from BBC Magazine as well as highly positive reviews from The Observer and other magazines. It has also been featured on radios such as Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, National Radio of Israel, Radio Nacional (Spain) etc. It has recently been chosen as 1 of the best 5 piano albums of 2021 by Fanfare Magazine (US). Because of his work in the field of women composers, Antonio has been named Ambassador of Donne.uk