Weekly concerts at St Mary in the Baum resume with summer sparkle

Maria King performed at the first weekly Toad Lane concert in 18 months

The Toad Lane Concerts at St Mary in the Baum restarted this week after 18 months, with a stunning performance from concert pianist extraordinaire Maria King.

Apart from a successful pilot event during Covid in May 2021, the concerts had been closed since March 2020. Yet they started up again on 25 August 2021 triumphantly.

Maria King is a classically trained graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music who has also entertained extensively from concerts to charities to cruise liners. In fact, after two years of inactivity due to Covid, Maria was due to play on the Queen Elizabeth Round Britain cruise two days after this concert.

Maria began in her characteristically enthusiastic and vibrant style full of Hispanic summer sparkle in Malaguena (from Malaga) by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona y Casado. She then launched into a celebratory pianistic version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.

Continuing the musicals theme, we had My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music in an arrangement by Jacob Koller which took the song to another level with jazz rhythms and keyboard fervour.

In contrast we moved to Debussy with his reflective Claire de Lune and atmospheric Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the rain), demonstrating Maria’s grasp of impressionistic interpretation, using a full palette of musical shades from delicate to powerful.

We had more exquisite and heartfelt classical playing in Rachmaninov Prelude in G. Then Maria launched into her tour de force, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue where she managed to incorporate the whole range of orchestral colour along with her virtuosic piano technique.

Toad Lane Concerts have been running at St Mary in the Baum since taking over from the council in 2001. They were granted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2020, ironically when they were closed due to the pandemic.
 

Read more: Toad Lane Concerts receives Queen's Award for Voluntary ServicePublished: 02 June 2020

Organisers now hope to resume their platform for local talented players and singers and visiting professionals and students, with concerts of rare quality. Refreshments are out of the question these days, but the weekly fare of live classical music is food for the soul. Make a diary entry for 12.30pm every Wednesday, admission only £6.

Click here for a list of future dates and performers.

Toad Lane Concerts is a not-for-profit voluntary organisation and is grateful for its links with the Grade-I listed heritage building of St Mary in the Baum Church.

Dr Joe Dawson