On June 10th I had the pleasure of attending Karen Geoghegan's bassoon recital at Fulham Palace. I say "pleasure" sincerely as it's not often that as a bassoonist one goes to hear another bassoonist and can just sit back and enjoy the ride. Too often we are not the best audience for other players of our own breed - and I am sure that goes for most instruments. The attention can be stuck on the potential pitfalls and technique and the "oh I don't do this bit like that".
Not so with Karen. Her performances are utterly musical, completely her own and the technique is so fluid and effortless that I thoroughly enjoyed the whole programme.
This was an event to mark the release of her first CD on Chandos.
What did surprise me was the fact that family, friends and fellow students from the Royal Academy made up a rather small (though very enthusiastic) audience. I had thought with the amount of music press carrying the latest about her efforts that more of us would have come out on a sunny Tuesday evening to go to Fulham Palace. The venue (delightful) being a bit off the beaten track is not easy to find, nor was it easy to book tickets and get through on the phone line (no online ordering). My ticket had not actually arrived so I even had to call to get another one set aside. (It came the next day - correct address, just no STAMP on the envelope!).
More detailed review later.
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