Recital – Hyungi Lee, Marimba. May 27, 2019.

St. Martin in the Fields, London.  (Nave, GBP 3.5 donation).

Program

Three Moves for Marimba III. Slide by Paul Lansky.

Ameline by Eric Sammut.

Toccata by Anna Ignatowicz.

Dream of the Cherry Blossoms by Keiko Abe (arr. Hyung Lee).

Goldberg Variations: Aria, Variations 21 and 22; Aria by J. S. Bach.

Arirang (traditional Korean melody).

Charon by Jonathan Anderson.

 St. Martin in the Fields Church is right across from Trafalgar Square.

 The pulpit.

The organ.

The Program.  She added another Bach variation, and played her own adaptation of Arirang.

Hyungi Lee is a young British-Korean, born in Seoul, came to the UK at age 12, and has spent 10 years here. (That would make her 22.)  Her training as a percussionist has been in the UK.

She made short remarks about each of the work she was going to perform, Anna Ignatowicz wrote her piece shortly before she died of cancer and the piece reflected her emotions at that time.  Charon is the ferryman who takes people across the River Styx on their way to hell: it has its haunting moments.

The marimba is a rather large instrument, Li is quite small, so sometimes she had to leap to get to the right notes. The sound is bell-like, the pipes below the keys make it quite resonant.  Two mallets are held in each hand, and one or both can strike the keys, which are arranged like those of a piano.  It seems the interval is controlled both by how the player position her wrists as well as changing the angle between them.  I don’t know how difficult that is, but imagine it’s like most things: practice makes perfect.

 Lee at end of recital.

Quite a few people walked up to ask Lee questions about the instrument.

Frankly 40 minutes of marimba solo is about all I can take, despite the delightful sound and the competent musician.

St. Martin in the Fields traces its Christian heritage back to possibly AD 410.  It’s location near Trafalgar Squares makes it one of the most famous churches in the UK.  I don’t know much about where in the Christian spectrum it falls, but it’s also well known for its social justice (“Church of the Ever Open Door”) and musical programs.

Today about 200 people attended the recital.