Thursday, 23 May 2013
31 May: Orchestra Pro Musica Uganda
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Cellist Guy Johnston is playing the Elgar Cello Concerto on 31 May at Cadogan Hall with the Orchestra Pro Music Uganda conducted by Sir Roger Norrington. The concert is a fund-raiser for the Friends of Kampala Music School and seeks to help raise £190,000 towards the refurbishment of the school., which gives underprivileged Ugandans the chance to pass international exams, win scholarships, and embark on professional careers. The concert also includes Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. Further information from the Cadogan Hall website.
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
23 May: Verdi Study Day
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Masterclass & Co are having another study day in their Divas and Scholars series. On 23 May there as a day on Verdi's operas with the opportunity to study with eminent specialists and opera singers who will guide you through the history and the music of Verdi's operas. The lectures will be illustrated by live performance.
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Monday, 20 May 2013
Postcard from Montenegro - 1500m above sea level
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diary
Sunday, 19 May 2013
June at the Barbican
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| Circa & I Fagiolini: How Like An Angel © Chris Taylor |
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Something intriguing in the trees
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Despite living not that far away from Nunhead cemetery, I missed Biped's Monitor which was presented in the cemetery by the Arbonauts. Described as a unique site-based theatrical experience merging highly-visual, surreal environments with an ethereal operatic score, it involved strange and evocative installations created for the disused chapel and trees of Nunhead Cemetery. Now the group plan to bring the event back this summer for six evenings. Biped's Monitor is inspired by the Italo Calvino folktale, The Baron in the Trees which follows a young aristocrat who takes to the trees. The Arbonauts promise a surrel experience that allows the audience to explore and encounter characters and spaces at their own pace.
Arbonauts was formed in 2011 by Helen Galliano and Dimitri Launder. They are a multidisciplinary collective which includes theatre maker Helen Galliano, designer Dimitri Launder and composers Alex Nikiporenko and Louise Drewet. They specialise in 'performative installations inspired by unusual spaces and surreal narratives. Our work is often voyeuristic and provocative – made for a curious audience.'
You can hear some of their work, Aria Arboria, on the Sound Cloud website
They recently had a successful experimental night at Battersea Arts Centre trying out ideas for a new piece called The Desire Machine set to Madrigale by Aldo Clementi.
For August they are looking for local singers and choirs to perform with them further information (and contact info) from the Arbonauts webpage.
Arbonauts was formed in 2011 by Helen Galliano and Dimitri Launder. They are a multidisciplinary collective which includes theatre maker Helen Galliano, designer Dimitri Launder and composers Alex Nikiporenko and Louise Drewet. They specialise in 'performative installations inspired by unusual spaces and surreal narratives. Our work is often voyeuristic and provocative – made for a curious audience.'
You can hear some of their work, Aria Arboria, on the Sound Cloud website
They recently had a successful experimental night at Battersea Arts Centre trying out ideas for a new piece called The Desire Machine set to Madrigale by Aldo Clementi.
For August they are looking for local singers and choirs to perform with them further information (and contact info) from the Arbonauts webpage.
Friday, 17 May 2013
A scream and an outrage - 2
Labels:
concert review,
Guest Posting
A weekend music marathon at the
Barbican and other places: curated by Nico Muhly
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| The Sixteen |
Session 4 began far LSO
St Lukes traversing music from the renaissance to present day
with The Sixteen, led by
Harry
Christophers, who were on angelic form.
too early on Sunday
morning but we were back in
The first three pieces in the concert,
written by the 16th century composer Thomas
Tallis (1505 – 1585), were beautifully performed - The Sixteen
glided through the trademark Tallis dissonances that could be right
at home in a 21st Century composition. Tallis was a local
man, living in Greenwich towards the end of his life. A contemporary
of Byrd, he managed to survive four monarchs and the switches in
religion which claimed many lives. The three pieces performed here
were all written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first, who,
despite being fervently Protestant, permitted the Catholic Tallis and
Byrd to write and publish music. This is the kind of music that would
have been performed in the first incarnation of St Luke's and is
still right at home in today’s rebuilt performance space.
22 May: Luke Bedford premieres
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| Luke Bedford (c) Ben Ealovga |
Thursday, 16 May 2013
20 May: Tales from Ovid
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| Christopher Ainslie |
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
17 May: Fanfare for Fran
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A Fanfare for Fran - Celebrating Frances Andrade does exactly what the title says. The concert on 17 May 2013 at St. James's Piccadilly celebrates the life of violinist Fran Andrade. The Chamber Ensemble of London (an ensemble with which she was associated) are performing with soprano Gillian Rae-Walker and violinist Eri Konii, directed by Peter Fisher. The concert will help support the Rape And Sexual Abuse Support Centre in Guildford, where she lived. The event opens with Clive Jenkins' Fanfare and fugue in memorian Frances Andrade and there is music by Telemann, Monteverdi, Schubert, Harold Darke and Bach, plus Dido's Lament from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Lascia ch'io pianga from Handel's Rinaldo. Further information from the Concert-Diary.com page.
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
A scream and an outrage - 1
Labels:
concert review,
Guest Posting
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| Trio Mediaeval
CF-Wesenberg:kolonihaven.no
|
A weekend music marathon at the
Barbican and other places: curated by Nico Muhly
Part pop festival, part classical
concert, this weekend was an eclectic mix of music and I’m glad
that I got to listen to as much of it as I did.
The first session I went to was session
2 at LSO St Lukes. While
I overheard someone call the space ‘brutal’ I have to disagree.
By fusing utilitarian modern with its 18th century facade,
this beautiful Hawksmoor with its dilapidated past is acoustically
and aesthetically one of the best music spaces in London.
Before the concert proper Nico
Muhly (1981-) and friends played an introduction to the first set
of songs. Sat on a little carpet they played a minimalistic drone,
based around a single tone with slowly changing chords, which
eventually became the accompaniment to the UK premiere of ‘Three
songs’. Performed by violinist Pekka
Kuusisto and British tenor Allan
Clayton, the songs reminded me a little of ‘Fish in the
unruffled lakes’ by Benjamin Britten, albeit with guttural
statements from the violin. Moments of consonance to the drone and
silence were used to highlight words and phrases. When the drone
finally ended its loss was keenly felt, even though you probably
weren’t sure when it began.
17-19 May: Sacconi Chamber Music Festival
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May 17 to 19 sees that Sacconi Chamber Music Festival filling Folkestone with some fine chamber music. The festival is organised by the young Sacconi Quartet, who open on Friday 17 May with a concert of quartets by Haydn, Ireland and Beethoven. They continue on May 18 with a programme of Bridge, Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, RVW and Elgar which involves Mark Padmore (tenor), Richard Watkins (horn) and the Royal College of Music Chamber Orchestra. Mark Padmore and Gary Matthewman join the quartet for RVW's On Wenlock Edge, plus Britten's Winter Words and Tippett's Boyhood's End on Sunday 19 May. Richard Watkins plays Mozart's Horn Quartet in a programme which also includes Haydn and Britten String Quartets. In between these events there are Mozart's duos for violin and viola, late night folk-fusion and a talk on Britten. The Sacconi Quartet are also involved in outreach in the area and on May 4, there is a performance of Britten's Noye's Fludde with the Canterbury Cantata Trust, schoolchildren and community musicians. Further information from the festival website.
Monday, 13 May 2013
15 May: Villazon - Verdi - the concert
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Following up his recent CD of arias from Verdi operas (see my review), Rolando Villazon will be singing a selection of Verdi arias in concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 15 May 2013 as part of a European tour. Further dates include Amsterdam (12 June), Stuttgart (15 June), Nurnberg (18 June), Baden-Baden (21 June), Toulouse (24 June) and Barcelona (27 June). For the London concert Villazon will be accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by the Russian-born, Barcelona-based Guerassim Voronkov. Arias featured in the concert will include items from Don Carlo, Luisa Miller, Macbeth, plus arias from lesser known operas such as Il Corsaro and Oberto, plus Verdi's songs orchestrated by Luciano Berio. Later this month Villazon will be appearing in L'elisir d'amore at the Liceu in Barcelon and in July he will be singing the lead role in Mozart's Lucia Silla at Salzburg.
Sunday, 12 May 2013
14 May: Schumann - Under the influence
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American pianist Jonathan Biss continues his exploration of Schumann's music and influence, with a pair of concerts at the Wigmore Hall, Schumann: Under the Influence. On 14 May 2013, Biss is joined by the Elias String Quartet for performances of Schumann's Piano Quartet and String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 41 no. 1. In between these two there will be the premiere of a new work by Timothy Andres commissioned by Wigmore Hall, San Francisco Performances, Carnegie Hall and
Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The concert opens with a selection of Purcell's Fantasias. The concert is preceded by a talk with Jonathan Biss in conversation with Geoffrey Norris. Then on 22 May, Biss has a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall in which he plays Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze and Phantasiestucke interspersed with excerpts from Janáček's On an overgrown path. Biss will also be playing Berg's Piano Sonata No. 1. The overall question which the concerts seek to answer is where does Schumann's music belong in the general musical scheme of things, so expect unexpected links and connections. Further information from the Wigmore Hall website.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Reduced service
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diary
There will be a reduced service on Planet Hugill for the next week or so as I will be off on holiday. Not that I will be putting my feet up, I'll be joining friends walking in Montenegro.
Competition!
Gregg Kallor, whose recent album I reviewed, has an intriguing competition going. Post a coffee themed picture of yourself on Gregg's Facebook page and the winner will get their photo as the cover photo on his Facebook page as well as receiving tickets to the album launch in NYC and an autographed copy of the CD. Further details on Gregg's Facebook page. You have until May 13, so get posting!
Handel's L'Allegro at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music
Labels:
concert review,
Handel
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| image credit Jonathan Rose |
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| image credit Jonathan Rose |
concluding section, Charles Jennens'
Friday, 10 May 2013
Mercadante's I due Figaro
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cd review
A forgotten opera by a relatively unknown composer: I due Figaro by Saverio Mercadante is the latest to be revived by Riccardo Muti and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini recorded live at the 2011 Ravenna Festival. Mercadante was the nearly man of early 19th century Italian opera, a younger colleague of Rossini's who had a long and influential operatic career. Trained in Naples, he ended up as director of the conservatoire there from 1840, and it is this Neapolitan connection which provides the link to Muti's other revivals of operas by Pergolesi and Cimarosa. Though in fact I due Figaro was written for Madrid.
Mercadante had a long operatic career. A few years younger than Rossini he wrote operas from 1819 to 1857 (the year Verdi wrote the original version of Simon Boccanegra and four years after the premiere of La Traviata). His middle period operas such as Il giuramento (1831) and Elena da Feltre (1839) are important in the modernisation of operatic technique. Mercadante followed his younger colleagues, Donizetti and Bellini, in updating his technique and he banished cabalettas and crescendos, simplified the vocal lines. His operas of this period had an important influence of Verdi (whose first opera dates from 1839). And it is the younger composer who has eclipsed Mercadante, though during his lifetime many of Mercadante's operas were more successful in Italy than Verdi's early works.
But the work that Muti has chosen to revive is a comedy dating from 1826, the earlier part of Mercadante's career, and written whilst he was working in Madrid. Mercadante's comedy dates from some years before Donizetti's well known comedies, L'Elisir d'Amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843). Its libretto is based on a comic play by French playwright Honore Antoine Richard Martelly dating from 1795, which somewhat satirised the characters from Beaumarchais' play Le Mariage de Figaro by inventing further intrigues for them. The libretto by Felice Romani was first set by Michele Carafa in 1820. Mercadante's version was intended for Madrid in 1826, but a dispute with his leading lady put the opera on hold and it did not appear until 1835.
Mercadante had a long operatic career. A few years younger than Rossini he wrote operas from 1819 to 1857 (the year Verdi wrote the original version of Simon Boccanegra and four years after the premiere of La Traviata). His middle period operas such as Il giuramento (1831) and Elena da Feltre (1839) are important in the modernisation of operatic technique. Mercadante followed his younger colleagues, Donizetti and Bellini, in updating his technique and he banished cabalettas and crescendos, simplified the vocal lines. His operas of this period had an important influence of Verdi (whose first opera dates from 1839). And it is the younger composer who has eclipsed Mercadante, though during his lifetime many of Mercadante's operas were more successful in Italy than Verdi's early works.
But the work that Muti has chosen to revive is a comedy dating from 1826, the earlier part of Mercadante's career, and written whilst he was working in Madrid. Mercadante's comedy dates from some years before Donizetti's well known comedies, L'Elisir d'Amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843). Its libretto is based on a comic play by French playwright Honore Antoine Richard Martelly dating from 1795, which somewhat satirised the characters from Beaumarchais' play Le Mariage de Figaro by inventing further intrigues for them. The libretto by Felice Romani was first set by Michele Carafa in 1820. Mercadante's version was intended for Madrid in 1826, but a dispute with his leading lady put the opera on hold and it did not appear until 1835.
Opera North new season
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preview
Opera North open its 2013/14 season with a trilogy of operas celebrating Britten's centenary, with revivals of Peter Grimes and A Midsummer Nights Dream alongside the company's first ever Death in Venice. In the Winter 2014 season there is a revival of Verdi's Macbeth plus a new production of Puccini's La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West). Then in the Spring 2014 season they complete their Ring with performances of Gotterdammerung with Puccini's La Boheme as the unlikely partner in the season.
Phyllida Lloyd's 2006 production of Peter Grimes return with Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts in the title role, Giselle Allen as Ellen Orford and Robert Hayward as Captain Bulstrode, conducted by Jac van Steen, the Dutch conductor who has been principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales since 2005.
Phyllida Lloyd's 2006 production of Peter Grimes return with Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts in the title role, Giselle Allen as Ellen Orford and Robert Hayward as Captain Bulstrode, conducted by Jac van Steen, the Dutch conductor who has been principal guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales since 2005.
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