Last night, 6 September, the Courtauld Gallery held one of their late openings. There was the exhibition, Mantegna to Matisse, plus talks from Niccola Shearman and music from Exaudi, conductor James Weeks. The exhibition was impressive in that it was taken entirely from the Courtauld's own holdings.
Highlights for me included two Mantegna drawings (preliminary sketches for one of his etchings), a highly finished Michelangelo drawing intended as a presentation piece, a lovely Pontormo of one of his young gallery assistants, a spectacular Rubens of his wife and a presentation drawing by Canaletto of the Thames riverside, but there was so much more.
The four singers from Exaudi sang four madrigals by Arcadelt including one to a text by Michelangelo, which provided a wonderful link to the exhibition. Then between these we heard two of James Week's own madrigals, distallations of moments from the Arcadelt written with highly visual scores. The programme was repeated so we managed to catch most of it twice, which was a benefit. Hearing it in a relatively small gallery was a privilege and took you back to the madrigals very origins.
Friday 7 September 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Septura I first became aware of the brass septet, Septura , when noting their 2017/18 concert series Kleptomania at St John's Smith...
-
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos - title page Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments: Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann; London Handel Players, director ...
-
Retrospect Opera's recording of Stanford's Shamus O'Brien in rehearsal Charles Villiers Stanford’s opera Shamus O'Brien pre...
-
Stravinsky: The Rake's Progess - Act Three, scene one: the graveyard Frederick Jones, Jerome Knox - English Touring Opera (Photo: © Ric...
-
Rediscovering her Polish musical roots: Jennifer Pike on the personal connections in her latest discJennifer Pike (Photo Arno) With her latest recording, violinist Jennifer Pike has been rediscovering her Polish roots. The Polish Violi...
-
Poster for the première of Léo Delibes' Lakmé Léo Delibes: Lakmé; Haegee Lee, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, James Platt, Julien Van Mellaerts,...
-
Stephen McNeff: A Star Next to the Moon - Jacob Harrison (Pedro Páramo) - Guildhall School of Music & Drama (Photo: David Monteith-Hodg...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
The Afghan Youth Orchestra On Thursday 7 March 2024, the Afghan Youth Orchestra makes its debut at the Southbank Centre at the start of its ...
-
Jonathan Dove: The Enchanted Pig - Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 2023 (Photo Greg Milner) On Monday 29 February 2024, the Royal Birmingha...
No comments:
Post a Comment