Last night, the Gabrieli Consort and Players held an event to celebrate the release of their new CD of Mendelssohn's Elijah on Paul McCreesh's Winged Lion label (see my review). There was a short illuminating video about the making of the recording (see it here on Vimeo), a talk from Paul McCreesh and some live entertainment. The video was fascinating, making clear just quite how many performers there were. Whilst the core of the choir was made up of singers from Gabriel and the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir, around half the total were young singers from choirs with which Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli have started to develop a relationship.
The young singers were not there just for the experience, they worked hard and learned from the professional singers singing next to them, and participated fully in the rather gruelling recording schedule and contributed strongly to the overall project. Paul McCreesh mentioned how transformative the effect of participation had been on some of the young singers who had not been previously been exposed to much classical music. The Gabrieli Young Singers Scheme is relatively new, but was started by McCreesh because he feels strongly about giving opportunities top young people from all backgrounds.
McCreesh's next recording project is to record Britten's War Requiem in January 2012 with Gabrieli Consort and Players plus members of the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir and singers from the Gabrieli Young Singers Scheme. As with everything, this requires finance.
And further ahead, McCreesh is full of ideas for further large scale recording projects with the Gabriel Young Singers Scheme, providing finance can be found. In fact Gabriel is 30 years old this year, and one of their ways of celebrating is to try and expand their friends scheme.
With the War Requiem it will be interesting to hear how a conductor like McCreesh, famous for going back to the original text and performance, works with a piece premiered so recently. A concern for being true to the intention of the music runs through everything that McCreesh does, whether is is ensuring that French pronunciation for Latin is used in Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts, sourcing a contrabass Ophecleide for Elijah, using Czech pronunciation of Latin in Dvorak or using an instrument as unsatisfactory as the serpent to double the choir bass line in Elijah.
In fact, the evening ended with a short live performance, with three players from Gabrieli in an ensemble of serpents. A truly remarkable sound, the instrument blends well with the human voice but was never really intended to be heard solo. An entertaining and enlightening end to the evening.
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Handel: Semele - Pretty Yende, Niamh O'Sullivan (Photo: Vincent Pontet) Handel: Semele ; Pretty Yende, Ben Bliss, Alice Coote, Brindley ...
-
Britten: Peter Grimes ; Mark Le Brocq, Emma Bell, Mark Stone, Eugene Dillon-Hooper, Matthew Bawden, Rhian Davies, Oliver Heuzenroeder, Justi...
-
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor - Tabitha Reynolds (ghost), Jennifer France - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright) Donizetti: Lucia di La...
-
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes - Andreas Wolf, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, Leonardo García-Alarcón - T...
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore - Martins Smaukstelis & chorus - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera) Donizetti: L'Elis...
-
Verdi: La Traviata - Alison Langer, Ellie Edmonds - Opera Holland Park 2025 (Photo: Ali Wright) Verdi: La Traviata ; Alison Langer, Matteo...
-
The Murdock-Whitney House, Winchendon History & Cultural Centre Andrew Arceci is an American viola da gamba, violone, and bass player w...
-
Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti - Charles Rice, Allison Cooke - Buxton International Festival (Photo: Genevieve Girling) Leonard Bernstein: Tr...
-
Rehearsal for Uprooted - Garsington Opera Youth Company On 29 July 2025, Garsington Opera Youth Company joins forces with Sinfonia Smith Squ...
No comments:
Post a Comment