A themed programme with an imaginative difference: Music from Pole to Pole with City of London Sinfonia and atmospheric physicist Dr Simon Clark

Music from Pole to Pole - City of London Sinfonia and Dr Simon Clark at Smith Square Hall - (Photo: Suzi Corker)

Music from Pole to Pole: Caroline Shaw, Webern, Dvorak, Lutosławski, Osvaldo Golijov, Marais, Vivaldi, Thomas Adès, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Bach; Dr Simon Clark, City of London Sinfonia; Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 15 October 2024

Cloud formations and music in a fascinating mix of informed talk and challenging music to create a bravura mix that made us leave wanting more

City of London Sinfonia's (CLS) Patterns of Nature series involves the ensemble sharing the platform with those outside classical music in an intriguing mix of talk and concert (much in the way that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment does with its Bach, the Universe and Everything series). For the second of CLS' Patterns of Nature, at Smith Square Hall (St John's Smith Square) on Tuesday 15 October 2024, the title was Music from Pole to Pole with the tag line Cloud formations from Antarctica to the Arctic where CLS, director Alexandra Wood, was joined by atmospheric physicist Dr Simon Clark, a science communicator and author who specialises in studies of the Earth's atmosphere.

Quite how the music and science were going to match up was unclear, but the programme for the evening was definitely not pulling any musical punches with Caroline Shaw's 'in manus tuas', movements from Webern's 5 movements for string orchestra, Op. 5, Dvorak's Nocturne in B flat, Op. 40, the epilogue from Lutosławski's Musique funèbre, the first movement of Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round, the tempest from Marin Marais' Alcione, two movements from Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor Op. 8 No. 2 'Summer', the movement O Albion from Thomas Adès' Arcadiana, Op. 12, three movements from Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Spectra and the aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations. And we began, in almost total darkness, with a terrific performance of Joely Koos of Caroline Shaw's solo cello piece 'in manus tuas'.

Music from Pole to Pole - City of London Sinfonia and Dr Simon Clark at Smith Square Hall - (Photo: Suzi Corker)

City of London Sinfonia's 2022/23 season - The World Rediscovered

The City of London's (CLS) 2022/23 season includes a seven-part concert series, The World Rediscovered, in four different venues across London: Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre, Southwark Cathedral, Round Chapel Hackney and Village Underground in Shoreditch. The concert series will offer musical discoveries alongside fresh perspectives on well-loved chamber repertoire, and performances will feature introductions and improvisations from CLS players.

The series begins with Morning, Noon and Night, a sequence going from dawn to dusk and featuring John Luther Adams’ Sky With Endless Stars, alongside music by Haydn, Debussy and Britten's Nocturne with tenor Nick Pritchard, all under Luke Jerram’s touring Gaia artwork as part of Southwark Cathedral's Gaia Festival. Also in the cathedral as part of the festival will be Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.

At Village Underground, Schubert within reach will present a new take on Schubert's Octet. Played in the round in an informal setting, musicians will swap seats between each movement so that audience members can enjoy a more intimate experience of each of the different instrumental parts. Improvisations and introductions delivered by the musicians between each movement will enrich the musical experience.

Coming in from the cold features music by Kaija Saariaho, Per Norgard, Knut Nystedt, Pēteris Vasks, Arvo Pärt and Dobrinka Tabakova, intended to evoke the journey from Nordic cold towards more enveloping warmth embodied by the term hygge.

The Owl and the Nightingale is poet-laureate Simon Armitage's new translation of of the 900-rhyming-couplets-long Middle English debate poem between two arguing birds. The poem will be presented in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with music by Janequin, Couperin, Birtwistle, Pēteris Vasks and Huw Watkins.

Back at Village Underground, Dance with the Devil features music by Vivaldi, Locatelli, Piazzolla and Copland, plus traditional folk music, to create a whirlwind musical tour that explores how the diabolical has inspired composers past and present. Then Painting with Music is a kaleidoscopic concert curated by CLS’ Principal Clarinet, Katherine Spencer, and an invitation to enter a different kind of art gallery, where pictures are painted with sounds instead of colour with music by Cecilia McDowall, Jean Françaix, Telemann, Henri Tomasi, and André Caplet plus improvisations and composer and sound artist, Gawain Hewitt, will present a sonic guide book for each piece.

Choreographer, movement director and performer, Sarah Dowling, will be taking up the role of CLS' Artist-in-Residence for the 2022/23 season. Sarah Dowling is perhaps best known for her twenty year-long collaboration with ground-breaking immersive theatre specialists, Punchdrunk. She will work with the musicians to develop their skills and confidence in using movement to enhance story-telling and engagement with audiences.

Full details from the City of London Sinfonia's website.

Inspired by birds: the City of London Sinfonia looks at composers' fascination with birdsong

On Friday 3 May 2019, the City of London Sinfonia launches its new concert series Absolute Bird which explores 800 years of music inspired by birdsong. Created in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the concerts celebrate birdsong in music, looking at the sheer diversity of music in which the composers have been influenced by birds and birdsong. There is music from Rebel's Les Elements to Respighi's The Birds, from traditional English song to Moondog, with instruments ranging from the full orchestra, to harpsichord to Huw Watkins performing Messiaen.

The Creative Director and Leader of CLS is Alexandra Wood and when I chatted to her last week about the series she explained that the birdsong goes beyond the concerts and that birdsong is being used in the orchestra's learning and participation programme as well. CLS has a residency at the Bethlehem and Maudsley Hospital, and their events at the hospital include looking at music which includes birdsong as well as improvising on it. This applies also to CLS work in schools, which Alexandra points out is important because of the limited amount of music in schools. And it is not just music, the use of birdsong brings in the idea of nature too, helping the children to listen in another way.

City of London Sinfonia goes folk

City of London Sinfonia's Meet the Music outreach programme

The City of London Sinfonia (CLS), artistic director Stephen Layton, have come up with twin themes running through their 2016-2017 season. Folk Tunes Tall Tales sees the orchestra collaborating with a variety of musicians to explore folk traditions and story telling, whilst their Great British Choral Anthems series will perform major choral works in British cathedrals.

In November 2016, CLS will be joined by folk-singer Sam Lee and conductor Hugh Brunt for a concert at St John's Hackney in their CLoSeR series performing folk-song inspired works by Britten, Grainger and Delius alongside Sam Lee's own work. In December there is An English Folk Christmas by Candlelight at St John's Smith Square with music by RVW, as well as works by Warlock, Bolton and Stephen Cleobury. CLS will be joined by the Holst Singers and conductors Jeremy Cole and Michael Collins.

January sees CLS at Wilton's Music Hall celebrating Burns Night with The Devil's Violin with Burns Night Ceilidh. Another CLoSeR concert, CLS is joined by ceilidh band Licence to Ceilidh and fiddler Henry Webster. And the music will include not just Scottish, but Irish, Italian and Appalachian music, as well as Piazzolla and Locatelli. In March it is the turn of Japan with  Japanese Journey: Kakyoku Songs, an evening of Japanese folk music with soprano Charlotte de Rothschild which has been recorded on disc and will be touring to Japan. The final concert of the season sees the CLoSeR series returning to the Village Underground in Shoreditch where Michael Collins directs a performance of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, with choreographer Tony Adigun.

For CLS's Great British Anthems Tour, Stephen Layton conducts a programme of Handel coronation anthems, Bach's Suite No. 3 in D and James MacMillan's Oh Give Thanks Unto the Lord with choirs drawn from the cathedrals visited. The tour takes in Truro, Hereford, Lichfield, Southwell, York, and Chester.

CLS's community and outreach programme Meet the Music see the orchestra making music in schools, hospitals and communities, Current projects include Wellbeing through Music performing music in hospitals and care homes. Education projects include working with young children in communities which are geographically or economically isolated.

Getting closer to Art for Art's sake in Shoreditch with the City of London Sinfonia

CLoSer at the Village Underground
photo James Berry

Strauss Rosen Aus Dem Süden, 
Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, 
Mahler Das Lied von der Erde; 
Gwilym Bowen, Anna Huntley, Michael Collins, 
City of London Sinfonia, Rachel Rose Reid; 
CLoSer at the Village Underground
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Feb 17 2016
Star rating: 4.0
The City of London Sinfonia evoking the 1920's Vienna of Schoenberg in a Shoreditch club

The City of London Sinfonia (CLS) puts on concerts that 'promise to surprise us'. The first surprise was how easy it is to get lost in Shoreditch in the dark and the rain. Village Underground, as most people probably know, is a 'found space' around an abandoned railway viaduct; this contributed to the secret, club-like character of the event, with its bouncers and CCTV at the door and, once inside, cushions on the floor and bar drinks in huge plastic cups.

The main space is a T-shape, the band positioned with a flat brick wall behind and audience seats (and cushions) on three sides. We were invited to leave our phones on, take photos, tweet, wander around, drink, chat, but not clap between the Mahler songs. It felt like a late-night Prom (including the whooping from the audience) – a classical concert minus the printed programme. Michael Collins & members of the City of London Sinfonia were joined by tenor Gwilym Bowen, mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley and story-teller Rachel Rose Reid for chamber versions of Strauss's Rosen Aus Dem Süden, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

The first and last pieces in the concert were arranged by Schoenberg for the Society for Private Musical Performances which, in post-First World War Austerity Vienna, brought salon-scale versions of larger works to an audience of enthusiasts, who were not allowed to clap (or whoop, presumably), or boo, and the press were banned. Art for art's sake. Something we forget to enjoy these days?

Johann Strauss' (yes, Johann's) Rosen aus dem Süden was given the Schoenberg treatment for string quartet, piano and harmonium, and wonderfully kitsch it sounded too, with its dirty low rumble and its full stops so that anyone trying to waltz to it would be guaranteed to trip over. Matthew Swann had introduced it as 'the equivalent of Quentin Tarantino sitting down with a tub of popcorn and a box set of Sex and the City'.

City of London Sinfonia asks you to get CLoSer

The City of London Sinfonia's alternative concert series, CLoSeR, returns for three concerts this season. On 23 October they will be screening the 1929 silent film, The New Bablylon with Shostakovich's jazz-influenced score for the film played love by the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Hugh Brunt. Then on Wednesday 12 February 2013 they celebrate Valentine's Day early, with a programme of alternative lovee songs from soprano Elin Manahan Thomas and singer/songwriter Mara Carlyle. Finally, on Wednesday 23 April, clarinettist Michael Collins and City of london Sinfonia Principal players perform Messiaen's masterpiece Quartet for the End of Time, written when the composer was in a concentration camp.

CLoSer takes place in the Village Undeground in Shoreditch, with some imaginative programmes presented in more casual surroundings, with a chance to get far closer to the musicians and feel less confined than in a formal concert setting. Tickets are £15, students and 16 to 25 year olds get in for £5. Further information from the City of Sinfonia website, booking information for all three concerts from the Spitalfields Music website.

CLoSer - Poulenc and Paris

The City of London Sinfonia's CLoSer events are intended to present music in a different, more casual environment to the usual concert hall. They are part of a wider trend for ensembles to put on what might be called classical music club nights, with the intention of attracting a newer, different audience. The City of London Sinfonia presents their CLoSer events at the Village Underground in Shoreditch, a converted Victorian warehouse space used for a variety of concerts and club nights. The CLoSer Poulenc and Paris event on 10 April 2013 was also part of the City of London Sinfonia's Poulenc Festival, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. Stephen Layton conducted members of the City of London Sinfonia, with baritone Derek Welton and pianist Antoine Francoise, in Poulenc's Trois Mouvements perpetuels, Le bestiare, Rhapsodie negre and Le bal masque, plus Satie's Trois  Gymnopedies. Before the concert proper I attended a Q&A with City of London Sinfonia staff and players to talk about their CLoSer events.