Neglected Stanford: Sam Haywood's recital for Rhinegold Live

Sam Haywood

Stanford, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn; Sam Haywood; Rhinegold Live at Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sep 5 2017 Star rating: 4.0
Stanford's rarely performed preludes form the opening of a mixed Romantic recital

Charles Villiers Stanford's preludes remain a relatively undiscovered part of his output. A new recording from pianist Sam Haywood on Hyperion should hopefully help make them better known. On Tuesday 5 September 2017, Sam Haywood brought a group of five of Stanford's preludes to Rhinegold Live at Conway Hall as part of a programme which also included Robert Schumann's Papillons, Op.2, Chopin's Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op.44 and Mendelssohn's Andante and Rondo Capriccioso. The recital was followed by a short Q&A with Owen Mortimer, the editor of International Piano.

Stanford's preludes are relatively late works (written 1918 and 1921). Though inspired by the preludes of Bach, in style they reflect the composers who inspired Stanford. Like much of his late output, the music can seem relatively old fashioned for the period, but is beautifully wrought and we are now learning how it transcends our notions.

Complex and thoughtful: Bartosz Glowacki in music for accordion at Rhinegold Live

 Bartosz Glowacki

Domenico Scarlatti, Vaclav Trojan, Victor Vlasov, Petri Makkonen, Alessandro Marcello/JS Bach, Vladislav Zolotaryov, Astor Piazzolla; Bartosz Glowacki; Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jul 04 2017
Star rating: 4.5
The young Polish accordionist in a programme mixing Baroque transcriptions with contemporary music for accordion

The Polish accordion player Bartosz Glowacki's appearance at Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall on Tuesday 4 July 2017, might have been last minute (the Chiaroscuro Quartet having been forced to cancel because of illness), but he delivered a striking and thoughtful programme which combined arrangements of Domenico Scarlatti and Alessandro Marcello, with more recent pieces written specifically for the accordion, Vaclav Trojan's Destroyed Cathedral, movements from Victor Vlasov's Five Views on the Land of the Gulag archipelago, Petri Makkonen's Flight Beyond The Time, and the finale from Vladislav Zolotaryvov's Sonata No. 3, finishing with Astor Piazzolla's Libertango (in fact written for the bandoneon, which is a form of concertina).

We started with Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in a major K208, in Glowacki's own transcription for accordion (essentially just playing the keyboard part on the accordion). The result, once you adjusted to the new sound-world, was wonderfully quiet and subtle though the instrument gave a rather Romantic glow to the music.

Destroyed Cathedral by Vaclav Trojan (1907-1983), best known for his film scores, is a very early example of music being written specifically for the accordion, Glowacki explained that the modern chromatic accordion is only 50 years old, so that music written for it is all contemporary.

A glimpse of work in progress: the National Opera Studio at Rhinegold Live

The current young artists at the National Opera Studio (Photo Malcolm Johnson)

Operatic excerpts; National Opera Studio; Rhinegold Live at Conway Hall
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Mar 27 2017
Star rating: 3.5
Ruth enjoys performances by young singers at the start of their journeys

This was a mid-term showcase from the current cohort at the National Opera Studio: four of its singers, Caroline Modiba (soprano), Laura Zigmantaite (mezzo-soprano), Joseph Doody (tenor), Benjamin Lewis (baritone), and two pianists, Frederick Brown & Edmund Whitehead, in a short programme of operatic excerpts by Strauss, Verdi, Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Gounod, Bizet, Puccini, Sullivan, Lehar, Gershwin, and Bernstein under the Rhinegold Live banner at Conway Hall on Monday 27 March 2017. The evening was introduced by one of the Studio’s first alumni, David Gowland, now Head of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, and followed by a short Q&A, chaired by Rhinegold’s Ash Khandekar, discussing the transition from conservatoire to the world of work.

Rather than using the Conway Hall stage, the performers and the beefy Bösendorfer (on loan from Markson’s) were on a low riser on the floor in front of the closed curtain. It brought them eyeball-to-eyeball with the audience – one of the skills a modern opera singer needs to learn, according to Gowland. They each introduced a group of arias or ensembles, in a charming style that assumed the audience knew the repertoire – which they did: “Not a very original programme,” said my neighbour. Nobody strayed very far from the Schirmer aria anthologies, which made it hard for the audience to listen with new ears.

Master, pupil & a birthday: Melvyn Tan at Rhinegold Live

Melvyn Tan

Beethoven, Czerny, Jonathan Dove; Melvyn Tan; Rhinegold Live at Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 28 2017
Star rating: 5.0
From late Beethoven to a Jonathan Dove birthday present, in a programme notable for the dexterous virtuosity of the playing

For the first Rhinegold Live of 2017, at Conway Hall on 28 February 2017 the pianist Melvyn Tan played a recital which moved from Beethoven's late Bagatelles, Op.126, to the Variations on a Theme by Rode, Op.33 by Beethoven's pupil Carl Czerny (1791-1857), to Jonathan Dove's Catching Fire which Dove wrote for Tan last year in celebration of Tan's 60th birthday. Following the recital there was a brief Q&A with Tan and Owen Mortimer, the editor of International Piano magazine.

Beethoven's Bagatelles, Op.126 were published in 1825, his last solo piano works. Beethoven told his publishers Schott that the pieces were 'probably the best I've written', and he seems to have regarded them as a cycle to be played in one go. Commentators detect links between the works and the larger scale pieces Beethoven was writing at the time. Each of the six movements seemed to explore a particular mood or style from the fascination with a wide separation of the hands in no. 1, Andante con moto to the manic changes of mood in no. 6, The pieces might be short, but they are not negligible, and Beethoven explored some striking and daring ideas. Melvyn Tan (playing from memory) played with surprisingly robust tone, but with a nicely lyrical line too, drawing out the complexity of Beethoven's ideas.

Tan's latest disc, Master and Pupil, which he was signing after the concert, explores the sequence of master-pupil relationships which led from Beethoven to his pupil Czerny to his pupil Liszt.

Persephone, mysteries of her heart: Ilona Domnich at Rhinegold Live

Ilona Domnich at Rhinegold Live - copyright Jean Wong

Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Alyabiev, Faure, Poulenc, Gounod, Gasparini, Verdi, Donizetti, Lehar; Ilona Domnich, Simon Over; Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sept 6 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Rhinegold Live opens new season with an attractive programme from soprano Ilona Domnich

Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall opened its 2016-17 season with a concert by the soprano Ilona Domnich accompanied by pianist Simon Over. Continuing a theme which Ilona Domnich developed with her CD Surrender: Voices of Persephone (see my review),  the recital was titled Persephone: Mysteries of her heart and looked at three ages of woman, the innocent, the mature woman experiencing life, passion and suffering, and the wise woman who has lived and made her choices. So there were three sections to the concert, with each grouping using music from a different country. First three Russian songs, Tchaikovsky's Lullaby, Rachmaninov's Daisies and Alexander Alyabiev's Nightingale. Then three French songs, Faure's Le papillon et la fleur, Elle's aria from Poulenc's La voix humaine and the jewel song from Gounod's Faust. Finally three Italian song, Francisco Gasparini's Sposo son disprezzata, Verdi's Stornello and 'Al dolce guidami' from Donizetti's Anna Bolena. Then to round things off Meine Lippen sie küssen so heiss from Lehar's Giuditta.

Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

Katya Apekisheva & Charles Owen

Stravinsky Rite of Spring, Poulenc, Rachmaninov; Katya Apekisheva, Charles Owen; Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Apr 26 2016
Star rating: 5.0
Brilliant pianism and physical dexterity in Stravinsky's piano duo version of his ballet

Pianists Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva, established duo partners, launched their new CD of Stravinsky's piano duo versions of this ballets with a concert at Rhinegold Live, Rhinegold's free rush-hour concert on Tuesday 26 April 2016 at the Conway Hall. They played Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Piano Four Hands and three of Rachmaninov's Six Morceaux, Op 11. The evening was rounded off with a short Q&A with Owen Mortimer, editor of Classical Piano magazine

Poulenc's Sonata for Piano Four Hands is an early work, written in 1918, revised in 1939 and not to be confused with his later Sonata for Two Pianos. In three movements, Prelude - Moderé, Rustique - Naif et Lent and Final - Très vite, the piano duet sonata seems to have been written under the influence of Stravinsky's harmonies and rhythms but the work is clearly Poulenc's own. Owen and Apeksheva made the opening movement full of energy and colour, all the familiar Poulenc tropes writ large. The work flowed easily from one idea to the next, with some finely bravura rhythms. The middle movement was poised and stylish, and we could admire the pianists sensitivity of touch, but also their brilliant attack too. The final movement was all perky animation.

Baroque to Broadway: The National Opera Studio at Rhinegold Live

2015/16 young artists of the National Opera Studio

Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Verdi, Delibes, Massenet, Weill, Gershwin, Lerner & Loewe, and Rodger & Hammerstein; Dingle Yandell, Kate Howden, Ben-San Lau, He Wu, William Morgan, Amber Rainey; Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 18 2016
Young artists in training, in an engaging evening

On Thursday 17 March 2016, Rhinegold Live featured young artists from the National Opera Studio (NOS) in concert at the Conway Hall. Introduced by tenor Nicky Spence, himself an alumnus of the National Opera Studio, soprano He Wu, mezzo-soprano Kate Howden, tenor William Morgan and bass-baritone Dingle Yandell were accompanied by Ben-San Lau & Amber Rainey in an attractive programme of operatic arias, duets and ensembles by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Verdi, Delibes, Massenet, plus songs from shows by Kurt Weill, Gershwin, Lerner & Loewe, and Rodger & Hammerstein. The evening ended with a Q&A led by Ashutosh Khandekar, editor of Opera Now magazine.

In his lively introduction, Nicky Spence commented that he had not been back to the National Opera Studio since his year there because, thanks to them, he had been in full time employment as the NOS had equipped his 'singing toolbox' with what it needed for a career both in terms of performance and all the other extra-performance issues of which a young singer needs to be aware. Singers at the National Opera Studio are there for a year and places are filled by competitive audition, in the Q&A afterwards Emily Gottlieb, the NOS chief executive, explained that currently they were auditioning for 2016/17 with over 200 singers competing for 12 places! Nicky Spence joked that his memory of the auditions was 'The X Factor with better clothes and better voices'.

Jonathan Plowright at Rhinegold Live

Jonathan Plowright at Rhinegold Live

Brahms, Mozart, Paderewski, Chopin; Jonathan Plowright; Rhinegold Live at the Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 4 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Powerful and thoughtful playing this early evening recital

Rhinegold Live started 2016 with a concert by pianist Jonathan Plowright at the Conway Hall on Thursday 4 February 2016. The programme included Brahms Rhapsody in B minor, Op.79, No.1, and Ballade Op.10, No.4, Mozart's Variations on' Ah, vous dirai-je Maman', three of Paderewski''s Humoresques de Concert, Op.14 and Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op.31.

It is no surprise that the programme included two substantial pieces by Brahms. Plowright is in the middle of recording the complete Brahms piano music on the BIS label (three discs have been released, he has recorded a fourth and there is a fifth to come), and the event was the launch of the third disc. The Rhapsody in B minor is one of a pair of pieces Brahms wrote in 1879 (when the composer was 46) during a summer holiday. Dedicated to his friend, the composer Elisabeth von Herzogenberg she persuaded him to call them rhapsodies rather than simply klavierstücke.

Expect fireworks - Rhinegold Live - Trio Elegiaco

Trio Elegiaco

The next Rhinegold LIVE is on Monday 7 December 2015 when, at the Conway Hall, you will get the chance to hear Trio Elegiaco in Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor. Trio Elegiaco consists of John Paul Ekins (piano), Hannah Dawson (violin), and Pierre Doumenge (cello), and whilst all are extremely exciting and experience performers their debut as a piano trio came at the Sacconi Festival in Folkestone earlier this year. At that debut they got a standing ovation, so expect fireworks. In fact the trio was formed specifically to play the Tchaikovsky trio in Folkestone, but such was the success that the Trio Elegiaco seems set to run.

The performance takes place at Conway Hall on 7 December 2015, at 7pm, with drinks from 6.15pm and the Tchaikovsky will be followed by a Q&A between Kimon Daltas, editor of Classical Music Magazine, and members of the group. Tickets are free, sign up at the Rhinegold LIVE website.

Artur Pizarro opens Rhinegold Live season at Conway Hall

Artur Pizarro

The Rhinegold Live concert season kicks off at Conway Hall on Tuesday 29 September 2015 with a recital from Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro. Entitled Songs my mother taught me the programme (the exact playlist is being kept under wraps) is based on music concert pianist grandmother introduced him to from the age of four. Artur was introduced to the piano by his grandmother, the pianist Berta da Nóbrega, and her piano-duo partner, Campos Coelho who was a student of Vianna da Motta, Ricardo Viñes and Isidor Philipp. From 1974 to 1990 Artur studied with Sequeira Costa who had also been a student of Vianna da Motta and of Mark Hamburg, Edwin Fischer, Marguerite Long and Jacques Février. This has given Artur a remarkably legacy of teaching of the Golden Age of pianism.

Rhinegold Live concerts are free and start at 7pm, preceded by a free drink; tickets are available from the Rhinegold Live website. The concert on 29 September will be followed by a Q&A between Artur Pizzaro and Owen Mortimer, editor of International Piano magazine.

The Rhinegold Live season continues at Conway Hall with Trio Elegiaco (Monday 7 December), Jonathan Plowright (Thursday 4 February 2016), National Opera Studio (Thursday 17 March 2016), Katya Apekisheva & Charles Owen (Tuesday 26 April). Further information from the Rhinegold Live website.

Carolyn Sampson at Rhinegold Live

Joseph Middleton and Carolyn Sampson,
© Ceri Wood Photography

Schumann, Roger Quilter, Britten, Faure, Strauss, Hahn and Chabrier; Carolyn Sampson, Joseph Middleton; Rhinegold Live at Conway Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Apr 29 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Launch of Carolyn Sampson's new disc at the free rush-hour concert series

On Wednesday 29 April 2015, soprano Carolyn Sampson and pianist Joseph Middleton launched their CD Fleurs (released on the BIS label) at a concert at Rhinegold Live, the free rush-hour concert series from Rhinegold Publishing. Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton performed a selection from the CD before a packed audience at Conway Hall, before doing a short Q&A with the editor of Opera Now magazine, Ashutosh Khandekar. All the songs on the disc are flower related, selected from a wide range of composers, and at the concert Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton gave us songs by Schumann, Roger Quilter, Britten, Faure, Strauss, Hahn and Chabrier.

Before the concert, there seemed to be a real buzz to the atmosphere as people chatted over their complimentary glass of wine (courtesy of Vats Wine Bar), and this carried over into the concert. Afterwards Carolyn Sampson signed copies of her CD for the audience.