Intriguing and thought-provoking: Don Giovanni

Mozart Don Giovanni; Dimitris Tiliakos, Vito Priante, Mika Kares, Myrto Papatanasiu, Kenneth Tarver, Karina Gauvin, Guido Loconsolo, Christina Gansch, MusicAeterna, Teodor Currentzis; Sony Classical
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 15 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Drama and text to the fore in Teodor Currentzis' latest Mozart opera

Having recorded Le nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte, Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna complete the trilogy on Sony Classical with Don Giovanni. The varied international cast (two Greeks, two Italians, a Finn, an American, a Canadian and an Austrian) has Dimitris Tiliakos as Don Giovanni, Vito Priante as Leporello, Mika Kares as Il Commendatore, Myrto Papatanasiu as Donna Anna, Kenneth Tarver as Don Ottavio, Karina Gauvin as Donna Elvira, Guido Loconsolo as Masetto and Christina Gansch as Zerlina.

The completion of Teodor Currentzis's studio recordings of Mozart and Da Ponte's operas with Don Giovanni, was never going to be straightforward. Recorded from 23 November to 7 December 2015 at the PI Tchaikovsky State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Perm, this is very much a studio recording, the sound world it invokes, with the intimacy of the dialogue, is that of a radio play.

From the opening notes of the overture it is clear that Currentzis extracts the maximum drama from his ensemble, MusicAeterna. The orchestra plays on period instruments but Currentzis uses the often to quite modern effect. He clearly relishes the ability to achieve a sharp attack and quick die away which is not the same with more modern instruments. The performance is full of accents, articulation and contrast, and there is some lovely wind playing as they comment and embellish the vocal lines. It is a large band, 42 strings, and probably far bigger than Mozart would have had. But to expect the recording to be about a recreation of what Mozart heard is to mistake Currentzis's intentions.

His performance (and it is very much Currentzis's) might reflect elements of period style but this Don Giovanni is only 'authentic' in the sense that it is a realisation of Currentzis's personal vision.

A Land so Luminous

A Land so Luminous music by Richard Causton and Philip Hesketh; Mary Bevan, Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Douglas Finch, Lisa Nelsen, Joseph Spooner, the Continuum, Philip Headlam; Prima Facie
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 8 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Two contrasting contemporary British composers showcased on this disc of instrumental music

A Land so Luminous on the Prima Facie label, is a disc of music by two contemporary British composers, Richard Causton and by Kenneth Hesketh, performed by the Continuum Ensemble conducted by Philip Headlam, with Mary Bevan (soprano), Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin ), Douglas Finch (piano), Lisa Nelsen (flute) and Joseph Spooner (cello). The disc contains Kenneth Hesketh's A Land so Luminous, Cautionary Tales, IMMH, and Netsuke, and Richard Causton's Threnody, Rituals of Hunting and Blooding, Non Mi Comporto Male, Sleep, Night Piece.

The disc opens with the group of pieces by Kenneth Hesketh. A Land so Luminous, played by Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin) and Alexander Szram (piano), which is inspired by an episode in a work by Cyrano de Bergerac. Originally composed for violin and ensemble in 2003, it was arranged for violin and piano in 2009. The piece seems to be all about variety of texture, often busy and very vivid, the performers giving great clarity to the busy-ness.

Cautionary Tales is a three movement work arranged in 2002 for violin, clarinet and piano (Marie Lloyd, Marcus Barcham-Stevens, Douglas Finch) from Hesketh's larger piece Netsuke, which is also heard on the disc. The three movements are vivid character pieces, each inspired by a cautionary tale (from Der Struwelpeter, and from Le Petit Prince).

Vibrant music making: Arcangelo in Bach and Telemann

Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo

Bach & Telemann cantatas, Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6; Lydia Teuscher, Alex Potter, Andrew Tortise, Thomas Bauer, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 14 2016
Star rating: 5.0
Early cantatas by Bach with an undeservedly neglected one from Telemann in a range of unusual scorings

In the Church's year Advent is a season for reflection and preparation, rather than jollification and spending money, and it was these themes which seemed to run through Arcangelo's concert at the Wigmore Hall on 14 December 2016. Artistic director Jonathan Cohen had chosen a trio of cantatas, two by Bach and one by Telemann, which reflected on life and looked forward to the life to come. Taking advantage of some relatively unusual scorings, Bach's cantatas Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV4 and Gottes Zeit is die allerbeste Zeit (Actus tragicus BWV106) and Telemann's cantata Du aber, Daniel, gehe hin TWV4:17 were joined by Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat BWV1051 with its scoring of violas, violas da gamba, cello, bass and harpsichord. For the cantatas Arcangelo was joined by the singers Lydia Teuscher (soprano), Alex Potter (counter-tenor), Andrew Tortise (tenor) and Thomas Bauer (baritone). The concert was also the first in Arcangelo's residency at the Wigmore Hall.

We started with Bach's early cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden, dating from 1707/1708, which sets verses from Martin Luther's Easter Hymn of 1524 as a chorale cantata, each verse a different variation on the chorale. Scored for relatively simple forces (four voices, two violins, two violas, cello, double bass, lute and organ), the opening sinfonia was grave with a strong textural quality to each of the instrumental lines.

Piano Trios in North London

Dmitri Shostakovich
photo credit Deutsche Fotothek

Readers of this blog with long memories, may remember my opera When a Man Knows which was performed in 2010 and 2011 at Tête à Tête opera festival and the Bridewell Theatre. The instrumental ensemble included a substantial cello part, with a significant opening and closing solo, and this was played by cellist Jon Cottle. Jon is now based in Barcelona but is back in the UK for a brace of concerts with a new piano trio, the Harthan Piano Trio featuring Tony Ingham (piano) and Emma Wragg (violin).

They are performing a programme of piano trios by Beethoven (Piano Trio No. 5, Op. 70 No.1), Schumann (Piano Trio No. 2, Op 80) and Shostakovich (Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67) at Rosslyn Hill Chapel (7.00pm, 15 December 2016) and Lauderdale House (7.00pm, 16 December 2016).

A Comedy Concert: the London Song Festival finale with Nicky Spence & Melinda Hughes

Melinda Hughes

Jonathan Dove, Flanders & Swan, Victoria Wood, Jeremy Nicholas, Mischa Spoliansky, Tom Lehrer, Ty Jeffries, Tim Minchin, Jason Robert Brown, Melinda Hughes & Jeremy Limb; Melinda Hughes, Nicky Spence, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at the Warehouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 13 2016
Star rating: 4.0
From cabaret to opera, and much else besides, a delightful evening of comic song rounds off this year's London Song Festival

For the final event of this year's London Song Festival, artistic director Nigel Foster was joined by soprano Melinda Hughes and tenor Nicky Spence for an evening of comic songs at the Warehouse, Theed Street on Tuesday 13 December 2016. The evening combined songs by Flanders & Swan, Victoria Wood, Jeremy Nicholas, Mischa Spoliansky, Tom Lehrer, Ty Jeffries, Tim Minchin and Jason Robert Brown with an aria from Jonathan Dove & Alasdair Middleton's The Enchanted Pig, and songs by Jeremy Limb & Melinda Hughes, finishing with 'The song that goes like this' from Eric Idle &  John du Prez' Spamalot.

We opened with a group entitled Wrestling Relationships, beginning Adelaide's aria from The Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton, with a spectacular show of temperament by Melinda Hughes. Then came Nicky Spence, in dinner jacket, black shirt and white tie, to perform Tom Lehrer's Masochism Tango, Highly controlled at first, Spence barely moved but made us hang on every word, which made the moment when he did start to tango really count.The final song in this group was Flanders and Swann's The Warthog with Hughes as a delightful warthog and Spence as the narrator. The duet enabled us to hear the way these two artists approached the comedy, in very different but equally valid ways.

Taking a Trip started with one of Melinda Hughes own songs, written with Jeremy Limb, Country Estate which was notable for the very clever lyrics. Nicky Spence then returned dressed as a boy scout, to give fine account of Jeremy Nicholas's Camping Out in which Spence's totally serious delivery made the double entendres count even more. The group finished with Pigalle by Ty Jefferies (better known as the artiste Miss Hope Springs) sung by Melinda Hughes, a delightful rather wistful song which was rather more character than comedy.

The first half ended with Lamentable Love, a group which started with Melinda Hughes in outrageous form with The Boy From ....., Mary Rogers and Stephen Sondheim's delightful sendup of The Boy from Ipanema. Nicky Spence then sang Lullaby by Tim Minchin, a song which starts out as a simple lullaby but gets progressively more and more unnerving. Finally the two singers gave us their tribute to Victoria Wood, with her duet Barry and Freda, a performance which really demonstrated how clever and how tricky Wood's songs are.

After the interval we had Delusional Devotion, with Nicky Spence singing Jeremy Nicholas's Valentine Card, in which Spence's attention to Nicholas's words paid dividends, and there were some lovely sly musical quotations from Nigel Foster in the piano accompaniment. Melissa Hughes then sang My Guru, another of her songs with Jeremy Limb. The words rather than the music made the song,  full of astute observations about modern Chelsea types.

Womanly Wilds began with Victoria Wood's Pam. Nicky Spence was priceless (in a bad wig and man's suit) as a middle-aged woman rejecting sexual overtures for a cup of tea. Melinda Hughes was equally over the top, in a different way, in Mischa Spoliansky's I am a Vamp, describing someone I would not want to meet on a dark night. The group finished with Jason Robert Brown's bizarre but funny Surabaya Santa in which Kurt Weill's Surabaya Johnny is crossed with Santa Claus (!), and Nicky Spence in a wig as the alarming heroine, the neglected Mrs Claus.

The final group opened with Melinda Hughes singing the final of her songs with Jeremy Limb. Selfie had some nice observations about modern habits, but I was not quite sure that the words were as sharp as some of their other songs. Nicky Spence then sang Flanders and Swann's In the bath with his own distinctive brand of orotund charm. Finally we had the duet from Spamalot, a wonderfully crazy way to end the evening.

There was no planned encore, but the response from the capacity audience was such that Nicky Spence gave us his a cappella rendition of the Scots song The Wee Cooper of Fife, complete with actions and dance!

The problem with a programme of comic songs is that the comedy is often very much about the words. Which meant that both performers had a stupendous number of words to learn. Both did a heroic task but there were inevitable compromises, Victoria Wood's Barry and Freda and the song from Spamalot were done with a music stand, whilst Nicky Spence used a crib in one of his solos and there were one or two moments when Melinda Hughes failed to make the most of the text. However, there also plenty of superbly funny moments. Both singers have fine, yet very different, senses of comic timing and the result was a wonderfully engaging programme.

Shine Forth: Illuminare gives premiere of Barnaby Martin's new piece

Barnaby Martin

Illuminare is a relatively new chamber choir; founded by Jeremy Cole (assistant musical director at the church of St Martin in the Fields) the choir consists of a group of talented young singers who have been giving concerts in Cambridge and London in the last three years. For the group's Christmas concert on Friday 16 December 2016 at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, they pair familiar pieces by RVW, Warlock, Howells, Tavener, Rutter and Lauridsen, with not so familiar seasonal music by Dove, Wishart, Sandstrom, Rathbone, Villette, Walton and John Burt, alongside the premiere of a new piece Shine Forth by the young composer Barnaby Martin.

In Shine Forth Martin sets the Antiphon for the First Sunday in Advent, and extracts from Christopher Harvey's poem The Nativity, with Martin including transformed elements of the antiphon plainchant into the choral texture, with the work being written for choir and solo quartet. Barnaby was commissioned to write a new piece for St Paul’s Cathedral by Choir & Organ Magazine which featured his piece and his work as part of the November/December 2016 issue.

Full information from the Illuminare website.

A case for a new Norma

Cecilia Bartoli and John Osborn in Norma - Photo: Hans Jörg Michel

Baritone Ricardo Panela looks at how the 1950s Bel Canto revival has influenced the way we listen to Bellini's Norma

The year of 2016 was a terrific year for Bellini lovers: the United Kingdom offered three productions of what is considered to be the pinnacle of Bel Canto opera: Norma. We had English National Opera’s production earlier in the year [see the review on this blog], followed by Cecilia Bartoli’s historically informed approach to the role for the Edinburgh International Festival, and ended with the Royal Opera House’s much anticipated new production starring Sonya Yoncheva [see the review on this blog]. I was lucky enough to attend two of these productions (ENO and ROH) and, inevitably, read the reviews of Cecilia Bartoli’s performance at the Edinburgh Festival.

This variety in offering of such an iconic opera leads to much comparison: this is, after all, a role which served as a vehicle for some of the most remarkable leading ladies of the XXth Century - Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballé and Joan Sutherland. From a singer’s perspective, I find the variety of ways in which one can tackle such an enormous role, absolutely fascinating: a woman who’s simultaneously a strong willed leader, a wronged lover and the torn mother of two children whose father she grows to loathe throughout the course of the plot. The emotional range required for this role is huge and that’s where much of its allure lies: the possibilities are endless.

However, what prompted me to write this article wasn’t so much to come up with a guide of ‘How To Sing Norma’, but to reflect about how this opera is perceived by the greater public and how biased we are (or aren’t) when someone tries to do something new with it. Cecilia Bartoli’s Norma is obviously very controversial and everyone has an opinion about whether or not it’s an adequate casting choice. However, focusing on that is missing the bigger picture of what is being attempted here.

Sansara at Temple Winter Festival tonight

Sansara, the choir which won the 2015 London International A Cappella Choir Competition (and which we last saw at the Kings Place Festival in September), is performing tonight (13 December 2016) as part of the Temple Winter Festival at Temple Church. Their programme reflects on the human aspects of the Virgin Mary’s story before turning to the mystery of the birth of Christ, presenting a mixture from the Renaissance to the contemporary with pieces by Marco Galviani, Owain Park, Roderick Williams, Cecilia MacDowall and John Tavener.




Full information from the Temple Music website.

Christmas with St John's

Choir of St John's College, Cambridge - photo Benjamin Ealovega

Jonathan Harvey, Robert Parsons, RVW; Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha; Cadogan- Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 12 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Fine survey of the Christmas story in contemporary and traditional music

The Cadogan Hall is firmly in Christmas mode with decorations, a huge tree and mulled wine, and the latest Choral at Cadogan concert joined in the fun on Monday 12 December 2016 as Andrew Nethsingha and the choir of St John's College, Cambridge gave us a programme of Christmas music. But this wasn't a straightforward romp through Christmas classics, Andrew Nethsingha had put together a programme which mixed the well known with the lesser known, including two solos from assistant organist Joseph Wicks and organ scholar Glen Dempsey. So the programme moved from Jonathan Harvey and Robert Parsons, through Carl Rütti, Elizabeth Poston and RVW to Ivor Atkins version of Peter Cornelius's The Three Kings and a couple of carols. We also moved from the Annunciation through the Virgin Birth, to the Shepherds and finally the Three Kings.

Whilst the concert's programme had a lot in common with St John's recent disc Christmas with St John's, it has to be born in mind that the disc was recorded almost a year ago, and the choir has changed since then. There has been another academic year, another intake of young men, a moving on of treble whose voices break and a welcoming of new junior trebles. A choir like that of St John's is always in a state of flux, so the striking thing is how consistently the ensemble remains true to its aims.

We opened with Jonathan Harvey's 2011 piece, The Annunciation written for the choir and one of the composer's last pieces.

Telling stories: Sir John Tomlinson in Schubert's Swansong

Sir John Tomlinson at a Masterclass at the Royal Opera in 2014

Schubert Swansong (Schwanengesang); Sir John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn; The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 12 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Sir John Tomlinson on vivid form in Schubert's final cycle sung in a new English translation

The Wigmore Hall has been presenting Schubert song cycles in English translations and on Sunday 11 December 2016 we caught Sir John Tomlinson accompanied by pianist Christopher Glynn performing Schubert's Schwanengesang in a new translation by Jeremy Sams.

A song recital by Sir John Tomlinson is very much a thing unto itself, though he scaled down his voice it still filled the Wigmore Hall with ease and his personality was similarly large scale. Even when singing opera, Tomlinson has always showed a superb way with words so it is no surprise that he is a recitalist too. With the new translation Tomlinson sang from crib-sheet, reading the printed words but this never lessened his fine sense of communication with the audience. He also prowled around the stage, physically fully involved in telling the stories in the songs

The last time I heard him in recital, performing Schubert's Winterreise at Middle Temple Hall (see my review), the image of the Ancient Marriner rather came to mind, an old man bearding us with his story. This time it was a different, but no less telling image. Tomlinson's music stand was to the side of the stage, and before each song he would walk over to it and carefully select the correct sheet of words, look at it and then start singing, sheet in hand. After the concert I realised what the image was, that of one's grandfather leafing through photographs and telling the story attached to each one. It made a lovely context for Tomlinson's vivid and vibrant performance.

Whilst not exactly ageless, this was certainly a performance which belied the fact that Sir John celebrated his 70th birthday in September, though it has to be admitted that it was quite a loud performance.

Newly devised: a radical musical re-working of The Winter's Tale

Rehearsal shot taken during the Aldeburgh Music Residency,
Hollway, William McGeough, Héloïse Werner & Marianne Schofield.  Photo: Sam Murray-Sutton

Tomorrow (13 December 2016) sees the premiere of an intriguing new version of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Reduced to around an hour, the performance features four musicians and five actors, not a play with music, but an organic marriage of the two art forms through the plot and words of Shakespeare. The work has been created by director Nina Brazier, composer Kim Ashton and The Hermes Experiment (Heloise Werner soprano (last seen in her one woman show), Anne Denholm harp, Marianne Schofield double bass, Oliver Pashler clarinet), with actors William McGeough, Sadie Parsons, Robert Willoughby, Louisa Hollway and Christopher Adams. The performance takes place at The Cockpit Theatre, NW8 8EH

The work was developed during an Aldeburgh Music Residency in September 2016. The music is in part composed, in part devised, and in part improvised, all in response to the demands of the text and the drama, illustrating the collaborative nature of the project.

Full information from The Cockpit Theatre website.

Magic and Mystery from The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments

The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments
(image courtesy of the ensemble)

Sound House; The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments; Spitalfields Winter Festival at the Octagon, Queen Mary University of London, Hall;
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Dec 8 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Playing tricks with our ears, Sound House explores the sound-world of Francis Bacon

Sound House came out of a residency by the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments, director Clare Salaman, at Aldeburgh in early 2015 and it had an outing at this year’s Spitalfields Winter Festival when the ensemble (Clare Salaman, Jon Nicholls, Jon Banks, Jean Kelly, Alison McGillivray, with actor Terence Wilton) performed in the Octagon at Queen Mary University of London on Thursday 8 December 2016.

The Octagon, Queen Mary University of London

In the pre-concert talk Clare Salaman and Jon Nicholls discussed the inspiration for the project, an attempt to recreate Francis Bacon’s explorations and experiments with sound, music and acoustics. Bacon, whose empirical writings earned him the title of ‘father of modern science’, was particularly fascinated by sympathetic resonance and echoes and so the octagonal, three-story former library at Queen Mary was an ideal venue for this exploration of sound and space.

We were introduced to the star instrument: strange though not ancient, a modern copy of a tromba marina, a two-metre-long single-stringed bowed instrument with sympathetic stings all tuned to the same note. It was commonly found in convents, as it was considered more appropriate for a nun to create an earthy sound by bowing a stringed instrument than by blowing on a trumpet. All the strings on Salaman’s tromba marina are tuned to a D, which makes it quite limited in its musical possibilities but – as we were to find out – quite versatile in its range of comic effects.

Rising to the challenge: W11 Opera's new opera about the Suffragette movement

The Price - W11 Opera

Russell Hepplewhite, Helen Eastman The Price; W11 Opera, dir: Susan Moore, cond: Philip Sunderland; POSK Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 10 2016
Star rating: 4.5
The young performers of W11 Opera rise to the challenge of a new opera about the struggle for Women's Suffrage

Josie Cooper as Emmeline Pankhurst & ensemble
The Price - W11 Opera

W11 Opera for children and young people is 45 and to celebrate they gave the premiere of their latest commission, The Price with music by Russell Hepplewhite and libretto by Helen Eastman, at the POSK Theatre, King Street, Hammersmith. I caught the first of four performances, on Saturday 10 December 2016. Directed by Susan Moore, the production featured sets by Neil Irish, costumes by Anett Black, movement by Maggie Rawslinson and Philip Sunderland conducted an instrumental ensemble of five players.

W11 Opera might be an ensemble of children and young people (some 70 in total sang in the performance) but Russell Hepplewhite and Helen Eastman's opera was a big piece dealing with a big subject. It told the story of the Suffragettes and the fight for Women's Suffrage. we were gabbed by voting fever as soon as we entered the foyer as we were presented with a ballot form and encouraged to vote.

Helen Eastman's libretto placed the historical narrative in the context of the modern day and the opening scene was a contemporary polling station in a marginal constituency, with various film crews covering the event. Sierz (Ahana Hundal) as Jess and Nora (Izzy Lewitt, Yaiza Freire-Bernat) what they voted and she is incensed that they didn't, and talk of the luxury of being able to vote brings on the story of the Suffragettes. This framing device (the contemporary polling station returns at the end as Jess and Nora vote), placed the Suffragette struggle in context and enabled Helen Eastman to insert short explanations without becoming two didactic. There was a further historical layer, as punctuation the Suffragette story were scenes of further back story as Richard Pankhurst (Sachin Oberoi), the late husband of Emmeline Pankhurst (Josie Cooper), tries unsuccessfully to get various Women's Suffrage bills through Parliament. The admirable thing about Eastman's libretto was that, despite the complex layering of narrative, it was clear what was going on and, with very little extra information, who was whom.

The main plot did not pull any punches in taking in the violence of the riots, the arrests, hunger strikes, force feeding, Cat & Mouse Act, smashing windows, all culminating in the death of Emily Wilding Davison (Georgie Redhead) as a result of throwing herself under the King's horse at the Derby.

Russell Hepplewhite's score was similarly complex and multi-layered.

Epic Theatre? Heloise Werner in Scenes from the End

Heloise Werner - Scenes from the End
photo Nick Rutter

Jonathan Woolgar Scenes from the End; Heloise Werner, Emily Burns; Tristan Bates Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 10 2016
Star rating: 3.5
Challenging one-woman music theatre piece addressing universal issues

Scenes from the End is a striking piece of music theatre which has returned to London following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe. Written by Jonathan Woolgar (words and music) and performed by Heloise Werner, the work is a one-woman opera in the tradition of pieces such as Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga. We caught the final performance of the London run, on 10 December 2016 at the Tristan Bates Theatre, directed by Emily Burns with lighting by Abigail Waller.

Lasting around 45 minutes Scenes from the End deals with epic topics, the death of the Universe, the end of Humanity and the death of an individual. It was presented as Brechtian epic theatre, just a black box with table and chair, plus a few portable percussion instruments and projected captions providing the only context. The performer was simply Heloise Werner. The Tristan Bates Theatre is not the most ideal space for the show, for the first section (the death of the Universe), Werner's performance was accompanied by the distant (and not so distant) thumping from a disco sound track at a neighbouring bar, and the final sequence (lamenting the death of an individual) had wails and raucous laughter from the street as counterpoint. The space is also rather too resonant, lacking any set or soft furnishings, so that the louder moments verged on the painful and the acoustic very much occluded Werner's diction.

Celebrating 25 year's of Sound Investment at BCMG

BCMG's oboist Melinda Maxwell with Sound Investors - photo BCMG

Today (Saturday 10 December 2016), Thomas Adès will be conducting the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) in a very special concert. At the CBSO Centre, Birmingham they will be celebrating 25 years of BCMG's pioneering Sound Investment scheme, classical music's first crowd-funding scheme which was launched in 1991 long before crowd-funding had become the buzz-word which it is today. Sound Investment was launched with the simple aim of putting music lovers at the very heart of commissioning new music and widening support for composers. The scheme enables music enthusiasts to follow the creation of a new piece of music from original concept to first rehearsal and performance, and to meet and get to know composers and musicians.

At the CBSO Centre tonight at 7.30pm, Thomas Adès conducts a concert celebrating Sound Investment's rich past and promising future, with the latest premiere, a tragicomedy for soprano (Elizabeth Atherton) and ensemble by Francisco Coll, two works from 2016, Zoë Martlew’s Broad Street Burlesque, and the world premiere of the complete version of Richard Baker’s Hwyl fawr ffrindiaur/Bant â ni. The concert is completed by two popular successes from the first 25 years of Sound Investment, Simon Holt’s revision of his Capriccio Spettrale from 2009 and Gerald Barry’s 2000 work, Wiener Blut,

Full details from the BCMG website.

Writing in her own style: I chat to clàrsach player, harpist and developing composer Ailie Robertson

Ailie Robertson is an interesting young musician, she has a degree in genetics from Cambridge for a start. As well as having a career as a harpist playing both classical and folk music, she is starting to develop a name as a composer and her piece Haven for harp and string quartet, which was commissioned by the BBC, has recently been released.

So whilst her folk background is reflected in touring and producing albums with her band The Outside Track, she is also studying composition with Michael Finnissy at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance. We met up recently to chat about Haven and the varied strands to her career.

How a musician came to have a degree in genetics

I was curious how a musician came to have a degree in genetics. It turns out that though she played a lot of music at school, at the age of 17 she lacked the confidence to say she wanted to be a musician. But whilst at Cambridge she played a lot of music and having finished her degree she gave herself a gap year to try music and simply never went back to genetics. She has spent the last 10 years as a musician, balancing the twin strands of folk and classical, something which dates back to her period at school and at Cambridge when she played tradition Scots music on the clàrsach (the Gaelic wire-strung harp) and classical music on the concert harp. And a significant proportion of her time has been spent with her band, The Outside Track. On reflection she feels that it is better her career as a composer has developed when she is older, and now feels more secure about her chosen career of music.

Being neither strictly folk nor strictly classical

Catches, rounds & ground bass from Pellingman's Saraband

Thomas Robinson, John Johnson, Thomas Ravenscroft, Robert Smith, Nicholas Lanier; Susanna Pell, Jacob Heringman, Faye Newton, Edd Ingham, Giles Lewin, Christopher O'Gorman, John Potter; Pellingman's Saraband
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 26 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Catches, rounds and music on a ground bass in an engaging programme

The intriguingly named Pellingman's Saraband is the husband and wife duo of Jacob Heringman (lute) and Susanna Pell (viols). On this disc, Twenty waies upon the bels, they are joined by Faye Newton (soprano), Edd Igham (tenor), Giles Lewis (baritone), Chrisopher O'Gorman (tenor) and John Potter (tenor) for a programme of English rounds and grounds from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The programme explores what Jacob Heringman in his booklet note calls 'circular music' so with have divisions on a ground for lute and viol, songs over a ground bass with lute (and viol) and rounds and catches from those collected and composed by Thomas Ravenscroft.

Susanna Pell, Jacob Heringman - photo Gull Wing Photography

There is something profoundly satisfying about the circularity of this music, and something timeless too, whether it be the multiple parts fitting together in the catches and rounds, or the sense of improvisation over a ground bass in the other items. Three types of piece are interspersed together making an appealing mix on the disc.

We get some lovely virtuosity from Jacob Heringman and Susanna Pell in the instrumental items, which complements the finely elegant singing of Faye Newton in the lute songs (some with viol too). Newton has an Emma Kirkby-like elegance of line and a nice sympathy for the worlds, making a fine combination. Then the rounds and catches, sung mainly by the men, are far more robust fare.

Handel's Messiah by Candlelight in Malvern and Cambridge

Eboracum Baroque

Handel's Messiah is ubiquitous at Christmas, with many groups bringing out their own particular vision of the work. It is a work which is robust enough to cope with performance as massed spectacular or intimate conversation. This latter approach is the one we might expect from Eboracum Baroque, director Chris Parson, a period performance group made up of young singers and instrumentalists. They are performing Messiah by candlelight on Saturday 10 December at Malvern Priory, and on Saturday 17 December at St John's College, Cambridge. Both concerts are in aid of Cancer Research, and give us a chance to get back to the relatively small scale approach to Messiah which characterised Handel's early performances of the work.

Eboracum Baroque is particularly known for championing the work of Thomas Tudway, whose music written for the Chapel at Wimpole Hall the group recorded in the venue for which it was written (see my review). Further ahead, Eboracum Baroque will be travelling to Estonia, to perform magnifacts by Bach and Vivaldi in Tartu (28 December 2016) and Tallinn (29 December 2016).

Opening up the professional orchestra: LPO Junior Associates

Timothy Walker, Matthew Hancock & LPO Junior Artists
at the Royal Festival Hall  - photo credit Benjamin Ealovega

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, chief executive and artistic director Timothy Walker, has announced that it is creating a programme for talented young musicians from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. 

The LPO Junior Artists Programme will provide instrumental sessions from LPO mentors, sessions with external mentors and guest artists, and support with extra-musical skills such as communications and networking, as well as mock audition experience. The intention is to demystify the orchestral sector and open up networking routes for the young musicians.

A pilot scheme is being run from January to June 2017, with the intention of expanding the scheme to the full academic year in 2017/18. The first intake of eight young musicians were selected from young musicians of Grade 7 or above, aged 15-19 who are considering studying music. Applications were drawn from backgrounds traditionally under-represented in UK orchestras, including (but not limited to) under-represented racial, ethnic or socio-economic backgrounds, as well as players with disabilities. Applications were asked to self-identify why they felt they fulfilled the criteria.

Further information from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's website.

Linus Roth in Tchaikvosky and Shostakovich

Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 2, Op.129, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Op.35; Linus Roth, London Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Sanderling; Challenge Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 06 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Shostakovich's dark second violin concerto paired with Tchaikovsky's classic in an intimate account of a new edition

Violinist Linus Roth has followed up his discs of concertante works by Mieczysław Weinberg with a concerto by Weinberg's friend Dmitri Shostakovich. On Challenge Records, Linus Roth, the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thomas Sanderling pair Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2, Op.129 with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto Op.35, with the Tchaikovsky being presented in the new critical edition.

Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 was written in 1947, but there seems to have been something personal about the work because, whilst his symphonies formed his public utterances, the concerto was not premiered until 1955 (two years after Stalin's death). Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2 followed in 1967, ostensibly for violinist David Oistrakh's 60th birthday. But the work is hardly celebratory in mood. Shostakovich was ill, aware of his mortality and the work has references to such works as the Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 15. This performance from Roth, the London Symphony Orchestra and Sanderling really brings out the dark intensity of the work, this is music with a story, a dark back story.

It is a big work, with an opening movement lasting fifteen minutes (rather aptly the Tchaikovsky concerto is built on a similar scale).