Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in Birtwistle, Herrmann and more in Cologne

Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (photo Achim Reissner)

Herrmann, Liebermann, Gershwin, Birtwistle, Bernstein; Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Ingo Metzmacher; Kölner Philharmonie
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on Jan 7 2018 Star rating: 4.0
A jazz-inspired concert that had a packed house at the Kölner Philharmonie enjoying every beat and wanting more

Continuing his despatches from Cologne, our correspondent Tony enjoys the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, in a jazz-inspired concert at Kölner Philharmonie on Sunday 7 January 2018, with Bernard Herrmann's Taxi Driver - a night piece for orchestra, Harrison Birtwistle's Panic (with soloist Xavier Larsson Paez), Rolf Liebermann's Concerto für Jazzband and Sinfonieorchester, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (with soloist Alexandre Tharaud) and Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from ‘West Side Story’.

Members of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie - admirably led by their konzertmeisterin, Annika Fuchs - found themselves on fire (and flying high) in a thoroughly entertaining, polished and engaging performance that would, I feel, be hard to beat by any youth orchestra in the world.

They were safely under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher who, incidentally, conducted the première of Hans Werner Henze’s sixth symphony in 1994 and three years later conducted the première of his ninth. From my point of view, that places him in the top league.

Bernard Herrmann’s score for Taxi Driver got the evening off to a good and invigorating start putting some fizz into the bottle straightaway. Written for the soundtrack of Hitchcock’s 1976 film of the same name, directed by Martin Scorsese and set in New York City following the Vietnam War, the film starred Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster and won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It is considered culturally, historically and aesthetically significant by the US Library of Congress who selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994.

Bach to the piano

Harpsichordist Virginia Black is returning to her roots as a pianist, and having played Bach's keyboard concertos on the harpsichord is now joining the Bristol Ensemble to perform them on the piano at King's Place on Thursday 18 January 2018. The concert features the concerto in A major BWV 1055 and the concerto in D minor BWV 1052, plus Haydn's Symphony no. 49 (La Passione) and Mozart's Divertimento in F major K138.

Black started playing the piano at the age of 7, and was given her first grand piano at age 12, a Bechstein which she still has and plays. Aged 17, she played Beethoven's Piano concerto no. 3 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Birmingham Town Hall, and went on to the Royal Academy of Music, studying both piano and harpsichord.

Further information from the Kings Place website.

Tombeaux - A secular requiem

Tombeaux - A secular requiem; Richard MacKenzie; Magnatune
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 13 2018 Star rating: 4.0
An engaging exploration of a very particular genre of French 17th century lute music

This lovely disc from lutenist Richard MacKenzie on Magnatune is an exploration of a repertoire which was almost entirely new to me. Under the title Tombeaux: A Secular Requiem MacKenzie presents a sequence of mainly French 17th century tombeaux, memorial pieces for lute. We have music by Francis Pilkington, Anthony Holborne, Jacques de Gallot, Ennemond Gaultier le vieux, Denis Gaultier, François Dufault, Francesco Corbetta, Robert de Visée, François Campion, Gallot d'Irelande, Georg Gebel and Tobias Hume.

The music is mainly 16th century, stretching from 1605 right through to 1738. Many of the composers were simply names to me, and their pieces generally explore a small group of dance forms, the pavan, courante and allemande, with the occasional gailliard and sarabande. MacKenzie enlivens things by playing the music on four different instruments, a Baroque lute, a Renaisance lute, a Baroque guitar and a theorbo. The result provides some interesting timbral contrasts, with some instruments providing a remarkable depth of tone.

The disc is recorded quite closely, so that we get quite an intimate experience of what can be relatively quiet instruments. There is still plenty of air round the sound, so the results are very appealing but with an interesting meatiness and bit to some of the textures.

Mendelssohn in Cologne: Elijah at the Kölner Philharmonie

Manuscript of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah
used at the first performance in Birminghamin 1846

Mendelssohn Elijah; Hyuna Ko (soprano), Alexandra Thomas (alto), Markus Francke (tenor), Christoph Scheeben, Neues Rheinisches Kammerorchester, Köln and KölnChor, Wolfgang Siegenbrink; Kölner Philharmonie
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on Jan 6 2018 Star rating: 5.0
A brilliant offering of Mendelssohn’s Elijah conducted by a master of the choral repertoire, Wolfgang Siegenbrink

Our correspondent, Tony, hears Mendelssohn's Elijah, performed in Cologne at the Kölner Philharmonie on Saturday 6 January 2018, with Neues Rheinisches Kammerorchester, Köln and KölnChor, and Hyuna Ko (soprano), Alexandra Thomas (alto), Markus Francke (tenor), Christoph Scheeben (bass) conducted by Wolfgang Siegenbrink

Mendelssohn’s epic Old Testament oratorio, Elijah, was first performed at the Birmingham Triennial Festival in 1846 which, sporadically, shared their festival with Leeds and Norwich while the other triumvirate festival, Three Choirs Festival, rotates to this very day with the cathedral towns of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. The German première, however, took place in Leipzig on the composer’s birthday (3 February 1848) only a few months after his death.

Mendelssohn had a tenuous relationship with the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival inasmuch as he was approached by the festival’s secretary in 1843 to become conductor of the 1845 Festival. However, there’s no record of his reply. Presumably he declined because the German-British composer/conductor, Sir Julius Benedict, a friend of Beethoven and Weber, was appointed that year.

Three years later he was approached once again and on this occasion asked for an oratorio. He declined on the grounds that he was too busy but indicated that he would write something for a future festival. Sadly, this did not happen as he died in November 1847. Elijah was first performed at the N&N Triennial in 1848 and was for a long period the festival’s most popular oratorio receiving no fewer than 13 performances between 1848 and 1930.

The work, however, depicting events in the life of the Biblical prophet, Elijah, was composed in the spirit of Mendelssohn’s Baroque predecessors, Bach and Handel, whose music he loved so dearly.

Monteverdi in the round: Covent Garden's Ulysses at the Roundhouse

Monteverdi: The Return of Ulysses - Royal Opera at the Roundhouse ((c) ROH & Roundhouse, photo Stephen Cummiskey)

Monteverdi Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The return of Ulysses); Roderick Williams, Christine Rice, Caitlin Hulcup, Catherine Carby, Samuel Boden, dir: John Fulljames, cond: Christian Curnyn, orchestra of the Early Opera Company; Royal Opera at the Roundhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 13 2018 Star rating: 4.0
A remarkable achievement, filling the Roundhouse with the sombre gravity of Monteverdi's drama

Roderick Williams, Catherine Carby -
((c) ROH & Roundhouse, photo Stephen Cummiskey)

Following on from its successful performances of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Roundhouse in 2015, the Royal Opera has returned to the circular performing space with further Monteverdi, this time Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (The return of Ulysses), directed by John Fulljames, with Roderick Williams as Ulysses and Human Frailty and Christine Rice as Penelope. We caught the third performance of the run, on Saturday 13 January 2018. Unfortunately Christine Rice was ill, and not able to sing, so Caitlin Hulcup had stood in at a weeks notice, she sang the part from the pit with Rice acting the role.

The remaining cast consisted of David Shipley (Antinous and Time), Catherine Carby (Fortune and Minerva), Samuel Boden (Telemachus), Susan Bickley (Eurycleia), Francesca Chiejina (Melantho), Mark Milhofer (Eumaeus), Stuart Jackson (Irus), Nick Pritchard (Amphinomus), Tai Oney (Peisander), Andrew Tortise (Eurymachus), with the Return of Ulysses Community Ensemble which consisted of 40 singers drawn from the Royal Opera House, Thurrock Community Chorus and from the Roundhouse youth programmes. Christian Curnyn conducted the orchestra of the Early Opera Company. Set designs were by Hyemi Shin, costumes by Kimie Nakano, lighting by Paule Constable, movement by Maxine Braham and the sound design was by Ian Dearden for Sound Intermedia. The opera was sung in Christopher Cowell's English translation.

Samuel Boden, Christine Rice
(c) ROH & Roundhouse, photo Stephen Cummiskey

Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria is a far different work than L'Orfeo. Written for the newly created public theatre in Venice, Ulysses is a less grand, more concentrated work. It uses smaller performing forces, and is more diverse in its mix of short scenes of both comedy and tragedy. L'Orfeo, written to celebrate a wedding in Mantua, has a grandness about it which means the expanding the work to fit far larger venues than the original seems quite natural. This is trickier with Ulysses. Fulljames and his team took their cue from the democratic nature of the Roundhouse space, and decided to set the opera in the round with the orchestra at the centre, and the acting space on a torus round the orchestra. The simple but elegant set design was completed with a circular suspended ring on which surtitles were projected. No-one had a perfect view all the time, but the action moved and the results were immediate and engaging. In an introductory speech, Roderick Williams joked that the performers were close enough to the audience that, if a phone went of, one of them would be able to come and take it off the owner!

A slight curiosity was the the orchestra slowly rotated, and that the acting torus rotated in the opposite direction though this was done subtly and I noticed that Penelope's scenes did not rotate and indication of the stasis of her existence.

Costumes were loosely modern, but quite classic and in neutral tones, with just the odd piece of armour and a real bow. When Minerva (Catherine Carby) flies Telemachus (Samuel Boden) in, they appeared on a tandem which Carby was pedalling, and circled the torus furiously. Though it was something of a curiosity to have Eumaeus' sheep represented by white balloons, but the popping of these throughout the opera was very effective.

A big theme of the production was the idea of exile and refugees, with Fulljames seeing Ulysses, Telemachus, the suitors and their ensemble as all casualties of the horrors of war. So that the suitors were accompanied by a large band of fellow refugees, come to rest on Ithaca (the community ensemble), and we saw Penelope (Christine Rice), Eurycleia (Susan Bickley) and Melantho (Francesca Chiejina) feeding them. The tone of the production, for all the visual felicities, was serious without being preachy and even the scenes with Stuart Jackson's grossly fat Irus had an edge to them. The ending gave cause for hope without being a relapse into an unlikely lieto fine.

Aiming at paradise: songs from Alisa Firsova, Bryan Hymel & Irini Kyriakidou Hymel

A private concert on Thursday mixed the intriguing talents of pianist/composer Alisa Firsova, tenor Bryan Hymel, soprano Irini Kyriakidou-Hymel and poet Peter Wolrich. The link was the Chateau de Canisy in Normandy where Firsova was resident for a number of years and came to know Wolrich. She set a sequence of Wolrich's poems, from Paradise Poems inspired by his periods at Canisy. And so the evening presented Firsova's Here in Canisy Op.22, Ascend to Freedom & In search of Paradise Op.37 and Unity Op.26.

But because Bryan Hymel is a distinguished dramatic tenor, Firsova had crafted an intriguing programme which combined her music with showcasing Hymel in a number of arias for roles he does not yet sing, 'Wintersturme' from Wagner's Die Walkure and 'Walther's Prize Song' from Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, as well as hearing Irini Kyriakidou-Hymel in 'Elsa's Dream' from Lohengrin. And Firsova wove these together with Liszt's Lugubre Gondola II and Liszt's arrangement of Wagner's Liebestod, plus her own arrangement of the 'Adagietto' from Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

It was lovely to hear relatively intimate performances of the Wagner arias, and Firsova's own songs (preceded by Wolrich reading the relevant poems) proved fascinating with Firsova weaving a seductive web of piano round the voices.

Blood, sex, violence & incest, but subtlety too: Richard Strauss' Salome at Covent Garden

Richard Strauss: Salome - Malin Byström, Duncan Meadows - Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Photo ROH/Clive Barda)

Richard Strauss Salome; Malin Byström, John Daszak, Michaela Schuster, Michael Volle, dir: David McVicar / Barbara Lluch, cond: Henrik Nánási; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 12 2018 Star rating: 4.5
Lyric soprano Malin Byström makes a lithe and wonderfully petulant teenage heroine in a strong revival

David McVicar's production of Richard Strauss' Salome at Covent Garden (revived by Barbara Lluch) remains as powerful and stylish as ever. The production has returned for the third time (seen Friday 12 January 2018), with Swedish soprano Malin Byström in the title role, plus David Butt Philip as Narraboth, Christina Bock as the Page, Michael Volle as Jokanaan, John Daszak as Herod and Michaela Schuster as Herodias, conducted by Henrik Nánási.

John Daszak, Michaela Schuster - (Photo ROH/Clive Barda)

McVicar's production uses the image of the grim down-stairs of Herod's palace (designs Es Devlin) as a metaphor for the nastiness at the heart of Herod's court. There is plenty of blood and sexual activity (not to mention the famously naked executioner, Naaman, played by Duncan Meadows). But Devlin's designs are remarkably elegant,  particularly the stunning spiral staircase which leads down to the murk. Quite what the real nastiness is, is not quite apparent until the Dance of The Seven Veils when Herod and Salome re-enact a series of rituals/encounters which suggest the history of abuse behind Herod's suggestion that Salome dance for him.

Malin Byström really brought out the contrast between the girlish elegance of Salome's demeanour and the virulent intensity, not to mention peversity of her desires. The 1940s setting helped, so that Byström's dress could easily have been that of an older teenager or young 20 year old, and Byström's performance was remarkably lithe, almost elfin-like at times.

Richard Strauss never did produce the revised orchestration of Salome which would have enabled lighter sopranos to sing the title role, though he talked about it. But with good management, the role remains possible for certain types of lyric. Byström debuted her Salome last June (2017) in Amsterdam, and she has recently started singing the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier so is clearly moving into heavier territory.

Silence and Music

Stanford, Elgar, RVW, Howells, Grainger, James MacMillan, Benjamin Britten, Peter Warlock; Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh; Winged Lion/Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 13 2018 Star rating: 4.0
A beautifully performed and intelligently programmed disc of British part-songs

Silence and Music from Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort on their Winged Lion / Signum Classics label features a further exploration of the British part-song repertoire. The disc features music by Stanford, Elgar, RVW, Howells, Grainger, James MacMillan, Benjamin Britten and Peter Warlock.

The selection of pieces is evocative and thoughtful, mixing the well known and the lesser-known. There is folk-song here, but even this selection is fascinating including as it does Percy Grainger's disturbing tale The Three Ravens in addition to Brigg Fair, as well as three moving RVW pieces Bushes and Briars, The Winter is Gone and The Turtle Dove.

McCreesh uses a choir of 20 singers, though such is their unanimity and flexibility that they can sound like  far fewer singers, and they are joined by soloists Robert Murray (Brigg Fair) and Neal Davies (The Turtle Dove and The Three Ravens), plus harmonium player Tim Roberts (The Three Ravens). Unlike a lot of conductors in this repertoire, McCreesh is a generalist who has made his name in period performance, and perhaps one can detect some of the way his ear works in the fine beauty and control of these performances.

The programme almost functions as a cycle through the day, opening with a flash of blue in Stanford's The Blue Bird and coming to rest with RVW having had Britten's The Evening Primrose. Stanford's The Blue Bird is concentrated and controlled, with a lovely clarity of line and a fine-grained elegance of sound. This song exemplifies the many virtues of the performances on this disc, and the confidence that McCreesh has in his singers is reflected in the way that the solo line is sung, as intended, by the sopranos rather by a soloist.

Rowan Pierce and William Carter in Purcell

Rowan Pierce

We attended a delightful private recital on Wednesday night (10 January 2018) when Rowan Pierce (soprano) and William Carter (lute) performed a selection of Purcell songs. The recital was for supporters of a new disc of Purcell songs which Rowan Pierce is recording with William Carter and Richard Egarr (harpsichord).

Rowan sang a range of Purcell songs from the well known, such as Music for a while, Sweeter than roses, O Solitude and The Evening Hymn, to lesser known ones such as O lead me to some peaceful gloom and the charming Knotting song. It was a great pleasure to hear these song in a relatively intimate setting. William Carter also treated us to a pair of Dowland lute pieces, the Lachrymae pavan and Fortune my foe.

Rowan Pierce has popped up a few times on this blog in 2017, she won The Grange Festival International Singing Competition, as well as taking the Song Prize [see my article], sang Iris in Handel's Semele with Christophe Rousset and the Academy of Ancient Music [see my article], and sang in Handel's Israel in Egypt with William Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Proms [see my article] and Handel's Jephtha from the London Festdival of Baroque Music with Stephen Layton and the Academy of Ancient Music [see my article]. She is one of the Academy of Ancient Music's Rising Stars so expect to be hearing more of her in 2018

Vale of Glamorgan Festival

Ewenny Priory

This year's Vale of Glamorgan Festival runs from 9 - 16 May 2018 with concerts in the Vale of Glamorgan, including St David's Hall and Hoddinnot in Cardiff, to Penarth Pier Pavilion and Ewenny Priory. The focus this year is on the music of the Danish composer Bent Sørensen, with his works being spread across the festival in six concerts. The festival opens with Alexandre Bosch conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in programme which includes Bent Sorensen's Trumpet Concerto and music by Thierry Escaich and Qigang Chen. Qigang Chen is a Chinese composer who trained with Messiaen, and his Jiang Tcheng Tse (For the Sake of Art) is receiving its European premiere, the work having been co-commissioned by the festival.

Also at the festival there is solo cello music from Alice Neary, music for flute and piano from Jose Zalba Smith & Jan Willem Nelleke, solo piano music from Ivan Illic, music for flute and piano from Matthew Jones and Annable Thwaite, plus two concerts from the Danish group Ensemble MidVest. Composers featured in the festival include David Roche, John Metcalf, Helen Woods and many more.

Full information from the Vale of Glamorgan festival website.

'Always on my mind' from a Slovenian youth orchestra

A delightful video that I was sent over the Christmas period, features Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher, & Mark James' Always on my mind arranged for solo trombone and orchestra by Marjan Peternel, played by trombonist Matjaž Kafol and the 2017 Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nejc Bečan. The item comes from one of two sell-out concerts that that the orchestra gave at Gallus Hall, Cankarjev doma, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in December 2017. The video director is Primož Zevnik.

The orchestra is a youth orchestra, based at the Gimnazija Kranj,  which is a school in Slovenia.

Kyrie - The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, in Poulenc, Kodaly and Janacek

Poulenc, Kodaly, Janacek; Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha; Signum
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 13 2017 Star rating: 4.0
Three striking 20th century works setting sacred texts on this disc from St John's

Andrew Nethsingha and the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge have put together a programme of 20th century music to sacred texts on his disc on the St John's imprint on Signum, with Francis Poulenc's Mass in G, Zoltan Kodaly's Missa Brevis and Leos Janacek's Otcenas.

None of the works was written for a choir of boys and men, and for all the frequency that the Poulenc and the Kodaly crop up in collegiate choirs, this change in focus and timbres produces some striking new reflections on the pieces.

Having last heard the Poulenc on The Sixteen's recent recording [see my review], that from Andrew Nethsingha and his choir highlights some striking differences. There is a transparency, delicacy and clarity to the textures on this disc, arising from the sound of the trebles on the top line. Yet it is not undernourished, there is a wiry strength too. The solo treble lines might seem to be just a thread, but rhythms are punchy and there is a wonderful edge to the more jagged harmonies. There is lightness and control, but steel too in the Sanctus & Benedictus, and the beautiful thread of solo treble at the opening of the Agnus Dei leads to a magical ending.

Irish National Opera launches

Whilst most opera lovers have heard of the Wexford Festival, opera provision in the Irish Republic during the rest of the year has proved a little uneven over the years. Perhaps making a virtue out of necessity, the Irish Arts Council has create Irish National Opera by merging existing companies; the first time that there has been a national opera company Ireland. Irish National Opera launched this week with a gala concert in Dublin, and has announced a striking series of plans.

For the remainder of this season there is Mary Plazas in a touring production Thomas Ades' Powder Her Face, and then Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro staged by Patrick Mason with Tara Erraught, Jonathan Lemalu, Ben McAteer, Máire Flavin and Suzanne Murphy; the company's first full production, it will be presented in Wexford and Dublin. In the Summer, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice is presented in association with the Galway International Festival, with Sharon Carty as Orfeo, directed by Emma Martin.

In the Autumn, Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh’s The Second Violinist is revived at the Barbican Centre in London, and there is a touring production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, then Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and Verdi's Aida conducted by Fergus Sheil (who is artistic director of the company) with Orla Boylan and Gwynne Hughes Jones as Aida and Radames.

2018 sees the company touring to 13 venues in Ireland, and it is looking to increase this to 26 venues by 2019. The ambition is also to broaden the repertoire, as well as looking to stage Wagner's Ring Cycle in Dublin for the first time since 1913!.

Full details from the Irish National Opera website.

Carter's Double Concerto from the Riot Ensemble

The Riot Ensemble is giving a rare performance of Elliott Carter's Double Concerto at LSO St Luke's on Friday 12 January 2018. The ensemble will be joined by soloists Adam Swayne (piano) and Goska Isphording (harpsichord) for the Carter concerto. This was written in 1961 and premiered by harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick and pianist Charles Rosen (who described the work as "Carter's most brilliantly attractive and apparently most complex work"); in the work Carter divides the orchestra into two groups each led by one of the soloists.

The Riot Ensemble will be pairing the work with two works by two emerging American composers, Molly Joyce, one of seven composers chosen in the ensembles 2017 Call for Scores, will have a world premiere of a new work, and there will be the UK Premiere of Pierce Gradone’s To Paint Their Madness.

Full details from the Riot Ensemble website.

Allan Clayton and James Baillieu in recital at the Wigmore Hall

Allan Clayton (photo Laura Harling)

Purcell (realised Britten), Schubert, Schumann: Kerner Lieder; Allan Clayton, James Baillieu; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 10 2018 Star rating: 4.0
Allan Clayton brings questing intelligence and great lyrical beauty, supported by James Baillieu's fine partnership

The tenor Allan Clayton was joined by pianist James Baillieu for a much anticipated recital at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 9 January 2017. Their programme was quite a classic one, with groups of songs by Purcell and by Schubert, then Schumann's Kerner Lieder, Op.35.  The Purcell songs were sung in Britten's realisations, and included A Morning Hymn, An Evening Hymn, Music for a While, There's not a swain on the plain and In the Black Dismal Dungeon of Despair. The Schubert group consisted of Ganymed D544, Schäfers Klagelied D121, Wandrers Nachtlied II D768, Auf dem See D543, Erster Verlust D226, and Willkommen und Abschied D767.

James Baillieu (photo Kaupo Kikkas)

Allan Clayton scored significant personal success this Summer with his performances in the title role of Brett Dean's opera Hamlet at Glyndebourne, and there is a large-scale element to his lyric tenor voice which, combined with his somewhat larger-than-life stage persona, meant that he filled the Wigmore Hall effortlessly, creating a remarkable buzz in the auditorium (with an audience including many young people). But whilst climaxes in the songs showed the sheer power of Clayton's voice, this was something held in reserve, and he revelled in the hall's ability to allow a singer to capture an audience with a simple thread of sound.

Clayton has a profoundly beautiful voice, but he certainly did not coast along on the back of this and throughout the recital you were aware of his constant searching for expressive devices and details. Perhaps not everything worked perfectly and there was sometimes something rather deliberate about his phrasing, but you sensed that this was a singer who was restlessly questing rather than simply presenting an unquestioning approach to standard repertoire.

Introduction to Opera: Verdi, Wagner & After

My Introduction to Opera: Verdi, Wagner & After lectures for The Course at the University Women's Club in Mayfair, start this week.

For this week we have Opera:What to listen for, a run down on how opera developed and how it is constructed. Music by Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini and Verdi.

Further information from The Course website.

Gwilym Simcock joins the Northern Chamber Orchestra for a celebratory jazz-influenced evening

Gwilym Simcock

The Northern Chamber Orchestra's 50th anniversary season continues on 12 January 2018 when the orchestra is joined by Gwilym Simcock for a concert at The Stoller Hall, Manchester, the new concert hall at Chetham's School of Music. 

Simcock's music spans the classical and jazz fields, and for the concert Simcock and the orchestra will be playing his Cumbrian Thaw for piano and strings, alongside his arrangement of Debussy's Children's Corner. The programme is completed by Tippett's Sellinger’s Round and Haydn's Symphony No 85 ‘La Reine’.

Simcock is an alumnus of  Chetham's School of Music, and young musicians from the school will be rehearsing with him and the orchestra and joining the performance of Children's Corner.

Further information from the Stoller Hall website.

Undeservedly neglected: Rimsky-Korsakov romances from Sergey Rybin, Anush Hovhannisyan, Yuriy Yurchuk

Rimsky-Korsakov Romances; Anush Hovhannisyan, Yuriy Yurchuk, Sergey Rybin; Stone Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 20 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Lesser known parts of Rimsky-Korsakov's repertoire reveal themselves in this valuable recording

There is one song on this new disc from Stone Records which is familiar, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Rose enchants the Nightingale; I think I first heard it performed in the 1970s by Cathy Berberian. But the remainder of the disc is remarkably new territory. Pianist Sergey Rybin, together with soprano Anush Hovhannisyan and baritone Yuriy Yurchuk present a selection of Rimsky-Korsakov's Romances.

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote 79 romances in all, and here we have settings of Aleksey Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov, Alexander Pushkin and others with subjects ranging from nature and man's place in it, to the fantastical and fairy tales, and of course the oriental.

The style is principally melodic. In a letter of 1897 Rimsky-Korsakov explained "I think that in their requests for melodiousness, singability and expansiveness, singers and the public at large are right ... short melodies, fragmentation, music departing from harmonies and demand for dissonances - are things in themselves undesirable." and later in the same letter, "pure melody ... has to remain alive for without it the fate of music is decadence".

Celebrating the centenary of The Planets

The London Schools Symphony Orchestra

It is 100 years since the first performance of Gustav Holst's The Planets and the London Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) is marking the anniversary with a concert at the Barbican. Conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong the orchestra will play Holst's The Planets along with Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, to be performed by soprano Louise Alder who is an LSSO alumnus.

Holst's The Planets had quite a long genesis, it was composed between 1914-1916. Because of the war, the pieces were first tried out in a version for two pianos and the first orchestral performance in 1918 was in fact to an invited audience at the Queen's Hall. There also is a particular link between the LSSO and The Planets, Holst composed the work whilst he was musical director at Morley College, the present-day home of the LSSO.

Founded in 1951, the London Schools Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra drawn from students in London schools, and the orchestra gives three concerts per year at the Barbican.

Louise Alder Young Singer of the Year at the 2017 International Opera Awards and taking the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

Full details from the Barbican website.

A very personal sense of communication: Christopher Purves in Handel with Arcangelo

Christopher Purves (Photo Chris Gloag)

Handel arias, concerti grossi and overtures; Christopher Purves, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 7 2018 Star rating: 4.5
Christopher Purves in fine form in this programme of Handel's bass arias

Christopher Purves, Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo have recorded a follow-up to their 2012 disc of Handel arias on Hyperion, with a further disc of Handel's bass arias to be released later this year. In celebration of this, Christopher Purves joined Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo at Milton Court concert hall on Sunday 7 January 2018 for an all Handel programme. 

The arias were drawn both from the 2012 disc and the new one so that we heard 'Sibilar gli angui d'Aletto' from Rinaldo,  'Gelido in ogni veno' from Siroe, 'Opprest with never ceasing grief' from Belshazzar, 'Ah, canst thou but prove me' from Athalia, 'O ruddier than the cherry' from Acis and Galatea, 'Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori' from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, 'Racks, gibbets, sword and fire' from Theodora, 'How art thou fall'n' and 'Turn, not O Queen' from Esther. The orchestra also played the overtures from Agrippina and Theodora, the Concerto Grosso in D major Op.6 no.5 and Concerto Grosso in F major, Op.3 no.4.

The programme took the familiar form of alternating groups of arias with the orchestral pieces, though in each half we started with arias and Christopher Purves never left the platform, sitting at the side during the orchestral items listening actively. In fact, it is a format which is surprisingly difficult to bring off well. Many of the arias were designed to provide a form of emotional release following the tension generated during the preceding recitative, and without any preparation it can be tricky to understand the context. Excellent details were provided in the programme book, but the combination of the small point size of the printing and low light levels meant that this could only be consulted after the event. So, it says much for the highly communicative nature of Christopher Purves performance that so many of the items had significant impact.

One of the most compelling and poignant ends to a Boheme I have witnessed

Puccini: La Boheme - Honey Rouhani, Matthew Palmer, Matthew Kimble, Lizzie Holmes - Trafalgar Studios
(Photo Scott Rylander)

Puccini La Boheme; Lizzie Holmes, Honey Rouhani, Matthew Kimble, Matthew Palmer, Elspeth Wilkes, William Rudge; King's Head Theatre at Trafalgar Studior
Reviewed by Anthony Evans on Jan 6 2018 Star rating: 4.0
Small scale but still packing a punch, the King's Head Theatre's pared down production of La Boheme

Matthew Palmer
(Photo Scott Rylander)

One of the real pleasures of the past year had been the opportunity to see so many strikingly imaginative small-scale opera productions. The King’s Head Theatre continues to challenge and delight in the West End revival of their 2016 production of La Boheme at the Trafalgar Studios.

In this pared-down production Colline and Schaunard are given the heave-ho focussing instead on the two central couples. Double cast, at this performance Lizzie Holmes sang Mimi, Honey Rouhani was Musetta with Matthew Kimble as “Rafe” (Rodolpho) and Matthew Palmer playing Mark (Marcello). Elspeth Wilkes and William Rudge accompanied on piano and cello.

Modern adaptions of classic repertoire can often sound crass or clumsy but La Boheme’s timeless tale of ordinary people doing ordinary things is ripe for some slick re-writing. Relocated to Dalston, La Boheme’s naturalism, humour and conversational style is exploited to the full in Adam Spreadbury-Maher’s occasionally self-consciously sweary updating.

The first half is unabashed riotous fun. Ralph and Mark are huddled over their digital devices in their Dalston flat “My balls are frozen” Ralph cries, their laddish charm and snappy banter a delight, bringing the house down with “ignore him he voted leave”. Honey Rouhani’s sparkly eyed and mischievous Musetta does a fantastic turn at playing the audience, shaming an unsuspecting punter into picking up the tab at the Cat and Mutton pub. This paean to friendship barely hints at how things will play out. From her first entrance Lizzie Holmes’ Mimi is enchanting, her broad infectious smile and creamy soprano hiding the significance of an innocuous request for a lighter making the final revelation all the more shocking.

Verdi’s Falstaff is as popular (and convincing) as ever

Verdi: Falstaff - Opera Vlaanderen

Verdi Falstaff: Julien Behz, Craig Colclough, Michael Colvin, Denzil Delaere, Anat Edri, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Kai Rüütel, Markus Suihkonen, Iris Vermillion, Jacqueline Wagner, dir: Christoph Waltz, cond, Tomáš Netopil, Opera Vlaanderen Antwerpen
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on Dec 29 2017 Star rating: 4.0
This production of Verdi’s last opera was splendidly sung and interestingly directed

Based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor by Arrigo Boito and scenes from Henry IV (parts I & II), Falstaff - which received its première in February 1893 at La Scala, Milan - was the last of Verdi’s 28 operas and written as he was approaching the ripe old age of 80. It was also his second comedy and, indeed, his third work based on a Shakespeare play following that of Macbeth and Othello.

Christoph Waltz directed the work for Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp (seen 29 December 2017), conducted by Tomáš Netopil with Craig Colclough in the title role.

Verdi: Falstaff - Craig Colclough - Opera Vlaanderen

A somewhat insignificant plot, it revolves round the thwarted and sometimes farcical efforts of the well-loved fat old knight of Windsor, Sir John Falstaff, to seduce two married women to gain access to their husbands’ wealth.

The work is now part of the operatic repertoire worldwide but it was not always the case. Although the prospect of a new opera from Verdi caused great interest in Italy and from around the world, Falstaff did not prove to be as popular as earlier works in the composer’s canon.

A sense of joy: Adam Fischer & OAE in Haydn's Creation at Kings Place

Portrait of Joseph Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1791)

Haydn The Creation; Charlotte Beament, James Way, Dingle Yandell, Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Adam Fischer; Kings Place
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 13 2018 Star rating: 4.5
A gloriously joyous, small scale performance of Haydn's oratorio

Kings Place's Time Unwrapped is a year-long exploration of the many meanings of time in music. On Saturday 6 January 2018, to launch the festival, where better place to begin than the beginning, so Adam Fischer directed the Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) in Haydn's The Creation with soloists Charlotte Beament, James Way and Dingle Yandell (all three OAE Rising Stars).

Haydn's inspiration for The Creation came partly from hearing the Handel Festival at Westminster Abbey in 1791 when massed forces sang Messiah and Israel in Egypt and for the public premiere of The Creation in Vienna in 1799, 180 performers were used. Whilst he undoubtedly wanted a large sound in the work, much of the writing reflects his experience at Esterhazy and the piece works well with smaller forces. At Kings Place the platform space is limited, and even with just a choir of 16 and an orchestra based on 14 strings, the performers overflowed onto the balcony with choir, trumpets, brass and timpani placed above. In terms of sound, this worked remarkably well.

Conductor Adam Fischer clearly relished the opportunities which this re-focussing of performers gave him and from the opening notes of the prelude, the instrumental playing was full of contrast and texture, with wonderful details springing out. The depiction of chaos in the prelude was spine-tinglingly intense, but throughout the oratorio Fischer and the orchestra brought out numerous felicities. It was a performance of contrasts, the quiet moments were magical and the loud ones very loud. Whilst the forces were far smaller than Haydn might have anticipated, the effect of the full choir and orchestra in Hall One of Kings Place was thrilling in its concentrated intensity.

Of course, fine detail does not make for a great performance and what Fischer also brought out in his singers and players was a sense of joy. Whilst remaining in constant control, it was clear that Fischer also sat back and relaxed, radiating a sense of enjoyment which was infectious. I have rarely found a performance of The Creation so entrancing and so joyous in its relishing of the quirky details of Haydn's score.

A journey from Rossini to Richard Strauss and beyond

I chat to tenor Bruce Sledge as he takes the title role in Meyerbeer's Le prophete at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin.

Bruce Sledge

The American tenor Bruce Sledge has been on my radar for some time, he sang the role of Paolo Erisso in Rossini's Maometto II at Santa Fe Opera in 2012 [see my review] and Leicester in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at Welsh National Opera (WNO) in 2013 [see my review]. More recently he sang in WNO's performances of Andre Tchaikovsky's Merchant of Venice [see my review] in tandem with Macduff in Verdi's Macbeth.

Bruce Sledge, who studied at the University of Southern California and was a finalist in Placido Domingo’s Operalia 2000 competition, has gradually made the transition from high Rossini tenor roles, to the more lower Rossini tenor roles (those written for Andrea Nozzari) to Verdi's lyric tenor roles including the Duke in Rigoletto. That his voice might be continuing on this journey is indicated by his making his role debut as Jean in Meyerbeer's Le prophete at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin [see my review]. I met up with Bruce whilst I was in Berlin to find out more about Le prophete and future plans. This year (2018) Bruce will be singing Bacchus in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos with Sante Fe Opera, and Percy in Donizetti's Anna Bolena with Canadian Opera Company, a combination of roles rarely seen in tenors.

Bruce Sledge and Ronnita Miller in Meyerbeer's Le prophète in Berlin

Meyerbeer Le prophète; Bruce Sledge, Ronnita Miller, Nicole Haslett, Andrew Finden, Derek Welton, Andrew Dickinson, Thomas Lehman, dir Olivier Py, cond: Enrique Mazzola; Deutsche Oper, Berlin
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 4 2018
A new cast, and a creative solution to stage machinery problems, give a new slant to this powerful production

The Deutsche Oper, Berlin's production of Giacomo Meyerbeer's Le prophète, directed by Olivier Py, was new in November 2017 [see Tony's review]. For a pair of performances in January 2018, the opera is being given with a substantially new cast. We caught the first of these, on Thursday 4 January 2018, with Bruce Sledge as Jean, Ronnita Miller as Fidès, Nicole Haslett as Berthe, Thomas Lehman as Mathisen and Andrew Finden as Oberthal.  Returning to their roles were Derek Welton as Zacharie, and Andrew Dickinson as Jonas, and Enrique Mazzola conducted.

The circumstances of the performance on 4 January were more dramatic than intended. Significant water ingress had badly damaged stage machinery, and the opera was given in a stream-lined staging. Pierre-André Weltz's sets were simplified and the whole staging re-thought. Thanks to, I presume, much last minute work the whole had a remarkable coherence, perhaps akin to seeing one of Glyndebourne on Tour's revised versions of the main stage operas.

Premiered in 1849 at the Paris Opera, Le prophète was hugely influential in the 19th century but fell out of favour in the 20th century, in part due to Meyerbeer's relatively conservative idiom but also thanks to the demands of the Paris Opera's stagings of the period. What is remarkable is how, within the tropes of French Grand Opera with the need for a ballet, a grand historical subject, complex large-scale ensemble scenes incorporating a chorus, not to mention a contrasting pair of heroines, Meyerbeer and his librettists Eugène Scribe and Emile Deschamps treated such a complex and contemporary subject. Viewed through the historic lense of the Anabaptist uprising in Munster in the 16th century, the opera examines how revolutions can be fallible and just as objectionable as those regimes that they superceded, and how leaders can be deluded.

Between the Seasons: Vivaldi and Henning Kraggerud from the Arctic

Vivaldi, Kraggerud Between the Seasons; Henning Kraggerud, Artic Phiharmonic Chamber Orchestra; SIMAX Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 20 2017 Star rating: 4.0
A performance of Vivaldi's concertos full of fantasy, interleaved with Kraggerud's own pieces

The Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra is one of Europe's newest (founded 2009) and most Northerly orchestras (it is based in Tromsø, in Northern Norway). On this engaging disc from Simax, the orchestra and its artistic director, composer and violinist Henning Kraggerud, perform Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. But as with many other recent versions of these concertos, there is a twist; under the title Between the Sheets, Kraggerud and the orchestra interleave Vivaldi's concertos with four of Kraggerud's own works.

Kraggerud's pieces. Preghiera, Postlude in B flat minor from Equinox, the last leaf - Magnus in Memoriam and Victimae Paschali, are all pre-existing works but have been carefully chosen and the whole forms a remarkably satisfying cycle.

We begin with Vivaldi's Spring and we immediately notice the engagingly bouncy performance from the orchestra.

New Year's Eve with Arcangelo

Emöke Baráth

Blow, Purcell, Handel, Vivaldi; Emöke Baráth, Peter Whelan, Neil Brough, Paul Sharp, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 31 2017 Star rating: 5.0
A programme full of engaging vitality and fine music making

New Year's Eve was celebrated in style at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday 31 December 2017 when Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo gave a us an enjoyably festive evening of baroque music, full of engaging and vital music making. The programme was full of symmetries, a pair of settings of the Gloria (by Handel and by Vivaldi), two concertos by Vivaldi (for bassoon and for two trumpets), and two Odes for St Cecilia's day (Blow's Begin the Song and Purcell's Welcome to All the Pleasures). The planned soprano soloist Anna Lucia Richter was unfortunately ill, and her place was taken at very short notice by the Hungarian soprano Emöke Baráth, and Arcangelo was also joined by Peter Whelan (bassoon), Neil Brough and Paul Sharp (trumpets).

With Jonathan Cohen directing from the harpsichord and organ, there was a vocal ensemble of eight singers who also took on the solo responsibilities in the Blow and Purcell - Charlotte Beament, Zoe Brookshaw, Anna Harvey, David Allsopp, Samuel Boden, Thomas Walker, Stephen Kennedy and Dingle Yandell - plus an instrumental ensemble of five strings, led by Louis Creach, with Thomas Dunford on lute.