Listen to the Berlin Philharmonic whilst on the move

For those of us who can't get to Berlin on a regular basis, the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall is mobile, with the launch of a new app (available only for iPhone, iPad and iTouch). Free with the app is a selection of previews of live concerts, features and interviews, plus Beethoven's Fourth Symphony and Mahler's First Symphony conducted by Simon Rattle. Premium content gives you 40 concerts streamed live together with an archive of concerts, nearly all in HD quality. More information from the Digital Concert Hall website.

Getting it Right 2013 - conference report (part 2)

Guildhall ResearchWorks' Getting it Right 2013: the contemporary composer and the orchestra was a conference organised by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the LSO which looked at the relationship between contemporary composers and the orchestra. Taking place on Wednesday 6 February at LSO St. Lukes. This is the second part of my conference report,  covering the afternoon sessions with panel discussions and presentations including composers Gunther Schuller, George Benjamin, Hans Abrahamsen, Julian Philips, Helen Grimes and Richard Causton. The first part can be found in an earlier posting on this blog. 

Spend a week with RVW

RVW

The Oxford University Summer School for Adults is offering the opportunity this summer to learn more about the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. From Saturday 3 August to Saturday 10 August Dr Peter Copley will be teaching a course on RVW's music. The cost is from £590 for seven day course with sessions on background, folksong, his early maturity and other influences, the First World War, new directions post-war, the 1930's (an important decade for RVW's development), the Second World War, RVW and film and a final two sessions on his indian summer.  It is hoped that the course will be of interest to musicians, though no specialist knowledge is required for participation. Further information from the OUSSA website (there are lots of other fascinating non-musical courses).

Getting it Right 2013 - conference report (part 1)

Guildhall ResearchWorks' Getting it Right 2013: the contemporary composer and the orchestra was a conference organised by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the LSO which looked at the relationship between contemporary composers and the orchestra. Taking place on Wednesday 6 February at LSO St. Lukes, the participants included a number of distinguished composers and orchestra managers led by Julian Anderson, professor of composition at the Guildhall School. Composers Mark Antony Turnage, Colin Matthew, Judith Weir, Paul Newland, Julian Anderson, Julian Philips, Helen Grime, Matthew Kaner, Richard Causton, Kate Romano, Hans Abrahamson and George Benjamin came together with managers and administrators,  Kathryn McDowell, Paul Hughes, Stephen Maddock, Andrew Kurowski and Helen Gaunt, along with violinist David Alberman to talk about what does, and doesn't work in the modern relationship between composer and orchestra. Their was also a Skype video link-up with Gunther Schuller, now 87 he is an important figure in the creation and dissemination of contemporary music in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Vivid, involving and very modern - Joyce DiDonato's drama queens

Joyce Di Donato, Photo ©Josef Fischnaller

Joyce DiDonato's Drama Queens show arrived in town. To a packed Barbican Hall last night (6 February 2013) she and Il Complesso Barocco performed a programme of baroque arias, based on the recent CD. There were CD's for sale and Ms DiDonato was of course signing them after the event, there was even an album of the printed music, which was rather a charming innovation. Though the idea of anyone being able to sing along with Ms DiDonato is far fetched. For the concert she wore a most amazing red dress by Vivienne Westwood Couture and looked every in the diva. Of course all the hoop-la would not work if it wasn't for the fact that DiDonato can sing these arias quite superbly. The rather varied audience were extremely enthusiastic about a programme of arias by Cesti, Monteverdi, Giacomelli, Orlandini, Hasse, Handel and Porta, arias that most of us have never had chance to hear in public and which make strong technical demands on the performer.

Alex Esposito at Rosenblatt Recitals

Alex Esposito is a young (born 1975)  Italian bass-baritone who has made a name for himself singing bel canto repertoire, mixing Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti, (including being the first native Italian to sing Papageno in German at La Scala). In the near future he will be making his debut as the four villains in Le Contes d'Hoffmann in Oslo, and as Nick Shadow in The Rakes Progress. Last night (5 February 2013) he    made is debut at Rosenblatt Recitals at Wigmore Hall, accompanied by Giulio Zappa, in a programme which included arias by Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Mozart, plus music by Cesti, Carissimi, Beethoven and Tosti.

Great sets, shame about the opera - Montemezzi's Nave

Guido Marussig's set design for the 3rd Episode of Nave
for the premiere at La Scala in 1918

Italo Montemezzi's opera Nave premiered in 1918 at La Scala, Milan. It was meant to cement his reputation following the success of L'Amore di Tre Re in 1913. His publishers, Ricordi, had high hopes that he would be a talent to replace Puccini and it was Tito Ricordi who adapted Gabriele D'Annunzio's play La Nave for Montemezzi. No expense was spared, the sets by Guido Marussig were highly realistic and included a complete ship, built as an independent structure, which was the focal point of the final scene as it was launched, with the heroine Basiliola strapped to the bow as the figure head! (see photo of the original sets at the bottom of this article). The plot was gruesome and the adaptation cut out a lot of D'Annunzio's poetry. Rather than being a success, critics complained and Montemezzi never wrote another full scale opera.

Supporting composers - Sound and Music revives awards and prize

George Butterworth (1885 - 1916)

It is nice to see that Sound and Music is reviving a pair of awards originally initiated by the SPNM (Society for the Promotion of New Music) which is one of Sound and Music's predecessor organisations. Not only is it good to see the organisation showing a sense of history (something it has rather lacked in recent years), but also both awards will help new composers in all genres. The George Butterworth Prize will be awarded annually and the Francis Chagrin Awards presented three times per year.

Cyril Scott premiere - CUMS in London

The Cambridge Music Society (CUMS) Symphony Orchestra is coming to London's Cadogan Hall on Friday 15 March 2013 with a rather fascinating programme which includes a Cyril Scott premiere, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition but not in the Ravel orchestration and Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto with Peter Donohoe as soloist. The orchestra will be conducted by Martin Yates, its principal conductor. The CUMS Symphony Orchestra is Cambridge  University’s finest symphony orchestra, drawn from top student instrumentalists in Cambridge.

Hastings Piano Week

Hastings Piano Week runs from 11 March to 16 March 2013 with the culmination being the final of the Hastings Piano Concerto Competition on Saturday 16 March with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings. The competition is open to pianists aged 16 to 30. Entry is by audition via CD or DVD, there are then three public stages of the competition. An initial concerto round, performed on two pianos, a recital semi-final and the concerto final with orchestra. The prescribed list of concertos covers the main repertoire by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Rachmaninov.

Joined up thinking - why no Kaiser festival?

Anyone reading the National Theatre's plans for their 50th anniversary season might have noticed, besides works by Shakespeare, Marlowe and Pirandello, a play by the German expressionist playwright Georg Kaiser (1878 - 1945). Melly Still will be directing Kaiser's From Morning to Midnight in November in a new version by Dennis Kelly. Those with long memories will remember ENO's performances of David Sawyer's opera, based on the play, at the London Coliseum in 2001. The opera wasn't perfect, but it had a lot going for it (see Tom Sutcliffe's review for the Evening Standard) though was never revived.  

Kaiser himself worked on two operas with Kurt Weill (in Weill's pre-Brecht period), Der Protagonist (1926) and Der Zar lässt sich photographieren (1928), both of which have had occasional revivals. Kaiser and Weill also collaborated on Der Silbersee (1933), a rather magical parable which is more play with music than opera or operetta. Some productions of the piece have sought to jazz it up with extra Weill songs. But those with even longer memories may remember the rather moving Camden Festival production from 1987 with a cast which included Nigel Robson and Meriel Dickinson, mixing singing actors and acting singers.

So why isn't any of this featuring in the autumn schedules of other companies. Festivals like Britten100 and the South Bank's The Rest is Noise show what can be done with collaboration. So why didn't someone come up with a mini-Kaiser/Weill festival to go with the National Theatre's performances. It would seem to have a lot going for it, expressionist drama, music by Kurt Weill and music by a fine contemporary composer. Come one you lot, lets have a bit more joined up thinking, collaboration and imagination please.

Spitalfieds Music Summer Festival

Spitalfields Music Summer Festival runs from 7 June to 22 June 2013 and is a fascinating mix of contemporary music, community events and period performance, with some events mixing everything up. Also mixing everything up are the venues, ranging from Christ Church Spitalfields and St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, to Hoxton Arches, Village Underground, Hoxton Hall, Rich Mix. Christian Curnyn's Early Opera are associated artists, performing three events, but the festival has a wonderful variety of visiting artists as well as native talent.

CD Review - Shakespeare Songs, Nicky Spence and Malcolm Martineau

Nicky Spence and Malcolm Martineau's new recital disc, As You Like It: Shakespeare Songs has been released on the Resonus Classics label, a digital only label which means that the disc is only available for download. The disc contains a delightfully eclectic selection of settings of Shakespeare in English and in translation, mixing classic repertoire with lesser known pieces and the first recording of Alex Woolf's Three Tempestuous Tunes, all characterised by the great care, attention and musicality of both performers.

January on Planet Hugill - Spacedogs, Minotaurs and an Enchanted Forest

New Year on Planet Hugill started with the Royal Opera House opening its doors, with a day of video streamed events. We also saw the new film by their new Director of Opera, Kasper Holten, based on Mozart's Don Giovanni. Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur made a welcome reappearance at Covent Garden, with John Tomlinson again in the title role.

La Traviata - Peter Konwitschny -ENO

Ben Johnson, Corinne Winters and chorus
ENO La Traviata (c) Tristram Kenton

English National Opera's new production of Verdi's La traviata is a co-production with Opera Graz. Peter Konwitschny's production was seen there in 2011 and has already been filmed. It has now opened at the London Coliseum (2 February 2013) with a new cast, and represents Konwitschny's debut in the UK, with Michaela Baluensteiner as assistant director and Johannes Leiacker as designer. In a strong cast, American soprano Corinne Winters, making her European debut, sang Violetta, ENO Harewood Artist Ben Johnson made his debut as Alfredo and Anthony Michaels-Moore sang Giorgio Germont. The conductor was Michael Hofstetter, principal conductor at Graz. 

JAM in Scotland

Judith Bingham

In February, JAM (John Armitage Memorial) is returning to Scotland with concerts in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, visiting Glasgow for the first time. There are two programmes, one for strings done in collaboration with Red Note, one of Scotland's leading contemporary programmes, and a choral programme which combines choirs from St. Andrew's, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. The concerts will commemorate Judith Bingham's 60th birthday last year, Britten's centenary, the 20th anniversary of Kenneth Leighton's death as well as performing contemporary works by Rory Boyle, Julian Philips and Phillip Cooke.

Essential reading - economic impact of the arts on the City of London

BOP Consulting has produced a report for the City of London Corporation. Rather fearsomely entitled The Economic, Social and Cultural Impact of the City Arts and Culture Cluster, it looks at the economic benefits of the arts within the City of London. This is a purely economic report, it doesn't look at the well-being benefits of participation in the arts, but it still makes rather impressive reading. Visitors who come for the arts events, provide significant economic benefit via their extra spending on accommodation and other extras. And the arts are reaching out in an impressive variety of ways with learning and volunteering.

Mark Padmore, Gary Matthewman, Schubert and surtitles

Mark Padmore (credit Marco Borgrevve)

We went to Gary Matthewman's Lied in London recital last night (31 January), and quite a treat it was. Mark Padmore singing Schubert's Schwanengesang. We'd seen Mark singing the same work at the Wimbledon Festival last November (see my review on this blog), but a change of venue and a change of pianist inevitably meant that we heard it with new ears. Partly this was because the venue was even smaller and more intimate than St Johns Church, in Wimbledon. Partly because with a great artist like Mark Padmore, no performance is ever quite the same and you always hear something new.

Sparkling to the last note: Rachel Podger and Marcin Świątkiewicz play Bach at Kings Place

Rachel Podger

The King’s Place Bach Unwrapped series showed off violin gems last night. Rachel Podger performed Bach’s (1685-1750) Sonata no. 1 in G minor and Partita no. 1 in B minor, and with Marcin Świątkiewicz  played Sonata no. 4 in C minor and Sonata no.1 in B minor for violin and harpsichord. We were also treated to an extra titbit of the Cantabile from Bach’s Sonata no. 6 for violin and obbligato harpsichord which beautifully rounded off the concert.

CD Review - Italian Love Songs, Anna Leese & Stephen De Pledge

Italian songs from the 19th and early 20th century can sometimes seem a little disappointing, not up to the standard of the operas that the composers were writing and rather too close to salon music when compared to French and German song. Part of the problem is that we usually hear them as part of a mixed programme, which can cruelly cruelly show up the songs in relief either by including more complex art songs or by contrasting the songs with the same composer's operatic output.