Till the Stars Fall - an encounter with Matthew Long - 'is this a crossover disc?'

Matthew Long - photo Ria Mishaal

It is rare to come across a young singer who is not only talented but who has a clear understanding of how the music and record industry functions, and takes a strong interest not just in their contribution but the whole recording and what happens to it. I recently met up with the young tenor Matthew Long to talk about his latest CD, Till the stars fall, and it was clear that he takes a keen interest not just in the music itself, but in the whole mechanics of getting the product out to audiences.

You have probably seen Matthew without necessarily realising it, as his performing career has included performing with a number of period instrument groups as well as singing with The Sixteen, and in fact the day that we met I had just been listening to The Sixteen's latest Purcell disc The Indian Queen on which Matthew features as soloist as well as performing in the ensemble. (see my review of The Indian Queen).

Matthew has just released a new disc, his first solo recital disc. It is entitled Till the stars fall and consists of a number of songs by Holst, Quilter, RVW, Finzi and Elgar alongside modern arrangements of traditional songs and popular numbers like Jerusalem and I vow to thee my country. Performers including Matthew, the pianist Malcolm Martineau, the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ben Parry (who did a lot of the arrangements), and Rufus Miller. Miller is in fact a session guitarist who works with people like Sting and The Slease. In fact, a quick glance at the disc, and it screams cross-over. What has our young period tenor (about to go off to Boston to sing Evangelist in the St Matthew Passion) got himself into?

Matthew laughs when I ask him about what the disc is and says that if it 'sits uneasily between Classic FM and Radio 3' then he is happy.

If the CD 'sits uneasily between Classic FM and Radio 3' then Matthew is happy.

Homages: A Musical Dedication - Christoph Denoth

Malats, Narvaez, Llobet, Sor, Villa-Lobos, Falla, Turina, Albeniz, Rodrigo; Christoph Denoth; Signum Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 23 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Imaginative selection of guitar pieces mainly from Spain, all linked by their sense of homage

This new disc on Signum Classics from Swiss guitarist Christoph Denoth presents a selection of pieces by mainly Spanish composers all linked by the fact that they were dedicated to someone or something. Christoph Denoth feels that these are all very personal pieces and it makes for an appealing programme. The centrepieces are the Preludes by Heitor Villa Lobos (the only non-Spaniard in the programme) and the Homenaje pour le tombeau de Claude Debussy by Manuel de Falla. But round these Denoth has assembled music by Joaquin Malats y Miarons, Luis de Narvaez, Miguel Llobet, Fernando Sor, Joaquin Turina, Isaac Albeniz, and Joaquin Rodrigo.

When I interviewed Christoph Denoth, he talked about how he felt all the works on the disc had great emotional appeal and how the programme had been assembled to reflect this, rather than from any musicological concerns.

He starts with Serenata Espanola by the Catalan composer Joaquin Malats y Miarons (1872-1912). Malats dedicated his orchestral suite Impresiones de Espana to his friend, the novelist Benito Perez Galdos, a leading member of the Spanish Realism movement. Malats made an arrangement for solo piano of the Serenata Espanola movement of the suite, and here Denoth plays the transcription for guitar by Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909). It has an appealing combination of rhythmic swing and melody.

A Pair of Passions

Bach - St Matthew Passion - Bach's fair copy of the revised version

I am sure that there are plenty of performances of Bach's St Matthew Passion occurring on Good Friday (3 April 2015) but two London performances caught my eye. The first, from Laurence Cummings and the London Handel Festival at St George's Hanover Square, partly because we are going to be attending, the second from Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican, because of a very strong cast indeed.

Nathan Vale will be singing the Evangelist at the London Handel Festival's annual performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion at St George's Church, Hanover Square, performed in the context of vespers (as it would have been originally). George Humphreys sings Christus and the bass solos, with soloists Anna Dennis and Alexandra Gibson. Over at the Barbican, James Gilchrist is the Evangelist, with Matthew Rose as Christus and soloists Elizabeth Watts, Sarah Connolly, Mark Le Brocq (replacing an indisposed Andrew Kennedy) and Christopher Purves, with Richard Egarr directing the Academy of Ancient Music. To coincide with their performance, the Academy of Ancient Music is releasing their recording of the passion on their own AAM Records label.

And if you are in Birmingham, then Ex Cathedra Choir, Baroque Orchestra and Academy of Vocal Music are performing the work at Symphony Hall with Jeremy Budd as the Evangelist, Greg Skidmore as Jesus, James Geidt as Pilate and Martha McLorinan, Christopher Watson,Katie Trethewey, Edward Grint, Matthew Venner, conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore.

The Indian Queen

Henry Purcell The Indian Queen, Daniel Purcell Masque of Hymen; The Sixteen; Coro
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 20 2015
Star rating: 5.0
A stylish and complete account of Henry and Daniel Purcell's music for Henry's last major stage work

Henry Purcell's The Indian Queen seems to have been somewhat in the news recently, his music having been part of Peter Sellars' extravaganza staged by ENO (see my review). Last year, to launch the Wigmore Hall's Henry Purcell: A Retrospective, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen performed Henry and Daniel Purcell's music for The Indian Queen allowing us to hear it theatrically unadorned (see my review) and now their disc, recorded shortly after the concert, has been issued on the Coro label. The disc includes all of Henry Purcell's music for The Indian Queen plus Daniel Purcell's The Masque of Hymen which was written for the piece's first revival. And the disc opens with one of Henry Purcell's catches.

One of the things that it is important to understand about The Indian Queen the theatrical work was that it was not intended to be on the grand scale of the semi-operas like The Fairy Queen and King Arthur. For one thing the company did not have the money, the production in 1695 came after yet more turmoil in the acting companies and The Indian Queen was based on a 30 year old play by Robert Howard (whose fourth wife Arabella was Henry Purcell's pupil) and John Dryden. In fact the original producers probably regarded it as a play with music (albeit, a lot of music) rather than a dramatick opera (their name for what we call semi-opera). Certainly with basic scenery and inexperienced actors (the good ones had all just left), Purcell's music was being called in to fill a lack. And this gave rise to one of the piece's distinctive quirks. The opening prologue, normally spoken, was sung to music by Purcell mainly because the singers would remedy the lack of experience of the actors.

The play concerns the fighting between Peru and Mexico (the Indian of the title in fact refers to the inhabitants of Peru!). The finale of the original semi-opera, produced in 1695 was rather downbeat, so at the 1696 revival a masque was added, written after the composer's death by Henry Purcell's brother/cousin Daniel Purcell. A rather Henry Purcell-ian (albeit without his imaginative quirk) sequence of choruses and solos.

Tippett's Ice Break

I first heard Tippett's opera The Ice Break when it was performed in concert at the Proms in 1990 woth Heather Harper coming out of retirement to sing the role of Nadia (a role she had created) and David Wilson-Johnson demonstrating his versatility by singing both in the Tippett and in Handel's Belshazzar during the same week. The opera really has not been seen much of since, and Tippett's own libretto is very much to blame and it is felt by some to be curious and dated. The setting is very 'contemporary' and nothing has dated so much as Tippett's literary attempts to be contemporary. But I remember being extremely impressed by the power of the music.

Now, Graham Vick and his enterprising Birmingham Opera Company are reviving the piece for a run of performances 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9 April 2015 in an inner city warehouse in Birmingham. Graham Vick directs and the conductor is Andrew Gourlay, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of 150 singing and acting volunteers drawn from communities across the city. The performance is a promenade style one, taking place in the B12 Warehouse (ticket holders are advised of the exact location on booking). As should be expected from this group, this will be no ordinary performance; the audience is advised that they should be prepared with warm clothes, as it may be cold, and wear suitable footwear. The cast includes Nadine Benjamin in the role of Nadia.

Tenebrae at St John's

The service of Tenebrae during Holy Week, inspired many composers to produce music. There are settings both of the Lamentations of Jeremiah which form the readings during the service, and of the individual Responds sung before and after the readings. 

The service had its drama heightened by the candles in the church being extinguished one by one, until only one was left. Whilst not going quite this far, Alistair Dixon and Chapelle du Roi will be evoking this in their Tenebrae concert at St John's Smith Square on 1 April 2015, when the group will be performing Thomas Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah, Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responds, plus music by Guerrero and Byrd, along with a set of motets by Bernardino de Ribera which were only recently discovered.

Stravinsky double bill

Two enterprising young companies, Constella Ballet and Orchestra and Helios Collective, are collaborating to present an all-Stravinsky programme at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 31 March and 1 April 2015. The programme is a double bill of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale choregraphed by Jaerad Glavin (first presented in 2013, see my review) and a new production of the opera-ballet Renard with choreography by Erico Montes of the Royal Ballet. Far less well-known that Soldier's Tale, Renard is a work based on Russian folk-tales.

The works, which involve six dancers, two actors, four singers, and an orchestra, are directed by Helios Collective’s Artistic Director Ella Marchment and conducted by Leo Geyer. The cast includes tenors Leonel Pinheiro and Daniel Joy, and the dancers Matt Petty and Michael Walters. The instrumental ensemble will be on-stage for the performances, making them very much part of the action and for Renard this is a great advantage for audience members as Stravinsky used a cimbalom as the continuo instrument in the work. This is a large hammered dulcimer, a Hungarian folk-instrument, best known for its use in Kodaly's Hary Janos and for its occasional inclusion in Rosalinde's act two aria (when she is a 'Hungarian' countess) in Strauss's Die Fledermaus.

See the Bloomsbury Theatre website for further details.

I musicisti dell'imperatore - Music from the reign of Charles VI of Austria

Piani, Caldara, Scarlatti, Vivaldi; Raffaella Milanesi, G.A.P. Ensemble; Pan Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 17 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Viennese Imperial court style in 18th century music written for Emperor Charles

In the 18th century the Hapsburg Emperors in Vienna ruled a huge empire, which stretched as far south as Italy. From the 17th century the Vienna Court Orchestra was predominantly Italian, and in the early 18th century a sequence of Emperors were notably music loving. So that under these, particularly the last of the sequence Charles VI (reigned 1711 to 1740) music at the Viennese court reached its heydey. But 1736 saw the death of Antonio Caldara (Charles' favourite composer), in 1741 the death of Johann Joseph Fux (the Imperial Kapellmeister) and in 1740 the death of Charles himself, to be replaced by his daughter Maria Theresa (reigned 1740 to 1780) who considered the political benefits of the court orchestra to be slight, and vastly limited the amount of music at court.

This disc, on Pan Classics, from soprano Raffaella Milanesi and G.A.P. Ensemble (Emilio Percan, violin, Oriol Aymat Fuste, violoncello, and Luca Quintavalle, harpsichord) presents a selection of music which written for Charles, though so much was written they could probably have assembled dozens of discs without much overlap. There are three cantatas for soprano, each with an obbligato violin part. Risoluto on gia tiranno amore by Antonio Caldara, who worked for Charles, and two cantatas by composers who worked for his viceroys but tried to get his attention. Alessandro Scarlatti's Appena chiudo gli occhi and Antonio Vivaldi's Lungi dal vago volto, RV 680.

It’s All About Piano

The Institut français is running its celebration of all things piano again this weekend. Their It's All About Piano festival runs from 27-29 March 2015 with a whole plethora of exciting events throughout the weekend. Concerts run throughout the day and include late evening recitals, so you can spend the day there (and the food in their bistro is great and it becomes a piano bar during the festival) or just drop in. Besides recitals there are a series of workshops Build your own piano with piano tuner and technician Alain Chauvel, and free beginners workshops with Music'all

Events which caught my eye included Mikhail Rudy’s multimedia recital which combines his programmes Métamorphose (based on Kafka) and Pictures at an Exhibition, linking animated images by the Brothers Quay and Kandinsky with music by Janáček and Mussorgsky (Friday 27); a concert from Julien Gonzales, 8-time winner of the Accordion World Championship (Saturday 28); the London première of Messiaen’s La Fauvette Passerinette, presented and performed by Peter Hill (Saturday 28); and recitals from François-Frédéric Guy (Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart on Saturday 28) and Peter Donohoe (Messiaen, Debussy and Beethoven on Sunday 29).

You can see all the events at a glance on the festival's website.

Jonathan Biss re-starts his Beethoven piano sonata survey.

Beethoven piano sonatas nos. 6, 10, 19 and 23 (Appassionata); Jonathan Biss
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 17 2015
Young American pianist has re-started his survey of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas

The young American pianist Jonathan Biss is currently working his way through the complete Beethoven piano sonatas with the latest CD on his own label (produced in collaboration with Meyer Media), the earlier volumes having been issued on Onyx Classics. With this volume Biss starts at the beginning with  Beethoven's first piano sonata, Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2 No. 1, Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2, Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1, finishing with Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata".

Born into a family of musicians, Biss's parents are violinists and his maternal grandmother is the player for whom Samuel Barber wrote his Cello Concerto. Biss studied at the Curtis Institute from the age of 17 with Leon Fleischer. Biss himself now teaches at the Curtis where, last Autumn he offered an on-line course in Beethoven's piano sonatas, which is promised to re-start this year.

Now, I have to start this review with an admission. I don't normally listen to Beethoven piano sonatas, and they are something of a world away from the music that interests me most. My own pianism did not get much beyond playing Mozart's piano sonatas, so that much of this music is embarrassingly unfamiliar. So what follows is something of an exploration with an innocent ear and I have refrained from giving the disc a star rating.

Beethoven's first piano sonata, written 1795, was dedicated to Haydn and starts with that most common of gestures, the Mannheim Rocket. But once beyond this, it is clear that Beethoven's talent was not one for being confined. Throughout the disc, I was repeatedly struck by how, even in the most conventional of sonatas, Beethoven refuses to be constrained and of course in the Appassionata he goes completely wild and seems to delight in wrong footing the listener.

Noriko Ogawa and Jamie's Concerts

Pianist Noriko Ogawa's series Jamie's Concerts seem to be rather unique. They are aimed specifically at parents and carers of children with autism, though they are open also to people interested in autism. The concerts are designed to give the carers a chance to relax and listen in supportive environment, with the concerts designed to fit their busy and demanding lives. Generally free of charge, the concerts start at 11am and end well before the school day is over. Refreshments are served and the audience has chance to relax and chat.

One of Jamie's Concerts held by Noriko Ogawa in Japan

The next Jamie's Concerts are in Manchester and London. On 22 April 2015 at the Barbirolli Room at the Bridgewater Hall (as part of the hall's Ravel and Rachmaninov Festival) and on 5 May 2015 at Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School of Music in Drama. On 9 April 2015, Noriko Ogawa will also be giving an evening concert at St Peter's Eaton Square, London, as part of their 2015 Spring Series, and the concert will also be the official launch of Noriko Ogawa as an official Ambassador for the National Autistic Society. You can hear Norkio Ogawa talking about her charity work to Melanie Spanswick on a YouTube video.

When Noriko Ogawa first came to the UK, she lodged with a family with a child, Jamie, who had severe autism. Noriko Ogawa wanted to do something to help, and she found that when the child's carer was calm Jamie was calmer too, so the idea of helping 'behind the scenes' with Jamie's Concerts was born. You can learn more from Jamie's mother's blog, and there is a JustGiving page if you would like to contribute.

It has recently also been announced that the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where Noriko Ogawa teaches, is to fund a research project looking at how attending concerts can help the parents and carers of children with autism, further information from the Guildhall School's website.

BBC Symphony Orchestra in Monte-Carlo

If you fancy a quick jaunt to Monte-Carlo in Monaco, then the BBC Symphony Orchestra is making its debut at the Festival Printemps des Arts there on Saturday 28 March 2015. Led by the chief conductor, Sakari Oramo, the orchestra will be playing and all Sibelius programme including Pojhola's Daughter, songs with Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski and Symphony No. 5, which celebrates not only the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth but the fact that Sibelius conducted the symphony's premiere 100 years ago in 1915.

The festival runs from 20 March to 12 April 2015 and presents a diverse line-up of artists (some 400  in all) at a variety of different venues in Monte-Carlo including the Musee Oceanographique, Opera Granier, The Grimaldi Forum, and the Yacht Club de Monaco. This year the focus of the festival is particularly on the music of Sibelius, Bach and the Italian composer Franco Donatoni (1927-2000), whose work included Arte della Fuga based on that of Bach.

Flow my tears - Iestyn Davies

Johnson, Dowland, Danyel, Campion, Muhly, Hume; Iestyn Davies, Thomas Dunford, Jonathan Manson; Wigmore Hall Live
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 10 2015
Star rating: 5.0
New light on an old form - lute songs ancient and modern

This new disc from counter-tenor Iestyn Davies is on the Wigmore Hall Live label. A live recording of a Wigmore Hall concert from 5 July 2013, Davies is joined by lutenist Thomas Dunford and viol player Jonathan Manson for a programme of music for lute, viol and voice. There are a couple of interesting aspects to the programme, first the participation of viol player Jonathan Manson adds an interesting extra depth to some of the lute songs, and secondly the 16th and 17th century music by Robert Johnson, John Dowland, John Danyel, Thomas Campion and Tobias Hume, is joined by the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Old Bones.

Our knowledge of Elizabethan lute-songs is very much defined by the music of John Dowland (1563-1626), with his sophisticated talent, professional melancholy and constant frustration at never achieving a position at Queen Elizabeth's court. In fact his music was popular and he was professionally successful in monetary terms, and did achieve a court position late in life under King James. Dowland was of course simply part of a lute culture, in which songs and lute music were written, performed, published and circulated in manuscript collections.

Robert Johnson (c1583-1633) was appointed Queen Elizabeth's court lutenist in 1597 when he was only a teenager (which must, presumably, have annoyed Dowland greatly). Johnson also wrote music for the theatre and here Davies sings Have you seen the bright lily grow from Ben Jonson's comedy The Devil is an Ass (1616) and Care-charming sleep from John Fletcher's Valentinian (1610), plus a charming little song From the famous peak of Derby (also by Ben Jonson) which idealises life away from court.

Music circulated in manuscript as much as printed copies, and the collection copied by Margaret Board, one of Dowland's pupils, is an important source for his music. Praeludium only occurs here, it is a solo lute piece which demonstrates the player's virtuoso skill, a brilliant take on an academic exercise. Thomas Dunford follows it with the lovely little A Fancy.

A Knight's Progress - Music from the Temple Church Choir

Parry, Walton, Muhly, RVW, Tavener, Bairstow, Haydn; Choir of the Temple Church, Greg Morris, Roger Sayer; Signum Recordds
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 9 2015
Star rating: 4.0
New work by Nico Muly is the centrepiece of this attractive mixed programme

The centre-piece of this new disc on Signum Records from the Temple Church Choir and its director Roger Sayer, with organist Greg Morris, is a new commission from Nico Muhly, Our present charter. This is performed with a mixed programme of mainly 20th century music with Hubert Parry's I was glad, William Walton's The Twelve, John Tavener's Mother of God, here I stand, RVW's Valiant for Truth, Edward Bairstow's Blessed City, heavenly Salem and Franz Josef Haydn's Te Deum in C major.

For some reason the disc is entitled, A Knight's Progress. The article in the CD booklet does not quite illuminate the reasons for this but I presume it is linked to the fact that the Muhly piece was written to celebrate the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 and three of the witnesses to the sealing of the charter are buried in the church.

Sayer, Morris and the choir open with a strong performance of Parry's I was glad, the choir well supported by the recently restored organ. The choir makes a good, firm rich sound with an admirable clarity in the resonant acoustic. There is a hint that the performance loses focus a little in the quieter section but this is a finely confident opening to the recital.

La Nuova Musica, Lucy Crowe and Tim Mead

La Nuova Musica
photo B. Ealovega

Bach, Locatelli, Vivaldi, Pergolesi; Lucy Crowe, Tim Mead, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; St Johns Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 20 2015
Star rating: 5.0
A lenten programme which did not preclude bravura brilliance and expressive singing

David Bates and his group, La Nuova Musica brought a rather Lenten themed programme of baroque vocal music to St John's Smith Square on Friday 20 March 2015, the first half devoted to struggling with sin and God's wrath, the second half contemplating the sufferings of Mary at the foot of the Cross. Joined by counter-tenor Tim Mead and soprano Lucy Crowe, they performed Bach's cantata Widerstehe doch der Sunde, BWV 54 (Just resist sin), Vivaldi's motet In furore Iustissimae irae, RV 626 (In wrath  and most just anger), and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, along with Locatelli's Concerto Grosso in C minor, Op.1, No.1.

Lucy Crowe
photo Marco Borggreve

Bach's cantata  Widerstehe doch der Sunde, BWV 54 was written for alto soloist, here sung by Tim Mead, whilst Bach was in Weimar in 1714, and is his first surviving church cantata for solo voice. The opening aria starts with an amazing orchestral gesture which Bates and his group made into something profoundly modern (for a second you thought, hang on a second!). Mead's performance was wonderfully straight, direct and up-front but with a lovely sense of line and here he was matched by the ensemble. The players really dug into the chords in the lower strings. After a short but expressive recitative, the final aria was distinctly fugal, with a rich lower string texture complementing Mead's strong account of the rather chromatic vocal line.

Tim Mead
photo B. Ealovega

Bates used a combination of organ and harpsichord continuo, but his own harpsichord contributions were patchy as he spent a lot of time conducting. Here, I have to admit that I could not watch. Whilst I love the group's sound, I cannot watch Bates' gyrations as he achieves the sound he wants. The orchestra's basic sound world is very rich, and Bates seems to like a strong viola and bass lines which I rather like and which certainly adds to the richness of the mix.

Next the orchestra played Locatelli's Concerto grosso in C minor, Opus 1, no.1 which was written in Rome in 1721. A four movement work, generally slow, fast, slow, fast, it used a solo quartet of two violins, viola and cello (Bojan Cicic, Kinga Ujsaaszi, Jane Rogers, Joseph Crouch). The opening Largo was slow and grand and very striking, with the expressive yet chromatic solo from Bojan Cicic's first violin predominating, and the ensemble bringing a lot of rich colour to the harmony. The Allemanda was a perky movement, very much a quick fire call and response between soli and ensemble. The Sarabanda was stately with lovely sonorous harmonies, echoing the expressive solo passages. Finally a perky Giga Allegro, with busy solo parts giving us cascades of notes over a strongly rhythmic bass.

An encounter with John Savournin of Charles Court Opera - a passion for Gilbert and Sullivan

Ruddigore - Charles Court Opera
Sir Despard (John Savournin) and Dick Dauntless (Philip Lee)
Photo Bill Knight

Charles Court Opera has just come to the end of a run of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, a Hammer Horror style production at the King's Head Theatre in Islington (see Hilary's review on this blog). The group is also celebrating its 10th anniversary, no bad innings for a fringe opera group. So I met up with founder, baritone John Savournin (who played Sir Despard in Ruddigore and directed the show) to chat about the company and its first ten years.

John comments that the idea of 10 years rather catches up on him unawares, and whilst so much has happened he can still imagine what they were 10 years ago. The group was founded very much as a platform for young singers to have an outlet in London and has just developed. John ruefully admits that they are now not all so young but the group is there to do good work for which they all share a passion, and whilst they are noted for Gilbert and Sullivan the repertoire is in fact broader.

John had an itch for directing as a teenager, but though he experimented with it, it was a singer that he studied at Trinity College in London. Describing his family as 'entrenched in G&S culture', when John met David Eaton (who remains the group's musical director) at Trinity, putting on a Gilbert and Sullivan concert there was a way of preserving his Gilbert and Sullivan links. They tried a Gilbert and Sullivan show at the Rosemary Branch Theatre in Islington and it was very well received. The resulting progress has been organic, but John says that it was not all planned carefully. They now have their boutique pantomime at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, seasons at the King's Head Theatre as well as elsewhere. There have been tours too, to Lanzarote and the new concert hall in Dublin.

Nos autem gloriari premiere

This Sunday, 22 March 2015, 6pm Evensong at All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London W1W 8JG, is replaced by a Passiontide Sequence of Music and Readings. During the service, my motet Nos autem gloriari will be premiered by the choir of All Saints Church, conducted by their music director Timothy Byram-Wigfield.

Nos autem gloriari comes from my collection Tempus per Annum, which contains motets for the church's year setting the Latin introits - one for each Sunday and major feasts. Though in fact Nos autem gloriari sets not an introit, but an antiphon for Maundy Thursday.

The collection is nearing completion, finally, and I am only three motets off the final one (number 73!); I am currently working on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, and only have All Saints and the Feast of Christ the King to do. All the finished motets, some sixty or so, are available for free download from the CPDL website.

Mass and Motets for an Easter Vigil - Stephen Layton and the Holst Singers

Allegri, Sanders, Martin, Messiaen; The Holst Singers, Layton; Temple Music at Temple Church
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Mar 19 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Sheer beauty of sound in a choral programme for Easter

Conducted by Stephen Layton, the Holst Singers performed their programme Mass and Motets for an Easter Vigil at the Temple Church on Thursday 19 March 2015, as part of the Temple Music Foundation's 2015 season. The concert opened with Allegri's Miserere, followed by John Sanders The Reproaches, and Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir, concluding with Olivier Messiaen's only sacred choral work, the early motet O Sacrum Convivium.

The choir is quite a large group, some 45 singers, and they stood in the entrance to the Round Church with the audience in the stalls in the nave, an arrangement which worked well and gave the choir the benefit of the support of the Round Church's acoustic. Conductor Stephen Layton is a former director of music at the Temple Church, so can be assumed to know how best to deal with its fine, but quirky acoustic.

BBC Young Musician winner Laura Van Der Heijden set to tour Wales with Sinfonia Cymru

Laura Van Der Heijden
Photo credit Sam Trench

Cellist Laura Van Der Heijden won the BBC Young Musician competition in 2012 when she was 14. Conductor Gareth Jones heard her during the competition, when he was adjudicating the string final. Now three years later, aged 17, Laura is joining Gareth Jones and Sinfonia Cymru for a Welsh tour performing Shostakovich's First Cello in a programme with Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, Sibelius's Pelleas and Melisande and Copland's A Quiet City. The tour starts at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (Thursday 26 March), with performances at Pontyberem Memorial Hall (Friday 27 March), The Riverfront, Newport (Saturday 28 March) and Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold (Sunday 29 March).

Laura is having a busy year, she is currently studying for her A levels as well as preparing for performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and she has recently formed a piano trio with composer/pianist Huw Watkins and violinist Tobias Feldman. Sinfonia Cymru will be following this tour with its first all-baroque concert in May, working with Brecon-based period violinist Rachel Podger.

 

More than just an orchestra - An encounter with Sascha Goetzel

Sascha Goetzel conducting the Borusan Istanbul
Philharmonic Orchestra in Haydn's The Seasonsphoto credit Ozge Balkan

The Austrian conductor Sascha Goetzel has been the chief conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (BIPO) since 2009 and during this time he has transformed what was a talented provincial orchestra into one which, with appearances at the Salzburg Festival and at the BBC Proms, is developing a real international profile. As part of my trip to Istanbul to hear the orchestra performing Haydn's The Seasons, I was able to talk to Sascha about his work with the orchestra and their future plans.

BIPO is a private orchestra, created by the family which owns Borusan Holdings, Turkey's largest steel conglomerate, and funded through their Borusan Foundation. Sascha Goeztel was appointed chief conductor after an international search to replace the Turkish conductor Gürer Aykal who had directed the orchestra since its founding in 1999 (based on the Borusan Istanbul Chamber Orchestre itself founded in 1993).

When Sascha took over the orchestra he found a group of immensely talented young players (the orchestra's average age is around 30), but they had all been trained in different places and so played in differing styles. As he put it, they all spoke different dialects of music. His first task was to create a unified ensemble, by working with the orchestra having a lot of sectional rehearsals. Sascha also learned about Turkish culture, where classical music has only played a part since the 19th century, and Turkish folk music. In this latter, the dances are often in uneven rhythms and the players had a different way of instinctively dividing rhythms across the bar. Turkish music also has a huge amount of melisma in it. So Sascha worked with the players in these areas, playing music such as dance based pieces which built on their traditional styles.

The rhythmic and melismatic elements of Turkish music still imbue the orchestra's sound, and Sascha feels that the players understand the need for colouring, painting in sound in an extremely vivid way. A test of his early work with the orchestra was when he took them to the Salzburg Festival in 2010. He felt the orchestra played well, and the audience was stunned both by the sound and by the unexpected nature of a classical orchestra of such quality coming from Istanbul.