Making music in complex times: conductor Cornelius Meister on his recent concerts in Scotland, his work with the opera in Stuttgart and national differences in performing styles

Cornelius Meister conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in November 2020

This Autumn German conductor Cornelius Meister was due do a recording and a concert with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) at the end of November, and was scheduled to return to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. This latter was cancelled, and then the concert in Scotland was turned into a recording, and finally the day before we were due to talk on Zoom, I learned that Cornelius was already in Scotland, two weeks before scheduled. Such is the life of an artist in our present times. And whilst our conversation focused on his performances in Scotland, we also touched on the challenges and rewards of running an opera house during the present crisis, the joys of exploring composer's works in complete cycles and the importance of national differences in performing styles.

Cornelius is a conductor who has popped up on this blog already, as I reviewed his recital disc with soprano Aida Garifullina and the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien on DECCA [see my review] and Tony caught his performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 from the Berlin Philarmonie with the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin [see Tony's review], whilst his UK appearances included the 2017 revival of Katherina Thoma's production of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne [Matthew Rye on Bachtrack described it as 'an account of Strauss’ score that managed to be both transparent and sumptuous.']

The week before I spoke to Cornelius, new isolation rules were coming in which would have put his project in Scotland in jeopardy, and the orchestra had lost their conductor for earlier recording projects so on the Friday (the day before the new isolation rules) Cornelius managed to catch the last viable flight from Munich to London (having taken a taxi from Stuttgart where he had missed the last flight by 15 minutes). So, when we spoke he was preparing for a pair of recordings with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, due to be released on the orchestra's website on 4/12/2020 and 18/12/2020.

The repertoire for the recordings included Beethoven's Symphonies nos. 6 and 7, Mozart's overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, music by Penderecki and a new piece by Christopher Gough (who is the orchestra's principal horn) Three Belarusian Folk Songs (this work dedicated to the recent situation in Belarus, and the third song based on a protest song which has been connected to the movement in Belarus) Cornelius comments that he was very happy with the standard repertoire, and that you could wake him up at 3am and he would be able to conduct it, and he is always free and open to new repertoire.

Cornelius Meister conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in November 2020

Cornelius has developed quite a close relationship with the RSNO, he first conducted the orchestra four years ago in a programme including Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 which was performed several times and, as sometimes happens with a new orchestra, from the first minute he felt a familiarity, and he is looking forward to returning. [See the review of that concert on EdinburghGuide.com].

In Stuttgart, Cornelius is music director of the Staatsoper und Staatsorchester Stuttgart, a post that he has held since 2018.

Morte

Like many people, this year left director Carson Gilmore with time on his hands. Gilmore is a stage and film director specialising in opera (his most recent project was Gluck's La Corona as part of a Gluck double bill with Pacific Opera Project). Gilmore's lockdown project has been to combine his interests in opera and film to create a series adaptations of opera arias on video which combine opera, experimental film, and music video, while creating an excellent musical record of the singers' efforts. The first film has just been released, filmed in a COVID-safe way, and it doesn't pull any punches.

Gilmore uses Cleopatra's aria 'Morte col fiero aspetto' from Johann Adolf Hasse's 1725 serenata, Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra on of the works that effectively made Hasse's name in Italy. When it was premiered in Naples the work featured two of the greatest singers of the day, both cross-dressing, castrato Farinelli (as Cleopatra) and soprano Victoria Tesi as Marc'Antonio.

Here, the aria is sung with terrific gusto by mezzo-soprano Rachel Labovitch with the music arranged by James Griffiths. Entitled Morte, the whole is vividly directed by Carson Gilmore, this certainly isn't a bleeding chunk of stage opera and manages to surprise and intrigue. We are promised more, Gilmore has another film in the editing suite.

Virtual Circle: HarrisonParrott's new digital initiative offering a sophisticated on-line streaming experience

As I wrote in an article last month, the present crisis will be encouraging (or forcing) arts organisations to re-think their relationship with their on-line presence. News has recently come in of a striking new initiative from the classical music management company HarrisonParrott. The company has partnered with eMusic Live (a joint venture of eMusic and 7digital) to create a new live-streaming and digital content platform: Virtual Circle. eMusic Live is currently used by non-classical artists to present a striking on-line presence for streamed concerts and much more.

The idea behind Virtual Circle is to offer audiences a sophisticated on-line streaming experience, with a ‘concert look and feel’ together with in-platform promotional and commercial opportunities for artists (current not offered by any other digital concert platform). Virtual Circle will also serve as a portal into artists’ and partners’ digital worlds allowing audiences to interact with content on the page, allowing artists and audiences to connect at all stages of the performance. 

The results will never replace live performance, but will offer audiences a technologically sophisticated experience; features promised include in-platform high resolution download album purchase, ticket bundles, virtual CD signings, moderated chat feed, action buttons to allow audiences to learn more about the concert, exclusive introductions to the concert, with more interactive features to come. Not all of these will, perhaps, feel desirable to the concertgoer, but they are important if artists are to be able to generate an income from on-line events.

Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä (Photo Rune Bendiksen)

Virtual Circle launches on 8 December 2020 with a concert from Oslo Philharmonic and its chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä, performing Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 (marking the 155th anniversary of the composer’s birth), Kodály’s Dances of Galánta, Rolf Gupta's Epilogue, and Debussy's Danse sacrée et danse profane for harp and orchestra. Mäkelä will give a short introduction to the concert highlighting the strong relationship between Sibelius and the Oslo Philharmonic.

Further ahead there are concerts from pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard (17/12/2020) in Beethoven, Messiaen, Stockhausen and a György Kurtág premiere, the Manchester Camerata, and Belgian-based neo-classical ensemble Echo Collective [see my review of their recent CD, The See Within].

Further information from HarrisonParrott's website.

Rediscovering Handel's keyboard music for a new generation: Pierre Hantaï's disc of the 1720 Suites de Pièces

Handel Suites de Pièces nos 1-4, 1720; Pierre Hantaï; Mirare
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 4 December 2020 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
The French harpsichordist performs a selection of Handel's 1720 keyboard publication with elan and bravura

Handel's keyboard suites remain a relatively unexplored area on disc as compared to the profusion of recordings of some of his works, and it is sometimes difficult to escape the thought that they can be thought of as somewhat disappointing. Certainly, the great harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt evidently disliked them which meant that generations of keyboard players did not study these works with Leonhardt.

On this new disc from Mirare, under the title Suites pour Clavecin, French harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï (who himself studied with Leonhardt) performs four of Handel's Suites de Pièces published in 1720, and gives us performances which are redolent of re-discovery and imagination.

Hantaï has come relatively late to Handel, for many years he was securely in the Leonhardt camp when it came to considering Handel's keyboard works. But in the illuminating booklet article by Gaetan Naulleau, which sheds light both on the historical background to the music and to modern attitudes to it, Hantaï refers to 'one stimulus for this change of attitude [to Handel's keyboard works] was an enthusiastic question from Sviatoslav Richter, to whom I had gone to pay my respects at the end of a concert, introducing myself as a harpsichordist: "Do you play Handel?" Until then, it had seemed to me that Handel was one of those composers who could be played without love because his music lacked depth. But if Richter was interested in him ... Perhaps I had to revise my judgement and look at things from a different angle'. [you can hear Richter's performances of the 1720 suites on disc]

Key to our understanding of these works is Handel's attitude to the keyboard, and to publishing. Handel was renowned as a keyboard player and an improviser, and it was this skill which often dazzled contemporaries, whether it was playing on the harpsichord for princes and cardinals in Italy early in his career or playing the organ in concertos during oratorio performances in the London theatre in the 1740s. But the key to all these is that Handel was improvising, even if the work was written down it could be somewhat sketchy. Handel's keyboard suites in manuscript often have preludes which are simply written as sequences of chords which the composer would then decorate and the organ concertos were similar. It was only when editing works for publication that Handel would re-work them to make the keyboard part accessible to someone other than the composer.

Handel came relatively late to understanding the benefits of publication. Many of his keyboard suites date from non-operatic periods of his life, Italy, Hanover and the early period in London. It is often easy to forget that the first decade of Handel's life in London was not full of opera, there were empty patches and one of these was filled up with his time under the patronage of the Duke of Chandos. Handel was never quite the duke's house composer, but he had a close relationship and seems to have taken the opportunity to polish up some of his keyboard works, and publish them as eight Suites de Pièces in 1720. A handsome publication which was popular both in Handel's original and in the pirate editions from Amsterdam. Very popular indeed. But Handel never followed it up. 

The whole impetus of Handel's 1720 publication seemed to be to combat piracy. Copyright was very loose at that period, and Handel's response to anyone taking advantage of his music was to do it better. The preface to his 1720 publication says it all:

'I have been obliged to publish some of the following Lessons, because surrepticious and incorrect Copies of them had got Abroad. I have added several new ones to make the Work more useful, which if it meets with a favourable Reception; I will still proceed to publish more, reckoning it my duty, with my Small Talent, to serve a Nation from which I have receiv'd so Generous a protection'

From 1720 Handel was much involved in the formation of the Royal Academy of Music, both organising performers and performances as well as writing operas. Opera became his life and keyboard music, and publication was forgotten. But during the 1720s and early 1730s there were a series of pirate publications produced by the English publisher John Walsh senior. It is clear that Walsh had access to someone in Handel's circle who supplied manuscripts, but these were not edited by the composer and it was only when John Walsh junior took over the business that Handel seems to have come to an arrangement with Walsh and most importantly for posterity, edited works for publication. So that the first set of organ concertos, like the 1720 harpsichord suites, have revisions to make them playable by anyone.

Even so, the music can seem a little bare on the page, Handel is leaving a lot to the performer and to make the keyboard suites work you need plenty of elan and bravura.

Christmas CD roundup

Bristol Brass Consort

This year's round up of discs for Christmas and Advent proved to be quite an eclectic mix. There are carols of course, traditional, modern and everything in between, but we also visit 17th century Puebla with its lively villancicos (showing that nuns singing with guitars in church was certainly not a new phenomenon) and skip back 800 years for a programme of medieval carols with readings. Contemporary music features quite strongly, with at least one disc featuring exclusively contemporary composers. 

 

Also featured rather too strongly is Britten's A Ceremony of Carols in various different combinations of forces. Alongside discs from Christmas regulars, it is nice to see other choirs such as Clifton Cathedral Choir, and the choir of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. 

 

Perhaps the most surprising disc is a large scale work for male voice choir, children's choir and orchestra by a Georgian composer, definitely one of my highlights this year.

A record dedicated to those who believe in ‘ the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination.’

Slavonic Reflections; Chopin, Janáček, Medtner, Lyadov; Nelly Akopian-Tamarina; Pentatone
Reviewed by Bryce Morrison on 2 December 2020 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Recorded live at the Wigmore Hall, a highly personal selection of piano music from the distinguished Russian pianist

Chopin's Mazurkas and Janáček's Into the Mists with encores by Lyadov and Medtner, performed by Nelly Akopian-Tamarina (piano) recorded live at the Wigmore Hall, on Pentatone.

Nelly Akopian-Tamarina’s recital entitled Slavonic Reflections given at the Wigmore Hall is a truly transcendental experience in the sense that it takes you far beyond the conventional or readily accessible.

Constella's Connecting Stars Christmas Gala

Earlier this year opera-ballet company Constella, artistic director Leo Geyer, launched its Connecting Stars scheme to provide free one-to-one virtual performances to isolated care home residents. To help raise money to continue their series and meet growing demand, the company is creating an on-line Christmas Gala which launches on 8 December 2020.

Filmed in Studio Wayne McGregor, the first half is based around Leo Geyer's critically acclaimed Sideshows [see my review of the work at 2014 Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival], along with performances ranges from Piazzolla to Bizet's Carmen. The second half will be a Christmas wonderland using music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker choreographed by Jaered Glavin.

Since the launch of Connecting Stars, over 50 care homes have taken part with nearly 150 performances reaching over 2,000 residents. Loneliness amongst the elderly has long been a shocking crisis in the UK and it’s only exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic this year. By fundraising through this beautiful gala, Constella hope to be able to reach more care homes in future months, as well as provide care homes with this digital gala free of charge for their residents to enjoy this Christmas.

Full details from the Constella website.

Opera North launches its Light Up Lives campaign for Christmas 2020

Opera North's From Couch to Chorus virtual choir project this year [see my article] persuaded over 4,000 people to learn the basics of opera singing from the comfort of their own living rooms via weekly Zoom rehearsals. Described by one participant as 'an anchor in a storm', the sessions proved popular both with those who were missing the social interaction provided by their usual choir practices and those keen to acquire a new skill over lockdown. All felt connected to each other through the act of shared performance.

Other, less visible Opera North initiatives this year include arranging performances at 20 care homes in and around Leeds as part of Arts Together for Care Homes, and treating the refugee and asylum seeker families at St Augustine’s Centre in Halifax to a socially-distanced performance of Whistle Stop Opera: Hansel and Gretel.

Activities planned include a film of a new Whistle Stop Opera: Cinderella to give schools and families the chance to watch the show free as an online alternative to a Christmas pantomime trip this year. Using the experience gained from the In Harmony Opera North community residency, which takes place in six Leeds schools and involves 1800 children a Home Music Programme has been created. This follows the National Curriculum, and will offer online music learning to children from 7 to 11-years-old, including the opportunity to learn how to play an orchestral instrument with support from professional artists.

All this costs money, and the company has launched its Christmas appeal, Light Up Lives asking people to help light up lives in schools, communities and homes this Christmas through the power of music:

• £15 could help In Harmony Opera North team create online singing resources for children to access from home
• £50 could enable a group of young care leavers to experience the healing power of As You Are, Opera North's Leeds soundwalk
• £150 could delight care home residents and staff with their very own outdoor performance
• £500 could help film Whistle Stop Opera: Cinderella for schools and families across the North this Christmas

Richard Mantle, General Director of Opera North, said:

"The challenges of this year have been immense, affecting us all in different ways but forcing us to confront loss in its various forms; of certainty in our futures, of the things that sustain our happiness, and of the time spent with those we love. It is at times such as these that we come together around the things that bring the most light into our lives, and for many of us, this is music. "

"We are determined to return to live performance and to resume touring opera as soon as we are able but, whatever challenges we face, we remain committed to using music to create extraordinary experiences every day for and with the communities we serve. Any donations towards our work will be very gratefully received as they will enable us to continue to impact even more lives across the North of England and further afield."

Full details and donations at the Opera North website.

In Motion: United Strings of Europe's debut disc features three contemporary works alongside two classics in a strongly coloured programme

In Motion - Schubert, Hindson, Boccherini, Corrales, Farr; United Strings of Europe, Amalia Hall, Julian Azkoul; BIS
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 1 December 2020 Star rating: 3.5 (★★★½)
A lively young string ensemble's debut disc features a characterful programme with three contemporary works alongside two classics

United Strings of Europe is a lively young string ensemble directed by Anglo-Lebanese violinist Julian Azkoul. The group's debut disc, on BIS, features an eclectic mix with three contemporary works, Matthew Hindson's Malinga, Arturo Corrales' Señores, les voy a contar…, and Gareth Farr's Mondo Rondo alongside Schubert's Quartetsatz in C minor and Luigi Boccherini's Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid. The ensemble is joined by violinist Amalia Hall (soloist in the Hindson) and conductor Franck Fontcouberte, who conducts the Hindson and the Corrales; the remaining works are directed from the violin by Julian Azkoul.

We begin with Schubert's 1820 Quartetsatz, his first work for string quartet since his teenage years. The ensemble (number some 13 strings) make a stylish sound and whilst Julian Azkoul's arrangement for string orchestra does add weight to the work, the sound is not overly luxuriant and the work makes a striking opener.

It is followed by Australian composer Matthew Hindson's 2009/2011 work Maralinga for violin and string orchestra. It was commissioned in 2011 by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The title is an Australian Aboriginal word, but in this context it refers to a place. One of the Australian desert locations where in the 1950s the Australian government allowed the British government to do secret nuclear testing,  without considering the welfare of the Aboriginal inhabitants and Australian service personnel at the test sites.

A bright spot in 2021: Garsington Opera's plans for its celebration of 10 years at Wormsley

Richard Strauss: Capriccio - Miah Persson - Garsington Opera 2018 (Photo Johan Persson)

When feeling low in the midst of stress or in the dark days of mid-Winter, it is often comforting to make holiday plans, to leaf through brochures. The plans may come to naught, but simply knowing that they might happen, that there is something to look forward to, is a big boost. It is perhaps in this vein that we should peruse Garsington Opera's 2021 season brochure, celebrating its 10th anniversary at Wormsley. There is much to anticipate.

There is a new production of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (shared with Irish National Opera and Santa Fe Opera) directed by Bruno Ravella [who directed Verdi's Falstaff at the festival in 2018] with Miah Persson making her role debut as the Marschallin [Persson made a fine Countess in Capriccio in 2018, see my review], with Hannah Hipp as Octavian [Hipp sang the title role in the festival's 2019 production of Offenbach's Fantasio, see my review], and Soraya Mafi as Sophie, with Derrick Ballard as Baron Ochs. The opera will be conducted by Jordan de Souza.

Another highlight is a new production of Rossini's Le comte Ory, an opera not performed anything like as often as it should be. Directed by Cal McCrystal [who directed ENO's 2018 production of G&S's Iolanthe, see my review] and conducted by Valentina Peleggi [who conducted Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld at ENO in 2019], the cast includes American tenor Jack Swanson (making his role debut) and Robert Murray sharing the title role with Andrea Carroll, Katie Bray and Jacques Imbrailo.

Michael Boyd's 2016 production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin [see my review] is returning with Jonathan McGovern [whom we last saw as Andrei in WNO's terrific production of Prokofiev's War and Peace, see my review] in the title role with Moldovan soprano Natalia Tanasii as Tatyana and Sam Furness [whom we saw in David Sawer's The Skating Rink at the 2018 festival, see my review] as Lensky. Douglas Boyd conducts.

The above three operas will be using the Philharmonia Orchestra, but the English Concert will be in the pit for a new production of Handel's Amadigi. Written in 1715, it was the fifth opera that Handel wrote for London. It has some superb music and I have seen some very fine stage productions of the opera, but it is notorious because of the work's five characters all are high voices (contralto or soprano) and one character dies in Act One; there are no tenors and basses in the cast. Garsington's production will be directed by Netia Jones and conducted by Christian Curnyn, with Sonja Runje, Anna Devin, Rhian Lois and Tim Mead.

2021's community opera will be The Selfish Giant, based on Oscar Wilde's story with music by John Barber and words by Jessica Duchen.

Full details from the Garsington Opera website.

Southbank Sinfonia goes round, with three immersive films

Southbank Sinfonia has been thinking creatively about what can be achieved musically within the limits of social distancing, and using these limits as a springboard for some imaginative thinking. Across three Fridays in December the ensemble is broadcasting new films intended to give the audience a new immersive experience. Filmed at the Round Chapel in Hackney, each film will immerse the viewer within the sound of the orchestra as if wandering through a live performance.

Conducted by Chloé van Soeterstède, the three performances will explore underperformed music. On 4 December 2020 comes Cecilia McDowall’s Rain, Steam, and Speed (2006) is a symphonic journey inspired by JMW Turner’s painting of the same name. 

On 11 December there is Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst (2012) and Sally Beamish’s Reckless (2012). Starburst depicts the unpredictable nature of a group of stars so powerful it changes the structure of an entire galaxy, whilst Reckless is a bolt of lightening which rips open the orchestra to reveal the inner workings in all its technicolour.

Finally, on 18 December comes Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s elegant Novelleten (1903), charming almost salon music with a touch of humour.

Full details from the Southbank Sinfonia website.

Simple Gifts: United Commonwealth COVID music project

In September this year an invitation went out from the Commonwealth Secretariat to invite musicians from all 54 countries in the Commonwealth to participate in an ambitious project. One musician has been selected from each country, and the musicians have recorded themselves performing alongside a track recorded by the Dionysius Ensemble. The final video, which will be released next month, will thus feature musicians from all 54 Commonwealth countries performing together in Michael Higgins arrangement of the Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts. (The Dionysus Ensemble's recording of Simple Gifts is available on YouTube.) As well as recording their contribution to the final video, each of the 54 Commonwealth musicians will be recording a short video introducing themselves and their country.

The idea behind the project is to demonstrate the power of music and art to lift spirits, improve mental health and encourage international camaraderie, as countries face up to the challenges of the pandemic.

The Dionysus Ensemble (founder and artistic director Léonie Adams) is the first-ever Ensemble in Residence for The Commonwealth Resounds, the accredited music organisation within the Commonwealth, and therefore the first time that the Commonwealth has had a professional musical ensemble officially attached.

Further information from the Dionysus Ensemble's website.

Revolving Rondo: Nils Klöfver's engaging recital explores the work of virtuoso guitarist composers from the 16th century to the present day

Revolving Rondo; Nils Klöfver
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 30 November 2020 Star rating: 3.0 (★★★)
The Swedish guitarist's latest disc showcases not just his alto guitar, but the work of guitarist composers from the 16th to the 21st centuries

I was first introduced to the 11-string alto guitar in 2015 when Swedish guitar player Nils Klöfver released an album celebrating the instrument's 50th anniversary. Nils Klöfver's latest album, Revolving Rondo, uses both the alto guitar and the six-string classical guitar in a programme which is designed to showcase some of the 'most game changing compositions written by the instrument’s greatest virtuosos.' The recital begins with the 16th century Luis de Milan and then continues chronologically with Alonso Mudarra, John Dowland, Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Fernando Sor, Francisco Tarrega, Agustin Barrios, Andres Segovia, Roland Dyens and ending with Klöfver's own composition, Revolving Rondo.

The alto guitar developed in Sweden over 50 years ago because guitarist Per-Olof Johnson was looking for a way to play lute music using guitar playing technique. He and luthier Georg Bolin developed an 11-string instrument which provided conventional lute tuning by tuning the first six strings a minor third higher (hence the name "alto guitar") and added five extra strings to accommodate low notes. The name for the guitar in Swedish is Altgitar. On this new disc Klöfver uses the alto guitar for the early pieces, bringing a lovely mellow tone and rich timbre to them. He switches to the classical guitar when he reaches Fernando Sor's Introductions and Variations on a Theme by Mozart and returns to the alto guitar for his own piece at the end.

We begin with the 16th century composer and vihuela player, Luis Milan who published the first collection of music for the vihuela (an early form of guitar) and from this collection Klöfver plays three pavans, elegant and graceful pieces with harmony redolent of the Renaissance, and which benefit from the sonorous sound of Klöfver's alto guitar. We stay in the 16th century for Alonso Mudarra's Fantasia No. 10. Mudarra was the author of another important collection of music for vihuela, and his Fantasia No. 10 has become a staple of the guitar repertoire. It is a surprisingly perky piece, with a modern freshness to the harmonies.

First drown your baritone: Radiohead's video for No Surprises undergoes a remix in the OAE's latest video

Whilst I have heard of the band Radiohead, their 1998 single No Surprises is not on my internal play list (my relationship with rock and pop music is patchy at best), so when I read that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) had made a video parodying Radiohead's video for No Surprises, the information meant nothing to me. Evidently the video is the one where songwriter Thom Yorke is in an astronaut's helmet singing the song and it eventually fills with water and holds his breath [see it on YouTube]. 

Since helping to form Radiohead in 1985, Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards) has gone on to a highly varied career which includes being composer-in-residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Cut to the OAE's YouTube channel, and we have baritone James Newby bravely singing in an astronaut's helmet which gradually fills with water, and he holds his breath etc. I have to confess that my first instinct was to time the videos to see whether Yorke or Newby held their breath for longer. Newby isn't singing a Baroque re-mix of No Surprises (shame, perhaps), but instead is singing the final aria from Handel's cantata Apollo e Dafne, 'Cara pianta'. And, I might add singing it very beautifully indeed.

At 6'15, the new video is almost twice the length of the Radiohead video, but it is equally striking. I am still not sure what the new video is for, but it certainly makes for entrancing watching and the end of Apollo e Dafne will never be quite the same again.

A Life On-Line: Orpheus in suburbia, Paris in the 1920s, Britten and Clyne in Perth,

Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice - Benjamin Williamson - INvision Opera

A new film of Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice made under lockdown becomes an intriguing premise when the couple in the opera, Orfeo and Eurydice are played by real-life couple Benjamin Williamson (counter-tenor) and Paula Sides (soprano), with the film being made in Williamson and Sides' own home (filmed by Jan Capinski) along with the couple's two children. The film was directed and conceived by Timothy Nelson and is available on the INvision website. Accompaniment is on piano, played by Simone Luti and the off-stage chorus is the Shenandoah Chorus, director Matthew Owen. The project's title is Orphée et Eurydice and though sung in Andrew Albin's new poetic translation, the French version of the names is being used so presumably we are talking the Berlioz edition here.

The perspicacious amongst you will have spotted a lack in the credits, Amour. Amour's role is taken by Paula Sides, with the end of Act One being a message to Orpheus in the present from Eurydice in the past, via a file on a laptop. Act Two sees Orpheus attempting suicide, with much of the remainder of Act Two and Act Three being either memory or imagination. Finally, the two children stop him and the opera ends with Orpheus in the present day coming to terms with his grief. I missed Gluck's orchestral accompaniment, but Luti's highly effective piano accompaniment provided an intimate backdrop for the sound-track and visuals which take place in a modern suburban house. I also missed some of the trimmed dance movements; I understand why they were removed, but they form important parts of the structure.

However, the result was very powerful and a remarkable re-invention of the opera as an intimate and personal journey. Unlike a lot of opera on the web at the moment, this was not inspired by stage performance and delivered something that would hardly be achievable on stage. [INvision]

We have a tendency to imagine the Roaring Twenties as one mad-cap gallop which ended in the Wall Street Crash and the Depression. The reality was, of course, more complex.

From Handel's contemporaries to a forgotten Malcolm Arnold opera: I chat to conductor John Andrews about reviving neglected music

Malcolm Arnold: The Dancing Master - John Andrews and BBC Concert Orchestra with Graeme Broadbent, Mark Wilde, Ed Lyon,
Eleanor Dennis, Catherine Carby and Fiona Kimm at Resonus Classics recording session

The conductor John Andrews is one of those figures who have popped up on my radar quite regularly over the last few years, whether it be conducting Wolf-Ferrari at Opera Holland Park, Mozart at The Grange Festival, Rossini and Donizetti for English Touring Opera, or Thomas Arne at the London Handel Festival, not to mention his series of recordings of rarely and never-before recorded music by Sullivan and his contemporaries.  Last month, Resonus Classics issued the world premiere recording of Malcolm Arnold's only full-length opera, The Dancing Master, conducted by John Andrews, and this seemed like a good excuse to catch up over Zoom.

There have been relatively few performances of Arnold's opera since it was written in 1952. Rejected by the BBC (it was intended for radio), it did not get a full staging till it was performed by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2015 [see my review]. John had conducted the work at the 2018 Malcolm Arnold Festival in Northampton. It was his first encounter with the work. Though he had talked about it a lot with the festival in previous years, it was only in 2018 that he properly got to know it. The opera was given a semi-staged production in a studio theatre with John's reduction for four players of Arnold's somewhat lavish scoring. The festival had considered staging the work as a radio play, which John thinks would be very effective, and they kept an element of that complete with the stage directions on audience boards. There are complications to staging the piece, and so having the radio play element solves a lot of these. And given the work's rather lavish scoring, reducing the accompaniment down to percussion, keyboard and strings worked well.

John was astonished that the piece had not had a recording. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performed it in 2006, but this did not make it to CD so the work was crying out for a professional recording.

John refers to Arnold's orchestral writing in the piece as flamboyant, but the best parts of the work are wonderfully engaging. And having performed it at the Malcolm Arnold Festival with reduced forces helped John in planning the recording. 

Malcolm Arnold: The Dancing Master - John Andrews and BBC Concert Orchestra
at Resonus Classics recording session

Arnold wrote the piece straight off. He received a draft libretto from film-maker Joe Mendoza and set it immediately with no revision.

Inspired by a city under lockdown: two new films by rising film-makers featuring new music and dance

Still from PLAY: Rising © Odera Okoye

Two films, inspired by the City of London in lockdown, were released on Culture Mile's YouTube channel yesterday (26 November 2020). The films ​feature London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) musicians, dancers and composers Jasmine Kent Rodgman and Darren Bloom. 

PLAY: Rising, directed by Antonia Luxem, features violinist Maxine Kwok playing a new piece, Rising, written for this film by composer Darren Bloom, with dancer Marie Astrid Mence filmed on the 34th floor of 100 Bishopsgate.

PLAY: The Spell & The Promise, directed by Lexi Kiddo, features flautist Gareth Davies playing a new piece written for the film by Jasmine Kent Rodgman and inspired by the film location, London Wall Place, next to the Barbican. Dancers Salomé Pressac and Faye Stoeser, choreographed by Harry Price, perform in the gardens at London Wall Place, reacting to the music inside.

Culture Mile is the City of London’s cultural district, stretching from Farringdon to Moorgate, and this project co-commissioned by Culture Mile and Brookfield Properties in partnership with the LSO, this project marks the latest development in the organisations’ long-standing collaboration and demonstrates how organisations can work together to support freelance artistic talent during uncertain times. 

The films are available on the Culture Mile YouTube channel.

The Cottage: Benjamin Fitzgerald's musical exploration of our safe space

The young neo-classical composer Benjamin Fitzgerald first popped up on the blog with a striking track, Ode to John, which was partly his way of coping with his grandfather's dementia (his grandfather was the John of the title and the track used John's own voice). Now Fitzgerald has released his latest piece, The Cottage. Fitzgerald describes the music as 'a reflection of the manic euphoria of ultimate freedom and the meditative tranquillity of eventual peace', and 'a musical exploration of our safe space. Our own relative haven, exempt of all negativity, criticism, harassment and any other emotional or physical harm.'

The video, directed by Sel Maclean, features some stunning photography of equally stunning scenery in the North-East (where Fitzgerald is from). Fitzgerald play piano and is joined by Ada Francis (harp), Anna Hughes (violin), Merle Habron (violin) and Sam Fox (saxophone). The melodic material has a distinctly folk-ish feel whilst there is also a more insistent modern beat which creates the sense of the journey that the video evokes, yet the underlying melancholia present in Fitzgerald's earlier pieces is still present.

The video is on YouTube, and can be streamed on a variety of music services.

Ohrwurm: recorder player Tabea Debus delightful debut recital on Delphian

Ohrwurm; Tabea Debus, Jonathan Rees, Alex McCartney, Delphian Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 25 November 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Toe-tapping, ear-grabbing music from the 17th and 18th centuries, with a couple of extras, in an engaging recital by recorder player Tabea Debus

I have always found articles which begin something like 'If you enjoyed Mozart's Requiem then try ....', rather annoying. However, on the basis that you enjoyed tenor Ed Lyon's delightful disc on Delphian, 17th century playlist, [see my review] then I can highly recommend recorder player Tabea Debus' disc Ohrwurm, also on Delphian, a delightful compilation of toe-tapping tunes (ear-worms) from the 17th and 18th centuries, but also some more recent sports with a pair of works by Freya Waley-Cohen and by Gareth Moorcraft. She is joined on the disc by Jonathan Rees (viola da gamba) and Alex McCartney (theorbo and guitar).

I first encountered Tabea Debus when she was a young artist at the Handel House Museum (now Handel & Hendrix), and she has been a young artist with St John's Smith Square and with the City Music Foundation. Since 2018 she has been represented by YCAT (Young Classical Artists Trust), and this disc is the first fruits of a new collaboration between YCAT and Delphian.

The disc casts its net quite widely.

A theatrical family & a damaged dancer: Christoph Loy's new production of Rusalka at the Teatro Real, Madrid

Dvorak: Rusalka, Act II - Asmik Grigorian - Teatro Real, Madrid
Photo Monika Rittershaus

Dvorak Rusalka; Asmik Grigorian, Eric Cutler, Karita Mattila, Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev,Katarina Dalayman, Christoph Loy, Ivor Bolton; Live-stream from Teatro Real, Madrid on Mezzo TV/Medici TV
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 25 November 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Set in a dilapidated theatre amidst theatrical memories, this new production from Madrid featured powerful musical performances

For all the popularity of what might be termed its hit number, Dvorak's opera Rusalka has a somewhat odd history in the UK. It had to wait until 1959 before Sadler's Wells Opera gave the UK premiere, with Joan Hammond in the title role [historic Radio Times listing]. Then pickings remain rather slim until David Pountney's iconic production for English National Opera in 1983, using the work to depict a young Edwardian woman's troubling discovery of her sexuality. This production seemed to open people's eyes to the work, that underneath the fairy-tale was quite a disturbing story. But it would be the 21st century before there were stagings at Covent Garden (in a production borrowed from Salzburg), Glyndebourne, and Grange Park Opera (a production also borrowed by Scottish opera). British directors seem to have viewed the work often via allegory - fairy-tale (often quite dark) or history (English Touring Opera's production examining racial prejudice in the American Deep South.) European directors have often taken a more hard-edged approach, so the Salzburg Festival production seen at Covent Garden in 2012 directed by Sergio Morabito was set in a contemporary brothel.

So it was with great interested that I was able to catch a live stream of Christoph Loy's new production of Dvorak's Rusalka from the Teatro Real in Madrid on Wednesday 25 November. The production debuted on 12 November 2020, conducted by Ivor Bolton, with Asmik Grigorian in the title role, Eric Cutler as the Prince, Karita Mattila as the Foreign Princess, Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev as the Vodnik, and Katarina Dalayman as Jezibaba. The sets were designed by Johannes Leiacker and costumes by Ursula Renzenbrink. The performance on Wednesday 25 November 2020 was streamed live on mezzo.tv and medici.tv

Loy has replaced the idea of the lake, the nymphs and the fairy-tale, with that of the theatre and using this as a metaphor for the difficulties of communicating between two worlds, so that an opera with a mute heroine is seen as problematic. The artistic statements surrounding the production make a lot of sense, but how does this work in practice? Act One is set in the foyer of a faded theatre (though a large outcrop of stone makes it clear that this is magic realism), ballerinas float past, sad clown-like figures appear with stylised movements. Rusalka's sisters, the nymphs, are all ballerinas, their father, Vodnik, is an imperious theatre manager whilst their stepmother, Jezibaba, manages the box office. Rusalka, however, is crippled and on crutches with one bad foot. These people live on their memories and separate from the real world. Rusalka longs to leave, with the Prince representing the ideal of the real world. She is 'healed' by her stepmother and cursed. 

Dvorak: Rusalka - Erik Cutler, Asmik Grigorian - Teatro Real, Madrid
Photo Monika Rittershaus

Having set up his mis-en-scene, Loy allows the remainder of the opera to play out pretty straight. Jezibaba's Act I conjuration apart, there is no magic; in Act II the Vodnik simply mixes with the other guests of the ball. There is, of course, no water but Loy does not really use his theatre metaphor strongly enough to make us feel that this is the linking element. In Act II, in the original, it is the water in the palace gardens which allows the Vodnik to appear. What we get are a set of strong personal interactions, Loy's concept forms a strong frame for powerful performances from the principals.