Wigmore Hall goes into TV

Following hot on the heels of the televisation on Sky Arts of the Rosenblatt Recitals from the Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Hall itself has announced a collaboration with Sky Arts. From Monday 12 August a series of 7 recitals from Wigmore Hall will be broadcast on Sky Arts, mixing chamber music, choral music, vocal recitals and early music. The programmes were recorded live in HD, and each is being broadcast more than once. They are of an hour's duration, rather than full concert length, and each includes an interview with the artists. 

The series opens on 12 August with pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin in Brahms, then Ralph Kirshbaum and the Takacs Quartet in Schubert's String Quintet in C, D956 (19/8/2013), Sarah Connolly and Malcolm Martineau in French song (26/8/2013), Iestyn Davies, Thomas Dunford (lute), Jonathan Manson (viol) in Johnson and Dowland (2/9/2013), Takacs Quartet in Beethoven's String Quartet in C sharp minor Op. 131 (8/9/2013) and Stile Antico with Fretwork in music by Byrd for the Feast of Corpus Christi (16/9/2013). The series ends on 23 September with a great treat, Ailish Tynan, Sarah Connolly, Mark Padmore, Ben Johnson, Robin Tritschler, Christopher Maltman, Benjamin Appl and Graham Johnson in a selection of Schubert solo and ensemble songs.

Further information from the Wigmore Hall website.

Viktor Bijelovic - Empassioned

Like many musicians seeking a source of funding for projects, London-based Serbian pianist Viktor Bijelovic turned to Kickstarter for his second CD. Empassioned is a recital of music by Beethoven, Gluck (arranged by Sgambati), Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov and Liszt. The disc has one distinctive aspect, the first track is a spoken one. At his concerts Bijelovic talks to the audience and introduces each of the works. This spoken narration is a brave attempt at reproducing this, as Bijelovic explains why he chose the pieces and how they are linked.

He opens with Beethoven's Sonata Op. 57, Appassionata, one of the works Beethoven wrote in response to his increasing deafness (Beethoven started writing it in 1804, the year after he came to grips with the irreversibility of his deafness). The opening of the first movement, Allegro assai, is poised with the grumbling in the bass a gentle disturbance. After the first eruption, Bijelovic successfully alternates quiet poise with manic energy. His performance is very poetic, he doesn't thump and the loud passages are vibrant rather than excessive. There is an impulsiveness to his playing with threads its way through the whole disc.

Milton Court and more - new season at GSMD

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama's programme for Autumn 2013 has rather a special buzz about it, because September sees the opening of Milton Court, the school's new facility complete with a concert hall, 227 seat theatre and a studio theatre. This is being inaugurated with a series of events including recitals by such as Thomas Ades, Anne Sofie von Otter, Rolf Hind, Graham Johnson and Felicity Lott. Opera includes a neglected one-act comic opera by Donizetti. There is even a chance to hear Guildhall artists in Louis Andriessen's De Staat and extracts from Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning.

The first event in Milton Court Concert Hall is James Gaffigan conducting the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of Julian Philips Come forth to play, Elgar's Cockaigne and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Katherine Broderick, Catia Moreso, Timothy Robinson and David Stout (all of whom are alumni).

Co-Opera Co Summer Season

Co-Opera Co is back for its  Summer season from 3 September, this time at the Hackney Empire, where the young singers will be performing in two new productions The Mikado and Madama Butterfly. The company's aim is to give aspiring artists the chance to work with and learn from some of the most highly regarded singers, conductors, directors, actors and choreographers in the business today. To this end, their Summer Season is the culmination of a learning process for the young performers. 

Ryedale Magic Flute at Grimeborn

Luke D. Williams and Caroline Kennedy
in The Magic Flute, from Ryedale Festival Opera,
photo credit Adam Rosenbach

The Ryedale Festival takes place in and around Ryedale in North Yorkshire, this year from 12 to 28 July 2013. This year's festival opera was Mozart's The Magic Flute. Nina Brazier's production debuted in July at Ampleforth College Theatre before coming to London as part of this year's Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston. I caught the first night on 7 August 2013. The young cast included Ben Thapa  Luke D Williams  Helen Bailey, Anna Rajah  David Hansford and Adam Player. Christopher Glynn, Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, conducted an ensemble made up of the Quintessence Wind Ensemble and the Eka Quartet.

I have to confess that this was my first visit to the Arcola Theatre which inhabits the old Reeves (Artists Colourmen) paint factory. The main theatre is a large rectangular box-like space with two banks of seats facing each other at either end of the room with the playing area in the middle. Running along one side is a small seating balcony and under this were placed conductor Christopher Glynn and the ensemble, giving Christopher Glynn an excellent view of the cast despite the open nature of the playing area.

The perils of reissues - Sour Cream again

Earlier this month I reviewed The Passion of Reason a CD on the Glossa label which was originally issued in 1995 and produced by the recorder trio Sour Cream. The project was the brainchild of recorder player Kees Boeke and he describes it as 'one of my main enterprises of the 1990's'. Unfortunately he was not consulted about the re-issue and the record company have re-issued the set without Boeke's extensive essay which explains how the pieces relate to the discs main thesis about scientific music and numerology. It makes fascinating reading and I hope to write more when I have digested it. But it doesn't help the fact that anyone buying the re-issue will find themselves bit mystified. My slightly expanded review still available on this blog.

Philharmonia 2013/14

The Philharmonia Orchestra's 2013/14 opens with the first blast of their three year Berlioz project, a trio of concerts of Czeck music, a celebration of Richard Strauss's 150th anniversary, the return of Abel Gance's Napoleon and Thomas Ades Violin Concerto, plus a wealth of other goodies.

The Philharmonia's Berlioz projects starts with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted La Damnation de Faust (26/9) and the Symphonie fantastique (29/9), with a terrific cast including Paul Groves, Gerald Finley and Christianne Stotijn. Later on we are promised Romeo et Juliette, and the Grande Messe de morts.

Salonon will also be conducting the orchestra in the premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Maan varjot (Earth's shadows), a new work for organ and orchestra which will help celebrate the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ with Olivier Latry (the titulaire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris) as the organ soloist. (26/6/2014). And Salonen closes the season with Mahler's Eighth Symphony, (29/6/2014).

The Bear goes Walkabout

Two young ensembles, Helios Chamber Opera and the Melos Sinfonia have combined in a programme centred around Walton's one act comic opera The Bear. They commissioned two short operas from Philip Ashworth and Joel Rust to accompany the Walton, with all three linked by their subject matter - widows. The three operas span time and style, with Rust's darkly tragic Red as Blood set in the Iceland of the sagas, Walton's comic extravaganza The Bear setting Paul Dehn's libretto based on a Chekov play and Rust's Bare being wittily contemporary. The cast included Helen Stanley, David Fearn, Henry Neil, Sam Carl, Urzula Bock, Angus McPhee with Oliver Zeffman conducting the Melos Sinfonia, an ensemble which he founded. The three operas were directed by Ella Marchment and designed by Kate Auster (sets) and Florence Mein (costumes). The triple bill debuted at the Rose Theatre, Kingston before travelling to the Sage Gateshead and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We caught the final outing at St Cyprian's Church, Clarence Gate, London on Tuesday 6 August 2013.

Both Rust and Ashworth are still studying, Rust with Julian Anderson at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Ashworth with Kenneth Hesketh at the Royal College of Music. Their commissions for the operas in the triple bill came about as the result of a competition which Helios Chamber Opera and the Melos Sinfonia ran to select to new works suitable for accompanying Walton's opera.

Plaque for Beethoven

John Nash's Argyll Rooms where
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony received its UK premiere

On 11 August a Westminster City Council Green Plaque will be be unveiled at the site of the first UK performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in London's Regent Street. The plaque is being unveiled to mark the Bicentenary of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which commissioned Beethoven’s masterwork in 1822. The Philharmonic Society, conducted by founder member Sir George Smart, gave the first UK performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on 21 March 1825 at the New Argyll Rooms. Designed by John Nash, this collection of concert rooms stood from 1820 -1830 on the spot of what is now the Regent Street branch of National Westminster Bank.

The Royal Philharmonic Society is celebrating its 200th birthday this year and the unveiling forms part of a day celebrating the RPS and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony culminating in a performance of the work by the National Youth Orchestra and National Youth Choir at a special free BBC Prom and the world premiere of a specially commissioned new work, Mark-Anthony Turnage's Frieze, which was inspired by Beethoven's great symphony.

Royal Philharmonic Society largesse

The Royal Philharmonic Society, which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, is distributing over £81,000 to young composers and performers though its Young Musicians Programme. £13,500 goes to young composers with five new works commissioned for performance in 2014, plus the first in a series of ‘mini-commissions’ for student composers. There is £30,000 support for the purchase of new instruments for music students and young performers receive £38,000 towards further study abroad and professional development. The RPS's Young Musicians Programme is designed to reflect the many, and increasing, practical and artistic needs of music students and nascent professionals.

The Phoenix Rising

The vocal ensemble Stile Antico's latest disc celebrates the publication of Tudor Church Music by the Carnegie UK Trust in 1922 to 1929. Almost forgotten nowadays, this publication helped to make available some of the glories of Tudor church music, enabling amateur choirs to be able to easily perform this music. In celebration, Stile Antico has recorded some of the major highlights including William Byrd's Mass for five voices and Ave Verum, Orlando Gibbons' O clap your hands and Almighty and everlasting God, Thomas Morley's Nolo morem peccatoris, Thomas Tallis's Salvator Mundi and In ieiunio et fletu, John Tavener's O splendor gloriae, and Robert White's Portio mea and Christe qui lux es et dies.

The expensive library edition of Tudor Church Music was not a particular financial success and it was trimmed from 20 volumes to 10 volumes. But individual items were available in 'octavo' editions designed to be purchased by choirs, which meant that many items such as Byrd's Ave Verum were freely available for the first time and these practical editions were highly popular. And the influential nature of the edition is indicated by the fact that when Ouxford University Press produced the Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems in 1978, a significant number of the pieces had originally appeared in Tudor Church Music. The works selected for the 1920's publication have effectively defined the standard canon of this music.

Autumn at the Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music's Autumn season includes a double bill of operas by Ravel,  some important contemporary music from Gerard Grisey, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono, as well as music from RCM members of staff William Mival and Simon Holt. The Sacconi Quartet will be making an appearances and the RCM Museum has a pair of intriguingly talks.

Singing in Slovenia

Waiting for the concert to happen:
The author and other members of London Concord Singers
on the steps of the Franciscan Church, Ljublana, Slovenia

Temperatures in Ljubljana, Slovenia, are reaching 40 C but the city is a very relaxed place and has proved, so far, to be a delightful location for a concert. London Concord Singers sang their first performance last night (3 August 2013), a concert at the city's Franciscan Church, a glorious pink 17th century edifice at the centre of the city not far from the famous triple bridge. We had arrived two days previously and spent the time exploring this charming and hospitable capital city. But 4.30pm on Saturday was the start of our rehearsal, and as we assembled in the elaborate baroque interior we had to all get back into a properly disciplined state of mind. 90 minutes later we were all moderately satisfied and rather pleased with the attractively warm acoustics at the church.

Dinner opera at the diner – Roma and La Plus Forte

Running since 2007, this year the summer event Bold Tendencies includes the London Contemporary Music Festival (LCMF 2013). Housed in the top four floors of Peckham car park, the project has both a community and international focus, and the two operatic vignettes Roma by Kate Whitley and La Plus Forte by Gerald Barry, were performed as part of its ‘experience based works and clusters of related happenings’.

The open plan space of the car park was, for one evening, turned into a restaurant. Industrial inspired tables made from steel boxing and insulation were suspended from the ceiling and patrons lucky enough to get seats sat on similar, and remarkably sturdy, benches. A long bar off to one side and one row of tables were reserved for diners.

LSO's 2013/14 season

The London Symphony Orchestra's 2013/14 season is full of good things. There's Gergiev in Berlioz (lots of it), Gergiev in Scriabin, a concert performance of Rigoletto, a new Peter Maxwell Davies symphony, Der Rosenkavalier and Harrison Birtwistle's Earth Dances to name but a few.

The LSO's chief conductor has a six concert Berlioz festival conducting the Symphonie fantastique and Les nuits d'ete with Karen Cargill (31/10 & 14/11), The Death of Cleopatre with Cargill and Harold in Italy with Antoine Tamestit (1/11 & 12/11), The Damnation of Faust with Olga Borodina, Michael Spyres and Ildar Abdrazakov (3/11, 7/11) and Romeo and Juliet with Borodina, Kenneth Tarver and Ildar Abdrazakov (6/11 & 13/11). The rather curious mixture of English and French for the titles is taken directly from the LSO season book, clearly there are some titles no-one dares do in English any more (Fantastic Symphony any one, Summer Nights?)

Dai Fujikura - Flare

Dai Fujikura, the London-based Japanese composer, has launched his own record label, Minabel Records, for recordings of his own works. The first release under the new imprint is Flare showcasing seven of Fujikura's chamber works, performed by the Arditti Quartet, Vox Humana, Masanori Oishi, Mari Endo,Kenji Nakagi, the Goldfield Ensemble, Johanna Persson and the Zilliacus/Persson/Raitinen Trio. Rather impressively five of the pieces are recorded live.

Though Fujikura was born in Osaka, Japan, he has lived in the UK for more than 20 years and he studied composition in London with Edwin Roxburgh, Daryl Runswick and George Benjamin. In his music Fujikura is fascinated by the forms and patterns observed in the natural world, patterns of synchronised movement and geometric precision. On this disc, this is reflected in the way the textures of the pieces develop, transmute and fragment as Fujikura uses often advanced playing techniques to create patterns in sound.

Wigmore Hall new season - November/December 2013-14

November at the Wigmore Hall starts with Julian Anderson as composer in residence. Anderson, whose first opera is being premiered by ENO in 2014, is the Wigmore Hall's second composer in residence. The Aurora Orchestra give two concerts on 2 November, mixing Anderson's music with that of Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Hans Abrahamsen and Salvatore Sciarrino. (2/11)

There are two farewells. Baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, who made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1989, gives his farewell concert accompanied by Imogen Cooper in a programme of Schubert songs (16/11). And Dame Felicity Lott , who made her Wigmore Hall debut in 1975, also makes her final solo recital accompanied by Graham Johnson in a programme of music by Schumann, Wolf, Strauss, Bridge, Britten, Bizet, Bernard, Yvain. Mireille and Offenbach (15/11)

400 teenagers will travel - National Youth Orchestra in Derry-Londonderry

As part of the celebrations in Derry-Londonderry for the City of Culture 2013, the National Youth Orchestra is in Northern Ireland for a 10 day residence, led by conductor Vassily Petrenko. They will be joined by three youth choirs, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, the Irish Youth Chamber Choir and Codetta (a chamber choir based in Derry-Londonderry). The 400 young performers will be playing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony along with RVW's Toward the Unknown Region and songs from Shostakovich’s Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets, at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall and at Millennium Forum, Derry~Londonderry. Soloists in the Beethoven include Lisa Milne, Andrew Kennedy and Andrew Greenan.

Edward Cowie - Gesangbuch

For the latest of their discs on Signum devoted to single composers, the BBC Singers, under conductors Simon Joly and Stephen Cleobury, have turned to Edward Cowie. Cowie was the BBC Singers first associate composer (from 2002-2005) but the works on this disc stretch back to 1975. Bookended by performances of Cowie's Lyre Bird Motet (2002) and its companion Bell Bird Motet (2011), the main work on the disc is Cowie's Gesangbuch (1975-76) performed with the instrumental ensemble Endymion, plus The Soft Complaining Flute with Simon Preston.

Edward Cowie (born 1943) studied with Alexander Goehr and Witold Lutoslawki but he also trained at the Slade as an artist and trained first as a physicist. Cowie employs the act of drawing as a part of the compositional process, and the CD booklet includes images from sketchbooks which relate to the works on the disc. For Cowie these form a second stage of the process (you can see some samples on Edward Cowie's website) before the final composition. The visual images are surprisingly delicate and colourful, with an emphasis on texture which comes as no surprise to someone familiar with Cowie's music.

The pieces on this disc don't really use melody as such, nor do they use words. Cowie generally sets phonetic sounds of his own invention alongside fragments of texts taken from his preparatory sketches. Instead he plays with colours and textures in the music, distilling work from lots of fragments. The results are sometimes difficult to apprehend at first, and I found myself fretting about what texts were being used. But Cowie uses his voices like instruments, line is generally not important. Instead you get clusters of notes and sounds, tiny inflections which build.

Urban Perfume - Helbig's Pocket Symphonies live

The Faure Quartett in action at
Saatchi and Saatchi

A car-park is not the most obvious place to hear a concert, but this was no ordinary car park but the one behind the office of Saatchi and Saatchi and we were sitting outside their private pub 'The Pregnant Man'. The event was the first of two on 31 July 2013 to celebrate the release in the UK of Svein Helbig's Pocket Symphonies (see my review of the CD) with a pair of performances by the Faure Quartett, the first at Saatchi and Saatchi and the second at the Apple Store. I attended the first, and was treated to performances of Helbig's new versions of four of his Pocket Symphonies arranged specially for the Faure Quartett (on the CD they are played by the quartet along with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra).