Win an evening with Divas & Scholars - THE HISTORY OF OPERA

We have a lovely new competition for you courtesy of Masterclass and Company
We are offering a free ticket to one of their new evenings,

Divas & Scholars - THE HISTORY OF OPERA; six evenings on the history of opera with a variety of expert lecturers and fabulous singers (with a glass of champagne!). The final evening will be a lecture/recital from Nelly Miricioiu. The winner can choose from one of the following:
 

• 21st January: Professor Richard Wistreich on Monteverdi and the Birth of Opera.
• 4th February: Professor Jean-Philippe Calvin on Lully – Music for the Sun King.
• 11th February: Mel Cooper on Handel and Purcell.
• 4th March: Norbert Meyn on Mozart – A study of two operas.
• 11th March: Matthew Taylor on Fidelio.
• 18th March Nelly Miricioiu on  Bel Canto.

All run from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, and take place at Markham Square, Chelsea, London SW3

Opera appreciation classes tend to be somewhat dry and fail to reflect the vibrancy and passion of the art form so Masterclass & Co. was formed to develop a new type of opera connoisseurship course. The team present academically sound lectures along with live demonstrations by opera singers in collaboration with the Royal Northern College of Music. Their study days at Cadogan Hall were successfully launched in 2012 and return next year with days devoted to Rossini (on 27 February) and Donizetti (on 3 March).

To enter the competition read on

Tippett songs and quartets

The Heath Quartet - Photo Credit: Sussie Ahlburg

Michael Tippett (1905 – 1998) – A retrospective: the first and third string quartets, 'and song cycles 'Boyhoods End' and 'The Heart's Assurance' performed by the Heath Quartet, Mark Padmore and James Baillieu at the Wigmore Hall, 3 December 2013

One of a series of concerts at the Wigmore Hall celebrating Michael Tippet’s work - these four works  were all written close to the start of Tippett’s long compositional life. Unlike Britten, Tippett took time to become confident in his work and the earliest of his surviving compositions date from the late 1930’s. 

In 1943, during the Second World War, Tippett was imprisoned for two months for failure to comply with the conditions of his exemption of service due to conscientious objection. Nevertheless compositionally this was an important period in his life. He was promoted, from conductor of the South London Orchestra for unemployed musicians, to become the musical director of Morley College in 1940 and stayed there until 1951. 

At Morley College not only did Tippett meet Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, but the college became a musical refuge for musicians and composers escaping Nazi occupied Europe. Tippett embraced the musical talents surrounding him and the influence of this and of the war can be felt in his work.

The Barber of Neville

This new disc showcases wind concertos written by Howard Blake, but it also acts as an advanced celebration of Sir Neville Marriner's 90th birthday. Conducting the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the ensemble he founded in 1959. On this disc they perform Blake's Flute Concerto, with Jamie Martin, Clarinet Concerto with Andrew Marriner, Bassoon Concerto with Gustavo Nunez and Serenade for Wind Octet.

The title of the album refers to the circumstances which brought the recording about. Without being award of it Howard Blake, Sir Neville Marriner and his son Andrew all frequented the same hair dresser and it was through his good offices that they met and planned the programme.

Blake's Flute Concerto was written in 1996 and is for flute and string orchestra. In a very striking opening the flute sings over tremolando strings, with some lovely melodic writing for the flute. As the strings take over the musical theme the flute provides elaborate decorations. The scherzo (marked con spirito) is crisp and lively with, like much of the concerto, a neo-baroque feel. The movement has a lovely slow middle section, almost a cadenza and a rather perky coda. The Andante espressivo is a beautifully poised slow movement, the flute decorating the melody in a series of variations with a cadenza leading to the fourth movement, Marcia graziosi. This is a lively piece with a fluently personable theme. A cadenza leads into an atmospheric reminiscence of the opening.

In case you missed it: November on Planet Hugill

Welcome to our monthly round up, a busy November which took in Gesualdo, Gallay, Gabrieli and Goss, and lots more.

Verdi, Mozart and Britten

November started with a second visit to see the new production of Verdi's Les Vepres Siciliennes at the Royal Opera House, and there was a second view of ENO's new Magic Flute. Britten's centenary celebrations included Albert Herring with a spectacular cast at the Barbican

To Brighton and Beyond

The Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) took us to Ferrara for Passion and the Princess, to Venosa for Clare Norburn's play about Gesualdo, Breaking the Rules and brought us Profane Deliriums from Portugal and Brazil. They finished in Leipzig with Bach's St John Passion.

Mainly Choral

The choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea brought us another choral masterpiece, Handel's Israel in Egypt, the Sixteen performed early Tudor sacred music in the Temple Church and Stile Antico celebrated the centenary of the Carnegie UK Trust with their programme of Tudor church music, Phoenix Rising, at the Cadogan Hall. The Temple Singers and the Holst Singers joined the Aurora Orchestra under Roger Sayer for an all Britten programme at Temple Church.
The Benyounes Quartet were joined by cellist Philip Higham for a programme of Britten and Schubert

Christmas sparkle with Edition Peters

Voces8 - Picture credit: Paul Stuart, © Decca Classics

Dust off the tinsel, it’s heading towards the longest night, and Edition Peters were hot off the sleigh-race starting block with their annual Christmas concert on Monday night (2 December). Entitled ‘The Candles Glow’, to match the content and the festive decoration of St Bartholomew the Great, this concert was a showcase for composers and performers from the Edition Peters stable. 

The church was packed out. Practically all the composers were present (we can perhaps forgive Bach his absence) along with their family and friends, and those of the performers, as well as the staff of Edition Peters and Edition Peters Artist Management (EPAM), giving this concert a homely feel. 

Voces8 opened the evening auspiciously with a favourite of mine: ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ by Morten Lauridsen (1943-). From my seat I could not see them and am not sure if they were in a side chapel or balcony near the back of the church. Wherever they were, their voices filled the church with Lauridsen’s beautiful, drawn out harmonies. 

Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh Beach

The new film of Britten's Peter Grimes is nothing short of astonishing. It captures the performances of the opera which were given on Aldeburgh beach this summer as part of the Aldeburgh Festival. The live performances were astonishing enough but on this film directed for the screen by Margaret Williams, Tim Albery's production is captured and transformed into a visceral cinematic event.

Alan Oke's account of the title role is a career defining performance, with Giselle Allen as Ellen Orford, David Kempster as Bulstrode, Gaynor Keeble as Auntie and Catherine Wyn Rogers as Mrs. Seeley. The chorus of Opera North, the chorus of the Guildhall School and the Britten Pears Orchestra are conducted by Stuart Bedford.

Performances took place on the beach with Leslie Travers fixed set of boats and quayside placed on the foreshore. Conductor Steuart Bedford was placed in a hole in front of them, wearing a high vis jacket. He conducted a recording of the opera made at the time the commercial recording of the piece was made earlier this year. (see my review). The soloists and chorus stand outs all had microphones singing over the top of the pre-recorded orchestra and chorus. The film is somewhat low budget so that individuals' microphones are very visible. But none of this matters. Despite the karaoke nature of the enterprise and and the cold and the wind, performances are gripping.

December on the South Bank

December on the South Bank means Christmas, with the coming of a number of Christmas shows. But there is also the chance to catch up on the end of The Rest is Noise with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta reaching contemporary music. Visitors include the choir of St John's College Cambridge and the Sixteen, whilst the Morely Chamber Orchestra celebrates past musical directors. And the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment brings us a rarely performed Offenbach comic opera.

The Rest is Noise reaches its final weeks, so that concerts become increasingly contemporary. The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladmir Jurowski will be performing James MacMillan's Veni, Veni, Emmanuel with Evelyn Glennie, and Thomas Ades's Asyla plus music by Julian Anderson and Mark-Anthony Turnage (7/12). Jurowski conducts the LPO in John Adams's nativity oratorios El Nino with a cast including Kate Royal and Matthew Rose (14/12)

2013 British Composer Awards

Harrison Birtwistle
Accepting Instrumental Solo or Duo award
2013 British Composer Awards
Photo Mark Allan

The 2013 British Composer Awards were presented last night at an awards ceremony at the Goldsmiths Hall hosted by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). The event was introduced by Sarah Rodgers, the chairman of the British Composer Awards Ceremony, who in her opening remarks recalled the three major talents who had died in the past year, Jonathan Harvey, Richard Rodney Bennett and John Tavener. This year's was eleventh such awards, as ever they are sponsored by the PRS for Music which is celebrating its centenary in 2014.

A special award, in the shape of a bottle of 12 year old single malt whisky, was presented to Andrew Kurowski who has recently retired as editor of new music at Radio 3.

The awards were presented by Marcus Davey, the chief executive of the Round House. In his speech, Davey talked about how participation in the arts encourages young people to be entrepreneurial. That state funding is a foundation on which arts organisations can take risks and be entrepreneurial again and again. We need young people to be entrepreneurial and their participation in the arts stimulates the imagination and encourages them to communicate, providing skills which can be transferred.

Il Cor Tristo - Hilliard Ensemble

Having announced their retirement at the end of next year, the Hilliard Ensemble will be watched keenly and their remaining discs anticipated. This new one on the ECM label, Il Cor Tristo combines two of the Renaissance's greatest poets, Petrarch and Dante. Poems from Francesco Petrarca's Il Canzoniere (first published in 1470) in settings by two Renaissance composers Bernardo Pisano (1490 - 1548) and Jacques Arcadelt (1507 - 1568) are interleaved with settings of Dante Alighieri (from La Divina Commedia) by the contemporary composer Roger Marsh who is professor of music at York University.

Marsh's Il Cor Tristo is in three parts, each setting parts of Ugolino's monologue from Cantos 32 and 33 of La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). The work was written in 2008 specifically for the Hilliard Ensemble. Each part of Marsh's piece is preceded by three of the Renaissance madrigals in a combination which is surprising but which works very well.

Nocturne - The Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin

Lucy Parham © Sven Arnstein

Pianist Lucy Parham's programme Nocturne - The Romantic Life of Frederic Chopin interviews spoken narration with Chopin's piano music to create a picture of Chopin and his relationship with George Sand. Parham was joined by actors Juliet Stevenson and Samuel West at Middle Temple Hall on 3 December 2013 for a performance of Nocturne as part of Temple Song 2013. 

Whilst George Sand has left a comprehensive written record of her relationship with Chopin, the composer's own surviving letters are by no means as revealing and Parham has compiled the narration from a variety of sources, often contemporaries reminiscing about Chopin and about his piano playing.

The narration was roughly chronological, starting with Chopin's arrival in Paris in 1831. Whilst generally West played Chopin and Stevenson played George Sand, both slipped into other characters and provided linking narrations. We heard fascinating descriptions of Chopin's playing from such contemporaries as Sir Charles Halle, as well as the discussion between Liszt about the merits of performing in concerts and why Chopin preferred not to. The first half concluded with Chopin's first meeting with Sand, Liszt's warning to Chopin about her behaviour to her lovers, and Sand's pursuit of Chopin.

Orchestra of the Swan - Anthony and Cleopatra the Musical!

The Orchestra of the Swan, artistic director David Curtis, has been awarded £50,000 by The Peoples' Millions, towards their education project Anthony and Cleopatra - The Musical! '60 minutes of madcap musical mayhem' written for the children from two special schools Welcombe Hills School in Stratford-upon-Avon and Brays School in Birminghan. Anthony and Cleopatra - The Musical! builds on the success of the Orchestra of the Swan's last education project Troy Story - An Intergalactic Adventure.

Stratford-upon-Avon based Orchestra of the Swan is having a busy time at the moment, they have just been into the studio with conductor Kenneth Woods to complete recording the first ever complete cycle of Hans Gal symphonies.

The Peoples' Millions is run by the Big Lottery Fund with ITV and gives grants of up to £50,000 to community projects, chosen by the public by telephone vote from a regional shortlist drawn up by the organisers.

Inspiring a future generation of viola players

A new competition launches at the Birmingham Conservatoire in October 2014. Named for the 20th century British viola player and pedagogue, the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition is open to  players under the age of 21. The conservatoire hopes that the competition with raise the uptake, teaching and performance level of the viola. The first round of the competition will be judged by DVD, the semi finals and the final will be held at Birmingham Conservatoire from 24 to 26 October 2014. 

The first prize is £2,000, with special prized being awarded as well. The jury will include Louise Lansdown (head of strings at Birmingham Conservatoire), Simon Rowland-Jones, Emile Cantor, Adam Romer and Nicola Aronowitz (Cecil's widow). In fact, Lansdown now owns the viola that Aronowitz was playing at the time of his death in 1978.

Cecil Aronowitz (1916 - 1978) taught at the Royal College of Music and was the first head of strings at the Royal Northern College of Music. He collaborated on projects with the Amadeus Quartet, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. Britten wrote many of the viola parts in his works for Aronowitz and created a version of Lachrymae specially for him. Aronowitz also premiered works by Arthur Butterworth, Alan Hoddinott and Hugh Wood.

Exploring Bach and Schumann

Stephan Loges - Photo: Ana Alvarez Prada

On Sunday we had a private preview of a recital by baritone Stephan Loges and pianist Simone Dinnerstein which combined the music of Schumann and J.S. Bach into a single intriguing programme. Loges and Dinnerstein are performing the programme at the Vienna Konzerthus tomorrow (4 December 2013). This is the first time that Loges and New York-based Dinnerstein have worked together.

The idea behind the programme was to show Bach's influence on Schumann, which would mean combining the two composers dearest to the heart of both Loges and Dinnerstein. Throughout his life Schumann was influenced by Bach and regarded the composer as one of his teachers. This was something he shared with Clara and only nine days after their marriage Clara records that they are studying together the fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. When Robert was student, though he was studying law at Leipzig, he played chamber-music with friends and their talk was all of Bach and Robert would continue to study Bach on his own.

Its not all music - Sussex art galleries

Whilst we attended this year's Brighton Early Music Festival we took advantage of the daytime to catch up on a number of galleries in Sussex. My article on visiting Pallant House in Chichester (with exhibitions on Eric Ravilious and on Ben and Winifred Nicholson), and the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne (with an installation by Chiharu Shiota) is on The Culture Trip website.

December at Kings Place - from Bach to Tango by way of a Carnival

December sees King's Place coming to the end of their Bach Unwrapped season as well as some seasonal, and non-seasonal goodies. There's a chance to catch the completion of cycles of Bach's keyboard, cello and violin works, plus his Mass in B Minor and Christmas Oratorio. The Christmas theme continues Messiah and Britten's Ceremony of Carols, but there is also a coffee concert performed by a team of celebrity pianists, and a chance for Violetta to tango!

South-African pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar is performing both books of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier in two concerts this week (5,6/12). Cellist Christopher Richter completes his cycle of Bach's Cello Suites and Sonatas (7/12). And Rachel Podger completes her cycle of Bach's Violin Sonatas and Partitas with Marcin Switkiewicz (18/12). The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is joining the Aurora Orchestra, conductor Nicholas Collon with soloists Malin Christensson, Jennifer Johnston, William Towers, Andrew Kennedy and Benedict Nelson for a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor. A performance which would seem to promise a very traditional take on the forces used (21/12). By contrast, the Platinum Consort and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, directed by Scott Inglis-Kidger will be performing parts I, III, V and VI of the Christmas Oratorio, with just eight singers and with the soloists coming from the choir in what promises to be refreshingly intimate performance. (19/12)

A Christmas Oratorio closer to what Bach intended

Tomorrow night (3 December) Solomon's Knot, the baroque collective, returns to St John's Smith Square to perform parts I, IV, V and VI of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Following on from their chamber version of Handel's Messiah last year, they will be performing the Christmas Oratorio with just eight singers and 19 instrumentalists. All eight singers perform in the choruses as well as performing solo arias, they will be performing from memory. In terms of size and quality of performance, this is a welcome return to the sort of performance Bach would have recognised. 

Additionally the group is organised as a collective, rather than the usual top down structure. Christmas Oratorio will be performed without a conductor, with each member taking responsibility for the whole. You can hear an excerpt from their 2012 Messiah on YouTube.

They will be performing the Christmas Oratorio twice, at St. John's Smith Square on 3 December, and at Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge on 5 December. More information from the Solomon's Knot website.

Britten String Quartets

This new disc from the Endellion String Quartet brings together Benjamin Britten's three major string quartets and his three early Divertimenti. The quartet, members Andrew Watkinson, Ralph de Souza, Garfield Jackson and David Waterman, was founded in 1979, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this season. The disc includes the three quartets which Britten numbered,  plus the Divertimenti which he wrote in 1936 but withdrew after the first performance.

Britten wrote for string quartet from early in his life. His first numbered quartet was written in California in 1941, commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The first movement starts with an Andante Sostenuto which evokes the world of Abraham and Isaac but it is less comfortable. The high string writing sounds difficult and Britten probably intended it to, but the quartet's playing is masterly here. The cello pizzicati are warmer and less edgy than on some discs. When the Allegro vivo comes the playing is wonderfully incisive with crisp brilliance and driving rhythms. The intensity of their playing stays even when the texture of the music thins, throughout there is a strong sense of dialogue between them.

Jacques Imbrailo at the Wigmore Hall

Jacques Imbrailo (credit: Sim Canetty-Clarke)

The recital by baritone Jacques Imbrailo and pianist Alisdair Hogarth at the Wigmore Hall on 30 November 2013 focussed very firmly on English composers. The pair opened with RVW's Songs of Travel and closed with George Butterworth's Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, both quintessentially English pieces. In the middle of the recital Imbrailo and Hogarth performed Herbstlieder, the Rilke settings by the pianist and composer Stephen Hough which were written for Imbrailo. The programme was completed with Liszt's Tre sonnetti di Petrarca (Three Sonnets of Petrarch).

For someone born Afrikaans speaking in South Africa, it might seem remarkable to devote so much of a recital to English song. But bi-lingual singers often have an interesting feel for English music. Imbrailo has devoted much of this year to Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd and clearly has a strong affinity with English song. His performance of RVW's Robert Louis Stephenson settings was notable for the strength and poetry of the words.

December at the Barbican

Christmas is coming to the Barbican with the choir of King's College, Cambridge, Britten Sinfonia, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Academy of Ancient Music. This year's centenarian, Benjamin Britten, gets further performances including Simon Keenlyside in one of his song cycles. The year's other two major centenarians get a mention in the Barbican cinema, and the London Symphony Orchestra celebrates Patrick Doyle's film music and the great Russian Composers. There is plenty for the family with the Gruffalo, plus Wallace and Gromit, as well as Raymond Gubbay's Christmas Festival.

This evening  (1/12) the London Symphony Orchestra celebrates the film music of Patrick Doyle, with Frank Strobel conducting them in selections from Doyle's film scores to Hamlet, Henry V, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The concert celebrates Doyle's 60th birthday, and the orchestra will be joined by Derek Jacobi and Emma Thompson. Later in the month, Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the orchestra in two concerts of music by major Russian composers (12/12, 19/12)

Orion Orchestra brings Latin American warmth to the South Bank

The Orion Orchestra's concert at the South Bank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 9 December 2013 is something rather different. Brain-child of the orchestra's artistic director Toby Purser, Serenata Latina combines the Orion Orchestra with Latin-American soloists and dancers and a London-based jazz group to provide and evening of Latin American dance and song. The Orion Orchestra, conductor Toby Purser, will be performing alongside jazz group the James Pearson Trio, Mexican tenor Jesus Leon (who impressed immensely in Grange Park Opera's I Puritani this year), violinist Lizzie Ball and dancers Raquel Greenberg and Omar Ocampo.

The programme includes orchestral music by Gerwshin, Marques, Ginastera and Romero, plus songs by Lara, Gardel, Freire, Velazquez and Cortez and tangos by Piazzolla, Gardel and Ponce. The Orion Orchestra is a young group, its members selected from young musicians leaving music college, so we can expect fireworks. Sound just like the sort of evening to bring a flash of Latin warmth to a cold December Monday. Further information and tickets from the South Bank Centre's website.