A voice is not enough - a further encounter with Nelly Miricioiu

Following on from my first interview with soprano Nelly Miricioiu, to talk about her performance as Lina in Stiffelio (see my interview), I caught up with her again following the performance. Ostensibly I was there to discuss the Divas and Scholars study day on Bellini (on 19 June at Cadogan Hall), when I will be lecturing and she will be performing. But inevitably conversation spread to Nelly's career and her philosophy of performing.

Nelly Miricioiu was born in Romania and trained at the conservatoire in Bucharest in the Communist era. She finally escaped, with just a suitcase, and made a career for herself in the West eventually settling in England (and acquiring an English husband). Renowned for her bel canto performances, she has sung her beloved Donizetti all over the world as well as being a notable Tosca.

On stage she is a highly dramatic and spontaneous performer but says she needs something unorthodox 'to kick her out', talking about her reliance on the reaction of the crowd. A very focused performer, a one point in our conversation she says she certainly could not tell jokes or entertaining stories about her career. She feels that she is a rather controlling performer but admits that her Mama was very controlling. And Nelly hated it, though she also admits that if it wasn't for her Mama's control Nelly would not have made it in the Communist system.

Four Quarters - Aurora Orchestra at Kings Place

Ravel, Thomas Ades, Mozart; Aurora Orchestra; Kings Place
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 13 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Two established chamber classics and a new classic from this lively young orchestra

As part of Kings Place's series Chamber Classics Unwrapped, on Friday 13 June 2014, the members of the Aurora Orchestra performed Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, Thomas Ades's Four Quarters and Mozart's Gran Partita, a wonderfully profligate piece of programming which saw no one player participating in all three works.

Le Jardin de Moniseur Rameau

Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau: Les Arts Florissants,William Christie: Les Arts Florissants Editions
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 14 2014
Star rating: 5.0
Sparkling performances from Le Jardin Des Voix academy for young singers

Le Jardin des Voix is Les Arts Florissants' biennial academy for young singers. Launched in 2002, the sixth edition of Le Jardin des Voix took place in 2013 and in addition to performing their programme Le Jardin de Monsieur Rameau the young performers recorded it and the disc has now been issued on Les Arts Florissants' own label. Le Jardin de Moniseur Rameau is performed by Daniela Skorka, Emilie Renard, Benedetta Mazzucato, Zachary Wilder, Victor Sicard and Cyril Costanzo accompanied by Les Arts Florissants with William Christie directing. The programme consists of music excerpts from operas and cantatas by Michel Pignolet de Monteclair, Antoine Dauvergne, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Nicolas Racot de Grandval, Christoph Willibald Gluck and Andre Camra, though essentially it is centred on the operas of Rameau.

The excerpts are grouped thematically, and flow naturally into each other. Many of the items are very short, and great skill has been used in combining different parts of the same work to make a satisfactory excerpt. When performed live the programme was given in a semi-staging but even on disc the magic of the performance comes over. The sections might roughly be termed the power of music, drinking, love in many forms and la gloire. Many of the composers in the first half of the programme are not well known and part of the delight of the disc is discovering new gems.

Celebrations in Liverpool

Vasily Petrenko & the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
© Mark McNulty

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's 2014/15 season will be celebrating both the 175th anniversary of the Founding of the Liverpool Philharmonic, and the anniversaries of Tchaikovsky (175) and Sibeliuis (150). Not only that, but the refurbished Liverpool Philharmonic Hall will reopen in November 2014, cause for celebration indeed. Throughout the season are a number of commissions and premieres being performed as part of the celebrations.

The season will be Vasily Petrenko's ninth as Chief Conductor and for the 175th anniversary that are a number of commissions and premieres. Petrenko conducts the orchestra in a concert in Liverpool Catherdral which includes the premiere of Nico Muhly's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis (25/10). Back in the refurbished Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Petrenko conducts the premiere of the Double Concerto by film composer James Horner which will be performed by the brother and sister team of Mari (violin) and Haakon (cello) Samuelsen (12,13/11). Michael Torke and Graham Fitkin have both composer a Concerto for Orchestra (20/11 and 7/5/2015) the first of a sequence of such commissions for the 175th anniversary.

Vasily Petrenko © Mark McNulty

Chinese composer's Tan Dun's Double Bass Concerto is premiered by the orchestra's principal double bass Marcel Becker, conducted by Darrell Ang (12/2/2015). This is part of an ongoing sequence of concerti being commissioned for the orchestra's principal players. James MacMillan conducts his own A Little Mass written for the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir, Training Choir and Melody Makers. It will be performed as part of a concert of Easter music. The commission is supported by Sally, Mary and Jonathan Groves to mark the centenary of Sir Charles Groves, the orchestra's former principal conductor (28/3/2015).

Spitalfields Summer Festival: a night at the museum

Geffrye Museum - 17th century herb garden
photography Sunniva Harte

Last night (Wednesday 11 June 2014) I went to my first of the Spitalfields Music Festival concerts. This concert was held at the splendid Geffrye Museum a featured a series of recitals by students and composers from the Royal Academy of Music, after a glass of wine in their restaurant overlooking the herb garden in its summer splendour.

The Geffrye Museum opened a century ago in 1914 as a means of showcasing local furniture makers work. But the Geffrye alms houses were built 300 years ago by the Ironmongers' Guild to house 50 'inmates' over the age of 56. Sir Robert Geffrye himself who donated money for the houses was the head of the guild and the Lord Mayor of London.

Our guide (Laura) explained that the site in Hackney was chosen because of its clean air and proximity to the guild, which was based near Liverpool Street. At that time Hackney was very green and famous for its market gardens – both the herbalist Nicholas Culpeper (1616 -1654) and Thomas Fairchild (1667-1729), who was the first to create a hybrid (between a carnation and Sweet William in 1717) had gardens in the area.

Spend a day with Bellini

Bellini was a fascinating composer, he wrote far fewer operas than his contemporaries (roughly one per year to Donizetti's four) and was extremely picky about his librettos. He insisted that he sweated blood over the writing, and needed to recover afterwards. And he was famously difficult over fees! But his operas like Norma, La Sonnambula and I Puritani are some of the greatest to remain in the repertoire. 

Bellini was friends with Chopin, Mendelssohn got his autograph and he was one of the few composers admired by Wagner. On Thursday 19 June there is a chance to learn more at Divas and Scholars study day on Bellini. Its a chance to spent the whole day at the Cadogan Hall learning about the composer as Sarah Lenton and myself lecture in the morning, and hearing what its like to perform Bellini as soprano Nelly Miricioiu gives a lecture/recital in the afternoon. Also performing will be tenor James Edwards and mezzo-soprano Rachel Kelly. Philip Mountford accompanies.

Further information from the Divas and Scholars website and the Cadogan Hall website.

Commemorating the Great War: the London English Song Festival memorial of song

William Vann, David de Winter, and Gareth John

In the centenary of the start of World War 1, the fourth event in this year's London English Song Festival celebrated composers of the Great War at St George's, Hanover Square. Baritone Gareth John, (winner of the 2013 Kathleen Ferrier prize) was joined by William Vann(accompanist and artistic director of the festival). Tenor Alexander Sprague was unfortunately too ill to perform but was replaced at the last minute by David de Winter, who had half a day to learn all the songs.

Ahead of the concert there was a very entertaining and informative preconcert talk by Professor Jeremy Dibble, a specialist in British and Irish music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries at Durham University. Included are some of my notes from the talk.

Prof Dibble has written a biography of Hubert Parry (1848 -1918), who was a composer and head of the Royal College of Music, during the time many of the composers featured in this concert were learning their craft, and died a few days before the armistice that ended the war. Dibble explained Parry was a revivalist of English song and put together 12 volumes of English songs – a project that was completed after his death by Emily Daymond and his student Charles Wood.

Kings Consort and Carolyn Sampson in Britten's Les Illuminations

Carolyn Sampson

Britten Les Illuminations Finzi Dies Natalis; Carolyn Sampson, The King's Consort, Robert King; The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 11 2014
Star rating: 5.0
Brilliant re-creation of the original 1940's sound for Britten and Finzi

Tuesday 11 June's concert at the Wigmore Hall celebrated the premieres in 1940 of Gerald Finzi's Dies Natalis (at the Wigmore Hall) and Britten's Les Illuminations (at the nearby Aeolian Hall, now Sotheby's). What gave Tuesday's performance piquancy was that the performers were the period instrument group The King's Consort, conducted by Robert King, with soprano Carolyn Sampson. The programme was completed by a pair of 18th century works, Corelli's Concerto Grosso in D, Op.6 No.1 and Geminiani's Concerto Grosso in E minor, Op.3 No.3.

Both Britten's Les Illuminations and Finzi's Dies Natalis are generally associated with tenor soloists; the Britten with Peter Pears, the Finzi with Wilfred Brown who made an influential recording of it. But both works were premiered by sopranos, Sophie Wyss performed Les Illuminations and Elsie Suddaby Dies Natalis.

The King's Consort played all the music on correct instruments of the period; 18th century for Corelli and Geminiani, 1940's for Britten and Finzi. This entailed changing bows and instruments, but for the 1940's they were still using gut strings. In a short spoken introduction Robert King explained that this period was the last time when gut strings were commonplace. The war caused a shortage of gut ('we ate it all'!), and metal strings became the norm.

Celebrating the life and career of Felicity Smith

Last year the young mezzo-soprano Felicity Smith sang the role of Katisha in Co-Opera Co's production of The Mikado at the Hackney Empire, three days later she died suddenly from a pulmonary embolism. Co-Opera Co are initiating a prize in her name, The Felicity Smith Memorial Prize, to support young mezzo-sopranos and to provide a fitting memorial for Felicity. Co-Opera Co are presenting a concert on 27 June 2014 at the St James's Piccadilly to raise finds for the prize. 

The programme will include four of Felicity's colleagues, soprano Llio Evans, mezzo-soprano Susanne Holmes, tenor Ben Thapa, and baritone Thomas Asher, plus Felicity's husband clarinettist Daniel Broncano, accompanied by Stephen Higgins in a programme of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Faure and Britten. Then in the second half, there is a performance of Mozart's Requiem with the Co-Opera Co Orchestra and Chorus conducted by John Andrews with a strong line-up of soloists, Yvonne Howard, Diana Montague, John Graham-Hall and Martin Nelson.

Further information and tickets from Co-Opera co website.

The madness of Clive: Gestalt Opera at Peckham Asylum

A Sign in Space with Felicity Turner - Photo Andreas Grieger

Clive and other stories: Gestalt Arts: Peckham Asylum
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Jun 09 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Three short new operas by adventurous new opera company

Gestalt Arts was founded two years ago as a brave new opera company by Artistic Director Ruth Mariner and Toby Young when they produced 'The daisy chain' for the London Symphony Orchestra Soundhub and Tête a Tête Opera Festival. With young experimental composers, musicians and performers, Gestalt Arts are interested in becoming a community of like-minded people capable of producing new works of opera and experimental music theatre. The audience was also testament to this, being predominantly a good 40 years younger than at the Royal Opera House.

'Clive and other stories' is their first event this year and they collaborated with art directors Studio Boo to make the most of their tiny performance space in Peckham Asylum and realise a creatively professional and consistent visual interpretation of the music.

Shadwell Opera take the Arts Theatre to the Penal Colony

Enterprising young opera company Shadwell Opera is back with a pair of performances of Philip Glass's In The Penal Colony. Shadwell Opera will be performing at the Arts Theatre on 16 and 30 June, interrupting the current run of Ghost Stories at the theatre and presenting In The Penal Colony as an installation-style operatic retelling of Franz Kafka’s famously visceral short story. Directed by Jack Furness, In The Penal Colony features Nicholas Morris, Andrew Dickinson, James Swanton and Love Ssega (who sings with the band Clean Bandit). 

We are promised 'a multi-media exploration of literary and colonial attitudes towards the ethics and aesthetics of violence that will etch its message and music into your body.'

Shadwell Opera was founded by Jack Furness in 2009, and Fiona Maddocks in the Observer described their 2011 production of Britten's Albert Herring as 'fresh, touching and assured'. Furness recently directed two opera shorts for Channel 4. In The Penal Colony will be conducted by Matthew Fletcher, winner of this year's accompanist prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards.

In The Penal Colony is on 16 June and 30 June at the Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street London, WC2H7JB. Further information at tickets from the Arts Theatre website.

You can see a preview video after the break.

In high spirits: the London English Song Festival celebrates the birthday of Judith Weir

Judith Weir

Judith Weir, Robin Holloway, Jonathan Dove, Scott Wheeler, Copland, Gershwin, Ives: Johnny Herford, Katie Bray, William Vann: London English Song Festival
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Jun 06 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Celebration of Judith Weir's 60th birthday with songs by her and her contemporaries and influences

Last month was Judith Weir's 60th birthday and the London English Song Festival honoured her talent (on the 6th of June) in a concert dedicated to her, and people who have influenced her, in St George's, Hanover Square. The London English Song Festival was started in 2011 by Artistic Director William Vann to promote and celebrate the wide and varied repertoire of English Song and this year's festival is shaping up to be a real treat.

Royal Academy of Music Richard Lewis prize winner Katie Bray, Kathleen Ferrier song prize winner Johnny Herford, and the festival's Artistic Director William Vann (piano) performed songs by Weir including 'The Voice of Desire' and 'Songs from the exotic'.

The programme also covered songs by contemporaries (and friends) Jonathan Dove, Robin Holloway (who was her composition tutor at King's College, Cambridge University), and her friend the American Scott Wheeler, as well as people who have influenced her writing - Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, and George Gershwin.

Reflections - solo piano music of Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik

Reflections - Solo piano works by Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik; Clare Hammond; BIS
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 10 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Andrzej Panufnik's three major works for piano plus music by his daughter

This year's centenary of the birth of Andrzej Panufnik has started to throw up some interesting disc of his music. For BIS Records, pianist Clare Hammond has recorded Panufnik's three major works for solo piano, Twelve Miniature Studies, Pentasonata and Reflections along with his daughter Roxanna Panufnik's arrangement of Andrzej Panufnik's Hommage a Chopin, Roxanna's completion of her father's Modlitwa and Roxanna's own Second Home and Glo. The results providing a satisfying compendium of Panufnik on piano.

Andrzej Panufnik's Twelve Miniature Studies were written in 1947 after Panufnik had had a five year break from serious creative work. Each of the twelve studies is based on the same melodic line, but constrasting with its predecessor in dynamic and tempo. So that the work opens with Sempre fortissimo e moto veloce, followed by Sempre pianissimo e molto legato. Additionally each study is a step further along the circle of fifths, so the the first one is in C sharp, the second in F sharp, the third in B, and so on until the final one is in G sharp. The faster movements are all brilliant runs, vigorous toccatas and nervous energy, whilst the softer ones are spare and more lyric. The result is a fascinating series of tiny character studies.

Richard Strauss birthday

Soprano April Fredrick, violinist Madeleine Mitchell and pianist Nigel Foster are presenting a programme, The Life That Suits Me Well, celebrating Richard Strauss's centenary. Combing words and music, with Jacqueline Bremar  as Pauline Strauss and artwork by Sue Barnes, we are promised an immersive evening (complete with birthday cake) celebrating Strauss's 55 year marriage to the characterful Pauline (herself a soprano and dedicatee of Strauss's songs). New light on the wartime years is shed through personal recollections of Cedric Bremer-Goldie, a British Intelligence Royal Air Force officer stationed undercover in Germany in the latter years of the war. 

Programme to include the Violin Sonata, An Einsamer Quelle and songs including Muttertändelei, Das Bächlein, Morgen, Heimliche Aufforderung, Beim Schlafengehen, Drei Ophelia Lieder and many more.

The concert takes place on 11 June at St Barnabas Dalston, Shacklewell Row (off Shacklewell Lane), London E8 2EA. Further information and tickets from Eventbrite.

Sounds Venezuela - El Sistema in London

Christian Vasquez and the
Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

Last weekend (6 to 8 June 2014), the Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and their conductor Christian Vasquez visited the South Bank Centre. The orchestra is the showpieces of the Venezuelan El Sistema and Vasquez himself is a product of the system which uses music for social change. The orchestra's visit to London was the end of a European tour which has taken in countries from Scandinavia to Turkey; they were accompanied by the founder of El Sistema Jose Antonio Abreu.

The South Bank Centre used the Venezuelan's visit as the centre piece of a whole weekend of participatory music making activities, their Nucleo: Sounds Venezuela with the whole South Bank complex exploding with music making by young people including performances from groups like In Harmony Lambeth (one of the UK's El Sistema-inspired groups), the scratch group One Giant Orchestra for musicians of all ages and abilities, a Ukulele jam and even some drummers. On both my visits to the South Bank over the weekend I couldn't help but come across young people playing music. And not just playing, the performance by the Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra of Venezuela on Sunday 8 June had an audience full of children and young people. Many, I imagine, were involved in some of the other performances but the performance by the Venezuelan orchestra was an impressive example of the sort of music making and social change which can be achieved with work and dedication.

John Tomlinson in Die Winterreise at Temple Music

The distinguished bass-baritone John Tomlinson was joined by pianist Julius Drake on Monday 9 June 2014 for a performance of Schubert's song cycle Die Winterreise in Middle Temple Hall as part of the Temple Song concert series.

Though Tomlinson has long been associated with the role of Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle, his vocal interests are far wider than that. The role song has been increasing in his repertoire, last year he and David Owen Norris recorded their Michelangelo sonnets programme (settings by Wolf, Britten and Shostakovich) for Chandos.

Tomlinson is now 67 and though his voice preserves its power and resonance, the flexibility was not what it was. Tomlinson sang a very low version of Schubert's great song cycle, and it has to be admitted that there were moments when it seemed that his voice required a great deal of managing. But you have to set against the fact that Tomlinson seemed able to pour a life-time's experience into the cycle. This wasn't a young man's song cycle, but that of an old man as Tomlinson, Ancient Marriner-like, bearded us and told us of all his woes.

As might be expected from such a great singing actor, this was a consummate dramatic performance. This extended to the piano postludes and preludes, when the music seemed to call forth memories from the old man. And even stretched to Tomlinson's turning and adjusting his music, as the old man might shuffle papers during his narration. This wasn't an inward performance of Die Winterreise, we were not experiencing the singer going on an exploration of his psyche, instead he was narrating his strange story and remembering, though by the end it was clear that he was more than a little touched in the head.

BREMF launch

If there was an underlying sense of jubilance at Friday's launch of this year's Brighton Early Music Festival, then it was understandable. Not only is there a strong programme for this year's festival, Cities: Musical centres and the journeys between them, but news had just come through that the festival has got an Arts Council grant for this year. Co-artistic directors Clare Norburn and Deborah Roberts introduced the varioius elements of the 2014 festival, and we were treated to a short concert from the Borromini String Quartet who in the past were on BREMF's young ensemble scheme, Early Music Live.

BREMF's Early Music Live gives opportunities to young ensembles, providing performance and broadcast opportunities as well as coaching, advice and support. The chosen ensembles are integrated into the education programme and their players will be performing in the BREMF Players. This year BREMF has been collaborating with The Sixteen and some of the young artists will be vocal soloists in the oratorio performances. In addition to the young singers, the Early Music Live artists this year consist of two very different violin and harpsichord duos, the ensemble Ars Eloquentiae and the vocal ensemble the Fieri Consort (whose members were all on the Genesis Sixteen programme).

The members of the Borromini String Quartet, leader James Toll, talked of their experience on BREMF's Early Music Live scheme, how they were allocated a budget which they chose to spend on a dancer and a shadow puppeter. The scheme also gave them the opportunity to perform on BBC Radio 3's In Tune. There was also an education workshop training day, which led to some amazing trips going into schools to talk, even comparing a string quartet to a Kit Kat.

Campkin Premiere launches LGBT commissioning campaign

Sappho
by Ferdinand Seeboeck (1893)
photograph by Phil Sayer

The Fourth Choir, London's newest LGBT chamber choir will be giving the premiere of Alexander Campkin's Unleash the beauty of your eyes as part of the concert Circle Songs in the chapel at King's College London on 20 June 2014. 

Campkin's new piece sets text by the Greek poet Sappho and will be performed around a statue of Sappho (by German sculptor Ferdinand Seeboeck) which is located in the King's Building foyer. Conducted by artistic director Dominic Peckham, the choir will also be performing music by Victoria, Nusch, Durufle and Bobby McFerrin.

The concert also sees the launch of the group's crowd-funding campaign to commission a series of works based on Sappho's poetry with the explicit intention of increasing the amount of contemporary music which sets explicitly LGBT texts.

Further information from the Fourth Choir's website.

Chelsea Opera Group in Stiffelio

Peter Auty

Verdi Stiffelio: Chelsea Opera Group, Brad Cohen: Queen Elizabeth Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 09 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Strongly dramatic performance of Verdi's rare middle-period opera

Chelsea Opera Group returned the the South Bank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday 8 June 2014 for their final opera of the season, Verdi's Stiffelio. Brad Cohen conducted, with Nelly Miricioiu as Lina, Peter Auty as Stiffelio, Gerard Quinn as Stankar, Andrew Rees as Raffaele, Sarah Champion as Dorotea, and Samuel Smith as Federico.

Verdi's opera was written in 1850, just after Luisa Miller and just before Rigoletto. From the outset the subject matter was unusual and controversial. Francesco Maria Piave based his libretto on a French play, but it was unheard of to put a Calvinist pastor on the operatic stage, a married one who divorces his wife! Censors altered the plot from the start and the opera eventually had a new (and unsatisfactory) libretto. Verdi withdrew it and re-used the score for Aroldo. Performances only became possible in the 20th century, there was a Covent Garden production in 1993 (conducted by Edward Downes, in his own edition of the opera). The score was published in 2003. But the opera remains relatively rare; Covent Garden last performed it in 2007 and few other UK opera companies have taken up the mantle.

Lawrence Brownlee - Virtuoso Rossini arias

Virtuoso Rossini Arias: Lawrence Brownlee, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, Constantine Orbelian: Delos
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jun 2 2014
Star rating: 4.0
Bravura showcase of Rossini tenor arias

Lawrence Brownlee's new disc on Delos, with Constantine Orbelian and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra is an exploration of Rossini's operatic tenor arias with solos from comic operas La gazza ladra, L'occasione fa il ladro, Il Turco in Italia and Le Comte Ory, and serious operas Semiramide, Otello, La donna del lago and Zelmira.

The arias are all, needless to say virtuoso. After all Rossini was writing for some of the greatest singers of the day. Rossini was in fact quite sparing in his use of arias, generally duos, trios and ensembles dominate his operas. But Brownlee has come up with a varied selection, perhaps wisely eschewing Almaviva's frequently cut final aria from Il Barbiere di Sivigla which has become something of a calling card for Juan Diego Florez.

The tenors of Rossini's day would have used a significantly different technique to modern-day tenors. Generally early 19th century tenors took their chest voice up to G or A, but when singing decorated passages had access to a head voice which would take them far higher. Heavier tenors like Andrea Nozzari (the first Otello) used the upper head voice purely for decorative notes but Giovanni David (the first Rodrigo in Otello) used to be able to sustain a melody line in this high register. The tenor Domenico Donzelli (the first Pollione in Bellini's Norma) described in a letter to Bellini how 'The range of my voice is nearly two octaves from low D to top G. My chest voice is to G, and it is in this range that I can declaim with vigour and sustain all the force of the declamation. From G to high G, I can use a falsetto, which provides a means of decoration'. He is describing a technique what as effectively fallen out of use nowadays.