The Presteigne Festival is now in its 33rd year. Based in Presteigne / Gwyl Llanandras in Radnorshire in the Welsh Marches, the festival manages to cram an enormous amount of vital music making into its six days, running from 27 August to 1 September 2015. As well as celebrating the 150th anniversaries of Sibelius and Nielsen, the festival also has its usual emphasis on new music. Composer Matthew Taylor will be in residence, and there are pieces by Charlotte Bray, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, David Knotts, David Matthews, Cecilia McDowall, Joseph Phibbs and Michael Small. Matthew Taylor will have six pieces performed during the festival and will be participating in pre-concert talks and as well as talking to Thomas Hyde about his life, passions and favourite music.
The final concert of the festival will honour John McCabe (1939-2015), with George Vass conducting the Presteigne Festival Orchestra in premieres by Matthew Taylor, and David Knotts, plus music by John McCabe, Carl Nielsen and Joseph Haydn.
Artist director George Vass will be conducting his own Nova Music Opera in a double bill of contemporary operas dealing with notorious events in recent British history, with Charlotte Bray's Entanglement looking at Ruth Ellis and Thomas Hyde's That Man Stephen Ward looking at the Profumo scandal. Entanglement features Kirsty Hopkins, Howard Quilla Croft and Greg Tassell, whilst That ManStephen Ward features Damian Thantrey. Both operas are directed by Richard Williams.
Visitors include the choir of Royal Holloway, conductor Rupert Gough, the Navarra Quartet and pianist Tom Poster, and soprano Gillian Keith. Events also include festival exhibitions, including one devoted to the work of Sir Sidney Nolan, and a variety of talks and poetry events.
Wolf-Ferrari Il Segreto di Susanna; Judith Howarth, Angel Odena, Oviedo Filarmonia, Friedrich Haider; PhilArtis Vienna
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 23 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Sparkling introduction to the charming world of Wolf-Ferrari's operatic comedies
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari made his name with a series of operatic comedies based on plays by Goldoni. His one-act opera Il Segreto di Susanna is set in modern times, yet seems to partake of the comic atmosphere of the Goldoni operas. Il Segreto di Susanna is perhaps Wolf-Ferrari's most performed opera nowadays (which isn't really saying much). This recording from Friedrich Haider and the Oviedo Filarmonia on the PhilArtis Vienna label, has Judith Howarth in the title role with Angel Odena as her husband, Gil.
There is something fascinatingly pan-national about this recording which reflects Wolf-Ferrari's own mixed heritage (his father was German and his mother Italian), with an English soprano, Spanish baritone and Spanish orchestra, and Austrian/Italian conductor.
Like a number of Wolf-Ferrari's other operas Il Segreto di Susanna went down better in Germany than Italy and the opera premiered in 1909 in Munich (in German). It came after a pair of operas based on Goldoni, Le donne curiose (premiered in Munich in 1903) and I quatro rusteghi (premiered in 1906). Il Segreto di Susanna seems to have been part of a deliberate attempt to move his operas into the contemporary world, as it was followed by the neo-Versimo of I gioielli della Madonna (1911). The librettist was an Italian author Enrico Golisciani (1848-1919) whose previous librettos had included work for Mascagni and Cilea.
The plot is simple, Gil and Susanna are happily married but he has a tendency to be jealous and, smelling tobacco smoke in the house, becomes convinced that she has a lover. He tries to catch her out and eventually catches her smoking, so all ends happily with the two smoking together. It is the sort of non-PC plot which nowadays would be less acceptable (rather like, though not as bad as, Donizetti's comedy about wife-beating, Rita or Deux Hommes et une Femme).
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be embarking on one of its most ambitious tours to date, going to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay this Autumn wit conductor Grant Llewellyn and harpist Catrin Finch as part of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Y Wladfa, the Welsh settlement in Patagonia. Under principal conductor Thomas Søndergård, their concerts in Wales include a focus on Huw Watkins as Composer-in-Association, as well as a programme which includes Roy Harris, Szymanowski, Dutilleux, and the UK premiere of a new completion of Debussy's Nocturne for violin and orchestra.
A group of musicians from BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be spending a week in the Chubut Province of Argentina, joining the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Y Wladfa, the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, with music workshops in schools, musicians performing in unusual locations, working with choirs, ensembles and nurturing talented musicians in youth orchestras in the Province. These activities will culminate in two gala concerts on 30 October involving the full orchestra and National Youth Choir of Wales, alongside local musicians. With conductor Grant Llewellyn and harpist Catrin Finch the orchestra will then tour to Buenos Aires (2 & 4 November), Rosario (5 November), Cordoba (6 November), Santiago (8 November) & Montevideo (11 November).
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales's new Composer-in-Association is Huw Watkins. Watkins was born in Wales in 1976 and studied at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. There will be a 'Composer Portrait concert at conducted by Garry Walker at BBC Hoddinott Hall on 24 February 2016 including Watkins' Anthem, Speak Seven Seas, Partita, (written for solo violin in 2006), Remember with soprano Ruby Hughes (for whom it was written)and Double Concerto with violist Philip Dukes and cellist Josephine Knight who premiered it in 2005 at the BBC Proms. Other performances of Watkins’ work include the St David’s Hall season opening concert on 3 October 2015 which features his London Concerto and on 18 March 2016 flautist Adam Walker performs the staggeringly virtuosic Flute Concerto, written especially for Walker and first performed in 2014 with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Principal conductor Thomas Søndergård will be conducting eight concerts including music by Dutilleux, Rachmaninov's The Bells, Mozart's Requiem, music from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, as well as the UK premiere of a completion of Debussy's Nocturne for Violin and Orchestra and violinist Nicola Benedetti in Szymanowki's Second Violin Concerto. Søndergård and the orchestra will be touring Wales with a concert which includes Huw Watkins' Flute Concerto.
In Swansea the orchestra is presenting a series of concerts exploring the violin with Trio Apaches (Matthew Trussler, Thomas Carroll, Ashley Wass) in Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Rachel Podger directing the orchestra in music by Bach, Handel, Biber and Vivaldi, and Alina Ibragimova in Bartok (along with Kodaly's Hary Janos). Chloe Hanlsip will be playing John Adams' The Dharma at Big Sur in a programme which also includes Roy Harris's Symphony No. 3.
Monterverdi L'Orfeo at the Proms, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Mariana Flores, Francesca Aspromonte
photo credit BBC/Chris Christodoulou
Monteverdi L'Orfeo; Krystian Adam, Mariana Flores, Francesca Aspromonte, Gianluca Buratto, Francesca Boncompagni, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Aug 4 2015 Star rating: 4.0
The power of music: a young cast in a semi-stage account of Monteverdi's first opera
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Krystian Adam,
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists
photo credit BBC/Chris Christodoulou
The vast expanse of the Royal Albert Hall is, frankly, not the most sensible place to perform a work like L'Orfeo. It demanded, and received, intense concentration from the audience. John Eliot Gardiner used quite large forces, with a choir of over 40 (including eight members of the Monteverdi Choir Apprentices Programme). The soloists were also in this group with most stepping out to sing their roles. The orchestra numbered some 30 people, but the moments when they were all playing was very rare and much of the vocal line was accompanied by the continuo group of harpsichord, organ, harp, cello and four chitarrones.The peculiar effect of the acoustic could be heard in the opening toccata when the cornetts and sackbuts filled the hall, leaving the other instruments virtually inaudible.
John Eliot Gardiner is a veteran of Proms performances and understands how to make the Royal Albert Hall work. His tempos allowed space for the music to develop and it was noticeable that he directed all the music, even the smaller scale sections where in a smaller venue the conductor would be redundant. But Gardiner's speeds seemed as if they were also a personal choice, this felt like a performance where we were being encouraged to stop and smell the daisies. There was a consistently relaxed feeling, and a constant sense of allowing space for the elaborate vocal lines to flourish. The great moments such as Orfeo's Possente spirto possessed a mesmerising beauty and a sense that the incredible ornament was really part of the music, but they completely lacked urgency and a feeling of the drama progressing. L'Orfeo is an opera in which very little happens and we did rather lose the sense of a dramatic narrative. This was perhaps one of the longest performances I have experienced, lasting well over two hours if you include the pauses for re-tuning with well over 110 minutes of music.
The London Science Museum's difference engine, the first one actually built from Babbage's design. Inspiration for Barry Guy's Mr Babbage is Coming to Dinner
Celebrating its 10th anniversary season in 2015/2016 the Aurora Orchestra and artistic director Nicholas Collon are showing that the orchestra is remaining true to its lively and innovative programming. They will be giving all of Mozart's piano concertos in a 25 concert odyssey lasting five years which is being produced in collaboration with King's Place where the orchestra is resident. 2016 sees the first seven concertos performed with a fine range of soloists including John Butt, Robert Levin, Cedric Tiberghien, Lara Melda, James Bartlett and John Reid. Still at King's Place, the orchestra is launching its own casual late-night series The Lock-In.
Over at the Science Museum the orchestra is re-imagining Pictures at an Exhibition for the 21st century and presenting Objects at an Exhibition with premiere
performances
of
new
works
by
six
leading
living
composers, Gerald Barry,
Barry Guy,
Chris Mayo,
Claudia Molitor,
Thea Musgrave
and
David Sawer,
each
inspired
by
an
object
or
space
in
the
Science
Museum.
Featured
objects
include
a
nineteenth-century
London-York
mail
coach,
Charles
Babbage’s
Difference
Engine (Barry Guy's Mr Babbage is Coming to Dinner),
and
2L0,
the
BBC’s
first
radio
transmitter.
The
performance
is
devised
in
collaboration
with
director
Tim
Hopkins.
Sophie Hunter and tenor Andrew Staples will be directing performances of Britten's Turn of the Screw at LSO St Luke's and Snape Maltings, with Staples himself, Sophie Bevan, Ann Murray and Jane Irwin.
The orchestra is also becoming an Associate Orchestra at the South Bank Centre where in 2016 it will be launching its series Orchestral Theatre in which the audience will be joining the orchestra on and around the stage. The first two concerts will see the orchestra continue to explore memorised performance, with The Musical Memory Palace (7 February 2016) which explores Mozart's Symphony No. 40 concluding with a memorised performance of the whole work by the orchestra, and Playing with Fire (29 May 2016) which looks at the figure of Prometheus with excerpts from Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus alongside HK Gruber's Frankenstein.
Potter and writer Edmund de Waal is curating a series of diverse events themed around the colour white, to celebrate the launch of his new book The White Road. Events include tenor Allan Clayton in Hans Zender's arrangement of Schubert's Die Winterreise, a new commission from Martin Suckling and an evening of music and poetry inspired by the writings of Paul Celan.
Jacques-Francois Gallay operatic fantasies; Anneke Scott, Lucy Crowe, Stephen Devine; Resonus Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 27 2015 Star rating: 5.0
Bravura techniques galore in this disc of early 19th century music for natural horn
Not so well known now, the name of Jacques-Francois Gallay was on everyone's lips in Paris in the 1820's, 30's and 40's. A horn player whose name was mentioned in the same breath as that of Paganini or Liszt, he played in the orchestra of the Theatre Italien as well as having a solo career and, like most virtuosi, was a prolific composer. Horn player Anneke Scott has already recorded Gallay's music (see my review) and here she continues her exploration with a disc on Resonus Classics of Gallay's operatic fantasies for horn and piano. So we have pieces based on Donizetti's Les Martyrs, Belisario, L'elisir d'amore, Bellini's Bianca e Fernando, La Sonnambula and Norma, plus songs based on arias by Donizetti and Mercadante. Anneke Scott plays on a period (Paris, 1823) horn is accompanied by Stephen Devine on 19th century Erard piano and they are joined by soprano Lucy Crowe for the songs.
Anneke Scott
Operatic fantasies were highly popular at the time, partly because they gave the performer a chance to demonstrate their skill in a popular melody and then add lots of embellishments. Though come commentators did moan and would have preferred original works, Gallay's performances of his own operatic fantasies were generally highly appreciated. As he worked at the Theatre Italien, most of the fantasies on the disc are based on works in which he played.
Fantasie brillante sur l'opera Les Martyrs de Donizetti, Op.49 is based on Donizetti's first opera written specifically for Paris which premiered at the Paris Opera in 1840 and Gallay published his fantasy in 1841. Fantasie sur une cavatine de Belisario de Donizetti, Op 42 is based on Donizetti's Belisario which premiered in Venice in 1836 and only arrived in Paris, at the Theatre Italien, in 1843, though Gallay's fantasy was published four years earlier. Bellini's Bianca e Fernando is an early work premiered in 1828 in Genoa and it never came to Paris but Gallay's Fantasia sopra un motivo dell'opera Bianca e Fernando di Bellini, Op.47/2 was published by Ricordi in 1840. The only surviving scores are for cornet, but it is presumed that the original was for horn. Bellini's La Sonnambula appeared in 1831 and reached the Theatre Italien the next year. Gallay's Troisieme Melodie sur une cavatine de La Sonnambula de Bellini, Op. 28 was published in 1836 and is a shorter work than the longer, more developed fantasies. Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore premiered at La Scala in 1835 and reached Paris in 1836. Gallay's Fantasie sur l'opera L'Elisir d'amore de Donizetti, Op.46 was published in 1838 and is the longest piece on the disc, using a greater number of themes from the opera than Gallay was wont to do in his other works. Bellini's Norma premiered in 1831 and was at the Theatre Italien in 1835. Gallay's Fantasie brillante sur un motif de Norma de Bellini, Op.40 dates from 1835 and takes as its main theme Norma and Adalgisa's duet in Act II, Deh! Con te, con te li prendi.
Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo
at an earlier concert at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Photo credit Andrea Liu
Lachrimae - John Dowland, Tarquinio Merula, Henry Purcell, Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Felice Sances, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi, Domenico Scarllatti; Anna Prohaska, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Aug 02 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Intense and vivid performances of Italian and English solo cantatas
Though the interior of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre is remarkably acoustically flexible, allowing a remarkable range of events to be programmed, hearing 17th century music in a reconstructed 17th century theatre is highly evocative. It allows us to hear music performed in the sort of intimacy that the original would have received. The programme Lachrimae presented by soprano Anna Prohaska, with Arcangelo and director Jonathan Cohen, gave us a series of scenas in which the protagonist communicated directly with the audience, supported by just a few singers. An intense and highly vivid programme, which required much from the performers, Anna Prohaska and Arcangelo gave us a dazzling sequence of music by English and Italian 17th century composers John Dowland, Tarquinio Merula, Henry Purcell, Francesco Cavalli, Barbara Strozzi, Salamone Rossi, and Domenico Scarlatti.
Anna Prohaska photo credit Monika Rittershaus
We started with an instrumental piece, Lachrimae Pavane by John Dowland (1563-1626) the melody from which crops up in the song Flow my tears which was in the second half of the programme. Played just by theorbo (Thomas Dunford) and harp (Angelique Maullon), the two instruments created a very intimate sound yet one with a rich, plucked texture so that the piece was highly evocative. Talking to Jonathan Cohen afterwards he explained that the programme is being performed on a European tour visiting a wide variety of venues, so that playing styles have to be adjusted accordingly. For the sympathetic but relatively dry acoustic of the playhouse chords have to be spread somewhat to elongate them as the sound dies away quickly.
Looking rather dramatic all in black (the lady sitting next to me thought she looked like a mermaid), Anna Prohaska then sang Hor ch'e tempo di dormir (Now it is the time to sleep) by Tarquinio Merula (1594-1665). A lullaby for the Christ child, it started with just voice and theorbo playing a two note bass lane, the austerity of the music being offset by the haunting plangency of Anna Prohaska's singing. Other instruments joined, harp and finally viola da gamba (Nicholas Milne) as the texture developed supporting the increasingly powerful performance by Anna Prohaska with her intense concentration on the words.
Basel Symphony Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies
photo Benno_Hunziker
The Basel Symphony Orchestra under its Principal Conductor, Dennis Russell Davies, is giving a five-concert series this September in the UK and Ireland. Opening at London's Cadogan Hall (24 September), they will be performing at Cheltenham Town Hall (25 September), Leeds Town Hall (26 September), Cadogan Hall (28 September) and the National Concert Hall in Dublin (29 September). Repertoire for the tour has a strong theme of Paris running through it with the rarely heard ballet Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel written to a libretto by Jean Cocteau with music by five members of Les Six which was staged by the Ballet Suedois in Paris in 1921, along with Ravel’s G major Piano Concerto (1929-31), and Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (1913), plus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major (1785) and Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major 'Jeunehomme' concerto (1777) and Holst's The Planets (1914-16).
The orchestra will be joined by the young pianist Alice Sara Ott for performances of the Mozart C Major concerto and the Ravel concerto, whilst the distinguished Russian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja will join the orchestra for Mozart's 'Jeunehomme' concerto.
The orchestra was founded in 1876, the same year as the Stadtcasino Basel which is the orchestra's home. During its long history the orchestra has given the world premieres of works by Béla Bartók, Arthur Honegger and Bohuslav Martinů. Dennis Russell Davies has been Principal Conductor since 2009 and he will stand down at the end of the 2016/17 season and he will be followed by Ivor Bolton.
Jake Arditti, with Jon Stainsby & Lucinda Stuart Grant in the background
Handel's Serse photo Robert Workman
Handel Serse; Jake Arditti, Alice Privett, Tai Oney, Abbi Temple, Lucinda Stuart Grant, Jon Stainsby, Matthew Durkan, dir: Jenny Miller, cond: Jeremy Silver; Longborough Festival Opera at the Britten Theatre
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 30 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Lively night-club setting for Handel's opera, given by Longborough's young artists
Serse, with its lively plot and at times satirical feel to the music, seems to invite directors to set it in an interesting manner whether it be Nicholas Hyntner's very post-modern take on Georgian England at ENO or James Conway's re-casting of the title role as wartime flying ace for English Touring Opera. In her note in the programme book director Jenny Miller points out that the libretto makes very little of the historical situation in Serse and concentrates, instead, on the personal relationships. Serse is an opera very much about love and trust.
So Jenny Miller, and designer Faye Bradley placed the action in a night club, which becomes Serse's new domain. The orchestra is placed on stage, in Bradley's fixed set, becoming the club band in what was a rather witty move. This new setting worked well with a young and lively cast, but it had the disadvantage of obscuring some of the action. The scene changes in the opera help point up what is happening, with Arsamene's banishment and so on, but with a fixed set we had to make do with a few tables being moved. If you don't know Serse the plot can seem complicated at first, but it does in fact have an unusual directness and clarity and this did not always come over. Listening to people chatting on the way out, I heard quite a number of misunderstandings of the plot.
The National Youth Orchestra(NYO) of Great Britain is embarking on an ambitious tour this August when, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, they will perform a programme which combines Mahler's Symphony No. 9 with the premiere of Tansy Davies' Re-greening. Performances take place at Snape Maltings (6 August), Symphony Hall, Birmingham (7 August), the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (8 August, also on BBC Radio 3), and the Konzerthaus, Berlin (10 August). This will be the orchestra's first trip abroad for 20 years, and the culmination of a two week residency in Birmingham with the 163 teenager coming from a very wide range of social backgrounds. Guest conductor during the residency is NYO alumnus Kwamé Ryan, who brings two musicians, Luke Walker (percussion) and Mawasi Warner (double bass) from his Connectt youth orchestra in Trinidad and Tobago to join in rehearsals and performances.There is a chance to hear the orchestra in Birmingham during the residency, on 1 August 'Play the City' sees the entire orchestra divide into small ensembles and take to the streets to bring music to the people of Birmingham.
On the tour the orchestra combines Mahler's challenging final symphony with Tansy Davies' Re-greening. The second brand new work written especially for NYO this year, it is performed without a conductor and partly from memory. Through movement and voice, players connect with each other and tap into their emotions, awakening an ebullient Spring from her long Winter slumber.
During July NYO's Inspire Orchestra has been busy touring secondary schools in the North-West of England giving workshops and performances with local young performers with the aim of strengthening the reach and impact of the NYO's work and inspiring peer musicians.
Håkon and Mari Samuelsen at the Bristol Proms photo Jon Rowley
Bristol Proms; Håkon and Mari Samuelsen, Alison Balsom; Bristol Old Vic
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 29 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Highly theatrical and engaging pair of concerts, breaking boundaries
Bristol Old Vic, built in 1766, is Britain's oldest working theatre and it hosted musical as well as theatrical events. The 19th century promenade concerts hosted artists such as Paganini and were the inspiration for the current series of Bristol Proms. Brainchild of Tom Morris, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, and supported by Universal Music, the concerts use the lovely 18th century auditorium (with some of the pit seats removed to create promenade places) but try to create a more casual attitude in performances, encouraging audiences to take pictures for social media, bring drinks in and clap when the wanted. But in fact at the two concerts which I attended, the audience members showed little deviation from the normal concert behaviour. However there was an exciting buzz around the concerts, and you got the impression that audience members were rather more diverse, and younger, than is often the case.
I went along on Wednesday 29 July 2015 and caught two concerts. First the Norwegian brother and sister Håkon and Mari Samuelsen (he a cellist, she a violinist) with Sinfonia Cymru, and then a late night prom with Alison Balsom. The Samuelsen's concert Pure Minimalist Baroque mixed baroque work by Bach, Barriere and Vivaldi, with contemporary works by Sollima, Glass, Pärt and Einaudi. Whilst Alison Balsom was joined by two further trumpeters for a programme which ranged from Purcell to jazz plus David Mitcham's At the Top of the Tide, winner of the Bristol Fanfare Competition.
Alison Balsom at the Bristol Proms - photo Jon Rowley
The first concert started in dramatic style with a smoke filled stage and just the dim outlines of violinist Mari Samuelsen as she launched into a vibrantly confident performance of JS Bach's Chaconne from Partita No. 2 for unaccompanied violin. It was remarkably brave star, requiring the audience to concentrate on the music, and it certainly was a performance worth concentrating on. Håkon Samuelsen followed this with a contemporary work, Giovanni Sollima's evocative and rather folk-inspired Solo.
The performers then moved to the front of the stage and from then on performances were given in front of the drop curtain, and given a theatrical glamour with lighting and animations by Rod Maclachlan, Markus Over, Jamie Perrelet and Vladimir Bulatov projected onto the drop curtain behind the performers. The two soloists joined together for a sonata by the 18th century French cellist and composer Jean-Baptiste Barriere written for the rather effective combination of violin and cello. The Samuelsens were then joined by Benjamin Baker (violin) and Ann Beilby (viola) for a performance of music Philip Glass's Mishima which is taken from the soundtrack of the 1985 film Mishima: A life in four chapters.
The Halle orchestra is aiming to attract new and wider audiences with Priceless Classics its first ever 'pay what you like' concert. The concert is at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on Sunday 6 September at 6pm. The orchestra, conducted by Stephen Bell, will perform selections from popular classics starting with Bach and finishing with Bartok, Ligeti and John Adams. The music will be introduced via presentations on a big screen. The concert will be casual, audience members can come and go as they please and take drinks into the auditorium. Then afterwards, they can pay what they think the concert was worth. It will be interesting to see if the experiment works, and especially if there is any follow through from the audience.
Tickets are free but have to be booked, OnLine. You can hear more about the concert from a film on YouTube.
Wolf Ferrari Violin Concerto; Benjamin Schmid, Oviedo Filarmonia, Friedrich Haider; Farao Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 23 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Wolf-Ferrari's lyrical, yearning and large scale violin concerto re-discovered
The music of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) has remained on the fringes of the repertoire despite the odd flurry of interest. Born of Italian and German parents, and perpetually torn between the two cultures he is best known for his operas, but this disc from Friedrich Haider and the Oviedo Filarmonia with violinist Benjamin Schmid explores Wolf-Ferrari's Violin Concerto Op.26 "Guila Bustabo in ammirazione", which is paired with a selection of music from the operas, the prelude to Il campiello, the overtures to Le donne duriose and L'amore medico, and the intermezzo to I quatro rusteghi.
The violin concerto was premiered in 1943 by the violinist Guila Bustabo (1916-2002) for whom it was written. Like Wolf-Ferrari, Guila Bustabo was of mixed heritage she was born in America with an Italian father and a Czech mother. For whatever reasons, she seems to have been entirely unconcerned about the issues relating to the war (there are suggestions that she may have temperamentally disliked America or may have been influenced in politics by her mother), so she spent the war years not in America but touring Europe. She met Wolf-Ferrari in 1939 having heard his opera La Dama Boba and the two developed a strong, almost romantic but platonic relationship. The result is the violin concerto which Bustabo premiered in 1943.
Here it is played by the talented young Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid and certainly the violin part of this challenging work holds no terrors for Schmid. The concerto is a big work, lasting some 36 minutes and the solo line has a great many bravura challenges worked into it. Like a concerto such as the Tchaikovsky, the soloist must produce a great deal of singing tone and beautiful line, whilst encompassing no end of technical hurdles. But the rewards when this is achieved are very great. Schmid plays with elegant refined sound and his playing is lyrically expressive at all time, and the virtuoso element are finely folded into the texture of the music. This is playing of real refinement, and never does Schmid overdo the more romantic elements of the concerto, he never throbs.
There are four movements, Fantasia, Romanza, Improvviso, and Rondo Finale and the predominant tone is one of rather intense, lyrical yearning. The Fantasia starts with a fascinating, yearning and somewhat exotic sounding melody on a long cantilena from the solo violin which develops into a a long and highly passionate movement. Wolf-Ferrari's style combines the melodic lyricism of Italy with the German feel for structure and complexity, as if Brahms or Tchaikovsky had been taken to the very south of Italy with a diet of red wine and sunshine. Certainly the music does not partake of any of the isms of the 20th century and has a slightly old-fashioned feel for its time, but we can now appreciate the strength of Wolf-Ferrari's craftsmanship and the sense of inspiration he seems to have found in the young violinist.
The Romanza is again yearning and restless, followed by the Improvviso which starts darkly dramatic and though the tempo increases, there is never a suggestion of a scherzo but we can appreciate Wolf-Ferrari's wonderful use of orchestral textures and the way he creates a dramatic dialogue for soloist and orchestra. The Rondo Finale brings things to a rather perky conclusion, opening like the overture to one of Wolf-Ferrari's operatic comedies. A big, big lyrical cadenza full of reminiscences of earlier movements leads to a brief return to the comedy before the rather conventional ending.
Friedrich Haider and the orchestra pair the concerto with a selection of music from the operas. We start with the hushed prelude from Il campiello, followed by the overture to Le donne curiose. This latter is a more developed piece, a full blown rather traditional operatic overture full of character and pre-figuring the drama to come. The same is true of the overture from L'amore medico and we finish with the lovely intermezzo from I quatro rusteghi. These are performances of real charm, and certainly whet the appetite for further music from the operas.
The set comes with a DVD of a documentary Liebesklarung an eine Geigerin which helps to fill in the back ground to the concerto which has its basis in the strong relationship between the composer and his soloist. The documentary is also on YouTube (see below), and there is also a little taster of the concerto on YouTube.
Wolf-Ferrari's violin concerto is a major discovery and deserves far wider currency. This fine performance should win the piece many friends. Friedrich Haider has a passionate commitment to Wolf-Ferrari's music and here he draws finely expressive playing from the orchestra and in Benjamin Schmid has a soloist who is ideal in his combination of technical skill and intense lyricism.
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) - Prelude from Il Campiello (1936) [3.49]
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) - Overture from Le donne curiose (1903) [6.45]
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) - Overture from L'amore medico (1913) [8.02]
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948) - Intermezzo from I quatro rusteghi (1906) [3.31]
Benjamin Schmid (violin)
Oviedo Filarmonia
Friedrich Haider (conductor)
Recorded 2009/10 Auditorium Principe Felipe Oviedo
Liebeserklarung an eine Geigerin - documentary about the CD
The Edington Music Festival celebrates with its 60th this year. Since the first festival in 1956, during the last week of August singers from many cathedral and collegiate choirs come together to sing four services per day at the lovely priory church in the village of Edington on the edge of Salisbury Plain.
This year the Schola Cantorum (which sings Matins and Compline) is directed by Peter Stevens, Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, the choir of men and boys is conducted by Matthew Martin (composer and Organist at the London Oratory), and the mixed voice consort is directed by Jeremy Summerly, whilst the festival is directed by Benjamin Nicholas, Director of Music at Merton College). As ever, music is varied with festival commissions from David Briggs (Magnificat octavi toni) and Marco Galvani (Tantum Ergo), whilst the other music includes John Sheppard's Missa Cantate, Haydn's Missa Sancti Nicolai, Duarte Lobo's missa pro defunctis, Grayston Ives' Edington Service, plus music by Pierre Villette, Richard Ayleward, Heinrich Schutz, Walford Davies, Philip Radcliffe, James MacMillan, Deodat de Severac, Elena Vorotko, Matthew Martin, Alonso Lobo, and Patrick Gowers.
Services run from Compline on Sunday 23 August to Solemn Eucharist on Sunday 30 August 2015, with Matins and Solemn Evensong in the morning, Solemn Evensong in the evening, preceded by music on the new organ, with a Solemn Requiem on Friday evening. Each evening ends with Compline, a magical way to end the day. There are no tickets, just turn up. Further information from the Edington Festival website.
Fflur Wyn, Robert Murray - Lakme - Opera Holland Park - photo Robert Workman
Leo Delibes Lakme; Fflur Wyn, Robert Murray, Frederick Long, Sophie Dicks, dir:Aylin Bozok, John Wilkie, cond: Holly Mathieson; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 27 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Young artists showcase & coloratura brilliance
Opera Holland Park's Christine Collins Young Artists scheme not only allows young singers, conductors and directors to work with the company, but provides a showcase performance based on one of the main productions. This year the Christine Collins Young Artists performance was Delibes' Lakme, based on the production by Aylin Bozok, designed by Morgan Large with lighting by Howard Hudson. From the main production, Fflur Wyn played Lakme and Robert Murray played Gerald, and they were joined by young artists Frederick Long as Nikantha, Adam Gilbert as Frederic, Sophie Dicks as Mallika, Rachael Brimley as Ellen, Rosie Middleton as Rose, Laura Zigmantaite as Mrs Bentson and Dominick Felix as Hadji. The Associate Director was John Wilkie and the conductor was Holly Mathieson.
The success of the Christine Collins Young Artists scheme can be judged from the way so many of the performers in this year's Opera Holland Park season are alumni of the scheme. I remember talking to Christine in 2013 and she was keen not just to support young artists by giving them tiny roles and cover jobs, but to give them a moment when they could step up and really show what they could do. She died in 2014, and this scheme is her remarkable legacy.
Leo Delibes (1836-1891) was a Paris based composer who had trained at the Paris Conservatoire with Adolphe Adam. Delibes composed operas, operettas and ballets but is known today for his ballet scores, Coppelia and Sylvia and his last opera Lakme. Lakme was premiered in 1883 at the Opera Comique and was intended, from the outset, as a showpiece for a coloratura soprano. It partakes of the fashionable atmosphere of Orientalism already explored in Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles (1863) and Massenet's Le Roi de Lahore (1877). But adds to this an interesting commentary on British Imperialism.
Delibes was a contemporary of both Bizet and Massenet, but his music has neither the earthy directness of Bizet nor the really lush romanticism of Massenet. Instead Delibes offers a finely scored elegance, coupled with a slight old fashioned attitude to dramaturgy. What keeps the opera on the fringes of the repertoire is his melodic ability. Not just the Bell Song, the coloratura show piece beloved of sopranos, but many of the other arias and ensembles. The work is stuffed with good tunes, yet has a certain edge to it because of the interesting way the British are depicted; they are simply not very nice, being completely uncomfortable in India.
Johannes Brahms, Max Reger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Zoltan Kodaly, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes X. Schachter, Albrecht Gursching; Julius Berger, Oliver Kern; Nimbus Alliance
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jun 13 2015 Star rating: 4.0
A voyage round Brahms' and Reger's cello sonatas
This fascinating two-disc set from the distinguished cellist Julius Berger and pianist Oliver Kern on Nimbus Alliance might be termed a pair of voyages. The first around Brahms’ Cello Sonata in E minor Op. 38 and the second around Max Reger’s Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 116. On both discs Julius Berger teases out the various Bachian influences in the works and elucidates them by including Kodaly’s arrangements of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, transcriptions of Bach, a new pieces by Johannes X Schachtner and as well as the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 69.
Julius Berger
Having sung a lot of Brahms’ unaccompanied sacred music, I was aware how influenced Brahms was by Bach and on the first disc of this set Julius Berger demonstrates all of the Bachian references in Brahms’s cello sonata. Does this matter, is it just a dry musicological exercise? Not a bit, in his illuminating article Julius Berger talks about the intellectual engagement with the sonata leading to decisions about character and tempo.
The main theme of the Brahms sonata’s first movement is taken from Contrapunctus IV from Bach’s The Art of Fugue with the fugal finale of the sonata using a theme from Contrapunctus XIII. The theme from Contrapunctus IV re-occurs in the fugue from Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 8 in E Flat minor BWV 853, from the Well-Tempered Clavier which was in fact arranged by Zoltan Kodaly for cello and piano in 1951 (and dedicated to Casals).
Julius Berger and Oliver Kern open their recital with the Kodaly arrangement, a rather affecting piece which has hints of its 20th century origins in the sound world. The theme also re-appears in Bach’s organ version of the hymn Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu Dir BWV 686 and Berger also plays a new piece based on this, specially written for him. Johannes X. Schachtner’s Relief No. 3 – ‘Ich schrei aus tiefer Not’ freely based on BWV 686, is a thoughtful, at times austere piece which gives a number of treatments to the Bach theme. The theme from Bach’s Choral prelude ‘Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden’ BWV 727 also occurs in the sonata, and here Julius Berger gives us a considered performance of his transcription for cello and piano.
This very much comes into the 'I wish' category! From 1 to 15 August 2015 Musique Cordiale runs in the hills between Nice and Aix-en-Provence. 100 musicians will pour into the village of Seillans to embark on two weeks of intense music making. There will be 27 concerts taking place in 11 villages, including 9 free lunchtime concerts, 3 orchestral concerts, 3 outdoor opera performances and a number of late night recitals.
James Lowe,Chief Conductor of the Prussian Chamber Orchestra, will conduct the orchestral concerts with music by Bach, Tchaikovsky and Brahms as well as a baroque programme. Brahms double concerto will be played by Chiara Enderle, winner of the 2013 Lutosławski and Pierre Fournier awards, with her father Matthias Enderle, leader of the Swiss Carmina Quartet.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Opera Holland Park - 2014, photo credit Alex Brenner
Will Todd Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; Flur Wynn, Robert Burt, James Cleverton, Victoria Simmonds, Magid El-Bushra, Keel Watson, John Lofthouse, dir: Martin Duncan, cond: Matthew Waldren; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
on Jul 25 2015 Star rating: 4.0
Will Todd's family friendly opera in good health on the Yucca Lawn at Holland Park
Fflur Wynn - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 2015 Opera Holland Park
The first thing to be understood about Will Todd's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at Opera Holland Park is that it is completely mad. Some 16 singers and 12 instrumentalists perform a 75 minute opera out of doors on the Yucca Lawn at Holland Park in a production which uses four different locations thus requiring cast, musicians and audience to move four times whilst the music keeps going. There is no amplification, everything is acoustic and almost no spoken text, this is an opera. Oh, and a significant number of the audience are tiny children and we all have to sit on cushions on the ground. And it works.
I returned to catch Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on Saturday 25 July 2015, during the opera's third run (it was premiered in 2013 and returned in 2014). Martin Duncan's production, in designs by Leslie Travers, is in rude health with a cast, many of whom have been in the production since it opened in 2013, which included Fflur Wyn as Alice, James Cleverton as Rabbit, Robert Burt as Dad and Red Queen, Victoria Simmonds as Mum and Mad Hatter, Magid El-Bushra as Cheshire Cat, Keel Watson as Caterpillar and John Lofthouse as March Hare and White Knight. Matthew Waldren conducted the instrumental ensemble.
Will Todd, and librettist Maggie Gottlieb, have taken the familiar characters from Lewis Carroll and many of the well known situations and woven them into a narrative with a far stronger sense of purpose than the novels. The young audience seemed enchanted by seeing the familiar characters and were not in the slightest bit phased by the new narrative setting.
Created in 2011 by the young composer and conductor Leo Geyer, Constella Ballet and Orchestra has in recent years produced a series of shows which merge opera, theatre and dance. Leo Geyer's jazz-inspired theatre piece Side Shows premiered last year (see my review) and the company is returning to it this paired with a new dramatic production of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. The double bill, Clown of Clowns, is at the Grimeborn Festival, at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston from 4-8 August 2015.
In both shows the company's familiar style is present, with the instrumentalists costumed and part of the action and at the Arcola Theatre there will be a real sense of immersive theatre. Pierrot Lunaire will be performed by mezzo-soprano Emma Stannard and dancer Matt Petty with choreography by Alfred Taylor-Gaunt and directed by Joel Fisher. The ensemble is conducted by Leo Geyer, who also features as the Ring Master in his own Side Shows which presents a series of Circus acts in a work which merges opera, theatre and dance to create a dazzling and entertaining whole. I enjoyed Side Shows when I saw it last year, saying in my review - 'All in all this is what modern opera should be, complex yet approachable, highly characterised and brilliantly realised.' - and have no doubt that the new double bill will be just as thought provoking and entertaining.
Flourish, OperaUpClose's opera competition returns this year encouraging composers to write small scale works suitable for the company to perform. The company has a good track record of performing works from previous competitions.
The winner of the first competition in 2012 was Two Caravans, an adaptation of Marina Lewycka’s tragic-comic novel of the same name, composed by Guy Harries with a libretto by Ace McCarron and it was produced at the King’s Head Theatre in September 2013. OperaUpClose also presented another opera from the this competition, Young Wife by Katarzyna Brochocka, to open their 2014. The winner of the 2013 competition, The Blank Canvas by Spyros Syrmos with a libretto by Fay Wrixon, was staged at the King's Head Theatre in September 2014. Last year's winner, Ulla's Odyssey, by Anthony Young with a libretto by Leanna Brodie, and will be staged at Kings Place in November 2015, followed by a UK tour in 2016.
To enter this year's competition you have to create something for just seven performers (instrumentalists or singers). Entries must be received by 7 September 2015, and you need to present 15 minutes of music and libretto, with a synopsis of the full opera. Full details from the OperaUpClose website.
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