Creating La Boheme in wartime Paris - an encounter with Nina Brazier

 Ryedale Festival Opera - The Coronation of Poppea,
with Elizabeth Holmes (Poppea) and Stephanie Marshall (Nero) Photo Emma Lambert

You have one of the most iconic operas of all time, limited resources, no chorus and just a piano for accompaniment: how does a director bring La Boheme to life for an audience which mixes those who have seen it dozens of times and those for whom it is a first opera? I met up with the young director Nina Brazier to talk about her new production of Puccini's La Boheme which debuted at the Clapham Opera Festival yesterday (20 November 2015).

Nina Brazier

We started by talking about re-interpreting opera in new productions and the pressure on a director, particularly a young director, to do something difference. Nina felt that it was important that your 'take' on a piece should offer a reason for doing it in the first place, and that you shouldn't re-imagine an opera in such a way that it was unrecognisable. 

The challenge is to bring out the particular individuality without distorting the work

She sees the challenge as being to bring out the particular individuality without distorting the work. And it is a greater challenge in a fringe environment with limited resources, but Nina seems to view this as exciting rather than difficult. She is even up-beat about just having a piano accompaniment and no chorus, seeing the stripped-back nature of the production another challenge which means the staging has to work harder, and it can add intimacy and focus to a production. The director also needs to use imagination in finding other moments of interest in the music and staging to compensate for the times when things like the chorus is lacking.

With a reduced accompaniment, the advantage, from a casting point of view, is that younger, lighter voices can be used and most of the performers in Clapham are singing their roles for the first time. The production offers a way in for singers who are just bedding a role down and not yet ready for a big house.

Composing on the periphery - Quator Tana, plus my pre-concert talk

Quatuor Tana - photo Nicolas Draps

The Quatuor Tana, whom I last saw playing Gabriel Jackson & John Taverner at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in 2014 (see my review), is playing at Conway Hall this Sunday (22 November, 6.30pm) in their Sunday Concerts programme. The quartet is playing an interesting programme of quartets from different 19th & 20th century traditions, with Arriaga's Quartet No.1 in D minor (Spanish/Basque), Shostakovich's Quartet No.8 in C minor Op.110 (Russian), Turina's La Oración Del Torero (Spanish) and Dvořák's Quartet in F Op.96 ‘American’ (Czech). 

I will be giving the pre-concert talk for the event, so come along at 5.30pm to hear my talk Composing on the periphery.

Based in Belgium, Quatuor Tana was formed in 2010 to promote contemporary chamber music repertoire. The quartet places no boundaries when selecting style or genre and often presents classical repertoire alongside contemporary works.

Full information from the Conway Hall website.

Music for Youth Proms

Massed ensemble at the Music For Youth Proms

For three nights, 23-25 November 2015, Music For Youth takes over the Royal Albert Hall and presents 3000 young musicians in the Music for Youth Proms. Each night 1000 young musicians take part in a concert like no other: full-scale symphony orchestras are showcased side by side with some of the best jazz bands, chamber groups, rock bands and choirs from across the UK. And each night a Massed Ensemble of over 500 musicians performs new work, specially commissioned for this occasion, with Martin Read's Mary Rose, The Mighty Sky based on work by Beth Nielsen Chapman, and Russell Hepplewhite's 800 Miles as the Albatross Flies.

On Monday 23 November, Hampshire Music Service presents Mary Rose, a composition project by Martin Read involving choir, orchestra, new music by local students, drama and dance. The piece is based on the story of the Mary Rose – Henry VIII's ship – a local story representing the various aspects of the tragic circumstances surrounding the ship’s sinking in the Solent.

On Tuesday 24 November, The Mighty Sky Choirs and Orchestra features musicians from Kirklees Music School, Daventry Music and Performing Arts Centre and Chiltern Music Academy for a visual and musical spectacular. Involving over 350 young people, the project created to inspire and expand their understanding of astronomy. The Mighty Sky album by Beth Nielsen Chapman is at the heart of the project, a collection of songs bordering blues, country, folk and pop which has now been arranged for soloist, choir and orchestra.

On Wednesday 25 November,in partnership with English Touring Opera, nearly 500 children from the Oval Cluster of primary schools in Lambeth sing in a performance of 800 Miles as the Albatross Flies, a new dramatic song cycle by Russell Hepplewhite. Exactly 100 years ago the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton attempted to sail to South Georgia in the tiny James Caird lifeboat, across the most dangerous seas in the world, in order to save his stranded crew. The new piece sees 500 badly equipped and poorly trained Lambeth children attempt to recreate the journey with disastrous consequences. The singers are joined by young percussionists, among other players, and features singer-actors from Lilian Baylis Technology College, as well as an albatross

Seasons - Oliver Davis and Antonio Vivaldi

Oliver Davis Anno, Anno Epilogue, Vivaldi The Four Seasons; Grace Davidson, Kerenza Peacock, The Trafalgar Sinfonia, Ivor Setterfield; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 13 2015
Star rating: 3.5
Vivaldi's iconic work paired with new setting of the accompanying poems

Everyone seems to want to record Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and to stand out, you need a take on it. Thankfully this new recording on Signum Classics from violinist Kerenza Peacock with Ivor Setterfield conducting the Trafalgar Sinfonia is quite straight forward without any untoward quirks, instead it is the pairing which brings the interest. The young composer Oliver Davis has set the four poems which preface each of the concertos (poems which may even be by Vivaldi himself), sung by Grace Davidson. This new work Anno prefaces The Four Seasons on the disc and then Davis has written a short Anno Epilogue to round things off.

Oliver Davis graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1994 and his work since then has included soundtracks, albums, television scores as well as concertos and ballet. His debut album Flight was a series of violin concertos written for Kerenza Peacock, the solo violinist on this disc.

The poems from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons closely parallel the musical programme (which is why people think Vivaldi wrote the poems). Oliver Davis's setting, in the original Italian, divides the setting of each poem into three sections mirroring the three movements of Vivaldi's concertos. Throughout the new work, Anno, I noticing a number of influences on the sound of the music. The one which I mainly kept coming back to was Britten's Les Illuminations, there is something about Davis's writing for soprano and strings which kept echoing the earlier work, particularly in the textures of the piece. And frankly Britten's song cycle is no bad model to have, and overall Davis creates a distinct and attractively appealing sound.

Composers competition celebrates Shakespeare's sexuality

The Fourth Choir has announced a choral composition competition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, which falls on 23 April 2016. The winner receives a prize of £1000 and their composition will be premiered by the Fourth Choir on 23 April 2016 in London’s historic Middle Temple Hall. 

The choir has created the competition so that as part of the celebrations for the anniversary, we are celebrating Shakespeare's sexuality. To that end the competition is it set one of Shakespeare's sonnets which were originally written to an unknown young man. 

Composers must write a setting for unaccompanied choir (SATB or SSATB) of one of the following Shakespeare Sonnets:

• Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws (Sonnet 19)
• Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed (Sonnet 27)
• Against my love shall be as I am now (Sonnet 63)
• My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming (Sonnet 102)
• To me, fair friend, you never can be old (Sonnet 104)
• Two loves I have of comfort and despair (Sonnet 144)

The Adjudication Panel will consist of the Fourth Choir’s Artistic Director, Dominic Peckham, its Associate Music Director, Andrea Brown, and its Resident Composer, Alexander Campkin. There is no entry fee for the competition,, the closing date is 15 January 2016, and further information on how to enter can be found at http://www.shakespearelovesong.com/

L’ospedale - a work which still resonates today

L'ospedale - Solomon's Knot - photo Robert Workman

L’ospedale, Libretto by Antonio Abati, composer unknown, incorporating madrigals by Gesualdo; Jonathan Sells, Rebecca Moon, Thomas Herford, Michal Czerniawski, Nicholas Merryweather, Lucy Page, Solomon's Knot, dir: James Hurley, cond: James Halliday; Wilton's Music Hall
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Nov 17 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Unique modern revival of a highly pertinent baroque opera

Lucy Page
L'ospedale - Solomon's Knot - photo Robert Workman

The 'baroque collective' Solomon's Knot have resuscitated an opera unperformed for some 350 years and brought it, via Aldeburgh’s Open Space residency programme, to Wilton’s Music Hall in the East End (seen 17 November 2015). Naomi Matsumoto of Goldsmith’s, University of London, rediscovered the score when researching for her thesis on the origins of the operatic mad scene. 

She and Solomon's Knot have created a performable work that resonates for today’s audiences sold on the notion that we are own best doctors – until something goes wrong, and then we are at the mercy of expensive and charismatic doctors. Directed by James Hurley and conducted by James Halliday, the cast included Jonathan Sells, Rebecca Moon, Thomas Herford, Michal Czerniawski, Nicholas Merryweather and Lucy Page.

Nicholas Merryweather
L'ospedale - Solomon's Knot - photo Robert Workman

It is thought that L’ospedale was intended for small private gatherings at court or of academics. The libretto by Renaissance Italian satirist Antonio Abati is full of puns and the music, by an unknown composer, has been supplemented for this production by two madrigals by Gesualdo. The space at Wilton’s was ideal acoustically and in terms of the intimacy it offers. The six-piece band (strings and continuo) led by James Halliday was raised high on the Wilton’s stage with the action taking place on the flat, the audience seating on two sides around a hospital bed exposed or hidden by a curtain. Everything looks a bit grubby. A hospital vending machine sells unhealthy snacks. It certainly felt immediate. And recognisable to anyone who has been inside a hospital.

The action of the opera is framed by spoken recordings over the PA from the allegorical figure ‘Health’, first touting platitudes about the importance of exercise and personal responsibility, and later patronising the frazzled medical profession.

Art meets music in a limited edition print disc celebrating the alto guitar

Until I received an email from Swedish guitarist Nils Klöfver, I had never heard of an alto guitar. The instrument was developed 50 years ago in Sweden by luthier Georg Bolin and guitarist Per-Olof Johnson. It is an extended range guitar with eleven strings (though Bolin sometimes made 13 string ones as well). It arose because Per-Olof Johnson was looking for a way to play lute music using guitar playing technique. The design introduced two main elements, to provide conventional lute tuning by tuning the first six strings a minor third higher (hence the name "alto guitar") and to add five extra strings to accommodate low notes. The name for the guitar in Swedish is Altgitar.

This is the name that Nils Klöfver has given to his new disc of music for the alto guitar. Recorded to celebrate the instrument's 50th anniversary, the disc includes music by Bach and Weiss, including Bach's Lute Suite.

But the album has another twist too. It is produced in vinyl and Nils Klöfver has collaborated with artist Jenny Svenberg Bunnel who has produced drawings of Nils and the disc comes with one of three prints of the drawings as its cover. These are produced on a batch of art paper which was produced in the 1970's. The discs are limited edition, individually numbered and signed by the artist.. Something for the wall or something for the turntable. Don't worry, you get a digital download as well.

There is an introductory video on YouTube, with full information from the Altgitarr website.

Mesmerising, intense and very quiet - Morton Feldman's For Bunita Marcus

Morton Feldman For Bunita Marcus; Ivan Ilic; Paraty
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 11 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Mesmerising, intense and very quiet; Ivan Ilic really makes you want to listen

On this new disc on the Paraty label (distributed by Harmonia Mundi) the Serbian-American pianist Ivan Ilic has recorded Morton Feldman's long piano piece, For Bunita Marcus. Written in 1985, For Bunita Marcus comes almost at the end of Feldman's long list of piano works and the dedicatee, Bunita Marcus would commission and premiered his last piano piece Palais de Mari (1986). Bunita Marcus was a student of Feldman's from 1975 to 1981 at the University of Buffalo and would go on to be his intimate companion until his death.

This disc is the third part of Ivan Ilic's Morton Feldman Trilogy. The first part, the CD The Transcendentalist juxtaposes Scriabin miniatures with music by Feldman, Cage and Scott Wollschleger. The second part, Detours Which Have To Be Investigated is a book, CD and DVD. Ilic has clearly invested a lot of time and thought in Feldman's music and this clearly pays off in his performance of the long For Bunita Marcus.

Feldman's music is obsessive, repetitive and largely quiet. He nags away at the same group of notes until he has extracted the last essence from them before moving on. Though Feldman's music is often linked to that of the minimalists, he does not use the same sort of process mechanism on which minimal music is based. Instead his note patterns seem to have been purely instinctive. There is often a sense of floating in space in the notes, each one there to be enjoyed on its own and tempting the listener to hear it in relation to the others.

In his own introduction to the piece which is included on the Universal Edition website (and it is well worth looking at) Feldman talks about how his primary interest in the work was rhythm and metre and at the start of the article he makes the cryptic comment that 'for me rhythm does not exist'. In this work he uses mainly bars of 3/8, 5/16 and 2/2 (the latter for punctuation I think), and then develops his ideas metrically. This explains the extraordinary fluidity of the piece, something which Ilic brings out.

From Darkness to Light: Angels and Saints

From Commedia by Monika Beisner

Following on from the Academy of Ancient Music's concert Music from the Dark Side directed by Pavlo Beznosiuk (see my interview with Pavlo to talk about it), the Academy of Ancient Music are returning to Milton Court Concert Hall on 20 November 2015 for another concert in their From Darkness to Light series. This is the complementary concert to the previous one, and Bojan Cicic directs the ensemble in Angels and Saints, a programme inspired by visions of the spirit world and the promise of the after-life.

The programme includes Vivaldi's concertos "per la Solennitá di S Lorenzo", "il Riposo per il S Natale" and "S Lingua di S Antonio di Padova", and his sonata "Sancto Sepolcro", Biber's Passacaglia for unaccompanied violin "Guardian Angel" from his Rosary Sonatas and two sonatas "Sancti Spiritus" and "Paschalis", written in 1666 by Vejvanovsky, the greatest trumpet virtuoso of his age, plus music by Leclair and Manfredini.

Full information from the Academy of Ancient Music website. The concert will also be at Dorset County Museum, Dorchester on 25 November, and the Hall for Truro, Cornwall on 26 November, further details of the tour from the website.

Sebastian F Schwarz becomes next general director of Glyndebourne

Sebastian F. Schwarz

The move of Roger Wright from the BBC to Aldeburgh triggered the usual fascinating sequence of moves in the world of music and operatic administration. David Pickard having been announced as moving from Glyndebourne to become director of the BBC Proms, Glyndebourne has now announced that from May 2016 the new general director of Glyndebourne (the seventh in the company's 81 year history) will be Sebastian F Schwarz.

Though viewed as typically English, in fact Glyndebourne has always had an interesting European view as well. This dates back to the company's origins as those involved in creating the company, conductor Fritz Busch, director Carl Ebert and general manager Rudolph Bing were all exiles from Nazi Germany and brought a welcome whiff of European operatic tradition to the Sussex countryside.

Sebastian Schwarz is currently deputy artistic director of the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, a role he has taken for eight years, a period which saw the theatre's move away from presenting a mixture of opera and musicals to being a full time venue for opera and classical music. Schwarz is also artistic director of the Vienna Chamber Opera which was incorporated into Theater an der Wien in 2012, and for which he founded an international ensemble of singers who perform for both companies. Schwarz co-founded the Pietro Antonio Cesti International Voice Competition for Baroque Opera in Innsbruck.

Schwarz's biography on the Glyndebourne website describes him as being 'a passionate linguist, speaking eight languages and an active beekeeper in the Eastern Alps, near Vienna'.

Wagner's Dutchman comes to Fulham

Keel Watson

Having made an impression with Verdi's Falstaff, bass-baritone Keel Watson is returning to Fulham Opera to perform the title role in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman. Fulham Opera' s new production, directed by Daisy Evans opens on 19 November 2015 and runs until 5 December 2015 at St John's Church, Fulham. As well as Keel Watson, the cast includes Janet Fischer as Senta, John Milne as Daland and Edward Hughes as Erik, and will be conducted by Ben Woodward and Jonathan Finney. The work will be performed in a new reduced orchestration by Jonathan Finney.

Fulham Opera are of course the company which gave us a fully staged Ring Cycle in 2014 so their take on The Flying Dutchman should be highly recommendable. Full information from the Fulham Opera website.

The comic yet unnerving feel of a sketch from Monty Python - Simon Vosecek's Biedermann and the Arsonists

Leigh Melrose - Biedermann and the Arsonists
Independent Opera - (c) Robbie Jack

Simon Vosecek Biedermann and the Arsonists; Mark Le Brocq, Alinka Kozari, Leigh Melrose, Matthew Hargreaves, Raphaela Papdakis, Adam Sullivan, Johnny Herford, Bradley Travis, Laurence North, dir: Max Hoehn, Britten Sinfonia, cond: Timothy Redmond; Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 14 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Brilliant new production of a striking new satirical opera by young Czech-Austrian composer

To celebrate its 10th birthday, Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells (a company which exists to support young artists) staged the UK premier of Simon Vosecek's opera Biedermann and the Arsonists (Biederman und die Brandstifter) at the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler's Wells Theatre on Saturday 14 November 2015. The director was Max Hoehn, the 2015 Independent Opera directing fellow. Designed by Jemima Robinson, with lighting by Giuseppe di Iorio and video by Daniel Denton, the opera was sung in David Pountney's English translation with Timothy Redmond conducting the Britten Sinfonia. Mark Le Brocq was Gottlieb Biedermann, Alinka Kozari was his wife Babette, with Leigh Melrose and Matthew Hargreaves as the arsonists Schmitz and Eisenring, and Raphaela Papadakis as Anna. Adam Sullivan, Johnny Herford and Bradley Travis were the Firemen, and Laurence North was the Policeman.

Mark Le Brocq, Matthew Hargreaves - (c) Robbie Jack

Simon Vosecek is a young Austrian-Czech composer and chansonnier, and his opera Biederman und die Brandstifter was premiered in 2013 by Neue Oper Wien. It is based on a play by the Swiss-German writer Max Frisch, the play was first performed on the radio in 1953 and given its stage premiere in 1958, receiving its UK premiere in 1961 at the Royal Court Theatre in a production directed by Lindsay Anderson. The play was last seen in London (as The Arsonists) in 2007. It is a satirical fable, Frisch called it a 'morality without a moral'.

The anti-hero of the piece is Gottlieb Biedermann, who runs a successful hair tonic business during a period when the city is beset with a spate of arson attacks. His wife Babette, of a highly nervous disposition, is profoundly anxious about the possibility of arson. Schmitz, a supposed wrestler, talks his way into the Biedermann's house and uses emotional blackmail to make them accept him. His friend Willi Eisenring appears, a former waiter, and the two start storing barrels of petrol in the house. Rather than report them, Biedermann appeases the arsonists and pretends to treat it as a joke. The opera ends with a tense dinner for the four and a final explosion.

Longtime György Kurtág collaborator, András Keller to become professor of violin at Guildhall School

 András Keller conducting Concerto Budapest
photo: Benkő Sándor

The Hungarian violinist András Keller, known for his collaborations with composer György Kurtág, has been appointed professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. This is Keller's first UK appointment, and he served as head of the Chamber Music Department at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest from 2012 to 2015. András Keller begins teaching at the Guildhall School in January 2016.

András Keller studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where his teachers were Dénes Kovács, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados, and he later studied in Salzburg with the great Sándor Végh. He founded the Keller Quartet in 1987, and since 1978 has been performing and premiered works by György Kurtág.

Midsummer Opera - Un ballo in maschera

Midsummer Opera presents Verdi's Un ballo in maschera this weekend in semi-staged concert performances at St John's Church, Waterloo on Friday 20 November 2015 and Sunday 22 November. The cast includes John Upperton as Riccardo, Jane Streeton as Amelia, Andrew Mayor as Renato, and Joanna Gamble as Ulrica, with David Roblou conducting the Midsummer Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

Based on the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, Verdi's opera suffered from problems with the censors and Verdi's original intention to have the piece set in Sweden with the title character being Gustavo was prevented and the work was premiered with the title role now Riccardo, Governor of Boston. Ultimately though, the work's location matters a lot less than Verdi's brilliant handling of the conflicts between love and duty.

And of course, the opera is in fact entirely a-historical, as King Gustav III was in fact assassinated by a group of aristocrats opposed to his increasingly autocratic rule. And the real Gustav would have been unlikely to have had an affair with his best friends wife as he was thought to have been predominantly homosexual.

Further information and tickets from WeGotTickets.com

Loquebantur - Music from the Baldwin Partbooks

Music from the Baldwin Partbooks - Robert Parsons, Thomas Tallis, William Mundy, William Byrd, Hugh Asston, Derrick Gerarde, Elway Bevin, Alfonso Ferrabosco, Orlande de Lassus, Christian Hollander, John Tavener, John Baldwin and John Sheppard; The Marian Consort, Rose Consort of Viols; Delphian
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 11 2015
Star rating: 4.5
Engagingly intelligent and musical performances of music from an important Tudor collection

The Baldwin Part Books are a set of manuscript part-books currently in the library at Christ Church College, Oxford. Created in the late 16th century they are an important source of Tudor church music. The contents of the part-books run to over 160 motets in manuscript so a complete overview on CD is not possible. For this new single-disc sample on Delphian, Rory McCleery and The Marian Consort (Emma Walshe, Gwendolen Martin sopranos, Daniel Collins, Rory Mcleery counter tenors, Guy Cutting, Ashley Turnell tenors, Rupert Reid baritone, Christopher Borrett bass), director Rory McLeery, sing a selection of motets from the part-books, whilst the Rose Consort of Viols (Ibi Aziz, John Bryan, Alison Crum, Andrew Kerr, Roy Marks, Peter Wendland) plays the items for viols. The selection of music on the disc is quite varied with works by Robert Parsons, Thomas Tallis, William Mundy, William Byrd, Hugh Aston, Derrick Gerarde, Elway Bevin, Alfonso Ferrabosco, Orlande de Lassus, Christian Hollander, John Tavener, John Baldwin and John Sheppard.

As with many part-books from the period, the Baldwin Part Books are incomplete and the tenor book is missing so that pieces have to be re-constructed using material from elsewhere, but sixty of the pieces are unique to the part-books which mean that imagination has to be used. Sometimes the tenor part can be completed simply by taking the original plainchant around which the piece was built, but where this cannot work then an editor gets involved. On this disc three of the pieces have new tenor parts - Mundy's Adhaesit pavimento, John Sheppard's Ave maris stella, Derrick Gerarde's Sive vigilem.

John Baldwin (c1560-1615) was a tenor lay clerk at St George's Windsor in 1575, becoming a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1598 and singing at the funerals of Elizabeth I and Prince Henry, and the coronation of James I. He was responsible for the collation and copying no only of the Baldwin Part Books but also John Baldwin's Commonplace Book and was the copyist for My Ladye Nevells Booke a compendium of keyboard music by William Byrd.

Baldwin included printed material in the Baldwin Part Books so that in addition to the 160 plus pieces in manuscript, the contents of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis's Cantiones Sacrae of 1575 is bound up as well with Baldwin selecting the manuscript motets so that there are no duplications.

The manuscript selection is very wide ranging with polyphonic settings of hymns and responds, large-scale Marian antiphons, canticles, a mass, lamentations and motets. There is also untexted consort music for between three and six parts. On this disc the Marian Consort sing the texted music one singer to a part, whilst the Rose Consort of Viols plays the untexted consort music.

Relax and be charmed - Rameau's Anacreon

Rameau Anacreon; Matthew Brook, Anna Dennis, Agustin Prunell-Friend, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Jonathan Williams; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 04 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Low on drama but high on charm and Rameau's imaginative orchestration

Rameau in fact wrote two unrelated opera entitled Anacreon and featuring the Greek philosopher-poet. The earlier of the two, to a libretto by Cahusac has been recorded on Signum Classics by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenement and the Choir of the Enlightenment conductor Jonathan Williams, with Matthew Brook as Anacreon, Anna Dennis as Chloe and Agustin Prunell-Friend as Batile.

Rameau seems to have written Anacreon as part of a multi-act opera-ballet called Les beau jours de l'Amour which was started in the 1750's but remained unfinished. The two surviving acts Anacreon and La Naissance d'Osiris both developed independent lives and Anacreon was given at Fontainebleau in 1754. There was a Paris Opera production of the work in 1766, two year's after Rameau's death but incorporating revisions made by Rameau and Cahusac after the 1754 performances..

Reviving the piece is, however problematical. All we have from 1754 is the libretto and an incomplete set of vocal parts, which can be supplemented from surviving material from the Paris Opera's performances in 1766 and 1771. The overture is, however, entirely lacking and the work on this disc starts with just a short Ritournelle.

Save the Children Refugee Appeal

The London Chorus, conductor Ronald Corp, is joining forces with the Orpheus Sinfonia to present Mozart's Mass in C minor at a concert in aid of the Save the Children Refugee Appeal at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, SW1X 8SH on 17 November 2015. The soloists in the Mozart at Emma Tring, Catherine Backhouse, Greg Tassell and James Oldfield, whilst there will be a reading from actor Freddie Fox.

Mozart's large-scale Mass in C minor was written in 1782/83 and was his final setting of the mass (except for his Requiem), written after Mozart had left the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg. It is not clear why the mass was left unfinished, especially as it was performed in Vienna in 1783.

Further information and tickets from the London Chorus website.

London debut of Alex Petcu-Colan

Alex Petcu-Colan - photo Mark Stedman 

Irish Heritage is presenting Percussive Counterpoint,  the London debut of percussionist Alex Petcu-Colan at The Forge in Camden on Tuesday 17 November 2015. An Irish musician of Romanian origin, Alex Petcu-Colan is one of the few Irish percussionists to focus on solo and chamber music. He is a founding member of the Beyond Borders Percussion Group, an international collective of some of the finest percussionists in the world, and the Bangers and Crash Percussion Group, a new Irish percussion ensemble. He recently won first prize at the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year competition and reached the semi-finals at the Tromp International Percussion Competition. At The Forge, Alex will be playing on marimba, vibraphone and percussion, presenting a fascinating solo recital featuring music by Steve Reich, Joseph Schwantner, Keiko Abe, Debussy, J.S. Bach and more.

Further information and ticket information from The Forge website.

Purcell - Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts

Henry Purcell Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts; The King's Consort, Robert King; Vivat
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Nov 11 2015
Star rating: 5.0
Brilliant follow up to this group's previous disc in Purcell's wonderfully fecund sonatas

Rather appropriately Robert King and the King's Consort have followed up their fine recording of Purcell's Sonatas in Four Parts (see my review) with a recording of the Twelve Sonatas in Three Parts on the Vivat label. The performers being violinists Cecilia Bernardini and Huw Daniel, bass viol Reiko Ichise, theorbo Lynda Sayce with Robert King on organ.

Though the ten Sonatas in Four Parts were issued posthumously by Purcell's widow in 1697, whereas Purcell supervised the publication of the twelve Sonatas in Three Parts, both groups were almost certainly written at the same time probably in a single great burst in the early 1680's. In his excellent booklet not Robert King suggests that the court's summer recess to Newmarket would have given Purcell the space.

The titles of the two groups of works are confusing because both are in four parts with a basso continuo part which is separate from the bass viol part. In his introduction to the 1683 publication Purcell explained that the sonatas were re-written to include this extra part (rather than the bass viol part following exactly the basso continuo part). Probably as a result of Purcell seeing Corelli's first set of Sonate da chiesa which were first published in Rome in 1681.

The idea of separate basso continuo part written out was new in the UK and Purcell takes full advantage. The bass viol  part is developed to be almost the equal of the violins, leaving the continuo to be more slow moving, strengthening the harmonic bass of the works.

Wimbledon International Music Festival opens tonight

The Wimbledon International Music Festival opens tonight (14 November 2015) and runs until 29 November filling Wimbledon with exciting musical events. Tonight's opening concert is Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with Andrew Edwards conducting The Academy Choir, The Academy Baroque Players and His Majesty’s Sagbutts & Cornetts. 

Further ahead a fine clutch of performers includes the Emerson Quartet, Andras Schiff, Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis in Schubert, Mahan Esfahani, Piers Lane and the Brodsky String Quartet, and the Phiharmonia Orchestra. Pianist Mikhail Rudy's Chagall, The Sound of Colours will include projections on a large screen with art and music in dialogue. This years festival co-commission is another dance-inspired piece, a dance suite by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin inspired by Picasso’s painting of the three Dancers in Tate Modern, which is also being used in a new dance piece by Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman performed by Rambert Dance at Sadlers Wells on 3-7 November.

The final concert is Robin O'Neill conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, with cellist Zuill Bailey in Schubert's Symphony No. 5, two Haydn cello concertos and Mozart's Symphony No 40.

Full information from the festival website, but be warned some concerts are already sold out and other only have availability on the door!