Make our Garden Grow

As a response to lock-down, British Youth Opera(BYO) drew together a group of BYO Alumni to perform 'Make our garden grow', the final chorus from Leonard Bernstein's Candide. 

The assembled talent features Natasha Argwal, Joshua Baxter, George van Bergen, Katherine Broderick, Katie Coventry, Paul Curievici, Llio Evans, Fiona Finsbury, Tina Gelnere, Jack Holton, Jennifer Johnston, Martha Jones, Elizabeth Karani, Andy Lee, John Lofthouse, Pedro Ometto, Anna Patalong, Kieran Rayner, Matthew Salter, Elena Sancho, Victoria Simmonds, Nicky Spence, Morgana Warren-Jones, Fflur Wyn.

Do support BYO current fund-raising campaign to enable thenhelp hundreds of young professionals grow their own careers in opera.
Just visit https://www.byo.org.uk/donate.

Sing with ETO: don't just sit back and watch, join in and sing

Whilst we are all in isolation at home, English Touring Opera doesn't just want us to sit back and watch endless videos and live-streams, no matter how uplifting. The company also aims to get us singing. They are releasing two singing lesson videos each week on their YouTube channel, created by members of the company. This week saw baritone Stephan Loges in the first adults' singing lesson, and baritone Bradley Travis in the first children's singing lesson, on how to warm up.

Each week, ETO will be releasing a new children's singing lesson on Tuesdays and a new adults one on Thursdays. Subscribe to ETO's YouTube channel, and don't miss out.

A focus on Bach: the Manchester Collective

The music of Bach is the focus of the Manchester Collective's Live from Isolation on-line programme this weekend. On Saturday 18 April 2020, they are broadcasting part one of Bach's Goldberg Variation from 8pm on the ensemble's YouTube and Facebook pages. First published in 1741, Bach's mammoth set of variations was written for harpsichord, one of a series of later works in which the composer digested his technique into magisterial statements.

In this week's newsletter, the ensemble's CEO Adam Szabo admits to being something of a Bach agnostic ('discuss!'), but you can hear more on his talk on Instagram with Rakhi Singh [and you can read my interview with Adam on this blog]

For this recording the work is performed in a version for string trio with Rakhi Singh (violin), Ruth Gibson (viola) and Bartholomew La Follette (cello), recorded live at the Invisible Wind Factory in Liverpool. This venue was once a factory space on the Liverpool docks dedicated to the production of wind turbines... Today, the hidden substation under the building hosts Manchester Collective performances, experimental music and club nights.


To get you in the mood, there is Rakhi Singh's account of the 'Chaconne' from Bach's Partita No. 2 for solo violin, recorded live in Peckham, on YouTube.

Raphael Wallfisch & the Northern Chamber Orchestra on-line in Weinberg, Tchaikovsky, Holst and Schubert

Raphael Wallfisch

Last November, cellist Raphael Wallfisch gave the UK première of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Cello Concertino at The Stoller Hall in Manchester with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, in a programme which also included Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, Gustav Holst's St Paul's Suite and Schubert's Symphony No. 5.

There is a chance to hear the concert again on Saturday (18 April 2020) when the orchestra streams its video recording of the concert on YouTube and Facebook. It was originally streamed exclusively to care homes as part of the NCO's Mind Music programme, working with people living with dementia; however the musicians have kindly given permission for the concert to be streamed to the public for 24 hours, from Saturday 18 April at 7.30pm.

Wallfisch plays Tchaikovsky's original version of the Rococo Variations, which for a long time was unavailable in the West and which Raphael used to play from his own set of parts [see my interview with Raphael Wallfisch for further background] created from a copy of the original score given to Raphel by his teacher Gregor Piatigorsky..

The Northern Chamber Orchestra's concert will be available for 24 hours from 7.30pm, 18 April 2020 on YouTube and Facebook.

Completely magical: music by Arvo Pärt, Peteris Vasks, James MacMillan on this new disc from Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

Arvo Pärt Stabat Mater, Peteris Vasks Plainscapes, James MacMillan Miserere; choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Dmitri Ensemble, Graham Ross; Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 17 April 2020 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Five works by Arvo Pärt, culminating in the large-scale Stabat Mater setting, alongside works by his younger contemporaries in sophisticated and completely magical performances from the young college choir

Arvo Pärt's post-1968 output has created some of the most distinctive, most influential and most striking music of the 20th century. Pärt's music has turned its back on the complexity espoused by post-1950s modernism, and found a different type of harmonic intensity.

On this new disc from Harmonia Mundi, Graham Ross and the choir of Clare College, Cambridge present four of Arvo Pärt's unaccompanied choral works and then finish with Pärt's Stabat Mater in the version for choir and strings (for which they are joined by the Dmitri Ensemble). Alongside the Pärt are a pair of more recent works which have links to Pärt's output, Peteris Vasks' Plainscapes for mixed choir, violin (Jamie Campbell) and cello (Oliver Coates), and James MacMillan's Miserere.

They start with Pärt's 2004 piece, Da pacem, Domine, which was commissioned by Jordi Savall and written just after the Madrid bombings in March 2004. It is a short, concentrated work and Pärt's rather spare score, for just four voices written for with restraint so that not all four come together and the melodic line is split as a hocket, is given here with quiet intensity by Ross and the choir.

We are discovering that there are many ways of performing Pärt's music. The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, which is well known for its many performances, sings it with a relatively large group and a thrillingly focussed vibrancy, whereas Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars have been performing the pieces one voice to a part.

Here Graham Ross and the choir of Clare College use a choir of around 30 young voices, recorded at some distance away so that we get the full effect of the clear young voices in the acoustic. The results are striking and do not make the mistake of 'merely' making Pärt's music aetherial, here there is beautiful transparency but also strength. And, of course, wonderful accuracy; something which is essential in any performance of Pärt's music.

The Exhale: a time for sharing and growing together

This month, violinist Gwendolyn Masin was planning a musicians' retreat at Lake Biel in Switzerland but the current crisis has forced Masin to re-focus the project, and she has created The Exhale, a series of holistic music masterclasses bringing together a faculty of internationally-renowned artists and practitioners in disciplines such as yoga, Alexander Technique, psychotherapy and Feldenkrais. The Exhale is intended for professional musicians, string students who wish to pursue a professional career, players in search of professional development, and amateur musicians, it offers musicians a safe space to explore, pause and refresh; a place to begin an inner journey to understanding, without outward expectation.

The curriculum is designed to guide participants along various journeys through music, movement, mental and physical well-being and nutrition. Moving on-line means an expanded faculty (currently numbering over 20 artists), and means that The Exhale is accessible to a wider on-line audience.

Tutors include Gwendolyn Masin, cellists Ruth Phillips and Dale Culliford, viol inists Franziska Huber Pavlo Beznosiuk and Jennifer Johnson (author of What Every Violinist Needs to Know About the Body), yoga teacher Clare Nicholls, violist and Alexander Technique practitioner Matthew Jones, and psychotherapists Emma Black and Dana Fonteneau.

Participant fees are by donation, and The Exhale will be giving a portion of its participant donations to selected charities. Full details from The Exhale website.

Handel: works for viola da gamba - Ibrahim Azizi & Masumi Yamamoto give us a flavour of the sort of programme that an 18th century viola da gamba player might have assembled

George Frideric Handel Works for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord; Ibrahim Aziz, Masumi Yamamoto; First Hand Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 15 April 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Spanning works written by Handel, ascribed to him, and arranged by him, as well as arrangements by his contemporaries and by the performers, this disc gives us a sampling of how an 18th century viola da gamba player might have approached Handel's chamber music

This disc on First Hand Records from viola da gamba player Ibrahim Aziz and harpsichordist Masumi Yamamoto brings together the works that George Frideric Handel wrote for viola da gamba and harpsichord, along with works attributed to him and sonatas arranged from other works.

The status of the viola da gamba went through something of a change during the 18th century, going from favoured instrument to something rather old-fashioned. In Italy, this happened quite early on in the century whereas in France it was favoured as a solo instrument. Whilst Handel wrote obbligato parts for the viola da gamba in his Italian works, and it pops up in his opera Giulio Cesare (from 1724), but it does not at first seem to be central to his English career.

Whilst he wrote chamber works for solo harpsichord, and for violin, recorder, transverse flute and basso continuo, there are not explicitly any viola da gamba sonatas. But in the manuscript of his G minor sonata HWV 364a Op. 1 No. 1, which is for violin and continuo, Handel adds the opening of the piece in a suitable key and clef for the viola da gamba, indicating that gamba players could perform it an octave lower. Following Handel's example, Ibrahim Aziz has transcribed Handel's Sonata in A major, HWV 372 for violin and continuo, into a sonata for viola da gamba in G major (to suit the tuning of the gamba).

Southbank Sinfonia live from Berlin, tonight: including Cheryl Frances-Hoad's Bosnian-inspired piano concerto

Visegrad, the stone bridge over the Drina,
inspiration for Ivo Andrić's novel and Cheryl Frances-Hoad's concerto

With the orchestra unable to perform live, the Southbank Sinfonia is presenting a recording of its German debut on-line tonight. The concert, recorded at the 2018 Young Euro Classic Festival in Berlin, features Simon Over conducting Cheryl Frances-Hoad's piano concerto Between the Skies, the River and the Hills with pianist Ivana Gavrić, plus Mozart's Symphony No.31 ‘Paris’ and Beethoven's Symphony No.2. The broadcast is at 8pm tonight, head over to the orchestra's website for details.

Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s piano concerto takes us to Bosnia and a bridge over the river Drina. The work has three inspirations, Ivo Andrić's wonderful book The Bridge of the Drina (do read it if you haven't already), Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major and its bounding final movement, fuelled by a Croatian folk tune, and the Sarajevan folk-tune Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu (When I went to Bembasa). All three movements of Frances-Hoad's concerto take quotes from Andrić's book as their starting points. The work was premiered by Simon Over, Ivana Gavrić and the Southbank Sinfonia in June 2018.

Joanna Lumley's carnival and Alex Woolf's miniatures: London Mozart Players develop new digital content for LMP at Home

Illustration for Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals by Cat Fuller

As the London Mozart Players' (LMP) daily on-line content continues with its LMP at Home initiative, the orchestra has announced that on Friday 24 April 2020, as part of its 'Family Fridays' slot, that there will be a family-friendly collaborative performance of Camille Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals with poems narrated by Joanna Lumley. And composer Alex Woolf has written a series of Homespun Miniatures for the orchestra, the first of which Duet No. 1 was premiered by LMP leader Simon Blendis and his wife Saoko Blendis on Channel 4 news.

Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals will be performed by different members of the orchestra and accompanied by animated illustrations created by designer Cat Fuller, and animal poems written by LMP violinist Martin Smith and narrated by Joanna Lumley. The performance will be premiered via LMP’s Facebook and YouTube accounts on Friday 24 April.

Alex Woolf has written a series of Homespun Miniatures for the orchestra to be premiered during April and May as part of LMP at Home. The first work, Duet No. 1, for violin and piano, can be seen on YouTube, and the second work Duet No. 2 for violin and cello will be premiered via LMP's digital channels on Wednesday 29 April 2020.

Other highlights of LMP at Home include an introduction to Michael Nyman's Where the Bee Dances from saxophonist Jess Gillam on Wednesday h May, a Facebook-live recital from harpist Rosanna Rolton on Saturday 18 April and the next instalment of 'Mozart Mondays' on Monday 20 April featuring clarinettist Michael Collins, who will unpack and explore the first movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major.

Full details and schedule from the LMP website.

I can think of no finer way to enjoy the music than to listen to this lovely disc: Purcell's The Fairy Queen from Paul McCreesh & the Gabrieli Consort & Players

Purcell King Arthur; Gabrieli Consort and Players, Paul McCreesh; Winged Lion/Signum
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 14 April 2020 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
Applying the latest research, Paul McCreesh and his forces give a performance of engaging freshness and vitality

Having given us King Arthur last year [see my review], Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players have turned their attention to Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen for a new recording on Winged Lion, with soloists Anna Dennis, Mhairi Lawson, Rowan Pierce, Carolyn Sampson, Jeremy Budd, Charles Daniels, James Way, Roderick Williams and Ashley Riches. In fact, both semi-operas were recorded over a period of two weeks in January 2019, thus bringing an admirable commonality of both approach and personnel to both works.

Like King Arthur, The Fairy Queen has been in Gabrieli's repertoire for over 25 years so that this recording is the result of combining musicological research with practical experience. The Fairy Queen was premiered in 1692, by The United Company which combined London's two theatre companies thus giving it the wherewithal to mount such luxurious musical spectacles as King Arthur and The Fairy Queen. The basis for The Fairy Queen was Shakespeare's play, albeit in radically altered format, with the music providing masques at the end of each Act. Whereas in King Arthur the minor characters sing and the resulting music can sometimes seem oddly disjointed without Dryden's play, in The Fairy Queen the music almost sit separately from the play. This may be because at the first performances in 1692 Oberon and Tytania were played by children rather than singing actors.

Paul McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort & Players recording Purcell's semi-operas
(Photo Sim Canetty-Clarke)

The work was revived again in 1693, when alterations were made to the music, but at some point the score was lost. It surfaced again in the 20th century, this means that the manuscript never had time to be destroyed and consumed by use in the theatre. So we actually have a manuscript partly in Purcell's hand but, as an illuminating article in the CD booklet explains, the score seems to be more working shorthand than an autograph full score so performers need to make a lot of decisions.

As with King Arthur, the performance here is the result of Gabrieli's re-thinking of period performance styles for 17th century London. Gabrieli play at low pitch, reflecting that Playhouses in 17th century London used this sort of pitch, and it means that instead of altos we have high tenors so that the solo line up is sopranos, high tenor, tenor, basses. There is no chorus as such, the ensemble of soloists is joined by three further singers, high-tenor Christopher Fitzgerald-Lombard, tenor Tom Castle and bass Jimmy Holliday, to create a vocal ensemble of twelve singers who perform all the choruses. As reflecting the resources available to Playhouses, the instrumental ensemble is similarly tight with 12 strings (including the work's editor Christopher Suckling on bass viol). The strings are played with what was then a new French bow-hold which had just been taken on board in London.

Further Talent: Awards for Young Musicians expands its programme for supporting musical learning of young people living in challenging circumstances

Awards for Young Musicians (Photo Edward Webb)

Furthering Talent is a programme from UK charity Awards for Young Musicians (AYM) which aims to support the musical learning of young people living in challenging circumstances. AYM has recently announced that it will be partnering with Music Education Hubs in Liverpool, Lewisham, Sunderland, Worcestershire and Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch, and these hubs will begin delivering AYM's Furthering Talent programme during the next six months.

The aim of Furthering Talent is to sustain young musicians who would otherwise stop their instrumental teaching when their school whole class lessons end. Participants receive a range of other support, including weekly instrumental tuition for a minimum of two years. Their parents/carers and teachers are also supported in a variety of ways. The hubs' role is to identify local young musicians who could benefit the most from joining the programme. Hubs in Bradford, Brighton, Greater Manchester, Hull, Leicestershire, Manchester, Nottinghamshire, North-West Midlands and Wiltshire already deliver Furthering Talent, which has been described as 'overwhelmingly successful' by music education expert Richard Hallam. The addition of the five new Hubs means that, with significant support from Youth Music, the programme will help over 500 young people across England by 2021.

Founded over 20 years ago, AYM aims to support young musicians by providing funding and help for those from low income families, and through training, advocacy and research. AYM provides holistic support ranging from funding instruments, lessons, transport, expanding young people’s musical networks to giving them opportunities to perform, as well as supporting the wider sector e.g. through training teachers in identifying and nurturing talent wherever they find it.

Full details from the AYM website.

A profound sense of imagination: music for unusual combinations of instruments by Howard Skempton on 'The man hurdy-gurdy and me'

Howard Skempton The man hurdy-gurdy and me; Sirinu; metier
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 12 April 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Chamber music by Howard Skempton, from miniatures to two larger-scale concertos, all for unusual combinations of instruments

This disc from the ensemble Sirinu on Divine Art's metier label brings together some of Howard Skempton's chamber pieces, mainly for unusual instrumental combinations. So we have a chamber version of the Concerto for Accordion and Oboe, and the Concerto for Hurdy-gurdy and Percussion, alongside a selection of smaller pieces performed by Sara Stowe (soprano, keyboard, gamelan), Matthew Spring (hurdy-gurdy, lute, viol, gamelan, double bass), Jon Banks (accordion, medieval harp, gamelan), Chris Brannick (percussion, gamelan), Christopher Redgate (oboe, harpsichord, gamelan) and Isabelle Carre (flute, alto flute, piccolo, recorder, gamelan).

Sirinu is a British ensemble specialising in early and world music, and one of their interests is commissioning new music for old instruments. So on this disc the three founders of Sirinu, Sara Stowe, Matthew Spring and Jon Banks are joined by musicians from contemporary music and from world music for a programme inspired by a piece by Skempton written for Sirinu.

So we start with The man hurdy-gurdy and me, for soprano, hurdy-gurdy, medieval harp and percussion which was commissioned for three members of Sirinu, Sara Stowe, Matthew Spring and Jon Banks in 2011. The text, by Alison Golding, tells the story of the hurdy-gurdy, and the combination of timbres is profoundly intriguing. Skempton creates a sound which is at the same time rather old and very modern.

The merest smell is sufficient to turn my stomach: the complex relationship between Richard Wagner and Giacomo Meyerbeer

Wagner: Rienzi - Last scene of Act3 at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris in 1869

In a series of essays I will be looking at the influence of the operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer on the work of Wagner and of Verdi. In the first essay in the series, The most successful opera composer of the 19th century?, I looked at Meyerbeer and his operas in the context of the development of French Grand Opera at the Paris Opera. In this essay, I turn to Richard Wagner and his complex relationship with Meyerbeer and his operas.
 

Wagner and French Grand Opera

The French Grand Opera was a significant musical influence on the young Richard Wagner, however it was a genre filtered through the works availble to him in Germany. So that, though the operas of both Daniel Auber and Giacomo Meyerbeer seem to have had a big influence, Rossini's Guillaume Tell appears never to have been in Richard's repertoire as a conductor and there is no record of him encountering it in the theatre.

In 1833 Wurzburg Theatre staged Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, it was the operatic event of the year. Richard Wagner's brother Albert was singing the title role and had managed to get Richard a job as chorus master at the theatre. 20-year-old Richard rehearsed the choruses of Meyerbeer's opera and this first exposure to the piece made a big impression on him. Another notable opera that Richard rehearsed was Auber's La muette de Portici. Richard would return to Meyerbeer when he worked in Magdeburg (1834 to 1836) and in Riga (from 1837).

Edgar Degas : Ballet of the Nuns (1876) - from Meyerbeer's Robert le diable

Whilst Richard was working at the opera house in Riga, he staged Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable and chose the work as his benefit performance in November 1838. As late as 1840 (by which time Richard was in Paris), Richard would say that Meyerbeer was his model, and that he subjected the composer to countless begging letters and obsequious flattery.

Beyond Beethoven Nine: Marin Alsop and the National Youth Orchestra's Beethoven celebration goes on-line

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

From 16-18 April 2020, the Southbank Centre was supposed to be hosting Beyond Beethoven Nine, a mass-participation project hosted by conductor Marin Alsop and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO). So instead, the weekend will be marked by a series of on-line events as well as a socially distanced orchestra, and throughout the weekend the Southbank Centre website will be amplifying the content.

On 16 April at 7.30pm, BBC Radio 3 will broadcast an archive performance of NYO performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 at the 2013 BBC Proms, then on 17 April at 5pm, every musician in the UK is invited to join in a truly national live performance from their doorsteps, on their balconies, or out their windows, playing as a socially distanced orchestra. Led by the 164 NYO musicians, they invite everyone to share a heartfelt performance of the 'Ode to Joy', dedicated to people who need it the most: our frontline NHS staff, key workers, isolated family members, or friends struggling with loneliness.

On 18 April, in partnership with the Southbank Centre, NYO musicians will be sharing video performances of the music that brings them the most joy, and connects with the most people, in response to a call out from conductor Marin Alsop, as part of the Beyond Beethoven Nine digital activity. These will be shared online by NYO and by the Southbank Centre. TS Eliot prize-nominated British-born Cypriot poet, Anthony Anaxagorou will be offering a digital reading of his poem O Human, which was originally commissioned as the new libretto for Beyond Beethoven Nine in place of Schiller’s famous An die Freude 'Ode to Joy' poem.

Further details from the NYO website,  and the Southbank Centre website.

A Life On-Line: Norma from the Met, visceral Verdi from the LSO, multi-tracking and more.

Pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste on Instagram

Musical life continues on-line in some remarkable ways. On Instagram, clarinettist Peter Cigleris has been multi-tracking Bach to striking effect, and Matt Sharp has been channelling Sondheim whilst cooking, and still on Instagram, dancersdiary shared a delightful and imaginative film from the Mikhailovsky Theatre, whilst Finchcocks has been running its piano courses remotely.

Over on Twitter, Peter Whelan, artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra, not only multi-tracked but multi-instrumented to give us the 'Quoniam' from Bach's Mass in B minor, whilst oboist Peter Facer has been multi-tracking The Corrs! Madeleine Pierard, meanwhile, has been discovering her inner baritone.

And on Facebook you can see a beautiful rendition of Rusalka's 'Song to the moon' from Dvorak's opera, performed by three clarinettists from the English National Opera orchestra. Music without Quarantine is now giving regular concerts from musicians homes, check out their Facebook page.


Pianist Tom Poster and violinist Elena Urioste are whiling their time by taking requests, filming themselves and posting the results. I was rather taking with a multi-tracked version of Glen Miller's Moonlight Serenade involving kazoos, but visit their website for many more.

Our listening and watching has included Gianandrea Noseda conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in a stirring performance of Verdi's Requiem from the Barbican Centre [originally performed on 18 September 2016, see Ruth's review 'Visceral Verdi'] with a striking quartet of Italian soloists, Erika Grimaldi, Daniela Barcellona, Francesco Meli and Michele Pertusi. Whilst language is, perhaps, not what you immediately think of when listening to this work, hearing three Italians singing it, relishing the Latin as much as their own language,  was terrific.  And still with the LSO, we caught up on Simon Rattle's outrageous and outstanding performance of Stravinsky's first three ballets for Diaghilev, Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, terrific stuff.

David McVicar's new production of Bellini's Norma was streamed from the Metropolitan Opera, [see Anthony's review, 'Baffling and emotionally constipate', of the Live in HD video transmission] with Carlo Rizzi conducting Sondra Radvanovsky, Joyce DiDonato, Joseph Calleja, and Matthew Rose. Performances were very fine, with Radvanovsky as very much a bel canto Norma, without any of the dramatic heft we often associate with this role. McVicar's production was handsome and traditional, which meant that in Act Two, Norma's 'primitive hut' was somewhat ridiculously palatial, and McVicar did not seem to have been able to stop some of the singers simply standing and giving hand signals.

Then last night on YouTube, we caught up with Opera North's recent revival of Alessandro Talevi's striking production of Britten's Turn of the Screw, with Leo McFall conducting Nicholas Watts as the prologue and Peter Quint, Sarah Tynan as the Governess, Eleanor Dennis as Miss Jessel, Heather Shipp as Mrs Grose, Jennifer Clark as Flora and Tim Gasiorek as Miles. Often with the operatic version, the sheer presence on stage of singers as Peter Quint and Miss Jessel means that we take it as read that the ghosts exist (in Henry James' original story it is far less clear cut). But Talevi's production, with very imaginative sets from Madeleine Boyd, set the whole piece in the Governess' bedroom, and you were never sure where reality stopped and her imagination took over. Watching on TV (the film was originally streamed live, but this version had more post-production work done on it), I did wonder whether the production would work for someone who was not familiar with the story. But this was a dramatic, and sometimes scary take with some terrific performances.

On the radio, BBC Radio 3 broadcast both Bach's St John Passion and Bach's St Matthew Passion, whilst the Leipzig Bach Fest broadcast an on-line version of the St John Passion which involved just three performers plus singers from all over the world, and a suggestion that we might join in at home.

But I leave you on a lighter note, with the Louloubelles in Billy Joel's And so it goes.

Everything comes from the words: composer Ian Venables talks about his approach to song writing

Allan Clayton and Ian Venables at the recording session
for Love Lives Beyond the Tomb

The composer Ian Venables has a new disc of his songs out on Signum Classics, the fourth disc on the label to include his songs, an impressive testament to Ian's significant voice as a writer of contemporary British art song. The disc, Love Lives Beyond the Tomb features the cantata Remember This setting a poem by Andrew Motion, the song cycle Through These Pale Cold Days which is inspired by World War I, and a selection of solo songs, performed by Mary Bevan (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor), the Carducci String Quartet and Graham J Lloyd (piano). Earlier this year, I met up with Ian to chat about the works on the disc, and about his approach to song writing in general.

We started by comparing notes about our approaches to setting and selecting text; Ian's choice of poet for the songs on the disc is quite diverse, Sir Andrew Motion, Jennifer Andrews, Francis St Vincent Morris, Wilfred Owen, Robert Nichols, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, John Drinkwater, James Joyce, Edward Thomas, and John Clare. Ian enjoys poetry and reads a lot of it, but the hunt for suitable texts for songs takes up a lot of his time.  Many of Ian's texts come from 20th century and 19th century poets, and he admits to finding a lot of contemporary poetry somewhat too conceptual to use for song, a point that we come back to later in our discussion.

This means that the centrepiece of the disc, the cantata Remember This, is relatively unusual in Ian's output as it uses a contemporary poem. The work was written in 2011 and came about somewhat by accident. Ian met Andrew Motion at the Ledbury Poetry Festival. They got on, and Ian asked Andrew if he was interested collaboration. The answer was yes, but unfortunately the projected commission did not bear fruit. Then Ian was seriously ill for a year, and whilst recovering he started reading more of Andrew Motion's poetry, and discovered the poem Remember This in the book Public Property.

Ian's cantata, Remember This was premiered in 2011 at the Cheltenham Music Festival by Allan Clayton and Caroline McPhee, both BBC New Generation Artists at the time, and the Elias Quartet [You can read a review from the Gloucester Echo on Ian's website]. Afterwards Allan Clayton said how pleased he was with the piece and offered to record it, but as can happen 'things got in the way'. And it is only now that the recording is being released, and that has taken nearly three years to bring to fruition. The cantata was chosen for this disc partly because it has not been recorded, and as Ian commented, most composers are keen to have their work documented. The other works on the disc were chosen both to complement Remember This (providing solo items for both Allan Clayton and Mary Bevan), and to record works of Ian's that had not so far been recorded.

What appealed to Ian about Andrew Motion's poem Remember This was its structure; into a narrative based on two line couplets, Motion inserts a series of sonnets, and as you read on you only gradually become aware of the subject of the poem. For Ian, it was the final line, 'with a wave of your hand' which confirmed the poem was about Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Ian enjoyed the fact the poem dealt with metaphysical ideas but was rooted in history, using the Queen Mother to explore eternal ideas.

Ian refers to Remember This as a cantata, rather than a song cycle, because it has a single narrative and every movement is linked, you could not take a single one out and perform it separately. The result is a work which takes the listener on a journey, from beginning to end, something which is relatively unusual in Ian's output.

Sonoro - for Easter and for Help Musicians UK

Sonoro and Neil Ferris

The London-base choir, Sonoro, and artistic directors Neil Ferris and Michael Higgins have come up with a remote recording project for Easter to raise money for Help Musicians UK. The choir has recorded three choral classics, via their phones with help with a bit of production magic.

Maurice Durfle's Ubi caritas was released on Maundy Thursday, with Crux Fidelis by John IV of Portugal on Good Friday, and a further track to come on Easter Sunday.

The tracks are available via Sonoro's Facebook page,

Taking Zarathustra on-line: orchestra of Opera North from their homes in Yorkshire join conductor Tobias Ringborg in Sweden for Strauss' epic tone poem

When the orchestra of Opera North's concerts at Leeds Town Hall and Huddersfield Town Hall with conductor Tobias Ringborg were cancelled, the players in the orchestra were, to put in mildly, annoyed. Two players, Daniel Bull (cello) and Lourenço Macedo Sampaio (viola), had the idea to continue on-line, so conductor Tobias Ringborg conducted the first five minutes of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (one of the works due to be performed) in an empty church in Stockholm with just a piano, then 40 individual players from the orchestra recorded their own contribution to be added. The results are remarkable, and can be seen on YouTube.

Whilst we look forward with anticipation to Opera North's 2020/21 season (booking for which has just opened), we can look back on previous productions available on-line,  including Wagner's complete Ring Cycle and the recent revival of Alessandro Talevi's production of Britten's Turn of the Screw.

The 17th century opera by an Italian composer, premiered in Vienna with a Spanish libretto: Antonio Draghi's El Prometeo

Antonio Draghi El Prometeo; Cappella Mediterranea, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon; Alpha Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 8 April 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Something of a delightful curiosity, a 17th century opera in Spanish, composed by an Italian for performance in Vienna

Now this is a real curiosity, an opera written by an Italian composer, premiered in Vienna with a Spanish libretto. Antonio Draghi's El Prometeo (Prometheus) premiered in 1669, and is here revived on Alpha Classics by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Cappella Mediterranea and choeur de chambre de Namur with soloists Fabio Trumpy, Scott Conner, Mariana Flores, Giuseppina Bridelli, Borja Quiza, Zachary Wilder, Ana Quintans, Damil Ben Hsain Lachiri, Victor Torres, Anna Reinhold, Alejandro Meerapfel, and Lucia Martin-Carton. The final act of the opera does not survive, so has been completed by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, and the recording was made following performances at Dijon Opera in 2018.

The composer Antonio Draghi was born in Rimini, Italy where his initial career was as a singer, and he sang in operas by Monteverdi and Cavalli, including in the premiere of Cavalli's Erismena. He arrived in Vienna in 1658 and spent the rest of his life in Imperial service, first as precentor in the Imperial chapel, then writing opera libretti and finally writing operas. He wrote some 160 dramatic works - operas, theatre pageants, ballets, oratorios. Most of these are unpublished, and like a lot of composers in Imperial service, once the work was performed the manuscript went into the Imperial library and works very rarely got further circulation (something that equally applies to the operas of Caldara).

Draghi was probably the brother of Giovanni Battista Draghi who was brought to London by King Charles II in the 1660s, and who pops up in Samuel Pepys' diary when G.B. Draghi sang to Pepys an Italian opera of his own composition

Draghi: El Prometo - Opéra de Dijon (PHoto © Gilles Abegg - Opéra de Dijon)

The discovery of this particular opera was thanks to the realisation that the title of the piece was actually El Prometeo (Spanish) rather than Il Prometeo (Italian). The complete libretto survives, but unfortunately the music for the final act has still not been found in the Viennese archives, so in order to be able to perform the work Leonardo Garcia Alarcon wrote the final act.

The opera was mounted in 1669 at the Hofburg in Vienna in honour of the birthday of the Queen of Spain.

Notes from Musicians' Kitchens

One thing that most of us are doing, thanks to the present crisis, is cooking more, at least to judge from my Instagram and Twitter feeds. Now the mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston has come up with a way to develop this, to extend our love of cooking to help musicians affected by the crisis.

Notes from Musicians' Kitchens is a collection of recipes collected from musicians all over the world, and each has a story attached. A subscription-only digital recipe resource, with a £10 one-off access fee, of which 100% goes to Help Musicians UK. The aim is also to publish a cookbook which will hopefully be sold worldwide.

Whilst we are all in isolation, Notes For Musicians’ Kitchens is a means of digitally breaking bread with each other, of sharing and appreciating our diverse food cultures, of creating new memories. And once lockdown is over, just think of all the new recipes you will have ready to share with friends.

For those that would like to contribute more, there is a JustGiving page to raise funds for Help Musicians.