A Life On-Line: Horror for in Belfast, Suor Angelica in California, Piazzolla from Peckham

Conor Mitchell: The Musician - The Belfast Ensemble (Photo Neil Harrison)

This week our life on-line was a lovely mixture, with a staging of a new horror opera for children from Belfast, a digital Suor Angelica from California, Astor Piazzolla from Peckham, Young Artists in Holland Park and a saxophone in the Great Hall at Barts, but life on-line has also been extensively non-musical this week as we have been enjoying a series of new films from the BFI Flare festival.

As part of Young at Art, the Belfast Children's Festival the Belfast Ensemble presented The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children by the ensemble's artistic director Conor Mitchell. Neither in its staging nor in its music did the piece pull any punches despite being socially distanced and being a 'children's opera'. It told a fascinating story in a gripping and creepy way, with music which was part of the drama. From the first notes of the opening prelude it was clear that this wasn't going to be a theatre piece with jolly sing-along songs. Mitchell was writer, composer and director, whilst Tom Brady conducted and there was a cast of four. Rebecca Murphy and Sarah Richmond as two young children, a boy and a girl, Paul Carey Jones as a strange musician and Matthew Cavan as narrator. The story developed gradually, character was well drawn and we were engaged. Essentially this was a prequel to The Pied Piper of Hamlin, but until a good way through we had little idea about the way the plot would develop, and there certainly wasn't a simple, happy end. Cleverly, as the plot developed and the young boy grew up, the role was taken by Cavan thus adding an extra layer to the narration.

The piece had all the grisliness of the original Grimm's Fairytales which is often sanitised out, along with a moral about the fact the people are not necessarily nice (the boy, mistreated when young, does not respond with kindnesss when he acquires power). This was a terrific piece, in terrific performances. The Musician is the sort of 'children's opera' which transcends its boundaries. That the Belfast Ensemble created this during pandemic restrictions is amazing, and I certainly hope there is a chance to see it live. This is the sort of piece that needs to tour widely. [Young at Art]

Celebrating Piazzolla: London Concertante (taken from live-stream)

The chamber ensemble London Concertante has started an on-line series of films, Tune In, presenting them weekly (and then available on demand). The series started with Celebrating Piazzolla, a beautifully filmed concert of music by Astor Piazzolla, with a string ensemble plus piano and accordion in the ruined splendour of the chapel as the Asylum in Peckham.

To stay true to yourself: I chat to soprano Katharina Konradi as she releases a new disc of lieder and makes her debut as Sophie in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier in Munich

Katharina Konradi

Soprano Katharina Konradi has a new recording out next week, Liebende on the CAvi-music label, a programme of songs by Richard Strauss, Mozart and Schubert, with pianist Daniel Heide, and she has a new stage role, appearing as Sophie in the new production of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier which opened this week at the Bavarian State Opera (conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and directed by Barrie Kosky with Marlis Petersen, Christoph Fischesser and Samantha Hankey). 

Born in Kyrgyzstan and now living in Germany, Katharina's name may well be familiar to UK readers as she became a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist in 2018 (and her new disc is a co-production with BBC Radio 3) and has already made her Wigmore Hall debut. I caught up with Katharina by Zoom from Munich, where she was busy with rehearsals, to find out more.

In person, Katharina is lively and charming, 'fantastic' is a regularly used word, and makes delightful company. Yet she also has a clear view of her voice, taking a balanced view of possible repertoire, of not doing too much and taking the long view, whilst staying true to herself, admiring a soprano like Arleen Auger who remained a fine lyric soprano all her career.

When we spoke, Katharina had been rehearsing for a week and things were going well. She had been rehearsing with her teacher the previous week on the voice needed for the opera. She was finding that she needs to project with more power for the opera, on a big stage, whereas with Strauss' songs she can use less voice and make it more transparent. The production will not be using Strauss' full orchestration but Ernst Kloke's recent version for a chamber orchestra (the same size as that used in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos). This makes it an interesting experience for Katharina because it means that for her first Sophie she doesn't have to find as much power in her voice as she would with the full orchestration. 

Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier - Katharina Konradi - Bavarian State Opera (Photo W.Hösl)

The production is being directed by Barrie Kosky, and Katharina has not worked with him before. She is finding it a happy experience, describing him as a fantastic man and that they are having so much fun in rehearsals, and Kosky does everything to make them feel free and comfortable on stage, to be really natural. And she certainly hopes to work together again.

Getting to know him properly: Skylla und Charybdis, a disc devoted to the chamber music of cellist and composer Graham Waterhouse

Graham Waterhouse Skylla und Charybdis, chamber music for piano and strings; FARAO CLASSICS
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 19 March 2021 Star rating: 3.0 (★★★)
Both a composer and a cellist, Graham Waterhouse features in both roles on the disc of his complex, highly literate and dramatic music

Graham Waterhouse was a name that was new to me. Born in London but resident in Germany since 1992, Waterhouse is both a cellist and composer and he wears both hats on this new disc of his chamber music. Skylla und Charybdis, chamber music for piano and strings by Graham Waterhouse on the Farao Classics label features six works by Waterhouse for different combinations of piano and strings, with Katharina Sellheim (piano), David Fruhwirth and Namiko Fuse (violin), Konstantin Sellheim (viola), Graham Waterhouse (cello).

Waterhouse studied composition at Cambridge with Hugh Wood and Robin Holloway, and cello at the Folkwang Hochschule, Essen and with Siegfried Palm. As a performer he has played with Ensemble Modern under Pierre Boulez, MusikFabrik NRW, Philharmonia Orchestra London and Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra under Sergiu Celibidache, and since 2002 he has organized regular chamber concerts at the Gasteig in Munich. In 2011 his string quartet Chinese Whispers was awarded the BCMS Composition Prize of the Birmingham Chamber Music Society.

Music for children in hospitals: MiSST's Andrew Lloyd Webber programme has had a transformative effect in schools, now the charity is extending it to hospitals

Kadina, one of the pupils at CCHS,
proudly standing with her new violin.
She is 16 and said: "I am really excited
to learn the violin. I hope I don’t break it!"

Music in Secondary Schools Trust (MiSST) is a charity which works in and around London, Warwickshire and Oldham with secondary schools that have disadvantaged and challenging student in-take. MiSST enables students' access to music tuition including funding for classical instrument and support in the form of regular tuition and opportunities to perform. [Last year I interview Truda White, founder of MiSST, see my interview]  

MiSST's pioneering Andrew Lloyd Webber programme (supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation) has had a transformative effect in MiSST's partner schools. Now MiSST is expanding its Andrew Lloyd Webber programme to encompass children in hospitals.

The trial scheme involves patients aged 4 to 18 at Chelsea Community Hospital School (CCHS) in West London, giving them access to free instruments and tuition (both in-person and online). The aim of the 12-month project is to stimulate and support sick children with the many personal and emotional challenges they face during the pandemic, especially as many cannot access mainstream school due to their medical conditions.

Student leaders of MiSST, who have benefited from the scheme themselves, alongside a hospital volunteer will help deliver the initiative and the scheme could potentially be rolled out to other hospital schools across England. 

All instruments that are donated by MiSST become the property of the pupil, and so will never be taken away.  This is important as in many school music schemes, the instrument is the property of the school or the music scheme which means that when a young person is confined to hospital and has a leave a school, then they leave the instrument behind too. One such pupil is Rosslyn, who attends CCHS. Janette Steel OBE, Headteacher of CCHS said:  "Rosslyn played the violin prior to being admitted to the ward. She was progressing well but upon being admitted to CCHS, had her instrument taken back by her old school, as it was not her property. As soon as the violins arrived, Rosslyn began tuning a violin and spent time with another pupil who had never held nor touched a violin before. What a wonderful day."

Further information from MiSST's website

Rare comic Rossini and immersive Humperdinck: British Youth Opera's Summer season in the park

This Summer Britsh Youth Opera will be performing at Opera Holland Park (OHP) for the first time, taking advantage of OHP's specially reconfigured theatre and giving ten performances during August. Two operas are being performed Rossini's L'occasione fa il ladro and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

Rossini's L’occasione fa il ladro, ossia Il cambio della valigia (Opportunity Makes a Thief, or The Exchanged Suitcase) is a one-act farsa written in 1812, one of five such comic pieces that the young composer (he was all of 20!) wrote for the Teatro San Moisè, Venice. Victoria Newlyn will direct BYO's production which will be sung in English. Sets and costumes are by Madeleine Boyd, and Peter Robinson conducts. Rossini's early one-act farse were very popular in his lifetime but effectively disappeared after his death though they are now more frequently revived. BYO has performed some of Rossini's other farse, whilst L'occasione fa il ladro has popped up at the Buxton Festival (in 1987), at Opera North (in 2004 as Love's Luggage Lost) and in 2017 returned to Venice at the Teatro la Fenice [see Anthony's review]

Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel will be rather different. It is a co-production with Daisy Evans' Silent Opera and will be an immersive experience. Evans directs and has written a new English libretto and Stevie Higgins is musical director and arranger with sets and costumes by Loren Elstein. The audience will wear headphones and will listen to pre-recorded orchestral backing which is live-mixed with the live singers, as the production moves around the audience members will be able to choose which strand of the action to follow in their headphones. [read my 2017 interview with Daisy Evans and my review of Silent Opera's Vixen]

Both productions will have two separate alternating casts and of course the productions provide valuable experience not just for the young singers but for stage managers, directors, designers, conductors, musical directors and repetiteurs as well as costume and wigs, hair and makeup teams. Participants will take on real-world responsibilities in productions, under the guidance of a team of expert department heads, and stand to gain rare practical experience alongside valuable mentoring and coaching.   

Find out more from the BYO website.

A new season, a return to live performances and a new principal conductor: exciting times for the Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Sage Gateshead

Dinis Sousa

The Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS) returns to live performance with a live-streamed concert from the Sage Gateshead on 16 April 2021 when they will be joined by Dame Sarah Connolly for Berlioz' Les Nuits d’été plus music by Haydn and Lili Boulanger. This concert marks the start of the Sage's New Beginnings season, returning to live performances. As if that was not exciting enough, the concert on 16 April will also feature a young Portuguese conductor, Dinis Sousa who has just been appointed the sinfonia's principal conductor.

Sousa will be moving his base to the region and playing an active role in its musical life, including the Sage and RNS' work reaching new audiences. This activity is part of a deliberate campaign by the Sage and RNS to meaningfully respond to the communities in the North East's need for music and the arts at such a challenging time. The RNS is also looking to fill all open positions by launching a fast-track recruitment drive.

Sousa was introduced to the orchestra via the Classical Futures Europe scheme and has conducted them twice already. First at the launch of the Beethoven 2020: The Next Generation series in Carlisle and Middlesbrough in January 2020 when the orchestra performed Beethoven alongside the winning work from a composition competition the orchestra held. More recently Sousa was at the helm in a concert of Stravinsky, Mendelssohn and music by the young American composer Caroline Shaw, as part of the Sage Live 2020 series last autumn. 

Sousa is Founder and Artistic Director of Orquestra XXI, an award-winning orchestra that brings together Portuguese musicians living around the world, for which in recognition of his work he was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of Prince Henry in Portugal. He also works closely with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his ensembles, having been appointed the first-ever Assistant Conductor of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras in 2018.

Dates announced so far include 16 April's Dawn to Dusk concert and Paul McCreesh conducting a concert themed on Spring on 30 April 2021 with violinist Jennifer Pike. On 1 May, RNS will launch a large-scale participation project bringing community and professional singers and players together in a moment for a performance of Verdi's Requiem.

Full details from the Sage Gateshead website.

New music for baroque violin and harpsichord: faced with lockdown last year violinist Ada Witczyk didn't sit still, she launched a composition competition

Faced with lockdown last year violinist Ada Witczyk (whose work has included performances with Gabrieli Consort, The English Concert, The Sixteen, St James' Baroque and Florilegium, as well as Ensemble OrQuesta during the 2019 Grimeborn Opera Festival.) didn't sit still, she launched a composition competition, one that was intended to directly challenge the way we engage with classical music on-line. Composers should write a short piece for baroque violin and harpsichord but there were no other rules, composers could use any style and it was open to anyone.

With entries from all over the world, a jury which included baroque violinist Simon Standage, and harpsichordist Satoko Doi-Luck selected three winning pieces. Yellow by Samuel Howley (from Wales), The Spectre by Erik Valdemar Sköld (from Sweden) and Ostinato in 7 by Oscar Tysoe (from England), with an honorable mention for Tra i colori del ciclo by Massimo De Lillo (from Italy).

Director Simon Helbing filmed all three winning pieces, creating three films which are a long way from the classical music video. The three piecesreceived their radio premiere on Argentine Radio, and all three films have now been released and are on YouTube. The YouTube links are as follows, Yellow by Samuel Howley, The Spectre by Erik Valdemar Sköl, and Ostinao in 7 by Oscar Tysoe. 

The competition is planned to be an annual event, and the 2021 competition will be announced in due course. Further details from Ada Witczyk's website.

10 Preludes and Fugues of Latin America

Mónica Cárdenas 10 Preludes and Fugues of Latin America, Sonata Herencia; Mónica Cárdenas; Tonada VP
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 17 March 2021 Star rating: 3.0 (★★★)
Latin American and Western classical music fuse in an engaging sequence of preludes and fugues by a Spanish-Peruvian composer

On this disc from Tonada VP, the pianist and composer Mónica Cárdenas plays her own 10 Preludes and Fugues of Latin America and Sonata Herencia. Cárdenas is Spanish-Peruvian and currently based in Germany, having studied in Lima, at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoires in Kiev and Moscow, and at the West London University.

Like a number of recording projects, this disc is very much a product of lockdown.

Pure joy: Linus Roth and Jose Gallardo in virtuoso dance music for violin and piano from Bartok and Stravinsky to Piazzolla and Wienawski

Virtuoso Dances - Bartok, Stravinsky, Piazzolla, Brahms, Szymanowski; Linus Roth, Jose Gallardo; Evil Penguin
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 15 March 2021 Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
A joyous disc which showcases a wide range of works for violin and piano which are both virtuoso and in dance form

Like many recent recording projects, violinist Linus Roth's new disc Virtuoso Dances on Evil Penguin Classic with pianist Jose Gallardo is a product of the current crisis. With the cancellation of live events, Roth turned to ideas which had been waiting for their time. So a disc of virtuoso music in dance form for violin and piano was born. The repertoire is engagingly eclectic with some rather surprising names, so there are Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances, Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss in a version by Samuel Dushkin, Astor Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango in an arrangement by no less a figure than Sofia Gubaidulina, Brahms' Hungarian Dances arranged by violinists Fritz Kreisler and Joseph Joachim, Wienawski's Polonaise de Concert, Bazzini's La Rondes de Lutins and Szymanowski's Notturno et Tarantella.

In the CD booklet, Roth talks about how the programme was intended to combine pieces that were both of a virtuoso character and were dances. As he says, 'What better way to lift the spirits than with dance music?'. Roth was supposed to be performing in May 2020 at the Music Festival ‘Schwäbischer Frühling’ of which he is Music Director. This takes place the former monastery in Ochsenhausen, Germany, home of the State Academy for Young Musicians in Baden- Wuerttemberg, and Roth and Gallardo were able to record the disc in the monastery's stunning (visually and aurally) library [see image below].

Orchid Classics & The Yehudi Menuhin School announce new collaboration

Yehudi Menuhin and Sir Edward Elgar

Violinist Yehudi Menuhin began his recording career at the age of 13, made his first concerto recording at the age of 15 (Bruch's Violin Concerto in G minor with Sir Landon Ronald conducting) and then at 16 he recorded Elgar's Violin Concerto with the composer conducting, a recording which remains iconic. As an adult Menuhin believed passionately in nurturing excellence from the earliest age, and was equally committed to dissolving barriers between different nationalities, creeds and identities through music and education, as a result he founded the Yehudi Menuhin School in 1963, and the school is still going strong with pianist Ashley Wass as the current director of music.

Now the school and the record company Orchid Classics (founded by violinist Matthew Trusler) have announced a remarkable new collaboration which will introduce the school's outstanding young musicians to the intense concentration, discipline and satisfaction of recording. A series of recordings is being planned made with the musicians from the school and the first of these will be released in 2022.

The school's director of music, Ashley Wass commented, "Our collaboration with Orchid represents an exciting development as the School enters a new phase in its illustrious story. Our first album will showcase the diversity and internationalism of our community, and I can’t think of a more appropriate record label with which to join forces."

Further information from the Yehudi Menuhin School website.

Purcell and a Pint

Eboracum Baroque is back with Purcell and a Pint, an on-line event on 20 Marhc 2021 designed to transport you back to the alehouses of the 17th century when music making was part of the culture. Drinking songs, fiddle tunes and folk-songs would have been performed in taverns, and during the Interregnum playing in a tavern was often the only way for musicians to be able to earn money with theatres and playhouses closed. So we should not think of tavern music as necessarily rough an unsophisticated.

Henry Purcell wrote plenty of ribald rounds and catches which were clearly designed for the tavern and for all male entertainment. Some of the most (in)famous having an apparently innocuous text which becomes far less so when sung as a round.

Eboracum Baroque will be performing Purcell alongside other 17th century tunes and folk music. And the event is presented in collaboration with Calverley's Brewery so there will be virtual beer tasting too.

Eboracum Baroque - John Holland Avery (baritone), Nils Greenhow (tenor), Gareth Edmunds (tenor), Kirsty Main (violin), Miriam Monaghan (recorder), Miri Nohl (cello), Chris Parsons (trumpet), Seb Gillet (harpsichord).

Purcell and a Pint is at 7pm on 20 March 2021, full details from the Eboracum Baroque website.

A Clemenza for our times: Mozart's final opera in a stripped back production live streamed from Bergen

Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Adrian Angelico, Bror Magnus Tødenes, Beate Mordal - Bergen National Opera (Photo Bergen National Opera)

Mozart La Clemenza di Tito; Bergen National Opera, Rodula Gaitanou, Edward Gardner; Grieghallen, Bergen
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 15 March 2021
A stripped back production, a director working remotely and a young Norwegian cast, but Mozart's final opera retains its extraordinary power

Bergen National Opera's new production of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito which was live-streamed from Grieghallen in Bergen last night (15 March 2021) was very much a production for our times. Originally planned for last year with an international cast, the production finally went ahead this year in a stripped-back form, recast with young Norwegian singers and directed remotely by Rodula Gaitanou! Edward Gardner conducted the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with Bror Magnus Tødenes as Tito, Beate Mordal as Vitellia, Adrian Angelico as Sesto, Ingeborg Gillebo as Annio, Frøy Hovland Holtbakk as Servilia, and Christian Valle as Publio, with the Edvard Grieg Kor (chorus master Håkon Matti Skrede) who were relayed from a separate room. Designs were by Cordelia Chisholm with lighting by Simon Corder and Ivar Skjørestad

The setting was modern, how could it not be, with a very stripped back look with hardly a note of colour. Act One took place against a narrow backdrop of an office, where cast members not performing sat. It was only in Act Two that the physical space seemed to expand, as the characters' world fractured. Opera seria is very much a genre for our times, requiring few cast members and concentrating on personal relationships rather than dramatic action and historical settings. Whilst Metastasio's libretto was modernised for Mozart, trimming the work and creating the ensembles that Mozart liked in operas, La Clemenza di Tito is still an opera seria, a genre that Mozart had last addressed in Idomeneo which premiered ten years earlier in 1781, but which clearly still fascinated him. The essentials of the plot are highly relevant too, as the central moral dilemmas of the piece circle around what type of ruler we really want.

Gaitanou's production made a virtue of necessity and concentrated on the interpersonal relationships in a very abstract space. We saw the characters as individuals separated physically as well as mentally from each other. And after all, the engine of the plot is the fact that many of the characters entirely fail to say what they really feel, whilst Tito confuses by being direct and refreshingly honest.

Having a young cast rather re-focused things too and the casting was quite innovative.

National Children's Orchestra's of Great Britain: 2021 digital programme

The UK's national youth orchestras and ensembles have faced a combination of restrictions since March 2020, effectively halting all face to face activity since then, yet tt is vital for the children involved that they continue with something that is so intrinsic to their wellbeing. In 2020, in response to lockdown, the National Children's Orchestras of Great Britain (NCOGB) delivered its first ever digital programme. Building on the success of this, and following feedback from children and parents, NCOGB has announced its 2021 digital programme.

This year the course will be delivered via a specially created website, and there will be activities online from 9-5 every Sunday of term time as well as 'Live at 5' sessions every Thursday and Friday with some Wednesdays, too. All these sessions are managed by the 80+ NCOGB freelance professionals.

The London Symphony Orchestra will be running three days of sectionals over the Easter holidays, a new mentoring programme with musicians from the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain will be available for the older musicians, as well as sessions for the NCOGB parents with Stuart Mason & Dr Kadiatu Kanneh, the parents of the Kanneh-Mason children, reflecting the importance of creativity, child voice and well-being for the members.

On Thursday 1 July 2021 there will be a live stream on YouTube of the NCOGB Online multi-track concert On The Move written by Ryan Linham created especially for NCOGB with both the musical content and the visual content in mind. The live stream will also share some of the events and engagement that has happened over the 15 weeks

 Full details from the NCOGB website.

Classical Music/ABO Awards 2021

John Gilhooly
2021 ABO Classical Music
Concert Hall Manager of the Year
(photo Kaupo Kikkas)

On Friday,the Association of British Orchestra's (ABO) annual conference came to an end. Under the theme of Aftershock, the 2021 ABO Conference brought delegates from all areas of the classical music industry together to take an in-depth look at the challenges the orchestral sector has faced in this most unprecedented of years. The conference ended with the announcement of the annual ABO Award and the winners of the 2021 ABO/Classical Music Awards.

The ABO dedicated the ABO Award to all the musicians who help to make the UK’s orchestral sector the global success that it is and whose livelihoods are currently at stake as a result of the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Simon Webb, ABO Chair who presented the ABO Award, commented: "The ABO Award is presented annually to the individual or institution considered by the membership to have made the most important contribution to the orchestral life of the UK.  But in this exceptional year the ABO board decided that it was not one individual that needed celebrating, but a collective. While it has been a tough year for those of us who manage orchestras, it has been even tougher for those who make the music. Forced to down tools, go on furlough, rely on the Self Employed Income Support Scheme, or cope with no income at all, they have had to show reserves of resilience and ingenuity to survive. They have had to accept cancellations with good grace, and show flexibility when we have spotted a last minute opportunity to put concerts on. And what has been impressive is that so many have kept the music alive, from playing on their doorsteps to creating online resources for children. So it is with pride that we have decided to present the 2021 ABO Award to ‘the musicians’."

Winner of the Classical Music Artist Manager of the Year category is President of HarrisonParrott France and CEO of Polyarts, Moema Parrott, who was praised for the innovation and creativity she has shown in spearheading a range of digital initiatives.

Classical Music Concert Hall Manager of the Year went to Artistic and Executive Director of Wigmore Hall, John Gilhooly OBE, for his extraordinary achievement in curating Wigmore Hall’s high-quality series of free online performances – the first to take place in any UK hall following the start of the first lockdown – which were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and which continue to bring the joy of live music to audiences throughout the world.

The recipient of the Orchestra Manager of the Year award was Chief Executive of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Crispin Woodhead, for the leadership he has shown in the creation of the OAE’s new digital platform, the OAE Player, and the launch of the OAE’s initiative with Acland Burghley School in the London Borough of Camden which has seen the orchestra become the first in Britain to take up a full, active residence in a secondary school.

For the first time, the decision was made by the panel to present an additional Commendation which went to Greg Felton, Digital Creative at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, for his work expanding the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s online presence over the past year including single-handedly managing the filming and streaming of the LPO’s series of online concerts. 

Further details from the ABO website.

Music, poetry & more: OperaUpClose returns to Shakespeare for its latest Coffee Break Concerts

OperaUpClose is returning with a third series of on-line Coffee Break Concerts, Songs of Solace and Spring. The concerts are all under 30 minutes and feature a mix of poetry, monologues, songs and music for theatre, including introductions from actor Fiona Shaw.

Shakespeare Re-Shaped debuts on 17 March 2020 and features music from Gounod's Romeo & Juliet and Verdi's Falstaff performed by Claire Wild (soprano), Joseph Doody (tenor), Rodney Clarke (baritone) and Kelvin Lim (piano), alongside readings from Shakespeare from actor Kat Rose-Martin (including her own newly written response piece to Shakespeare and Verdi’s Ford) and deaf actor Lara Steward performing Juliet’s ‘Gallop apace’ monologue in British Sign Language.

Calming the Tempest debuts on 31 March 2020 and returns to Shakespeare with tenor Joseph Doody in Guy Woolfenden’s Songs of Ariel (written for Ian Charleson as part of a legendary 1978 RSC production of The Tempest), music from singer-songwriter Rosabella Gregory, Jade Anouka premiering her new poem This Brave Vessel and actor Athena Stevens reading Sylvia Plath. The concert will end with actor Fiona Shaw introducing three poems by Emily Dickinson, and the world premiere of Nicholas O'Neill’s song cycle of the same performed by mezzo Flora McIntosh and accompanied by the composer on piano.

Further details from the OperaUpClose website.

Reimagining 1700s ballet for the modern GCSE syllabus: Acland Burghley School and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

 

In September 2020, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) moved into offices in Acland Burghley Comprehensive School in Camden. For the first time, the orchestra's players, staff and library were all in the same place. But the move isn't just about office space, it is a creative residency and the first fruits of this are now being seen. Last week the OAE released a video featuring the year 10 students from the school dancing to the 'Danse des Sauvages' from Rameau's Les Indes galantes. The group of GCSE students worked in partnership with the OAE to choreograph, direct and record the music video.

This wasn't a case of an arts group coming in, telling the students what to do and then leaving again. The students themselves took inspiration from Baroque dance videos on YouTube, and were drawn to the 'Danse des Sauvages' with its strong and distinctive rhythmic pulse, and the music sparked enthusiastic discussion, music and choreography evolved hand in hand.

Adrian Bending, OAE Principal Timpani, began the collaboration by overseeing the marriage of music to dance and later directed the Orchestra's recording. He says: 'This project wasn’t a case of us telling the students what to do. After our initial introductions, the students were increasingly willing to healthily disagree, taking from us only what sat well with them. Every voice was heard. We are eager and excited for these collaborations to become a regular fixture of a long, happy and most rewarding partnership between Acland Burghley School and OAE.'

The video isn't the only creative part of the residency, the OAE has delivered numerous interactive workshops for all students in Years 7, 8 and 9. These workshops have ranged from exploring the instruments of the orchestra, illustrated sessions on blues and jazz compositional techniques as part of curriculum studies and a study day for all GCSE music students on Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4.

The video being made in the hall of Acland Burghley School (Photo Acland Burghley School / OAE)

Further information from the school website, and the OAE website.

A Life On-Line: Forgotten Voices from SWAP'ra, 18th century elegance at Conway Hall, Szymanowski in Bristol, a birthday at Wigmore Hall

SWAP'ra celebrated International Women's Day this week with its Forgotten Voices project (in collaboration with Hera), where singers from the UK's conservatoires (and the National Opera Studio) performed songs by women composers. Some of the names of the composers were known, others not, and many of the songs were unknown. Things kicked off on Saturday 6 March (though we only caught it on catch-up later) with a live recital from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Songs by three Welsh women and one Scott, Elaine Hugh-Jones (born 1927), Grace Williams (1906-1977), Morfydd Owen (1891-1918), and Claire Lidell (born 1937).  Elaine Hugh-Jones, who was a pupil of Lennox Berkeley, was entirely new to me and her approachable yet complex songs were intriguing and made you want to hear more. It was lovely to hear more of Morfydd Owen's work, having heard some of her music last week for St David's Day. Some songs approached the Edwardian parlour but others had striking and often touching moments. Grace Williams is more of a known quantity, though I have to admit to being unfamiliar with her songs. We heard two, one clearly inspired by her teacher RVW but the other far darker and more complex. Claire Lidell was represented by two of her Orkney scenes, imaginative and evocative.

The songs were given terrific performances by singers Rhys Meilyr, Charlotte Forfar, Molly Beere, Esyllt Thomas, Nicole Dickie, Kira Charleton, Chloe Hare-Jones, and Maisie O’Shea, with Nicola Rose (piano), all coached by Kitty Whately. Everyone embraced the music with a will, giving fine confident and expressive performances of music that was probably as unfamiliar to them as it was to us.

And throughout the week, the SWAP'ra Forgotten Voices jukebox has been going, giving us short recitals from singers from the other conservatoires and from the National Opera Studio exploring women composers across the ages. Yes, we've heard of Clara Schumann, Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Augusta Holmes, but who could say their music was familiar, and there are many more who are undeservedly unfamiliar. Credit must go to everyone for making this happen, not just the logistics during lockdown but the finding of the music in the first place (including the not inconsiderable task of locating performing editions!) and of learning it. [SWAP'ra Forgotten Voices]

Sunday saw the Zoffany Ensemble giving a benefit concert for Conway Hall Sunday Concerts. It was wonderfully expansive programme themed around the late 18th century.

Next December in Berlin: I chat to Timothy Wayne-Wright, artistic director of Choralspace's Winter Festival 2021

Choralspace is a new initiative that combines both online and live choral performance for amateurs and professionals alike. Amongst the organisation's new projects is a Winter Festival in December 2021 of which the artistic director is Tim Wayne-Wright; Tim spent ten years singing counter-tenor with the King's Singers, and I caught up with Tim by Zoom to find out what Choralspace has in store for us.

Timothy Wayne Wright

Choralspace is the idea of Gent Lazri, who worked for ten years for Interkultur (an organisation that has organised international choir competitions and festivals since 1988). Lazri felt that the choral community was changing and that there was room for further artistic innovation, more social inclusivity and collaboration. So Choralspace is intended to be an international space to address these issues. The new organisation has three complementary strands.

Learning: there will be a Choralspace Academy intended to be an online vocal university which, from September, will be offering 38 weekly workshops.

Creating: there will be workshops on broadening the scope of choral music, and inspiring choral musicians to develop fresh ideas and reach larger audiences.

Performing: this is the strand that involves Tim as he is programming the Winter Festival, which will involve live performances in Berlin, as well as concerts in March 2022.

Lunaris: an evocative and eclectic journey through the phases of the moon from two artists known for their performances in Early Music, Jorge Jiménez and Anna Stegmann

Lunaris; Anna Stegmann, Jorge Jiménez; GWK Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 12 March 2021 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
An intriguing journey through the phases of the moon in music from Medieval to Berio, performed by two artists known for their performances in Early Music

Lunaris on GWK Records takes two artists best known for their skill in the Early Music world, Anna Stegmann (recorders) and Jorge Jiménez (violin,vielle) and gives them free reign to create a soundscape which moves from anonymous 13th and 14th century pieces to Tarquinio Merula from the 17th century to Ysaye and Bartok to Berio, all linked together with Jimenez own soundscapes.

I last reviewed Jorge Jiménez' work on Soledad, his disc for solo violin which moved from Biber and Bach to Lorca. This new collaboration with Anna Stegmann takes a similar creative approach. Lunaris is themed around the phases of the moon, and the programme is divided into sections, New Moon, Crescent Moon, Full Moon, Eclipse with the two artists associating each phase of the moon with different human expressions and moods. Jiménez' strikingly evocative electronic soundscapes link things and the result becomes a striking collage.

StampHaikuSong

Postage stamps and the images contained on them are ingrained in our daily consciousness. The Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock has written a sequence of seventeen bilingual (Irish and English) haiku inspired by a sequence of Irish postage stamps which show Irish personalities such as James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, James Connolly, Countess Markievicz, Roger Casement and others. The singer Caitríona O'Leary and graphic designer Gareth Jones have produced a magical video which combines Rosenstock's text with images of the stamps and O'Leary's imaginative setting of the Irish text (sung by herself, multi-tracked).

The project is a product of our times, funded by an Irish Arts Council Covid-19 Response Award, and perhaps we can see a an artistic response to the pandemic in a concentration on small things, but the seven-minute work is a reminder that we should concentrate on the detail as well as the big picture.

Rosenstock describes the project as follows, "Postage stamps have been part of every nation's history and cultural expression and Ireland's stamps are truly distinctive. These haiku in Irish and English deftly perform the haikuist's task - opening our eyes to what has been there all along. The combination of the minimalist form which is haiku, and the smallness of a postage stamp concentrates the mind wonderfully. This unique project is something to sing about especially as our digital age - and the unstoppable rise of the courier and drone - has threatened to obliterate the humble postage stamp!".

Caitríona O'Leary is best known for her performances of traditional Irish song [including The Wexford Carols, see my review and The Red Book of Ossory, see my review] and Early Music, as well as her role in contemporary works such as Roger Doyle's electronic opera Heresy [see my review]

StampHaikuSong is available from Bandcamp.