Monthly Archives: October 2012

WNO in concert

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The Orchestra and Chorus of Welsh National Opera will be performing under guest conductor Christoph Poppens’ baton as part of St David’s Hall International Concert Series, on Friday 16 November 2012 at 7.30pm .

The repertoire includes Mozart Masonic Funeral Music and Mozart’s Requiem which features Elizabeth Watts, Márie Flavin, Andrew Tortise and Neal Davies as soloists. Between these works, the Orchestra is joined by two soloists from WNO, pianist Simon Phillippo and Principal Trumpet Dean Wright, in three movements from the Requiem by Hans Werner Henze .

The music in the evenings’ programme reflects on humans complex responses to death, moving from grief to celebration of lives.

Babar the Elephant

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Paul Guinery(piano) & Peter Barker (narrator)

Lunch-time Concert; Holy Trinity Church, Hastings, 24 October 2012

These two well-known names from Radio 3 gave a delightful performance of Poulenc’s musical interpretation of Jean de Brunhoff’s  childrens book (in translation by Nelly Rieu). This originally improvised music is certainly not childish and shows a wide range of influences including popular and jazz stylings. This provided a further link with the second part of the concert – five selected movements from William Walton’s musical arrangement of the poems of Edith Sitwell, Facade.

I have long been a fan of the use of the pairing of spoken word and music and it was a real joy to listen to the combination of Peter Barker’s radio-honed enunciation together with Paul Guinery’s highly accomplished piano playing.  This proved to be an uplifting, enchanting lunchtime interlude, appreciated by a large audience. SP

TIME LORD TOM’S TERRIFYING TALES

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Stables Theatre, Hastings 14/10/12
 
A capacity crowd at the Stables Theatre was entertained by an imaginative, varied and deeply satisfying blend of words & music spanning the gently macabre to the wildly hilarious. The first half of the evening was a good old fashioned variety show. Ex- Blake’s 7 star Paul Darrow was interviewed and then gave a chilling performance of Edgar Alan Poe’s verse-story The Raven. There were extracts from Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables & Chicago from local musical theatre group Renaissance, all given with great energy and conviction. The star turn Tom Baker gave a highly entertaining and, at times, mesmerising reading of his own short story, specially written for the occasion.
 
The second half of the evening was given over to a question and answer session with Tom being interviewed by the show’s organisers, Steve Corke and Oliver McNeil. The questions, although well put, were at times quite incidental as Tom took command of the proceedings regaling us with often very personal, and at times, hilarious anecdotes from his varied life experience. The evening’s compere, Toby Hadoke, known to Dr Who fans for his affectionate stage tribute to the show, also joined in the proceedings, having kept the audience entertained throughout the first half.
 
The whole evening was a delight and the disparate elements worked very well together. The organisers and participants are to be congratulated on such an enjoyable event which was also a fundraiser for St Michael’s Hospice. SP
 
 

London Philharmonic Orchestra

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Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, 28 October

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been associated with Eastbourne for over eighty years now, and their regular seasons at Glyndebourne have kept the relationship even closer. If two thirds of the programme was very familiar, the central concerto was not and proved to be the most interesting item. Saint-Saens’ Second Cello Concerto was the last of his ten concerti and one of the most demanding. The cellist is faced with double-stopping from the start and there are some fiendishly difficult passages.

None of this seemed to worry soloist Jamie Walton who brought genuine lyricism to the Andante sostenuto and fire to his extended cadenza. The work makes its way from an introverted D minor to a blaze in D major. It was very enthusiastically received and one hopes we might hear it more often.

The afternoon had not opened with this level of enthusiasm. The performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings was accurate but sleepy, with little sense of life or warmth. Thankfully the concerto seemed to have woken everybody up and the performance of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony after the interval was finely paced and brought well moulded changes of mood. Climaxes were well built in the Adagio, and there was an excellent flute obbligato in the Allegretto. The cello section had shone throughout, even in the Tchaikovsky, and came into its own in the final movement of the Dvorak with a warm, romantic line for the main theme.

Michael Seal, a regular conductor with the CBSO, was making his debut with the LPO this afternoon and showed increasing confidence as the performance progressed. BH

The next concert in the series is on 9 December with works by Brahms, Mozart and Bruckner  eastbournetheatres.co.uk  01323 412000

Rhodes Piano Trio

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 Vinehall School Music Society 27 October 2012

The sudden arrival of winter seemed to be reflected in the concert given by the Rhodes Piano Trio. All three works were set in minor keys and have troubled hearts. They opened with Beethoven’s Op1 No3 in C minor – the trio Haydn advised Beethoven not to publish. One can see why, even in the opening movement, where the hints of Schubert and later romanticism seem light years away from the classical norm. Although Beethoven trims his material so as not to upset the listener the darker side constantly troubles the surface to make a much more exciting and demanding piece. The Rhodes Piano Trio found these depths with ease, particularly Robert Thompson’s mellifluous piano playing on Vinehall’s beautiful Bosendorfer, so much more appropriate to early romantic music than other concert grands, as we heard in the second work.

Schumann’s Piano Trio No3 in G minor is densely written almost at times to the point of obscurity, and it was a tribute to the players that we could follow the musical line with ease. This was particularly true of the intense sensitivity of the Ziemlich langsam second movement. The frenetic scherzo leads to a final movement the composer thought of as Humorous. Though marginally lighter than the earlier movements its skittish shifts and diverse melodic fragments make for an uneasy transition.

After the interval Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No1 in D minor was something of a relief as the composer is never far removed from good humour, and the work allows all of the soloists to demonstrate their individual skills. Violinist, Michael Gurevish introduced all of the works, showing an easy rapport with his audience as well as technical prowess. The acoustic in the hall allows the lower parts for the cello to sing beautifully, and David Edmunds made good use of this, particularly during the Beethoven.

The next concert in the series is on Saturday 24 November when the Zemlinsky quartet of Prague will play works by Mozart, Janacek and Dvorak. Details from geoffreywhitehead@vinehallschool.com BH

 

GOTHIC HORROR IN WESTMINSTER

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“Nosferatu” (1922) with live improvised organ accompaniment  by Otto Kraemer; Methodist Central Hall, Westminster.

This special event was a part of the series of Monday Gala Organ Concerts with visiting organists performing on the Hall’s recently restored and reconstructed Hill /Harrison organ. Otto Kraemer, guest tutor on the London organ improvisation course, breathed life and emotion into the film through his wonderful interpretation. The sheer scale of the organ was demonstrated to remarkable effect – at times through well-chosen solo stops and combinations across the whole pitch range. At other times there were spine-tingling sequences with full-bodied chorus work. We also heard Tremulants and celestes as well as imaginative use of mutations. The versatility of this truly orchestral organ was shown to the full.

Otto Kraemer showed himself to be a master of improvisation. Sometimes the music was to the fore, at other times in the background, but always enhancing and enlivening the action on the screen. There were clever quotations from popular music – Rod Stewart’s Sailing, Sur le pont d’Avignon and even The Magnificent Seven! Each was expertly and seamlessly woven into the soundtrack. As the film ended the organ built to a thrilling climax to what had been an immensely enjoyable evening. What a pity that there were only about 30 of us in the audience – in a hall advertised as seating up to 2160.  SP

Brighton Philharmonic’s new season

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Trafalgar Day and what a glorious start to the new season. Worries about cost seem to have been tossed aside to make a real impact from the word go. The Brighton Festival Chorus and a full range of international soloists joined the orchestra under Barry Wordsworth for Haydn’s Nelson Mass. The unusual conception of the work, scored without woodwind but with a strongly written organ part and full brass, makes for a very lively impact. The weight of choral singing is matched by the intensity of the orchestra which at times seems closer to late Beethoven that early Mozart.

Soprano Elizabeth Donovan impressed with a lyric but forceful coloratura but did not overshadow her fellow soloists. Alistair Young spun a fine organ line without over-egging the texture, given the potential of the Dome’s organ. Barry Wordsworth was clearly enjoying himself and it showed in the liveliness of the tempi and the sense of fire throughout.

After the interval we were in a different sound world altogether with Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Where the Haydn had been extrovert and thrilling, the Elgar was as intimate and heart-catching, even in what can be more extrovert moments. Barry Wordsworth and soloist Elizabeth Sikora understand the delicate balance within these songs and the need to cherish the music as it opens to us. Her wide vocal range was ideal but she never allowed the voice to push itself too far. There were times when it almost disappeared, like the waves themselves, only to resurface even stronger a second later. The naiveté of In Haven and Where Corals Lie were beautifully captured and the rapture of Oh brave white horses was thrilling.

Maybe we earned a moment of relaxation at the end. Certainly Barry Wordsworth thought so as he gave us a rollicking rendition of Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs. These are so familiar from the Proms that it seems strange that they are actually very short in performance. All the more reason to let us sing Rule Britannia twice! Roll on the rest of the season which continues with Mozart Piano Concerto No 23 and Sibelius Symphony No 5 on 11 November. www.brightonphil.org.uk  BH

Tippett and Wagner

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This was the first of an extended series of concerts by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall to revisit major works by Michael Tippett. The composer, as often happens, has experienced a decline in performances since his death over a decade ago and it is certainly time to reconsider his output. The Brighton Festival made a start earlier this year with a concert performance of King Priam but there is a good case to be made for at least a series of concert performances of all the operas, not least Midsummer Marriage, which should surely be in the regular repertoire of one of our major companies.

The Triple Concert may seem a strange place to start. Written to a commission in 1979, it is an enjoyable piece but hardly amongst the best of his output. The solo parts are well written, and Lawrence Power’s opening viola solos was immensely satisfying. The work lurches from a delicate intimacy to familiar, if extravagant, brass fanfares. Percussion is featured throughout, though there is no over-use simply for effect. The central nocturne is the most pleasing part of the composition, its heady almost sweet-scented tactility giving a languid sense of ennui to the whole.

For those of us who, for whatever reason, were unable to attend the recent Royal Opera revival of The Ring, the second half of the concert under Mark Wigglesworth gave us a lightning tour. If Henk de Vlieger’s orchestral adventure leaves one slightly breathless it is hardly the fault of the composer. De Vlieger brings together many of the purely orchestral sections, sequeing smoothly in most cases from one to the other. One good example was the way he takes the sword motif at the end of Rheingold and moves, via the end of Act Two of Walkure straight into the prelude to Act Three. Similarly there is a pleasing transition from the Waldweben through the fire music to a serene awakening of Brunnhilde. The final sections seemed more familiar and were played with a speed and dynamic that is not always apparent in the opera house. I can’t say I would like to live with this arrangement on a regular basis, but it did make me realise what I had missed by not being at the Royal Opera House!  BH

Hastings Day Concert

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The Sussex Concert Orchestra has become a regular visitor to Hastings Week and brought the annual celebrations to a fitting and exciting climax at St Mary in the Castle last night. Opening with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture was something of a gamble as it is frequently used as a climax. In this case the panache needed to carry it off was not lacking, even if some of the attack was not as precise as might be expected. The percussion section was certainly enjoying itself at the end.

Jessica Zhu won the Hastings Piano Competition in 2011 and returned to perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto. The originally planned Prokofiev would have been more interesting for both orchestra and audience, though maintaining a wholly romantic programme did make sense. Her approach to the Schumann was remarkably dry and unemotional, not that it lacked commitment but that the sentimentality of some of the scoring was never in evidence. The rich orchestral accompaniment was well developed without ever overwhelming the soloist. The Andantino grazioso was particularly effective with its gentle mood changes.

After the interval we heard Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, which brought us some fine solo playing from the lead flute and trumpet, and a beautifully flowing cello line at the opening of the final movement. The brass section was rightly raucous in the finale, bringing the evening to a fine close. Throughout, Kenneth Robert had steered his forces with aplomb. It is not easy, even with professional musicians, to produce finely rounded performances within very limited rehearsal times, and it is a tribute to all concerned that professionalism shines through with these musicians.

St Mary in the Castle is a small venue where orchestral music is concerned but its fine acoustic blends and softens sound without blurring details. That it might be lost to us would be a tragedy, and occasional outings like this only serve to remind us how short-sighted any closure would be. BH

 

Garsington Opera Pavilion

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The Garsington Opera Pavilion has won the prestigious British Construction Industry Award for the best new building under £3 million, given at the 25th anniversary BCIA dinner held at Grosvenor House on 10 October 2012.

This marks the sixth award to be received (others were the RIBA Award, for architectural excellence; the RIBA South Client of the Year Award; the RIBA South Building of the Year Award; the Galvanisers’ Design Engineering Award and the Structural Steel Design Commendation).

Anthony Whitworth-Jones, General Director of Garsington Opera, said:

“We are delighted that our new Opera Pavilion has been so widely recognized; Snell Associates, Unusual Rigging, Sound Space Design and all the team have done a superb job. The judges recognized that the concept and delivery of the structure achieved an inspiring building that pushes conventional boundaries of design, construction and procurement in so many ways.

In under a year, funds were raised, designs developed, planning permission granted and construction completed for the opening of Garsington Opera at Wormsley on 2 June 2011.”