Monthly Archives: December 2020

Hastings International Piano Announces The Celebration Series

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Hastings International Piano Announces

 The Celebration Series
An Exciting New Concert Series Celebrating New Talent in a New Year

Hastings International Piano is delighted to announce an exciting new concert series to celebrate the new-year, performed by prizewinning pianists from around the globe, who are all now rising stars in the classical music world.

As we look forward to the 2021 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition taking place in Hastings in June, we are reminded of the unprecedented times we live in and how music has continued to be a force for good throughout the past year.

The Celebration Concert Series is a monthly online concert featuring a former Hastings prizewinner and will be streamed at 7pm on the second Tuesday of each month, with the performances from the UK and around the world.

Tickets cost £5 and your purchase will help support our charity’s work.

Brighton Dome Trials Artist Support Scheme

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Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival (BDBF) has launched a financial support scheme for local artists to help develop their creative work and provide their input into the organisation’s future plans.

Artists In House will initially select three artists to help trial and develop the scheme from the new year. Each artist will receive £10,000 to support their artistic work as well as give their time as freelance artists to bring their voices directly to BDBF’s programming, artistic decision making and strategic direction in an ever-changing environment, as well as mentoring and advising other artists.

The coronavirus crisis has created unprecedented challenges for artists, performers and freelance creatives across the city. Feedback from the sector has revealed that immediate help is needed such as financial support; networking opportunities with peers; sharing resources, as well as long term opportunities to create work for digital audiences. Through engaging in conversations with local networks and participating in the national Freelance Taskforce, BDBF is contributing to the Cultural Recovery Action Plan for Brighton & Hove.

BDBF commissions and supports both emerging and established artists and companies, enabling them to develop, take risks and deliver work of the highest quality across theatre, circus, dance, spoken word, music, digital/media and multi-art forms.

Kyla Booth-Lucking, BDBF Director of Programming and Participation said:

“We want this scheme to support and nurture local artists during these uncertain times, but we also want to gain valuable insights from the artists themselves. Alongside our other support for artists through the Open Venues scheme and Creative Catch-ups, this will help us to grow and to effectively support the community of artists who live and work in the local area. As we look to the future re-opening of our Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre spaces, this collaborative way of working will be vital to producing, encouraging and developing new artistic work here in the city.” 

Applications are invited from artists based within Brighton & Hove and wider BN postcode areas, particularly from diverse candidates who are under-represented in the current workforce and programming. The deadline for the first round of applications is 8 January 2021 and BDBF is hosting online advice sessions for artists who have questions or need more information before applying..

Full details are on Brighton Dome’s website: brightondome.org/artistsupport

 
 

 

 

 

 

HPO – Piano Trios

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Christ Church, St Leonards, 13 December 2020

There seemed to be a strange coming together on Sunday evening. As we waited for the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and their constant oscillation between hope and despair, we heard three Piano Trios, each of which have darker undercurrents running through them even if the final bars allow for some hope.

Aysen Ulucan, violin, Oliver Mansfield, cello and Francis Rayner, piano, opened with Beethoven’s early Op1 No1. This was not, of course, Beethoven’s first composition but the one he wished the world to take note of. It opens with a lyrical fleetness, led strongly from the piano, and is highly technically challenging. The second movement flows on easily from this and brings a gentle cantabile, before the greater intensity of the third. Here, the trio drew strongly on the dark under-currents even as the lighter moments occasionally flowered. The final movement picks up on the ferocity and pace of the opening with even more demands on the pianist – a part which the composer had of course written for himself.

Brahms C minor Trio Op101 was written almost a century later and is intensely dramatic, even when it allows for sudden romantic outbursts of captivating melody. The short second movement is even more disturbing in its constant sense of unease, though the answer and response sections of the third movement bring a sense of relief and calm. The final movement returns to the dramatic impact of the opening and is wedded to the minor keys right up to the end when the sudden burst of concord hardly brings any lasting encouragement.

After a brief interval, we heard Dvorak’s Dumky Trio. Written only four years after Brahms’ trio it is a world away with its rapid changes of mood and texture. There are frequent moments of exhilaration which become almost hedonistic, contrasted without any linking material with passages of deep reflection – often with fine solo writing for the cello. The third movement brings an unexpected polka at its heart but it has a dark edge which is never quite thrown off. A jolly March with rapid changes of tempi leads to a more extrovert, if not quite bracing, Allegro before the final Lento maestoso with its supressed tension and often frenetic outbursts. Here the violin solo comes into its own as Dvorak allows each instrument to find its own voice.

An engaging, if often troubling, performance, but maybe exactly what we needed on the night.  The real joy was the way the three soloists encouraged us to engage fully with the music, even at its most disturbing.

CBSO in lockdown

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Birmingham Symphony Hall, Thursday 10 December 2020

Birmingham Symphony Hall has been my favourite concert venue since it first opened and it was a pleasure to sit in on a digital concert with the CBSO, and some of my favourite composers. This was the third digital concert, given over this time to Brahms and Mendelssohn, with the works becoming increasingly unfamiliar as the evening progressed.

Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture has been a favourite since I studied it for O level. One of the unexpected benefits of lockdown is that I was able to sit with my laptop, head phones on, and sing Gaudeamus igitur at the top of my voice at the end – with nobody to complain and Sally not digging me in the ribs to keep quiet!

Conductor Alpesh Chauhan brought a freshness and vitality to his conducting which continued into Mendelssohn’s first piano concert with Stephen Hough the engaging soloist. He knows the work well and his technical finesse and sparkling articulation brought the work to scintillating life, with fine fluidity in the final movement. There was also some beautiful solo cello work in the second movement.

The final work was Mendelssohn’s First Symphony. Overshadowed by the more familiar later symphonies this one bubbles with life and energy, even the more romantic slow movement and the trio second of the third. The final Allegro con fuoco seemed to sum up the whole performance bringing the attack and angst of sturm und drang together with the romanticism that early Mendelssohn creates.

The symphony hall was entirely empty and the extended platform allowed for comfortable social distancing without any loss of impact or sense of ensemble. As we noted earlier in the year with the BBC in an empty RAH, there are actually some benefits in not having an audience!

More details of ongoing, online events on the CBSO website.

 

Music at Holy Child presents:

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A special double-bill featuring a celebration of music by Corelli, Vivaldi, and Bach performed by an ensemble of the finest string players and led by violin virtuoso Max Baillie. This will be followed by St Leonards’ top jazzers playing Gypsy Jazz classics, featuring clarinet legend Ewan Bleach. There’ll be a bar serving mulled wine and mince pies.

‘Please join us for a festive evening of music to re-open the stunning Church of the Holy Child in St Leonard’s! You’ll find details below– hope to see you there!‘  – Max Baillie violin

*** This is a socially-distanced event with precautions to keep everyone safe and healthy***

Saturday 19th December

Concert 1: 7pm – 8pm Bach and Beyond: Baroque Celebration!

Corelli Christmas Concerto (Max Baille & Jane Gordon, violin solos)
Bach E major violin Concerto (Max Baillie, solo)
Vivaldi concerto for strings in G minor
and a surprise item!

Featuring Max Baillie / Annie Beilby / Naomi Burrell / Rachel Dawson / Dominka Feher / Jane Gordon / Kate Robinson / Gavin Kibble / Ciaran McCabe / Darius Thompson

Concert 2: 8:30pm – 10pm St Leonard’s All Stars Jazz

St Leonard’s All Stars Jazz 8:30pm – 10pm
Gypsy Jazz favourites to make you swing in your socially distanced chairs!
Sweet Georgia Brown, All of Me, Minor Swing… and many more….
Featuring Ewan Bleach / Josephine Davies / Ben Somers / Benoit Viellefon
Ewan Bleach – clarinet / saxophone

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Tickets can be purchased for a single part or the whole evening’s music. There will be a bar offering mulled wine and mince pies.

Concert 1: Baroque Celebration £8 / £5 concessions

Concert 2: Jazz All Stars £8 / £5 concessions

Full evening ticket: £15/(£10 concessions)

Facebook Event details with photos and pre-concert news.

Pre-booking strongly recommended. If you would like to avoid Eventbrite commission fees please contact us directly for an alternative way to pre-pay.

contact Max Baillie maxfbaillie@gmail.com or Jane Gordon hastingsemf@gmail.com

 

CDs / DVDs December 2020

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Mediaeval Carols
Opus Anglicanum, Zeb Soanes, narrator
www.opusanglicanum.org

There are two cds here. The first is the full sequence of readings and early carols, which could be used as an act of worship or meditation and the second is just the musical items. A clever idea and one which works well. Zeb Soanes is a familiar voice from the BBC and sits comfortably alongside the reflective tones of the singers. A different but very engaging offering for Christmas.

MANTYJARVI – CHORAL MUSIC
CHOIR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, Stephen Layton, conductor
HYPERION CDA68266   70’54

This is a lovely marriage of choir, location and composer as one of the two more substantial works here is the Trinity Service dating from 2019. The other longer work is Stuttgarter Psalmen (2009). A few other shorter works complete this recording of contemporary sacred choral music. The Finnish composer describes his music as ‘not tonal, but largely consonance-driven’. There is much here to explore and enjoy.

 

ANTON BRUCKNER – THE SYMPHONIES VOL. 0
HANSJORG ALBRECHT, Bruckner organ, Stiftkirche St Florian, Linz
OEHMS CLASSICS OC476. 62’32

The transcribing of orchestral music for the organ is not a new concept. Through the Town Hall tradition here in the UK, many people were able to hear music played live that would otherwise have been denied them at a time when the repertoire of the local orchestra was limited or concerts off limits to people of a certain class and recordings were few and far between. In churches, at the opening and close of worship, and in concerts, transcriptions allow a wider range of music to be imported into a setting that would otherwise be more limited. I have no problem with transcriptions in either case but do wonder about the value of complex transcriptions of lengthy orchestral works. This question is raised in the booklet notes which explain that this is the first volume in a series that will present transcriptions of Bruckner’s symphonies, together with 10 new compositions by contemporary composers to sit alongside them. Bruckner’s love of the organ, his legendary lost improvisations and the relatively scarce amount of compositions for the organ are all reasons given for this cycle which aims to help to promote an understanding of Bruckner’s affinity and understanding of the organ. So, whilst not be a recording I would usually choose to listen to for pleasure there may well be much for us all to learn from this project.

 

WIDOR – ORGAN SYMPHONIES 4
CHRISTIAN VON BLOHN, Organ of St Joseph’s Church, Sankt Ingbert, Germany
NAXOS 8.574207.  81’31

These symphonies – which were written for the organ! – continue this particular series within the ever expanding Organ Encyclopaedia catalogue. Here we have the 1901 version of Symphony No 8 in B major coupled with the shorter Symphonie romaine. Both are sympathetically presented on this suitably comprehensive romantic instrument which was restored in 2007 following a fire.

 

George Schumann: piano works
Michael van Krucker, piano
CPO 555 304-2

George Schumann came from a very musical family and he was a professional church organist at the age of twelve. Though he composed a wide range of works, these beautiful pieces for piano – Sechs Fantasien, Stimmungsbilder, Drei Stucke Op1 & Drei Stucke Op3 – are early and demonstrate his established ability both as a performer and composer. Yet again it is a delight to be introduced not only to a composer who is little known today but to one who we really do need to know better.

 

Mauro Giuliani: Le Rossiniane
Goran Krivokapic, guitar
NAXOS 8.574272

Mauro Giulani was a gifted guitarist of the early nineteenth century and composed a large range of works for the instrument. These six Rossiniana skilfully draw on melodies from Rossini’s operas as the basis for the individual movements. However these are not simple improvisations in the way that Liszt approaches Rossini or Bellini. Giulani takes a number of themes in each movement so that the outcome is a new work rather than a variant on the original. Highly effective and splendidly played here by Goran Krivokapic.

 

Rossini: Matilde di Shabran
Gorecki Chamber Choir, Passionart Orchestra, Jose Miguel Perez-Sierra
NAXOS 8.660492-94

The problem with genius is that even on off days they are better than the rest. Matilde di Shabran – in this edition from Rome in 1821 – is a perfectly respectable piece which I guess, with an outstanding cast at a summer festival, might get by quite well. Unfortunately none of the soloists here has the heroic flair Rossini calls for and so we are left imagining what it might be like rather than sitting back and enjoying it. A pity – there is much good music here but it really needs a better vehicle.

 

A B Marx: Mose
GewandhausChor, Camerata Lipsiensis, Gregor Meyer
CPO 555 145-2

It is not often you come across a work which is a real surprise but Marx’ Mose is certainly that. Robert Schumann may have hated it but Wagner loved it and put it alongside Mozart and Bach in terms of scores he had by him at all times. It may not be as dynamic as Elijah but it is certainly as good if not better than St Paul and a real find. It is also, thankfully, very well sung and played here in a performance under Gregor Meyer which maintains interest throughout. Let us hope someone takes it up once choral societies get back into the swing of things next year.

 

Brahms: The last piano pieces
Victor Rosenbaum, piano
BRIDGE 9545

Three Intermezzi Op117; Six Piano Pieces Op118; Four Piano Pieces Op119

Victor Rosenbaum brings great sensitivity and a real sense of calm to these beautifully crafted late works. Almost too intimate at times, they speak directly to us – a welcome moment of peace in the present circumstances.

 

British Music for Strings 1
Sudwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, Douglas Bostock
CPO 555 382-2

Three substantial works here – Parry’s An English Suite; Elgar’s Organ Sonata Op28 arranged for string orchestra by Hans Kunstovny and Gordon Jacob’s A symphony for strings. Of these the Parry and Elgar are fairly familiar if not heard as often as they might deserve. The Gordon Jacob piece is more acerbic, written in 1943, and bearing the hallmarks of a composer grappling with conflicting musical styles. Good also to hear a German ensemble playing essentially English works.

International Interview Concerts

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The International Interview Concerts came on line for the first time on Sunday 6 December to link up musicians across Europe to play and talk about their experiences and memories of Christmas. The event was hosted by Timothy Chick, who also did a valiant job linking up the various artists as well as interviewing them as the evening proceeded.

Of course, like so many events today, we were not only at the mercy of the legal restrictions but also the available technology. For some of the time this worked well but there were other occasions when the sound quality did not do justice to the professional standing and competence of the players.

The evening opened with violinist Kamila Bydlowska playing versions of  ‘Angels From the Realms of Glory’ & ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’, with some fine double-stopping on display. This was folloed by the Bukolika Piano Trio (Gabriela Opacka  violin – Joanna Gutowska cello – Anna Szalucka piano) bringing us a suite of arrangements of familiar carols –  ‘The First Noel’, ‘Stille Nacht’, ‘Jingle Bells’and the traditional Polish: ‘Lulajze Jezuniu’ (‘Lullaby Jesus’).

Kamila returned to play the Polish carol ‘Oh Tiny, Tiny Baby’.

As a contrast we now heard from Mexican singer Jorge Carlo Moreno accompanied by Varvara Tarasova at the piano. They opened with the Spanish carol ‘La Virgen Lava Pañales’ followed by a piano solo – Tchaikovsky’s ‘December’ from The Seasons – and ended with ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ sung in Spanish.

Kamila followed this with another Polish carol arranged for violin but the final items fell to pianist  Olga Paliy who brought us Holst’s ‘Chrissemas Day in the Morning’, Debussy’s ‘The Snow is Dancing’, and concluding with a fine arrangement of the ‘Carol of the Bells’.

In between Timothy Clark chatted to the artist about their own experience of Christmas music and particularly of their earliest memories of Christmas. It was fascinating to hear the very personal memories from across continents and the different traditions they keep within their own families.

Let us hope that the technical side can be improved so that the experience is closer to a live event in future as the venture itself was certainly engaging.

 

 

 

 

Handel: Messiah

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Christ Church, St Leonards-on-Sea, Saturday 05 December

HPO Singers, Ensemble OrQuesta Baroque
Helen May soprano
Isabelle Haile soprano
Laura Fleur mezzo-soprano
Nathan Mercieca countertenor
Kieran White tenor
Thomas Kelly tenor
John Holland-Avery baritone
 
Marcio da Silva conductor/baroque guitar

This was the first live concert I have attended for ten months so I think I may be forgiven for shedding several tears when the notes of the “Sinfonia” died away in the atmospheric half light and Kieran White opened with “Comfort ye my people”. It set the tone for the whole evening: a lot of fine singing, respect for some of the most arresting, uplifting music ever written and – given the privations of this strange year – an unusual sense of warm gratitude in both (distanced) performers and audience.

Working with a small group of singers – only four basses – and conducting, with a lot of originality, from his baroque guitar Marcio da Silva found much clarity and precision in the chorus numbers although the necessary spacing created a challenge – the basses were to the right of the orchestra at the front with tenors to the left and sopranos and altos at the back. This placed the band in the middle of the choir and meant that sopranos were a long way from the basses, and the altos from the tenors. Inevitably there were occasional timing glitches but none of them detracted from the overall achievement.  The unaccompanied “Since by man came death” was perfectly, movingly together, however and the understated opening to “Amen” worked really well because it left so much scope for joyful crescendi as it developed all the way to that magical, climactic top A from the sopranos, nine bars before the end.

It was a concert full of ideas too. First there was the use of a tiny Baroque orchestra who played impeccably on original instruments (or replicas)  with Marcio da Silva on guitar and Petra Hajduchova on harpsichord.  I grinned to see Marcia da Silva morph into percussionist and singer during “Hallelujah”, leaving Edmund Taylor to direct from the first desk. Versatility is everything at the moment.  I also liked the idea, in this of all years, of sharing the solo work among seven soloists rather than four: more opportunities for more talented people.

Among the many high spots was Laura Fleur’s smiling “O thou that tellest”. She has a lower register like spiced hot chocolate. The contrast she later brought to the stark agony of “He was despised” was outstanding. I also admired the elegant, measured decoration from countertenor, Nathan Mercieca in “He shall feed his flock” and John Holland-Avery is a very arresting, dramatic singer in “The Trumpet shall sound”. Then there was the “sounding” itself with Louis Barclay’s on natural trumpet – another delightful moment.

Well it isn’t Christmas without hearing a decent Messiah and for a long time it looked as though this was going to be my first Messiah-less Christmas for many decades. So thanks HPO for making this happen, despite all 2020’s problems, and for the stunningly beautiful Christ Church which supports HPO by allowing them to use the premises without charge.

Susan Elkin

 

Hastings Contemporary Gallery Presents Two Spectacular New Exhibitions

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Two hugely anticipated exhibitions

Lakwena Mciver’s Homeplace 

Stephen Chambers’ The Court of Redonda 

will mark the re-opening of Hastings Contemporary after

the UK’s latest national lockdown.

Lakwena Maciver, one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary black artists creates painted prayers and meditations, which respond to and re-appropriate elements of popular culture. Central to her practice are words, used as both images and anchors of meaning.

Exploring the role of the artist as myth-maker, with their use of acid-bright colour and bold typographic text, her paintings act as a means of decolonisation, subtly subverting prevailing mythologies. The approach is instinctive and autodidactic, producing visceral, rhythmic and immersive panel paintings, iconic murals and installations.

Lakwena’s most recent body of work exhibited for the first time at Hastings Contemporary focuses on the interplay between her practices as both artist and mother of two young sons. Responding to feminist author bell hooks’ essay Homeplace (a site of resistance), and in the tradition of African women across the diaspora, Lakwena has been painting the walls of her home to create a space of affirmation, empowerment and resistance upon which will sit her panel paintings.

Challenging both the external and the internalised voice of mass media, Lakwena has created works in the public realm internationally, from installations at Tate Britain, Somerset House, Facebook and the Southbank Centre in London, to a juvenile detention centre in Arkansas, a monastery in Vienna, and the Bowery Wall in New York City.

Lakwena says “What’s this exhibition about? Well it’s about me ‘singing over’ my home, my family, my community. I’m an artist and a mother, and I guess I’m looking at where those two roles cross over. My art is concerned with mythologies; things we hold to be true and I want to tell the truth to my kids. These are words of affirmation, words that will encourage, warn and inspire. I know that they go out into the big wide world and I can’t control what happens out there. They’ll hear things and be influenced by things that I have no control over. But I can ensure that in my home I am sending them clear messages about who they are, their value, their worth, what to do in times of need, where to go to for help, what to set their hearts on, what is important. So that’s what these paintings are about. My intention is to create a safe space for them. As these paintings and images of them travel, literally and virtually, my hope is that they might act as sparks to encourage others to define spaces of safety, and also as signs to point people to places of safety”.

First shown at The Venice Biennale in 2017, Stephen Chambers’ The Court of Redonda depicts a cast of 101 imaginary courtiers inspired by a literary legend that developed around the tiny uninhabited Caribbean island of Redonda. This legend took shape as a fantasy in the mind of Matthew Dowdy Sheill, a merchant trader who claimed the island in 1865 and gave himself the title of King. The title passed down to his son, who decided that it should be given to poets and novelists as a form of literary honour. The celebrated novelist Javier Marías was a recent sovereign and his appointment of courtiers, including film director Pedro Almodóvar and novelists AS Byatt and Ian McEwan, inspired Chambers to create his own imaginary court of Redondans: not just poets, philosophers, artists and writers, but also patients, pharmacists, harlots and “bums”.

Chambers explains: ‘It’s a construct, – an idea that I was intrigued with. I wrote to Javier Marías, and in that correspondence, I suggested that I would paint portraits of the court. The paintings are not portraits from life, and they’re not depictions of real people, -they are invented. I wanted to present a wide range of motley ne’er-do-wells and in a way celebrate their ordinariness. There is that line that I kick around my head which goes ‘the ordinary is more extraordinary than the extraordinary’’.

The Court of Redonda is joined in this exhibition by other series of works by Chambers exploring histories, both real and imagined.

Stephen Chambers RA is one of the UK’s most revered artists, having exhibited widely around the globe, with more than 40 solo presentations including the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2012 and at the Pera Museum, Istanbul in 2014. Chambers contemporary dance collaborations at The Royal Ballet, London with Ashley Page and Orlando Gough include Sleeping with Audrey (1996), Room of Cooks (1997,1999), and This House will Burn (2001)

Chambers work is held in many international collections including Arts Council England, Deutsche Bank, London, Downing College, Cambridge (at which he was the Kettle’s Yard/Downing College Fellow and later elected an Honorary Fellow), UK Government Art Collection, London, Metropolitan Museum, New York and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Liz Gilmore Director of Hastings Contemporary says “Hastings Contemporary Gallery finishes this extraordinary year with two hugely exciting and thought-provoking exhibitions by two internationally significant artists: Lakwena and Stephen Chambers. Responding directly and positively to the challenges of our time Lakwena’s vibrant two-room exhibition will challenge and delight. Chambers’ stunning series of works take the viewer on an imaginative journey where we can reflect and learn on our own world order. Both exhibitions remind us of the vital role artists play as storytellers and mythmakers.

Covid-19 has challenged the resilience of the cultural sector.  The trustees and I are very proud of the prodigious efforts of our small team delivering such meticulous installations at this challenging time. We would like to thank the exhibiting artists Lakwena and Stephen for their incredible openness and agility in responding to the changing brief and for their thoughtful and imaginative use of the gallery spaces. Visitors will be able to enjoy these exhibitions alongside the prophetic exhibition by Sir Quentin Blake ‘We Live in Worrying Times’. None of this would have been possible without the generosity and support of many incredible individuals and organisations who have supported us at this time.”

Hasting Contemporary Team overcame the logistical barriers that the pandemic created for galleries and museums across the world, enhanced by the investment from Hastings Borough Council, ACE and DCMS’ recovery funds. The team presented a series of stunning exhibitions throughout the year, while also trailblazing robotic technology to help combat social isolation and ensure they reached the widest possible audience. The year will culminate with these two dazzling shows opening in December.

Hastings Contemporary is planning a calendar of exciting new projects though out 2021, and will continue to curate world-class exhibitions and shows for all our audiences both on-line via our robot tours and in our much loved gallery, as and when it is allowed to open.