London Coliseum 27 November 2014

ENO have mounted a number of highly successful productions of new works by John Adams, in collaboration with Peter Sellars. If The Gospel According to the Other Mary does not quite live up to the expectation of earlier stagings that should not imply that there is not much to appreciate here. The real problem is with the approach to the text and characterisation. While in essence a retelling of the passion, Jesus is never present. His words are given to a trio of counter-tenors, and occasionally spread across the rest of the cast. All of the named characters have at least one character double, and Lazarus is split over a singing tenor, a dancer and an actor. As such our sympathies are dissipated. It is difficult to empathise with a group rather than a single individual. It is the opposite of the Bach’s passions where we are drawn in by the emotional intensity of the singer and made to feel their pain.

The constant shifts in emphasis are also confused by the movement from mythical to contemporary time. We frequently lose the sense of where the focus is in any one scene, and the often powerful writing is lost in the hazy visual impact.

The small cast sing the score with enthusiasm and Russell Thomas is particularly effective as Lazarus, his long solo towards the end of act one at last galvanising our attention. Patricia Bardon’s Mary is often an outsider, ill at ease with the action around her, though this is never brought to real focus until the end.

The set of sand-coloured soft gauzes is effective though the constant drifting of the back cloths can be distracting. James F Ingalls provides very effective lighting which tries to guide our attention throughout, and is particularly effective in the choral scenes.

There is not a lot for the chorus to do dramatically and for much of the time they stand as a block, gesturing to the score in a way now familiar in Peter Sellars’ productions. Though frequently effective it can also be distracting.

Joana Carneiro drives the score with great intensity from the pit and it will be interesting to compare her approach to the new recording of the work.

Musicians of All Saints, St Luke’s, Brighton,

8 November 2014

If the main focus of the concert was to bring us the premiere of Peter Copley’s new Piano Concerto, the first half led us gently towards it. The Musicians of All Saints under Andrew Sherwood opened with Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op6 No1. If the rich acoustic tended to over-romanticise the sound it also gave an extra bloom to the strings which easily filled the building. The solo trio was impressive in the Adagio and there was a lively zeal to the final Allegro.

Mozart’s Divertimento K 138 is an early work which produced both fire and humour in the final Presto.  However the finest moment of the first half came with a deeply felt reading of Grieg’s string arrangement of Last Spring, its gentle melancholy and warmth being splendidly balanced.

The three movements of Peter Copley’s new piano concerto  may last only a little over twenty minutes but the intensity of the writing holds us firmly throughout. The opening Toccata with Interlude is marked presto agitato and tips us headlong into an insistent sycopated rhythm which for most of the time contrasts staccato strings against rolling piano figuration. This suddenly gives way to a beautiful solo line for the first viola, a post-Elgarian figure somewhere between nobility and pain. When the dominant rhythmic urgency returns the piano takes a more lyrical though still powerfully etched position. At the end of the movement a solo violin takes up the viola melody which is cut off suddenly and the piano rounds things off with a deft downward plunge.

The second movement Chacony allows the piano to come more into its own. Where the opening movement had often seemed to absorb the piano into the overall texture, here the piano has more chance to speak for itself, being allowed an extended quasi cadenza which brings together many of the ideas already explored across the first two movements.

The final Fugue and Scherzo opens with the strings alone and it is some time before they are joined by the pianist. There is a sense of joy and almost frenetic energy here, particularly in the piano part which sparkles and scintillates throughout. As the climax approaches the pianist returns to the rolling figures which have become such of part of the composition until a final glissandi hangs in the air above a last pizzicato from the strings. Margaret Fingerhut communicated a sense of delight in the work throughout and her playing had a lightness of touch and joyfulness which was surely intended by the composer.

The sense of enthusiasm and life are evident throughout this new concerto which is to be given a number of performances over the coming months. Hopefully you will get a chance to hear it – the second performance will be on January 29th 2015 7.30pm at Blackheath Concert Halls with Trinity Laban Conservatoire Sinfonia, conducted by Andrew Sherwood with Margaret Fingerhut again as the soloist.

Having Margaret Fingerhut available for the day enabled the Musicians of All Saints to run a master-class in the morning for a number of highly talented if very young pianists. They performed a wide range of works for us, and were then encouraged to look at specific aspects of their preparation. Margaret Fingerhut stressed that practice should be just that – working in specific details, not simply playing pieces through again and again. She encouraged the young players to draw the sound out of the piano through their sense of touch rather than demanding a reaction from it. She reflected on the fact that for pianists, starting to learn is easy as the notes are already there. The problem comes with learning to control touch and nuance, particularly when the right hand seems built the wrong way round for voicing a melodic line. From the quality of playing we heard from these young performers we could easily hear of them again in a few years’ time!

The next concert from the Musicians of All Saints will be given on Saturday 17 January 2015 at All Saints Centre, Lewes. www.mas-lewes.co.uk

 The Dome, Brighton, 2 November 2014

Brighton Festival Chorus joined the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra for an afternoon of indulgence, with works by Parry, Elgar and Strauss. If the opening Schubert – the Marche Militaire – seemed slightly at odds with the rest of the programme, Barry Wordsworth informed us that, in this 90^th season, they were playing the very first work heard by the orchestra. Its brief briskness proved an apt opening to an afternoon full of romantic delights.

Parry is at his best in choral settings and there are few choral masterpieces to set beside I was glad.  Written for the coronation of Edward VII, it has been heard at every coronation since and is certainly worth a regular hearing. The Festival Chorus rose to the occasion with aplomb and the orchestra brought the dramatic intensity, with brass blazing and organ firing on all cylinders, which the work requires.

Nicholas Daniel was the soloist in Strauss’ Oboe Concerto which formed a more relaxed interlude between the heroic impact of the Parry. The soloist bought a delicate warmth to his playing and Barry Wordsworth etched a sensitive accompaniment. The gentle return in the final movement after the cadenza was particularly effective.

Parry’s Blessed Pair of Sirens opened the second half with a glorious outpouring of melody and finely balanced orchestral playing.

Elgar’s Enigma Variations may be familiar but they are always welcome, particularly in the company of the Parry which set such a fine context for them. Barry Wordsworth takes a direct, unsentimental approach to the whole, allowing the individual variations to build effortlessly to the climax of E.D.U which unfolded with skill and nobility.

The next concert on 7 December also brings us a set of English works. We are doing well this season for home grown composers!

London Coliseum, 29 October 2014

Jonathan Miller’s fluidly naturalistic production of La boheme continues to be a fine showcase for young singers, focusing on individual characters within a convincingly drab 1930s Paris. The quartet at the heart of the story are extremely well balanced. David Butt Philip, making his debut at ENO as Rodolfo, proved to have the heroic top to the voice where it is called for but also the sensitivity and gaucheness in the earlier acts as his relationship with Mimi develops. Angel Blue is an unusual Mimi. Tall and elegant, her voice fills the theatre easily in the first act but she controls it magnificently in the final act to bring us one of the finest death scenes I can recall. She literally slips away as she sinks into the large armchair. It is totally convincing.

Jennifer Holloway’s Musetta is vibrant without going over the top, her waltz song in act two emerging naturally from the action rather than being a set-piece. This also allows us to focus on the jealousy of George von Bergen’s Marcello, whose strength grows as the evening progresses.

All of the smaller parts are cast from strength and it was a pity that the speed of the production did not allow us to applaud Barnaby Rea for the farewell to his coat.

The chorus may only come into their own in act two but they do so with real enthusiasm and frequent nuances which enhance the visual impact. It is telling that no matter how complex the action we always focus on the most important characters on stage without them being overtly highlighted. The same is true of act three which is re-thought in terms of a side street in early morning but all of the activity flows from the text and never crosses the emotional intensity of the score.

Gianluca Marciano seems to have a natural feeling for the pulse of the score and his tempi and balance within the pit were always convincing.

If there is any tendency to think oh, another revival of boheme then think again, for everything about the evening validates the decision to do so.

This autumn’s Festival runs for three weeks with performances every day. As a consequence this review can only give a taste of what was on offer, but it does focus on the key feature of the 2014 festival – The Schubert Project – a performance of every song written by the composer within a single Festival. No mean feat in itself and a tribute to the organisers, in particular Sholto Kynoch who seems to have been at everything even if he was not actually performing.

I spent most of two days in the middle of the festival, arriving on Thursday 16 October in time for the lunchtime recital at the Holywell Music Room which was given over to songs dedicated to Therese Grob, Schubert’s first great love. The songs were shared between soprano, Raphaela Papadakis and baritone, Martin Haessler with Sholto Kynoch at the piano. For a collection dedicated to a loved one there are some very dark songs here, though the baritone’s Zufriedenheit Lied and Mailied provided some relief, and the radiant Litanei auf das fest aller seelen for soprano brought the recital to a fine climax. The recital itself was a very relaxed occasion, enabling minor slips to be easily encompassed and forgiven.

Only a brief respite for lunch before joining the afternoon master-class at St Columba’s URC Church on Winterreise given by Sarah Walker. During the morning she had worked on the first twelve songs and now moved to the second part of the cycle. There were to have been three different singers and accompanists giving us four songs each but as one had had to drop out one pair returned for the final four songs. Sarah Walker’s deep understanding of the cycle and her gentle humour carried us through the emotional turmoil of the songs and the immense challenges they bring for a young singer.  She stressed the need to be aware of the connections between the songs, allowing the former to influence the opening of the next. As an example she drew attention to the bleakness of the ending of Einsamkeit which must spill over into any enthusiasm the singer might want to bring to Die Post. She warned against becoming too excited, stressing that less is more in almost every case when approaching the cycle as a whole.

By a sound piece of planning, Ian Bostridge sang Winterreise that evening in the Holywell Music Room accompanied by Thomas Ades. The singer’s platform manner is challenging throughout; he seems ill at ease, ungainly, frequently turns away from the audience or clutches the piano as if his life depended upon it. There is real pain and anger as the cycle proceeds, a bitterness which never degenerates into self-pity but is none the less terrifying to behold. Unlike some approaches there is no hint here of madness or despair. The singer is open to all that life can throw at him and the only tiny crumb of comfort comes in the last two lines when he asks to share his grief with the hurdy-gurdy man. It is a masterly rendition, made all the more so by the succinct and always subtle accompaniment of Thomas Ades. There will always be room for many ways to present this cycle, but there can surely be few today which are as moving or as powerful.

The following Saturday I attended the second lecture recital given by Graham Johnson in the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building which focused on Schubert’s compositions in 1816 and 1817. There were full musical examples from Raphaela Papadakis, Robin Tritschler, Robert Murray and Benjamin Appl, including lengthy extracts from Ossian set as chamber operas intended for solo voice. These were split across the soloists to give a more focused dramatic impact and it would be fascinating to see them staged or filmed. Schubert’s sense of drama is finely developed here and his flowing arioso style closer to early Wagner than the more obvious Italian models he was used to.

Graham Johnson stressed the ever expanding nature of research, noting that even today changes are being made to accepted texts and the singers gave us the most recent scholarly versions known. He traced the move that Schubert was able to make from his own home to stay, on invitation, with the Schobers and the devastating impact of having to return home at the end of 1817. We were encouraged to hear the impact these moves had upon his compositions during the two years and the range of poets from whom he drew. Towards the end of the time his work with the singer Vogel moved his settings into more classical territory as these appealed to the singer. However there is still a propensity to create music which is underpinned by dance rhythms and these shine through.  Graham Johnson drew our attention to the setting of Atys which speaks of a young man out of his comfort zone, and compared this to the Miller in the song cycle, stressing that the Miller is as much an outsider, an inadequate, as Attis himself. While many of the songs we heard were rare, the afternoon ended with An die Musik, preparing those of us able to stay on, for the evening Schubertiad.

Details of events still to be held – www.oxfordlieder.co.uk

A comfortably full Mote Hall greeted the new season for the Maidstone Symphony Orchestra. When subsidies and sponsorship are so difficult to come by these days it is a pleasure to realise that the series is able to continue almost entirely as a result of the generous support of individuals and the enthusiasm of the audience.

The opening concert may have seemed conventional in its planning – an overture, a concerto, a symphony. There was, however, more to it than this as Brian Wright pointed out in his introduction. Tae-Hyung Kim not only won the Hastings International Piano Competition in 2013 but was playing in Russia immediately before flying in for the Maidstone concert.

Wagner may look like the odd one out but the romanticism of the overture to Tannhauser was happily in keeping with the early Tchaikovsky symphony. The strings impressed in the Venusberg music and the horns were resplendent at the end. Balance was excellent throughout in a piece which can easily fall apart as the counter-point becomes more complex.

Tae-Hyung Kim had won the Hastings competition playing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and he performed this for us last night. His approach appears quite cool to the onlooker. There are no histrionics or mannerisms to detract from the score, yet his impact on the ear is very finely focused. He made a very strong opening statement, creating subtle contrasts in the more reflective passages. The second movement was particularly delicately phrased before a bravura launch into the final Rondo. Here the humour was allowed to shine through and the dance-like forms were never far away. A pity he could not be persuaded for an encore – he deserved one.

Tchaikovsky’s early symphonies suffer, like Dvorak’s, from the over-popularity of the later ones. As a result Winter Daydreams, Tchaikovsky’s first symphony, is still rarely heard, though as Brian Wright demonstrated it is a fine work.

The opening movement is clearly the voice of Tchaikovsky and the Russian themes flow throughout. Darker moments which well up from nowhere were ever present but the light is never put out. The second movement opens as if it was part of the Serenade for Strings but then moves to a more pastoral feel with the solo wind. Suddenly a long lyrical line unfolds, as if the composer could not hold it in any longer. The same is true for the Scherzo where the central movement which would normally be a trio is a flood of lyricism which could easily sit in any of the later works.  After a sombre opening the final movement bursts with Schumannesque vitality and draws on the full brass section.

The orchestra is privileged to have such fine solo players and to create such a firm body of sound in its larger departments.  We can only look forward to the rest of the season – with Copland, Brahms and Vaughan Williams on Saturday 29 November. www.mso.org.uk

Autumn may be in the wings but another wonderful late summer afternoon welcomed the new BPO season. New also this year – a composite programme for the first three concerts to encourage regular supporters and to bring us colour for the first time and more space for notes.

This was an all-Russian programme opening with a bright and warm reading of Glinka’s overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila. The necessary re-arrangements to bring on the piano gave Barry Wordsworth an opportunity to thank us for our continuing support and to welcome a large number of younger members to the audience. At a time when so many concerts seem to be supported only by those at or around retirement this was a very encouraging sign.

Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto followed with Natasha Paremski the highly impressive soloist. She brought  weight and gravity to the opening movement and a romanticism which never dwindled into sentimentality. The steely quality in her playing continued into the slow movement which was voluptuous without ever being indulgent. The attack we had sensed in the opening returned for the finale which was racy in approach and eventually allowed us to wallow in one of Rachmaninov’s most memorable melodies.

A rapturous reception provoked a fully justified encore which proved to be even more demanding than the concerto. She gave us the final movement of Prokofiev’s 7^th Sonata, spitting fire amidst the torrent of notes. Masterly.

After the interval we heard Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. After the warmth of the Rachmaninov this all seemed very bleak at first, but Barry Wordsworth’s approach is not as cynical as some critics might wish. As the first movement progressed there were hints of hope – even in the midst of demonic militarism. Mood changes were clearly marked without over-emphasis. The cellos and basses made a great deal of the opening of the second movement and the whole provided genuine rather than reluctant enthusiasm. The Largo unfolded gently then took us on an inward journey to consider all that we have lost. The frenetic finale seemed honest rather than cynical and showed that there are many more ways of hearing this symphony than a simplistic political one.

The next concert brings us Schubert, Parry, Strauss and Elgar on 2 November.

Speaking at the Press Briefing before the first night of Rossini’s Moses in Egypt David Pountney gave us an overview of the 2015-16 season and some hints of the future. One of the realities of belt-tightening is a new approach to staging which is already with us. He referred to the same scenic environment being used for a set of productions to save on the costs necessarily involved in employing not only separate designers but constructing entirely different sets for individual new productions. Thus next season’s Figaro here, Figaro there will use the same basic set designed by the veteran Ralph Koltai for all three operas.

We have some experience of how this will work already this year. The same vast screens and rostra (and the every present table!) which were in place for William Tell are here again for Moses in Egypt but, I have to say, to far finer effect. Where the icebergs had been inappropriate for the lushness of Switzerland, the vast rough coloured panels seemed highly apt as an abstract backing for the Egyptian tale. For most of the evening the Israelites keep to the blue side and the Egyptians to the red. The simplicity is highly effective and never upstages the action which is focussed on the ramifications of an inter-racial love affair rather than on the Biblical narrative.

The opening is totally unexpected. In most theatres the stage direction darkness is anything but. Light is used to suggest darkness. Here we were in the dark – literally. Only the emergency lights gave any hint of where we were. Carlo Rizzi conducted the darkened orchestra pit with a miniature light sabre which buzzed in front of us like a demented firefly. The chorus and soloists sang to us out of the void on stage and surtitles were kept to a minimum to enhance the effect. When Moses brought back the light it was truly moving. If nothing else this shows David Pountney still has the ability to surprise us.

The casting is very strong. Miklos Sebestyen and Barry Banks make a virile pair as Moses and Aaron commanding the stage whenever present. On the Egyptian side only Nicky Spence’s superb Mambre has their authority – what a pity he does not have a solo aria. Andrew Foster-Williams is a vacillating Pharaoh buffeted by the whims of those around him and rightly cowed by the presence of his wife Amaltea sung by Christine Rice. Her temple aria was a high-spot of the evening, the movement of the candles reflecting her emotional torment. The love interest was convincingly caught by Claire Booth and David Alegret but Rossini’s characterisation does not really help either of them.

The chorus were again in superb form and the moveable panels reflected their power even more effectively than in William Tell.

Carlo Rizzi relishes this music and his passion is reflected across the whole evening in the quality of orchestral playing and the constant engagement with the narrative. He returns next season to conduct a new production of I Puritani. 

Richard Jones’ new production of Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West has many of the hallmarks of his style. The settings are bright, colourful and modern, the strip lights cheerfully at odds with the late nineteenth century costumes. The action is naturalistic, the crowd movement fluid and convincing, the voices placed forward and reflected from the heavy sets. This all places the emotional impact of the work firmly in the hands of the soloists, who are given the weight and authority of the old frontier rather than of svelte opera singers.

Susan Bullock and Peter Auty are presented as middle-aged lovers. This may be her first kiss but there is no pretence that she is a young woman. Susan Bullock’s Minnie is a genuine mother-figure, and she convinces us that she has the emotional strength to overcome all of the potential barbarities of the Wild West. The voice is large and often thrilling even if it became a little squally at the top under the pressures of the first night. Peter Auty makes an heroic Dick Johnson, his big numbers ringing out with ease and splendid musicality. If these two are credible human beings, Craig Colclough’s Jack Rance is closer to stereotypical western Sheriff, with broad gestures and large cigars.

Of the large number of smaller parts Graham Clark’s assured Nick was outstanding, but there were no weaknesses on stage – a tribute to the quality of ENO’s ensemble.

In the pit Keri-Lynn Wilson made the most of the romantic, often sentimental, orchestration and lulled us into believing what we were experiencing on stage.

Another fine night at the Coliseum – and what a splendid idea to start the work by fully lighting the proscenium so that we could enjoy the magnificence of the theatre itself just for once.

English National Opera’s venerable production of Handel’s Xerxes came back to the Coliseum on 15^th September. Now ENO’s oldest production, originally from 1985, this revival proved it could still be core repertoire in another thirty years hence.

Originally created by Nicholas Hytner, this revival is under the tutelage of Michael Walling, and just as good too.

Ostensibly about the Persian king Xerxes this is really not about Persia, or his campaigns or anything else oriental at all, merely a three times two love story spun out over the requisite three acts. The name ‘Xerxes’ is a hook upon which to hang the Georgian love of all things levant, then all the craze. Handel, it must be said, whilst famous for many things, is not renowned for his comedies. Some like Semele lift the corners of one’s mouth, but Xerxes is really very funny from start to finish. It must be said that this production hams up all the foibles admirably such that there is almost a laugh a minute. And there are a lot of minutes! Scheduled to start at 7 and end three and a half hours later it actually started ten minutes late and, with often slow tempi, finished at five to eleven. The libretto was edited by the late Charles Mackerras who states in the programme introduction that there was no need to edit but I disagree, profoundly. A solid 30 minutes judicious cutting would be missed by only the most dyed-in-the-wood aficionado, and an hour wouldn’t affect anything that much. A few shorter recitatives, perhaps a whole scene chopped wouldn’t have made any appreciative difference.

For Xerxes ENO had assembled a stellar cast. In the title role Alice Coote was in all things other than stature a great Xerxes. Costume-wise she is decidedly well padded too, so that we don’t notice gender, though occasionally her movements were a bit cumbersome. Occasionally a bit shrill, a bit strident, in character she convinced. Ombra mai fu, the first and most famous aria was decidedly slow. I wonder if this was her or conductor Michael Hofstetter’s decision. Her brother Arsamenes, the counter tenor Andrew Watts, has a very powerful voice but frequently he not only dominates but quite startles. His top notes are every now and then a full 20 decibels louder than the note before; by contrast his lower register is sometimes a little quiet. Amastris, Catherine Young, in a small role was well cast, masterful even; Romilda, Sarah Tynan was again excellent. On stage the majority of the evening she was strong and fluent throughout. Atalanta, the other love interest, Rhian Lois is a revelation. I saw her in ENO’s recent Magic Flute as Pamina, in which she was very good, here she has the most burnished, effortless voice; I wanted her to be on stage all evening and never stop. Finally Elviro, Adrian Powter, was in a small role funny and engaging whenever he appeared.

Another star of the show was undoubtedly the production itself. Staged as, I would guess, the Georgian Vauxhall Gardens full of see and be seen gentry taking the air, it was surreal and gloriously over the top throughout. Although directed originally by Hytner, his designer David Fielding must take huge credit.

Inventive yes, charming yes; high culture yes, but down to earth fun too, very much so. CMk