St Mary in the Castle, Friday 3 May 2019

Hastings Philharmonic’s The Challenge of Change came to an exciting climax on Friday with the largest professional orchestra the town has seen in many years and the final of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Composition Competition.

The two familiar works which formed the buffer zone for the new compositions proved absolute winners. Aysen Ulucan was the fiery soloist in Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. Fast, heart-on-sleeve and deeply romantic, her playing was often indulgent in all the right ways, sweeping us away on a cloud of intense, immersive emotion. The applause at the end of the first movement was genuinely spontaneous and quite justified. The finale was exhilaratingly fast and accurate, the orchestra keeping up with ease as all swept towards the climax.

At the end of the concert, while the judges were making their decision, we heard Stravinsky’s 1919 Firebird Suite. The range of colour here was very impressive as was the dynamic impact. Solo voices were very effective, with harp and bassoon particularly noteworthy.

The competition limited composers to about eight minutes each and their starting point was the life of Ataturk, whose anniversary fell in 2018, when the competition was launched. 136 composers responded from whom six were chosen to complete their works for performance on 3 May. In an informal session prior to the concert four of the composers spoke about their work and Marcio da Silva explained the brief rehearsal time the orchestra had had with the six new scores.

Though taking very different approaches to the Turkish leader, the scores had a remarkable similarity in outcome, using a wide range of tonal and dynamic effects – emotional impact seeming to be more important than any narrative development or melodic engagement. The audience were asked to vote for their favourite which went to American composer Carlos Bandera and the judges panel chose Welsh composer Luciano Williamson’s Kemal at Gallipoli as the overall winner. His atmospheric piece focused on the night before the charge at Gallipoli.

Hastings Philharmonic goes from strength to strength and their next event could hardly be more different with an evening of English Madrigals at Christ Church, St Leonards, on 22 June.

Photos © Peter Mould 

Kino-Teatr, St Leonards, 1 May 2019

The second event brought us to the Kino-Teatr and a chamber music recital of works by female composers. The concept of change was more elusive here though as with the previous evening it was the structure of the pieces rather than the content which drew attention to itself. Fanny Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio gives the weight of the melodic development to the piano and violin, often leaving the cello as a bass line support, whereas Lili Boulanger’s two piano trios actually open with the cello and seem better balanced. Their acerbic writing, after the earlier romanticism, was also challenging and engaging.

The evening had opened with a sonata for violin and piano by Clara Schumann, followed by her Sechs lieder Op13. Counter-tenor Alex Pullinger seemed an unusual choice for this song cycle – his voice is closer to a genuine male soprano than many counter-tenors – and rises to the top register with ease. He seemed rather more at home with Rebecca Clarke’s songs, which sit comfortably in the late romantic world of Vaughn Williams and Finzi.

The performers were all familiar to Hastings Philharmonic, with HIPCC winner Roman Kosyakov at the piano, Angela Jung, violin, and Will Robertson, cello.

Though there was no problem with the performance, the audience were left very much in the dark as to what was actually about to happen. The single programme sheet simply listed generic works and composers, with no indication of their actual titles or number of movements. As a result we had no idea when a work was completed and had to wait until the soloists turned to us and smiled to show it was over! Given the intimacy of the venue, it might have been easier for the soloists to at least tell us what they were about to play and, where the song cycles were concerned, how many songs we were to hear. A small matter but one which could so easily have been attended to.

The Beacon, Hastings, 30 April 2019

Hastings Philharmonic has launched an exciting new venture this spring which brought an enthusiastic gathering together at The Beacon for an evening of Poetry and Music. Under the banner of The Challenge of Change musician Marcio da Silva and poet Antony Mair approached the concept of change – but did so from very different perspectives.

The five musical items were drawn from the full range of Western classical music, starting in the modal world of Gregorian Chant and evolving through polyphony and classical harmony to the fractured discords of Luciano Berio. The focus was primarily on the way musical structure has changed over the centuries. While the notes and the voices remain essentially the same, the way the scores are organised becomes increasingly complex and demanding upon both the singers and the audience.  Hastings Philharmonic Chamber Choir, singing unaccompanied, demonstrated with considerable skill the intricacies of the writing as well as its emotional impact.

For the poets, change was a matter of content rather than form. The eight poets involved had been asked to draw on something from the canon and to use this alongside some of their own work to highlight different perspectives of change. The content itself was fascinating, ranging across having a baby, the menopause, ending a relationship, coming out to growing old. What may have been surprising was the apparent lack of any relationship to changes in the structure of verse over the last five hundred years as reflected in the music. The only item which could really be considered to be from the canon was Tennyson’s The Lady of Shallot, and even this was gently dismissed as old-fashioned. Though the content of many of the poems was engaging – Robin Houghton on menopause being particularly so, and Judith Shaw’s ending of relationships – it was difficult to assess how the poems worked as poems without seeing them on the page. As virtually everything, with the exception of Sandy Andrews’ Japanese verses, seemed to be in free verse, there was little sense of how poetry itself has changed in the way that music certainly has.

As an opening gambit this was a splendid evening and one worth repeating, if only to investigate more deeply the strong connections between music and verse, and perhaps the way in which poetic form affects musical structure.

St Nicolas Church, Pevensey, Saturday 27 April 2019
Italian Harpist Gabriella Dall’Olio brought a charming and highly romantic programme to a comfortably full St Nicolas, which included some unexpectedly local connections. She has worked for some time now with composer Paul Lewis, who was present to introduce his own works, many which have also been recorded by her and were available at the concert.

But we were given a whirlwind tour of nineteenth century Europe to encase the more recent works, opening with a brief but delightful Andantino e Allegro Brillante by Rossini, followed by Parish Alvars’ Serenade. Gabriella Dall’Olio was playing a double action orchestral harp at this concert, which has a full range of tone and dynamic intensity. Parish Alvars was a formidable harpist in his own right and expanded the repertoire and technical finesse of the instrument, which was finely demonstrated in the changes of mood and texture she found in the Serenade together with the swirling glissandi.
Paul Lewis introduced his Postcards from Paris of which we heard the first two. Moonlight in Montmartre is a gently enfolding waltz, while Left Bank Nocturne is a more soulful, not to say introspective, vision of the heart of Paris’ intellectual life. We are promised Postcards from Bologna – and I am sure they will arrive soon. The first half ended with Felix Godefroid’s operatically expansive Etude de Concert.
Many members of the audience spent the interval talking to Gabriella and looking more closely at the harp, showing so much interest that it was agreed that there would be a short Q&A session at the end of the evening.
Grandjany’s Rhapsodie hinted at the composer’s strong organ-playing background, and he certainly demands a wide range of tone from his performers, but it was Guridi’s Viejo Zortzico, with is elegant 5/4 rhythms, which raised the spirits. It was then time for more from Paul Lewis in the form of his Saturday Night Jazz Suite. The three short pieces are deceptively simple on the ear but have more than enough musical integrity to be taken seriously. The suite opens with a laid-back Jazzette followed by a tribute to Harpo Marx in Blues for Harpo which even includes two brief look-no-hands passages, where the notes are controlled by the pedals rather than the deft fingers of the soloist.
It concludes with Blue Fiver – a tribute to Dave Brubeck and another piece in 5/4 – which would easily have satisfied any of the audience, but Gabriella was persuaded to add an encore, which she did in the shape of John Marston’s Humming Bird. If anything, this summed up both her professionalism and ease of delivery. It literally charmed the birds out of the trees and brought the evening to a warmly satisfying conclusion.
The next concert is on Bank Holiday Monday at 12.30 when organist Shari-Ann Bolton will play popular organ voluntaries.

St John the Evangelist, Hollington, Tuesday 23 April 2019

It is not often one comes across a harp concert these days, and a concert for two harps is even rarer. All the more welcome, then, were Adel and Karina Wilson – 2 of Harps – who presented an engaging programme for St George’s Day

They played arrangements of familiar music, most successful when the music itself needed a wide range of sound. The three pieces by Ludovico Einaudi – I Giorni, Discovery at Night, Nuvole Bianche  – were particularly effective and mellifluous. Equally telling were their own compositions. Always¸ written as a wedding song is warmly touching and Your Heart Steadies Me, based on Hebridian work songs, brought the afternoon to a fitting close. Their encore returned to Lloyd Webber with Pie Jesu.

While we could have done with more instrumental items, and possibly some more developed musical pieces given the quality of musicality they produced, the problems with the amplification did not help their voices. Where quieter tones were effective, louder passages turned shrill and confused, with the text disappearing all together. This was a pity as it undermined the quality of so much of the programme. They hope to return and when they do it will be good, hopefully,  to hear more of their sensitive and engaging playing.

White Rock Theatre, Saturday 13 April 2019

Fraser Grant’s sensitive and intelligent approach to La Traviata moves the action to the cusp of WWI giving it an added layer of frisson with the inevitability of death and destruction. The narrative plays out as if experienced in the final seconds of Violetta’s life, a point well made at the very end where she ‘dies’ to those around her bed, but engages with us in her final ecstatic outpouring. It is moving and highly effective.

The focus throughout is Kristy Swift’s Violetta. She is not afraid to sing directly to the audience when appropriate – all the more so in Sempre libera when Alfredo was not off stage but at the front of the balcony. She allows her inherent illness to creep up on us, hinted at in Act 1 but devastating in Act 3 where she can barely crawl around the stage. Throughout the voice is fully focussed and thrilling, with carefully attention to diction even when the words themselves are not in a comfortable translation.

Fraser Grant makes Harry Kersley’s Alfredo a less than sympathetic figure. Gauche and often narcissistic, the tension and tightness at the top of the voice reflects his inability to empathise with those around him and it is not until the final act, when it is too late, that he begins to show any sign of maturity. By contrast Arthur Coomber’s Germont Pere quickly comes to realise the deep humanity of Violetta and takes her part against the rest of the world, though never at the expense of his own family. It was an interesting idea to have his daughter on stage in Act 2, and particularly effective when she embraces Violetta. However, having her on stage in Act 3 raised more problems than it solved. Did she marry? Is she already a widow? We don’t really need to be thinking about this as the work ends.

There are many opportunities for smaller parts to make their mark, and David Woloszko’s Doctor Grenville brought warmth and authority to his few lines, and Jack Naismith impressed again as Giuseppe. The chorus have fun cross-dressing and the somewhat decadent Act 3 party with its belly-dancers is highly entertaining.

The orchestral balance was excellent under Kenneth Roberts and the essential string writing came across with smooth ease, not always the case with smaller orchestras. Fraser Grant had done his own lighting design which was atmospherically effective throughout and demonstrates that you don’t need a west-end rig to create rapidly changing scenes.

Opera South East return in September for a G&S Extravaganza and in late November for a Kenneth Roberts premiere – Ananse and the Golden Box of Stories- coupled with Amahl and the Night Visitors.

St Mary’s, Battle, 6 April 2019

Messiah has undergone a vast rethink over the last half century, from monumental performances under Sir Malcolm Sargent to original instrument, pared-down editions of exceptional lightness and speed.

What is a local choir to do when approaching a work at once so familiar and yet so challenging? John Langridge, directing Battle Choral Society, seems to have gone for a mean average, taking the strengths from a range of approaches and moulding them into an enjoyable whole. To take the most recent thinking first. Although there was no harpsichordist on the day, Nigel Howard’s exemplary organ continuo set a tone for early-music style which was engaging and entirely appropriate. We could hear the continual gently ornamented accompaniment which mirrored that of the soloists and enhanced their own readings. His playing brought a freshness and vitality to tempi which were often on the slow side.

The four soloists, of whom tenor Gary Marriott came the closest to any real Georgian sensitivity, used ornaments freely and with obvious enthusiasm. Their voices carried easily in the warm acoustic of St Mary’s church though it was a pity they were positioned so far to the north side that many of the audience would not have been able to see them.

The choral singing became more confident as the evening progressed, with the triple chorus – Surely / And with his stripes / All we like sheep – finding them at their most positive. They coped very well with Worthy is the Lamb and gave us a rousing Amen. Here they were aided by the splendid trumpet playing of Andrew Baxter and Dean Pelling as well as timpanist John Davies.

As noted, tempi throughout tended to be on the slow side though bass Michael White’s For behold, darkness was surprisingly fast and there were occasional hints of the dance rhythms which actually underpin Handel’s score. Once you have heard the Pifa – the pastoral symphony – played at dance-speed underpinned as if by a hurdy-gurdy you can never hear it any other way!

The next concert will be Bach’s t Matthew Passion on 19 October 2019. Two orchestras, three choirs plus soloists – we look forward in expectation.

Brian Hick

St Mary in the Castle, Hastings, Saturday 6 April 2019

In many ways the hero and heroine of this concert were Francis Rayne and Stephanie Gurga on piano. Not only did they perform Brahms’s sonata for two pianos in F minor op 34b – an unusual outing – with tender intelligence in the first half but they gave us energetic accompaniment to Carl Orff’s best known work after the interval.

This Carmina Burana used the Willhelm Killmayer concert version (authorised by Orff) scored for two pianos and sic percussionists. It must be great fun do because the scoring is very imaginative and it’s good to see percussion to the fore. The six players here, several of them very young, did a fine and precise job.

And so to the choir. Carmina Burana is a very challenging and long sing but the energy held up pretty well. Marcio da Silva – a conductor who mouths every word – has an unusual style carving visual shapes with his hands but he brings the best out in the singers most of the time with remarkably few wobbly moments considering the demands of the piece. What with all those unfamiliar words (we’re obviously a long way from the comfort zone of the usual masses and magnificats here), cross rhythms and syncopation this is not, simple as it sounds in places, a work for the chorally faint hearted.

High spots included the vibrant sound in the opening and closing choruses, the very rich confident alto work in the exposed section of Primo vere and slow section of Swaz hie gat umbe and the well handled shift into 3|4 time for Floret silva.

There was some lovely solo singing – full of colour and character – from Ricardo Panela although he struggles for those cruel falsetto notes and ducked out of one top G altogether. Ellen Williams, the soprano soloist, has an ethereally sweet voice which worked well here to connote innocence especially in Dulcissime.

St Mary in the Castle, which I was visiting for the first time, has a terrific acoustic and it’s a credit to Hastings Borough Council which originally facilitated the rebirth of this attractive Grade 2* listed building as an arts venue. Today, however, it has no council funding and certainly needs more care and investment. My plus 1 is disabled and I reckon that the venue’s two person lift, which wasn’t working at all at the beginning of the evening, is the slowest in Sussex. The loos aren’t great either. Venues like this are too valuable to the community to be put at risk.

Susan Elkin

St Nicolaus, Pevensey, Sunday 24 March 2019

It might seem rather risqué to sing cabaret songs in church on a fine Sunday afternoon but there was nothing in Sharon Lewis’ entertainment to upset even the most prudish of potential listeners. Even Mae West’s wonderfully tongue-in-cheek I’d rather put it off until tomorrow proves to be completely innocent by the time we get to the end.

Deco Delights brought us an overview of songs from the mid-war period, and one has to admit there was so much good music written then she must have been spoilt for choice. Starting with Love is the Sweetest Thing¸ we moved gently through I’ll string along with you, and Begin the Beguine  before getting to a more up-beat You’re the cream in my coffee  and a very sensuous Lover come back to me.

Having taken in Mae West she also gave us a touch of Josephine Baker with J’ai deux amours before warning us all It’s a sin to tell a lie.

The final two items moved us into the world of theatre with Can’t help loving that man of mine and Summertime, with its high-lying line sitting very comfortably in her voice. There was just time for Everything stops for tea before it did just that and large amounts of cake were on offer while the tea came round.

Throughout Sharon Lewis was deftly accompanied by her composer husband Paul Lewis from the keyboard and his playing frequently underlined the humour of the songs. The rolling rhythms of Begin the Beguine were particularly apt.

The next concert on 27 April brings us a solo harp and promises to be as entertaining as this series continues to prove to be.