Mote Hall, Maidstone, Saturday 3 December 2016

Warm romantic music for a chilly winter’s evening. A very popular programme brought a large number to the Mote Hall, enhanced no doubt by the celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the Heart of Kent Hospice.

Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for Strings is indelibly linked for many of us to Ken Russell’s film for Monitor in 1962 and the boy on the white horse sweeping across the Malvern Hills. All of this came back in the richness of tone from the combined strings as they launched into the work, and then the sudden haunting delicacy of the solo viola. Have the strings ever sounded better? They certainly were on wonderful form and their new leader Andrew Pearson seems to have added a new enthusiasm to their playing.

Bruch’s Violin Concerto (yes of course there is more than one but the first has a head start!) is still regularly at the top of Classic FM’s Hall of Fame but whereas many works can seemed jaded by regular repetition, the Bruch never seems to do so. Here again it had a freshness and immediacy which was compelling. Much of this was down to Benjamin Baker’s playing. Brian Wright has a wonderful knack of finding us young soloists on the cusp of international stardom, and surely here was another. Having recently won the First Prize at the Young Concert Artists Final Audition Awards in New York, he is due to give a series of major concerts across the USA next season. Sensing the unassuming authority he brings to the Bruch it is no wonder he won. There is nothing showy, no histrionics, simply the purest of music making and an immaculate sense of line and fluidity. The 1709 Tononi violin which he plays radiates the most beautiful tone, easily riding the full orchestra, and where appropriate seducing us with hushed, almost imperceptible phrasing.

It was a masterly performance but also served to show what a masterpiece the concerto itself is, standing up to any number of repeats, day after day.

As a well-deserved encore he played the Sarabande and Gigue from Bach’s solo violin Partita No2 BWV 1004 – as far removed from Bruch as one could imagine, and sublimely performed.

If Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony did not hit quite the same heights it was understandable, though there was much very fine playing and the horn section in particular impressed. Brian Wright takes a taught, muscular approach to the opening movement, almost hard edged at times, though avoiding any chance of sentimentality. The contrasting undulations of the second movement were well found as were the dancelike measures of the third. The change in atmosphere for the austere fourth movement impressed, allowing us to emerge into the sunlight for the finale, and the sparkle of the Rhine itself.

This season is proving to be exceptional. Let us hope there are as many in the hall in February for John Lill playing Beethoven for the President’s Concert.

Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. 15 November.

What a success the Marlowe Theatre is, five years on from its rebuild. I’ve seen its main space full for pantomime, Philharmonia concerts, West End-style touring shows and much more.  And of course a Glyndebourne tour guarantees a very excited buzz and hardly an empty seat.

A rather abrupt, very punctually launched, overture led smoothly – once musicians and audience settled – to Leporello’s entrance unaccountably clad in grubby, baggy singlet and underpants in this somewhat bitty 1950s take on the story. In many ways Brandon Cedel, as Leporello, is a mercurial cross between Prince Harry and David Tennant, and the star of this show. His immaculately controlled, impassioned, chocolate-rich bass voice works well for both his serious, vexed moments and for lighter spots such as the famous conquest list aria. And he’s quite an actor.

I last saw Duncan Rock (title role) as Don Giovanni, four years ago in a production in a gay nightclub at Charing Cross in which all the roles except his were gender-reversed. He was interesting then but his interpretation, voice and acting have all matured in the interim. The deceptively simple Act 1 seduction duet with Zerlina (good – especially in the later number in which she woos back Bozidar Smiljanic as Masetto) is exquisitely sung and his sensitive Act 2 serenade is an utter delight.

Andrii Goniukov is suitably imposing as Il Commendatore and Ana Maria Labin is a very creditable Donna Anna with the right level of pain and revenge in her voice most of the time. There’s some fine work in the pit under Pablo Gonzalez with mandolin playing from Francisco Correa for the serenade as an especially noteworthy moment.

As for the production itself – Jonathan Kent, who directed the original production and Lloyd Wood who directs this touring revival  often stray perilously close to gimmickry. Why, for instance, do we have a fire at the end of Act 1? If it’s meant to prefigure Don Giovanni’s eventual descent then it’s painfully laboured. The set (designed by Paul Brown) makes so much use of the revolve that it quickly begins to feel unnecessarily fussy as it swings repeatedly to reveal different scenes. Much of the action is played in quite small contained spaces within on-revolve mini-sets. And if there’s an artistic or narrative reason for raking so steep within them that I was reminded of rock pools at the seaside as performers teetered rather alarmingly up and down, then I have failed to work out what it is.

In general though, it’s an enjoyable evening. I’ve seen Don Giovanni done in many quirky settings and eras and, actually, the material is so strong that the details of how you present it don’t matter much. Whatever you throw at the piece – provided the singing and playing is right – the music will carry it. That’s Mozart for you.

Susan Elkin

White Rock Theatre, Hastings, 12 November 2016

Under Marcio da Silva, Hastings Philharmonic Choir has gained new authority and professionalism. To this he now adds a newly formed orchestra which gave its inaugural concert last night at the White Rock. Where many would have gone for a popular programme to encourage a wider audience he chose works which challenged both the performers and listeners – but the risk certainly paid off.

To set the seal we were given an unexpected violin solo to start the evening – an exquisite performance of Bach’s Chaconne from Partita No2 in D BWV 1004. Not an easy work for the uninitiated but when so lovingly crafted it could not fail.

This set a standard for the rest of the evening. Music of the highest quality given with respect and professionalism by all concerned – not least the audience whose concentration was splendid throughout – and no attempts to clap between movements!

The main work in the first half was a new composition by Philip O’Meara, entitled No Man.  It draws together a number of texts which reflect on the nature of man, ranging from Yeats and Victor Hugo to Schiller and the Old Testament. The hushed, reflective opening section includes distant whispers from the choir. It is unclear if these are prayers or the voices of the dead, but the motive returns in the final section when the whispers are no longer there. Have they been forcibly silenced, are they destroyed or have the souls been released? The enigma remains but the effect is moving.

Between these two sections there are effective choral settings of verses from Psalm 88 and a folk dance treatment of Victor Hugo’s Betise de la guerre. The seventh section is the only really extrovert passage with chunky syncopated rhythms and a sense of exultation. The choir seemed very much at home with the setting – even more impressive when one realises they were let down at short notice by the French choir which was to have joined them for the French choruses. It would be good to hear it again in the near future.

After the interval we heard Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – The Choral. Here the orchestra really came into its own showing both its very real strengths and present weaknesses. The quality of individual playing is not in doubt and there were many felicitous passages from solo instruments, notably the first bassoon and oboe. The string sound is good but at present there are simply not enough of them for the necessary balance. The second and third movements faired best in this respect, with a fine rhythmical bounce to the Scherzo and a wonderful lightness to the trio section. There was sensitivity and a sense of joy to the slow movement but again where the strings should blossom there simply was not the weight of sound available.

The choral movement itself is not an easy sing but the choir dealt with this without obvious strain, the top notes flying out with ease. The four young soloists were well balanced if a little nervous in their approach.

Marcio da Silva maintained a real sense of enthusiasm throughout the evening which was reflected by all on stage and in the audience.

This has been a fine start to a new venture which we applaud and look forward to following in future.

Their next concert is the familiar Christmas Carols Concert at St Mary in the Castle at 5.00pm on Sunday 18 December and there is a full brochure available of all the concerts over the next year. www.hastingsphilharmonic.com

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

The Dome Brighton, 6 November, 2016

What a good idea to open a concert whose main work is Ein Deutsches Requiem with Schicksalsleid. The choir is already there and it creates a valuable opportunity to hear a live performance of something which doesn’t get too many outings although, as James Morgan told the audience at the beginning, Schicksasleid is one of the finest things Brahms ever wrote. This rendering of it was eloquent, mellow and nicely paced – and it clearly showed how well The Dome works for a large, impressively competent, choir such as Brighton Festival Chorus. The acoustic is warm but also allows for an incisive edge against which Morgan’s tempi were well judged.

Morgan is a perky and insouciantly witty presenter as well as a conductor and he treated us to an unadvertised education workshop on the Requiem between Schickalsleid and the interval, drawing attention to some of former’s most interesting moments. I’ve sung it many times but still learned from this entertaining 15 minutes. The best was the “historical re-enactment” of the first performance when a piano marking was omitted from the timpani part so the player played forte throughout the third movement which put the public off so much that Brahms didn’t risk a second performance for a whole year. Morgan gave us a sample of what this would have sounded like and it was very funny.

And so to the marvels of the Requiem itself with its seven movements, musical and narrative symmetry and emphasis on comforting the living.  Morgan has a real gift for bringing out the detail, such as the double bass pedal in the opening, allowing the harp to dominate briefly where it’s appropriate, letting us enjoy the contra-bassoon and making sure we noticed the beautiful pizzicato passages in the central fourth movement. The final, peace and resolution-bringing movement was particularly fine with some enjoyable flute work.

Leigh Melrose, bass, has some of the clearest, best articulated German diction I’ve ever heard in any account of this work. His style is dramatic with plenty of passion particularly in the third movement. It was a cutting edge performance. Soprano Sarah Tynan has a mellifluous tone and managed to temper the anguish with sweetness in the fifth movement – her big moment

There was excellent singing from the choir too with nearly all entries tidy and very little strain even on demanding high notes. And Morgan’s dynamic control was well observed so that there were some moments of real Verdi-style tension.

Susan Elkin

St Nicolas Church, Friday 21 October 2016

A concert by the Kings Singers is always something special. Since their foundation by six choral scholars at Kings College, Cambridge in 1965, the group has won international renown for  their  total professionalism and lively musicianship. On October 21^st, 2016, the Kings Singers performed in St Nicolas, Pevensey to mark its 800^th Anniversary.

The Kings Singers began their programme with serious baroque composition, 19^th c. French songs and a modern work written for them by John McCabe. Byrd’s canonical ‘Viri Galilaei’ was sung with brisk lightness of voice. Byrd’s music for the Anglican Church has been sung without interruption since the 16th century, and the evening opened with ‘Sing Joyfully’. This proved to be one of the most popular and durable anthems of the Elizabethan age. The piece presents four verses of Psalm 81 in flawless counterpoint. The opening of “Sing joyfully” arrived with a series of upward leaps sung by the counter tenors, alto, and tenor. For the very last fragment of text, which pronounces God’s “law” for the celebration of festivals, Byrd crafts the most extended counterpoint of the piece, which the King’s singers extended beautifully to the final climax.

In contrast, ‘Sicut Lillium’ by Palestrina was characterised by the solemn richness of harmony and sinuous weaving of melodic strands. The modern monasticism of François Poulenc was demonstrated by  the scrunching harmony and sweet texture  of ‘Four Short Prayers’. His countryman Claude Debussy offered ‘Trois Chansons’, old words in a modern setting, clear, sharp and comprehensive, with one song in particular, effective over a drone bass.

We were treated to Palestrina’s ‘Salve Regina’. Palestrina’s writing represents the culmination of Renaissance polyphony. The King’s Singers performed the piece in its original Latin which conveyed this Gregorian chant magically. Intonation, which is critical, was faultless. Sung after Compline the piece can be traced to the monastic practice of intoning it in chapel and chanting it on the way to sleeping quarters at the end of the day. The performance suited the church’s wonderful acoustics for choral singing beautifully.

William Byrd’s –‘Viri Galilaei’ gave the opportunity for the wonderfully rounded tones of Jonathon Howard’s bass voice to come to the fore as the foundation on which the interweaving upper parts could shine in this sacred motet. This piece being part of a larger Mass could only tease us with a flavour of the whole much longer work. Nevertheless this sumptuous performance will stay long in the memory for its delicacy and reflective calm. We were then treated to another early motet by Palestrina, the ‘Sicut lillium’, written for five voices. Again an appropriately early musical experience from a composer who specialised in writing sacred music and who had an influence on so much the development of church music

We moved on three hundred and fifty years to hear a Francis Poulenc – Quatre petites prières de Saint Francois d’Assise, originally composed for the his grandnephew a Franciscan monk. Largely sung in unison the piece demands great breath control and dynamic precision, both of which were effortlessly presented with development into some delicately delicious choral chords which evoked great spirituality, if not on occasion sombre reflections.

Composed by another Frenchman and a contemporary of Poulenc, we heard next Claude Debussy’s ‘Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans’. The first two songs were performed with full voices before the lively opening of the third song which had some typical ‘clashing chords’ all delivered with authority and confidence. This was a marvellous performance of Debussy’s only choral piece. A rarity well- performed.

Bringing us up to the c21st the King’s Singer’s performed a piece commissioned by the BBC for its first performance by the King’s Singers in the 2002 BBC Proms, forming part of “The Oriana Collection” to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Opening with long glissando voices before the lower voices bring discordancy to proceedings. This is a very unusual composition which had everyone on the edge of their seats as the vocal interweaving knitted a rich texture of sounds on which the first half finished.

The second half delivered a totally different side of the King’s Singers’ repertoire with a selection of arrangements by Gordon Lightfoot of Flanders and Swan songs all delivered with the panache and wit for which the ensemble is renowned. Flanders and Swan, Spike Milligan, a Greek version of ‘Old MacDonald’ (with effective vocal sound effects), and African spirituals were all performed with wit and verve. ‘A transport of delight’, re-arranged by Gordon Langford, was a triumph of witty horsepower (97, to be precise) and tingling bells: the clever ditty lost none of its fun and sparkle in a version for six unaccompanied singers.  A packed audience chuckled mightily before feeling a touch of melancholy at the doomed romance between a well- bred Honeysuckle and rampant Bindweed.

A surprise encore paid tribute to Percy Granger who holidayed for many years close to the church. Percy Grainger is now mainly remembered for ‘Country Gardens’. His 1918 arrangement of this English Morris Dance is still well-known and the King’s Singers rendition completed a memorable evening’s entertainment in a church celebrating its 800^th anniversary, in unquestionable style.

There doesn’t seem to be anything that the Kings Singers can’t sing, moreover, with their hallmark perfect pitch, exact intervals and precise enunciation. The audience loved them and refused to let them go without encores, programme signing and drawing raffle tickets. They’re wonderful musicians, talented performers and gave all present a memorable evening.

Mote Hall, Maidstone, 15 October 2016

The weather may have taken a turn for the worse but there was no doubting the enthusiasm of Maidstone Symphony Orchestra who seemed to have retained all the warmth and joy of the summer, in an evening full of romantic extravagance.

Brian Wright opened with a thrilling reading of Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, the delicacy of the harp fending off the brashness of the brass and the thwack of the tambourine. Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto followed with Alexander Panfilov its vibrant soloist. He brought a highly percussive approach to the work which was both exciting and convincing, though he has all the subtlety for the familiar Andante slow movement. The fire he brought to his reading was mirrored in the Rachmaninov Prelude which he gave as an encore. We would happily have asked for more but that would not have been fair on him after the exertions of the concert.

Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique is equally familiar and gained in authority as it progressed. There was sound dynamic contrast in the first two movements, with the two harps particularly impressive, but it was from the third movement that it really began to impress. From the offstage oboe to the sinister drum rolls at the end it was beautifully phrased in long, lingering paragraphs.

I don’t normally mention soloists by name but the two tympanists, William Burgess and George Barton, really stood out in the final movements. The March to the Scaffold had an intensity and power which came to fruition in the finale movement, where textures were crystal clear even in the density of Berlioz’ orchestration.

If the orchestra can maintain this level of musicality for the rest of the season we are in for a fantastic year. Tell your friends – there are still seats available!

The next concert which includes familiar works by Elgar, Bruch and Schumann is on Saturday 3 December.  mso.ticketsource.co.uk  friends@mso.org.uk

Barbican Hall, 14 October 2016

Neil Brand has been honing the art of improvisation for silent films for many years (as those of us in Hastings will recall from many fine evening at St Mary in the Castle). He has also had a desire to write a score for Douglas Fairbanks’ 1922 Robin Hood. Happily the two have come together in the magnificent unveiling of a renewed print of the film and a full score for the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Timothy Brock.

The film was always over the top, with Fairbanks’ outlaw closer to Peter Pan than Mel Gibson – think Men in Tights rather than Prince of Thieves – and from the moment he leaps into the forest it is a joy until the final tongue-in-cheek scenes where the king is banging on the bridal chamber door.

Neil Brand’s score mirrors this enthusiasm with aplomb, its rich romantic passages offset by some nastier scenes drawn from Vaughan Williams at his most introspective. Unlike Carl Davis’ scores for Ben Hur or Napoleon there are no obvious big themes to delineate the characters, rather there is a more subtle atmospheric background which gives us an emotional underpinning to the action and allows characters to develop musically as the film progresses.

As the BBC was involved we can only hope that we will see (and hear) the score again with presumably the potential for a DVD.

The Dome, Brighton, 9 October 2016

Introducing the new season, Barry Wordsworth pointed out the very wide range of music which the concerts cover and the equally wide range of conductors as he will not be seen on the podium again until next March for the final event.

Though the range of works we will hear over the year is certainly not in doubt, the choice for the opening concert was more problematic. Liszt’s Les Preludes is a rambling piece, closer to Weber than to Wagner. While the brass did well it was difficult to get to grips with its structure and it was only the occasional blaze of glory which held our attention.

This might have been acceptable if the following concerto, though not necessarily populist, had been more engaging, but Walton’s Viola Concerto is a dark offering. Andriy Viytovych was an adroit soloist, conveying the brooding warmth of the opening movement with ease but remaining serious and focused throughout, conveying a sense of introspection which did little to engage the listener.

After the interval Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony brought a greater level of enthusiasm and emotional contact. After a very slow opening it soon took fire and there was some exceptionally fine playing from soloists, particularly first horn and bassoon. Barry Wordsworth knows the work well and shapes long passages with ease and a real sense of narrative line. In the final movement the fast pace was wedded to crisp, clean phrasing which led to a genuinely exciting climax.

For their next concert on Sunday 6 November, the orchestra is joined by Brighton Festival Chorus for Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem .