Hastings Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra, Marcio da Silva

Christ Church, St Leonards, 6 April 2013

It is always a pleasure to attend a local performance which needs no allowances for being local. Such is the quality of music making under new conductor Marcio da Silva that one can relax and enjoy every aspect of the event without having to make any mental compromise.

The young soloists presented us with an interesting range of voices. Soprano, Alice Privett and tenor, Peter Kirk had more developed operatic voices which highlighted the dramatic side of Bach’s writing while Angela Simkin’s more introspective style suited the intimacy of Es ist vollbracht. Daniel Joy’s Evangelist brought a welcome clarity in his diction and an emotional involvement which carried the narrative forward. Laurence Meikle’s Jesus was noble but humane.

The soloists in the orchestra excelled themselves with a touching viola da gamba solo from Jenny Bullock and fine, intense, woodwind playing throughout. The choir’s sound was well balanced and their accuracy impressive. They negotiated the many difficulties in the score with apparent ease and moved seamlessly from the dramatic to the reflective. Though the acoustic in the church is supportive of choral music there were some problems with the clarity of the text. Though one understands why it might be preferable to sing the work in English, the German text would have cut the acoustic with greater clarity and often words were lost because of the soft edges of the translation.

Throughout, Marcio da Silva maintained a steady pace which gave us time to consider what we were hearing, rather than being driven too rapidly forward, but it never became over-indulgent.

Christ Church, St Leonards, has a venerable history of fine musical performances since it was first opened and the choir can feel confident that they are building on this reputation.

For their next concert on 22 June they are returning to St Mary in the Castle for an evening of American and Brazilian folk music. www.hastingsphilchoi.org.uk BH

St Mary in the Castle Sunday 27 January 2013

Mike always arranges his programmes so that whatever is one’s taste in music is catered for. So the melodies which filled the auditorium of St Mary’s on Sunday came from the pens of such diverse composers as Gounod and Manning Sherwin. (Manning Who?)

Not that tbe audience cared. The  music-lovers who filled the ground floor and spilled over into the balcony would happily have spent the morning listening to Mike’s Thirty-Two Preludes and Fugues on the theme of Three Blind Mice.

This was in fact not necessary.  With a first half ranging from Gershwin to Flanders & Swann we were treated to the Ave Maria, (the Gounod bit)  and that perennial Nightingale in Berkeley Square.( how apposite that a show tune from 1939 so evocative of  London and probably more popular now than ever should be written by American Manning Sherwin) Mike and his players proved their versatility, Chris as well as being hot stuff on the trombone proved that he doubles as a very worthwhile vocalist.

Flanders and Swann got the benefit of the Hatchard team in the somewhat less well-known Ill Wind  and the familiar with the cautionary tale of  Have some Madeira, m’dear.

George’s bass was heard to effect in Chris’s version of I Thought About You  with the audience showing its appreciation in the accepted manner for jazz. During the intermission Dennis Veness gave as usual his most welcome diversion on the piano, showing that you don’t have to be young and lovely (sorry, Dennis!) to produce sweet music.

Memories of Bing with Pennies from Heaven contrasted with an early Sinatra hit, All of Me. Johnny Mantel’s The Shadow of your Smile sequed into reminsences of Coward and Hutch, the Cafe de Paris and the cream of London Society with Mike’s variations on Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It.

A request for Gershwin’s Summertime from his opera Porgy & Bess (definitely in A minor) and I’ve Got You Under my Skin  made us realise how fortunate we are to have such distinguished musicians right here if not exactly under the skin, but definitely within our appreciation zone. 

Please Mike come with your comrades again … and  soon. MW

Cineworld, Eastbourne, 5 January 2013

Though a regular opera goer and reviewer for almost half a century now, this was my first encounter with live transmissions from the Met in HD at the cinema. I’ve watched the TV coverage for a few years and enjoyed many of these, though even large screen coverage is nothing like the experience of opera in the opera-house.

What surprised me was how much of the experience was closer to watching the TV than actually being at a live performance. Part of this is to do with the venue itself. The cinema presentation includes back-stage interviews and previews of forth-coming operas in the current series. While it was something of a surprise to hear questa o quella from a rehearsal for Rigoletto immediately before Act 3 of Les Troyens, it might have been even more disconcerting before Act 2 of Parsifal. At home, I put these sections on mute while I go out and make some coffee. There are no proper intervals and even if there were the cinema is not equipped to provide refreshments for the normal opera audience. Somehow pop-corn and hot-dogs don’t sit comfortably with five hours of Berlioz.

That said, once the opera proper starts the concentration levels of the audience are superb and you could hear a pin drop throughout. On this occasion we were watching Francesca Zambello’s ten year old production of Berlioz’ Les Troyens, with Bryan Hymel a thrilling Aeneas and Susan Graham an emotionally convincing Dido. In the earlier acts Deborah Voigt had the vocal agility for Cassandra but was rather wooden on stage. Her costume and wig reminded me of Birgit Nilsson at Bayreuth in the late 1960s. Not that the production helped her much as there was a lot of unmotivated standing around, rather than any deeper psychological impact. The vast spaces of the Met stage were comfortably filled by a extended chorus and large numbers of dancers. In Act 4, Dido was entertained by 28 dancers! more than the normal corp for a professional ballet company.

The Carthaginean scenes were more successful than the Trojan, though there was an impressive horse. Fabio Luisi’s conducting moved things swiftly and there were no longeurs. BH

The next HD transmission from the Met is on 19 Jan with Maria Stuarda followed by the new Rigoletto (updated to 1970s Los Angeles) and a new Parsifal on 2 March with Jonas Kauffmann in the lead. Details from www.metopera.org/HD

Each year we wonder if we will all meet again the following year in St Mary-in-the-Castle for the annual carol service and, so far, we have been able to do so. Current plans look promising and hopefully things will continue to improve, with increasing numbers of events returning to this venue, which is an essential part of the cultural life of Hastings.

There was an even better reason for rejoicing this year as the choir have a new musical director. His linguistic skills may not be as fluent as those of previous MDs but which of them could have turned to sing the tenor solo for O Holy Night at the drop of a hat and done so with such mellifluous charm. As a result Marcio da Silva has now set himself a standard which will require a solo from him each year, and audiences will surely not allow a performance to go by without one. His handling of the choir was as assured as his singing. Relaxed and positive, he communicated a level of enthusiasm which radiated from the stage. Opening with a brightly focused Gaudete and a bouncy Up good Christian folk, the concert moved through a virtually unaccompanied Jesus Christ the apple tree to two John Rutter settings, his own Candelight Carol and a familiar arrangement of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Between these and our own contributions we heard two extended interludes from Inspiratus Brass, a young and highly professional ensemble who know how to entertain as well as maintain high musical standards.

Hopefully we will not have to worry where we meet next year, and in the meantime we have a promise of Bach’s St John Passion on 6 April and a summer concert on 15 June. More details from www.hastingsphilchoir.org.uk  BH

Park Road Methodist Church, 11 December 2012

Julius Weeks led the Come and Sing Carols evening and delightful it was. One never quite knows what one is in for when Julius is in charge and this evening was no different. Along with a goodly range of familiar carols, we also sang White Christmas and Julius played We’re walking in the air alongside Bach’s Nun komm der Heiden Heiland.

Carols ranged from A great and mighty wonder to O come all ye faithful, and of course included the Sussex Carol. Park Road Methodist have acquired the organ from Battle Methodist Church on long term loan while their own church is being rebuilt. It sounded very good, dare one say almost better than it did in Battle! Hopefully it will encourage the congregation at Park Road to find an organ at least as good as this when it returns to Battle to its new home.

But the most interesting feature of the evening was the readings Julius had found. There was a distinctly subversive version of The night before Christmas and an equally diverting The night after Christmas. He had also found the background to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which proved illuminating. The story was written in under three months and at the author’s insistence was reasonably priced to enable all readers’ access to it. Though he made virtually no profit from the story it greatly enhanced his reputation and as a result he became the authorial figure we still revere today. When so many readings and film versions fill our schedules at this time of year it was a valuable reminder of its history. BH

The next meeting is on Tuesday 8 January at Hastings Unitarian Church, when members are invited to provided discs or DVDs of their favourite organ music – Desert Island Organs.

Vinehall School, 24 November 2012

It is always good to hear Czech music played by Czech musicians, and when they are as internationally recognised as the Zemlinsky Quartet the event is bound to be prestigious.

Janacek’s second quartet, Intimate Letters, requires rapid changes of mood and dynamic without any sense of rawness. The warmth of the playing, and in particular the vibrancy of Petr Holman’s viola, made for elegant transitions and a level of geniality which is often missed. The final movement danced joyously even when there are undercurrents of tension and concern.

It is not often that music can be considered happy, but Dvorak’s second quartet, known as the American, seems to be just that. The players were certainly happy not only with their performance but with the work itself, often playing from memory and deep commitment. In the context of the Janacek quartet, Dvorak’s Molto vivace seems to pre-echo the younger composer in the deft mood changes and snatches of melody. The lilting dance of the final Vivace was enchanting.

These Czech works were sandwiched between two baroque pieces. The evening opened with Mozart’s quartet No17 K458. The playful final movement seems to hint at the more familiar Eine kleine nachtmusik while the inner movements range from a Haydnesque Trio to a romantic Adagio.

As an encore we heard the final movement of the third quartet by Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga,The Spanish Mozart.

It may have been a nasty night outside but in the hall all was warmth and comfort – and a tribute to the organisers who can tempt this quality of performance to the wilds of East Sussex.BH

Paul Guinery(piano) & Peter Barker (narrator)

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

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

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

Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, 28 October

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

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

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

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

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

 Vinehall School Music Society 27 October 2012

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

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

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

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