For the fifth year running, Neil McLaren and his group of talented and internationally acclaimed professional musicians will be coming to St Nicolas Church to entertain and enthrall us. Alison Bury, violin, Catherine Rimer, ‘cello and Tom Foster, harpsichord, with Neil on flute will re-create the atmosphere of the “Sans Souci” palace in the mid-18th century with a performance, by candlelight, of J S Bach’s “Musical Offering”. You are invited to bring a picnic to enjoy in our churchyard from 7.00pm. Wine and soft drinks will be available, and entry to the concert will cost a very reasonable £10.00. You can pay at the door, but call 01323 764449 to reserve your places.
With its showpiece eighteenth century Snetzler organ, handsomely refurbished, its mentors Dr Brian Hick and organist Stephen Page felt the time was ripe to present something a little different in middle-of-the-road music. The result attracted a most appreciative Saturday afternoon audience, just enough familiar music to give assurance, just enough lesser-known to prove a talking-point.
J S Bach’s Prelude in G major BWV 568 as an opener, and Mozart’s Andante for Musical Clock fulfilled the former, and Arthur Wills’ Lullaby for a Royal Prince and Fisher’s Preludes & Fugues in D & Eb the latter. A complete change to near-present day came with Charles Williams’ Devil’s Galop. Williams was a highly respected writer of film music, and this piece saw long service as the theme for the BBC’s radio series Dick Barton – Special Agent. ‘Galop’ in this sense refers not to a horse letting off steam but a nineteenth century in-the-round ballroom dance.
The programme ended with an organ favourite, Lefebure-Wely’s Sortie in E flat, ‘sortie’ being the equivalent of what is known as a ‘chaser’, a fast, loud piece traditionally played by the orchestra at the end of a performance to hurry the audience out of the theatre.
Not that this audience wanted to leave. On Saturday they were only too anxious to have a few words with Brian and Stephen about the venture, regarding which Stephen explains, ‘We had found there was an audience for something slightly different combining ‘serious’ and ‘light’ music and we hope these concerts prove it.’
Saturday’s certainly did. The next is on Saturday August 11th at 2.30 p.m.in the Unitarian Church in South Terrace, off Queen’s Road. Admission free with donations . You will be very welcome. MW
Joseph Nolan; Cavaille-Coll organ of La Madeleine, Paris
SIGNUM SIGCD 292 72.35
The most encouraging thing about this new release is that it is Vol 1 which implies we will eventually get all of Widor’s symphonies from Joseph Nolan. While there are many recordings of these works, Joseph Nolan brings an enthusiasm and vitality to them which are enhanced by the acoustic of La Madeleine.
It is a cliché that the building is the most important stop on any organ but for this recording it seems particularly important. We are always aware of the position of the instrument within the building and the rich sonorities which the space creates. All the more important for a symphonic organ – inaugurated in 1842 – which needs a generous acoustic and a sympathetic recording if the full ambience of the instrument is to flourish.
It certainly does here, not only in the more dramatic movements – the recording ends with the Toccata everybody knows – but in the quieter, more lyrical passages. I particularly enjoyed the bright registration for the Intermezzo from the Sixth Symphony.
In the Fifth Symphony, the Allegro cantabile has a beautiful solo voice and the Adagio creates a gentle sense of drift which is very appealing.
The booklet gives us satisfactory notes on the works and the organ itself, but I would have liked a breakdown of the registration to have been included. It may be too late for future issues, but would be the icing on the cake. Here’s to the second volume. BH
Wexford Festival Opera, renowned for staging rarely-performed or unjustly neglected operas, had hoped to produce Francesca da Rimini by Saverio Mercadante at the 2012 Festival. Although Francesca da Rimini was written in 1831 it had never been performed, as the opera house it was written for burned to the ground before the opera could be produced. While a hand-written manuscript of the opera is in existence, it has never been printed. Attempts by Wexford Festival Opera to have a critical performing edition of the manuscript published in time for the 2012 Festival became fraught with unanticipated difficulties and forced the organisation to change its plans.
However, Artistic Director David Agler has several operas waiting in the wings and is delighted to announce that the rarely-performed Italian opera, L’Arlesiana by Francesco Cilèa will now open the 61st Wexford Festival Opera on Wednesday, 24 October, 2012.
L’Arlesiana is a melodrama in three acts to a libretto by Leopoldo Marenco, first performed on 27 November 1897 at the Teatro Lirico di Milano in Milan. L’Arlesiana tells the story of Federico, a farmer, who is madly in love with a woman from the village of Arles (l’arlesiana) and becomes entangled in a love-triangle. The opera is based on the play L’Arlésienne (1872) by Alphonse Daudet. Soon after its première, L’Arlesiana fell into oblivion but enjoyed a revival in the 1930s when it benefited from political support through Cilèa’s personal contact with Mussolini. While the opera as a whole isn’t well-known, most opera-lovers will be familiar with the tenor aria, È la solita storia.
Wexford Festival Opera will also stage Le Roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier, sung in French and A Village Romeo and Juliet by Frederick Delius, sung in English as originally announced. Full details of the creative teams and cast will be announced shortly, as will the details of the daytime performances of ShortWork operas, concerts and recitals.
The 61st Wexford Festival Opera is grant-aided by the Arts Council, Fáilte Ireland, and Wexford County & Borough Councils.
61st Wexford Festival Opera
Wednesday, 24 October – Sunday, 4 November, 2012
PRIORITY BOOKING commences Tuesday, 8 May, 2012
GENERAL BOOKING commences Tuesday, 5 June, 2012
L’Arlesiana by Francesco Cilèa (1866 – 1950)
24, 27, 30 October, 2 November
Le Roi malgré lui by Emmanuel Chabrier (1841 – 1894)
25, 28, 31 October, 3 November
A Village Romeo and Juliet by Frederick Delius (1862 – 1934)
London Music Masters (LMM), a music charity providing music education to inner-city primary schools and violin awards for young emerging professionals, launches the first London-wide musical instrument recycling campaign – LOST & SOUND. The campaign is a rallying call for supporters to donate disused violins, cellos, trumpets, flutes and clarinets for distribution to LMM Bridge Project children aged 5-9, in some of the capital’s most deprived boroughs.
LMM believes that every child deserves a chance to play a musical instrument. By launching a London-wide initiative, LOST & SOUND aims to bring greater awareness to the importance of music education in primary schools and breathe life into old instruments. The initiative will help LMM to save money on instrument purchase and hire, allowing the charity to focus its resources on high quality teaching.
Initially the instruments will be loaned to Bridge Project children in the three primary schools in Lambeth and Westminster where the Bridge Project is currently active. Surplus instruments will be offered to local music services, hubs and other relevant charities. LMM will aim to work with its creative partner organisations (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Southbank Centre, Royal College of Music and Wigmore Hall) to raise awareness of the campaign.
Anyone interested in donating an instrument should contact Rachel Wadham, Bridge Project and Marketing Manager, on 020 7267 7982 / rwadham@londonmusicmasters.org
The second instalment of Opera North’s semi-staged Ring Cycle came to Birmingham to a rapturous ovation. It was well deserved. In over half a century of Walküre performances,I can’t recall a line up of Valkyries as effective as that which hit us at the start of Act 3. Not only were the individual singers exemplary, but their combined strength, within the Symphony Hall acoustic, was thrilling in a way that is rarely true of the opera house.
Part of their success was certainly down to conductor Richard Farnes who has a vision of the work which over-arches individual scenes to give a sense of narrative drive which takes us through to the final Magic-Fire music. He seems to be able to get his singers to give more and more as the evening progresses rather than fade from exhaustion as is too often the case. Bela Perencz as Wotan was outstanding in this. Starting act two rather lightly, almost conversationally, he built the voice to the point where the end of the act had shattering power – and an authority which carried all the way through to the end.
If this implies the earlier acts were weaker it is not so. Alwyn Mellor’s radiant Sieglinde and the heroic tones of Erik Nelson Werner’s Siegmund, were matched by the fierce blackness of Clive Bayley’s Hunding. It is a long time since I have heard a Hunding who had such sinister cynicism in his voice, and for whom the outcome was not self-evident.
Katarina Karneus persuaded us that Fricka really does have a case that needs answering and that, in real terms, Wotan does not address the issues – he simply subverts them, blaming all around him rather than accept his own responsibilities.
In the title role, Annalena Persson brought passion, youth and fire. Her voice is thrilling and her war-cry electrifying.
Dame Anne Evans acted as consultant for the staging which is stylised but effective. The triple screen does not deflect from the action, though there are times when the surtitles are out of kilter with the score. But this is a very minor point in an evening which was an unqualified success. Next year Siegfried! BH
Rumour has it that this new production might mark the start of a fuller Offenbach revival. If so – fantastic. Offenbach is lamentably underperformed in England given that his musical prowess is closer to Rossini than Sullivan. When this musicality is added to a vibrant new translation of La Périchole by Jeremy Sams, who also directs the piece, it could not fail.
One of the distinct benefits of the new Opera Pavilion at Wormsley is the closeness of the acoustic and the ease with which the text carries. If Naomi O’Connell’s rich Irish accent in the title role took a short while to get used to, all others rang clear as a bell, with every word from Simon Butteriss a gem. He not only sings with aplomb but knows the importance of carrying the text with equal weight.
It was easy to see why the work is not familiar on the amateur circuit. It requires a large cast, all of whom need to be excellent singers. When one considers that Diana Montague was one of the three cousins, all of whom were equally fine, the point is made.
Robert Murray was a lyrical Piquillo, who made his drunkenness amusing rather than off-putting, and created just the right level of tension with the aristocracy. Geoffrey Dolton’s Viceroy was only too aware of the knife-edge he trod in a banana-republic which could explode at any moment.
That the work, necessarily, has a happy ending does not ignore the social commentary along the way.
Jeremy Sams’ production and English version make for a delightful evening, and are buoyed up by David Parry’s warm support from the pit. Francis O’Connor provided a set which proves that naturalism can fit comfortably on an open stage, and the late evening sunlight on the first night was a welcome, and distinctly effective bonus.
Let us hope the Offenbach series proves as effective as the current Vivaldi has done. BH
