Monthly Archives: September 2017

PROM 74

Posted on by

Royal Albert Hall, Friday 8 September 2017

As always on the penultimate night of the world’s biggest classical music festival, the atmosphere in the Royal Albert Hall was up several notches as the capacity audience settled down and the Vienna Philharmonic filed in.

Michael Tilson Thomas (how like the fondly remembered Otto Klemperer he begins to look – same sort of charisma too) made sure we heard lush precision in Brahms’ Variations on the St Anthony Chorale. The woodwind section players were almost dancing by the time we got to the vivace in Variation 5. It’s a fine work to begin a concert with because the score (not that TilsonThomas was using one) provides so much for everyone to do. It’s almost as much of showcase for instruments as is Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a theme of Purcell aka TheYoung Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

Then, the orchestra was slimmed down for Mozart’s piano concerto No 14 in E flat major, K449. Written in 1784 in Vienna this elegant, if shortish, work is an apt choice for a VPO concert although it isn’t one of Mozart’s most familiar concerti. Emmanuel Ax was an unshowy soloist who played Mozart’s own cadenzas with authority and lightness of touch. The dialogue between piano and orchestra, especially in the andantino middle movement was nicely balanced and it’s good to see Ax so engaged with the orchestra that he was virtually conducting from his piano stool when he wasn’t playing himself.

The advertised part of this fine concert ended with Beethoven’s Symphony No 7, as glorious and joyful as ever. Tilson Thomas’s interpretation, however, is more grandiose than frothy. His tempi, in the first three movements are gentle. He spares us those ultra-fashionable Norrington-esque hurtles in pursuit of Beethoven’s original metromome markings. The result? You could hear every delightful detail in the texture including lots of fine flute work, strong contrast between brass interjections and  woodwind rejoinders  along with the rich, but spirited string sound for which the VPO is famous. He gave us plenty of speed and lots of the prescribed brio in the allegro to round off a pretty splendid account of a popular work which manages never to sound hackneyed. I do wonder, though, about the wisdom of lining up horns and trumpets, five big steps above the strings. It means they can see and be seem, obviously. But it also means that you can hear their parts so clearly it’s as if you’re reading their music and sometimes it’s obtrusive rather than blended into the sound.

Tilson Thomas introduced the encore On Hearing the first Cuckoo in Spring as “a piece you will all know very well” – a hint that he, an American, and the VPO do not. In fact I discovered afterwards that the orchestra had never played it before. Well of course Delius is a long way from Brahms, Mozart and Beethoven in terms of both time and place but the VPO played it with tender respect and it was a fitting end to a most enjoyable concert.

Lovely to see the VPO in London again, by the way. This time I counted seven women players: four second violins, one first violin and two cellos. Things are gradually equalising but they still have a way to go. I’m sure there are plenty of eager, talented female brass and woodwind players in Austria and elsewhere just waiting for a break …

SE

Barefoot Opera: La Boheme

Posted on by

St Mary in the Castle, Saturday 30 September 2017

La Boheme returned to St Mary in the Castle last Saturday with new principle singers. The difference it made demonstrated both the strength of Jenny Miller’s production and the impact of the singers themselves. American tenor, Andrew McGowan, was a youthful, naïve and impetuous Rudolfo. There were no problems at the top of the voice and he brought a heady romanticism to his wooing of Mimi. For once the on-off relationship made perfect sense, and his desolation at her death was truly moving.

Lucy Ashton, who sang Pamina for us last year in Opera South East’s production of The Magic Flute, was outstanding as Mimi. Her openness of manner and honest emotions caught the complexity of Mimi’s character, and her singing throughout was finely focused and moving.

The rest of the cast may have been familiar from the earlier performance with Oscar Castellino a fine Marcello and the instrumental ensemble splendidly well balanced.

St Mary in the Castle, Friday 8 September 2017

It is easy to forget that La Boheme is essentially an intimate work. The voices may be large but the emotions are very personal. The great strength of Jenny Miller’s new production for Barfoot Opera is that it drew on these realities and made them the heart of the evening. The umbrellas and the hints of prostitution which underpin the story were very effective. Added to this was one of the finest small ensembles supporting the work.  It was a stroke of genius to include Milos Milosovic on the accordion, its gently melancholic tones being absolutely in tune with the unfolding pathos of the drama.

The majority of the cast was strongly characterised with the women being particularly impressive. Sarah Foubert as Mimi was able to combine a genuine sense of consumption with a radiant top to the voice and her act three aria was thrilling. Elaine McDaid’s Musetta was equally strongly characterised and a perfect foil to Oscar Castellino’s well rounded and persuasive Marcello.

Laurence Panter seemed miscast as Rudolfo. He had difficulty with the tessitura of the role and often seemed hesitant musically. His acting was firm and convincing throughout and it may be that he would impress more positively under other circumstances.

Mathew Thistleton’s Colline and Tim Patrick’s Benoit were both positive presences, and there can surely be few like Andrew Sparling, able to double Shaunard perfectly convincingly with solo clarinet in the ensemble. His obbligato opening to Musetta’s quando m’en vo was masterly and totally apt.

Inevitably there were some cuts, acceptable in act two given the lack of children on stage but unfortunate in act three which lost its structure at the start. Thankfully the quartet was emotionally as challenging as it should be and became the climax of the evening.

Barefoot Opera return on 11 November with Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Jonathan Miller’s classic production of The Barber of Seville celebrates its thirtieth anniversary

Posted on by

Opens 5 October at the London Coliseum at 7.30pm for 9 performances

Thirty years after it first opened at the London Coliseum in November 1987, Jonathan Miller’s production of Rossini’s comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville returns to ENO for its thirteenth revival. Over the years it has become ‘a national institution’ (The Daily Telegraph) with generations of opera-goers enjoying Miller’s deft handling of this great operatic farce. For this anniversary production the original Figaro from the 1987 run, Alan Opie, takes the role of his antagonist, Dr Bartolo.

The period setting of 18th century Seville is host to a classic commedia dell’arte plot. The dashing Count Almaviva attempts to win the beautiful Rosina from under the clutches of her lecherous guardian Dr Bartolo, with the help of his barber Figaro and a series of cunning disguises.

In the title role is Australian baritone Morgan Pearse, returning to ENO after his ‘wonderfully agile’ (The Guardian) Figaro in the 2015 run. He is joined by Mexican tenor Eleazar Rodríguez in the role of Count Almaviva, also returning from his ‘dashing’ (The Sunday Express) performances in 2015.

English soprano Sarah Tynan makes her role debut as Rosina. She was last seen on the Coliseum stage earlier in 2017 in Christopher Alden’s five-starPartenope for which she was widely praised (‘dazzling’ – The Independent, ‘divine’ – What’s on Stage). Her previous roles at ENO include a ‘superbly beautiful’ (Opera Today) Romilda in the 2014 performances of Xerxes, as well as Marzelline in 2013’s Fidelio and Zerlina in 2012’s Don Giovanni.

Also making a role debut is English baritone Alan Opie as Dr Bartolo. With a significant career of highly acclaimed performances behind him (including Figaro in the original version of this production), this adds another classic character to his roster. A veteran especially of Miller productions at ENO, he has twice sung the title role in his Rigoletto (2003 and 2006). Most recently seen at ENO for his ‘outstanding’ title role in 2012’s The Death of Klinghoffer, he returns in the spring to sing Giorgio Germont in La traviata.

The role of Don Basilio is sung by Alastair Miles (‘the finest British bass of his generation’ –The Guardian) who was called ‘the ideal Don Basilio’ (The York Press) when he sang the role for Opera North in 2015. His numerous performances at ENO include the role of Alfonso in 2011’s Lucrezia Borgia.

English mezzo-soprano Yvonne Howard, ‘one of the finest singing actresses this country has produced’ (The Guardian), sings the housekeeper Berta. She has previously been seen at ENO in numerous roles including Katisha in the 2012 and 2015 runs of Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado. She returns in February to sing the Queen of the Fairies in Cal McCrystal’s new production of Iolanthe.

ENO Harewood Artist Matthew Durkan returns to sing Fiorello, the role with which he made his ENO debut in 2015. He was earlier seen in 2017 alongside Sarah Tynan in Partenope, widely noted for his ‘comic flair’ (The Daily Telegraph).

British conductor Hilary Griffiths makes his ENO debut after a highly distinguished career on the continent. His positions have included Chief Conductor of the State Opera, Prague, General Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra and Opera in Regensburg, and Principal Staff Conductor at the Cologne Opera.

Peter Relton returns once again after directing the 2015 run. His previous directorial engagement was launching the new Grange Park Opera with his inaugural production of Tosca (‘a remarkable achievement’- The Financial Times). The designs are by Tanya McCallin and lighting design is by ENO Head of Production Tom Mannings. The translation is by Amanda and Anthony Holden.

The Barber of Seville is chronologically the first of Beaumarchais’s ‘Figaro trilogy’. Its sequel, adapted earlier by Mozart, is The Marriage of Figaro,which will be performed by ENO in the spring, directed by Fiona Shaw.

The Barber of Seville opens at the London Coliseum on 05 October for 9 performances – 05, 10, 13, 18, 20, 25 and 30 October at 7.30pm and 07 and 28 October at 6.30pm.

500 tickets for £20 or less are available for each performance. Tickets start from £12.

Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra’s new season at Brighton Dome

Posted on by

The nights are drawing in and the children are back at school, but whilst for some this heralds the onset of the winter months, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and its regular audience are looking forward to their new season of Sunday afternoon concerts at Brighton Dome.

An array of world-class musicians, including Melvyn Tan, Howard Shelley & Michael Collins, join the orchestra to perform popular works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Schubert, Rachmaninov, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, as well as less well-known gems by Arutunian, Ravel and Malcolm Arnold. Pre-Concert Interviews with these guest soloists take place at 1.45pm before each concert (apart from New Year’s Eve) giving you a fascinating insight into the life and career of a professional musician.

The season opens on Sunday 8th October with Conductor Laureate Barry Wordsworth at the helm, joined by exciting young Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu (recently named as one of 30 pianists under 30 destined for a spectacular career by International Piano Magazine) playing Tchaikovsky’s popular Piano Concerto No.1. The programme also includes Brahms’ intensely lyrical Symphony No.3 and Schumann’s dramatic overture to his opera Genoveva.

Particular highlights include a very special Remembrance Sunday concert (12 November) which opens with Bach’s Toccata & Fugue, orchestrated by the great American conductor Leopold Stokowski and familiar to many from the opening sequence of Disney’s Fantasia where Mickey Mouse shakes hands with The Conductor, Stokowski. Then comes Benjamin Britten’s emotional and technically demanding Violin Concerto, heavily influenced by the escalation of hostilities in Europe when it was written in 1939, and performed by British violinist Matthew Trusler. This is followed by George Butterworth’s evocative A Shropshire Lad, based on poems by AE Housman. This sumptuous orchestral rhapsody conjures up the rural idyll of Edwardian England that was to change forever in the First World War, where Butterworth was to lose his life in the trenches. The concert closes with Vaughan Williams’ craggy and powerful Symphony No.4, written in 1935 as the storm clouds of war gathered over Europe.

As part of the city’s festive celebrations the orchestra presents its traditional New Year’s Eve Viennese Gala with a plethora of foot-tapping marches, polkas and waltzes from the prolific Strauss family and lots of sparkly top notes from guest soprano Rebecca Bottone, returning for a second year by popular demand.

Highlights later in the season include Melvyn Tan playing Ravel’s jazz-infused Piano Concerto (3 December), Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto – a Classic FM favourite that has been used in the soundtracks of films such as The King’s Speech and Out of Africa (28 January), Howard Shelley playing Mendelssohn’s melodious Piano Concerto (11 February), and Arutunian’s fabulous showpiece Trumpet Concerto (4 March). Our season closes with Saint-Saëns’ delightful Carnival of the Animals for which the orchestra are joined by the virtuosic piano duo Worbey & Farrell, last seen in Brighton in the Fringe in 2014.

On the morning of the final concert (25 March) we will be holding our popular free Open Rehearsal for children, with a run through of Carnival of the Animals and extracts from Delibes’ comic ballet Coppélia Suite (arranged by our very own Barry Wordsworth).

Tickets are available from Brighton Dome Ticket Office (01273) 709709 or www.brightondome.org  and range from £12-£38. Students and under 18s enjoy a 50% discount, as does anyone receiving Jobseekers Allowance, Pension Credit or Income Support, whilst children can attend for just £1 as part of a Family Ticket. Tickets for the Pre-Concert Interviews are £3.75.

Discounted parking is available for all BPO concerts at just £6 for up to five hours (from 1pm-6pm) in NCP Church Street Car Park, just a couple of minutes’ walk from Brighton Dome.

For full details of the whole season see: www.brightonphil.org.uk

 

 

Prom 64

Posted on by

I heard the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on their home turf in Amsterdam in June so it was a real treat to catch them on their first Proms outing since 2009, only a few weeks later – this time with their chief conductor, Daniel Gatti – and the choice of programme, definitely not mainstream, was interesting too. Wolfgang Rihm, born 1952, and Anton Bruckner are not obvious bedfellows but in combination they provided quite a showcase for this fine orchestra.

Like most people in the hall, I was hearing Rihm’s In-Schrift (loosely translated as Inscription), premiered in 1995, for the first time. It requires a chamber size orchestra without upper strings but includes six percussionists and six trombones, two of them bass trombones. The starring role belongs to the percussionists who at one point lead a magnificent quasi-cadenza on five side drums. Mesmerised by the sheer excitement of it, I was also glad that I didn’t have to count for the entries in such an episodic work full of tempo changes. I was almost relieved to see Gatti counting the bars with his fingers for the percussionists as they reached the turning point in their big moment. There’s a lot of finely nuanced dialogue in this piece as it works through its many moods and tensions. The principal flute, who led the orchestra for this piece, for example, has a lot of interplay with trombones, woodblocks and tubular bells (5 sets). If you want drama in music, there was no shortage of it here.

After an interval to digest the impact of the Rihm, we were back to a more conventionally configured full orchestra, although Gatti splits his violins and puts his double basses behind the firsts. Bruckner’s unfinished ninth symphony in D minor (homage to Beethoven, he said) is not one of his best known works. Written at the very end of his life, it feels like an autobiographical retrospective which works well in three movements – two slow ones sandwiching a contrasting scherzo and trio.  Gatti, who conducted this without a score, coaxed a sound from the orchestra which managed to be both crisp (those repeated chopping down bows in the middle movement) and velvety with a pleasingly warm brass sound, suitably plangent in the first movement and like melted chocolate in the adagio. Clearly a charismatic musician, Gatti sometimes beats time clearly and at others reduces his hand movement to a minimalist, understated twitch. He is, presumably, communicating with his eyes which, of course, the audience can’t see. At 65 minutes this is a very long, concentrated work and although Gatti ensured that it held the attention and was pretty moving, it might have been better to have cut some of the repeats, especially the one at the opening of the third movement.

Susan Elkin