Royal Albert Hall, 29 July 2019

I first encountered Haydn’s Creation, never mind how many years ago, at school. A group of us were then selected to play and sing in a London Schools performance under David Willcocks at Caxton Hall. I played second violin and it was one of those life changing, never to be forgotten experiences. I’ve sung it many times since, too.  I was, therefore, thrilled to see and hear the 200-strong 2019 Proms Youth Choir  making a terrific job of it. I know, from experience, that whatever these young people go on to do in the future, this performance, and the rehearsals for it, will have changed them for ever. And how wonderful to hear a choir with such an enormous body of fine tenors and basses.

Conducting from the harpsichord, Omer Meir Wellber gave us a sensitive Introduction – effectively an atmospheric overture and Haydn was, of course, very good at atmosphere – before the warm magic of Christoper Pohl’s voice filtered in with Im Anfange schuf. It was an inspired idea to have the choir sing the first number off book too because it meant that the cohesion was electric from their very first note.

Pohl is a charismatic and cheerfully empathetic performer. As well as singing with warmth and colour, he frequently looks round at the choir and orchestra and watches other singers attentively. There was a nice moment, for instance, which made the audience chuckle aloud, when he reached the words der himmlische Chor in the Sixth Day section and he gestured to the choir behind him as if to introduce them.

Tenor, Benjamin Hulett and soprano, Sarah-Jane Brandon both put in pleasing performances too. Brandon’s top notes are especially rich and I enjoyed the unexpectedness of Hulett’s suddenly breaking into English for four lines of spoken word near the end. The three work together for trios and duets too and one or two glitches passed almost unnoticed.

But really this performance belonged to the choir (chorus master: Simon Halsey) whose precision, discipline and controlled energy was outstanding especially in the joyous Die Himmel erzahlen. Youth, confidence, insouciance, talent and good training are a powerful combination.

There was also some fine playing from the BBC Philharmonic. This score is fun and we were never allowed to forget that. The gelenkige Tiger, Das Rind in Herden and das Gewurm were all clearly there and enjoying life in the newly created world.

I wasn’t quite sure why the harpsichord was changed during the interval except that I couldn’t hear the first one in Part One but I could thereafter. Perhaps there was a fault on the one Wellber began on. It didn’t detract, however, from a highly enjoyable performance of one of the finest works in the canon.

Susan Elkin

Royal Albert Hall, 25 July 2019

The evening began with a crisp but warm account of Till Eulenspiegel. There’s something about the acoustic of the Royal Albert Hall and the raked positioning of the orchestra which helps to bring out the detail and colour both melodically and dynamically. The trumpet solo and a couple of contrabassoon entries added noticeably to the spiky drama here, for example.

Stenz is a baton-less conductor with unusually expressive wrists and fingers which he uses balletically to coax what he wants from his players. In the familiar pieces which opened and closed this concert he used no score and rarely did anything as prosaic as beating time.

It was different, though in the trumpet concerto by Swedish composer Tobias Brostrom – played here in the UK for the first time. Stenz used a score and conducted more conventionally as you’d expect in music which is new to every orchestral player. There was a different sort of concentration and tension.  The piece is structured in two halves but three broad sections with the middle “movement” equating approximately to a traditional concerto adagio. The other-worldly percussion in the first section was impressive as the two solo trumpets (Jeroen Berwaerts and Hakan Hardenberger), mostly in thirds or echoing canon, played their haunting rather than melodic parts. It wasn’t a piece which I warmed to particularly although this orchestra played it well and both soloists did a fine job.

And so to the safety of Brahms’s first symphony which Stenz delivered with cohesion and colour especially in the andante which brought some really beautiful work from guest principal oboist, Chris Cowie and from Philippe Schartz on trumpet. The pizzicato passages were as vibrant and pointed as I’ve ever heard them and the finale (Stenz by now in whole arm, windmill mode) was both grandiloquent and moving.

Well done, BBC National Orchestra of Wales. It was a pleasant concert and what a sensible decision on the second hottest London day on record to play in shirtsleeves and tie-less.

Susan Elkin

Garsington Opera at Wormsley, 25 July 2019

Strange to be at Wormsley on the hottest night of the year with virtually no one in evening dress. This was because the performance had been preceded by a cricket match and most people seemed to have stayed on from the afternoon into the evening’s glorious outpouring of Monteverdi at his most spectacular.

This was a tactfully staged rendition, just enough movement to keep the eye interested without ever encroaching on the impact of the score. For once Joe Strathers projection of the text was fully included into the setting, with the English and Latin projected at large onto the timber back wall. Our eyes could take it in easily without constantly moving from text to singers.

Soloists included members of Garsington’s fine chorus across the evening and throughout the building. Monteverdi’s echo effects worked to superbly with voices coming from all parts of the house, an effect also used in the Sonata with its six female soloists.

The solo work is scored for high voices with sopranos Mary and Sophie Bevan, and tenors Benjamin Hulett, Robert Murray and James Way carrying the weight of the solo sections. Duo seraphim for the three tenors was particularly beautiful with its undulating rhythms and quasi-ornamental conclusion.

The English Consort was joined by The English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble to give us an electrifying account of the score, frequently changing instrumentation to give subtle differences of texture and weight. Within the ensemble were two chamber organs, the smaller being paired with the harpsichord which was played by conductor Laurence Cummings. He stood throughout and seemed to dance his way through the various movements even as he used one or other of the keyboards. The sense of dance was an essential element of PJ Harris’ staging as the singers flowed gracefully throughout the building always at one with the music.

This brought the Garsington Opera season to a close. Its 30^th anniversary and a splendid indication that the next thirty years are not in doubt.

Opera Holland Park, July 2019

What an evening! An inspired pairing with sumptuous singing and two fine, if unfamiliar, scores. It really doesn’t come much better than this.

Ermano Wolf-Ferrari’s 40 minute 1909 comedy features two singers and a silent actor. Countess Susanna (Clare Presland) has secretly taken up smoking when it is still taboo for women. Her husband (Richard Burkhard) smells smoke and assumes she has a lover. There’s a marvellous performance from lithe, expressive John Savourin as the silent but very active, participative butler looking exactly like John Cleese. It’s a lively, cheerful romp with some nice duet work especially in the number in which husband and wife have a gloriously dramatic row. I also loved the hilarious, exotic, quasi-erotic smoking number in which the flute whizzes about wittily in the background. And the reconciliation duet at the end ensures you have something to hum throughout the interval.

And as for the weightier but beautiful Iolanta, why on earth doesn’t it get more outings? I’m surprised, for example, that the delicious 6|8 number at the beginning with harp and violin melody, into which voices eventually break, isn’t played on Classic FM every day.

The joy of Tchaikovsky is the way he blends joyousness with agony and this score is no exception. A very sparky guest conductor under whom I recently played an amateur performance the fifth symphony said semi-seriously: “Tchaikovsky had a lot of issues – he really did!” when trying to get us to step up the anguish. I thought about that several times while listening to Iolanta.

Based on a play by Henrik Hertz, it’s the story of a blind girl who has been brought  up in ignorance of her disability. Then she falls in love although her father has promised her to someone else. Then a doctor turns up and – well, it’s pretty implausible but the singing is fabulous. Natalya Romaniw, who sings with stunning balance and colour, brings all the appropriate passion, naivety and, eventually, emotional maturity to Iolanta as her world is flooded with light. An accolade too for Laura Woods as her friend Marta. She has a voice like good claret and plays this role with warmth, dignity and intelligence. The final, rousing chorus number – exquisitely staged and sung – will haunt me for ages too.

I’m slightly less sure about Takis’s set which includes a large transparent blind across the back of the stage – reminiscent of the one in my over-bath shower at home although this one shimmers in the hanging lights which represent flowers. You can see “off stage” action through it but to me, it’s a bit trite and obvious.

Full marks to John Wilkie who conducts Il segreto di Susanna and to Sian Edwards for Iolanta. Both coax magnificent sounds from the City of London Sinfonia. I’m always impressed with the way the balance works at Opera Holland Park given the huge width of the area which acts as a level “pit”.

Susan Elkin