Monthly Archives: April 2021

Calming the Tempest – Opera Up Close

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One of a series of online coffee concerts from Opera Up Close, this 30 minute offering celebrates the poetry in music and the music in poetry – and does so with verve and originality.

The high spot for me is actor Althea Stevens reciting Sylvia Plath’s poem The Bee Meeting. She is poised, impassioned and totally compelling as she articulates the words defiantly past her disability. It is a moving account of the poem by any standards as is her later rendering of an Emily Dickinson poem.

Two singers offset the spoken work. Tenor Joseph Doody sings two Guy Woolfenden Shakespeare settings written for a 1987 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest. Mezzo Flora McIntosh sings settings of three songs by Nicholas O’Neill (who also accompanies on piano), each of them a setting of an Emily Dickinson poem.

The latter is a world premiere introduced by Fiona Shaw who explains that the three songs were commissioned by the mother of three siblings whose birthdays fall in March, April and May – a song cycle for spring, then. We see Flora McIntosh seated elegantly in a sitting room – presumably her own – as she sings these three songs. Given the rich formality of her voice it seems slightly incongruous to see her in a domestic setting, as if she were about to offer you tea, but the songs are warm and tender.
This mini concert – very loosely predicated on The Tempest – begins with Rosabella Gregory’s atmospheric piece about the storminess of the witches in Macbeth with lots of arrestingly jagged rhythm. Also included is actor Jade Anouska reading her own poem The Brave Vessel, which is a response to The Tempest.
The curation of this short concert is interesting – lots of links but nothing contrived. It is yet another tribute to pandemic ingenuity.

https://www.operaupclose.com/at-home/coffee-break-concerts

Susan Elkin

Opera North Ring Cycle – on YouTube

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Peter Mumford built up Opera North’s Ring Cycle over four years – one opera a year – and I was fortunate enough to review the live performances at the Birmingham Symphony Hall for Musical Opinion. However I never encountered the cycle complete in one week – until now.

Over the Easter holiday we watched the cycle on YouTube and in many ways it is even more impressive than hearing it live.

This is far more than just a semi-staging. The cast are dressed appropriately for their characters and are at the very front of the stage. The full orchestra under Richard Farnes is banked up behind them, and above them are three large screens onto which are projected ambient vistas to reflect the action – fire, water, storm clouds etc – and a running story line, rather than a set of surtitles, which encourage the audience to listen rather than try to follow word for word.

This was the experience in the concert hall. For me, the TV/film experience was even better. The screen was frequently split into six sections. The top, smaller, three covered the conductor in the centre and the orchestra either side. The lower three were for the singers of whom there are rarely more than three protagonists at a time. Where necessary the screen images were bled behind the singers to create added atmosphere, frequently extremely effective – the fire in the immolation scene gradually engulfs Brunnhilde before the Rhine washes over her and Valhalla burns. It is rarely as effective in the theatre.

Then we come to the singers. Wagner took most of his life completing the cycle and managed to write Tristan and Meistersinger between the second and third acts of Siegfried. As a consequence characters develop and where an opera house mounting the cycle will understandably prefer to keep one singer one part, the slow build-up over four years enabled ON to match voices to parts with much more subtlety. One simple example; Wotan changes considerably across the first three operas. Michael Druiett’s young, pushy Rheingold god is clearly headstrong and careless of longer term outcomes, whereas Robert Hayward’s Walkure god is far more troubled and introspective, making his act two scenes with Brunnhilde very moving. Béla Perencz is a gnarled, worldly-wise Wanderer in Siegfried and one who is all too ready to see the end as inevitable and actually welcome.

Of the smaller parts Jeni Bern is a charmingly agile Woodbird, Claudia Huckle a very youthful Erda and Mats Almgren as black a Hagen as one could ask for.

Yet it is the Siegfried and Brunnhilde that were really outstanding. We had met Kelly Cae Hogan as the Walkure Brunnhilde where she certainly made her mark but she really came into her own in Gotterdammerung, radiant in act one, fierce as hell in act two and simply overwhelming in the immolation scene. Alongside her Mati Turi is as totally convincing a Siegfried as one could wish for, with his changes in emotion keenly felt at all times and the voice as heroic as one might wish for. This is a Ring to be proud of – any chance of a DVD!

 

 

CDs April 2021 (1)

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BYRD 1588: PSALMS, SONNETS & SONGS OF SADNESS & PIETIE
GRACE DAVIDSON, soprano, MARTHA McLORINAN, mezzo-soprano,
NICHOLAS TODD, tenor
ALAMIRE – FRETWORK – DAVID SKINNER
INVENTA RESONUS INV1006 78’20 (2 CDs)

This recording presents this 1588 publication from Byrd in its entirety over two discs. As such it is a fascinating insight into the variety of music collected together in one published volume. There is music for funerals and with other sacred themes as well as lighter secular songs expressing a range of emotions. Much care has gone into this production.

MUSIC FOR THE KING OF SCOTS 
INSIDE THE PLEASURE PALACE OF JAMES IV
THE BINCHOIS CONSORT
ANDREW KIRKMAN, conductor
HYPERION CDA68333 55’20

Judging from the subtitle to this CD I was expecting a lighthearted entertaining programme. This is a fine recording but it is not a lighthearted listen. The title refers to James IV’s residence, Lingithlow Palace, and the music is devotional, as may have been heard in the chapel there. On this occasion, as the chapel is now ruined, the decision was made to attempt to reconstruct the acoustic properties of the building. This process was part of a project funded by the Arts & Humantities Research Council, “Space, Place, Sound & Memory: Immersive experiences of the past”. By scans, 3D modelling and recording in an anechoic chamber this is as authentic as historic reconstruction gets. The main work is Missa Horrendo subdena rotarum machinamento (‘Catherine Wheel Mass’) Alongside this is a Magnificat from the Carver choirbook and three shorter pieces including the chant from which the mass takes its name. Fascinating.

A CLAUDE
BENEDETTO BOCCUZZI, piano
DIGRESSIONE MUSIC DCTT111 75’75

This CD weaves together music by Debussy, Crumb, Messiaen Takemitsu, and Diana Rotaru together with a short piece and arrangements of Debussy by the performer. There are clear links between many of the works and together they make for a very entertaining, original programme. There is much to discover here.

JOHANN WILHELM HERTEL – CELLO & ORGAN CONCERTOS
BETTINA MESSERSCHMIDT, cello
MERSEBURGER HOFMUSIK
MICHAEL SCHONHEIT, organ & director
CPO 555 203-2 63’35

Hertel was a prolific 18th century German composer and like other contemporaries of his was born into a family of composers. He was an accomplished performer on the violin and harpsichord. He became a court composer and wrote much sacred music as well as instrumental works such as those featured here. The CD comprises 2 Sinfonias, 2 Cello Sonatas and an Organ Sonata.

THE ORGAN TRADITION OF APULIA-NAPLES
FROM RENAISSANCE TO BAROQUE
MARGHERITA SCIDDURLO, organ
Chiesa di Saint’ Antonio, Santa Maria del Passo, Mola di Bari (1747)
TACTUS TC670004 52’37

Don’t be put off by the title! This recording may be a little ‘niche’ but it is exciting and well produced. Spanning the 16th to 18th centuries the music included here is often virtuosic and is brought to life brilliantly on this historic and appropriate instrument. Several pieces have not been previously recorded and I would suggest that, despite its age, to many listeners much of this music will be new.

SP

THE HOUSE OF LIFE – Opera Holland Park

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Ahead of the 150th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s birth in 2022, Opera Holland Park is releasing a performance of The House of Life. Leading British tenor David Butt Philip and the acclaimed pianist and accompanist James Baillieu were filmed for Opera Holland Park by Simon Wall at Leighton House Museum.

Contemporaneous with Vaughan Williams’s bracing Robert Louis Stevenson cycle, Songs of Travel, the song cycle The House of Life is an uninhibited and intimate celebration of mutual love. It draws together six of the most delicate, devoted and delirious sonnets by poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Love Sight, Silent Noon, Love’s Minstrels, Heart’s Haven, Death in Love and Love’s Last Gift.

James Clutton, Chief Executive and Director of Opera, says:
“David has graced the stage at Opera Holland Park many times, always with that dazzling voice and that golden talent. We had long been discussing ideas for possible recitals but when David suggested The House of Life, I wanted it to be the first in a new series of OHP recitals. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be there at the filming and hear the soaring music of Vaughan Williams, the alluring words of Rossetti and the partnership between David and James Baillieu, and to enjoy the experience of being transported away from 2021 to another time and place – a perfect place at that.”

The House of Life will be streamed via the company’s YouTube and Facebook channels at 7pm on Tuesday 13 April, with a suggested donation of £5. It will be available to watch on demand until 30 April.

Opera Holland Park would like to thank The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust for making this project possible.

HASTINGS INTERNATIONAL PIANO ANNOUNCES UK GOVERNMENT CULTURAL RECOVERY FUND AWARD

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It is good to be able to report this financial support from the Cultural Recovery Fund.
Ian Roberts, Managing Director of Hastings International Piano says “We are delighted that Hastings International Piano has been awarded a significant grant from the Government’s ‘Cultural Recovery Fund’ .

“We are determined to continue to produce our much-needed programme of learning and engagement and our world-class audience experiences in the town and I am grateful to my team, our trustees and our many friends and patrons who have continued to loyally support us during the pandemic. Hasting International Piano is also extremely grateful to Arts Council England, DCMS, Kowitz Family Foundation, MP Sally-Ann Hart and Hastings Borough Council for their ongoing support of our organisation”.

Hastings International Piano will present a new programme of concerts and educational events throughout 2021 and the next edition of the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition will take place in 2022. Hastings International Piano Festival will return in 2023.

For further information please visit https://www.hastingsinternationalpiano.org

 

London Mozart Players perform the world premiere of Polo Piatti’s multi-faith oratorio Libera Nos

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Saturday 13 June 2020, 7pm

OPUS THEATRE, HASTINGS

 
  • The very first multi-faith oratorio to be premiered anywhere in the world 
  • Inspired by five major world religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam 
  • ‘Libera Nos’ is the final concert in the London Mozart Players 2019/20 residency in Hastings 
  • The work took over three years to be researched and completed 
  • Written for five soloists, a mixed choir, a children’s choir and a full symphony orchestra  
  • Performers include London Mozart Players, Hastings Sinfonia, Libera Nos Chorus & Hastings Music Centre Junior Choir.

After a sell-out concert at St Mary in the Castle in February, the London Mozart Players return to Opus Theatre for the final concert of their year-long residency in Hastings to perform the world premiere of Polo Piatti’s long-awaited Libera Nos at 7pm on Saturday 13th June.  

Community, education and outreach lies at the heart of the London Mozart Players’ #LMPbytheSea residency, and this performance is no different. Bringing together an array of local talent and musicians from this world-class orchestra, Libera Nos is an inclusive performance that celebrates the power of music to unite communities across the globe. Scored for five soloists, a mixed choir, a children’s choir and a full symphony orchestra, this is the very first multi-faith oratorio to be premiered anywhere in the world.  

At the helm, Derek Carden will conduct the London Mozart Players, who will be joined by 100 musicians and singers from local orchestra Hastings Sinfonia, Hastings Music Centre Junior Choir, a new specially-formed choir – the ‘Libera Nos Chorus’, and an all-star cast of talented local soloists that include: Sharon Gamble-Tyner, Linda Grace, Matthew Scott Clark and Stephen Holloway. In preparation for the performance, the choirs involved will be coached in a workshop with renowned conductor and choral animateur Dominic Ellis-Peckham. 

Libera Nos, meaning ‘’Deliver us” in Latin, aims to convey and unite the traditional beliefs and spiritual messages of all main world religions using music and narrations inspired by Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam.  Written by the award-winning local composer Polo Piatti, Libera Nos was originally commissioned by the Musica Sacra organisation and took over three years to be researched and completed. Polo talks about the story behind this monumental work:  

‘Its message is based upon the observation that the world has become a deeply divisive, unjust and unhappy place because we continue disconnecting from each other. Only by looking for common ground and universal similarities we will find understanding and enjoy a better life for all of us on this fragile planet.’