A long day at the Proms

Posted on September 23, 2013 by vhk10

Saturday August 17th was a marathon as there were two Proms to go to. We arrived earlier than we needed to and found ourselves near the head of the queue, which put us among some of the hard-core queuers. This provided some entertaining conversations to overhear, such as the one between an unreconstructed Marxist and an unimpressed Eastern European.

The first Prom was the CBSO under Andris Nelsons with Nelsons’ wife Kristīne Opolais as soloist. The opening work was Dvořák’s 8th Symphony, which is curiously unfamiliar to me. I was surprised at how relatively unmelodic it was for a piece by this composer, especially in the first two movements. Nelsons’ conducting style is extravagant, with his occasional vocalising audible to us near the front of the Arena! After the interval we enjoyed the operatic scenas of Desdemona’s Willow Song and Ave Maria and Tatyana’s Letter Scene (preceded by the Onegin Polonaise). Opolais was particularly good at floated quiet high notes. I am enough of a theatre person to miss at least having some props, though. Finally came Strauss’ Emperor Waltz and Thunder and Lightning Polka and for a moment I was able to imagine the Arena transformed into a ballroom and full of whirling couples.

After a break for food we returned for the second concert (the cloakroom ticket system ensures that those who were at the first Prom are first in the queue for the second one). This was Marin Alsop (whose conducting style is the polar opposite of Andris Nelsons’) and the OAE performing Brahms and Schumann. The Tragic Overture passed rather uneventfully as a curtain-raiser, but things really came alight for Schumann’s Fourth Symphony which was full of drama and beautifully played.

The main work, however was the German Requiem, with OAE’s own choir of youngish singers and soloists Rachel Harnisch and Hank Neven. This was another fine performance, but I had a couple of reservations about the choir. One was that the ATB sang with a full tone but the soprano sound was rather white by comparison. A consequence of the age of the singers, no doubt. The other was that the choir never sang really quietly (the exception being Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit, when they were sitting down), so the full dynamic range of the work wasn’t explored.

Reviews were not numerous – the papers seem to have given up reviewing all Promenade concerts.
Prom 46:

Prom 47:

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a wedding at Redcliffe

Posted on September 11, 2013 by vhk10

I hadn’t sung at St. Mary Redcliffe for a few years, the last time being my first Exultate Singers concert. I was invited back to join the choir for a wedding. I think that since I last sang there the organ has had a rebuild; it certainly sounded good anyway. I had plenty of opportunity to admire the (considerable) architectural splendour of this church, as the bride arrived 40 minutes late (the delay being something to do with her make-up). We performed an anthem by Handel and some hymns, craning over one another’s orders of service for the words as there were only a limited number for the choir (choirs at weddings don’t need the expensive shell, but we do need the insert with the words of the hymns in!). Despite this it was a pleasant change to be a guest singer at another church, and we don’t have very many weddings at ours, though one is promised for next year.

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great composers in Chichester

Posted on August 11, 2013 by vhk10

It has taken the Erleigh Cantors a long time to get round to visiting Chichester Cathedral, but we made our debut appearance at the end of July.  It was an intensive weekend with some notable but taxing pieces by major composers.

The main piece that was new to me was Poulenc’s Exultate Deo which starts off in a way reminiscent of Palestrina’s setting of the same text, but rapidly becomes almost percussive in style, with many discrete changes in dynamic level.  Despite looking daunting at first, it soon fell into place in rehearsal.  Perhaps this is what happens with music by a great composer – there’s no feeling that it would not matter much if the notes were slightly different, rather they are the best that they can be, which reduces the temptation to sing something else.

The other new piece was When I survey the wondrous Cross by Edgar Day. This was charmingly retro – although I think it dates from the mid-20th century, it could easily have been written seventy years earlier. It’s quite long and thickly scored. We reprised Gabrieli’s Jubilate Deo from our recent concert. Schütz’ German Magnificat is familiar to me from previous performances, but wasn’t to everybody. I hadn’t done God is gone up by Finzi for ages, and I don’t think I’d ever sung the 2nd soprano part before. Our music also included Howells’ Coll. Reg. Te Deum and Jubilate (the Jubilate being much less familiar to me), Holst’s Nunc Dimittis, Stanford in A and the rather infrequently performed but mostly straightforward Missa Capellae Regalis by Anthony Caesar. Added to all of this were generous amounts of psalmody (including all 6 for the 27th evening!) which we coped with admirably. A packed programme, so it was probably a good thing we didn’t add any introits.

We were well looked after by the Cathedral (good to see that the ‘voice of Chichester’ is still there!), who arranged for us to have Sunday lunch together in a room within the refectory, to help with the tight turnaround. I stayed in George Bell House, a conference centre/B & B run by the Cathedral, which I recommend, not least because it is in the Close! We rehearsed in the lovely song room, which features one of the more eccentric Cathedral fire escape arrangements, rather reminiscent of the door in Being John Malkovich.

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in which the rest of the family listens to Piazzolla

Posted on August 7, 2013 by vhk10

Actually I think it was just my husband who did so – he went to a recital at the Wigmore Hall by Bernanda Fink and her brother Marcos (accompanied by Anthony Spiri), singing a polyglot selection of songs. The novelty was some Slovenian songs which were pleasant enough but could have been written several decades earlier then they were, which was in about the 1930’s. ‘A sort of Slovenian Roger Quilter’.

In July he went to a recital by Samara Ginsberg and Leo Nicholson at the Pump Room under the aegis of the Bath Recital Artists’ Trust, which also included some Piazzolla.

In July others in the family also went to Prom 23 (my daughter’s first time in the Arena) and heard Daniel Harding with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra perform lots of music in C.  Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music shaded without a break into Schumann’s Second Symphony, in an account which didn’t really make much of a case for it.  In the second half Paul Lewis played Mozart’s K503 piano concerto and the concert ended with Sibelius 7.  The Mozart concerto also seemed rather bland, but the Sibelius was better.

In another family development, my elder son got a merit in Grade 1 trumpet!

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So what next?

Posted on August 2, 2013 by vhk10

To celebrate singing in all 42 Cathedrals I had a party with a rather special cake:

Cathedral cake

Cathedral cake


Not surprisingly, I’ve been asked several times what my next ambition is. I don’t have anything definite, as it’s nice after all these years to feel I’m not chasing round the country to meet a target. But there are some things it would be nice to do, some of which really ought to be easier than singing in forty-two Cathedrals.

a) Anglican Cathedrals in Wales. I’ve sung in two of the six, and would happily accept, or even arrange visits to any of the remaining four (Bangor, St. Asaph, St. Woolos, Brecon).
b) Singing in the Royal Albert Hall. Ideally this would be at a Promenade concert, but failing that there is the Really Big Chorus. A neighbour is also interested in this venture and I might join him.
c) Singing in the Lord Mayor’s Chapel in Bristol, either at a service or in a concert with the Chapel Singers. I’m on the dep list, which in theory ought to mean I get invited to join the Singers’ concerts.

I have some other interesting venues lined up in the spring, so watch this space.

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Resounding Russian music at the Forum

Posted on July 19, 2013 by vhk10

I signed up for the South West Festival Chorus intending to sing The Kingdom by Elgar, and got as far as borrowing a score, but the programme was then changed to a ‘Russian Spectacular’. It was the first time I had ever performed in the Forum (and experienced its hot lighting and poor sightlines).

In the first half the Bath Phil played Sheherezade. I’d not heard this all the way through for a long time – it really is of symphonic length. As I didn’t have a programme I was a bit vague about which story corresponded to which bit of the music!

The choral second half conducted by Gavin Carr began by raising the roof with the Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov. This was followed by a rarity I’d never come across, Rachmaninov’s three folk-song arrangements op. 41, sung in English (but with the translation improved a bit). These are straightforward from a vocal point of view (sung almost entirely in unison), but with more colour and some lovely original melodies in the orchestral interludes. We were asked to picture the scenes described in one song as we sang it, which I found a rather puzzling instruction – don’t people do this automatically?

More noise followed with the Polovstian Dances in their original choral version. Again, there was a lot more to these than I remembered, and I’d never bothered to find out quite how they fitted into the opera until now. Finally came the 1812 Overture with the choir singing the hymn at beginning and end. Cannon and mortar effects emerged from loudspeakers, with someone somewhere controlling a recording so they co-ordinated with the music. The audience were appreciative though their ears must have been ringing for a while afterwards.

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Bradford falls

Posted on July 16, 2013 by vhk10

An RSCM ‘Come and sing Evensong with the Cathedral choir’ event provided a chance to sing in the only one of the 42 English Church of England Cathedrals I hadn’t yet performed in: Bradford. I’d not actually ever done anything like this before: stand alongside the Cathedral choir, in the choir stalls, to sing a service. It was probably only practical because Bradford is a very small diocese, so not that many extra singers would sign up (in fact, a few days later General Synod started the procedure for abolishing the Diocese, though not the Cathedral).

The music was Smith responses, Sumsion in A and The Heavens are telling by Haydn. A laptop had been discreetly located just off the nave to keep up with the tennis, and after the end of evensong some of us saw the winning point of the men’s singles final on another singer’s phone.

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Bath Festival 2013: Berlioz at the Forum

Posted on July 1, 2013 by vhk10

I went to only one Bath Festival concert this year because most of the other interesting ones were around the first weekend of the Festival when I was away or busy. There were certainly some other concerts I’d have gone to if I’d been free, such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, who are really on good form at the moment.

After a day out at the Royal Bath & West Show I went to hear the Bath Phil conducted by Gavin Carr (replacing Jason Thornton at short notice) in the Forum. Of course I can hear the Bath Phil all through the year, but this programme appealed, mainly because of Les Nuits d’Été, sung by Anna Huntley. Hearing these songs with orchestra brought out all the more the links to Berlioz’ Requiem; I noticed the two-note motif from the Offertory in the latter turning up in Sur les lagunes. However, I felt the performance was wanting in communication, and ensemble between soloist and orchestra seemed to slip in some places.

The concert opened with Mendelssohn’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. which was considerably longer than I thought it was. It was a rather curious way to start a programme that otherwise consisted entirely of French music, though I’m told that the programme was not chosen by the orchestra. In the second half Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte was followed by Bizet’s Symphony in C. I don’t know whether Bizet ever intended to write more symphonies, but he’s ended up as a monosymphonist. For some reason the last movement was much more familiar to me than the rest.

Although there were occasional wobbles in the woodwind and brass, there was also some beautiful solo playing, including a lovely oboe solo in the slow movement of the Bizet, which rightly earned a curtain call for the oboist.

The only other family member to go to any Festival concerts was my husband who heard I Fagiolini play the first three Brandenburg concertos at the Assembly Rooms – reported as enjoyable, but a bit of a scramble to get to his cricket match afterwards as the concert overran.

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A family night out at the opera

Posted on June 15, 2013 by vhk10

#enowozzeck

In fact we didn’t all go to the same opera. My husband and daughter went to Don Carlos at Covent Garden (she will write about this in her own blog in due course), and when I realised that the final night of ENO’s Wozzeck was on the same night, I joined them on the train to London.

This new production by Carrie Cracknell updated the setting to the present, with familiar images such as soldiers carrying flag-draped coffins and modern dress (apart from Margret, whose get-up seemed to date from about 1960). The action played out entirely indoors, on a split-level, harshly lit set. This approach also influenced some musical decisions, such as performing the Sprechgesänge closer to speech than is sometimes done. I don’t really need to describe the production in detail as all the reviews below do that.

As a result quite a lot of references in the libretto couldn’t be taken literally. For example, the pool where Wozzeck drowns exists only in his head as he stabs himself, after which water flows down the set (a lot of reviewers thought this was meant to be blood, though it didn’t seem so to me).

One strength of this production which others haven’t commented on was that the minor characters such as Andres (here a veteran in a wheelchair) were better delineated than they sometimes are. And this is the first production of one of Berg’s operas that I’ve seen which featured drugs (although Berg himself seems to have been no stranger to them – if I understand his letters correctly he took at least two substances that would be class A these days).

I can only endorse the praise that was heaped on all performances, but the orchestral playing under Edward Gardner was the finest I’ve heard from ENO, with beautiful tone yet not afraid to take risks, as in the second crescendo after the murder scene, which was the most prolonged I’ve heard.

So I was glad to catch this production. It was reviewed all over the place, including in some papers that don’t normally do much opera, with the reviews demonstrating that performances of this work tend to be evaluated by the effect they have on the audience. Here’s a selection of them:

Berg’s music caught up with me again a couple of weeks later, at a church summer fête (as it once did at the equivalent event at the children’s school). Leafing through a few classical CDs which were being sold second-hand, I found an EMI compilation of ’20th century classics’ which included the Menuhin/Boulez recording of his violin concerto, which I have on LP but which has long since gone from the catalogue. I had transferred it as best I could to CD, crackles and all, but now I have a clean copy!

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aunts and uncles

Posted on May 25, 2013 by vhk10

#earley
The Erleigh Cantors’ concert in St. Peter’s Earley (a new venue for us) had a dual theme of Venice and Shakespeare, though we didn’t actually sing anything connected to The Merchant of Venice.

The first half was Venetian, and began with motets by Andrea Gabrieli and his nephew Giovanni, who developed his uncle’s style considerably by writing for multiple choirs and more voices. We ended with Ronald Corp’s Missa San Marco which we sang in Ely Cathedral last year, including the Kyrie which we didn’t do at Ely.

The second half contained the Shakespeare pieces. Vaughan Williams’ In Windsor Forest is a suite of music from his rarely-staged opera Sir John in Love. This grew on me as we rehearsed it (from some of the worst laid out vocal scores I’ve encountered – I would guess the typesetting was unchanged from the 1950’s). Though I’d rather have been able to sing the shanty-like drinking song (tenors and basses only) than the bit about fairies dancing around in a ring – not I hasten to say because of the subject matter, I just think the music is better!

More Vaughan Williams followed, his three Shakespeare songs for unaccompanied choir, which I sang once with the Brandon Hill Singers. Then came George Shearing’s Songs and Sonnets. These seven pieces make use of all sorts of styles: close harmony, Victorian part-song, lute song, stride piano, fox-trot, ragtime etc. The jazz rhythms are mostly in the accompaniment and felt more natural than in some other similar pieces, perhaps because Shearing was an actual jazzman (Jack Kerouac celebrates his playing in On the Road). Not all the lyrics are actually by the Bard, and they concealed various doubles entendres and other ribaldry. I did some research using the OED, which revealed that an apparently Wodehousian line about ‘me and my aunts’ was not as innocent as it sounded.

We slipped in an encore, Psalm 23 from Rutter’s Requiem, a piece I’ve never sung though most others in the choir appeared to know it. We were ably accompanied on piano by Sally Goodworth, and Rachel Porter played oboe pieces by Vivaldi and Elgar (I never knew that he had sketched but not competed an oboe concerto – we heard the intended slow movement). Merry Evans read some texts which complemented the music, including an extract from Cider with Rosie and Byron on Venice.

St. Peter’s Earley is a handsome Victorian church which clearly had some very dedicated needlepointers a few years ago, as I estimate it has at least 300 handmade kneelers in it. Our concert was in aid of research into Alzheimer’s disease, and drew a healthy audience which drank the wine supply dry in the interval (and they hadn’t even heard the drinking song at that stage!) More soberly, in the morning I’d gone to the apple juice stall at Bath farmers’ market and there was only one variety of apple that would do: Falstaff. I drank a glass in honour of the fat knight on my return home after the concert.

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Freude!

Posted on May 25, 2013 by vhk10

#colstonhall @bristolchoral

I have come round a bit to Beethoven 9 since I last sang it, quite a few years ago. It was the first piece I ever sang with a full orchestra, a performance in Oxford Town Hall when I was at school, and I performed it a couple of times when I was a student. Perhaps I’m no longer freaked out by the sight of a page with nothing but top A’s on it, but the work no longer seems a great strain to sing, provided I pace myself carefully. I don’t think it will ever be my favourite Beethoven symphony though.

The Bristol Ensemble (so that’s where the Emerald Ensemble went!) conducted by David Ogden, made a very good case for the work, with a beautifully layered sound and some wonderfully controlled dynamic changes. I was particularly impressed with their brass section, whose statement of the theme of the last movement was, appropriately, a joy to listen to. The Bristol Choral Society were joined by members of the City of Bristol Choir and Exultate Singers. We sang from scores that began part way through the last movement, and I was rather surprised how many in the choir didn’t know the whole symphony well enough to tell when the orchestra had reached the beginning of the printed vocal score.

Earlier in the evening we heard a work celebrating a city, Rhapsody in Blue, with plenty for that brass section and some virtuosity from Freddy Kempf, and as a great contrast, Bardesey Sound by Bernard Kane, an atmospheric tone-poem depicting a treacherous stretch of water off the Lleyn peninsula in NW Wales.

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Bristol loses a music shop

Posted on May 16, 2013 by vhk10

On my way to work I walk near Providence Music, which has been open in St. George’s Rd for the last few years. It currently has a 25% sale on all stock, sadly because it is closing down. I used it a number of times and found it well stocked (better on sheet music than CDs) and with knowledgeable staff. I suppose we must hope that the Music Room across the road does something to fill the gap; at least last time I went there it was in the process of expanding its choral music stock. It is a shame that there was not enough custom for Providence Music, especially as there are several musical instrument repairers and dealers in the streets nearby.

This is a rather common and depressing pattern. Bath lost its music shop, although it has since gained a rather smaller replacement. Oxford used to have three when I first started visiting, but is now down to one, which has again moved to smaller premises than it used to have. It is easy to blame the internet for this trend, but I think an age of steep business rates has something to answer for too. Some of the shops I remember (I don’t include Providence Music here) were not very well run and got away with it for a long time, until running costs got too high.

So I bought Lionel Pike’s Novello Tudor anthem collection, which nicely complements the Oxford Tudor Anthem Book, though O clap your hands by Gibbons and Weelkes’ Hosanna to the Son of David appear in both. And a recording of I Vespri Siciliani.

[August 2013: further sad news – around the time the Providence Music finally shut its doors, I learned of the demise of Brian Jordan’s shop in Cambridge. And Blackwell’s Music in Oxford has moved into the main Blackwell’s shop, though I have it on good authority that the shelf space for sheet music remains the same; once again, high business rates are the main reason.]

[September 2013: All the best to Bristol’s new music shop, Op. 13. Just to show how these things go round and round, it has taken over a lot of Brian Jordan’s old stock. I’ll be visiting soon.]

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