And piano makes five

Hot on the heels of my recent review of Dave Camwell’s Timescape comes this week’s offering – a review of a CD of Piano Quintets by Rubinstein and Rimsky-Korsakov on the Brana label, featuring the late Polish-Brazilian pianist Felicja Blumental and members of the New Philharmonia Wind Ensemble. Both works were completely new to me, and both were scored for the unconventional piano quintet forces of piano, flute, clarinet, bassoon and French horn rather than piano plus string quartet. It was a pleasant discovery, and if you’re interested you can read what I had to say about Piano Quintets by Rubinstein and Rimsky-Korsakov in the 2014 Reviews section of this blog site.

I must say I’ve really enjoyed my return to music reviewing after a six month ‘sabbatical’, listening to new sounds with an analytical ear and trying to find the right words to convey the wonder that is music. While I continue to enjoy writing website copy and regular news items for Andy Scott, the last ‘writing’ I did in my teaching job was some lyrics to Soul Bossa Nova based on various dinosaurs! After today it will be back to saxophone recordings for the next few reviews, so for any saxophonists and saxophiles out there, please watch this space…

Sounds across the Centuries

I’ve just posted my latest CD review in the 2014 Reviews section of this site. This comes after a break of several months as CD reviewing has unfortunately had to be relegated to the back burner while I was developing my new teaching career. With the challenges of teaching Whole Class Ensemble, a long commute down the M1 and learning new instruments (not simultaneously), there has sadly not been time for writing anything other than To Do lists and lesson plans! Anyway, the good news is that the teaching is off to a cracking if tiring start – two and a half terms in and so far so good – so I’m now hoping to catch up gradually with the backlog of CDs for review.

I’ve started with American saxophonist Dave Camwell’s Timescape, which has been sitting on my desk and burning a hole in my conscience for some time! This is a great CD, which should have wide appeal to saxophiles and anyone with an interest in classical music in all its wonderful forms. The album explores a thoughtfully programmed range of excellent music from across the centuries from the Baroque to the present day, linked by common threads of structure, sound and mood. Click to read my review of Timescape to find out more…

Baroque around the clock

Having recently returned from a choral performance trip to Spain and rather wishing that I was still there, singing and enjoying the cerveza, I was pleased to find a CD of Spanish and Portuguese music at the top of the pile to review! Listening to this recording was an interesting experience as both the performer and the featured composers were previously unknown to me. This was Baroque keyboard music played by Felicja Blumental, a Polish pianist who studied with Szymanowski before settling in Brazil and touring throughout Latin America. Please click to read my review of Spanish and Portuguese Keyboard Music in the 2013 section of the Reviews page above.

Today is actually something of a Baroque fest for me, as BBC Radio 3 are broadcasting non stop Baroque works in their Baroque Around The Clock event for Red Nose Day today! This is part of the station’s excellent Baroque Spring initiative, featuring a whole month of Baroquery! With lots of brilliant programme choices, including many works by my all time top favourite Bach, I’m in seventh heaven this month and already worrying about how I’ll cope when normal programming resumes next month! Listen out (or Listen Again) for our Huddersfield Choral Society recording of Handel’s Messiah under Harry Christophers this evening.

Mambo, Blues and Tarantella

I’ve just posted a new CD review in the Reviews section of this site – the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s recent release of music by Mark-Anthony Turnage. The third all-Turnage CD by the LPO on their own label, this excellent CD features world premiere recordings of three concertos (for viola, clarinet and violin) and two other orchestral works, all recorded live. (Today’s title is taken from the name of the concerto for violin and orchestra, recorded in its world premiere performance.) Please use the drop down menu or follow the link above to read my review.

Just about back down to earth now after our recent concerts in Valladolid, Spain, with Huddersfield Choral Society. We gave two performances of Britten’s iconic War Requiem to a packed house in the 2200 seater Auditorio Miguel Delibes last week with the Orquesta Sinfónica De Castilla y León under maestro Jesús López Cobos, featuring a great line up of soloists including Ian Bostridge, no less! We developed a strong rapport with the orchestra and conductor, and our performances were acclaimed by audience members and press alike. A great success!

A voyage of discovery

I’ve just posted my latest review in the 2013 section of the Reviews page above. This was a voyage of discovery – my introduction to the music of Fazil Say, a Turkish composer and pianist, and I absolutely loved what I heard. The CD featured two works: his Istanbul Symphony and ‘Hezarfen’ Concerto for Ney and Orchestra. Now I may have been a woodwind player for more years than I care to acknowledge, but it has taken until now to discover the delights of the Ney, a reed flute. Once heard, never forgotten, so now of course I want one!

Busy preparing for another voyage of discovery – a trip to Spain with Huddersfield Choral Society next week, where we’ll be giving two performances of Britten’s War Requiem to a sell-out audience in the Auditorio Miguel Delibes in Valladolid with the Orquesta Sinfónica De Castilla y León, conducted by Jesús López Cobos. Although many performances of Britten’s works are to be expected in this centenary year, it’s interesting that this is our third international performance of the iconic work. We sang it in Osaka, Japan in 2007 and again in Porto, Portugal in 2009, so Valladolid will be our hat trick!

The Adventures of Pinocchio

A dark winter’s night at home, still recovering from the season’s ailments, seemed the perfect moment to unwrap the DVD of The Adventures of Pinocchio and settle down for an evening of delights. I’d already seen the excellent Opera North production of the work, commissioned from Jonathan Dove with a clever libretto by Alasdair Middleton, no fewer than four times live, so was looking forward to seeing the video version for the first time. Bearing no relation to the Walt Disney film, the opera is based much more closely on the Collodi original text, revealing some dark moments as well as plenty of fun. Pinocchio tells a tall tale, in which a puppet is carved from a log and goes on to discover the difference between right and wrong through a number of crazy episodic adventures, eventually becoming human.

This is far more than a children’s or family opera. Dove’s music is fantastic in every sense, conveying the drama of the unfolding events beautifully and speaking to the audience in a very clear and direct way. The power, beauty and eloquence of the music makes for a moving experience, enhanced by a captivating performance. The soloists shine in the detailed characterisation of an eclectic vocal menagerie, supported ably by the chorus and perfect costumes, set and staging. While hard and perhaps unfair to pick out individuals in such a strong cast, special mention has to go to Rebecca Bottone as the cricket and parrot, the wily fox James Laing, Allan Clayton as the schoolboy Lampwick, the blue fairy Mary Plazas and of course Victoria Simmonds in the nasally over-endowed (in the visual sense) title role. As always, the excellent orchestra produces a rich and varied palette of sound, the perfect vehicle for the composer’s wonderful invention. With themes of good and bad, life and death, choices and consequences, there is much food for thought and this video is a feast for the senses!

Christmas starts with Messiah

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week saw, or rather heard, the Huddersfield Choral Society performances of Handel’s Messiah in their home town. Always popular, these annual concerts cater for both subscribers (this year on the Tuesday) and members of the public with tickets allocated by ballot. Joining Huddersfield Choral on the platform were the brilliant Northern Sinfonia and a line up of fine soloists under the baton of the Choral’s Conductor Laureate Martyn Brabbins, with Chorus Master Joseph Cullen at the harpsichord. Seasonal ailments meant that there were two deps among the soloists, and a special mention has to go to soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, standing in at the 11th hour for an indisposed Susan Gritton and wowing the audience with her wonderful voice and captivating delivery.

From a Choral member’s point of view it was an absolute privilege to share the stage with such excellent musicians, watching the orchestra during the solos, inspired by the players’ perfect combination of focus, musicality and spirit, and honoured that they were clearly enjoying the Huddersfield Messiah experience as much as we were. Well Tuesday’s performance was very good, earning much praise from seasoned attenders, and Wednesday’s was even better – in fact it would be hard to find anything that could’ve been improved! After cheers from the Public audience, Martyn Brabbins paid tribute to a first desk second violinist, retiring after 30 years with the orchestra, whose first and final performances were of the Huddersfield Messiah. A moving occasion and the perfect start to Christmas week.

 

 

A cracking choral concert

Last night was the first of our annual season of subscription concerts with Huddersfield Choral at Huddersfield Town Hall. We were performing a double bill of Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Brahms’ German Requiem with the Liverpool Phil and their principal conductor Vasily Petrenko. Rehearsals on Monday with piano and on Thursday with the orchestra had gone well, so we were looking forward to an inspiring and rewarding event.

And we were not disappointed! It is always a pleasure and a privilege to work with Petrenko, and as always we delivered a brilliant performance under the inspirational conductor, whose trademark combination of exact precision and emotion led the singers and players to produce the same. Baritone Roderick Williams, soloist in both works, sang wonderfully with his lovely rich tone, and Ailish Tynan made a short but sweet appearance as soprano soloist in the Brahms.

This was actually the second of two memorable performances of the Brahms with Huddersfield Choral in recent years, but this was our first time for the Vaughan Williams. The first concert of the German Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda a few years back had converted me in one fell swoop from loathing the work to loving it, a wonderful gift as that event happened to be on my birthday!

A treat from Apollo

Last night was Halloween, and instead of staying in to be pestered by Trick Or Treaters we went over to York for a treat of our own in the form of a performance by the awesome Apollo Saxophone Quartet. And what a treat it turned out to be! The quartet gave a concert of some of their commissions from composers from the world of jazz and a selection of their own hilarious compositions to accompany some early experimental black and white silent films.

Django Bates’ Travel Cartoons for the Blind gave a child’s view of the world in four picture based movements, memorably tuning pairs of sopranos a quarter tone apart in one to imitate a child’s Scooter. Five Melodies and Four Whispers for Archie’s Chair by Keith Tippett were complemented by projected images representing each contrasting portrait movement – a nice touch. The writing and performance captured the essence of each person portrayed, from The Archer to The Pastor, the latter including a quote from a well known hymn. The group’s famous tight timing was evident, and they delivered a cracking performance.

Two movements from saxophone quartets by Barbara Thompson were funky and tuneful, suggesting a Carnival and a Greek dance respectively. Of all the works, Kenny Wheeler’s Just Four Men revealed the composer’s jazz roots most strongly in a spirited performance by the group. The music for silent film, Journey Across The Impossible, was a very entertaining audience pleaser, with recent additions by the group’s alto player Carl Raven and baritonist Jim Fieldhouse joining ever popular movements by Rob Buckland (soprano), Andy Scott (tenor) and former member Will Gregory.

Rob Buckland’s arrangement of the traditional Bulgarian Kaval Sviri for four sopranos made an impressive opener, the four performers entering from the back of the auditorium and making their way to the stage while playing. (Don’t try this at home!) At the other end of the show, High Life by the group’s former baritone player Will Gregory, now better known for his more recent work in Goldfrapp, brought the evening to an exuberant end with South African rhythms, a catchy tune and a high feelgood factor.

The quartet will be performing the same programme in Brighton and Camden – the latter as part of the London Jazz Festival – over the next couple of weeks, so catch them if you can!

New LPO Sibelius CD

I’ve just posted a new CD review in the Reviews section of this site. This is an all Sibelius programme, recorded live by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sibelius expert Paavo Berglund and issued on their own label. It features the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and The Swan of Tuonela. Please check out the review in the 2012 section of the CD Reviews page above.

Heading off to York later to hear the Apollo Saxophone Quartet perform in the University’s great concert series. This is a busy music week with two rehearsals and a concert with Huddersfield Choral Society and Vasily Petrenko, plus three evening events to attend! Please pop back later to hear about tonight’s concert and our own performance on Friday…