All music by William Lawes, this is what we heard:
Choice Psalmes: – Music, the master of thy art is dead
Harp Consort No. 9 in D:– Pavin on a theme by Cormacke
Choice Psalmes: – My God, my rock, regard my cry
My God, my rock, regard my cry (arranged by Loris Barrucand)
Judah in exile wanders
Harp Consort No. 5 In D: – Alman – Saraband
Harp Consort No. 4 in D: – Coranto
Choice Psalmes: – Whieles I this standing lake swathed up with ewe
Love, I obey, shoot home thy dart
O sing unto the Lord a new song
Harp Consort No. 11 in D: – Fantazy
Choice Psalmes: – Ne irascaris, Domine
Harp Consort No. 10 in G: – Paven on a theme by Coprario
Choice Psalmes: – How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord
Come sing the great Jehova’s praise
In resurrectione tua
Harp Consort No. 8 in G
Choice Psalmes: – O my Clarissa
This concert is basically their latest album Lighten Mine Eies, available I’m sure at all good CD outlets and streaming, e.g. YouTube Music – click here.
Below is a little video clip of them performing one of the instrumental pieces:
While below is a little video clip of them performing one of the choral pieces:
We were supposed to hear Maïlys de Villoutreys sing the soprano parts, but she was unfortunately unwell. Enter a late replacement in the form of Marion Tassou, who did a wonderful job given the near-absence of preparation and rehearsal time.
Ensemble Près are a very together-looking unit, handling the late soprano switch like the commensurate professionals they clearly are.
We really enjoyed this concert and have enjoyed listening to their recordings of 16th and 17th century English music since. An unusual choice of repertoire for a young French ensemble. I hope it works for them.
Robin Pharo, their leader and gambist, did mention that they have started work on some French repertoire as well. Quelle surprise!
Our first Wigmore Hall concert of the year. We had been looking forward to this concert as something rather different…which it was. It was also very different from the concert as promoted. The rubric mentioned banjo and tambourine. Rhiannon apologised for that, as she explained that she and Francesco were currently working on voice and piano.
No-one seemed to mind. The audience mostly comprised Rhiannon fans, from what we could make out. We didn’t recognise fellow Wigmore-istas. Which is a good thing in our view. We are great believers in the Wig opening up to different artists and styles.
The music Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi played us was delightful and of the highest quality, albeit relentlessly downbeat in mood. Leonard Cohen and John Dowland had nothing on this pair in the gloom department.
Rhiannon is a charismatic performer, who can clearly shift between musical styles and spoken languages in a seemingly effortless way.
She did get caught out on the piece they were premiering that night, when the music page technology let her down. She stopped, explained the problem and asked if we wanted her to start again?
Yes please…
…we all shouted. So she started again.
Francesco explained with great enthusiasm that he had been afforded the honour and opportunity to play The Old Lady – the older of the two Steinway pianos at The Wig that rarely gets an outing. I had thought that the piano looked a little different when we arrived. The headline photo shows The Old Lady with our reflections in it as I snapped it on exit.
There’s not a lot of on-line video showing Rhiannon Giddens performing with Francesco Turrisi, but the following YouTube (which also includes one other musician), shows one of the most moving pieces they played: American Tune by Paul Simon:
We thoroughly enjoyed this concert and will look out for other concerts in Rhiannon Giddens Wigmore Hall residency. We might get to hear the banjo and tambourine next time. Or something completely different. I don’t suppose we’d much mind.
To the Wigmore Hall for an evening of Jazz. We hadn’t yet seen jazz pianist/arranger/composer Emmet Cohen, although I think he has been curating the jazz at Wigmore Hall for a while now. Emmet’s previous dates/gigs hadn’t worked for us.
This was a good chance to see him with a couple of his regular buddies as a trio: Joey Ranieri on bass and Joe Farnsworth on percussion.
Calm before the storm
We heard:
Frederick Loewe – I’ve grown accustomed to her face
Bud Powell – Budo
Ernesto Lecuona – La Comparsa
Ralph Blane & Hugh Martin – The Trolley Song
Tadd Dameron – If You Could See Me Now
Ray Brown – Lined With a Groove
Emmet Cohen – Universal Truth Suite: I. Compassion, II. Eternal Glimpse, III. Universal truth
Scott Joplin – Original Rags (arranged by Emmet Cohen)
Harold Mabern – Rakin’ and Scrapin’ (arranged by Emmet Cohen)
Here’s a YouTube of the three of them playing together in Switzerland a couple of years ago – but not playing one of the pieces we heard:
They look a bit less joyous in Switzerland – possibly they were on “stronger meds” when at The Wig. The audience for sure were well “medicated” – the bar was heaving with people before the concert…as were the loos. Very few familiar faces – not many of us Wigmore Hall Mafia dig early music and jazz.
Here is a link to the entire gig that those three did in Amsterdam a few days before they arrived at The Wig – there will be many similarities and overlaps:
I’m guessing that the Dutch do better meds than Swiss.
Of course, this is incredibly accomplished stuff and Janie and I enjoyed ourselves very much.
Some of the music choices are not quite to our taste – tunes from musicals of the 40s and 50s tend to sound corny to our ears and, to some extent, even more so when syncopated into cool jazz. The Trolley Song, in particular, could, for me, only conjure up a vision of Judy Garland dressed in Edwardian finery.
The only other issue we have with this style of jazz concert is the “mutual admiration society” style chat, about each other and about jazz masters past and present with whom they have worked. I realise that there is a type of jazz maven who likes to hear all that stuff, but we prefer to let the music speak for itself. There’s also something “not quite our style” about self-aggrandisement.
But this nit-picking does not detract from a thoroughly enjoyable evening of top quality jazz musicianship, for which we are grateful. We think the acoustics of the Wigmore Hall work brilliantly for small jazz combos such as this trio, although Emmet suggested at one point that he finds the acoustics of the hall “a bit weird”.
Anyway, as Janie and I have said repeatedly to the powers that be at The Wigmore Hall over the years with regard to jazz – more of this please.
Tuesday 12 August: Goodbye Hydrotherapy At Riverstone, Hello Chelsea Arts Club
I had my last hydrotherapy session for my hip surgery rehab with Michael Lambert at Riverstone that afternoon – highly recommended if you are recovering from major surgery or injury, btw. My entire focus now will be on the more gruelling home and gym based physio.
Criss-crossing the Borough all day – later that afternoon, I ventured to the Chelsea Arts Club, where Tony Friend had kindly arranged to introduce me to Nigel à Brassard, a fellow avocational writer/historian who is also to speak at the Real Tennis Society history conference next month. A most pleasurable early evening with some very interesting note-swapping. I think Nigel’s notes to me will have helped me far more than my notes will have helped Nigel. I don’t suppose he minds.
Wednesday 13 August: A Sad Day At Stuart Morris’s Funeral
A few week’s ago Janie and I were shocked to learn that Stuart, Annalisa’s husband, had died suddenly and unexpectedly of heart failure. We resolved to keep the funeral day free and attended the moving and dignified ceremony at Bierton Crematorium.
In truth, we did not know Stuart well, having met him perhaps once or twice before attending Annalisa & Stuart’s wedding, all those years ago:
But of course we did know Annalisa well and wanted to be there for her. As it turned out, it was a very large gathering, as Stuart had been extremely popular and well -regarded by friends, police colleagues and even his latter-day colleagues from Whipsnade Zoo, whom Stuart had not known for long but the several who attended seemed much affected by their time with him, which had been so cruelly cut short.
Thursday 14 August: Nat Oaks Concert At Lord’s, Before & After Which Was Some Tennis & Cricket
I love being able to combine tennis and cricket on visits to Lord’s. Not least when this combination of activity affords the opportunity to watch some cricket with a fellow tennis player or two. On this occasion, some relatively gentle doubles (playing entirely left-handed at the time having torn my bicep tendon in late July), followed by The Hundred matches between the London Spirit and Trent Rockets, with Nat Oaks performing in-between.
…was one of the four again. This time, we had the opportunity to watch some cricket and contemporary music together after our game. It was great to watch some cricket with Max, as we had never much discussed cricket before, given the highly focussed nature of our mind sets, and therefore conversation, when playing tennis.
Max had never watched women’s cricket live before and I think was quite taken with it when observed from the rarefied atmosphere of the Lord’s pavilion terrace. We are so privileged being able to use those facilities as “our cricket club-house”.
I’m not sure that Max was as sure about the music of Nat Oaks. I rather liked it, having extensively researched the subject ahead of the match (i.e. I had watched two on-line vids before setting off for Lord’s).
This is what she looked like performing live at Lord’s – thanks to BBC Music:
Max stuck around for almost half of the men’s match. I stuck around for the entire first half of it.
Friday 15 August: A Day Chatting & Eating With Ben Schwarz
It was a most pleasant way to spend a large chunk of the day. We nattered for so long over a pot of tea at Clanricarde Gardens, that by the time we got to The Orangery in Kensington Gardens, they’d stopped serving the lunch menu and had moved on to the high tea menu. A suitable venue for high tea, we shared one of those and then strolled in the gardens chatting some more.
This photo, in truth, from 1994, but the look of the place on a sunny day hasn’t changed
Naturally, we didn’t quite complete the list of topics we had been hoping to discuss, so we’ll chat some more in the autumn. It will be interesting to compare notes from our respective times in the USA when next we meet.
I bought some CDs (remember them?) on the back of that concert and we attempted to see him again a year or two later, but he had to cancel that concert due to injury and disappeared off our radar for a while.
I had noticed his name on schedules relatively recently, but this was the first time that the timings worked for us…more or less.
I say “more or less”, because I knew that we would most likely be at Lord’s that day for the fourth day of the test match…
…and a day at the test followed by a concert at The Wig was sure to be a rigorous test for Pinky, my brand-new hip.
Still, Lord’s and the Wigmore Hall are the only places left on the planet where some stewards and fellow patrons still occasionally refer to me as “young man”, so it had to be worth a go.
Pinky and I passed the test with flying colours, as did Miloš Karadaglić. But things have also changed for Miloš since we last saw him. For a start, he has become mononymous; “Miloš” is his entire billing name now. Miloš now plays with some strapping on one of his hands and plays accompanied rather than solo, perhaps to help manage his workload.
When I booked the concert the plan was for him to be accompanied by an accordion player, but the concert was changed substantially between booking and concert. Instead we saw him with the Piatti Quartet, which, frankly, was more to our taste than I imagine the accordion would have been.
The concert was lovely. Miloš still plays delightfully and with great elegance. You could sense that he had built a great rapport with the quartet for this concert/mini-tour. The Piatti Quartet also played beautifully.
Miloš explained that, in a musical world that is increasingly about playlists that keep individual items short, while mixing and matching styles, this concert was designed like such a playlist. Hence the four movements of the Castelnuovo-Tedesco Guitar Quintet unusually peppered throughout the concert.
In the first half we heard:
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Guitar Quintet Op. 143: I. Allegro, vivo e schietto
Benedetto Marcello – Oboe Concerto in D minor: II. Adagio
Luigi Boccherini – Guitar Quintet in D G448 ‘Fandango’
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Guitar Quintet Op. 143: II. Andante mesto
Malcolm Arnold – Serenade for guitar and strings Op. 50
Anon – Spanish Romance
Ástor Piazzolla – Libertango
This video clip of him playing the Spanish Romance will give you a sense of his playing:
During the interval, Janie struck up a conversation with the American lady who was sitting, alone, to Janie’s right. The lady told us that she had become a bit of a groupie for Miloš, having seen him several times at various locations in the recent past. She seemed surprised (and perhaps a little envious) that we had seen him as long ago as 2015. She then admitted that she had somewhat of a crush on Miloš and blushed. I asked politely what Miloš has that I haven’t got? I thought I heard a rather complimentary response from the blushing lady, although Janie claims to have heard the response differently. “Young man” was not part of the answer in either of our rememberings.
In the second half we heard:
Philip Glass – String Quartet No. 2 ‘Company’
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Guitar Quintet Op. 143: III. Scherzo. Allegro con spirito, alla marcia
Pablo Casals – Song of the Birds (arranged by Piatti Quartet)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Guitar Quintet Op. 143: IV. Finale. Allegro con fuoco
Harold Arlen – The Wizard of Oz: Over the Rainbow (arranged by Tōru Takemitsu)
The Beatles – Eleanor Rigby
The Beatles – Fool on the Hill
The Beatles -Here Comes the Sun
Encore: Antonio Luca Vivaldi – Concerto in D major for flute, oboe, violin and bassoon RV90: II. Largo
It’s difficult to come up with appropriate adjectives for someone like Kit Armstrong. He studied composition and started playing the piano at the age of five, enrolled on undergraduate courses in biology, physics, mathematics and music at the age of nine, graduated in music at age 16 and completed an MSc in mathematics age 20. Words like “prodigy” and “genius” seem insufficient.
…as I was keen to include some Byrd and Bull in the performance, which led me to Kim Armstrong’s magnificent album William Byrd & John Bull from 2021.
I was keen to see him live, so couldn’t resist the opportunity at The Wigmore Hall, despite Janie’s (and my) resistance to braving that area in the run up to Christmas.
By Sunday 22 December things should have simmered down around there…
…I said. I was right. Our journey and the parking was just fine.
To add to the charm of the evening, my tennis friend John Thirlwell was there with his companion. They made pleasant company before the concert and during the interval.
Mr Thirlwell relaxing after doing battle on the tennis court at Lord’s
Kit Armstrong had chosen a quirky selection of pieces. He explains his choice in the following promo vid:
We were especially taken by the Saint-Saëns (I have long loved that piece), the Leopold Godowsky (new to both of us as composer and piece alike) and the Arvo Pärt (we didn’t know the piece but tend to like Part’s charming minimalism.)
I have had trouble tracking down the encore, but I am pretty sure it was Baude Cordier – Belle, Bonne, Sage, as I cannot imagine that there are too many pieces from around 1400 which the composer set out in the shape of a heart. Cute.
In truth I don’t think the piece worked well as a piano transcript – it is more lovely to my ears as a vocal rondeau.
Still, it was a superb concert. Janie and I were enthralled by it and so glad we made the effort to go to The Wig just before Christmas!
What a lovely, relaxing concert this was. Not so relaxing getting to The Wig on a Friday evening in the run up to Christmas. Nor all that relaxing navigating the inners of a packed Wigmore Hall. But once we were in our seats…bliss.
Janie must have asked me three times if it was ACTUALLY Ton Koopman‘s birthday that day. I said “probably not” and was right, but he had just turned 80 a few week’s before the concert, so this must be his 80th birthday tour.
A man who has dedicated his career to the Baroque canon, we sensed that Koopman surrounds himself with the finest exponents of baroque music, making a happy atmosphere and sound with those people.
All of the pieces were by Telemann. Before the interval, we heard:
Trio Sonata in D minor for recorder, violin and continuo TWV42:d7
Trio Sonata in G minor for oboe, violin and continuo TWV42:g5
Sonata in F minor for bassoon and continuo TWV41:f1
Trio Sonata in F for violin, viola da gamba and continuo TWV42:F10
Quartet in D minor for recorder, traverso, bassoon and continuo from Tafelmusik II TWV43:d1
After the interval we heard:
Trio Sonata in C for recorder, traverso and continuo TWV42:C1
Quartet in G for traverso, oboe, violin and continuo TWV43:G2
Trio Sonata in F for recorder, viola da gamba and continuo TWV42:F3
Quartet in G for recorder, oboe, violin and continuo TWV43:G6
You might get a feel for the sound from the following YouTube, which includes Robert Smith (whom we saw) on the bass viol and focuses on recorder sonatas, of which we heard a few:
Or this one, which is a live performance of a Telemann trio sonata with recorder and viol:
Or this one, a movement from the Oboe Sonata g5 recorded by Ton Koopman and his then mates 30 years ago:
John & Mandy suggested that we visit Saffron Walden for the dual purpose of seeing The Sixteen perform at Saffron Hall and to allow John to cook for us in his newly-extended kitchen…
…a kitchen so comprehensively extended that their home now appears to be a kitchen with some other rooms extended onto the kitchen, rather than a house with a kitchen extension:
Mandy & Me, with John (cooking) just visible in the distance
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
15th Going On 16th Century Cottage
Janie and I decided to make this a “proper short break”, arranging three nights in a properly old cottage, Drake’s Cottage, in the medieval part of town. The headline photo shows a picture of the outside of the cottage, inside the cottage. It dates back to 1461, making it even older than the 1480’s place we stayed in at Stratford a few weeks ago…
…although in truth most of what remains appears to be a major rebuild from the 1530’s, around the time the bigger houses in the Myddlyton part of town were built. In any case, it is seriously wonky compared with proper mock Tudor such as our 1930’s Noddyland abode:
Proper mock Tudor with proper straight lines
We arrived later than intended on the Thursday afternoon. I was keen to get to the cottage before dark, as I am now really averse to driving on country roads when it is dark or even dusky. We didn’t quite make it, although you could argue that it was still dusky…just “well dusky” when we arrived rather than “proper dark”.
As we were self-catering, I was keen to do a bit of rudimentary cooking for a change, so knocked up a prawn and pea pappardelle dish with a large salad.
We took our time before venturing out on the Friday, but did some strolling at our own pace and went to find the market square with a view to returning there the next day to see the market.
Ah, there it isSelfie showing our smug “we can find a market square” faces
I offered to host John & Mandy for drinks and grub at our humble cottage before and after the concert at Saffron Hall, an offer which was gratefully accepted. A mixture of wild and posh farmed smoked salmon on mini bagels with a Pouilly-Vinzelles pre show.
Sixteen Going On 17th Century: Monteverdi, Vespers of 1610, The Sixteen, Saffron Hall, 8 November 2024
Part of this gargantuan piece, the Ave Maris Stella and the Magnificat, was probably the first Monteverdi music I ever heard, as it came as part of a collection of music records/subscription booklets that Uncle Michael gave me when I was a small child:
I still have that record and booklet. You can hear that version of the Magnificat digitised here:
Magnificat
I have a feeling that my dad wasn’t overjoyed by my affinity with early 17th century sacred music, hence him seeking out and getting me into Monteverdi madrigals instead:
Mandy must have been very keen to hear The Sixteen that evening, because she looked super-excited when the lights went down, I shut up and Harry Christophers strode onto the stage.
Back at our cottage, I had prepared a supper of charcuterie and cheeses, with a rather jolly bottle of Chocolate Block.
Our luxury medieval cottage
A super evening.
Saffron Walden Market, Bridge End Gardens & Dinner At John & Mandy’s Place, 9 November
Mandy & John supplemented advice we had already received about what to do on a Saturday in Saffron Walden, before heading to their place for John’s cheffy dinner.
I’ll tell the story mostly in pictures, as I have written more than enough words already:
The condiment lady sold us two types of balsamic vinegarSt Mary the Virgin, the tallest spire and largest organ in all Essex apparentlyParish buildingsStrolling the old town
Then into the Bridge End Gardens…
We were getting quite cold, so we didn’t attempt the maze in Bridge End Gardens.
Probably just as well – as a few hours later – we even managed to get lost in the relatively simple maze of streets between our cottage and the John & Mandy residence. Eventually John came out to rescue us in the street.
Look closely and you can see all four of us in this pictureJohn hard at work preparing our amuse-boucheFood Porn Photo One: theamuse-boucheFood Porn Photo Two: sea bass starterFood Porn Photo Three: beef fillet with celeriac & beansFood Porn Photo Four: tiramisu that tasted far better than it looksIAN: Cheese? Are you kidding? JOHN: You’ve no stamina these days, Ian
It was a really enjoyable evening. Indeed it was a really enjoyable and much needed short break for me and Janie.
If you want to see all 70+ photos from this trip, click the Flickr link below and scroll away:
Just occasionally we see jazz at the Wigmore Hall that really excites me and Janie. This was such an occasion; we loved this concert.
Here is an embedded video of a similar gig very recently, which gives a good idea of what this music looks and sounds like live:
Luques Curtis (the bassist in the video) was unable to take part in our concert, but we were very impressed with French bassist Thibaud Soulas who took his place.
The Lopez-Nussa brothers and Thibauld Soulas were very jolly souls, whereas the superb harmonica player, Grégoire Maret, didn’t get the “everyone smile” memo.
This type of music works best live and works brilliantly well at the Wigmore Hall. I am now exploring Harold López-Nussa canon of recorded music too. The album Timba a la Americana is for sure very good. I have so far only dipped into the earlier ones. Something to look forward to.
And I also look forward to seeing this combo again live, if we get the chance. Truly excellent.
For those who cannot be fussed to click, this is what we heard:
Ahmad Al Khatib – Extract from Suznak Rhapsody
Rihab Azar – Enchanted Weavers
Adnan Abul-Shamat – Hatiha Ya Sah
Rihab Azar – Biography of a Bubble
Rihab Azar – Samaie
Rihab Azar – Questions
Rihab Azar – The Pull of Time
Anouar Brahem – Parfum de Gitane
Rihab Azar -Indulgence
Rihab Azar -Sand, Roots & Blossoms.
Here is a charming video of Rihab Azar playing one of the lovely pieces we heard, Indulgence, on the very same seven-course oud that we heard:
The concert was held in the Learning Room (formerly known as the Bechstein Room), which the Wigmore Hall team had set up beautifully in a “jazz club with tables” style and some suitably Middle-eastern-looking drapes. Very atmpospheric.
Soon after the concert began, an old twerp with a massive Canon camera and several large lenses came forward from the rear of the room and sat next to us at our table, fiddling away with his camera and snapping with seeming abandon. Janie thought he must have been an official publicist or something, until a member of staff stepped forward at the end of the piece and politely but firmly told the geezer that it was not permitted to take pictures during the performance – a fairly obvious point that, in the main hall, would have been made as part of the pre-announcements these days, now that everyone has cameras (smart phones) on them all the time.
The old geezer feigned surprise and confusion. Then he proceeded to fiddle with his equipment ceaselessly during the performance and snap with reckless abandon between each piece.
The staff clearly made a decision, rightly or wrongly, that further intervention would be more disruptive than letting the old git have his way.
Rihab Azar took all this with great grace. She even took with great grace the same geezer stopping the concert just before she played her last piece, with a request for “something old school”, because he hadn’t been expecting her use of the loop pedal and wanted to hear the oud without it.
Rihab sweetly said that she had to play her planned last piece, but that she would additionally play a short traditional piece without loop pedal (I cannot remember what it was, but it was delightful) before the last scheduled piece (which was also but differently delightful).
If you, like the old git, want to hear “old school” oud, here is the Parfume de Gitane piece played by the composer, Anouar Brahem, and his mates back in 1997:
No wonder Rihab Azar was insistent on playing her closing number – it was especially charming and is her latest piece, Sand, Roots & Blossoms. designed to accompany an art exhibition, “The Universe Within”. here is a link to the performance she posted, from that exhibition, a few days after our gig:
At the end of our concert, several members of the audience let the witless git know how they felt about him. One said that he had ruined their enjoyment of the concert, which seemed a bit extreme. We were the closest to his fiddling and we just thought he was a twerp.
Mr Twerp engaged us in conversation once he had beaten back his detractors. He clearly wanted us to know that he was a guitar player (he must have said “Fender” three times) and spoke in critical terms about the loop pedal back-tracking (which we rather liked) and the fact that Rihab Azar “looked at the neck of her instrument too much”.
“Have you ever played a fretless instrument?”, I asked. He hadn’t, but pointed out to me, entirely counterfactually, that the oud has frets…or at least Rihab Azar’s did! (Oh no it doesn’t…oh no it didn’t).
Janie then wondered, given his desire for “old school oud playing”, whether Mr Git had ever been to Syria. Of course he hadn’t. “Oh you should, you’d find it fascinating”, said Janie.
Janie correctly remembered seeing oud playing at Abu Al-Azz in Damascus in 1997
I quietly wondered whether the old geezer would survive 20 minutes in Syria these days. Even in 1997, some diplomacy was needed to navigate the political regime and local sensitivities wherever we went. Perhaps that was in Janie’s mind when she recommended the place to Mr Twerpy Git, the amateur photographer-guitarist.
After we parted company with the fellow, Janie told me that she had wanted to take a picture of him for the blog, but thought him so mercurial that the request might lead to an argument and that permission to publish would probably not be granted. I agreed that her decision was a wise one.
I decided instead to help you visualise this geezer by prompting the DeepAI image generator with the phrase:
Silly Old bald Man taking a photo with a telephoto lens camera
The following image, very much of the right kind, emerged:
We had a lovely time at this concert and for sure will return to “Learning Room Sessions” if the subject matter pleases us.
Let’s leave the last word to Rihab Azar’s beautiful oud-playing:
