It was Britten centenary day, so the centrepiece was Britten’s Dowland-inspired Nocturnal, although we did get some Peter Phillips to get a genuine Tudor feel and also some Bach and others to cruise us through the centuries.
Here is a YouTube of Zanon playing some Scarlatti…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48EyPonZ82A
…and here is a YouTube of someone else playing a Peter Philips pavan on the lute…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvMNlzWAFwQ
..and here is a Julian Bream masterclass on that Britten Nocturnal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpNZROHfP_k
After lunch at The Wig, we went on to see an exhibition about Zoroastrianism at SOAS, but that’s a different story – click here or below:
It’s not easy to get Janie up into town on a Wednesday evening. But this opportunity to hear a harpsichord recital by Trevor Pinnock was too good to miss.
And boy was it good.
A fascinating programme for the evening, starting in the 16th century and working deep into the 18th.
For those who don’t click, it is music by Antonio de Cabezón, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Bull, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti and Antonio Soler.
Many and varied.
Below is a YouTube sound piece of the Antonio de Cabezón we heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK6tKcMKyB4
Below is an interview with Pinnock about his “Journey” project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UF9ug9RlWY
He talks so sensibly and knowledgeably in that interview, as indeed he did when explaining the recital to us on the night.
Anyway, that concert in October 2013 was a delicious as well as interesting listen and such an honour to see Trevor Pinnock perform those works up close.
Not normally our type of show, but we loved the idea of this one – performed cabaret style and about Josephine Baker, who had such an interesting life.
Cush Jumbo, who wrote and performed this show, is clearly a very talented young person.
We enjoyed our unusual evening at the Bush. In truth, though, we thought the show a victory of style over substance – we wanted to learn a lot more about Josephine Baker and or experience more drama. We were there very early in the run – in effect at a preview – so the show might have matured/improved after we saw it.
The show got a transfer to New York too, so our relative indifference towards the show wasn’t shared by the critics nor the producers.
Janie and I also recall running into our theatre friends John and Linda at this show – this is a couple we often see at the theatre – but because of the nature of this show we got a chance to have a proper chat with them in this cabaret-style setting of the Bush.
A very different style tonight. A rare chance to see Jordi Savall up close playing small scale music, along with Andrew Lawrence-King (he of the Loqueville that captivated me so many years ago).
Not all early music, of course, but some well early and some traditional of no fixed provenance; neither composer nor time period. Some lovely. All interesting.
Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall programme page for the evening.
Below is a YouTube with some music very much along the lines of the music we heard that night…
…and here is the very trio we saw, a few months later, performing live at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa:
This was an excellent concert. Janie and I are both partial to the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and are also partial to a bit of Corelli. So we weren’t going to miss out on this one.
The concert was actually Corelli plus – it also highlighted some composers directly influenced by the great man.
Below is a YouTube of the Alte Musik Berlin mob playing one of the Platti concerti we heard…
…followed by a real treat – the Corelli Op 5 No 10 (recorder concerto) shown live from the concert the night before ours, at the Kablow Dorfkirche – absolutely dreamy:
In the four years inbetween, Esfahani had become a real name in the early music world and here was an opportunity for us to see a recital of interesting stuff at very close quarters.
All Byrd in the first half – absolutely enchanting. The second half captivated us a little less – mostly familiar material from Bach’s Musical Offering (played beautifully) – we didn’t really see how the Ligeti fitted in with the Byrd and Bach. We love Hungarian folk music; the style just didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the programme, which was so relaxing. But that’s just us.
I don’t often get invited to high-falutin’ functions. Indeed, I wasn’t originally, personally invited to this one. But Michael Mainelli was invited and realised that the venue was just around the corner from my flat and would probably be music to my taste. Michael asked if his business partner might attend in his place, so I was graciously invited instead.
But I don’t think I am disclosing any Russian state secrets, nor am I likely to trigger the wrath of any bad guys, by reporting in glowing terms this absolutely splendid evening at the Russian Ambassador’s residence.
It is a beautiful building for a start, with charming reception rooms and an ideal large chamber for music of this kind – solo voices accompanied on the piano.
The drinks reception before the concert was relatively low key and brief. Ideal in a way, as I suspect that many of the diverse guests, like me, knew few other people present, so it was much easier to socialise after the concert, once we had a topic of shared experience to discuss.
As it happens I did see a couple of people I knew; one couple I had met through cousins Angela and John at the LPO (another, relatively recent, high-falutin’ experience) – click here or below:
I also had a brief chat before the concert with one of Michael Mainelli’s colleagues from the City of London Corporation crowd.
Then the concert:
A very high quality of performance from the young performers, as you might expect. All bright young stars.
After the concert, the performers circulated with the guests – I enjoyed chatting with a couple of them who, as is often the case with music people, had superb English and sparkling personalities.
I met the Greek Ambassador and his wife, with whom I had a very interesting chat for quite some time, not least about economics, Greece and the economics of Greece.
The food was excellent – Russian-style grub to the very highest quality. Much of it finger food, but also fishes, meats and salads. Lovely wines – with vodkas on offer for brave folk (not I).
I thought I should make my exit before I started to get ideas above my station and spotted my opportunity to thank the Russian Ambassador in person, so made my retreat at that moment. I told the Ambassador that we were neighbours while thanking him – he told me that I should pop round again.
I had a truly Pooteresque moment a couple of days later when planning my thank you note, when I realised that. although I could get away with a simple “your excellency” when addressing the Ambassador in person to say goodbye, I needed to do a more through piece of research to write him a thank you note addressed correctly…
…confusingly difficult these days because there are now fully formal and less than fully formal written modes of address to choose from.
Hi Alex…you said pop round any time…so how’s about next Thursday?I think I went for “full monty” formal style of response in the end, just to be sure. I wouldn’t want to upset anyone – especially once they know where I live.
Joking apart, it had been a very unusual and enjoyable evening for me – very memorable.
You don’t get to hear Telemann’s Tafelmusik in the concert hall all that often, although we had seen The Academy For Ancient Music perform some, also at The Wig, only six months earlier – click here or below:
The attraction of this Florilegium concert was partly the Tafelmusik (we were to hear some highlights from Part One whereas we’d heard Part Two last time…
It was a very enjoyable concert. Florilegium are always top notch – or rather they always have been when we’ve seen them.
The Easter Oratorio is a super choice for Florilegium, with their core strength being woodwind. I recall they also drummed up some fairly splendid trumpets for the occasion too. The singing soloists had beautiful voices.
Below is a vid of the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under John Elliot Gardiner performing the piece. Larger scale, but a lovely vid and it will certainly give you an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ICH1gK5fQ
I remember Janie remarking that the concert was just what the doctor should have ordered…
…at that stage of Janie’s “resurrection” that was a multi-layered joke, together with being a truthful reflection on what a tonic the concert had been.
I thought SJSS would be a magnificent setting to hear the piece live – after all that is where my lovely recording of the piece had been recorded. I was right.
In the first half, we heard the Schubert Mass in G, which I enjoyed more than Janie did, although she quite liked it. It was followed by a world premier of a JohnMcCabe piece named Psalm-Cantata, which frankly did little for either of us.
But we did both really enjoy the Magnificat.
Below is a video of Nikolaus Harnoncourt with an unidentified choir and orchestra playing the Magnificat magnificently:
