“Wachet Auf” means “Wake Up!”, which was possibly an early call for wokery back in the Baroque period…or possibly not. In any case, I wouldn’t recommend English speakers barking this German language expletive after a couple of G&Ts – it might be misunderstood.
We rated this gig “very good”. Some lesser known works by Bach’s lesser known contemporaries, sandwiched between a bit of Telemann and a bit of Bach:
Ouverture “Perpetuum Mobile”, Georg Philipp Telemann
Balletti Lamentabili a 4, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
O Heilige Zeit, Johann Kuhnau
Sinfonia No 2 in C Minor, Johann Ludwig Krebs
Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns die Strimme Cantata BWV 140, Johann Sebastian Bach
Here is O Heilige Zeit performed by Solomon’s Knot:
Here is the Krebs Sinfonia, performed by Capella jenensis:
Here is a recording of Wachet Auf by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman…
…whom we saw 25 years later performing Telemann sonatas and Tafelmusik at The Wig:
Excellent concert, this. Sonnerie was a superb but fluid ensemble, led by the indomitable Monica Huggett.
On this occasion they comprised Monica Huggett, Gary Cooper, Wilbert Hazelzet, Pamela Thorby, Catherine Latham, Katherine McGillivray, Catherine Martin, Emilia Benjamin, Alison McGillivray and Sarah Groser.
Here is the playlist from the gig:
Jean-Philippe Rameau – Pieces de clavecin en concerts No 3 in A major
Georg Philipp Telemann – Concerto for Flute, Oboe d’amore, Viola d’amore, Strings and Continuo in E major
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto for Violin, Strings and Continuo in D major (“Il Grosso Mogul”) RV208
Georg Philipp Telemann – Concerto for Flute, recorder, Strings and Continuo in E minor
Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata No 1 for Violin and Harpsicord in B minor BWV 1014
Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto for Harpsicord, 2 Recorders, Strings and Continuo in F major BWV 1057
Here is a clip from an earlier but lovely recording of the E major Telemann piece, which includes Monica Huggett with the Academy of Ancient Music
While here is a lovely video of Ensemble Odyssee playing the Bach concerto we heard that evening:
We both went straight from work and both had early starts the next morning, so I guess we supped light at Sandall Close after the gig.
A memorable evening at the Proms, just a few days after our previous memorable visit. A rare midweek booking for us, but the promise of Evgeny Kissin, Zubin Mehta and the Bavarian State Orchestra was too tempting to miss.
Again we had The Duchess (Janie’s mum) with us.
The programme was two big pieces:
Frédéric Chopin – Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor
Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 8 in C minor (1890 version, ed. Nowak)
I hadn’t seen Evgeny Kissin before but had heard about him. Janie thought he was excessively flamboyant – a complaint she has about many star pianists.
Anyway, here is a video of Mehta conducting Kissin performing an extract from this piece some years later – this time with the Israel Philharmonic rather than the Bavarian State Orchestra:
The Duchess thought Kissin’s cadenzas were absolutely wonderful but she thought him “rude” or “self-centred” doing encores ahead of the interval on a night with such a long programme. Takes one to know one.
The encores were Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat major and Scherzo in B flat minor, seeing as you asked…
…OK, you didn’t ask. But my mum loved that Polonaise and she would have got all excited about the young Evgeny Kissin had she been there and heard him play it a bit like this:
In truth, we did hear some people saying that they would have to leave before the second half, because they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get home, which was a real shame for those people.
While stretching our legs during the interval, we ran into my cousins, Angela and John Kessler, who were very keen on Kissin and also eagerly looking forward to seeing Zubin Mehta and the Bavarians wrestle with Anton Bruckner for 80 minutes or so after the interval.
The Duchess seemed most displeased that we had run into some people that we knew, preventing her from being the centre of attention for five minutes or so.
The Bruckner was certainly worth the wait. I had seen this symphony performed several times before but sense that this evening was the best performance I have seen.
Here is an extract of Mehta conducting the Bruckner Symphony, but on this occasion with the Berlin Philharmonic rather than the Bavarian State Orchestra.
Returning to our memorable evening, here is Erica Jeal’s review of that evening from The Guardian. Good to see Kissin and Mehta getting three stars while Whitney Houston only got two.
While Michael Kennedy in the Sunday Telegraph seemed less sure about Zubin Mehta than we were, comparing him, perhaps unfavourably, with Bernard Haitink and Günter Wand. I’m a lucky fellow, as I have seen all three of them conduct Bruckner 8.
Knowing that the concert would finish late and that we both had an early start the next day, I sense that we did not go out to dinner after this one. Janie had probably prepared some cold compilations for us to munch, with a glass of wine, when we got home.
Janie also very sensibly had arranged for Jill Wooton to come and give us both a massage at home on the Friday evening. Two nights out with The Duchess in five days, with plenty of work in between, we sure both would have needed the massages and sure both had earned them.
Diary says that we went to Andrea’s BBQ party on the Saturday evening (a rather good one at her house in Shepherd’s Bush, if I remember correctly) and then to Mum & Dad’s for tea on the Sunday. We didn’t hang about back then.
Another quirky and memorable concert at The Proms. We took The Duchess Of Castlebar (Janie’s mum) with us to this one, as we thought she would like the Piazzolla. Possibly she did. You didn’t tend to get positive feedback from the Duchess back then and nothing has changed in 25 years, as I write in 2024.
Janie and I were fascinated by this concert. Janie was already keen on Piazzolla and this helped cement that interest.
Here’s what we heard:
Giya Kancheli – V & V
Arvo Pärt – Tabula rasa
Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, No. 1 in E Major, RV 269
Astor Piazzoll – Cuatro estaciones porteñas, Verano porteño
Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, No. 2 in G minor, RV 315
Astor Piazzolla – Cuatro estaciones porteñas, Otoño porteño
Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, No. 3 in F Major, RV 293
Astor Piazzolla – Cuatro estaciones porteñas, Invierno porteño
Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, No. 4 in F minor, RV 297
Astor Piazzolla – Cuatro estaciones porteñas, Primavera porteña
Peter Heidrich – Variations on ‘Happy Birthday’
Alexander Bakshi – The Unanswered Call
Fiona Maddocks briefly wrote up the concert in The Observer:
This was a super way to kick off a bank holiday weekend. Janie and I had taken the day off work. No sign in the diaries of us eating out – perhaps we ate at Sandall Close and then jumped in the car to go to Kensington.
Interesting concert – Janie is partial to a bit of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, so that would have been the clincher. The other three pieces were rare items, all of which were getting their Proms premier that night.
Francesco Durante – Concerto No. 4 in E minor
Antonio Vivaldi – Filiae maestae Jerusalem, RV 638
Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer – Concerto No. 5 in F minor
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – Stabat mater
Here’s a beautiful recording of Andreas Scholl singing the Vivaldi piece (with a different orchestra), embedded from Andreas Scholl’s YouTube Channel:
I cannot find a review of the concert we heard, but I can find a most interesting preview in The Telegraph, including an interview with the Scholl siblings:
As Andreas himself says, the Royal Albert Hall is far from perfect acoustically for baroque music, but it does have a unique atmosphere of its own. This concert was a good one.
Liberated from hosting The Duchess at The Proms, Janie and I went along to this concert on a Sunday evening planning nothing more than a light supper at my flat after the show. It was a Sunday evening and we both had ridiculously early starts the next morning.
Here’s the running order:
Johann Sebastian Bach, Singet dem Herrn, BWV 225
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 49 in F minor ‘La passione’
Joseph Haydn, Non nobis, Domine, Hob. XXIIIa:1
Joseph Haydn, Insanae et vanae curae
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr).
This was an excellent concert. You don’t need to take my word for that – it seems it got rave reviews afterwards. It has taken me 25 years to check out those rave reviews, but that’s me.
In those days we used to take Janie’s mum, Pauline, aka The Duchess, to the Proms at least a couple of times a season.
She was partial to a bit of Mahler, and a bit of Ludwig van…
…and a bit of verbal ultraviolence, now I come think of it.
Anyway, this is what we heard:
Symphony No 7 in A major by Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto by Alban Berg
Adagio from Symphony No 10 by Gustav Mahler
Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario – Touch Her Soft Lips and Part by William Walton, arr. C. Palmer (encore)
The Hallé Orchestra, leader Lyn Fletcher, conductor Kent Nagano, violinist Kyung-Wha Chung.
All that information and more is on the excellent BBC Proms stub for this concert, which also enables you to hear and read about the stuff we heard – click here.
Janie’s diary suggests that we ate at Golden Chopsticks afterwards, with the helpful name “Mr Chow” jotted beside the phone number. (Harrington Road…long since gone.)
Six Sonatas, K404, K474, K60, K462, K394, K477 by Domenico Scarlatti
Aria con Variazioni “Le Frescobalda” by Girolamo Frescobaldi
In truth I was not familiar with the work of Leo Brouwer. Fabio Zanon is clearly a fan and has (far more recently) produced a helpful explainer video about the composer:
We were really taken with the young guitarist’s playing of Scarlatti sonatas transposed for guitar. Here is a video that shows him in the late 1990s playing three such pieces:
We were very taken with Friday evenings at The Wig in those days – it seemed a very relaxing way to round off a hard week. Writing 25 years later…still does.
