Just two days after our last visit to the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, we’re back to see another. Janie is a sucker for a countertenor and we are both suckers for visiting European baroque troupes we haven’t heard before.
Typically of SJSS and its artistes, the fabulously-named Fabio Bonizzoni can only sell us recordings of the Scarlatti stuff we heard performed by other people a couple of days ago.
Still, I buy that CD and some other La Risonanza stuff. We were neither disappointed by the concert nor by the CDs.
Fabio and La Risonanza rock. Guest singers Roberta Invernizzi, Emanuela Galli, Xavier Sabata also rock.
Well, they don’t rock, let’s be honest, they are baroque musicians, none of them rock. But this was a really enjoyable concert.
The Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music was a regular “must visit” for us for several years. Sadly, the sponsorship ended (I think 2014 was the last year) so the festival is now a shadow of its former self.
On this evening, Janie and I attended both concerts; Carole Cerasi on the Harpsichord early evening and then London Baroque later. Domingo Scarlatti was the theme (how did you guess?).
Both excellent gigs, well worth the long evening at SJSS. The relevant extracts from the programme so you can see exactly what we heard are shown below.
The weekend after Easter, we visited the London Handel Festival for this tasty Baroque concert by the (then) fairly new Southbank Sinfonia.
We heard:
Handel’s Overture to Giustino HWV37
Rameau’s Grand Motet: In Convertendo Dominus
Vivaldi’s Concerto Con Molti Istromenti RV 576
Lully’s Suite from “Isis”
Handel’s Te Deum for the Peace of Utrecht
Janie couldn’t complain that it was cold this time – we were having a bit of an April heatwave in London. But still she felt that St George’s was austere as a venue…
…”it’s bum-aching, like sitting in Church”…
…”it IS a Church”…
…so she reiterated her strong preference for the Wigmore Hall.
We both agreed that the music was lovely, though.
Below is a delightful later performance by the very same orchestra (under Julian Perkins) of the Giustino:
Below is a beautiful video of the Rameau In Convertendo with William Christie conducting but no identification of the orchestra ( Les Arts Florissants presumably) nor the wonderful soloists – perhaps some of the Early Music Group aficionados can help with the identification of those:
At the end of a stressy week, what could be better than an evening of jazz at Thw Wigmore Hall?
And what a stressy week it had been – with the deal to sell most of the business to Aon/McLagan Partners due to complete that week but actually not completed until the following week.
In truth, I don’t remember all that much about this concert other than the joy of sitting and letting a very accomplished jazz trio weave their magic for me.
I couldn’t find a vid of exactly the three who played our night, but two out of three ain’t bad:
While below is a subsequent extract from Portrait Of A Woman including vocals:
I had recently acquired my first iPod – a gift from Kim and Micky, so this was my first party playlist and by gosh I did it the hard way.
Had to do it the hard way, really, as my music collection was all CDs and vinyl, so I ripped (in the case of CDs) or specifically digitised through a sound box/Audacity (in the case of vinyl) every single track I wanted for this party.
Not quite as onerous as the old cassette and reel-to-reel compilation tapes, but hardly the “quick search and click” ability I now have, as my whole collection is digitised and in the cloud on iTunes (other cloud music services are available.
Here’s the CD Box Style thing that iTunes does for you, but it only shows the first 22 tracks…
I made the first hour or more solidly Arabian style to go with the theme of the party – click here for a link to the story of the party and more besides. Then a more conventional party playlist, with the mandatory Barry White for Phillie and plenty of dance music for Janie.
There’s some seriously good stuff on there, though I say so myself. Janie and I still listen to that list reasonably often, even though I have better digital recordings of many of those tracks now.
I think I booked this one because of the Weill/Brecht. I really like the songs from The Threepenny Opera and you don’t often see them on the Wigmore Hall listings. Janie likes a bit of Shostakovich, so we thought we’d give it a try.
The concert comprised:
Alfred Schnittke – Sonata No 1 for Violin and Piano
Dmitri Shostakovich – Sonata for Violin and Piano Op 134
Maurice Ravel – Kaddish
William Walton – Sonata for Violin and Piano
Kurt Weill, Simon Mulligan & Bertolt Brecht – Songs from “The Threepenny Opera”
In truth, I think this concert convinced us that 20th century music, on the whole, is not for us.
Here’s the first movement of the Schnittke, to give you an idea:
Try the last movement of the Shostakovich
I do recall rather liking the Kaddish, which I hadn’t heard before:
Janie and I were partial to the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and also we are Telemaniacs, so this concert was an obvious one to book, even coming so soon after another delicious-looking Baroque concert on the preceding Sunday.
We were not disapointed.
We heard:
Georg Philipp Telemann – Volker Ouverture in B flat major TWV55:B5
Johann Sebastian Bach – Harpsicord Concerto in D minor BWV1052
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto Grosso in A minor Op 3 No 8 RV522
Georg Philipp Telemann – Ouverture La Bizarre in G major TWV55:G2
Unusually, this was an afternoon, not an evening concert. It had a very geeky name for a very beautiful concert.
Technically speaking – geeky people took great pains to point out when we all celebrated the new millennium on 31 December 1999 – as there had not been a year zero – the real millennium must be 31 December 2000. The fact that calendars had changed, days added and all sorts was put to one side for those who wanted to celebrate the new millennium on 31 December 2000.
Janie and I just wanted to see this lovely concert and we were not disappointed. We were very keen on Florilegium and Emma Kirkby and the programme was enticing:
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Flute Concerto “La Notte” in G minor Op 10 No 2
Johann Sebastian Bach – Susser Trost, mein Jesus kommt from Cantata BWV 151
Arcangelo Corelli – Trio Sonata in D major Op 1 No 12
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – Salve Regina in C minor
George Frideric Handel – Sweet Bird from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato
Henry Purcell – The Fatal Hour Comes On Apace
Henry Purcell – Music for a While
Henry Purcell – Suite from The Fairy Queen
Here is a nice vid of James Galway with the Ventian Soloisti under Claudio Scimoni playing La Notte:
Here’s Maria Keohane singing Susser Trost – very Christmassy it sounds to me:
Here is the start of the Pergolesi Salve Regina performed by Florilegium, with Robin Blaze, not with Emma Kirkby. I love this album, which I think I bought at that time – possibly that very night.
Here’s Emma Kirkby singing Sweet Bird, with the Academy for Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood – then Music For A While.
Oh boy, can she sing.
I don’t think Florilegium and Emma Kirkby have ever recorded together, so you’ll just need to take our word for it that the combination for the real millennium was the real deal…
A lovely concert of fairly standard baroque fare, beautifully performed by Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante.
We heard:
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in G Minor for Strings RV 157
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach – Sinfonia in F major F67 Die Disonanzen
Johann Sebastian Bach – Violin Concerto in G minor (after BWV 1056)
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Violin Concerto in B flat major op 8 No 10 La Caccia
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in D minor Op 3 No 11 for two violins, cello & strings
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in G minor for 2 violins and cello Op 3 No 2
There’s not much video of Europa Galante from that early period of their existence – but this one of them performing the delicious Vivaldi RV558 gives a good idea of what they looked and sounded like back then.
