Tag: Clare Salaman

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Cottesloe Theatre, 15 January 2011

Janie really isn’t into Shakespeare, but Twelfth Night is a play close to my heart, having “done it” at Alleyn’s for the Dramatic Society in 1978.

Twelfth Night, Alleyn’s School, 12, 14, 15 & 16 December 1978

Ever since, I had been keen to see productions of Twelfth Night when they came around. Further, this production with Rebecca Hall as Viola and possibly a last chance to see a by then 80 year old Peter Hall directing…Janie said yes.

In truth, I don’t think this was the best Twelfth Night I have ever seen. It was of course very well acted, directed and produced, but it was a little old-fashioned in style for my taste; it felt like the sort of Shakespeare production I might have seen at the National 20-25 years earlier. I guess I should have expected.

It certainly didn’t do anything to improve Janie’s view on Shakespeare. I explained how much better it was done in the hands of Alleyn’s schoolkids in 1978 and Janie said she could understand exactly what I must mean.

She wasn’t humouring me, was she?

“After all,” said Janie, “you are practically a reincarnation of The Bard, are you not?”

Anyway, here is a link to a search term that finds reviews and other resources on this production. The reviews are a little mixed; mostly suggesting that it was a good, but not great production, which I think sums it up pretty well.

Kontrabande, Wigmore Hall, 24 January 2000

Crumbs, Janie and I went to the Wigmore Hall to see a lot of baroque concerts that season. Here’s another one we rated as:

superb.

Kontrabande were terrific. Had they been 1970s rock rather than 17th & 18th century baroque they might have been described as a supergroup. Dig this list of great names:

  • Charles Humphries,
  • Clare Salaman,
  • Jane Norman,
  • Katherine McGillivray,
  • Richard Campbell,
  • William Hunt,
  • Laurence Cummings,
  • James Johnstone,
  • Elizabeth Kenny.

This is what they played that night:

  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto for strings and basso continuo in D minor RV 128
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Cantata “Vestro Principi divino” RV 633
  • Antonio Caldara – Sonata a tre Op 1 No 5
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Stabat Mater RV 621
  • Antonio Caldara – Cantata “Soffri, mio caro Alcino”
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto for Lute in D major
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Cantata “Nisi Dominus”

I couldn’t find any YouTubes of Kontraband on-line, but the following one of Caldara sonatas and cantatas is very pleasing to the ear – I’d forgotten how much Caldara’s music pleased us that night:

Kontrabande At The Wigmore Hall, 6 January 1999

25 years ago, Janie and I decided to party like it’s 1999 at the start of 1999. What better to do that than a concert of baroque music at The Wigmore Hall.

These are the pieces we heard/saw:

  • Cantata “Cessate Omai Cessate”, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
  • Sinfonia to Cantata BWV 49, Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Concerto for Oboe d’Amore BWV 1055 (also transcribed Harpsicord), Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Cantata BWV 82 “Ich Habe Genug”, Johann Sebastian Bach
  • Concerto for Viola da Gamba and Recorder in A Minor, Georg Philipp Telemann
  • Cantata BWV 170 “Vergnugte Ruh”, Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Standard previewed the concert thusly:

Standard Kontrabande 6 Jan 1999Standard Kontrabande 6 Jan 1999 06 Jan 1999, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Perhaps there was a change of programme or perhaps my notes missed out the Handel by mistake. I’ll check back to the programme when next I can face the thought of an archaeological dig into my programme collection.

For sure we saw the small chamber ensemble, Kontrabande, with Charles Humphries doing the counter-tenor bit and Clare Salaman on the baroque violin. Sadly, I learn that Clare, who was an expert on strange and ancient instruments, didn’t make it to the 25th anniversary of this Kontrabande concert.

Here’s a video of Clare playing a strange and ancient instrument – the nyckelharpa – I don’t believe I have ever seen this instrument played live:

Here is an audio YouTube of Charles Humphries singing one of the Bach arias we heard, vergnugte Ruh, accompanied by Kontrabande:

While here is the Bremer Baroque Orchestra (similar scale to Kontrabande if I remember correctly) playing the very Telemann concerto we heard back then: