Tag: David James

Two Fabulous Baroque Concerts And A Dinner At St John’s Smith Square, 23 May 2014

Both of these concerts, part of the Lufthansa Festival Of Baroque Music that year, looked superb.

For reasons of my own (work related) I had tried the more formal dining option at SJSS a couple of times by then and thought Janie would enjoy such a meal too. Turned out (as I suspected) the restaurant was all geared up for people who wanted to see the two concerts and dine in-between.

Here’s the splurge on first concert;

We hadn’t seen La Risonanza before, although we had, I think, seen Fabio Bonizzoni – at least I have his wonderful recording of the last Domenico Scarlatti sonatas.

It was a good concert, although I recall we liked the sonatas more than the duets. Not a comment on the skills of the singers, they were excellent, but the style of those baroque duets don’t tend to please us, we discovered.

We both enjoyed our dinner; very attentively and well fed we were. In many ways the SJSS dining-crypt has more atmosphere than the SJSS concert hall itself, which can seem rather large and cold at times.

But the highlight of the evening was this last chance to see The Hilliard Ensemble perform Morimur live. I had owned and enjoyed the magnificent recording of Morimur for some years by then and was delighted to have a chance to see that composite work performed live:

William Cole, on the Interlude blog, describes the Morimur concert that evening thus:

…the Hilliard Ensemble with violinist Kati Debretzeni gave quite simply one of the most extraordinary concerts I have ever attended.

Here is a link to the whole William Cole review.

Talk about going out on a high. By that December, the Hilliard Ensemble was done saying its goodbyes to the world and that (un-Sinatra-like) was that.

Of course it is still possible to get the recording of Morimur – click here for a link to general resources on it or the image below for one specific link – I would highly commend the recording.

We still listen to Morimur quite a lot – its haunting quality is just so moving. The alternating of chorale and violin music just works..at least it does for us.

As for that Baroque evening at SJSS – very memorable indeed.

Scottish Orchestra Does Russian (& Georgian) Composers At The Proms, Royal Albert Hall, 3 August 1997

This was our one visit to the Proms that season away from the clutches of The Duchess. I had fallen into the habit of treating her to one ort wo Proms each season, by that time. Janie and I occasionally also went to something of our own choosing.

On this occasion, I think the programme looked unusual and yet approachable. Alexander Lazarev conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. I wanted to hear Francesca da Rimini performed live and Janie had acquired a taste for countertenor singing. Plus some unusual pieces.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this Prom.

We heard:

  • Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka – Capriccio brillante (on the Jota Aragonesa)
  • Sergey Prokofiev – Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor
  • Giya Kancheli – Symphony No. 3
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Francesca da Rimini
  • Alexander Glazunov – Raymonda, Op 57 No. 26 Grand pas espagnol Act 2- encore
  • Trad. – Eightsome (reel) – encore

What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing. Nothing went wrong. Although in truth, I don’t recall much about the lesser-known pieces and I cannot for the life of me work out where the countertenor fits in with this collection of pieces. Janie cemented her view that she didn’t like Prokofiev and that big symphony orchestra concerts were not really her favourite thing. Still, we both very much enjoyed our evening.

Here’s what the Glinka sounds like:

Here’s a good recording of the Prokofiev.

The Kancheli is strange yet certainly haunting:

I really enjoyed the Francesca da Rimini. Here is a more recent version of it from The Royal Festival Hall, but you’ll get the idea:

Dig this little bit of the Glazunov:

Fine composer, was Trad. Should have paired up with Anon – they could have been the Lennon and McCartney of the 11th to 19th centuries. Yet Janie insisted that the final encore was Trad’s “Tiresome Reel” rather than Eightsome Reel. I kinda see her point:

Geoffrey Norris in The Telegraph wrote very fondly of this Prom:

Lazarev Prom Norris TelegraphLazarev Prom Norris Telegraph 04 Aug 1997, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Robert Cowan in the Independent also waxed lyrical about this Prom:

Lazarev Prom Cowan IndyLazarev Prom Cowan Indy 05 Aug 1997, Tue The Independent (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Rick Jones was less impressed in The Standard. I’m not quite sure what he means by an errrant electronic high-pitched note. Janie would argue that Prokofiev is meant to sound like that.

Lazarev Prom Jones StandardLazarev Prom Jones Standard 04 Aug 1997, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com