Tag: Marin Marais

Imitations: Lawrence Power & Sergio Bucheli At The Wigmore Hall, Plus Other Activities, 24 April 2023

The theme of this rather wonderful BBC Lunchtime Concert at Wigmore Hall was imitations. All of the pieces had themes within them in which the music imitates some sort of natural sound.

Janie and I thought this was an excellent and very interesting concert. We very nearly missed it, as I, in an extremely rare omission, forgot to write this Wigmore Hall date in our diaries when I booked this back in February. It was only because there was a small change to the programme that I was alerted to my omission and fortunately we were both able still to make the date.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall stub for the concert, which lists the pieces, most of which were baroque period but a few of which were modern imitations. If that fails, the pdf programme can be found here.

The headline picture is sort-of an imitation too – that painting by Jan Voorhout was once thought to be Dieterich Buxtehude, the composer of the first piece we heard, but is now believed simply to be a domestic music scene of that baroque period.

The Wigmore Hall concert was streamed live and the stream remains available for three months after the performance – if you have reached this Ogblog in time click here to see and hear the concert.

Alternatively, if you are a podcastista and prefer to listen on BBC Sounds, click here – this link good for 30 days after the broadcast.

If you just fancy one little listen to some Baroque imitation, then the third movement of this sonata by Johann Paul von Westhoff, which we heard, should thrill your ears.

Continuing the theme of imitation, I suppose I spent the day “imitating” a young man. I have said in recent years that there are now only three places left where people sometimes call me “young man” without irony: Wigmore Hall, Lord’s and Gresham Society. Today I enjoyed all three.

After Wigmore Hall, I went on to lord’s for a cracking game of real tennis doubles.

2016 Picture by Toni Friend – I was so much younger then

Then on to the National Liberal Club for the Gresham Society AGM and dinner. For reasons known only to him (and in a style only Tim could muster), Professor Connell invited me to sit at the top table:

Would you care to join us on the top table tomorrow night?

Everyone else has refused and it will look a bit odd if there is no-one on it.

It would have been hard to refuse such a courteous request.

Tim Connell promised to keep the formal AGM bit to seven minutes but those around me suggested that he strayed into the 10-15 minutes zone, as usual.

Worse yet, despite spending the day in all three places where I am still occasionally addressed as “young man”, no-one had done so that day and no-one did so that evening.

Still, I chatted with lots of interesting people and enjoyed a good dinner.

Sir Thomas Gresham: 1519-1579 – I’m even older than him now

Howay, Wey Aye, Man! – A Canny Interview With Jordi Savall Followed By A Canny Concert, L‘Europa Musicale: From The Renaissance To Baroque, Hespèrion XXI, St John’s Smith Square, 12 May 2019

Janie and I have seen Jordi Savall with his various Hespèrion colleagues several times over the years and have bought quite a lot of his recordings. To the extent that we are fans of anyone, we would consider ourselves fans.

Yet I had always assumed that Jordi was pronounced “Yordee” and not, as we learnt at this event, “Geordie“. Haddaway! Yes, really.

How did we find out? Because there was a short interview session an hour ahead of the concert, hosted by Robert Heason, who tossed a couple of open-ended questions at Jordi who then got on with the business of interviewing himself.

Gobby crack an’ all

It was actually really interesting to hear Jordi explain his way of thinking about early music and performance. He comes across as a very learned but likeable man who wears his expertise lightly. His comments on improvisation and the folk origins of serious music were especially interesting.

When the “conversation” ended, there was still nearly half an hour until the concert. We thought we’d take a picture of the instruments on the stage…

…but then almost immediately Jordi returned…

…and warmed up his fingers for a while on the stage…

Then we went to get some refreshments


“Gi’s a drink I’m gyezend, our lass”, (or words to that effect), said Ged.
“Are ye in a fettle, pet?”, (or words to that effect), asked Daisy

Aside: I realise that some folk who like to read about music are not aware that Ian and Janie are also Ged and Daisy. The origins of those pet names are explained here.

We saw “the nice couple” from the front row of many concerts previously reported, sitting a few seats away from us during the talk, but when we returned to our seats it transpired that their booked seats for the actual concert were right next to ours this time. Nice.

Of course the music was gorgeous. Here is a link to the SJSS resource so you can see and read about the concert.

We had seen Andrew Lawrence-King with Jordi before, in The Celtic Viol concert at The Wigmore Hall six years ago…

The Celtic Viol, Jordi Savall, Andrew Lawrence-King & Frank McGuire, Wigmore Hall, 9 June 2013

…but not with Xavier Díaz-Latorre, who I don’t think we’d seen before at all. His guitar and theorbo playing was excellent.

Below is a really nice video that shows Jordi and Xavier’s skills, though not one of the pieces we heard:

Below is some Jordi viol solo work, including some pieces we heard:

The entire concert is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 5 June 2019, so enthusiasts can hear everything we heard.

It was a really interesting and lovely concert. It is always a treat to see Jordi Savall and his pals perform. And now we know to pronounce the name “Geordie”, which is very important.

After saying goodbye to the nice couple…

…aw’s clamming, as was Daisy…

…so we picked up some shawarmas on the way home, to round off a very enjoyable evening with a tasty supper.

Two Fine Baroque Concerts – Versailles: The Improbable Dream & Paris-Madras, With Some Fine Grub In Between, St John Smith Square, 12 May 2018

There were two London Festival of Baroque Music concerts at St John’s Smith Square that evening and we really liked the look of both of them.

So that’s what we did – we went and looked at them both.

Versailles: The Improbable Dream

The first was Fuoco E Cenere – all music pertaining to Louis XIV and Versailles.

Here is the SJSS card for this concert.

Now that’s what I call a theorbo

Quintessentially French Baroque

This ensemble was recently involved in a French TV series about Versailles – said to be the most expensive ever made in France – here is a short musical extract from the TV programme:

Mercifully for the down to earth SJSS audience, Fuoco E Cenere did not ponce about in 17th Century wigs and outfits for our concert.

Here is a more down to earth vid and interview about Les Folies d’Espagne by Marais, which they did play on the night:

The highlight of this concert, for us, was the singing of the young guest soprano, Theodora Raftis. She has an outstanding voice and tremendous stage presence. She seemed a little overwhelmed by the occasion at first, but it was great to see her warm to her work and become the highlight of the show by the end of the concert. She was clearly well appreciated by the audience and her fellow performers. Remember the name: Theodora Raftis. Not much of her to be found on-line, but here is some Donizetti – trust us, she’s upped her game big time since this vid was recorded:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sszddZG0cEQ

The Platters

No , we didn’t see a 1950s vocal group, but we did eat charcuterie and cheese platters with salad and a glass of wine between the concerts. I won’t dwell on the shenanigans involved in booking a table and arranging the platters – let’s just celebrate the fact that waiters David and Ramon did us proud and that we thoroughly enjoyed our twixt concert supper.

Paris-Madras

It was this second concert that really inspired me to book the evening – the notion of a fusion of French Baroque and Indian raga music. How on earth might that work? Well, it pretty much did.

Here is a link to the SJSS resource for this concert.

Artefacts from the Baroque element…

Le Concert De L’Hostel-Dieu provided the baroque element. In truth, we got more out of the ragas than we got out of the Leçons de Ténèbres. The wonderful weather of the previous week had turned to miserable cold weather that day, so neither of us was much in the mood for the lamentations of Jeremiah. More seriously, we’d seen the Leçons de Ténèbres quite recently and didn’t realise that the concert would pretty much give us the whole lot un-fused with the ragas…plus ragas unfused with the lamentations.

…artefacts from the raga element

On the ragas, in particular, we liked the bansuri flute and the sarod. Soumik Datta, the sarod virtuoso involved, is far more rock’n’roll than the rest of the performers on show that night. Here is his showreel:

Below is the explanatory vid in French about the Paris-Madras project, in which you can hear Ravi Prasad sing and Patrick Rudant play his flute, as well as the baroque players of course:

The absolute highlight of this concert for us was the few passages when the musicians segued between the two styles and the ending when they all played together. Perhaps they judged the fusion to be risky, so they minimised its use, but to our mind it was a risk that came off big time and the fusion was the reason we went to see the concert.

Anyway, we came out the other side of the evening feeling very pleased with the whole occasion.

Dreams And Dances Of The Sun King, Hille Perl, Lee Santana, Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Concert, 30 April 2018

I booked this concert (along with others from the Wigmore Hall spring programme) before Christmas.

Strangely, Janie and I went to the cinema a few days later and saw Happy End…

Happy End, Curzon Bloomsbury, 23 December 2017

…in which Hille Perl makes a cameo appearance as the viola da gamba and sexting interest…

…it really isn’t often you’ll see those two terms – viola da gamba and sexting – in the same sentence.

Then, recently, DJ kindly bought me an electric ukulele in the style of an oil can:

…inducing me to comment to Ian Pittaway, after my last baroq-ulele lesson, that I now no longer know whether I seek to emulate Lee Santana or Carlos Santana.

Anyway, Janie and I were very excited that we would be seeing this remarkable couple, Hille Perl and Lee Santana, playing at the Wigmore Hall.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resource on the concert we saw.

After such a build up and such high expectations, it wouldn’t be surprising if the concert turned out to be a disappointment, especially as we needed to brave unseasonably awful weather to get to The Wig. But no such thing – we were truly entranced by the music and their performance as a couple. It really was a beautiful concert from start to finish.

We found their style of remaining on stage throughout and looking so captivated by each other’s music making was quite touching. In particular, when Lee Santana played a few solo pieces on a slightly smaller theorbo; a “théorbe des pièces” to be precise, Hille Perl looked transfixed. As were we – what a sweet sound that solo instrument version of the theorbo had – I don’t think we’d ever heard one of those before.

You don’t have to take our word for this if you are coming to this Ogblog piece soon after the event. It was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 as a lunchtime concert and is still available for most of May 2018 – click here.

Hille Perl and Lee Santana concluded the concert with Les Folies d’Espagne by Marin Marais, which is the very piece that Hille Perl plays solo in the movie Happy End. If you want to see what Hille Perl and Lee Santana look like playing together, here is a little embedded vid of them playing that very piece together:

They played us an encore on the afternoon which was unexpected and unannounced. I’m pretty sure it was O’Carolan’s Dream, which you can see/hear them play on this embedded vid:

The afternoon was an absolute treat; a super way to enjoy a Monday off work!

Fantasticus, Sonnerie and other Portraits, Wigmore Hall, 19 June 2015

This was one of those late night concerts at The Wig.

We rather enjoy these, although sometimes find it an effort to go out after eating dinner, even if just to go a couple of miles down the road for a beautiful concert.

This one for sure was worth it. I’m pretty sure I knocked up a Tavola special pasta and salad for dinner before we went.

The full title of the concert was, “Sonnerie and other Portraits: Musical paintings from the French Baroque”. Lesser-known French Baroque composers, although we had heard some Marais and Rameau before, to be sure.

Here’s a link to the Wigmore Hall’s archived stub on this concert, which tells you all about Fantasticus and this concert – click here.

We’d never seen Fantasticus before; they are very good indeed. As was this beautiful concert.

In fact, if you wanted just one contrived adjective to describe our evening, you need look no further than “fantasticus”.