Tag: Wigmore Hall

Keeping Up Appearances: William Byrd: The Man, His Music and His Faith, The Cardinall’s Musick, Wigmore Hall, 4 April 2008

There is a good preview of this concert in The Cardinall’s Musick’s newsletter of February 2008 – click here. Apparently this concert was their first appearance at The Wig for quite a while. If I recall correctly, we had seen them before at St John’s Smith Square.

They really are a superb early music outfit. Andrew Carwood tries hard to explain the context of the work – perhaps he over-explains at times for our taste, but the music always sounds divine and the scholarship that underpins their work is evident for all to hear.

This type of concert is always a wonderful way to end the working week and I’m sure this occasion was  no exception.

This is exactly what we heard – lovely.

keeping-up-appearances-yet-smaller

We bought three CDs of The Cardinall’s Musick delivering their wonderful stuff. While I’m not 100% sure that we bought them on this occasion, I have a strong hunch that I did:

Very beautiful recordings, I still (writing in 2016) listen to this music quite a lot.

 

(I Don’t Think We Did See) Florilegium With Lucy Crowe, Wigmore Hall, 9 March 2008

My diary says “Wigmore Hall” for that Sunday, but no further details and (most unusually) no programme in my collection.

Further, we went off crack of dawn the next morning as we were due to take an early flight the to Barcelona – even in those days I don’t think we booked up stuff so tight.

So my guess is that we attempted to book that concert but didn’t get the seats we wanted; then planned our trip to Barcelona accordingly.

But if by any chance we did see this concert, it is written up very nicely on Intermezzo – here.

David Greilsammer, Wigmore Hall, 12 October 2007

This concert was sponsored by the Tabor Foundation, so Janie and I went along and hoity-toitied with Michael and Doreen Tabor, plus Angela Broad and I think Catriona Oliphant was also there that evening.

Greilsammer_0002
Better yet, read the Classical Source Piece – click the picture

Anyway, this was a young musician concert and a very impressive young pianist is/was David Greilsammer. I can only find one preview of this concert – in the Telegraph – click here.

This review in Classical Source is enthusiastic and helpful – click here.

Academy of Ancient Music, Wigmore Hall, 20 June 2007

I’m not sure why we feel this way, but we sense something a little cliquey and clinical about the Academy of Ancient Music – perhaps it is the corporate-style branding.

The music of course is beautiful.  Not quite sure why I chose this particular serving of fairly standard baroque concert fare, especially on an inconvenient Wednesday night for Janie.  I think I might have been itching to hear the BWV1042 violin concerto live and wondering about Locatelli.

We enjoyed it all well enough.

 

AAM 20 June 2007

Tom Kerstens, Wigmore Hall, 27 May 2007

We were supposed to see someone else.  Was it Paco Pena?  Juan Martin? Yet another well-known guitarist?

Anyway, we weren’t supposed to see Tom Kerstens.

Had we known his relative quality, we’d have accepted the offer of our money back rather than persevered with a Sunday evening concert substitute.  But we thought, heck, give the fellow a try.  Oh dear.

Still, we’d had a corker of a month in the theatre and music department until this point.  Here’s the programme (yes, really) – let’s draw a veil.

Tom Kerstens

The David Newton Trio, Wigmore Hall, 2 February 2007

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:

 

Ciaccona, Wigmore Hall, 28 October 2001

Good gig this, at the end of a culture vulture week – two visits to the theatre Friday and Saturday, then this concert at The Wig on the Sunday.

We heard:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata BWV 82 “Ich Habe Genug”
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto in C for two harpsicords, BWV 1061
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto for Oboe d’Amore BWV 1055 (also transcribed Harpsicord)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Cantata “Non sa che sia dolore” BWV 209

Ciaccona were very good.

I cannot find Ciaccona performances on-line. But here are some decent substitutes if you want to hear the programme.

Ich habe Genug is normally sung by a baritone, but here is a soprano singing it – albeit not Julia Gooding:

Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Ton Koopman, Wigmore Hall, 13 October 2001

This might have been the first time we saw Ton Koopman lead the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Decades later, we helped Ton celebrate his 80th birthday.

Ton Koopman 80th Birthday Celebration, Soloists of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, 29 November 2024

Excellent they were too, both in 2024 and in 2001.

In 2001 we saw/heard:

  • Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber – Battalia
  • Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer – Concerto No 2 in B flat major
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto in B minor for four violins, cello and strings Op 3 No 10 (RV580)
  • Carlo Farina – Capriccio Stravagante
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G Major BWV 1048
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D Major BWV 1050

Here is the andante from the Wassenaer:

I cannot find a recording of Koopman’s lot doing the Farina, as it were, but this Irish interpretation is rather jolly:

The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman did most of their recording of this type of stuff in the late 1980s. Here’s an example of their Brandenburg Concerto performances:

Daniel Hope & Friends, Wigmore Hall, 16 April 2001

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:

Here’s the first movement of the Walton:

Finally, here is a link to a more recent recording by David Frühwirth & Henri Sigfridsson, which I think is a similar sound to that of Hope & Mulligan doing the Threepenny Opera thing, although I think Hope and Mulligan were a bit more jazzy.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 30 March 2001

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

Below are some good embeds of the above pieces: