Tag: Wigmore Hall

Vivaldi, Sammartini, Nardini, Brioschi, Fabio Biondi & The English Concert, Wigmore Hall, 25 May 2008

 

An unusual mixture of the vaguely familiar and less familiar Italian Baroque and its aftermath. The list of composers reads like an Italian restaurant menu or perhaps the lyrics of Mambo Italiano.

Fabio Biondi is a bit of a showman, I seem to recall, which is not necessarily the style that floats Janie’s boat, but it seems almost compulsory to perform Vivaldi that way these days. Although these particular Vivaldi concertos are not the best known ones, there’s always something fairly familiar about the Vivaldi concerto sound. No bad thing.

The second half of the concert was more subdued and in many ways more interesting, as I’m not sure I’d ever heard any Sammartini, Nardini or Brioschi before. Well worth a listen, but nothing so wow that I’m desperate for a recording or rushing back for more in the concert hall.

There’s no Wigmore Hall stub for this concert – those start from January 2012, but there is an Instant Encore entry, click here, so far I am the only person to confess to having attended this concert. Not even the Orchestra…

Joking apart, it was a very good concert, just one of those low key Sunday night at the Wigmore Hall affairs.

 

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:

 

Borodin String Quartet At The Wigmore Hall, 13 November 2001

I thought Janie might like string quartets and thought that this programme might please her:

  • Dmitri Shostakovich – String Quartet No 9 in E flat major Op 117
  • Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet in E flat major Op 74 “Harp”

Possibly a Tuesday evening after a long day of work was not the ideal testing ground for my assumption.

But I also think that this sort of string quartet is not much to Janie’s taste on any occasion.

Still, Janie says it is always good to relax and listen to music at The Wig, even if the music would not be one’s first choice.

Here’s a recording of the Novus String Quartet playing the Shostakovich:

And here is the Alban Berg quartet playing the Beethoven one:

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: