Tag: Wigmore Hall

Following The Lord’s Test Match In The Car, Then Bach At The Wigmore Hall With The Duchess, 1 July 2000

This memory was triggered by this charming piece on the King Cricket website in late May 2020:

Watching (and missing) a dramatic day of England v West Indies in 2000 – a match report

Janie (Daisy) and I weren’t there for the tense ending of that match either. But we were nearby – there in spirit if not in body.

We had been eagerly following the match all day.

But that day was also the birthday of Daisy’s mother, The Duchess of Castlebar. I had bought tickets for the three of us to see a Bach concert at the Wigmore Hall for that evening.

Janie had quite recently acquired a taste for chamber concert halls and baroque music, perhaps a year or two earlier. The Duchess tended to prefer large scale concerts of the Proms variety; we mostly booked those for her. But the Proms don’t get going until a bit later in the summer and it was the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death that year. So Bach at The Wig it was to be.

Anyway, that afternoon the Lord’s Test Match was beautifully poised and/but for reasons I cannot recall – had there been a lot of overnight rain? – the day’s play had been delayed and was playing out until quite late.

The Duchess is an avid follower of the cricket as well as a music aficionado. We called her to let her know that we were on the way to collect her. We could all listen to the ending of the cricket match together on the car radio on our way to The Wig.

As we drove to the Duchess’s residence, England wickets fell and the match seemed to be drifting in The West Indies direction. Daisy and I anticipated a dark mood and we were not disappointed.

Thrown it away, they’ve thrown it away…

…said The Duchess. We set off for Marylebone (the southern end thereof).

The Duchess explained to us, as she had several times before, that Denis (Compton), Ted (Dexter), Colin (Cowdrey) Ken (Barrington), Geoffrey (Boycott) and players of that ilk – whom she had met together with her late husband in the good old days- would not have thrown it away like this.

We arrived at The Wigmore Hall. England hadn’t lost a wicket for a while. Was it possible that they could snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat?

Daisy parked up – it was a warm sunny evening so we sat in the car with the roof open and the car radio on, listening to the denouement of the cricket match.

The Duchess Of Castlebar

Try to imagine the scene, dear reader, as it must have looked to passing tourists who understand little or nothing about cricket. A distinguished-looking septuagenarian with her family sitting in a car leaping around in their seats, oohing and aahing every 45 seconds or so as the commentator spoke.

Then, those same seemingly dignified folk whooping with joy for a while, before sealing up the car and entering the Wigmore Hall. Tourists: meet the English.

Here’s a link to the scorecard and the Cricinfo bumf about the match.

Then the concert.

Basically it was an organ recital of JS Bach works by Jennifer Bate. When you click that preceding link you get some eye candy as well as the organist in question, as Jennifer Bate shares her name with a subsequent Miss England and sporting WAG.

Click the pic to read about the organist Jennifer Bate

It was a fine concert of mostly well-known Bach organ works. An example of one of the pieces (Bach after Vivaldi as it happens) can be seen and heard below.

To be precise, extracted from my log, we heard:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Partita BWV 767
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Prelude and Fugue in D Minor BWV 539
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata No 4 in E Minor BWV 539
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Prelude BWV 740
  • Johann Sebastian Bach & Johann Ernst – Concerto No 4 in C BWV 595
  • Johann Sebastian Bach & Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto No 2 in A minor BWV 593
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Pastorale in F BWV 590
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Chorale Prelude BWV 645
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Fugue in G BWV 577

A sad coda to this Ogblog piece was the discovery that Jennifer Bate died in March 2020, just a few weeks before I wrote this piece.

Here’s another video of her playing one of the pieces we heard that night; Concerto in C BWV 595 (Ernst arr. Bach).

Below is the sort-of programme handed out on the night – it wouldn’t be an organ recital without an organ appeal, now would it?

Playing With Numbers III, Hanover Band, Wigmore Hall, 4 May 2000

A concert of Vivaldi pieces, performed by the Hanover Band, led by Richard Egarr.

A Thursday evening concert – both of us had pretty chock-full diaries in those days, but Janie and I both managed to limit our appointments to avoid late afternoon ones.

We heard:

  • Concerto in G minor for 2 violins and cello Op 3 No 2
  • Motet “In Furore Iustissimae Irae” for soprano, 2 violins, viola and bass
  • Concerto in E minor for violin Op 6 No 5
  • Concerto in D minor for violin Op 6 No 6
  • Motet “Per la Solennita di S. Antonio” Vos aurae per montes
  • Concerto in D major for 4 violins, Op 3 No 1

Here’s at least a sample from each of the pieces we heard that night – sadly none by The Hanover Band who didn’t tend to record this stuff. The “In furore iustissimae irae” is worth the price of admission alone.

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:

Im Zimmermanschen Kaffeehaus, A Weekend With Trevor Pinnock & His Pals, Wigmore Hall, 14 & 15 January 2000

A pair of baroque concerts over that weekend – Friday evening and Saturday evening. We chose to go and see both. It was part of a series named “Bach & His Contemporaries”.

I logged that Janie and I both described the concerts as:

superb.

On the Friday evening we saw/heard:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Trio Sonata in G for violin, flute and continuo
  • Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer – Chaconne in D minor for solo harpsicord
  • Diderik Buxtehude – Sonata in B flat for violin and viola da gamba Op 1 no 4 BuxWV255
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata in B minor for flute and harpsicord, BWV 1030
  • Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber – Passacaglia for solo violin
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsicord, BWV 1029
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Trio Sonata from the Musical Offering, BWB 1079

On the Saturday evening we heard:

  • Georg Philipp Telemann – Suite in A minor for recorder and strings
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto in C for two harpsicords, BWV 1061
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata in G for violin and harpsicord, BWV 1019
  • Sylvius Leopold Weiss – Tombeau sur le mort de M Comte de Logy
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Orchestral Suite no 2 in B minor

Trevor Pinnock, Rachel Podger and some of the others recorded the Bach trio sonatas that year. I have put together a playlist on YouTube Music which includes those lovely sonatas and some other pieces from the January 2000 weekend – click here to listen to that playlist. Don’t be put off by the strike through on the link – anyone can hear the playlist but you will get adverts if you are not yourself a YouTube Music subscriber.

If you prefer to just click the odd embed, here is one of the Bach sonatas we heard Trevor and Rachel play:

I wasn’t familiar with the work of JCF Fischer. Here’s Trevor Pinnock playing Fischer’s passacaglia, not the chaconne we heard. Still lovely:

Here are some other people playing (part of) the Telemann Overture/Suite that we heard:

The Weiss piece was a delicious listen. Here is Evangelina Mascardi giving it a go.

We heard William Carter play the Weiss at that January 2000 concert, long before Janie’s “mystery punter” evening at the same venue:

William Carter, Theorbist Extraordinaire’s Mystery Punter Outed, 24 September 2010

Finally, here is a YouTube of the closing number from that brace of delicious concerts, with music so you can play along with it if you wish:

Till Fellner, Wigmore Hall, 2 October 1999

The then young Austrian pianist, Till Fellner, played a mixture of Bach and Beethoven that night:

  • Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata in A major Op 101
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV 850 to 853
  • Ludwig van Beethoven – Six Bagatelles, Op 126
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, BWV 846 to 849

This concert helped to cement Janie’s view that she is more a Bach person than a Beethoven person. I enjoyed all of it.

Here’s a recording of Till Fellner playing book one of The Well-Tempered Clavier with wonderfully light touch:

Here’s Andras Schiff playing and lecturing on the Beethoven A major sonata some 15 years later at The Wig:

Wigmore Hall Concert With Sonnerie, 23 September 1999

Excellent concert, this. Sonnerie was a superb but fluid ensemble, led by the indomitable Monica Huggett.

On this occasion they comprised Monica Huggett, Gary Cooper, Wilbert Hazelzet, Pamela Thorby, Catherine Latham, Katherine McGillivray, Catherine Martin, Emilia Benjamin, Alison McGillivray and Sarah Groser.

Here is the playlist from the gig:

  • Jean-Philippe Rameau – Pieces de clavecin en concerts No 3 in A major
  • Georg Philipp Telemann – Concerto for Flute, Oboe d’amore, Viola d’amore, Strings and Continuo in E major
  • Antonio Lucio Vivaldi – Concerto for Violin, Strings and Continuo in D major (“Il Grosso Mogul”) RV208
  • Georg Philipp Telemann – Concerto for Flute, recorder, Strings and Continuo in E minor
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Sonata No 1 for Violin and Harpsicord in B minor BWV 1014
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Concerto for Harpsicord, 2 Recorders, Strings and Continuo in F major BWV 1057

Here is a clip from an earlier but lovely recording of the E major Telemann piece, which includes Monica Huggett with the Academy of Ancient Music

While here is a lovely video of Ensemble Odyssee playing the Bach concerto we heard that evening:

We both went straight from work and both had early starts the next morning, so I guess we supped light at Sandall Close after the gig.

Angela Brownridge Plays Liszt, Wigmore Hall, 16 July 1999

To The Wigmore Hall again on a Friday evening to catch an Angela Brownridge recital of Liszt piano pieces.

We heard:

  • Les Jeux d’eau a la Ville d’Este
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No 13
  • From Annes de Pelerinage Book 2 “Italy”
  • Paganini Caprice No 6 “La Campanella”
  • 3 Liebestraume in A Flat, E and A Flat
  • 3 Concert Studies: Il Lamento, La Leggierezza, Un Sospiro
  • Hungarian Rhapsody No 2

Yes, that’s right…there’s a Liszt of the pieces we heard.

Here is a lengthy documentary about and by Angela Brownridge:

You can hear the Liebstraume she played in the 1999 concert at 1:10:55 on the video.

Fabio Zanon At The Wigmore Hall, 18 June 1999

A lovely concert at “The Wig”.

Here’s the “playlist”:

  • El Decameron Negro by Leo Brouwer
  • Tarrantos by Leo Brouwer
  • Elogio de la Danza by Leo Brouwer
  • Fuga no 1 by Leo Brouwer
  • Pieza sin Titulo no3 by Leo Brouwer
  • Pieza sin Titulo no1 by Leo Brouwer
  • Encantamientos by Robert Keeley
  • Grand Sonata in A Major MS.3  by Niccolo Paganini
  • Six Sonatas, K404, K474, K60, K462, K394, K477 by Domenico Scarlatti
  • Aria con Variazioni “Le Frescobalda” by Girolamo Frescobaldi

In truth I was not familiar with the work of Leo Brouwer. Fabio Zanon is clearly a fan and has (far more recently) produced a helpful explainer video about the composer:

We were really taken with the young guitarist’s playing of Scarlatti sonatas transposed for guitar. Here is a video that shows him in the late 1990s playing three such pieces:

We were very taken with Friday evenings at The Wig in those days – it seemed a very relaxing way to round off a hard week. Writing 25 years later…still does.

Les Cris De Paris, Ensemble Clément Janequin, Wigmore Hall, 20 May 1999

Janie and I both loved this concert. We weren’t previously familiar with the works of this Renaissance composer, Clément Janequin, nor this eponymous Ensemble.

But by the end of the concert we were familiar with both and had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. All that despite it being a Thursday evening at the end of long working days for both of us and ahead of long working days to boot.

This was the Ensemble’s 20th anniversary programme:

  • Nous Sommes de l’Ordre de Saint Babouyn by Loyset Compere
  • Tant que Vivray / Au Joly Boys / Je ne Menge Point de Porc / Vien Tost by Claudin de Sermisy
  • N’As tu Poinct Mis ton Hault Bonnet / Mon Amy M’Avoit Promis by Ninot le Petit
  • Bransles d’Ecosse / La Romaine by Guillaume Morlaye
  • Mille Regretz / Faulte d’Argent / Douleur Me Bat / El Grillo / Nymphes des Boys / Scaramella by Josquin Desprez
  • Les Cris de Paris / Qu’est-ce d’Amour? / Il Estoit une Fillette / Au Verd Boys/Le Chant des Oyseaulx by Clement Janequin
  • Fantaisie by Albert de Rippe
  • Or Vien Ca / O Mal d’Aymer / Ung Jour Robin / L’Amour, la Mort et la Vie / My Levay Par Ung Matin / La Guerre by Clement Janequin

Twenty years after that, they looked and sounded a bit like this:

The above piece formed part of the concert we heard. The following one did not, but is lovely.

Here follows a video of a whole gig post 2020, which includes several of the works we heard in 1999. Renaissance music never goes out of fashion:

Steuerman Does Goldberg At The Wigmore Hall, 11 February 1999

Unusual for us to go to a concert on a Thursday evening in those days. I don’t think I’d yet heard The Goldberg Variations live and was keen to do so.

Jean-Louis Steuerman, that boy can sure tinkle the ivories.

Take my word for it.

Actually, no need for you to take my word for it – here’s that very chap playing that very aria:

I told you he can play.