Tag: Wigmore Hall

Brad Mehldau, Wigmore Hall, 17 December 2015

What in the name of Jove possessed me to book a concert at the Wigmore Hall on the last Thursday before Christmas?  Surely I knew that, despite all the plans to work less, Janie would be up to her eyes in overwork, running late and all the related stress that brings.

At 18:57, when she still hadn’t got to the flat, I really thought we were in trouble. But then she arrived and good fortune got us to a single yellow line (parking therefore permitted) within striking distance of the hall within striking distance of the appointed hour.  Even time to order interval drinks – just!

This was the gig – click here.  Actually that doesn’t explain it very well.  Brad has been commissioned to write a three piece programme inspired by The Well-Tempered Clavier.  the centrepiece of the performance was Brad playing the Well-Tempered movements that inspired him followed by the commissioned pieces.

The programme explains it better (see below).  But even that doesn’t fill you in on the other stuff he played:

  • An improvisation before the interval inspired by the C major Prelude
  • An improvisation after the third commissioned piece, based on the G major Allemande (Brad omitted to say where this came from – unlike the others, clearly not the Well-Tempered – I think it must be the slightly earlier G Major Partita – perhaps he expected us all simply to know)
  • An improvisation following the F minor Prelude and Fugue
  • An improvisation following the E flat major Prelude, the improvisation also being a variation on Martha My Dear
  • An improvisation around Pinball Wizard, with no Bach in sight.

Anyway, Janie found it all a bit scholarly, but the chance of Janie being well-tempered about anything, least of all a clavier, was always going to be low at the end of such a day.  In truth, I found Brad’s “straight” playing of the Bach rather wooden, almost as if he couldn’t bear to “swing it at all” when playing the actual piece, so that the jazz variation would come to the fore.  In reality, Bach masters swing it quite a bit on the keyboard stuff.  I liked the commissioned works and the first three of the improvisations; less so the Martha and Pinball ones.

There was a heavy mee-jah presence in the hall, so Brad is clearly perceived to be a jazz master worth seeing by the cognoscenti still.  I would have enjoyed it more on a Saturday night in January, though.  Fighting through the after-work Christmas shoppers does not set us up ideally for a evening of Bach, jazz, jazz-Bach or Bach-jazz.

Brad 17 December 2015

Stile Antico, Wigmore Hall, In Pace: Music For Compline, 27 November 2015

What a wonderful way to end the working week; a concert of beautiful early music.  We’ve seen Stile Antico before at the Wigmore Hall; they are a truly inspirational vocal ensemble.

We ran into Eric Rhode and his wife, Maria at this concert, as often we do.  He is no doubt at the Wigmore Hall even as I write, as I know there is early music on there right now, a couple of weeks’ after the Stile Antico event.

You can read all about Stile Antico and the superb programme of early music, if you choose to click here and browse the prgramme.

Revisiting this article in May 2020 during Covid-19 lockdown, I am glad to see that, in 2015, Stile Antico showed off their skills by singing Renaissance pieces that were designed for 12 voices. Lockdown has strangely enabled the group to multiply virtually, producing the following delicious 40 part performance of Tallis’s Spem In Alium:

But in truth, the concert we heard that might would have looked and sounded more like the following recording from 2013 of William Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus at The Wig itself:

They’re good, I’m telling you, they’re good.

Evening and Morning, Vox Luminis, Wigmore Hall, 25 October 2015

This Sunday evening concert was part of the Henry Purcell season at the Wigmore Hall. Vox Luminis, under the direction of Lionel Meunier, treated us to 17th century English choral works.

Here is the Wigmore Hall stub for the concert, which tells you everything you might possibly want to know about the artists and the works performed.

We had arranged to take the next day off and this concert was just what the doctor ordered for us at the end of a busy weekend.

Don’t take our word for it; David Truslove of bachtrack.com gave the concert a rave review – here.

I was fascinated by these instruments, so Janie took a picture of them during the interval:

Below is an example of Vox Luminis performing one of the John Blow pieces we heard:

Below is a full concert video of a similar Vox Luminis concert at an early music festival from a few week’s earlier – no Blow, but Purcell and Morley:

Lovely stuff.

Aquilonis, Trio Mediæval, Wigmore Hall Lates, 24 July 2015

Trio Mediæval are the Norwegian early music answer to Bananarama. Need I say more?

We’d seen them at the Wigmore Hall before, bought one of their albums and everything.

Now they were back for one of those midsummer Wigmore Lates, to perform Aquilonis: a musical journey from Iceland to the Mediterranean via the coasts of Scandinavia and England.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall Stub for the concert.

They were also to be followed in the bar by live music (unspecified on the site). I have a funny feeling none emerged that evening, although there might have been a combo who played without handing out any notes.

We arranged to go and see the Sonia Delaunay at the Tate Modern earlier – click here for that piece – then eat at the Tate Modern, then leg it back across town.

What could possibly go wrong?

Nothing. That’s the simple answer. The logistics and timings worked perfectly.

The Trio Mediæval concert was delightful. Not as jaw-droppingly wonderful as the “Words of the Angel” concert we saw some years ago; that album – click here – we still listen to a lot. But still delightful.

 

Anthony Marwood, James Crabb & Graham Mitchell, followed by Patricia Hammond and The Versatility Serenaders, Wigmore Hall, 10 July 2015

After the chaos of the Alexander McQueen at the V&A – click here, the Wigmore Hall felt like a sanctuary.

We had arranged a cold plate supper in advance, which worked fine, then enjoyed this excellent late night concert of violin, accordion and double bass music.

Click here for Wigmore Hall stub that explains it all.

The  main concert was excellent – we particularly liked the Piazzolla but it all worked well, even the Bach. Very relaxing and enjoyable.

I liked the Patricia Hammond & The Versatility Serenaders more than Janie; she finds early and pre-jazz not quite to her taste. Still, we stuck around for a while before heading home.

O/MODƏRNT: Monteverdi to Tango & Monteverdi in Historical Counterpoint, Wigmore Hall, 3 July 2015

Two related concerts in one evening, both of which looked right up our street:

On the first stub, as indeed it read in the Wigmore Hall brochure, it says:

The Wigmore Hall Restaurant will serve dinner after the concert. Please contact the Box Office on 020 7935 2141 to make your table reservations.

This absolutely clinched it for us. The food at The Wig is pretty good these days and we know that they can deal with the sort of meal they can serve between concerts.

But what a palaver we had booking the meal.

“We’re not sure that we’ll be open still at that hour on that evening…”

“…but it says in the brochure that you will be open…”

“…ah, well if it says it in the brochure then we will be open…

“…great, we’d like to book please…”

“…I can’t take bookings yet, because I can’t be sure we’re going to be open…”

It all came right on the night (indeed before the night) of course.

The whole thing was part of a festival project named O/MODƏRNT, which is explained on its website – click here.

The first concert, mostly blending Monteverdi and Piazolla, was an exceptional classical ensemble concert with several ensembles and soloists involved.

Then the relatively simple meal that Wigmore Hall can serve in these circumstances, all done with speed, efficiency and smiles in the end. We know many of the staff there; indeed any who stick around for a while.

The second concert was jazz with the Svante Henryson Quartet. We weren’t quite sure what Monteverdi had to do with it; perhaps some links in the musical themes being extrapolated. Still, it was very good jazz, although Janie, as usual in such circumstances, felt that it fell short of Tord Gustavsen, which is a tough, indeed perhaps unreasonable benchmark to set. But Janie has set that benchmark for all visiting jazz ensembles since Tord graced the Wigmore Hall with his presence some years ago – an event which I shall Ogblog in the fullness of time.

In short, our O/MODƏRNT evening was a great success and well worth the effort.

 

Nash Ensemble: Ravel, Falla and Martín, Wigmore Hall, 14 March 2015

This was a very relaxing Sunday evening concert.

We hadn’t been to one of these before, but it seems there is a mini tradition of the Nash Ensemble doing concerts jointly with the flamenco guitarist Juan Martín.

I vaguely recall that we had been due to see Juan Martín on a previous occasion, but the  concert had to be cancelled for some reason.

Anyway, this concert was an unusual mix of Ravel, Falla and Martín’s own guitar works.

Perhaps foolishly, I had assumed when I booked it that we’d see Juan Martín perform with the orchestra in the Ravel and Falla, but that’s not the deal with these gigs. The Nash Ensemble and the other soloist, Bernarda Fink performed the first half of the concert (the Ravel and the Falla), then Juan Martín played the second half solo.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall listing for the concert, which tells you everything else you need to know.

Lovely concert it was, lovely.

Miloš Karadaglić, Wigmore Hall, 22 February 2015

We’d heard great things about guitarist, Miloš Karadaglić, so were really looking forward to this Wigmore Hall concert for some time.

We were not disappointed. He is a wonderful guitarist and the music was simply beautiful.

The concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, so we were treated to Petroc Telawny’s introduction pre broadcast, although we couldn’t hear his explanations between pieces at the time.

Still, were able to listen again (and again) afterwards, but sadly the BBC thing is to take the sound links down after a month, so you can’t hear it unless they put the recording up again – click here for BBC details of the concert.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall stub, which includes a full play list including the encore – there’s geeky for you.

Anyway it was all simply delicious music. Miloš came across very nicely as well as being a supreme talent.

I went on-line more or less straight way (after we got home, none of that smart phone during the concert nonsense) to buy/download a couple of Miloš CDs/downloads – Amazon links below (other vendors are available):

Much cheaper now than they were when I bought them.

Darn…but I don’t care. Wonderful albums both – we listen to them a lot.

We booked to see Miloš again last year, but he had to cancel the concert due to injury – apparently he has been grounded for some while. Hopefully just a temporary glitch in his performing career.

A really memorable and wonderful evening of music.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Xenia Löffler, Wigmore Hall, 6 February 2015

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin…but in Berlin!

We have been keen on the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin for many years now after first seeing them at the Wigmore Hall yonks ago – March 2001 – and then several times since. We even went to see them when we were in Berlin – see above and click here for the Ogblog piece.

As for Jean-Guihen Queyras, I shall forever associate him with our trip to Burgundy in 2008, in particular the day we visited the Bresse services to taste their coveted Poulet-de-Bresse (possibly the best service station dish in the world) and then on to Bourg-en-Bresse where by chance I bought, amongst other music, Queyras’s recording of the Bach Cello Suites – click here for Ogblog of that trip… 

…or here to a link for that wonderful Bach Cello Suites recording, which I still listen to quite often, indeed I am listening to it as I type…

…but I digress…

Click here for a link to the stub for the delightful Wigmore Hall concert we went to see on 6 February 2015.

These work wonderfully for us on a Friday evening, as long as we are sufficiently disciplined to stop working early enough and get to The Wig without a rush; on this occasion we were.

The concert was mostly Vivaldi, with one religious Caldara work thrown in for good measure. Not only were the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Jean-Guihen Queyras superb (we were expecting plenty), but also Xenia Löffler – principal oboe for the Akademie – was also excellent.

Janie and I both loved this concert too.

Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall, 27 December 2014

Igor Levit in 2019 – Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, CC BY 2.0

I got more out of this one than Janie did.

I’d heard so much about Igor Levit as this emerging talent which The Wig was promoting, so when this concert came up in the Twixtmas period, I thought it would be a good one for us.

Here is a link to the programme of the concert we heard.

I thought he was very good, but Janie thought he was showy and our friend Eric Rhode voted with his feet at half time, telling me afterwards that he found Levit’s playing very heavy handed.

He’s certainly getting rave reviews now; perhaps he was still a bit raw in 2014.

Here is a little snatch of Levit playing one of the Bach Partitas a few months earlier than our concert – it’ll give you an idea of his style and you can judge for yourselves: