Tag: Wigmore Hall

Goldberg Variations, Joanna MacGregor, Followed By Jazz, Wigmore Lates, 9 May 2014

We rather like these Wigmore Lates concerts, although we do sometimes find it hard to drag ourselves from the comfort of my lovingly prepared dinner at the flat to the concert hall, albeit a mere couple of miles up the road.

We’d been very keen on the idea of this one when we booked it, but I do recall that fatigue factor coming into play as we set off for the Wigmore Hall.

But by gosh this one was worth it.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall diary page for this concert.

We’d enjoyed Joanna MacGregor playing interesting fusion music some years earlier, at the Roundhouse – click here or below… 

Joanna MacGregor and Britten Sinfonia, Reverb: Roundhouse, 23 January 2010

…but had never seen her perform solo before.

Her interpretation of the Goldberg Variations was a fine one. Not overly flash or unusual; perhaps the odd flourish that nodded to her breadth of influences. Very relaxing.

Did either Janie or I nod off during the performance, I hear you ask? That is between us and our consciences, but in any case, with the Goldberg, it almost feels compulsory to do so, at least for a short while, in honour of the great composer’s original purpose.

We certainly didn’t nod off in the bar afterwards where we heard the Julian Bliss Quintet play some swinging jazz. We both like that style, as does Joanna MacGregor, it seems, as she joined a fairly sizeable late night swing contingent in the bar for quite a while.

I think Janie and I slipped away just before midnight – we normally do – don’t want anyone to see our carriage turning into a pumpkin or anything like that.

A very enjoyable late evening at the Wig.

Aspects Of Darkness And Light, Joshua Redman And Friends, Wigmore Hall, 24 April 2014

We were excited about Joshua Redman taking up residency at the Wigmore hall and thought this concert might be right up our street.

In truth, I don’t think the Patrick Zimmerli music on show that night was quite to our taste.

It was an interesting idea blending a string quartet with a jazz trio, but it didn’t quite work for us with this music.

We liked bits of it and were glad we’d been to the concert.

Here is a link to the Wigmore hall stub for this concert.

Emmanuel Pahud, Christian Rivet, Wigmore Hall, 22 December 2013

Something a little different just before Christmas that year. A real mixture of musical styles, played on flute and guitar.

Click here for a link to the Wigmore Hall page for this concert.

It wasn’t quite the programme we had subscribed for – the programme was changed between booking and the night – but I cannot for the life of me remember what they were originally proposing to do – some slightly different mixture of wonders I suspect.

Below is the only video footage I could find of the two of them playing together – a delightful little Bach piece – it wasn’t on the programme our night:

Below is Pahud playing a favourite Telemann concerto of mine – so why not embed it here?

Below is a sound YouTube of the two of them playing one of the charming  Bartok Romanian Folk Dances which was on the programme we heard:

I’m not usually wild about Bartok, but this flute and guitar combo makes the Romanian dances sound lovely.

Fabio Zanon, Wigmore Hall, Lunchtime Concert, 22 November 2013

A real treat of a day off, this one. Our first treat was this lunchtime concert at the Wigmore Hall.

We were most impressed with Fabio Zanon.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall programme for this concert.

It was Britten centenary day, so the centrepiece was Britten’s Dowland-inspired Nocturnal, although we did get some Peter Phillips to get a genuine Tudor feel and also some Bach and others to cruise us through the centuries.

Here is a YouTube of Zanon playing some Scarlatti…

…and here is a YouTube of someone else playing a Peter Philips pavan on the lute…

..and here is a Julian Bream masterclass on that Britten Nocturnal:

After lunch at The Wig, we went on to see an exhibition about Zoroastrianism at SOAS, but that’s a different story – click here or below:

The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination, Brunei gallery, SOAS, 22 November 2013

Journeys Through Music, Trevor Pinnock, Wigmore Hall, 30 October 2013

It’s not easy to get Janie up into town on a Wednesday evening. But this opportunity to hear a harpsichord recital by Trevor Pinnock was too good to miss.

And boy was it good.

A fascinating programme for the evening, starting in the 16th century and working deep into the 18th.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall programme link for this concert.

For those who don’t click, it is music by Antonio de Cabezón, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Bull, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Domenico Scarlatti and Antonio Soler.

Many and varied.

Below is a YouTube sound piece of the Antonio de Cabezón we heard:

Below is an interview with Pinnock about his “Journey” project:

He talks so sensibly and knowledgeably in that interview, as indeed he did when explaining the recital to us on the night.

Anyway, that concert in October 2013 was a delicious as well as interesting listen and such an honour to see Trevor Pinnock perform those works up close.

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

Two nights in a row at The Wigmore Hall…two nights in a row from the Early Music and Baroque Series…two corkers.

The previous night we’d seen the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin – click here or below:

‘Opus 5!’ – A Corelli Celebration, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 8 June 2013

A very different style tonight. A rare chance to see Jordi Savall up close playing small scale music, along with Andrew Lawrence-King (he of the Loqueville that captivated me so many years ago).

Not all early music, of course, but some well early and some traditional of no fixed provenance; neither composer nor time period. Some lovely. All interesting.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall programme page for the evening.

Below is a YouTube with some music very much along the lines of the music we heard that night…

…and here is the very trio we saw, a few months later, performing live at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa:

A truly memorable weekend of early music.

‘Opus 5!’ – A Corelli Celebration, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 8 June 2013

This was an excellent concert. Janie and I are both partial to the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and are also partial to a bit of Corelli. So we weren’t going to miss out on this one.

The concert was actually Corelli plus – it also highlighted some composers directly influenced by the great man.

The Wigmore Hall Programme page – click here – explains.

Below is a YouTube of the Alte Musik Berlin mob playing one of the Platti concerti we heard…

…followed by a real treat – the Corelli Op 5 No 10 (recorder concerto) shown live from the concert the night before ours, at the Kablow Dorfkirche – absolutely dreamy:

Kablow Dorfkirche KW
Kablow Dorfkirche

Mahan Esfahani, Byrd, Bach & Ligeti, Wigmore Hall, 3 May 2013

We were impressed when we first saw the harpsichord virtuoso, Mahan Esfahani, with the English Concert in 2009, when he was infeasibly young – click here or below:

The English Concert, Wigmore Hall, 15 March 2009

In the four years inbetween, Esfahani had become a real name in the early music world and here was an opportunity for us to see a recital of interesting stuff at very close quarters.

Click here for the Wigmore Hall listing for this concert.

All Byrd in the first half – absolutely enchanting. The second half captivated us a little less – mostly familiar material from Bach’s Musical Offering  (played beautifully) – we didn’t really see how the Ligeti fitted in with the Byrd and Bach. We love Hungarian folk music; the style just didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the programme, which was so relaxing. But that’s just us.

The concert was lauded the whole programme. It was recorded for Wigmore Hall live and therefore is available if people want to hear the whole thing – click here or the image below for a link direct to Presto Classical, where you can hear samples or purchase.

We loved this concert – a really enchanting Friday evening at The Wig.

Telemann And JS Bach, Florilegium, Wigmore Hall, 30 March 2013

You don’t get to hear Telemann’s Tafelmusik in the concert hall all that often, although we had seen The Academy For Ancient Music perform some, also at The Wig, only six months earlier – click here or below:

A Musical Feast: From Schein To Telemann, Academy Of Ancient Music, Wigmore Hall, 21 September 2012

The attraction of this Florilegium concert was partly the Tafelmusik (we were to hear some highlights from Part One whereas we’d heard Part Two last time…

…but to a greater extent a chance to hear some Bach Easter music we had not heard before – here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resource on this concert so you can see exactly what went on.

It was a very enjoyable concert. Florilegium are always top notch – or rather they always have been when we’ve seen them.

The Easter Oratorio is a super choice for Florilegium, with their core strength being woodwind. I recall they also drummed up some fairly splendid trumpets for the occasion too. The singing soloists had beautiful voices.

Below is a vid of the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists under John Elliot Gardiner performing the piece. Larger scale, but a lovely vid and it will certainly give you an idea:

I remember Janie remarking that the concert was just what the doctor should have ordered…

…at that stage of Janie’s “resurrection” that was a multi-layered joke, together with being a truthful reflection on what a tonic the concert had been.

Gorgeous, it was.

Guillermo Klein, Aaron Goldberg, Chris Cheek, Miguel Zenon, Wigmore Hall, 1 February 2013

Another jazz night under Joshua Redman’s stewardship. This time, more colour than the four saxs we saw in November:

Axis Saxophone Quartet, Wigmore Hall, 2 November 2012

This time – two pianos and two saxophones.

Still, only some of this jazz worked for us. Some was very melodic and pleasing to the ear – some was a bit complex for our taste.

Well worth hearing, though and much needed distraction from all Janie’s health stuff, which we were trying to process at that time.