Tag: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Arvo Pärt, John Bull, François Couperin And More: Kit Armstrong, Wigmore Hall, 22 December 2024

It’s difficult to come up with appropriate adjectives for someone like Kit Armstrong. He studied composition and started playing the piano at the age of five, enrolled on undergraduate courses in biology, physics, mathematics and music at the age of nine, graduated in music at age 16 and completed an MSc in mathematics age 20. Words like “prodigy” and “genius” seem insufficient.

Anyway – I first came across Kit Armstrong when I was researching my performance piece for Gresham Society at Hampton Court Palace in September 2023…

Gresham Society Visit To The Royal Tennis Court, Hampton Court, 14 September 2023

…as I was keen to include some Byrd and Bull in the performance, which led me to Kim Armstrong’s magnificent album William Byrd & John Bull from 2021.

I was keen to see him live, so couldn’t resist the opportunity at The Wigmore Hall, despite Janie’s (and my) resistance to braving that area in the run up to Christmas.

By Sunday 22 December things should have simmered down around there…

…I said. I was right. Our journey and the parking was just fine.

To add to the charm of the evening, my tennis friend John Thirlwell was there with his companion. They made pleasant company before the concert and during the interval.

Mr Thirlwell relaxing after doing battle on the tennis court at Lord’s

Kit Armstrong had chosen a quirky selection of pieces. He explains his choice in the following promo vid:

Here is the Wigmore Hall stub for this concert, with all the details.

The first half of the concert was early music – Renaissance through Baroque periods:

  • Thomas Tallis – Felix namque I
  • Giles Farnaby – A Maske
  • John Bull – Lord Lumley’s Pavan and Galliard
  • John Bull – Telluris ingens conditor
  • François Couperin – Le réveil-matin
  • François Couperin – Les petits moulins à vent
  • François Couperin – Le dodo, ou L’amour au berçeau
  • George Frideric Handel – Suite in G minor HWV432

I wasn’t familiar with Giles Farnaby but enjoyed making his musical acquaintance through the piece, A Maske:

It was also wonderful for me to hear him play some of that John Bull material live. Telluris Ingens Conditor especially pleased me.

The second half of the concert was more modern, covering the 18th Century through to one of his own pieces from the 21st Century.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  – Rondo in A minor K511
  • Camille Saint-Saëns – Africa Op. 89 (1891)
  • Leopold Godowsky – In the Kraton from Java Suite
  • Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji – Transcendental Etude No. 36
  • Arvo Pärt – Für Alina
  • Kit Armstrong – Etudes de dessin

We were especially taken by the Saint-Saëns (I have long loved that piece), the Leopold Godowsky (new to both of us as composer and piece alike) and the Arvo Pärt (we didn’t know the piece but tend to like Part’s charming minimalism.)

I have had trouble tracking down the encore, but I am pretty sure it was Baude Cordier – Belle, Bonne, Sage, as I cannot imagine that there are too many pieces from around 1400 which the composer set out in the shape of a heart. Cute.

In truth I don’t think the piece worked well as a piano transcript – it is more lovely to my ears as a vocal rondeau.

Still, it was a superb concert. Janie and I were enthralled by it and so glad we made the effort to go to The Wig just before Christmas!

A Concert With Cousins Angela & John, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall, 28 March 2012

Angela & John “a few” years ago – Michael & Pam would approve the photo choice

This concert was the evening before Uncle Michael’s funeral, for which I was scheduled to be the soloist – i.e. eulogist.

Angela and John are patrons of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). They suggested that I might join them for this concert. An element of bonding exercise and an element (I suspect) of last minute stage management. John had stuck his neck out a little with his Rabbi by suggesting that a member of the family undertake the eulogy and they didn’t want any mistakes.

We discussed matters over drinks and nibbles with the patrons and benefactors before the show.

“Rabbi Rosenfeld is absolutely clear that you should keep the eulogy brief”, said John – who is a graduate of the Arsène Wenger school of management.

“I got the message – I’ve timed the speech; eighty-nine minutes…”

“…EIGHT OR NINE MINUTES…if it goes past ten minutes I’ll shut you up myself…”

…I think John knew I was joking.

Meanwhile, unlike our family funeral, the concert was not going to proceed as planned. The Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin had gone down with “severe gastric flu” (as described in the apologetic programme note).

So we had a late substitute from one of the other dominions, Australia, in the form of Matthew Coorey.

The result was a game of two halves in some ways.

Supersub Coorey was spared the first half of of the concert, as Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili, wisely, chose to lead the orchestra herself in the Mozart Violin Concerto No 3.

I say the first half…of course the Mozart is quite a short work whereas the second half, Mahler Symphony No 9, is a 90 minute marathon. So it was more like an 80:20 thing than a game of two halves…

…I’m digressing. Point is, the first piece I suspect included all the nuance and personality that had been planned for this concert. I have an affection for that simple but charming piece and it was delivered very well that night.

By contrast, the Mahler seemed, while very professionally performed, a somewhat retreated, standard performance of the great work. Hats off to Coorey for taking on such a monumental work at such short notice. But “letting the orchestra just do its thing” is probably as good as it gets in those circumstances.

Here is a short video of Lisa Batiashvili playing at home, Tbilisi. I couldn’t find a legitimate vid of her playing Mozart so I thought this gorgeous piece of Bach would do nicely.

While here is a short vid of Matthew Coorey conducting. It isn’t Mahler…instead it is Kodaly, so there is still rather a lot of early 20th century noise and some unusual percussion – it was the closest I could find:

Jerusalem Quartet & Lawrence Power, Wigmore Hall, 3 October 2009

This concert did more for me than it did for Daisy.

I thought she might like classical music, of the Mozart and Mendelssohn kind, in the form of string quartets rather than the symphonies and orchestral pieces she claims not to like.

Wrong.

She still found them twiddly and not to her taste really.

Not that she minded; an evening at the Wigmore Hall would struggle to be unpleasant.

This is exactly what we saw:

Take my word for it; they were very good.

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.

A Night At The Proms Without The Duchess But With Trevor Pinnock & The English Concert, 8 August 1999

Liberated from hosting The Duchess at The Proms, Janie and I went along to this concert on a Sunday evening planning nothing more than a light supper at my flat after the show. It was a Sunday evening and we both had ridiculously early starts the next morning.

Here’s the running order:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach, Singet dem Herrn, BWV 225
  • Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 49 in F minor ‘La passione’
  • Joseph Haydn, Non nobis, Domine, Hob. XXIIIa:1
  • Joseph Haydn, Insanae et vanae curae
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem in D minor (compl. Süssmayr).

This was an excellent concert. You don’t need to take my word for that – it seems it got rave reviews afterwards. It has taken me 25 years to check out those rave reviews, but that’s me.

Here’s Geoffrey Norris in The Telegraph:

Pinnock Telegraph NorrisPinnock Telegraph Norris 09 Aug 1999, Mon The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Tom Sutcliffe in the Standard was a little more equivocal, but still wrote very well of the gig.

Pinnock Sutcliffe StandardPinnock Sutcliffe Standard 09 Aug 1999, Mon Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Music at Oxford Fireworks Concert, Radley College, 20 July 1991

This was one of several Music At Oxford events that my old firm, BDO Consulting (aka Binder Hamlyn Management Consultants) sponsored between 1989 and 1992.

The first of them included an action-packed, cartoon-like journey to Oxford – click here or below.

Music At Oxford At The Sheldonian Theatre & Bodleian Library, 7 July 1989

The 1991 edition was a far more sedate affair – at least it was for me – as the fireworks were part of the show on this occasion.

Annalisa de Mercur accompanied me on this occasion. I think we all stayed at The Moat House, as we had done in 1990 when Caroline Freeman accompanied me.

We heard:

  • George Frideric Handel – Water Music Suite No 2 in D major HWV 349
  • Johann Pachelbel – Canon
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Serenade No 13 in G K525 “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
  • Johann Sebastian Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No 1 in F BWV 1046
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Horn Concerto No 4 in E Flat K495 3rd Movement
  • Malcolm Arnold – Sinfonietta No 1 for two oboes, two horns and strings
  • Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings
  • George Frideric Handel – Music for the Royal Fireworks

Ah, in fact I have the running order from the programme:

It was quite a late evening affair, this one, with the second half not even starting until 9:45, so the fireworks must have been at what would now be deemed to be an antisocial hour.

I’m pretty sure we young consultants were discouraged from continuing our antisocial activities on our return to the hotel, so the boisterous singing |I remember from the first event I’m pretty sure simply didn’t happen this time around.

Drinking and chatting in the hotel bar almost certainly did happen, though.

I remember this one as a very pleasant and largely relaxing outing. I’m not sure I had any clients of my own there that night – perhaps one – and the relative popularity of the programme meant that my musical knowledge (such as it is) was little called-upon.

Postscript: Annalisa recalls…

Is this the one with chandeliers in the marquee and a view across the lake? If so, I remember it. Clearly, the chandeliers made more of an impression than either the music or the fireworks! Chandeliers in marquees have become pretty commonplace now, but at the time I had never seen anything like it!

Top recall, Annalisa, top recall.

Mozart At The Royal Festival Hall, 15 February 1991

To the Royal Festival Hall in deep midwinter with Bobbie, as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra 60th Anniversary festival. We went to a couple of these concerts; this was the second of them.

Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich waved the stick and David Butt played the flute. We heard three great works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

  • Symphony No 39 in E Flat Major
  • Flute Concerto in G Major, K313/KE285c
  • Symphony No 40 in G Minor, K550

I’m not sure this was a perfect fit of conductor and orchestra for these works, but it was lovely to hear these familiar pieces in the Royal Festival Hall. I cannot find any newspaper archive reviews for this one, so my one-line review based on a memory of an event from nearly 34 years ago (as I write) will have to do.

A Rotterdam Good Prom On My Birthday, Royal Albert Hall, 28 August 1990

Bobbie joined me on my birthday in 1990 for this Prom. I seem to recall it was a goody.

James Conlon conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in the following works:

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Violin Concerto No 4 in D major, K 218
  • Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 6 in A minor

Isabelle van Keulen was the soloist for the Mozart. She was a young star back then, as was Mozart when he wrote his violin concertos.

Here are YouTubes of Isabelle’s recording of the Mozart 4 Violin Concerto. With the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra rather than the Rotterdam Philharmonic, but you can’t have everything. The girl can play.

There’s not much out there to illustrate James Conlon conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic, but this section from Liszt’s Faust Symphony is rather charming:

While here is the Rotterdam Philharmonic more recently, with current Principle Conductor Lahav Shani, performing a short snatch from Mahler 6:

Meanwhile, back to that 1990 concert, Robert Henderson in The Telegraph seemed satisfied but not ecstatic:

Conlon Prom Henderson TelegraphConlon Prom Henderson Telegraph 31 Aug 1990, Fri The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Edward Greenfield in the Guardian waxed lyrical about the Mahler but not so about the Mozart. Comparing a 24-year-old prize winner debuting at the Proms with Pinchas Zuckerman seems a tad unfair, though.

Conlan Prom Greenfield GuardianConlan Prom Greenfield Guardian 31 Aug 1990, Fri The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

Don Giovanni, English National Opera, London Coliseum, 10 June 1989

I don’t have great memories of seeing this opera, but I think my memories of it are more closely linked to my general mood that weekend than to any intrinsic issue with the opera/production…

…other than to say that this experience probably helped to kick off the view, which has become a prevailing one, that opera ain’t me.

Bobbie was there for this one, as was Ashley Fletcher – yes, my memory definitely serves me correctly for this one, as the diary makes clear that Ashley was down for the weekend and stayed in the tower – i.e. the annex to my flat in Clanricarde Gardens – so named, by Ashley, as he felt that the place would be suitable for the detention of a mad and/or elderly relative. That annex now serves as my office – renamed the ivory tower – a more liberal purpose and name.

But I digress.

Not much about it on the net, given its antiquity, but here’s some stuff from the translator, Amanda Holden.

While here is a rather cute link to a fan’s piece:

I'm off to ENO's Don Giovanni tonight. Here's the programme for the version I saw there last. In 1989

Below is Tom Sutcliffe’s Guardian review:

Sutcliffe on GiovanniSutcliffe on Giovanni Fri, Mar 24, 1989 – 31 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I’ll write more about other aspects of the weekend after I have had a chance to liaise with Ashley on’t matter. Bobbie and I had a rather entertaining conversation about in 28 February 2019…

Dinner At Spring Restaurant With Bobbie Scully, 28 February 2019

…a few days before I wrote up this piece, about Don Giovanni.

Postscript after seeing Ashley in April 2019: Ashley has no recollection of that weekend. So we must rely on Bobbie’s memory that I was tripping out on tiredness and rather freaked at the thought of going out to get some additional soap, as there was none for Ashley in the shower of the tower. If I really did say words to the effect:

I did not envisage this weekend as a soap buying weekend…

…that would have to be up there amongst my most autistic utterances ever. I have a dreadful feeling that Bobbie’e memory is going to be bang on regarding that point.

Mozart And Salieri by Alexander Pushkin, Almeida Theatre, 11 March 1989

I went to see this production at the Almeida with Kate (previously and latterly Susan) Fricker. I rated it as very good and I’m pretty sure that Kate really enjoyed this production too.

It was an adaptation of a short Pushkin play about the interaction/rivalry between the two composers. This play inspired Peter Shaffer to write Amadeus on the same topic but the pieces are quite different other than the core topic. Here is the Wikipedia entry about the play.

Of course there is little on-line about these old productions – this one doesn’t even have a Theatricalia entry – but I did find this fascinating Guardian piece, including a wonderful photo of Tilda Swinton in the role of Mozart – click here.

Below is Michael Billington’s Guardian review:

Billington on Mozart SalieriBillington on Mozart Salieri Mon, Apr 10, 1989 – 37 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Michael Ratcliffe’s Observer review:

Ratcliffe on Mozart SalieriRatcliffe on Mozart Salieri Sun, Apr 16, 1989 – 43 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

The dates on these reviews imply that Kate and I attended a preview in March 1989.

The diary is silent about what Kate and I did before or after the show; I’m sure we will have eaten something or at least taken some refreshment and had a chat. Perhaps Kate remembers.

My memory isn’t brilliant on this one. I would have sworn that we saw Stella Gonet opposite Tilda Swinton in this, but all the evidence says we saw Lore Brunner. I can see no sign of ever having seen those two (Swinton and Gonet) on stage together, although both were prominent in the leading roles we were seeing at that time.

In any case, I believe this was only my second visit to the Almeida, the first having been some six months earlier, to see Hello And Goodbye. I do recall falling for the Almeida as a place itself on this second visit – whereas that first visit I was simply bowled over by the production and didn’t especially associate that visit with the Almeida. That was partly, I think, because Kate was especially taken with what they seemed to be doing at the Almeida in terms of restoring an old theatre for modern use.