English Touring Opera are delighted to announce a season of lyric monodramas to tour nationally from October to December. The season features music for solo singer and piano by Argento, Britten, Tippett and Shostakovich with a bold and inventive approach to making opera during social distancing.
This tenth of ten Live from London concerts was in fact a recorded live performance from California. It was no less enjoyable for that, and it was also uplifting to learn that this wasn’t in fact the ‘last’ LfL event that we will be able to enjoy, courtesy of VOCES8 and their fellow vocal ensembles (more below …).
Ever since Wigmore Hall announced their superb series of autumn concerts, all streamed live and available free of charge, I’d been looking forward to this song recital by Ian Bostridge and Imogen Cooper.
Although Stile Antico’s programme article for their Live from London recital introduced their selection from the many treasures of the English Renaissance in the context of the theological debates and upheavals of the Tudor and Elizabethan years, their performance was more evocative of private chamber music than of public liturgy.
Evidently, face masks don’t stifle appreciative “Bravo!”s. And, reducing audience numbers doesn’t lower the volume of such acclamations. For, the audience at Wigmore Hall gave soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn and pianist Simon Lepper a greatly deserved warm reception and hearty response following this lunchtime recital of late-Romantic song.
For this week’s Live from London vocal recital we moved from the home of VOCES8, St Anne and St Agnes in the City of London, to Kings Place, where The Sixteen - who have been associate artists at the venue for some time - presented a programme of music and words bound together by the theme of ‘reflection’.
'Such is your divine Disposation that both you excellently understand, and royally entertaine the Exercise of Musicke.’
‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven … that old serpent … Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’
There was never any doubt that the fifth of the twelve Met Stars Live in Concert broadcasts was going to be a palpably intense and vivid event, as well as a musically stunning and theatrically enervating experience.
‘Love’ was the theme for this Live from London performance by Apollo5. Given the complexity and diversity of that human emotion, and Apollo5’s reputation for versatility and diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance choral music to jazz, from contemporary classical works to popular song, it was no surprise that their programme spanned 500 years and several musical styles.
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields have titled their autumn series of eight concerts - which are taking place at 5pm and 7.30pm on two Saturdays each month at their home venue in Trafalgar Square, and being filmed for streaming the following Thursday - ‘re:connect’.
The London Symphony Orchestra opened their Autumn 2020 season with a homage to Oliver Knussen, who died at the age of 66 in July 2018. The programme traced a national musical lineage through the twentieth century, from Britten to Knussen, on to Mark-Anthony Turnage, and entwining the LSO and Rattle too.
With the Live from London digital vocal festival entering the second half of the series, the festival’s host, VOCES8, returned to their home at St Annes and St Agnes in the City of London to present a sequence of ‘Choral Dances’ - vocal music inspired by dance, embracing diverse genres from the Renaissance madrigal to swing jazz.
Just a few unison string wriggles from the opening of Mozart’s overture to Le nozze di Figaro are enough to make any opera-lover perch on the edge of their seat, in excited anticipation of the drama in music to come, so there could be no other curtain-raiser for this Gala Concert at the Royal Opera House, the latest instalment from ‘their House’ to ‘our houses’.
"Before the ending of the day, creator of all things, we pray that, with your accustomed mercy, you may watch over us."
The doors at The Metropolitan Opera will not open to live audiences until 2021 at the earliest, and the likelihood of normal operatic life resuming in cities around the world looks but a distant dream at present. But, while we may not be invited from our homes into the opera house for some time yet, with its free daily screenings of past productions and its pay-per-view Met Stars Live in Concert series, the Met continues to bring opera into our homes.
Music-making at this year’s Grange Festival Opera may have fallen silent in June and July, but the country house and extensive grounds of The Grange provided an ideal setting for a weekend of twelve specially conceived ‘promenade’ performances encompassing music and dance.
There’s a “slide of harmony” and “all the bones leave your body at that moment and you collapse to the floor, it’s so extraordinary.”
“Music for a while, shall all your cares beguile.”
The hum of bees rising from myriad scented blooms; gentle strains of birdsong; the cheerful chatter of picnickers beside a still lake; decorous thwacks of leather on willow; song and music floating through the warm evening air.
This was a concert where immense satisfaction was derived equally from the quality of musicianship displayed and the coherence and resourcefulness of the programme presented. In 1610, Claudio Monteverdi published his Vespro della Beata Vergine for soloists, chorus, and orchestra.
It is a work notable for its assimilation of old and new styles, and liturgical and secular elements, though the precise origins and intention of the large-scale, 90-minute composition are unknown, and have been the subject of lively musicological debate. First printed in Venice in 1610, the work may have been an ‘audition piece’ for a musical position in that city at a time when Monteverdi was still in the employ of the Duke of Gonzaga in Mantua. Whatever the context, by 1613 Monteverdi was working at St. Mark’s in Venice; he was not to compose another entire Vespers, but he did produce settings of some of the individual biblical texts which form the service. And, it was a selection of these works, arranged in almost-symmetrical formation across the two halves of the concert, which The Sixteen performed, under the direction of Harry Christophers.
Framing the programme were two settings of Psalm 100, Dixit Dominus (‘The Lord said’), the first drawn from the composer’s virtuosic collection of sacred works, Selva morale e spirtuale of 1641. Listening to this lively 8-voice work — which was accompanied by violins, cello, theorbo, harp and organ — I was struck by the arresting vivacity of the individual musical lines. In contrast to the perfectly blended tone of ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars, Harry Christophers encouraged the singers to bring individual character and colour to their vocal parts, while never sacrificing unity and coherence. The result was ‘operatic’ in effect; voices dramatically moved to the fore and then retreated, asserting their dynamic role in the narrative, then withdrawing to allow other voices to hold sway. Solos alternated animatedly with ensemble textures, and the two violins added their own vibrant interaction. Such was the spirited nature of the rhythmic movement of the inner voices that at times the work seemed more festive and dance-like than devotional. Christophers was a flexible guide, creating changes of pace within and between individual episodes, complementing and enhancing the variations of timbre. Arriving at the fifth stanza’s soprano duet, ‘De torrente in via bibet:/ Propterea exaltabit caput.’ (He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up his head.), we seemed to enter the world of the madrigal, so lilting and sweet were the sighing phrases. The closing ‘Gloria Patri’ moved from homophonic grandeur to impressive floridity.
The ‘mirror’ work at the close of the concert was Monteverdi’s 1650 Dixit Dominus, also for eight voices. Large parts of this setting are identical to that from Selva Morale e Spirituale. While the 1650 work is less complex than the earlier publication, and so may in fact have been written first, with the lines ‘Judicabit in nationibus’ (He shall judge among the heathen), the voices engaged in gloriously complex rhythmic debates and the subsequent ‘De torrente’ was enriched by exciting harp flourishes.
The second Dixit Dominus was published in Monteverdi’s posthumous collection Messa et salmi, which also contained the remaining items in the programme, including the two settings of Confitebor tibi Domine (‘Psalm 111, I will praise you Lord’) that formed the next ‘inner layer’. The first is for solo soprano. The theorbo’s contribution to the quiet instrumental opening was particularly expressive, and the dancing ritornello for violins which is interspersed between the voice’s ornate melodies might have been drawn from Orfeo. Elin Manahan Thomas’s soprano was agile and light, and she confidently shaped the performance, manipulating the tempo and interacting with the instrumental parts in imitative sequences. A tenor is added for the second Confitebor, and Mark Dobell and Grace Davidson, accompanied by the violins and continuo, made much of the madrigalian chromaticism and word-painting: ‘Exquisita in omnes voluntates eius.’ ([the Lord’s works are studied by all who delight in them) ‘Misericors et miserator Dominus’ (merciful and compassionate is the Lord) was passed expressively between the voices, as if to emphasis the duality of His qualities, underscored by dissonance. Later, the unification of the voices for ‘Fidelia omnia mandata eius’ (All his promises are ordained) was beautifully enacted. The harpsichord’s sweeping flourishes celebrated the glory of His divine justice and the cello continuo line contributed eloquently to the whole.
Monteverdi’s 1650 Laetatus Sum (Psalm 122, ‘I was glad’) for six voices was mirrored in the second half by two works:Laudate Dominum omnes gentes (Psalm 117) — here performed as a bass duet — and Lauda Jerusalem a 3. The ostinato of Laetatus Sum rolled forwards compelling — and the change to a triple meter and back further energised the work — as the duetting voices, first sopranos, then tenors and finally bass, skipped and twirled vivaciously above. The high tenor lines were bright and strong; the darker basses vigorous and nimble. The paired sopranos blended wonderfully with the two violins, the sonorities seeming to imitate each other, almost deceiving the ear. The homophonous ‘Gloria Patri’ was a powerful statement of ‘oneness’ after such diversity. After the melismatic liveliness of the Laudate Dominum, the monotone ‘Amen’ presented a striking contrast. The three male voices of Lauda Jerusalem (BTT) again relished every opportunity to indulge in expressive textual heightening. The melismas, dissonances and quivers of the lines ‘Emittet verbum suum, et liquefaciet ea:/Flabit spirit eius, et fluent aquae’ (He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run) were gloriously dramatic, and the low, narrowly spaced vocal parts in the final lines of the ‘Gloria Patri’ were thrillingly dark-hued.
Two settings of Monteverdi’s Nisi Dominus (Psalm 127, ‘Unless the Lord builds a house’), the first for three voices, the second for six, surrounded the central ‘core’ — Cavalli’s Magnificat, also published in 1650. The first Nisi was splendidly theatrical, characterised by seemingly spontaneous invention, as the singers — alto, tenor then bass — sang their verses in turn, while the flexibility and responsiveness of the singers in the six-part version was notable. After such imaginative ingenuity, the series of solos, duets and trios of Cavalli’s Magnificat seemed, to this ear at least, somewhat prosaic, though there was no lessening of the vibrancy of the delivery of the contrapuntal interplay — and the contrast of timbre offered by the commencement, in the middle of the work, of a chaconne bass line introduced, as so many of the Monteverdi works had done, a secular tone within the sacred.
Everything about this concert was consummately prepared and executed; even the complex choreography required as the requisite musicians and singers entered, traversed and quitted the platform throughout the evolving programme. This was a performance that was undoubtedly much more than the sum of its parts.
Claire Seymour
Programme and performers:
Claudio Monteverdi: Dixit Dominus (Primo) (from Selva morale e spirituale), Confitebor tibi Domine (Primo),Laetatus sum a6, Nisi Dominus a3; Francesco Cavalli: Magnificat; Claudio Monteverdi: Nisi Dominus a6, Laudate Dominum omnes gentes (for solo bass), Lauda Jerusalem a3, Confitebor tibi Domine (Secondo).
The Sixteen: director: Harry Christophers; soprano: Grace Davidson, Elin Manahan Thomas; tenor: Jeremy Bud, Mark Dobell, Steven Harrold, George Pooley; bass: Jimmy Holliday, Stuart Young; violin 1: Simon Jones, violin 2: Andrea Jones, cello: Joseph Crouch, harp: Frances Kelly, theorbo: David Miller, organ & harpsichord: Alastair Ross. Wigmore Hall, London, Tuesday 3rd November 2015.