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.
The Sixteen continues its exploration of Henry Purcell’s Welcome Songs for Charles II. As with Robert King’s pioneering Purcell series begun over thirty years ago for Hyperion, Harry Christophers is recording two Welcome Songs per disc.
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.
In February this year, Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho made a highly lauded debut recital at Wigmore Hall - a concert which both celebrated Opera Rara’s 50th anniversary and honoured the career of the Italian soprano Rosina Storchio (1872-1945), the star of verismo who created the title roles in Leoncavallo’s La bohème and Zazà, Mascagni’s Lodoletta and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
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.
Collapsology. Or, perhaps we should use the French word ‘Collapsologie’ because this is a transdisciplinary idea pretty much advocated by a series of French theorists - and apparently, mostly French theorists. It in essence focuses on the imminent collapse of modern society and all its layers - a series of escalating crises on a global scale: environmental, economic, geopolitical, governmental; the list is extensive.
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.’
Amongst an avalanche of new Mahler recordings appearing at the moment (Das Lied von der Erde seems to be the most favoured, with three) this 1991 Mahler Second from the 2nd Kassel MahlerFest is one of the more interesting releases.
‘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.’
If there is one myth, it seems believed by some people today, that probably needs shattering it is that post-war recordings or performances of Wagner operas were always of exceptional quality. This 1949 Hamburg Tristan und Isolde is one of those recordings - though quite who is to blame for its many problems takes quite some unearthing.
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."
Having recently followed some by-ways through the music of Purcell, Monteverdi and Cavalli, L’Arpeggiata turned the spotlight on traditional folk music in this characteristically vibrant and high-spirited performance at the Wigmore Hall.
Their 2013 recording Mediterraneo (Erato) journeyed through the ‘olive frontier’ - Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Spain, southern Italy; here they honed in on the north west Mediterranean and with soprano Núria Rial - herself a native of Aragón - presented a sequence of songs and dances from Catalonia and Mallorca.
One cannot imagine anyone more fitting to sing this music. Rial’s well-rounded soprano is clean and relaxed; at times cool and dreamy, elsewhere warm but insouciant, then fervent and full of yearning. Much of the charm derives from her fluent, supple phrasing, which is elegant but unaffected. Utterly unforced and perfectly tuned, her soprano sounds ‘natural’ - though Rial is a trained classical singer who focuses on Baroque and early Classical repertoire - and the ‘artlessness’ of the delivery is captivating.
This suppleness and ease were immediately apparent in the opening Catalonian song ‘La dama d’Aragó’ (The lady of Aragon). Rial is a natural story-teller and balladeer, and she effortlessly conjured the Aragon lady, ‘as fair as the sun, Her flaxen hair flows down to her feet. Ah, the lovely Anna aria, thief of love …’. The pace was spacious, gently propelled by director Christina Pluhar’s dulcet theorbo. Rial applied a little vibrato here, a darkening of hue there, and the odd rolled ‘r’, to add spice to the tale, while Doron Sherwin’s between-verse cornetto elaboration warmly reflected on La dama’s incomparable allure.
The programme revealed ancient Aragón to be a cultural melting pot: the empire extended from Iberia, through France and the Balearic Islands, to Sardinia, Naples and Sicily. Moreover, European influences combined with Moorish and Sephardic elements. And, the music itself travelled far and wide: ‘Bella, de vós som amorós’ (My beauty, I’m in love with you) was published in Venice in a collection known as El Cançoner del Duc de Calabria in 1556, which was widely known across Europe, from the Mediterranean to Sweden. In this song, the sighs and runs in the vocal line had an almost madrigalian quality.
Tempos and rubatos were well-considered and the songs were grouped in unbroken sequences adding to the air of spontaneity. Thus, the free giocoso mood of ‘La Filadora’ (The spinning girl), with its playful interjections by the cornetto and violin (Veronika Skuplik), generated a natural accelerando at the close. The final phrase, ‘Tra la ra la, she spins finely and goes on her way’, skipped into the next song, ‘La Margarideta’ (Maggie) in which Rial demonstrated her vivacious showmanship, embodying the lazy girl who insists she cannot get out of bed as she has no bloomers, stockings, or - the tempo slowing deliciously - shoes to put on, her craftiness underpinned by the chromatic tinges in the accompaniment. In contrast, in the succeeding ‘Mareta, no’m faces florar’ (Mummy, don’t make me cry), Rial became a guileless child and then, the clear tone enriched and warmed, a loving mother who promises to sing her daughter a song to lull her to sleep. The instrumental commentary - poignant prefatory remarks by harp (Sarah Ridy) and bass (Boris Schmidt), and after-word by psaltery (Margit Übellacker) and theorbo - gave this song depth and stature.
L’Arpeggiata’s Mediterraneo disc featured traditional plucked instruments, with qanun, saz, Greek lyre, lavta, fado viola and Portuguese guitar complementing the authentic baroque collection. Though the former were absent here, the sound world created by baroque harp and violin, cornetto, psaltery, harpsichord, double bass and theorbo seemed no less ‘authentic’. But, there were some surprises too: in ‘La gata i el belitre’ (The cat and the rascal) Francesco Turrisi spun from his harpsichord to the piano, creating a brighter more penetrating sound world in which the violin’s pseudo-melancholic reflections on whatever it was that was ‘lost’ were transformed into the bass’s pounding energy, representing the protagonist’s fury: ‘If I get my hands on him, a la nyigo, nyigo, nyigo, nyigo, I’ll certainly make him pay!’ The piano was also employed in the strophic ballad ‘La presó de Lleida’ (Lleida prison), one of the highlights of the programme, in which Rial’s voice balanced lucidity with emotive strength (most touchingly in the poignant question which the prisoners, entranced by her singing, are asking by the little girl, ‘Are you short of food or drink?’); the high bass pizzicato episodes between stanzas added further expressive nuance. Pluhar’s quietening, slowing cadential figure was beautifully crafted but there was to be no consoling point of rest, for it was picked up and transformed by Mayoral into the lively accompaniment to ‘La ploma de perdiu’ (The partridge feather), which raced along, propelled by cornetto and violin contributions, to the singer’s happy-go-lucky parting line: ‘I want to give her a little hug!’
Each song had unusual features - of instrumental timbre, rhythm or vocal colour - to catch the ear, such as the bass’s fluttering gesture at the start of ‘La Mare de Déu’ (Mary Mother of God) and the gentle diminuendo of the angel’s promise, ‘On Christmas night you will give birth … you will have a little boy as fair as a star’, as piano engaged delicately with the cool soprano line; or, the penetrating presence of the quotation of the linnet’s song, ‘Oh, how sweet and fair is the song of Mary!’, in the subsequent ‘El cant dels ocells’ (The Song of the birds). ‘Eixa nit és nit de vetlla’ (Tonight is the watch night of the vigil) began with an unaccompanied stanza which established a narrative mood, while in ‘El Mariner’ (The sailor) interesting modal tints coloured the repeating melodic and harmonic gestures.
Between the vocal numbers were interspersed various instrumental improvisations. A canario (a frolicking dance) was a fountain of colour and pulsation: Schmidt’s agile double bass pizzicato, became a fluid cornetto song, before Mayoral presented a fantasia of rhythmic reverie. A fandango by Antonio Soler demonstrated both the players’ artistry - a simple descending violin line was eloquent and affecting - and the symbiotic interaction between the instrumentalists, as the alert introduction by theorbo and percussion spurred first cornetto and harp, then psaltery and bass to ever more elaborate invention. Skuplik took centre-stage in an impressive rendition of Antonio Bertali’s Chiacona, beginning with refined control and organically developing more vigorous, exuberant gestures, while retaining a warm, focused tone.
I could have listened all night; a sentiment shared, I imagine, by many of the Wigmore Hall patrons who had filled the seated auditorium and crowded into a standing area at the very back of the Hall. (I did wonder, though, why there wasn’t more evidence of toe-tapping among the clientele, given the infectious spiritedness of the music; and, perhaps the stark lighting in the Hall might have been softened a little? It seemed a night for the Wigmore Hall to let its hair down …) We were treated to two encores. The first reaffirmed the skilfu manner in which Sherwin and Skuplik had blended ingenuity and sensitivity in accompanying the voice throughout the evening. The second, as the rolling ground bass triggered jazz-infused invention from first an enlivened Turrisi (on piano) and then a relaxed Schmidt, was a wonderful illustration of the seamless tapestry of folk, baroque and jazz threads that L’Arpeggiata weave.
Claire Seymour
Christina Pluhar - director, theorbo, Núria Rial - soprano, Doron Sherwin - cornetto, Veronika Skuplik - baroque violin, Margit Übellacker - psaltery, Sarah Ridy - baroque harp, David Mayoral - percussion, Boris Schmidt - double bass, Francesco Turrisi - harpsichord/piano