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."
On a day when events in Las Vegas cast a shadow over much of the news this was not the most comfortable recital to sit through for many reasons. The chosen repertoire did, at times, feel unduly heavy - and very Germanic - but it was also unevenly sung.
Indeed, it was very much a recital of two distinct halves. Franz Schreker’s 5 Lieder, Op.3, which opened the evening, are songs about personal loss and grief (“Ich sitze trauernd ein Grab zu hüten”) and, frankly, Ms Schwanewilms gave a performance of them that was too tentative for my taste. It all felt rather arid. There were moments, few and far between, where Ms Schwanewilms felt able to colour her voice - at the end of the second song, Im Lenz, for example, but mostly she didn’t feel vulnerable enough. There are elements of innocence that ripple through the underbelly of these texts, but I was left with the impression she was simply uncomfortable in these songs, at least on this occasion. Das Glück was riddled with hazy phrasing, particularly at the end of stanzas. In Umsonst her diction was simply unclear. It was not the most promising beginning.
Schubert, which ended the first half and began the second, didn’t fare much better. The three Ellens Gesänge were variable - even an Ave Maria! in which her German felt unusually demotic, understated and lacking in emotional involvement. There’s no denying the brilliance with which she is able to float a phrase or note - but it was also combined with some less than ideal diction. In Ellens Gesänge III, for example, the line “Soll mein Gebet zu dir hinwehen” ended in a mush of flawed intonation and incomprehension. An interval, however, makes all the difference because the Schubert that she sang in the second half was at a somewhat different level of inspiration. Schwestergruss was both fleet and incisive with much more pointed phrasing and detail - it was little short of brilliant in conveying the sense of gothic horror that cascades through much of it. Likewise, Der Tod und Das Mädchen had rhythmic precision and a mounting sense of terror. Whereas much of the singing in the first half of the recital had been plagued by a lack of discipline, here it was very detailed and precise: the staccato passagework, the observation of the anacrusis, the beautifully shaped piano markings, the precision of the fermata which certainly had its mark stamped firmly upon it.
The three Wilhelm Tell songs by Liszt, perhaps because they draw on elements of musical harmony, nature and human sexuality more than they do on death and gothic horror, found both singer and pianist on happier terrain. There is a thrilling virtuosity to these songs which is almost the complete antithesis of the folk-like simplicity suggested in their narrative, though these songs unquestionably demand an emotional and expressive range that is very high. That was amply met in this wonderful performance of them. The pianist, Charles Spencer, revelled in the music of the first song, Der Fischerknabe, making semiquavers of water out of his piano keys, whilst Ms Schwanewilms evoked the calls of alpine horns through her ringing high notes. If her Schreker and Schubert had been devoid of inner-meaning and had only shallow hints of emotional depth, her Liszt was sultry and inflamed with the danger of knowing sexuality. She took risks. The third song, Der Alpenjäger was a tour de force: chords had colossal weight, marcato and staccato octaves were wrenched out with monumental force, the sustained pedal gave weight. The piano had almost orchestral power. The voice, for the first time, simply enmeshed the acoustics of the hall in a fireball of glorious sound. Mr Spencer, who had sounded so understated in the Schubert songs, was here craggy and breath-taking in his use of pianistic colour.
The Korngold songs which finished the programme were just as inspired. The Opus 22 trilogy performed here were written just after Korngold had completed his magnificent opera, Wunder der Heilane - and you can hear the influences of that opera at work in the chromatic scales, intensely lyrical melodies and vocal glissandi. The songs were dashed off with a breath-taking ease and in part it’s easy to see why they were so well done given this singer’s special relationship to the music of Richard Strauss, which is in part typical of how Korngold treats the voice here with its soaring lines. It was fitting, therefore, that Ms Schwanewilms’ only encore should be by Strauss - an effervescent and infectious performance of Strauss’ Op 49 no 8, Ach, was Kummer, Qual und Schmerzen.
Marc Bridle
Anne Schwanewilms (soprano), Charles Spencer (piano)
Franz Schreker - 5 Lieder Op.3; Schubert - Ellens Gesang I D837, Ellens Gesang II D838, Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria) D839, Die junge Nonne D828, Schwestergruss D762, Der Tod und das Mädchen D531; Liszt - Lieder aus Schillers Wilhelm Tell S292 (No.1 Der Fischerknabe, No.2 Der Hirt, No.3 Der Alpenjäger; Korngold - Was du mir bist? Op.22 No.1, Mit Dir zu schweigen Op.22 No.2, Welt ist stille eingeschlafen Op.22 No.3
Wigmore Hall, London; 2nd October, 2017.