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."
New from Harmonia Mundi, Perpetual Night. a superb recording of ayres and songs from the 17th century, by Ensemble Correspondances with Sébastien Daucé and Lucile Richardot. Ensemble Correspondances are among the foremost exponents of the music of Versailles and the French royalty, so it's good to hear them turn to the music of the Stuart court.
Though the songs are in the English language, they are in artistic terms very much attuned to wider European influences. In 1610, King James's son Henry became Prince of Wales, importing into his household musicians who favoured the "new music" of the era. Many were singer-lutenists, who could be deployed into flexible ensembles with other instruments, like the then-new theorbo providing continuo. Among the other new forms introduced was what is now called declamatory song. As Peter Holman writes in his notes these have the "character of a grace almand, or air, the vocal line mirrors speech inflections, and often illustrates words with appropriate images, so they are rarely tuneful though they tend to have more melodic coherence than true recitative".
Although Prince Henry died only two years later, the innovations he favoured took root, and were further developed by Charles, who was to become King Charles I. .Robert Johnson's Care-charming sleep was written for a play by John Fletcher, performed by the King's Men (Shakespeare's company). making the connection between Jacobean poet/playwrights and music, which would later flourish in the Restoration. John Corpario (1570-1620) was born John Cooper, adopting an Italianate name in line with the fashion of the time. He also served the next Prince of Wales, Charles, who was later to become King Charles I. His Go Happy Man is a song for high voice and lute, where the vocal line stands clear, the poetic purity of the vocal line revealed through intonation and phrasing. What tears dear Prince, can serve, by Robert Ramsey (c1590-1645) is a song of mourning, but so beautiful that it may well express personal sorrow. In contrast, Ramsey's Howl not, you ghosts and fairies is a miniature drama, illustrating a scene from Orpheus and Euridice for multiple voices including bass and a possibly allegorical extra character. Like Britanocles the great and good appears (William Lawes 1602-1645), it is an early example of a genre which would later become popular. Rise, princely shepherd (John Hilton 1599-1657) is a setting of The Judgement of Paris. In Lawes's Music, thy master of art, is dead, the interplay between different voices is pure polyphony. This emphasis on the beauty of vocal line elevates intonation and phrasing, employing voices as if they were instruments. In Adieu to the pleasures (James Hart 1647-1718) the instrumental introduction and postludes are more prominent, setting a context for the largely unaccompanied voice, and in Sarabande (Matthew Locke 1621/3- 1677), for variety, the instruments are unaccompanied by human voice, a rather appropriate prelude to When Orpheus Sang (Henry Purcell). Poor Celadon, he sighs in vain (John Blow) the flow of the voice, with clipped consonants and plangent, stretched vowels evokes the "English tenor" aesthetic. John Blow's cheery Epilogue: Sing, Sing,Ye Muses brings this delightful recording to a logical conclusion.
Superlative performances from Ensemble Correspondances with lithe, agile voices, especially the higher voices, male and female, complemented by Lucile Richardot. Her range is impressive, enhancing and integrating the other voices. At St George's, Hanover Square, on Wednesday 16th May, she will be doing a Hommage to Lully concert as part of the St John’s Smith Square London Festival of Baroque Music. The theme of the 2018 Festival is The Treasures of the Grand Siècle, curated by Sébastien Daucé and Ensemble Correspondances, and is exceptional, bringing many of the finest baroque specialists to London in an eclectic and very unusual programme of French music. This will culminate with their Le Concert Royale de la Nuit on 19th May. The recording is available on Harmonia Mundi and possibly soon on DVD (with dancing). Le Concert Royale marks the beginning of "modern" music, opera and ballet. It is also a metaphor for the baroque spirit, where audacity fuels extravagant imagination, elegance restraining excess, technical achievement balanced by refinement, agility and energy.
Anne Ozorio