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."
Johann Theile, Crato Bütner, Franz Tunder, Christian Ritter, Giovanni Felice Sances … such names do not loom large in the annals of musical historiography. But, these and other little-known seventeenth-century composers took their place alongside Bach and Biber, Schütz and Monteverdi during L’Arpeggiata’s most recent exploration of musical cross-influences and connections.
Past performances at Wigmore Hall by L’Arpeggiata ( Mediterraneo with soprano Raquel Andueza, male soprano Vincenzo Capezzuto and dancer Anna Dego; La dama d’Aragó with soprano Núria Rial) have brought the spirit of folk music and the sultriness of jazz together with the formal sophistication of the Baroque, evoking the romance of the Mediterranean and the mystery of Catalonia, the infectious liveliness of dance and song setting the toes of the Wigmore Hall audience tapping. This concert, in which director/theorbist Christina Pluhar and her musicians were joined by Belgian soprano Céline Scheen, was a more sober, cerebral and spiritual affair, focusing on connections between the German and Italian traditions. Entitled Himmelsmusik (Heavenly music), the programme sought to illustrate the interplay between north and south during the Baroque, during a time when German traditions of counterpoint and chorale were both sustained and developed, as well as integrated with Italian innovations such as poly-choral antiphony and solo song.
One of the great joys of this concert was that we were introduced to several masters of the north-German Baroque, many of whom were prolific but whose music is infrequently heard. Johann Theile (1646-1724) was a student of Heinrich Schütz in Saxony and was esteemed among contrapuntists such as Dietrich Buxtehude. Theile was also one of the founding fathers of German opera, his 1678 Adam und Eva being the opening production at the Theater auf dem Gänsemarkt in Hamburg - the first German opera house. ‘Nun, ich singe, Gott, ich knie’ (Now I sing, God, I kneel), however, is far from theatrical: the voice, representing the Daughter of Zion (the work is titled Der Sionitin Wiegenlied) sings a humble lullaby - though the powerful vitality of the rich, dense organ (played by Haru Kitamika) in the instrumental opening served as a reminder of the significant role played by the organ, and organists, in municipal life.
Céline Scheen’s exquisite phrasing and carefully placed nuance perfectly captured the text’s spirit of tenderness and love, though elsewhere the purity of Scheen’s sound sometimes served the text less satisfactorily. Crato Bütner (1616-79, sometimes known as Büthner, Bytner or Buthnerus) was organist and Kapellmeister at the churches of first St Saviour and then St Catherine in Danzig. ‘Ich suchte des Nachts’, a setting of text from the Song of Solomon text, is a more sensuous expression of religious devotion than Thiele’s, the erotic inferences of lines such as the opening statement, ‘By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth’, being conveyed by the vibrancy of the violins’ interplay (Simone Slattery, Catherine Aglibut). Scheen once again displayed a crystalline tone, and considerable vocal agility, but I’d have liked greater variety of colour to complement and bring to the fore the textual inflections.
Christian Ritter (c.1645-1717), an organist and composer based in Dresden, drew more directly on Italian sources in his Latin motet, ‘O amantissime sponse’ (O most loving spouse) which was an adaptation of a motet for two sopranos, two violins and continuo by Vicenzo Albrici. Here, the ensemble imbued the fairly short melodic lines and motifs which an impassioned energy which was further vivified by Ritter’s harmonic adventurousness.
Franz Tunder (1614-67) represents the preceding generation: he studied in Rome under Frescobaldi before returning home to take up the position of organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, where he would be succeeded by Dietrich Buxtehude, the latter going on to develop the Abendsmusik concerts given on Sunday evenings which Tunder had established - and for which ‘Ein kleines Kindlein’ may well have been composed. The sincerity and cleanness of Scheen’s vocal line communicated the depth of Tunder’s expression, her soprano borne aloft on bright instrumental colours, energised ensemble conversations, and a lightly tripping triple-time rhythm. There was similarly engaging instrumental playing ‘Ninna nanna al Bambin Giesù’ (Lullaby for Baby Jesus) by an unknown composer, where Pluhar created a strong sense of forward movement, driving on the winding inner lines.
We were on more familiar ground with two compositions by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672). ‘Erbarm dich mein, O Herre Gott’, a solemn work for soprano, instrumental consort and continuo, probably dates from c.1613, after the composer’s visit to Venice. L’Arpeggiata captured the grand solemnity of this work: there is flamboyance in the instrumental gestures which suggest an Italianate influence, and some elaborate organ rhetoric, but the overall mood - significantly enhanced by the serene focus of the vocal line - was one of contrition. Scheen made a similarly strong contribution in ‘Von Gott will ich nicht lassen’ (I will not abandon God), which followed segue. This ‘sacred concerto’ comes from Schütz’s later collection, Symphonium sacrarum and is written ‘in our German mother tongue’, and again I found Scheen’s diction wanting occasionally, and the organ a little too present. But, at the close Scheen’s soprano took off in glorious full flight, “Ihm sei Lob, Her’ und Pres. Amen” (Praise, honour and glory to Him), confirming the appropriateness of the memorial which the mason engraved into the composer’s tomb: ‘musicus excellentissimus’.
Between the vocal items, instrumental a Chiaccona by Maurizio Cazzati (1616-78) and an anonymous Chiaconna à 4 offered an ensemble sound by turns glossy, bright, urbane and sombre, with striking use made of dynamic contrast and plentiful evidence offered of the players’ facility and judicious flamboyance. A contrast was provided by the mellifluous polyphonic linearity of the Sonata à 6 in E minor by the Verona-born Antonio Bertati (1605-69) who worked at the Imperial Court in Vienna as an instrumentalist, before becoming Kapellmeister in 1649. Like Bertati, Giovanni Kapsberger (c.1580-1651) was a native Italian: born in Venice he was an inhabitant of Rome as a young man. His Toccata L’Arpeggiata was performed with a vivid, improvisatory zest. And, there were ‘canonic’ items too: the first of Heinrich Biber’s Mystery Sonatas and the Prelude of J.S. Bach’s Second Cello Suite in which Josetxu Obregón balanced elegance with expressive rhetoric.
It was the Italians who had last word; and, showed how they led the field in blending secular song idioms with sacred texts and contexts. Native Roman Giovanni Felice Sances (c.1600-79) travelled to Vienna to take up employment at the court chapel of Emperor Ferdinand II in 1636, but his Stabat Mater exudes the idiomatic gestures of the Italian lament, and Scheen’s expressive elaborations over the descending ostinato bass were beguiling. Monteverdi’s ‘Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius’ (Praise the Lord in his sanctuary) ensured that, despite the gravity of much of the evening’s musical expression of devotion, it was with joyful verve that proceedings closed.
Pluhar heralds from Graz, the second largest city in Austria, and studied at her home town’s historic university. So, in some senses, this programme took her back to her roots, but the inventiveness and imagination of its delivery confirmed that she, and L’Arpeggiata, never cease pushing the boundaries of the Baroque.
L’Arpeggiata’s new disc, Himmelsmusik , was released this month on the Warner Classics Label.
Claire Seymour
L’Arpeggiata: Himmelsmusik
Christina Pluhar (director, theorbo), Céline Scheen (soprano)
Johann Theile - Der Sionitin Wiegenlied: ‘Nun, ich singe, Gott, ich knie’; Maurizio Cazzati - Chiaccona; Heinrich Schütz - ‘Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott’ SWV447, ‘Von Gott will ich nicht lassen’ SWV366; J.S Bach - Prelude from Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor BWV1008; Crato Bütner - ‘Ich suchte des Nachts in meinem Bette’; Anon - Chiaccona à 4 in C; Christian Ritter - ‘O amantissime sponse’; Antonio Bertali - Sonata à 6 in E minor; Franz Tunder - ‘Ein kleines Kindelein’; Heinrich Biber - ‘Mystery Sonata’ No.1 in D minor (‘Die Verkündigung’/The Annunciation); Anon - ‘Ninna nanna al Bambin Giesù’; Giovanni Kapsberger - Toccata L'Arpeggiata; Giovanni Felice Sances - Stabat mater; Claudio Monteverdi - ‘Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius’.
Wigmore Hall, London; Wednesday 31st October 2018.