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."
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’.
Echoes of Forster seem apt at the present time, when we have experienced six months of disconnection and isolation, and the threat of dystopia, sometimes seemingly willed by our political ‘leaders’; and have envisaged the collapse of an arts industry that has communion between performer and listeners/observers at its beating heart. The epigraph - “Only connect!” - to Howard’s End, a novel which celebrates connection between human individuals and the value of personal relationships but also recognises the devaluing consequence of ubiquity (as Margaret Schlegel says, “The more people one knows the easier it becomes to replace them.”), seems to sum up both the enormous potential and the limitations of the digital world in which we’ve been living since lockdown.
The ASMF’s first concert, re:connect - A Requiem for our Time, was my first live performance in a ‘real’ venue since I saw ENO’s new production of Figaro on 14th March . The concert remembered those who have experienced suffering and loss caused by Covid-19, and more particularly honoured the memory of Martin Loveday, a former cellist with the Academy who died from coronavirus in April 2020.
I’d almost forgotten what it is like to watch musicians gathering in a performance space; to perch on the edge of one’s seat, eager for music to flow into the air one breathes; to watch the baton go down, or the leader’s nod trigger the opening of a performance. Streamed performances have indeed kept us ‘connected’ to some degree, with performers, ensembles, and - via social media - with each other, but there’s nothing that can replace the visceral buzz of music rippling through air, space and body.
Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten opened the concert. Immediately it was evident how challenging socially distanced performances are: the ASMF musicians were dispersed across the chancel - as a string player I felt for those viola players perched in the hinterland - and director/leader Tomo Keller worked incredibly hard to garner a striving pulse and forward momentum, though I felt that a rather too slow initial tempo, and tentative opening, hindered his energetic efforts. The single chime which opens the work was perhaps too ethereal and whispered, but the players worked hard to grade the incremental crescendo. Again, social distancing, and the consequent reduced number of musicians, inhibited the players’ striving for deepening, ever-enriching sound, but there was still a strong sense of a search for a moral and philosophical centre.
The long silence after the music had dissipated spoke even more powerfully. I’m not sure that the arrangement of Ivor Gurney’s song, ‘Sleep’, for baritone and strings was either necessary or effective, however beautifully, as always, Roderick Williams sang. The tempo was languorous which pushed Williams to sustain the earnestness and intensity through expansive lines - which, of course, he did, consummately - but the lower register of the transposition deprived us of that tenor ‘ache’, and the strings’ oscillating felt a little laboured at times. But, the spirit was sincere and perhaps the musicians needed to express themselves through these means. Certainly, their music-making prompted challenging reflections.
There followed a rather unusual performance of Fauré’s Requiem. It was delicate, sincere and at times gently exquisite. But, it’s very difficult to effect a balance between a ‘chorus’ of just eight singers, with a wonderful choral solo soprano (whose name I don’t know and so can’t share), and a weighty, dark-toned lower strings-plus-two horns ensemble, à la Rutter. In the event, the singers sounded like distant angels. At times, the ‘distance’ was deeply moving; in the Introït et Kyrie, the sound seemed to shimmer from the walls of St Martin on the Field, an ethereal angelic host. Elsewhere, the ‘chorus’ failed to match the driving intensity of the low strings and horns: in the Offertoire the vocal layerings, counterpoint and harmonic developments lacked the necessary weight to drive the music forwards. Williams’ solo was exemplary in terms of responsiveness to his fellow performers: repeated notes were nuanced with light and shade, and repetitions were given poetic shapeliness.
It feels ‘mean’ to offer ‘critical’ judgements, and I must reiterate that I was overwhelmingly pleased just to be listening to live music. But, one ‘problem’ was that conductor Andrew Earis seemed to settle into a tempo-rut: slightly too slow and sludgy. In the ‘Sanctus’, which brought Keller back for what is a challenging solo - and which was beautifully played but a little lost amid the various, dispersed contributing forces - the expansiveness which is required to propel the music forward never quite seemed to garner itself. The ‘Pie Jesu’ was similarly dilatory, though Carolyn Sampson’s controlled phrasing and the subtle vibrato introduced at the close were telling - and the gentle swells of the strings had touching expressive stature.
There was, however, sometimes a lack of energy and impetus. In the ‘Agnus Dei’ the violas seemed to want to break free, the double bass’s pizzicato injected a frisson which was never quite released, and the chorus struggled to match the intensity of the horns. Williams’ solo at the start of the ‘Libera me’ was sombre and firmly telling; but, again, the tempo felt a tad too lazy - a brisker step might have helped the female chorus to balance and match. The choral soprano solo in ‘In Paradisum’ bore us heavenwards, however: rock steady intonation, with expressive phrasing and harp colourings, brought us to a satisfying conclusion of emotional intensity.
It’s a challenge - I offer an admission and apology - for reviewers to balance gratitude for the fact there is live music for them to enjoy, and the personal fulfilment and enrichment that such performances bring, with the ‘need’ to offer critical judgements of performances presented in extraordinarily challenging circumstances. I hope the ASMF musicians will allow me to balance some critical evaluations with heartfelt thanks that I was able to hear them play at all. I left St Martin in the Fields with a light in my heart that hasn’t been shining for many months.
The concert will be streamed online from 7.30pm on Thursday 17 th September and will be available for 30 days from the initial broadcast. Information about future concerts can be found here .
Claire Seymour
Requiem For Our Time: Roderick Williams (baritone), Carolyn Sampson (soprano), The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, St Martin’s Voices, Andrew Earis (conductor)
Pärt - Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten; Gurney - ‘Sleep’; Fauré - Requiem (arr. Rutter)
St Martin in the Fields; Saturday 12th September 2020.