 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dates for Your Diary
Gregynog Festival 2013: ‘Great Britten’ Details Announced
Gregynog Festival is the oldest extant classical music festival in Wales. Set in the beautiful countryside of rural North Powys, Gregynog Festival features performances by the world's leading musicians in intimate historic locations.
Each year the Festival takes a different theme as the starting point for its curation. Gregynog Festival 2013 has been curated on the theme of Great Britten to honour the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten and the composer’s appearance at Gregynog Festival 1972 with Peter Pears and Osian Ellis.
Making Festival débuts this season are the Academy of St Martin in the Fields with tenor Andrew Kennedy and horn player Timothy Brown, the Ricercar Consort of viols from Belgium and the German early music specialists Harmonie Universelle. Other star soloists include countertenor Iestyn Davies and lutenist Thomas Dunford, keyboard virtuoso Mahan Esfahani and 'Queen of Harps' Catrin Finch (29 June, 2.30pm). Nicholas Daniel appears with the Britten Oboe Quartet and the highly-regarded choral group Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short, gives the Festival's closing concert of music by British composers associated with the original Gregynog Choir.
Many other events have also been announced for Gregynog this year, and this (now) 80-year-old Festival is strongly recommended. Details from: post@gregynogfestival.org Web: www.gregynogfestival.org Tel: 01686 207100.
Birmingham Conservatoire to host major celebration of the music of Frederick Delius and John Ireland
Between June 17– 21, the Birmingham Conservatoire will host a celebration of the music of two of England’s most contrasting and individual composers: John Ireland and Frederick Delius. ‘Delius and Ireland: A Celebration’ is a five-day Festival, one of the biggest the Conservatoire has ever hosted, involving over 60 individuals from the senior and junior Conservatoire, students and Faculty (including those famously associated with this repertoire), as well as orchestras, choirs and guest artists.
Fifteen concert programmes will showcase songs, piano pieces, chamber and orchestral works - including performances of the complete solo piano works by John Ireland, the Delius Double and Ireland Piano Concerto – and culminate in a performance of Delius's masterpiece, Sea Drift, with the Conservatoire Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Lionel Friend in Birmingham Town Hall on 21st June. This programme also includes the world première of an early work by Benjamin Britten entitled Chaos and Cosmos, which the Conservatoire’s students have been preparing and recording as part of the Britten Thematic Catalogue. Pianist and British music specialist Mark Bebbington, who has recorded the complete solo piano works of John Ireland for SOMM to great critical acclaim, and in many ways inspired the Festival as a piano tutor at the Conservatoire, will open the inaugural recital with two of Ireland’s most significant works; the Sonata and Rhapsody.
Amongst other artists taking part will be Lionel Friend, Katharine Lam, Duncan Honeybourne, Lionel Handy, Nigel Clayton, Victor Sangorgio, Philip Martin, De-Wet Lee, Daniele Rosina, Amy Littlewood, Yu-Fen Lin, and stalwart of the keyboard, Margaret Fingerhut, who will be performing Ireland's London Pieces.
Alexander Baillie and John Thwaites will perform the Cello Sonatas of John Ireland and of composer and former Birmingham University Professor of Music, Ivor Keys, and there will be the opportunity to hear - for the first time in public - a sketch for the opening to a Second Ireland Cello Sonata, when Hetti Price will be the soloist.
How to book: Tickets will be available on the door and full details of the programme can be found at: www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire or email: bhamcons.concerts@bcu.ac.uk. Concerts take place in the Adrian Boult Hall and Recital Hall in Birmingham City University and in the City’s Town Hall.
English Music Brought to Ludlow
The Ludlow English Song Weekend (May 30 – June 2), planned by its artistic director Iain Burnside, will once again fill the charming town of Ludlow with English song by some of the country’s most celebrated composers and performed by both well-known and young singers and musicians.
There will be a packed programme of recitals and concerts with artists including the 2007 winner of the Song Competition Cardiff Singer of the World, soprano Elizabeth Watts, the popular and lively Irish soprano Ailish Tynan, ROH Jette Parker Young Artist and rising baritone star Ashley Riches, tenor Nicholas Mulroy whose performance of the Evangelist at last year’s Handel Festival won much praise, and the world-celebrated ensemble The King’s Singers.
Two new works have been especially commissioned, one by the well-established composer Brian Elias and the second by Julian Philips, who has recently been commissioned to write a new opera for the Royal Opera House. Much loved repertoire is featured alongside more neglected works including an unpublished organ work by Finzi. World-famous bass Sir John Tomlinson gives a Masterclass for aspiring singers, the Carducci Quartet brings three rarely heard works by Bridge, Delius and Gurney; there are films, discussions and talks by experts, and the winners of the Ludlow English Song Weekend national Young Composers’ Competition will have their works performed.
Events take place in the elegant Assembly Rooms as well as the Parish Church in this beautiful border town, where AE Housman’s ashes are buried. Tickets £10 - £25 from 01584 878141 www.ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk
Masayuki Kino plays rarely heard Khachaturian chamber music at the Wigmore
The Japanese violinist Masayuki Kino has been attracting enthusiastic acclaim for his new CD of music by Aram Khachaturian, entitled Sonata – Monologue, on the Nippon Acoustic Records label (NARD-5038), about which he writes in this issue and which includes two rarely heard works that he will also play at his Wigmore Hall recital on Tuesday June 25.
The Song-Poem (1929) and the Violin Sonata (1932) were composed while Khachaturian was a student at the Moscow Conservatoire under Nikolay Myaskovsky, but they already reveal his gift for the seductive, exotically tinged melodies, spiced harmonies and energetic rhythms that were to mark his mature works.
The Japanese magazine Sarasate has said of Kino’s performances that “the essence of the music shines through with supple musicality, lustrous tone and vibrant rhythm”, MDE Bravo Music Magazine commenting that they cast “new light on the world of Khachaturian”.
Wagner 200 London-based Festival
The Wagner 200 Festival opens on May 22 (Wagner’s 200th birthday) and features events from May to December 2013 in association with leading cultural organizations including Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Kings Place, British Library, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Radio 3, The Wagner Society, Opus Arte, London Song Festival and London Jewish Cultural Centre.
Wagner 200 has a particular focus on British artists, offering a spectrum of talent from the most distinguished to the rising stars of today. Highlights include:
- Wagner 200th Birthday Concert on May 22 with the Philharmonia Orchestra/ Andrew Davis, and soloists Susan Bullock, James Rutherford and Giselle Allen. Preceded by an afternoon of pop-up Wagner activities on the Festival Hall terrace, balcony and foyers.
- Wagner/Liszt recitals (June 26-28) by Janice Watson/Joseph Middleton and Llyr Williams, and a dramatised re-creation of the events surrounding the first performance of the Siegfried Idyll, starring Harriet Walter and Henry Goodman with the Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon.
- Reading of the complete Ring text in English featuring John Tomlinson as Narrator/Master of Ceremonies and a company of young actors from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (June 9).
Visit www.wagner200.co.uk for full details.
Nicholas Chalmers debut as Artistic Director of Nevill Holt Opera with The Magic Flute
This summer sees the debut season of Leicestershire’s Nevill Holt Opera. Artistic Director Nicholas Chalmers will conduct five performances of a new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute in June 2013. The new festival will continue the tradition of opera at Nevill Holt, as well as making a feature of the stunning gardens and the collection of British sculpture that decorates them. Nevill Holt was founded by David Ross and after ten years in partnership with other organisations, Nevill Holt is striking out on its own to establish a fully independent festival in its own right under the artistic leadership of Nicholas Chalmers.
The festival’s commitment is to the local area, to young talent and to creative integrity and its values are firmly rooted in founder David Ross’ extensive work with academies in the Midlands and Lincolnshire and the creative arts nationwide. Nevill Holt aims to establish an on-going collaboration with the National Opera Studio and all the UK young artist programmes, and to form an orchestra from the recent graduates of the major music colleges in the UK in order to showcase and discover the next generation of operatic talent.
Stradivarius at the Ashmolean
Antonio Stradivari (c.1644–1737) – or Stradivarius as he is usually known – is the only maker of musical instruments whose name ranks alongside those of the great composers. While the details of his life are not as familiar as Vivaldi’s or Mozart’s, his name evokes the idea of a creative genius in the popular imagination. An exhibition of his work will be held at the Ashmolean from June 11-August 11, and will explore his life and work through twenty of the most important instruments in the world, some of which have never before been displayed in public.
Stradivarius will be the first major show devoted to the maker’s work ever to be held in the UK. The instruments on display will be the finest and most beautiful of their kind, many dating from Stradivarius’s ‘Golden Period’ (1700–1720) when he was the height of his creative powers and making instruments that became the classic models on which later violins and cellos were based. Among the star items will be the ‘Viotti’ violin of 1709, which belonged at one time to the violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, who did more than anyone to establish the fame of Stradivarius’s violins in the early-19th century. Also on display will be the ‘Batta-Piatigorsky’ cello of 1714, played by the great Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, who wrote of the instrument in his autobiography, “it spurred me on to try to reach its depths, and I have never worked harder or desired anything more fervently than to draw out of this superior instrument all it has to give.”
One gallery of the exhibition will show a recreation of Stradivarius’s workshop, displaying his original tools, wooden models and patterns, on loan from the Museo Stradivariano in Cremona. The displays will allow visitors to follow the creation of a violin from a log of spruce wood through to the finished instrument and to explore the techniques and artistry of violin-making. Recordings and interviews with leading musicians will give visitors the chance to hear Stradivarius’s instruments which are still being played. During the run of the exhibition, luthier workshops, performances and tours will offer people insights into the elements which have contributed to Stradivarius’s immortal reputation.
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, Canadian virtuoso and Stradivarius player James Ehnes will give a gala concert in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, performing unaccompanied music by Bach and Paganini on a number of Stradivarius violins. He will also discuss the unique qualities of Stradivarius violins and the sound they produce.
Raphael Wallfish 60th Birthday Recital
The greatly distinguished cellist celebrates his 60th birthday on June 15 with a special recital at Wigmore Hall. A member of the admired Shaham-Erez-Wallfich Trio, who will be appearing that evening, the musicians will be joined by Elizabeth Wallfisch, viola for Brahms’s Piano Quartet in C minor.
The programme will also include Schubert’s great B flat major Trio and music by another composer who shares Raphael’s birthday – Edvard Grieg – whose Andante con moto for piano trio will also be heard. Raphael Wallfisch is also Patron of The Grieg Society of Great Britain. The concert is supported by Stentor Music Co Ltd.
Holland Park Opera 2013
Five classics, a large-scale rarity and a brand new work for families at Opera Holland Park in 2013 From June 4 – August 3, the season is sponsored by Investec Wealth & Investment, and the combination of high musical standards, accessibility and a spectacular canopied theatre in an idyllic leafy West London setting continues to make Opera Holland Park one of the most popular and critically acclaimed events in the musical calendar. Thanks to an inspired artistic team who are experts at spotting rising stars and matching them with challenging roles in fresh new productions, the festival continues to attract newcomers and seasoned opera-goers alike.
The 17th season includes six new productions in 37 main-stage performances. It builds on Opera Holland Park’s winning formula – established under the dedicated leadership of James Clutton (Producer) and Michael Volpe (General Manager) – of staging a mixture of much-loved verismo treasures alongside rarer repertoire. This year’s season includes Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. This year’s rarity is the most ambitious large-scale production in OHP’s history; a steamy melodrama by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari entitled I gioielli della Madonna.
New for 2013 also is the eagerly anticipated world-premiere of a specially-commissioned new family opera based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with music by Will Todd. The City of London Sinfonia accompanies these productions, enjoying its 10th year as ‘house orchestra’.
Tickets for Opera Holland Park 2013 range from £12 to £67.50. The Inspire initiative continues to bring in new audiences with thousands of seats at just £12. There are also free ticket schemes for older audiences (over 60) and for young people (9-18).
Tickets for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland cost £3 for children and £8 for adults. For more information and to book tickets, please phone the Opera Holland Park Box Office on 0300 999 1000 or visit Operahollandpark.com
Gregory Rose UK Premiere
The UK premiere of Gregory Rose’s music-theatre piece, Danse Macabre, first heard in Tallinn, Estonia in October 2011, will be given on May 18 at the church of St John at Waterloo at 8.00pm, part of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
The composer says that ‘Danse macabre is inspired by the wonderful picture "Danse Macabre" by the medieval German artist, Bernt Notke, which is to be found in St Nicholas Church (Niguliste) in Tallinn. Danse Macabre is a series of paintings showing Death taunting the Pope, Emperor, Empress, Cardinal, King and Bishop, with texts in medieval German at the base of each picture, which I have used for the principal singers. The chorus sings the complete Latin Requiem. The piece consists of solo arias, choruses and dances and features 6 principal singers, a small band of 13 players and chorus. It lasts around 75 minutes.’
The performers will be: Solo voices from Trinity Laban; Exultate Singers (director: David Ogden); Jupiter Orchestra, Gregory Rose conductor.
Tickets: £15* (£13* concessions), £12* (gallery - restricted view) are available only from SeeTickets at seetickets.com or call 0871 220 0260 (£1.50 postage applies) (*subject to booking fee)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|