James Gilchrist Sally Beamish premiere Wigmore Hall

James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook at the Wigmore Hall, London, with  Sally Beamish's West Wind.  Gilchrist has been one of the most determined advocates of English song, almost from the beginning of his career.  Although his core repertoire is built on solid foundations of Handel, Purcell, RVW, Britten, and especially Gerald Finzi of whom he is a great exponent, Gilchrist has always made a point of promoting composers who should be more in the mainstream, like Hugh Wood, Lennox Berkeley and John Jeffreys and others whom he's performed live but not recorded. .  By commissioning Beamish, one of the most prominent British composers for voice, Gilchrist is again making a valuable contribution to British music.

Beamish's West Wind is based on Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, which everyone knows as a poem, but which has hardly ever been set to music, at least not in full.  English poets dominate world literature - Shakespeare, the Restoration poets, Wordsworth, Keats - but this heritage is hardly reflected in music. History might explain things. The Industrial Revolution transformed British society, making it more urban and centralized than was the case elsewhere in Europe.  British and continental European strands of Romanticism were very different, in ways too complex to describe here.  Furthermore,  the British choral tradition was so strong that other forms of music making didn't get much attention.  Perhaps the very nature of English Romantic poetry is relevant.  The style is fulsome and elegaic, lending itself to oratorio rather than to art song. It's significant that Hubert Parry was one of the first to create art song from English poetry.  Read here about the ground breaking series of Parry's songs to English texts from Somm Records  (Gilchrist, Roderick Williams and Susan Gritton.)

Rolling, circular figures introduce Beamish's West Wind , the voice entering from a distance as if it were being blown in by the "pestilence stricken multitudes".  Soon, though, the voice asserts itself.,  Gilchrist sings the words "Cold and low.....the corpse within its grave". A slow, penetrating chill descends, but, like the wind, the music changes direction, at turns capricious, then still, then rushing forth.  The third section is particularly beautiful. Delicate piano figures lead into curling, keening vocal phrases that seem to hover in the air, "Lull'd by the coil of his crystalline streams".   In the lower register of the piano, perhaps we can detect sonorous "lungs". Suddenly lightness returns. "If I were a dead leaf", Gilchrist sings, almost unaccompanied, suggesting fragility.  His touch is delicate, yet perfectly poised. The phrasing suits his voice. Gilchrist has the strange esoteric timbre of a typical English tenor, but also direct, almost conversational  naturalness.  From vulnerable sensitivity to the ferocity of the last poem. "Make me thy lyre" Gilchrist growls at the bottom of his timbre. Now Tilbrook's playing flutters weightlessly, like falling leaves.  "Scatter, scatter, scatter" Gilchrist sings, each word on a slightly different level.  "O.. O...O " he sang, mimicking the sound of wind, the word "Wind" pitched and held  so high that it floated, rarified, into air.

Beamish's West Wind is quirky, underlining the disturbing undercurrents in a poem ostensibly about Nature, but too malign to be a "nature poem". I kept thinking of  Peter Warlock's The Curlew, another cycle well suited to Gilchrist's style.  I also remembered Gilchrist's  Die Schöne Müllerin. There are hundreds of recordings, but his stood out out from the competition because it was an interpretation derived as if from clinical observation of the miller's psychology.

In this Wigmore Hall recital, Gilchrist and Tilbrook included songs by Mendelssohn,and Liszt and Schumann's Liederkreis op 39. Eichendorff's poems are less overtly ironic than Heine's, which formed the basis of Schumann's Leiderkreis Op 24.  but are perhaps closer to,the spirit of the very early Romantic period. After hearing this performance, I've decided to grt Gilchrist's recent recording of the Schumann song cycles on Linn.

photo credit operomnia.uk/Hazard Chase Management

Shakespeare lives ! The Garrick Ode, the Beamish Masque

Shakespeare Lives! The BBC Shakespeare 400 celebrations are called "Shakespeare Lives!" for a good reason, demonstrated by this concert broadcast from the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was baptised and where he is buried.  There'll be plenty of plays, operas and discussions this year, but this concert captures  the spirit of creativity the Bard symbolizes,  Shakespeare lives, as long as  we care enough to keep his ideas fresh.

First, something few will ever have heard before: The Garrick Ode. This was David Garrick's tribute to the playwright. He'd built his career doing the plays in London, so the Ode was a tribute to the playwright himself.  The Ode helped establish the cult of Shakespeare as icon. Garrick's words are flamboyant  : "Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare....the God of Our Idolatory".  Watching Samuel West, dressed as Garrick, declaim his lines reminds you how 18th century text highlighted phrases in upper case with melodramatic flourish. Garrick, a man of the theatre, the ultimate salesman. This isn't naturalistic acting, but showmanship.  Watch the video of the concert here, but be warned, you have to fast forward to 15.01min)  The singers and musicians wear black Tudor gowns, but the spirit of theatre reigns paramount   If violinist Emilia Benjamin's white ruff looks cheerfully aware, it's a reminder that once, nice women wouldn't have been able to perform in public.  Jeffrey Skidmore conducts the singers of Ex Cathedra and a trio of harpsichord, viol and violin.  Thomas Arne wrote the original music, some of which is lost. Sally Beamish filled the gaps so the piece can come to performance.  Reconstructed from fragments by Adrian Howard, The Ode lives again!

Just as Garrick created his own, original Ode for his times, Sally Beamish creates A Shakespeare Masque that adapts Shakespearean form to modern times.  She uses a "broken consort", an ensemble often used in early English music, combining different families of instruments. In this case, a duo of viols and recorder/flute with a trio of lutes (lute, cittern and bandora) with extra percussion instruments.  Some of Shakespeare's texts are used, but so are poems by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The result is a  lively blend of ancient and modern.  Jeffrey Skidmore conducts the City Musick. The adult singers of Ex Cathedra are joined by their own  children's choir and by local schoolchildren whose  voices evoke freshness and youth. And humour too. The children sing "Etcetera, etcetara" then "William ! William !" as if he were one of their own  Very muchn the purity of "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows". Some of these children are so young that their eyes shine in wonder.

Masques were theatre, combining movement with music. Each tableaux is defined by movement : choristers marching in procession, accompanied by percussion instruments, the clapping of hands and rhythmic gesture.  The children bounce up and down to the music: a wonderfully primeval response, which connects music to its roots.  The whole performance space is used, art integrated into normal life.  The references to Stratford-upon-Avon integrate Shakespeare's semi-rural  origins with the destiny he found in London, and Shakespeare's journey from England into world culture.  Beamish's Masque ends with a glorious coda on recorder.  An early music instrument reborn in modern music. Shakespeare lives!

Ex Cathedra is taking this programme on tour : Birmingham on Sunday, then Hereford Cathedral, Wolverhampton, Southwell Minster and Milton Court at the Barbican in London on May 12.

Sally Beamish premiere, SCO

On Saturday, Edinburgh saw the UK premiere of Sally Beamish's percussion concerto performed at the Queen's Hall by Colin Currie with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, who are a co-commissioner of the work. Appropriately for the season of Lent, it was a meditation on the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins, taking the form of a series of 'dances' in different styles. These with their contrasting styles showcase effectively the wide range of percussion instruments deftly and energetically used by the soloist. Some humorous touches feature, such as the use of bottle chimes in 'Gluttony'. A tango used in 'Envy', the second of the seven dance sections, is particularly enjoyable.

These dance sequences are briefly preceded by an opening section featuring flute along with the percussion soloist, the music from this opening returns briefly to be re-stated in a closing section, described as being as if a sleeper awakes from a dream, the dream being the central series of dances. The flute has a demanding part at several points and Fiona Paterson is to be commended for her performance of this. Woodwind is generally emphasised in the scoring, the clarinet also being featured effectively in the passage for 'Pride', subtitled 'Cadenza No 5'. Ms Beamish honoured the audience with a personal appearance and her work received a standing ovation.

The second half of the evening saw an able performance of Beethoven's 7th symphony, a work which conductor Joseph Swensen has made an especial study of. Swensen is a former Principal Conductor of the SCO and it was interesting to compare their sound under his baton with that of his successor, Robin Ticciati. Although Ticciati is taking on new commitments as Music Director at Glyndebourne, he will be remaining Principal Conductor of the SCO until at least 2015. Not only areb there opportunities to hear their very successful collaboration during this year's Edinburgh  International Festival but we are told they will be making several further performances together in the 2012/13 concert seas, details of which will be announced very shortly

SCO's Beethoven performances continue this Thursday (22nd March) with the Fifth (under Ticciati) and on April 21st with the Eighth (under Oliver Knussen, who also conducts his own Two Organa and a new work). Both concerts are to be given in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, on consecutive days.

by Julie Williams
Photo : Ashley Coombes

Sally Beamish - Scotland and beyond

Sally Beamish is a composer much in the news at the moment. Feb 2^nd saw the performance of her arrangement of Debussy's Suite for Cello and Orchestra  by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Donald Runnicles, with Steven Isserlis as soloist, broadcast live by BBC Radio Three from Glasgow's City Halls and available via the 'Listen Again' facility on the iplayer. Sally Beamish has beautifully orchestrated the two surviving movements and arranged three other pieces to sit alongside them, making a substantial 'new' work and this was its Scottish premiere.

The ever-popular Isserlis was undoubtedly the star of this show, and in particular his playing – immediately after the interval - of Two Hebrew Melodies, which opened an all-Ravel second half. The haunting Kaddish (Hebrew prayer for the dead) has been notably played as an encore by Daniel Hope on the occasion of the death of Ligeti (when he happened to be performing with the CBSO in Birmingham's Symphony Hall) and arranged not only for violin but also for viola (for example on the recording Violent Viola by the Dutch violist Esther Apituley. I like these other arrangements for the high strings, which perhaps are closer in their range to the human voice, but Isserlis' playing was haunting and beautiful, the highlight of the evening for me.

He also excelled in the premiere of the work he had commissioned – the completion of a fragment for Debussy's Suite for Cello and Orchestra  by  Sally Beamish. She has beautifully orchestrated the two surviving movements and arranged three other pieces to sit alongside them, making a substantial 'new' work and this was its Scottish premiere. There is a gradual transition in the third movement  from Debussy's sound world to her own. One of the highlights of the work is an energetic fourth movement with strong dance-like rhythms, which is then followed by a beautiful slow movement which concludes the piece with the addition of a just slightly faster coda.This is a complex and interesting work which deserves more than one hearing to fully understand it. The combination of French and Celtic sound-worlds is an intriguing one.

This was logically preceded – to open the concert – with Debussy's La Mer,  a work likely to be heard often in this anniversary year. This Scottish rendering was big and passionate; a powerful and stormy sea rather than the light ethereal watery world this work can sometimes conjure up. This was an intriguing and quite pleasing interpretation, if at just a few times a little heavy.

The all-Debussy  first half was followed by an all-Ravel second half, maintaining a French theme throughout the evening. The Hebrew Melodies were followed by Une Barque sur l'Eau and Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, with La Valse concluding the programme, the dance theme of these last two works mirroring the dance-like conclusion of the Debussy/Beamish suite which concluded the first half.

A violist as well as a composer, Sally Beamish has written extensively and sensitively for strings. In addition to a new string quartet premiered at last year's BBC Chamber Proms, and earlier two quartets, she has created three concerti for her own instrument. Also one each for violin and cello, and a series of pieces for cello and piano dedicated to Robert Irvine, by whom they have been recorded on the BIS label BIS CD 1171, with the composer's own accompaniment.

On  Feb 3^rd, she was interviewed by Suzy Klein on BBC Radio Three's In Tune about a piece she had written for the OAE, unique in being a new work written specifically for period instruments. Entitled  Spinal Chord,  it is inspired by the experiences of a friend of the composer who broke her spine in a riding accident; the slowness of the music reflects the slowness of the recovery. It is to be premiered on Sunday 5^th February at Southampton's Turner Sims Concert Hall, and performed in London on 10^th Feb with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. It will be broadcast on BBC Radio Three's 'Hear and Now' on 21^st April.

Sally Beamish's talent though extends beyond the stringed territory, taking in collaborations with the saxophonist John Harle and the flautist Sharan Bazaly to choose but examples. Further details of her output can be found on her own informative website, which is linked to a generous and high quality listening and streaming facility provided jointly by BIS and Naxos, where several works of these works can be heard. Sally Beamish will also be BBC Radio Three's 'Composer of the Week' in the week commencing 27^th February.  Next month sees another premiere for her, this time the world premiere of a new Percussion Concerto commissioned by the SCO www.sco.org.uk and premiered by them on Saturday March 17^th at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall. Coverage on this site is promised.

by Juliet Williams