Opera in a Bamboo shed

Opera in a bamboo shed? Those who know opera only from a western perspective have no idea what happens in the rest of the world.  Chinese opera long pre-dates western opera, and is far more deeply embedded into popular culture than those in the west can comprehend. So when Hong Kong starts a major initiative into Cantonese opera traditions,  its significance is major, culturally and politically. It's a statement of regional identity. 

Over the Lunar New Year, the huge West Kowloon Cultural District hosts Bamboo Theatre, a series of 11 Cantonese operas held in a purpose-built outdoors bamboo shed. When Zaha Hadid's Guangdong Opera House opened, therre was much ill-informed, even racist  negativity from people completely insensitive to cultures other than their own. The West Kowloon Cultural District dwarfs the Guandong initiative many times over.

Tickets to the Bamboo Theatre operas sold out immediately, a sign that the genre is by no means as obscure as the English-language media might suggest.  Cantonese opera continues to be performed throughout the region, and classic opera films are often broadcast on TV. Traditionally, opera was performed in large temporary bamboo venues specially built for the occasion. Opera companies travelled, often by foot, carrying their props with them. Opera came to the people, not the other way around.  Fixed-site theatres became popular at the turn of the last century, starting a new variant of the tradition. One of the 1930's art deco theatres near West Kowlon is being restored.  But temporary theatres meant that operas could be performed anywhere, even on remote islands, bringing villagers into contact with wider regional culture.  Performances often coincided with important religious or clan events.

Once I was hiking and noticed streams of people with flags heading across the fields. They were going to a festival held by 3 villages every 60 years. All the villagers who'd emigrated came back with their children and grandchildren, many raised abroad, coming to connect to their roots. Talking to some emigrés I realized that some worked in the Dutch drugs trade. Haha! But most overseas communities are legit, and triads also have a positive, non-criminal role in traditional Cantonese communities. A BBC film crew was on hand, so the documentary is in the archives.  Magnums of VSOP brandy consumed, thousands of oysters (a local speciality). Outside the matshed theare there were 40-foot high effigies of village gods, to confer prosperity and protection. Arias and plots in Cantonese opera are fairly familiar, so the emphasis is on the skill of the performer, and a strong sense of personal input. None of the affectation or oneupmanship that plagues some western attitudes to opera.
 
The photo at the right shows how big bamboo theatres can be. Building bamboo scaffolding like this is an art in itself, still practised in Hong Kong with its massive skyscrapers. The big red structures are also made of bamboo, decorated with paper flowers and coloured silks, nowadays lit at night with electric lights. Theses banners appear whenever restaurant and shops open: a traditional art that certainly hasn't disappeared.

Hong Kong University is sponsoring a long-term project into regional opera, with emphasis on three village traditions, though traditional opera certainly isn't just confined to rural areas.  A few years ago a huge bamboo theatre popped up on a vacant lot among the high rises in Sheung Wan, one of the oldest districts on Hong Kong's main island, though it's completely urbanized now. HKU is doing the project because it integrates many different disciplines of study: history, culture, engineering and sociology. The project also connects the community with the university and validates regional identity. Enjoy the video below, with English subtitles:

José Serebrier tours China

In China, people take classical music seriously, so it's interesting . People listen, children get involved.  So it's always interesting to read about concerts and audiences there. Last year José Serebrier toured China with the Youith Ochestra of the Americas, bringing together young musicians from North and South America with Chinese musicians :  a fruitful exchange that worked both ways.  Read more here.

This year, Serebrier toured China again, this time with the Russian National Orchestra, which he's been conducting for a long time and with whom he's made many recordings. The tour started in Beijing, inside the Great Hall of the People, in Tian An Men Square, built by the Ming Emperors. It was a joint concert between the RNO and the China National Symphony Orchestra. Serebrier and his counterpart Maestro En Shao presented a programme based on the theme of oceans. The Ming Dynasty connection is implicit, for it was during the reign of the Emperor Yongle that Admiral Zheng He sailed through Asia with his magnficent  fleet.

Serebrier and the RNO gave eight more concerts in six cities, "bringing music to such culture-hungry people, spreading the message that music, of all kinds, brings people together beyond cultural or political barriers, helping to create an atmosphere of understanding and paving the way for closer communication between peoples"

 In the West, we take music for granted, and often think in mean-spirited terms.  So it's heart warming to read about Serebrier's reaction to the ordinary people who came to his concerts in China. "The most important element for me was to touch the hearts of the public, to move them and give them an artistic experience that would inspire them to come back for more music, to touch their souls. It was fantastic to turn around to accept the public’s applause and to see all those smiling faces. Many of these people were first-time concert goers, so the challenge was especially important for me to inspire them and to leave them with a warm, glowing feeling."  This is what music should be. We should never forget. To lose the magic of music and of listening, that's like losing life. Read more here.

Broader view - Royal Opera House 2013-20

Yesterday, the Royal Opera House announced its new works and relationships for 2013-2020. I got the news out quickly (read more here). Now's the time for more reflection. First, the announcement covers only new works and relationships, it's not the whole programme for the next seven years. It's not replacing anything but extending ROH's involvement in other forms of opera. Second, it's not cost cutting, but a consolidation of ROH's position vis-a-vis the rest of the opera community in UK and beyond. No new Chief Executive  has been announced yet, but Kaspar Holten and Tony Pappano have been thinking ahead for quite some time, guided by Tony Hall's support. What's the long-term broader view ?

Not all opera is grand scale. So much repertoire - new and old - is better suited to smaller performance spaces. Late 19th century houses do not define opera. The Met mindset, for example, with its emphasis on expense and ostentation creates expectations which aren't necessarily in line with art. Obviously ROH is never going to abandon core repertoire, because large houses can, in theory, do it better than anyone else, and can afford the kind of top-quality singers that maker revivals such a pleasure. ROH has been instrumental in bringing good new work to the stage, like Harrison Birtwistle's The Minotaur, Thomas Adès The Tempest and George Benjamin Written on Skin. Not everything works as well as those do. But since when did every new opera emerge as a timeless classic ?  Thousands fall by the wayside, for every one that becomes standard rep. And vice versa. But the main thing is that ROH keeps the genre revitalized. They could also be doing more early music and baroque. As I've said many times, the Linbury is too small. Perhaps ROH will think "outside the building"?

Chamber opera carries less financial risk but it's also good from an artistic perspective, because it concentrates the mind.  If a composer can say something in intensive close-up, then he or she develops the skill to create something more ambitious. George Benjamin's Written on Skin wouldn'tbe possible without Into the Little Hill. Or Adès The Tempest without Powder her Face. Thank goodness we have Holten and Pappano to keep our minds focussed on opera as art form. How easy it would be to abandon ideals for short-term populist gratification.

Last year, Holten announced that ROH would forge closer partnerships with the smaller, independent companies, which are often cutting edge. That's John  Fulljames's background, impossible to underestimate. Already we've seen the shift from in-house productions to opted in imports such as from Music Theatre Wales who are so good that their In the Penal Colony inspired Philip Glass to write The Trial for them. MTW also has a partnership with Scottish Opera, which also has a programme supporting new opera. Earlier this year, ROH supported Scottish Opera's season, by giving them a presence in London. (read more here) .

Relationships with European houses and festivals are also very important. The Barbican has a connection to the Holland Festival, which is how we get so many interesting ventures via Pierre Audi.  The Welsh National Opera "British Firsts" series from 2013-18 connects to Amsterdam (read more HERE)  It's very interesting that WNO is doing Unsuk Chin's Alice through the Looking Glass in 2017 while ROH is doing it in 2018/19. Will they be different productions? Will the same score be used? The Santa Fe version this summer was reorchestrated, which might be an advantage as I found the original Munich version  rather too verbose. These days, joint productions offer economies of scale and extended coverage, so they are the way forward.  ROH is working with Oper Frankfurt and Deutsche Oper Berlin. The more I read about Georg Friedrich Haas Morning and Evening, the more I'm looking forward to it in London in 2015. 

Anna is back! Royal Opera House 2013-2020

Announced 20 minutes ago,  plans for the Royal Opera House for 2013-2020. Run-in times for any production at a house like Covent Garden are long, so it's hardly surprisinmg that they have a good idea of what they're planning to do years in advance. Kaspar Holten is adamant. "New work is not and should not be at the periphery of our programme, but right at the core of what and who we are." as ever the case in opera  in the past.  Even classic staples were once "new". Those who want endless revivals of old productions will still get their fill, but ROH is doing its bit to keep the art alive with new work and new commissions.  Please see also my latests piece analysin g the situation more broadly HERE.

For really new work, the run-in time is even longer. For 2020, ROH plans to "challenge leading European composers Kaija Saariaho (Finland), Mark-Anthony Turnage (UK), Luca Francesconi (Italy) and Jörg Widmann (Germany) to create large scale new operas. The vision is for four distinct operas, each one in part inspired by the composer’s response to a set of questions developed in collaboration with the philosopher Slavoj Žižek: “What preoccupies us today? How do we represent ourselves on stage? What are the collective myths of our present and future?”

Scandal is nothing new to opera. Think of the extremely hostile reception of Carmen.  After the initial shock of Mark Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole wore off, the opera and production grew on me. I think I'll get a lot more out of next time round in 2014/15. (read what I wrote of the premiere and aftermath).

Music Theatre Wales is back with a new commission for Philip Glass based on Franz Kafka's The Trial, also 2014/15. This should be a major event if it's anywhere near asd good as Glass's In the Penal Colony (reviews here and here), whose success inspired Glass to work again with Music Theatre Wales, one of Britain's most innovative smaller companies. What a pity the Linbury Studio Theatre is so small and cramped. Hopefully, they'll do a longer run to compensate. If only there were a mid-size theatre at ROH! Could they not do a deal with somewhere else?

The Royal Operas House doesn't go out on a limb alone but works with other houses like Bregenz, Opera North., Houston and the wonderful Holland Festival. So we can look forward to Ben Frost’s adaptation of Iain Banks’s cult novel The Wasp Factory, and Luca Francesconi’s Quartett, (a new version directed by John Fulljames and co-produced with The London Sinfonietta and Opéra de Rouen after the piece's 2010 premiere at La Scala Milan).  A new opera from Luke Bedford, too, who is one of the most interesting of all youngerr British composers.  Read what I wroite about his Seven Angels here and here - another opera completely misunderstood by some, which also deserves to be heard again. Really good things need time to percolate past first impressions. Bedford's new opera is on the theme of Faust which shouldn't be too hard to take on board. A new Christmas opera from Julian Philips, whose The Yellow Sofa was a huge hit for Glyndebourne Touring. And we''ll get Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland hot on the heels of the WNO.

Lots more to read - HERE is the press release. .

Tattooed opera composer runs for President

Tattooed from head to toe in black, red and blue, Vladimir Franz is running for President in the Czech Republic. Can't be much worse than some politicos. Read more HERE.   He could become the subject of a surreal opera ! His opera "War with the newts" (2007) opens at Prague Opera House tonight. Based on the 1936 Capek novel. See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvFXwI9iibk

Les misérables - the music not the musical

Yet another movie version of Victor Hugo's Les misérables! The saga could have been written for cinema, given its sprawl and extreme drama. Barricades and underground sewers are a bit beyond most normal staging. But it's perfect for film.

There's the 1925 silent Les misérables, which runs for six hours. I've seen only extracts, which is maybe just as well.  Then there is the 1934 sound film, directed and written by Raymond Bernard, which runs only 4 and a half hours. This has been restored and is available on DVD  It's faithful to the original novel,  with direct quotes and strong, pungent characterisations.  And the music was written by Arthur Honegger of whom there is a lot on this site if you search.

Honegger's score for Les misérables is vivid without being over hysterical like some film music. The story was powerful enough to support the action, so the music works as music and sounds good even without the visuals. Audio alone, some movie music cloys to the point of vulgarity. Honegger's Les misérables works as music.  With a basic knowledge of the story, you can fill in the narrative, but Honegger's music unfolds like a symphonic poem in its own right. Plus, it runs less than an hour.

Hugo Wolf Wigmore Hall Kirchschlager Henschel Drake

Julius Drake's latest Hugo Wolf Songbooks recital at the Wigmore Hall featured Angelika Kirchschlager and Dietrich Henschel. These singers have very different voices indeed, so Drake's programme made the most of the contrast.

 The logic behind the song selections revealed itself as the recital progressed, but the evening started with five Mörike songs which Kirchschlager sings so well. Her distinctive, warm timbre adds depth to Wolf's songs, bringing out the sensuality fundamental to their interpretation.  When Kirchschlager sings Wolf, there's nothing precious or effete, even when, as in Erstes Liebeslied eines Mädchen, the girl is so young that she cries "Grief ich eine Schlange" while less innocent ears know what she's really snared in her net. Kirchschlager's forte is natural graciousness.  She's ideal in Wolf because she's subtle, capturing the delicate charm beneath which Mörike shields dangerous thoughts. In Das verlassene Mägdlein, Wolf writes turbulence into the piano part, expressing the emotional tempest the servant girl feels even though she's attending dutifully to her job.  On this occasion, Kirchschlager was singing into words, as if the songs were a vehicle for hochdramatischer grand opera. She's good enough that she was still enjoyable, but it's not her usual style, nor one particularly suited to these songs.

Perhaps this concert was an experiment in turning Wolf's songs into theatre.  It's perfectly reasonable to group Wolf's settings of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister poems into a kind of narrative. The saga is so well known that most listeners understand where the songs belong. Kirchschlager, Henschel and Drake presented the three Harfenlieder songs (plus Spottlied)  with the three Mignon songs, and Philine and Kennst du Das Land.  

This was a welcome chance to enter into the world of the strange old harper and Mignon. Mignon is very young, but has a horrible backstory of abuse.  Kennst du das Land is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, but part of its impact comes from the intense emotions it evokes, emotions almost too extreme to be expressed by a child. Sorrow is central to her personality. "Nun wer die Sensucht kennt, weiss, was ich leide!". The rcihness of Kirchschlager's voice suggests that there are mysteries to Mignon's personality which we may never know. When she sings the downward phrases at the end of Mignon 1 ("und nur ein Gott"), her voices seems to swoon. Julius Drake shows how the phrase is replicated in the piano part, the piano reinforcing what Mignon cannot tell. 

In some repertoire, a voice like Dietrich Henschel's is an advantage. Recently he sang Bernd Alois Zimmermann's  Ich wandte mich um und sah an alles Unrecht (Ecclesiastical Action) for Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall (read review here) where the harsh, apocalyptic subject requires a singer who can sing forcefully, often in tricky, disjointed phrases. Henschel sang that well, but singing Wolf is a different prospect.. Henschel was acceptable in the Harfenspieler songs, because  Goethe deliberately contrasts the ravaged Harper with the angelic Mignon.  In the earlier part of the recital, with other Goethe settings, like Prometheus and Grenzen der Menscheit his singing as marred by excessively wide dynamics. Phrases were pulled out of shape, harsh vibrato overcompensating for dry tone.  It didn't help that Julius Drake pounded ferociously.  He's one of the best pianists for song but here gave his singer no quarter. Henschel's good enough to know when things aren't going well for whatever reason. When Kirchschalger finished singing Philine, Henschel remarked on the final lines "Jeder Tag hat  seine Plage, und die Nacht  hat ihre Lust". Everyone has bad days sometimes. He then approached Spottlied with gruff good humour, defusing some of the bitter envy in the text, which is a perfectly valid interpretation. 
 
Hugo Wolf been called the "Wagner of the Lied" but this refers to the way he rethought the relationship between poetry and song. Indeed, Wolf's sensitivity to miniature nuances precludes Wagnerian treatment. While it was good to hear the Wilhelm Meister songs together, they aren't music theatre but songs to be sung as lyrically as is reasonable.  The encore was Leopold Lenz (1803-62) Nun wer die Sensucht kennt., for two voices and piano. 

BBC Verdi 200 broadcasts I Lombardi, I Vespri etc

For those who need a fix of real opera ! Ramón Vargas and Erwin Schrott star in Verdi I Lombardi now on BBC Radio 3 (with repeats for 7 days).  This is the 2005 Maggio Musicale Fiorentino performance conducted by Roberto Abbado.

To be followed by I Vespri Siciliano (HERE), Simon Boccanegra (Domingo, Harteros, Furlanetti, Barenboim La Scala 2010) (HERE) and  Il trovatore (Met)

Royal Opera House Live

The Royal Opera House is streaming live online today for 10 hours. HERE is a link to my article of 10th December.  "It's  a kind of visual live blog of what's hapening all day behind the scenes as well as front of house. Obviously you pick and choose what you want to watch !" So HERE is the playlist.

In the Shadow of the Opéra - Graham Johnson Wigmore Hall

Graham Johnson chose the title "In the Shadow of the Opéra" for his recital at the Wigmore Hall, London, with Lucy Crowe and Christopher Maltman. Given the renaisaance in French opera, it's good that we should be thinking of the nature of French song and its relationship to French opera and culture. The engraving shows the salon of Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), the singer with connections to many of the composers on this programme,

This was an extremely ambitious programme. A friend, who has been going to the Wigmore Hall for 40 years, exclaimed "Some of this material we don't know!" There was so much to take in that it will take time to fully sink in. It would be worth replicating the programme at home, to study it further.

Johnson divided his recital into four main themes : On Wings of Song (Love in flight), Mélodies and arias, Vers le sud (Exoticism) and Seascapes and Landscapes. The first two sections focussed on form, the last two on subject matter.

First, he focussed on lyrical mélodies like Charles Gounod's Tombez mes ailes! The image is of a butterfly in joyful flight, but to protect her offspring, she must tear off her own wings and die. It's a metaphor for the artist who must struggle and sacrifice in order that art might grow.  The gravitas of the final line undercuts the flightiness that's gone before. Christopher Maltman sang the final line "Il faut vieller,  et travailler" with great force.  Just as Maltman's voice is dark, Lucy Crowe's voice is every light and sweet, good for a 19th century heroine. In this section she sang light-hearted uieces like Massenet's Le sais-tu? and Reynaldo Hahn's Si mes vers avaient des ailes. This made Maltman's songs have stronger impact : Georges Bizet's La Coccinelle (to a poem by Victor Hugo) gave Maltman a chance to show his skills as a character actor. The ladybird has such personality she could become a role in music theatre. Songs like Lucien Hillemacher's Villanelle lay too high for him, but the point was made : there's more to singing than getting the notes right.

Théodore Dubois (1837-1924)  was one of the most successful composers of his day, but was despised by the young Gabriel Fauré, one of Pauline Viardot's inner circle. Johnson pertinently laced Dubois's Madrigal with Fauré's Fleur jetée. Dubois' delicate lyricism outclassed by Fauré's pounding rhythms. Ironically, Madrigal is more conventionally a piece for the theatre and Maltman dramatized it well. Dubois's poet, Henry Murger, inspired Puccini's La bohème. Fleur jetée, however, is by far the more distinctive piece in musical terms, which is why it's fairly well known and a favourite of many high sopranos. But it's not really a piece for big houses, and Lucy Crowe's voice was challenged by the loud crescendo in the final line. Johnson followed the song with Fauré's La chanson du pêcheur, which Maltman delivered in an almost conversational style. This you could imagine embedded in a larger work. Debussy's Apparition (Mallarmé), with its watery imagery and sparkling piano  textures, suggested Pelléas et Mélisande, though it was written as early as 1884. It's even less sympathetic to voice, set extremely high in the style of the time. Massenet had the last laugh though, with a splendid duet Horace et Lydie (1886) to a poem byAlbert de Musset. Mélodie or aria? The song describes Horace and Lydie's past romance, the voices deftly cutting across each other. At the end, they resolve their dilemma and sing in harmony.

One of the key themes in French culture is Orientalisme. It was a means of exploring "unknown territory" in many ways. Orientalism garbed ideas in strange, alien  ways, so artists could express unusual thoughts in dramatic context. Strangely, there was no Délibes in this recital but we had Hector Berlioz Zaïde (1845) a florid narravtive song set in Granada and the palace of Aladdin "qui vaut Cordovie et Séville!"  More Gounod, too. Maltman sang Maid of Athens (1872) partly in English because the text is Lord Byron, but the chorus is in Greek, reflecting Byron's passion for Greek independence. Two "exotic" languages in one song. Giacomo Meyerbeer's Mina (1837) is a jolly piece, fine for music theatre. Perhaps I'm the only person to have discovered Meyerbeer through his songs (excellent recording by Thomas Hampson) but at least that made me appreciate how interesting his work can be.

Xavier Leroux (1863-1919)  was a new discovery for me, because Le Nil (1890) is a gorgeous song, intensely atmospheric. Lucy Crowe sang the mysterious introduction quietly, just above a whisper, so we could imagine we were floating along the Nile at night in a small boat. The poet, Armand Renaud, contrasts the bacarolle with the image of the Great Sphinx and the wide plain beyond the river.  Thw lovers and their moment of happiness dwarfed by vast historic forces, A beautiful song I'd like to hear again. Two songs about guitars completed the section - Eduard Lalo's Guitare (1885) and Camille Saint-Saëns Guitarres et mandolines.

Operas on the grand scale can evoke huge panoramas of time and space. But so can song. Bizet's Douce mer (1867 )(Lamartine)  and Fauré's Les Bercaux (1879) (Proudhomme), are charming mood pieces, the former embellished with an exotic cry which suggests that the Mediterranean setting might even be North Africa. Debussy's Nuit d'étoiles was perhaps the best known song in the recital, pleasantly done, if the phrasing and intensity wasn't quite up to the standards of, say, Véronique Gens or others who have made it a trademark.  Massenet's Joie (1868) (Camille Distel) ended the evening on a cheerful note, but Johnson and his singers wisely chose to repeat Saint-Saëns Viens! (1855) (Victor Hugo) as an encore. It's an enjoyable duet where the voices intertwine rather like traditional rounds. So perhaps folk song got its way into this programme after all.

Red Sails in the Sunset

Patti Page, "The Singing Rage", has died aged 85. But she seemed to, belong to a much earlier era, before Rock n Roll, Pop etc, yet after the Big Bands of the 1930's.  Here is a link to Patti Page How much is that Doggie in the Window? which my family used to sing together when people did stuff like that for entertainment instead of TV.

So you can understand why I associate Patti Page with Red Sails in the Sunset which had earlier been  a big hit for Bing Crosby and Fats Domino. We would sing that song when we were coming back from fishing trips in the islands, when the sun was setting, turning the sails on Chinese fishing junks red with reflected light. Even now i can picture in my mind, one vessel sailing uncommonly fast, fast enough that my father pointed it out in surprise. Must have caught a freak gust. I was so young then that I thought Red Sails in the Sunset was written specially for us. The photo shows a junk in 1895 taken by William Henry Jackson. Obviously not the same vintage as me, but when I was a kid there were still thousands of authentic working junks, fishing as they had done for centuries.

Below a clip of Patti Page singing Red Sails in the Sunset. Gorgeously vintage staging - look at the dress. Nowadays her vocal technique or lack thereof drives me nuts, but what happy memories!  And I couldn't resist How Much is That Doggie in the Window?
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Ivan Hewett's refreshing new series

Intelligent new series in the Telegraph by Ivan Hewett. This could be good because he takes a very different approach to the banal superficiality we read elsewhere.  Hewett picks a single work, and explores how and why it's interesting. Writing in relative depth about shortish works is far more original than writing clichés. There are writers who can churn out material like machines, but unless they've digested what they're writing about in the first place, it's not a whole lot of use to anyone else. Hewett is the opposite. Perhaps his secret is to realize that articles are not ends in themselves but sparks that stimulate the reader to listen for himself. 

"Instant guides" to music are stupid because they spoonfeed .That's fine if readers want predigested pap.  But learning is often a random process. Hewett's articles emulate that natural learning curve. A reader might be drawn to something by sheer chance and go on to greater things. For example, Hewett's latest piece is about Robert Schumann's Mein schöner Stern! HERE. A reader could then listen to more Schumann, more song, more piano music.  It's a journey that will never end. As the saying goes, you can give a man a drink, but if you show him where and how to dig a well, he'll be nourished forever.

The earlier articles in this 50 part series focus on Stravinsky's Scherzo à la Russe and Scarlatti's Sonata in G minor K450. Obviously Hewett's choices are personal, because listening is a very personal adventure. There's far too much emphasis these days on listening in rigid little boxes, like the South Bank The Rest is Noise series which any school leaver could compile ("American composers" "French composers" etc) . Most conductors can compile intelligent programmes on their own. If  they're any good, programme makers know their repertoire and can find interesting ways of revealing new ideas. Look at the Wigmore Hall programmes this January, for example. The idea of a comprehensive survey of approved repertoire goes against the very concept of creativity. To quote from the Bible (Proverbs 11 v 25) "He who refreshes others will be refreshed".

Wigmore Hall January Specials

There's something to go to at the Wigmore Hall nearly every day this January. The problem is finding the time to fit it all in! The Wigmore Hall's formidable reputation is based on programmes that challenge and stimulate. Repertoire is the basis of listening. How can we assess performance if we don't appreciate what we're listening for? These days it's popular to rely on crowd pleasers and celebrity rather than serious listening. But the Wigmore hall upholds higher standards.

So get to the Wigmore Hall on Friday for Lucy Crowe and Christopher Maltman, who sing a very well chosen programme devised by Graham Johnson, based around different themes in French opera and song. Some obscurities here, and some favourites, but the main thing is the way they've been chosen to stimulate thought. "Mélodies or Arias?" for example is one sub-theme, where songs by Dubois, Massenet, Fauré and Debussy extend basic song form. Graham Johnson is much more than a pianist. he's an institution, and icon whose presence we will miss terribly when he retires.

Also, do not miss Anna Prohaska on 16th January. She's doing a programme with period ensemble Arcangelo,  called "The Enchanted Forest". She's singing extracts from Handel, Zelenka, Purcell and Vivaldi. Song not opera as such, but theatrical and probably quite magical, as we'd expect from this superb singer. On 11/1, Marlis Petersen sings another programme based around female archetypes in song : Suleika, Mignon, Gretchen, Stella, Klärchen and Helena. Not just the obvious composers like Schubert but Medtner, Braunfels, Eisler, Diepenbrook, Krenek and Wagner Gretchen am Spinnrade Similarly, Elizabeth Watts is singing a programme of Goethe heroines with Roger Vignoles on 28th. If heroines aren't your thing, there's always Mozart's Castrati on 22nd Jan. Sarah Fox, Renata Prokupic and  Ian Page, conducting.

The Wigmore Hall is also doing a lot more early music than it did 20 years ago. Paul O'Dette brings a programme of John Dowland lute songs on 10/1. O'Dette is mixing well known tunes with carefully picked rarities. This promises to be interesting and unusual: a landmark in Dowland performance. Unmissable for early music enthusiasts and indeed for Benjamin Britten fans, since Britten was greatly influenced by Dowland. Indeed, Dowland's influence on modern British music is profound. Just think Harrison Birtwistle.  Tomorrow, Thursday, Carolyn Sampson sings early Venetian love songs, accompnanied by Matthew Wadsworth on theorbo.

On Sunday, Julius Drake's series on the Hugo Wolf Songbooks continues wiuth Angelika Kirchschlager and Dietrich Henschel. They're doing some of the best known songs, but I'd recommend the next recital on 15/2 even more highly : Ian Bostridge and Sophie Daneman, a very well balanced pair of voices. The Nash Ensemble are absolutely  unequalled by any other regular Wigmore Hall ensemble. On 12th January, they're doing two concerts of British music, combining chamber music and voice.: Warlock's The Curlew and Britten's Songs from the Chinese. The Britten Sinfonia are doing a programme which includes Richard Rodney Bennett and Gerald Barry.

"Songs to the Moon" is another interesting concert on 18th. The Myrthen Ensemble comprise several up and coming singers, fairly well known as individuals, but here they're singing songs and part songs together. Brahms and Schumann of course, but also Warlock, Maconchy, Saint-Saëns, Barber, and a clutch of delicious French songs by Fauré, Debussy etc.

 And that's just ONE month, vocal related, and one venue!  Photo : David Hawgood

Battle of the Bands Neujahrs Konzert

Every year most of the world tunes in for the Vienna Philharmonic New Year concert. It's tradition. From a European perspective, it's more or less more of the same each year, but for the rest of the world, it's a chance to experience the magic of classical western music. The Wiener Neujahrs Konzert is an international communion.
Recently, Franz Welser-Möst made a high profile speech marking the 200th anniversary of the Wiener Musikverein. He referred to the millions of people outside the West who listen to classical music. "One must not discount this simply as a sort of pop-cultural phenomenon........it much rather shows us that we in Europe, as well as in America and the entire Western world, can no longer take for granted our claim to leadership in the cultural matters we have inherited: quite clearly, a passing lane has opened up right next to us.". This is certainly not "anti-Asia" as some have suggested, but a realisitic assessment that there's a huge demand for serious classical music in Asia.

Even more pointedly, he added "Culture’s maintenance is important, but so is its renewal. Merely broadening our scope, as we see happening with many festivals these days, entails becoming more shallow rather than opening up...... testament to short-sightedness, and it is also a contribution to the process by which art and culture erode. Art must plumb the depths as an important part of our dream-world, the world that we should dream of—but it is also, as it indeed must be, an expression of its times. We live in an age of superficiality, but precisely this is what we must fight back against, showing that more exists than just quick satisfaction and the addiction to records, which I find perverse in artistic events because it degrades art into a mass-produced good." (full text here)

So I had a large glass of Vieil Armagnac XO and enjoyed the 2013 Vienna New Years concert conducted by Welser-Möst (available in UK on BBC TV2 iPlayer for seven days). Then I switched to Berlin, where Simon Rattle conducted the Berliner Philhamoniker in their Neujahrs Konzert (available on medici TV) Cecilia Bartoli sings lots of baroque and the Berliners play Rameau, Ravel, Brahms and Dvořák. It's more my usual fare than Strauss and Radetzky, a Czech who was a hero to Austrians but who massacred Italians.  But there's really nothing like the Vienna Band when it comes to gold and roses.

Hong Kong New Year Fireworks

By Hong Kong's extreme fireworks standards, this was quite subdued. But by everyone else's standards...