Svatoslav Richter 100th Birthday

In honour of Svatoslav Richter's centenary, a special programme on BR Klassik "Der Heimatlose" HERE

ENO Annual Review 2013/14

The English National Opera published its Annual Review this week. Surprise! Contrary to expectations, it's in the black!  Just. The year 2013/14 ended with an an unrestricted surplus of £208,000 following box office income of £9,684,000 across 117 performances (2012/13 = £9,678,000 across 132 performances). This represents a box office uplift of 11.4% per performance, and an increase in audience numbers of 11%. Download the annual review here  (It's not a line by line account)


A quick summary :

• Average audience capacity for ENO productions was 75% in the 2,358 seat London Coliseum
• 117 performances of 13 ENO productions, 8 new and 5 revivals, including 1 world premiere, 1 UK premiere and 3 operas by living composers (Sunken Garden, The Perfect American, Satyagraha)
• 201,361 audience members saw an ENO production at the London Coliseum or at the Barbican, with 70,000 attending for the first time
• 173,102 audience members saw an ENO production at one of our international co-producing partners. 11 productions opened around the world in 7 countries
• 302 performances of ENO shows took place in London and around the world 
• ENO is the world’s leading co-producer, having now worked with more than 35 opera companies and festivals globally
• ENO Screen was launched in February 2014 with the live broadcast of Peter Grimes. This screening was attended by over 15,000 audience members around the UK and Ireland and is the highest grossing UK screening ever of an opera by a British composer
• 88% of singers and conductors were British born, trained or resident
• A third of our tickets across the year were available for £30 or under, with prices starting at £5
• Over 57,000 tickets to an ENO performance sold at £25 or less
• 24,000 members of Access All Arias – a scheme for students and under-30s which offers significant ticket discounts. 2,833 Access All Arias tickets were purchased during 13/14 financial year
• Secret Seats was launched in 13/14 financial year - at least 50 seats available at every performance for £20 (sometimes situated in top price areas of the house). 4,441 Secret Seats were purchased
• 2,000 tickets were sold to Opera Undressed – a special scheme aimed at new opera-goers. 35% of attendees have returned to another production since coming to an Opera Undressed event
• 411,235 audience members attended one of 235 performances at the London Coliseum
• As well as ENO productions, the London Coliseum welcomed 13 visiting companies and productions and hosted the British Fashion Awards for the first time in December 2013
• 15 exceptionally talented British singers received bespoke training and development through ENO Harewood Artists
• 3,874 young people from 23 London State schools participated in ENO Opera Squad
• Over 1.8 million unique visitors to our website – representing year-on-year growth of 40%
• 93% growth in our Twitter followers, 65% growth in Facebook page likes
• Three productions broadcast on BBC Radio 3, reaching over 450,000 listeners

Poetry beyond words - Nash Ensemble Wigmore Hall

The Nash Ensemble's 50th Anniversary Celebrations at the Wigmore Hall were crowned by a recital that typifies the Nash's visionary mission.  Above, the dearly-loved founder, Amelia Freeman,  a quietly revolutionary figure in  her own way, who has immeasurably enriched the cultural life of this country. Ostensibly, the concert featured some of the best modern British composers, plus Elliott Carter, an honorary Brit, since his music has been so passionately championed in this country.  But a deeper perusal of the programme revealed even greater depths.. "Poetry beyond Words" I thought, since most of the pieces transformed their original sources in text and visual images into exquisitely original works of art. Lieder ohne Worte: an affirmation of the life force that is creativity.

Simon Holt's Shadow Realm  (1983) gets its title from a poem by Magnus Enzensberger (a favourite of Hans Werner Henze).  ".....for a while/ i step out of my shadow/for a while.....".  Holt's music penetrates the elusive mysteries of the text, going beyond the words to express its spirit. It's structured in two halves, "shadowing" one another, but scored for an unusual combination of clarinet, harp and cello, creating a three-way conversation  creating a further shadow around the duality of its conception. It's a miniature, only eight minutes long, but its concision is so elegant that it puts to shame many works which drown in verbose meandering. Holt was only 25 when it was written: a remarkable original achievement by a composer whose self-effacing manner belies a mind of great originality. It says much about the Nash Ensemble that they commissioned it, long before Holt became famous.

The poems of Lorine Niedecker (1903-1970) pack intense meaning into fragmentary, haiku-like lines, some of which don't even follow grammatical syntax. But therein lies their beauty.(that's her in the photo). Harrison Birtwistle's Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker (1998-2000), another Nash commission, distils each poem with a kind of almost homeopathic concentration, communicating the spirit of the poems, far more creatively  than mere word-painting.  Claire Booth sings arching lines which reach upwards and outwards, sustaining the legato, while the cello weaves around, without interruption, coming into its own only when the voice falls silent, like an elusive echo, Eventually, the poems seem to move away, beyond human hearing. The music gradually slows down, voice and cello retreating together with melancholy "footsteps", each note expressed with solemn dignity.  Birtwistle recognizes the fundamental structure of Niedecker's text, but emphasizing syllables and single words, rather than phrases. " thru bird/start, wing/drip, weed/drift", though in the text the words are joined. Perhaps this captures the sense of water, dripping quietly in some vast stillness. Yet it's also typically Birtwistlean puzzle-making,  creating patterns within patterns, layers within layers. Beautiful moments linger in the memory, like the "You, ah you, of mourning doves", where the poet plays with the word "you", which sounds like dove call yet also evokes human meaning, while the composer, for once, infuses the word "mourning" drawing its resonance out, like the cooing of the bird.

One of the great joys of Julian Anderson's music is that he's an extraordinarily visual composer. Graphic images inspire his music and enrich its interpretation. His Alhambra Fantasy (2000) was stimulated by Islamic architecture, The Book of Hours (2005) by the miniatures in  Trés riches heures du Duc de Berry, and even Symphony (2003), despite its non-committal title, owes much to the paintings of Sibelius's friend, Axel Gallen-Kallela. Yet again, the Nash Ensemble recognized his unique gift almost from the start.  Poetry Nearing Silence (1997) was inspired by  The Heart of a Humument, a book of paintings by Tom Phillips, where random words from an obscure novel were picked at random, then adventurously illustrated.  See more here.  Just as Phillips transforms words into visuals, Anderson transforms ideas into abstract music. Eight highly individual segments unfold over 12 minutes. Each has a title, borrowed from the book, though the settings as such aren't literal.  In the third segment "my future as the star in a film of my room", one of the violinists plays percussion (a ratchet), which whirrs like the cranking of an old-fashioned camera. In the Wigmore Hall, the sound is decidely disturbing, but that's perhaps Anderson's intention : we can't take what we hear for granted. In theory, the segments travel round Europe - Vienna, Bohemia, Carpathia, Paris. Far away landscapes of the imagination: perhaps we hear references to Janáček's Sinfonietta, crazily buoyant but cheerful. The Nash play at being folk musicians, imitating alphorns and shepherd's pipes.  Everything in joyous transformation!  Gradually, the clarinet (Richard Hosford) draws things together, as silence descends.  Although Anderson doesn't employ voice in this piece, it feels like song, because the instrumentation has such personality.

The recital began with the world premiere of  Richard Causton's Piano  Quintet (2015), dedicated to the Nash. It's lively and inventive. Violins and viola tease cello and piano, provoking and taunting, whiling off in all directions.  Gradually the piano (Tim Horton)  restores harmony with a gracious cantilena.  Peter Maxwell Davies's String Quintet (2014) also received its world premiere. Four movements, each with a different mood and form, the Chacony being the most vivid. Before that, Elliott Carter's Poems of Louis Zukofsky (2008), with Claire Booth and Richard Hosford.  Carter expresses the shape of the poems as they are laid out in print. There are silences in poems which create an impact by the way they look on the page denser scoring where needed, the vocal line calling out into aural space.  Zukofsky's copyright holder issues stern warnings against quotation and use.  A very different attitude to the immensely rewarding creative inter-relationship between different art forms which made this concert so rewarding. 

If I haven't written much about the performances, that's because the Nash Ensemble are always good, and reliable.  The players on this occasion were Tim Horton (piano), Philippa Davies (flute), Richard Hosford (clarinet), David Adams (violin), Michael Gurevich (violin), Lawrence Power (viola), James Boyd (violin), Björg Lewis (cello), Adrian Brendel (cello), Lucy Wakefield (harp) and Claire Booth (soprano), and Lionel Friend (conductor).  This article also appears in Opera Today.

This concert was recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 13th June 2015

Sibelius raw, vibrant Kullervo, choreographed

Jean Sibelius; Kullervo op 7, 1892  is a work so powerful that it seems to break out from the restraints of orchestral performance. Even now, the piece seems surprisngly modern.. Musically, it's explosive; fabulously "primitive" sounds which presage The Rite of Spring. Wild, whirling passages that suggest a driving snowstorm, a relentless battle to the death and implacable doom. Kullervo, whose story is told in the Kalevala, was an abused, brutalized child, whose inheritance was stolen, and he was cruelly mistreated by his uncle. He sees a lovely maiden in the forest and wants to posses her. Since he has no social graces, he rapes her. Then she tells her story, how she'd become lost in the forest while picking strawberries. She turns out to be his long-lost sister. All this, against a background of primeval Nature, in an unyielding climate where summers are fleeting. Perhaps Kullervo is the first anti-hero of this type in literature, and possibly in music. Sibelius may have realized how shockingly savage it was, so ahead of its time.  Although he loved the piece, he withdrew it. It wasn't heard again for nearly 70 years..

Now Kullervo has been choreographed by the Helsinki dance company led by Tero Saarinen, and available on arte.tv   Definitely worth watching, for it captures the raw, physical spirit of the music extremely well. The set is at once modern and primeval. Sharp angular lines evoking the arctic landscape,and the harsh nature of the drama that unfolds and the angular music itself.  Metallic surfaces, harsh lighting: this staging suggest at once both the ancient nature of the saga and the brave new world of technological innovation that is modern Finland.  

In the first two sections,this dichotomy is evoked by two principal dancers. The female dancer is dressed in blue and white, the Finnish colours, crisp and pure against a background of earth tones and darkness. Her movements dart across the stage with the freedom of a wild bird. It's easy to see why the male dancer is fascinated. In the third section, where Kullervo meets his sister, the focus is on the singing. But thereafter, the orchestra surges forth, and the choreography becomes wonderfully expressive. When Kullervo goes to battle, in atonement for his sin, the male dancer is surrounded by an army of menacing men, closing in on him  in his struggle - wonderfully rigged, athletic movements. 

In the passage "The Silence of the Women" a group of female dancers undulate. Their simple white shifts as pristine as lilies, yet their movements are grave and solemn, as if they're in mourning for lost innocence. When Kullervo dies, the dancer representing him is alone.  He's half-naked, like the day he was born, in a much more innocent time. His arms flail, his body twists. Suddenly his arms swing in wild circles, as if propelled by invisible winds. The "Northern Lights" behind him become blindingly bright. The dancer is caught in some strange vortex. The whole stage turns, and the dancer moves away while the ensemble, barely individuated, moves like a dark mass centre stage. Suddenly, the light flares up once more, and the dancer is seen, It is lit so brightly that you can see the muscles in his stomach contort.  Such ends the tale of the cursed Kullervo......

Musical values are very high. Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts  thje Finnish National Opera Orchestra,  which is top notch. Ville Rusanen sings Kullervo, while Samuli Poutanen dances the part. Johanna Rusanen-Kartano sings the sister, while the part is danced by Terhi Räsänen. The choreographer is Tero Saarinen.

Photo credits : Finnish National Opera / Finnish National Ballet / Sakari Viika 2015

Death and the mother

Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), the novelist, with a racy sex life.  Way ahead of her time.

Spring ! Oxford Lieder Song Weekend - April

Fresh and lively - the Oxford Lieder April Song Weekend, Holywell Music Room, 10-12th April

FRIDAY 10 APRIL 7.30pm Sophie Daneman (soprano) Stephan Loges (baritone) Sholto Kynoch (piano) Schumann: Myrthen A star team for Schumann's most substantial song cycle, Myrthen; his wedding present to his beloved Clara, whose songs also feature in this programme.

SATURDAY 11 APRIL

 11.15am-6.30pm 
Young Artist Platform Six exceptional young duos give 40-minute recitals, hoping to be the next Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform winners. Expect a very high level of performance from these artists on the brink of major careers. Full details online. The recitals will be adjudicated by Sophie Daneman and Stephan Loges. Dinner will be available at the Vaults Garden Café in the University Church.

8pm
Mary Bevan (soprano) Sholto Kynoch (piano) 'Songs of Mayhem and Madness' Mary Bevan, one of the UK's most exciting young sopranos, performs songs by Purcell, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and others.

SUNDAY 12 APRIL
1.30pm-6.30pm Masterclass given by Sophie Daneman and Stephan Loges, working with the duos who auditioned on Saturday.

8pm Alessandro Fisher (tenor) Ricardo Gosalbo (piano) Schumann: Dichterliebe Alessandro and Ricardo were winners of the 2013 Young Artist Platform.

More details HERE

Can Scriabin drive you to murder ?

Can Scriabin drive you to murder? In Hong Kong, a man is on trial for murdering his parents, He invited them round for dinner, and allegedly murdered them, serving their remains up for a meal with a friend. Their heads were found by the police, who came round inquiring about their disappearance. In the tiny flat, there were two commercial freezers and  lots of lunchboxes stuffed with body parts. This week, a court-appointed psychiatrist testified that 31-year-old Henry Chau had listened to  Scriabin's “Vers La Flamme” (Towards the Flame) every night for a month before killing his father Chau Wing-ki, 65, and his mother Siu Yuet-yee, 63, on March 1, 2013.

Chau told how he saw flames around the time of the killings and was convinced the world would be consumed by fire. "The music intensified the images of fire and flame in his mind. He believed the world was going to end and he could not get away from it. The music was like repeating the words to him every day," the doctor told the jury.(thanks to Dennis Wu for sharing)

Music Theatre Wales goes international

Music Theatre Wales goes international!  Britain's most adventurous smaller opera company presents two productions, on the same day on opposite sides of the world. On April 2nd, Philip Glass The Trial opens at Theater Magdeburg, Germany, while Mark Anthony Turnage's Greek opens at the 2015 Tongyeong International Music Festival, South Korea  Both pieces are classic MTW. Glass wrote The Trial  (reviewed here) specially for the company, who have championed his work almost since the company started more than 25 years ago, including outstanding productions like In the Penal Colony (reviewed here). Turnage's Greek is also a MTW classic. Greek was shocking in 1988/9 because it was a primal scream of protest. Although it's set in the East End of London, it's based on Oedipus, a drama so universal that it's inspired many retellings.  Korea should have no problems connecting.

Two productions 5000 miles apart ?  Ever resourceful, MTW divided the work between two conductor/directors. Michael McCarthy's directing The Trial , with Hermann Dukek conducting, and Michael Rafferty's conducting Greek, with Rhian Hutchings as revival director. Both McCarthy and Rafferty have worked on both productions, so they'll be good.  Here's a link to the Music Theatre Wales website, for more information.

Ground-breaking The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Royal Opera House

Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Royal Opera Hall absolutely breaks new ground, revealing the sophisticated layers of meaning inherent in the opera. Yes, it's political, yes it's about capitalism, consumerism, greed, materialism and false values and the way such things wreak havoc, like the typhoon that flattens Benares. Why Benares, the "Holy City",and not wicked Mahagonny ?

For the first time I realized this had deeper meaning than simply irony.  In a world where "you choose to kick or be kicked", Jenny Smith chickens out and kicks Jimmy McIntyre. Yet he bears no resentment. When Kurt Streit sang Jimmy's death cell soliloquy,  I thought of Billy Budd, redeemed because he dies without rancour.. Some will scream in rage at the execution, where Jimmy hangs as if crucified, but it's  a perfectly valid reading of the score. Brecht and Weill lived in a supposedly Christian society which didn't practice the principal tenets of the faith. Three years after the opera was completed, Weimar descended into the Third Reich. Untrammeled excess and its counterpart of evil. It's not for nothing Weill writes hymn-like tunes into the music. The people of Mahagonny worship Mammon. It's also not for nothing that the three founders of the city pull the strings. As the man behind me perceptively said "The un-Holy Trinity", one of whom is actually called Trinity Moses, a dig at other religions, too.  This Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is not only true to Brecht and Weill but confronts the very evil that makes societies corrupt. Far more danderous than just another parable about greed.

The un-Holy Trinity jump out of a truck, itself a metaphor for consumerism, a machine that keeps moving but that's hollow and can be filled by anything, including fugitives.   The truck is in Brecht's original libretto but lends itself to modern imagery. The backdrop of multi-coloured boxes looks like a container park. Think Sangatte, in Calais, where illegal immigrants hide, smuggling themselves into trucks in the hope of a better life. Wetbacks have usually paid bribes to escape, and often end up worse than whence they came. So Jimmy and his friends from Alaska arrive in Mahagonny with briefcases as shiny as their dreams.

This production also makes far more of Alaska than usual, and for good reason. Alaska stands for pure, unspoiled Nature, where hardship leads to rewards, not only in terms of money but in terms of the true riches of friendship. Sparkly objects flutter down from the ROH ceiling: images of fool's gold, snowfall, and the cleansing nature of the typhoon rainstorm.  We see glimpses of Alaska in the background, pristine in black and white, in contrast the feverish, unnatural neon of Mahagonny, where night and day merge in a drunken haze.There's plenty of colour in Mahagonny.  This set can be a visual feast for the eyes, but, like gluttony, this feast is poisoned. The men watch the girls dance  in a box lit in lurid hues, with fake palm trees and a Liberace pianist who "tickles the ivories" rather than plays. It's all a con to separate men from their money. The woman make money, but pay an even more savage price, invisibly. But all that matters to the crowd is delusion. "Ah ! that's what I call Eternal Art".Unfortunately, some audiences prefer tack to real art.

In Mahagonny, even the Seven Deadly Sins are shortchanged. Like crap commercial advertising, the guiding principles are reduced to four, gluttony, lust, fighting and alcoholic stupor, each neatly vignetted. A particularly vivid Fatty from Peter Hoare in a fat suit. Alaska Wolf Joe is a comically puny-looking  Neal Davies. His moment doesn't last long. He's wiped out in seconds by Trinity Moses (Willard White), who wields a big red punching glove. The game is rigged. Besides, the real fight is not fisticuffs, but the Trial, equally rigged. Killing people is a lesser crime than not paying for three bottles of whiskey. And so Jimmy must die.

This production, directed by John Fulljames and his team, Es Devlin, Christina Cunningham, Bruno Poet , Finn Ross and Arthur Pita, operates on so many different levels., and so radically that it puts to shame the appallingly superficial Los Angeles production which seems to treat the opera as some kind of LA in-joke.  The La Fura dels Baus production, from Madrid five years ago, at least had an edge, and is definitely the better choice. Calixto Bieito, with his political acuiity, could do something really disturbing.  But for ROH audiences, John Fulljames delivers an intelligent interpretation which shows genuine understanding of Brecht and  Weill and their insistence that opera should deal with real issues even though the setting is fantasy.  This is a Rise and fall of Mahagonny which anyone seriously interested in Brecht and Weill could learn a lot from.

Musically, though, this was a bumpy ride.  Mark Wigglesworth's conducting veered from very good to less clearly defined. Weill uses a variety of genres to illustrate the universal relevance of the story, just as Brecht mixes Mahagonny with Benares, Alabama and Havana, Katmandu and Pensacola.

Anne Sofie von Otter has long specialized in singing cabaret, as well as classical, and her Weill songs are highly regarded.  Deservedly, she landed the part of Leocadia, Widow Begbick. She does the spikey, spider-like body language perfectly. But like Leocadia, her voice isn't what it used to be. Sometimes she sings extremely well, getting the slime in the legato. She saved her best work for the ending when the character's venality is at last revealed.  Willard White has been singing Trinity Moses probably more than anyone else in the business now, but his voice,too, is a shadow of what it once was. Neither Brecht nor Weill were bothered about showpiece singing, so it doesn't matter all that much. Suffice that we were  again able to hear and see von Otter and White and respect them for what they could do.

Kurt Streit's Jimmy varied, too, but for good reason. He was superb in his transcendent last soliloquy, rather less forceful earlier on. Yet that, too, is part of Jimmy's personality. He seems like a wimp at first but reveals his true colours when everything's against him. It's not the butch who are strong, but the meek.  I was also impressed with Christine Rice, normally a bit too upper class to be playing a whore. Yet her froideur worked extremely well for Jenny, who does sex for a living, not for pleasure. She could save Jimmy, but like Judas Iscariot, betrays him in his hour of need.

Darren Jeffery sang Bank Account Bill, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts sang Jack O'Brien, Robert Clark was the piano player, Hubert Francis was Toby, and the booming voiceover was Paterson Joseph. The Girls were Anna Burford, Lauren Fagan, Anush Hovhannisyan, Stephanie Marshall, Meeta Raval and Harriet Williams.

Andris Nelsons : Concertgebouw Amsterdam Sibelius, Shostakovich

Sibelius and Shostakovich in Amsterdam: Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 5th March 2015

Conventional wisdom has for over half a century suggested that Shostakovich’s mighty Tenth Symphony depicts the tyranny of Stalinism, both as a a construct on the evil of society and on the man himself. Whether or not Shostakovich actually wrote the symphony after Stalin’s death (the pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva has said she witnessed hearing parts of the work as early as 1951) this performance with Andris Nelsons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra posed an interesting question: What happens when a conductor born after, and outside, the events which gave birth to such a personal and tragic work seems so intent on revisionism? Great music, of course, can survive an element of re-interpretation - Kurt Sanderling, for example, viewed Shostakovich’s Eighth very differently than either Kondrashin or Mravinsky - but Nelsons' view of the Tenth sometimes felt distinctly lacking in any sense of personal or wider meaning, and occasionally seemed lost altogether.

The huge first movement should make you feel you have travelled somewhere. Nelsons, an accomplished Brucknerian, was certainly aware of the architecture holding the structure together, and the climax had a cumulative power, but as the movement receded towards where we had begun one wondered where the sense of struggle was. In part this movement is an insidious waltz - albeit one that never quite takes the form of a dance - but too often the conductor was caught flatfooted and out-of-step with an historical past, or placing the symphony in one in which it never belonged. He was caught out again in the second movement. Shostakovich marks the score Allegro but Nelsons’ tempo was way off that marking (indeed, at almost six minutes this has to have been the slowest performance I’ve ever heard, in concert, or indeed on record, of this movement). There may well be a convincing argument for making this movement sound so rhythmically balanced and square (it actually felt more like a march), but Shostakovich crams within it a huge amount which was simply glossed over here. The orchestra did indeed begin fortissimo, but Shostakovich then goes on to add a further fifty crescendos (amid only two diminuendos) and at such a glacial pace the evenness of the orchestral dynamics made much of this go missing. The imposing gait simply added to the already tremendous weight of the orchestral sound; what we ended up with was less a portrait of evil and more an adventure in orchestral sonority, less Shostakovichian masterwork, and more brushstrokes in crotchets and semi-quavers.

The third movement risked a lot, and the dividends paid off it should be said. Returning to the failed waltz of the first movement, Shostakovich attempts a second one though it is even more macabre. Resolution is never quite achieved here, the music stumbling over itself in a frantic state of hysteria and mania. In part, Nelsons was much more flexible with his tempi, this being much closer to the Allegretto marking Shostakovich wrote, and the enormous weight of the ‘cellos and basses didn’t feel as uncomfortable (and disfiguring) as they had done in the Allegro. Although this movement for many conjures up Mahler and Das Lied von der Erde the sepulchral horn sound that Nelsons got from the Concertgebouw seemed much closer to Mussorgsky’s tenebrous Catacombs: there was a horror and abject sense of loss here that few performances articulate this well.

The Finale, too, was successful, Nelsons able to replicate the slowness of Shostakovich’s scoring into something genuinely terrifying whilst keeping the music from collapsing into episodic sectionalism. Because the fast music in this movement never really goes anywhere conductors can often seem non-plussed by the lack of resolution to it. Nelsons could have fallen into this trap but instead he chose to bring Shostakovich’s Tenth into a world much closer to Nielsen: snare drums and timpani seemed involved in a battle of wills, defiant against growling, resonant lower strings that came shuddering up from the floorboards. If there had been desolation in the woodwind at the beginning, there was triumphant optimism in the final brass fortissimos.

This concert had opened with Anne-Sophie Mutter as the soloist in Sibelius’ solitary Violin Concerto. Since I last heard Mutter play this work, probably some 15 years ago in London, both her tone and sense of engagement with the concerto have changed markedly. Her sound is huge, so much so that as I listened to her navigate this treacherous work I was often reminded of David Oistrakh. Apart from the richness and roundness of her string sound, she shares with him an unusual ability to confront a work with unassuming honesty. Her peerless virtuosity (and this really was a performance that was technically faultless) allows her to focus on the music and she does so with a sense of engagement and intimacy. Rapid string crosses, up-bowed staccato double-stopping, tonally perfect octave runs, arpeggios and harmonics were all heroic. The sheer size of her tone (especially on the G string which sings so lyrically) does sometimes come at the expense of this concerto’s oft-suggested tundra of chilliness and polar-capped sunlight, but she compensates for a sometimes warmer sound picture by giving the impression of imperviousness and in few performances do you get Tovey’s ideal of a “polonaise for polar bears”. For such a symphonic concerto, Nelsons and the Concertgebouw provided outstandingly rich, sonorous orchestral support. Mutter’s encore was big-boned, luxurious Bach, the Sarabande from the D Minor Partita.

Whilst it would be true to say that Nelsons’ Shostakovich Tenth remains something of an enigma (and very probably a work in progress for this young and immensely charismatic conductor) there is no question that he revels in what the Concertgebouw can do for him. The playing was very special, with fabulously rich strings and brass and woodwind sections other orchestras really can’t compete with. The hall itself gives such beautiful balance and proportion to every section of this orchestra - nothing is ever occluded or overwhelming. A memorable night in Amsterdam!

Marc Bridle

This concert is being broadcast on Sunday 15 March at 14:15 via NPO Radio 4

New CEO at ENO ? The questions

When the Arts Council England placed sanctions on the ENO, it said it wanted someone "qualifed" to take over as CEO.  So they've appointed Cressida Pollock. A good journalist would ask, who is she, and what can she bring to the job?  There isn't much on the net about her as she's relatively junior. Her Linked In profile: Four jobs in 5 years -  with gaps - one of them as Summer Associate and two running parallel.  Even Henriette Gõtz  had more relevant background.  It's not paramount that the incumbent should have arts experience, but it  would help as long as they can demonstrate dedication and leadership. Age, too isn't necessarily a problem (Pollock is 32), but this is a job that involves political machination as well as financial acumen.  Maybe Pollock is a genius, but the challenges facing the ENO are so great that it would take someone truly amazing to sort them out.  Unfortunately the press are supine, regurgitating press releases instead of asking questions. What is really going on?

Tight and taut : Unsuk Chin Alice in Wonderland Barbican London

Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland  returned to the Barbican, London, shape-shifted like one of Alice's adventures.  The BBC Symphony Orchestra was assembled en masse, almost teetering off stage, creating a sense of tension. "Eat me, Drink me". Was Lewis Carroll on hallucinogens or just  good at channelling the crazy world of the subconscious?   Unsuk Chin's take on Carroll, with David Henry Hwang's libretto, emphasizes the madcap mania of the original, where nothing is what it seems and Reason is Irrelevant. This Alice in Wonderland is anything but prim.  It's zany, anarchic and subversive, and also hilariously funny.

With her music, Unsuk Chin builds ambitious architecture, vast grand edifices that stun by their sheer scale. This new version, with Netia Jones's semi-staging and Lloyd Moore's re-orchestration, reveals the strong, basic structure, releasing its manic, kinetic energy.  Jones's direction and designs buzz with wit and colour. Video (Lightmap and Netia Jones) is good at depicting impossibilities, like the vanishing Cheshire cat and his enduring grin. The interplay between video and reality is so good that it's quite unsettling, which amplifies meaning.  The illustrations are by Ralph Steadman: no trace of twee. When the Mouse (Christopher Lemmings) is condemned,  the crowd shout "Disneyfy him!" A fate worse tha death.

Kent Nagano conducted Unsuk Chin's original score in Munich eight years ago, but not all houses have such resources. Thus Los Angeles Opera commissioned a version that's easier to carry off and tour. Lloyd Moore is sensitive to the spirit of Chin's original. By reducing the number of players, especially in the strings, the inherent liveliness in the music is liberated. The choruses (BBC Singers, Tiffin Boys Choir)  are still big, though not quite the 40-60 singers specified in the original  The emphasis is thus on the quality of Chin's instrumentation rather than sheer volume. Chin has a passion for imaginative use of unusual instruments. The score employs "kitchenalia" which means just that - alarm clocks, wind chimes, tweet and crackles and pops. Vivid combinations, such as when the violins  are plucked, extending the sound of the mandolin. In Scene Two, The Pool of Tears, the image of water is created by celli and basses, bowed with maximum depth, creating a drone that's both mournful and mysterious. The Caterpillar sings, wordlessly. He, whose very existence depends on changing shape and form, is represented by a single instrument, the bass clarinet, which, oddly enough, looks like a metal caterpillar. Baldur Brönnimann conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He's a new music specialist,. alive to the quirky possibilities this music offers.

Unsuk  Chin's vocal lines are counter-intuitive to syntax, often also running counter to the orchestra. Text turns to tongue twister. Yet again, that's part of the concept of shape-changing instability.  It's not easy to carry off well, though.  Rachele Gilmour sang Alice in Los Angeles, which is perhaps why she was cast again in London. Andrew Watts sang the White Rabbit, Badger and March Hare in Munich and in LA, and is perhaps the most important countertenor in his field, and the most experienced. He was divine, capturing the jagged edges of his parts with demented aplomb, not only with his unique voice but also with his body language. His White Rabbit camps along, prissily wiggling his large rabbit behind: totally in character. A tour de force.

Marie Arnet's Cheshire Cat was sung with spirit and spice. Perhaps the cat knows that the way to survive in this crazy world is to grin, even when all else fades.  Jane Henschel was in superb form. Her Queen of Spades was gleefully wicked, laced with shrill but well controlled vitriol, and she made it sound like fun.  Dietrich Henschel sang the Mad Hatter, using the metallic tension in his voice to good effect. Impressive Christopher Lemmings Mouse, Dormouse and Invisible Man. Stephen Richardson, a British stalwart, sang the King of Hearts, while the other smaller parts were taken by American singers, from the LA production: Andrew Craig Brown, Rafael Moras and Nicholas Brownlee.

This concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Live in Concert on Saturday 11th July at 7.30 pm and available for 30 days after broadcast on the BBC Radio 3 website and BBC I Player Radio

This review also appears in Opera Today, where there is also a review of the Munich production. Please see my other posts on Unsuk Chin and on new music and stagecraft

Unsuk Chin Alice in Wonderland Munich and thoughts thereon

Tonight, a brilliant new version of Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland at the Barbican, London. My review is HERE..

Meanwhile, a link to the review in Opera today of the original production, in Munich in 2007.  Opera Today is an excellent source of background material. This review is informative and  useful. The opera was originlly created for Los Angeles, but didn't eventuate, so the Bavarian State Opera took it on instead, conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Achim Freyer. A film of this production was shown at the Barbican's Unsuk Chin Total Immersion some years ago. It's the one where the characters are dolls with giant see-through heads. transparent heads. When Alice realizes it's all a scam she removes hers. "Off with their heads!" in every sense. I liked the Freyer production a lot, but was less impressed by the music.

This time round, at the Barbican, my views have changed again .What a difference! The new semi-staging, by Netia Jones, and the new orchestration, by Lloyd Moore, reveal the true depths of this opera. Unsuk Chin's good at building vast grand edifices.  Created for Los Angeles and premiered there last year, the new production clarifies the strong internal structure. The music emerges as an elegant puzzle , rather like one of M C Escher's architectural conundrums, where stairways connect or don't connect, and corridors lead to dead ends or new beginnings.

A lot like the concept behind David Henry Hwang's libretto, where Alice enters a surreal world where nothing makes sense, and every assumption is turned on its head. Or "Off with it! " as the Queen might scream. Much zanier than Lewis Carroll, though it makes one wonder what he was drinking and eating. Not, most thankfully, Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland. Indeed, when the Mouse is condemned, he's sentenced to be "Disneyfied", a fate worse than death.  This time round, the energy is far more manic, and far more surreal.  I loved the crazy humour in the instrumentation (another Unsuk Chin trademark)  Last time round, there was a family complaining that this wasn't the Alice in Wonderland they'd taken their kids to see. This time there was a warning "Not recommended for under 12's". Conversely, perversely, I think under 12's would respond positively to the anarchic ,mayhem.  Pity the show started at 7.30, not, as originally planned, at 7. which meant it ended very late.  By the time most people commuted home, it was way past bedtime. 

Remembering Cléoma Breaux

Remembering Cléoma Breaux Falcon (1905-41), and the music tradition she stood for, and the era in which she lived.  Cléoma was a tiny little woman, barely five feet tall but what a personality! The Breaux family were the first Cajun musicians to be recorded, as soon as technology made it possible. The whole family was talented but Cléoma stood out, with her bright, clear voice and her assertive delivery. She toured in Cajun country and also appeared as far as California. Her career was cut short when she was run over by a  car: for the last years of her life she was in excruciating pain, though she continued to sing and play when she could. In the photo, she's seen with her husband Joe Falcon, also a musician, and their adopted daughter, who used to dance at their gigs.  Here's the classic Hip et taiau, (aka Hippy Tai o) still performed in various new forms, The video is a compilation, not of the lady herself. Please see my other posts on Women feisty by following the label below

Barbarians at the Gates

Nimrod the warrior guarding the gates of a palace in Assyria, now destroyed  God destroyed the Assyrians, leaving a reminder of what happens to even the most powerful, violent empires. So what has anyone, who believes in God, any God, have to fear from stones in the desert ?