Where's Runnicles

The All Rise Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Wed, 15 May 2013 23:19:00 +0000

Among the many virtues of music, one that I particularly prize is its ability to lift you up when you're feeling down: there's nothing quite like going into a concert you almost couldn't be bothered to attend and coming out grinning, or coming home after a long day and spinning a disc that takes your troubles away. It is in experiences like this that my all rise playlist has its origins. That, and I stole the idea from one of my favourite TV shows.

About seven years ago when the show was much closer to its prime, there was an episode of How I Met Your Mother called The Limo. In it the character Barney, played superbly by Neil Patrick Harris, explains the secret of why he is "so psyched so much of the time": he has a playlist, a "get psyched" mix, that instead of rising and falling is all rise. Now I should stress at this point that with his appalling treatment of women and general behaviour that is light years beyond questionable, he is hardly much of a role model. And yet this didn't seem like such a bad idea. Except that the actual track featured in the episode, Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name never struck me as terribly lifting with lyrics like "shot through the heart, and you're to blame, darling you give love a bad name". Obviously Barney has different ideas as to what lifts your spirits than I do. Ditto, frankly, the various full versions of the playlist that have appeared.

Clearly I'd have to come up with my own. However I put the idea away for a while until a few years later I found myself wondering what it was that made another TV show, Chuck, so gloriously entertaining. After putting together a playlist of music featured in the show, I came to the conclusion that the soundtrack had a lot do with it and so I decided to try and create my all rise playlist. This post describes the result: what's on it and why (I've also created a Spotify playlist to go along with it). It's rare that it doesn't do the trick and cheer me up by the end. (However, before you go any further, you should be warned that it is mostly less high brow than this blog generally is and it gets extremely cheesy at times.)

Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out

It's probably fitting that I came to the first song on the playlist via How I Met Your Mother last year. It came at the end of an episode as the protagonist Ted once again was at a low ebb in his love life but had managed to spin it into a hopeful beginning. And while arguably we've had rather too many of those as the show has dragged on a little long, the song made the sequence work. Although it starts off the playlist it's actually one of the most recent additions but with lines like "it's always darkest before the dawn" I think it makes a nice overture.

Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man (Leonard Bernstein & the New York Philharmonic)

Who doesn't like a good brass fanfare (non brass players, maybe, I suppose) and there can be few finer examples than this from Copland, especially when played by the NYPO under Bernstein.

Van Halen - Jump

If ever a song might have been purpose written to appear on an all rise playlist it is surely this, from the title to the music that underscores it.

The Polyphonic Spree - Light & Day / Reach for the Sky

There was a time a few years ago when you couldn't watch an American TV show without them turning to this for a happy ending. Still, there's a reason it's a classic.

Cake - Short Skirt / Long Jacket

I mentioned the TV show Chuck in my introduction, and it is the reason this song appears on the list as (in an instrumental version) it serves as the theme music. As such, it brings a slew of happy memories whenever I hear it. Though why this story of an ordinary guy who accidentally winds up a spy is so great is probably the subject of a whole other blog post.

R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People

This choice shouldn't need too much explaining. Certainly not (in my view) the best song on Out of Time but it has a catchy way about it and it is cheery. Possibly a little too sickly cheery but then a little of that doesn't go amiss on a playlist like this.

Don Ellis - Indian Lady

There is nothing I know of quite like Don Ellis's album Electric Bath. Indeed, it deserves a whole blog post of its own, which is why I wrote one two years ago. There's not much to add to what I wrote then:

It is also toe-tappingly good..... It opens with Indian Lady, a rich wall of sound and a rising, wailing brass call..... There is too the rich colour added by Mike Lang's fender piano. The track is also a frenzy of activity, with a vast amount going on, perhaps in part why I hear new things on repeated listens, and yet this is accomplished without it feeling cluttered. There is a crazy passion and a somewhat psychedelic, even kaleidoscopic feel. Much like the opening of Mahler's 8th symphony it leaves you feeling like you've been hit by a train, in a good way, if such a thing is possible. That's not to say it sounds anything like Mahler, it doesn't, but it has a similar sort of effect.

Jacques Loussier Trio - Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.5 3rd movement

I don't imagine too many people would argue with Bach's ability to lift the spirits. For me, though, Jacques Loussier adds an extra special something with his jazzy interpretations and nowhere more so than with the 5th Brandenburg. I'm very grateful to Radio 3's Bach week some years ago for introducing me to this. There are certainly other Bach pieces and interpretations that provide more of a spiritual lift, but in terms of reliably bringing a smile to my face I find this hard to beat.

Mike Post and Pete Carpenter - The A-Team Theme

If you're of a certain age you will have watched the A-Team on a Saturday afternoon and you'll be able to quote the opening narration backwards (or maybe that's just me). Regardless, the A-Team's unadulterated silliness, from Murdoch's invisible dog to B.A.'s fear of flying, earns it a place on the list. (Note, the version on my playlist is the actual theme including spoken introduction lifted from my DVDs, the version on the Spotify playlist is unfortunately not.)

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

This is another song that found its way onto the playlist via a fun if rather silly TV show: Bones. I was familiar with the song already, but its use prompted me to add it (it's actually the most recent addition). It features when the show's emotionally reserved lead character, played by Emily Deschanel, performs it at an open mic night. It's a very happy occasion until the show's producers rather nastily undercut it. However, the fact that it was able to build things up so well for the fall made it an excellent choice.

The Beatles - Twist and Shout

It would be difficult, indeed it would be wrong to try, to assemble an all rise playlist without including The Beatles. For me Twist and Shout wins for several reasons. First and foremost it's a fun track, one that's hard not to sing along to (which has on at least one occasion led to mild embarrassment after running into a friend while listening to it on my headphones). It also comes at the end of the album Please Please Me which works pretty well as an all rise playlist in its own right.

Michael Nyman - Musique a Grande Vitesse, 5th Region

I came by this after attending a ballet inspired by it, not something I do very often but the Royal Ballet tripple bill in question was an especially fine evening. As the title suggests, it was written for the opening of a new TGV line in France in the 90s. I find it a remarkable work, vividly recreating a train journey from the countryside rushing by to slowing for urban areas. The fifth and final section is a thrilling finale, punctuated by snare drums, and fits well on the list.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.9, 4th movement (exerts)

Classical purists may well want to lynch me for this, but I've taken the scissors to Beethoven's masterpiece since the Ode to Joy (which is as good a way to finish an all rise playlist as any) comes in a movement that is twenty minutes at the best of times and that's a bit too much for the playlist. Plus it has its non-rising moments. This also explains why I've chosen Charles Mackerras's recording with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. It's good but not my favourite, however it does have the advantage of being broken down into nine bite-sized chunks, making it an easy matter to splice together the most rising parts.

The playlist is still to some extent a work in progress and doubtless will always remain so: more tracks may get added or perhaps I'll find ways to further tweak the order for maximum effect. Still, it's remained fairly stable and now seemed as good a time to publish it as any.

You can listen to almost the whole playlist via Spotify here (sadly The Beatles are absent). Suggestions for what would be on your all rise playlist are welcome below via the comments.

The BBC Proms booking system

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

In fairness to the Albert Hall and the BBC Proms, setting up a system that can adequately cope with a flood of thousands of people trying to book more than a hundred thousand tickets in one day is not easy. And though the system is not ideal it is also not the sort of disgrace we had up here with the Edinburgh festival Fringe a couple of years ago.

Before I get on to criticising I will note some things they get right. It is great that booking is on a weekend (as with the Edinburgh International Festival, at least for main public booking, and the Berlin Philharmonic). Contrast this with the Royal Opera House who use a weekday, which is problematic for people who work. Yes, some people work weekends, but fewer so a weekend is fairer and fairness is, in my mind, along with robustness, one of the most important requirements of one of these booking systems.

The key challenge is one of server demand. In an ideal world this would be solved by providing more server capacity, but resources are finite and even in these days of virtual servers I accept that may not be a practical solution. The Proms is not alone in this sort of problem: companies like the Royal Opera House and National Theatre have similar issues, though while I am not privy to the numbers, I suspect that in terms of number of tickets going on sale in a single day, they may have the biggest. As with the Royal Opera House, the Proms attempt to solve this with a queuing system. Again, this is broadly a decision I agree with. In theory it means first come first served and provides an effective way of managing the demand on the servers. In theory, that is.

On Saturday morning practice proved rather different. Clicking onto the website provided an over capacity message that meant I couldn't even join the queue. I therefore had to spend the next half hour or more constantly refreshing to get onto it (thereby increasing the server load and surely undermining the point of having a queuing system). I was not alone in this and some people seem to have spent even longer just trying to get into the queue. (That said, for all those detailing their struggles on twitter there were also plenty who seemed to be having a smooth experience: some people were through it all before I'd even got into the queue. I'm happy for those who were so lucky.) This process is wasteful, frustrating, and would seem to fail the fairness test.

At least once you're in the queue it did move fairly swiftly and you can always go away and make a cup of tea while you wait. I was number 5986 to begin with and it took about ninety minutes to get through to booking. I must note that while for me (and from the look of twitter many others), the queue itself was very smooth, this was not universal. A number of people seemed to have been booted out and sent to the back of the line. In some cases this may have been user error - it's far too easy to make a wrong click, but in a well designed and yes (again) fair system, this shouldn't be an issue. Indeed, for a heart stopping moment around 700, I feared I was in this boat as a result of accidentally swiping my trackpad with three fingers instead of four.

Once through the queue, the process appeared to be continuing very nicely. I completed the items that I'd pre-added to my plan and put in an extra ticket as well, then proceded to the checkout. And then it all went wrong, refusing to take my payment. Despite my repeated attempts to enter payment, each time it took me back to the same screen and not on to the confirmation screen I was hoping for.

At the top of the screen the minutes ticked away - you only have half an hour until the tickets go back on sale (which in theory is perfectly fair and sensible). As desperation mounted, I tried to phone. Alas, as phone booking is also available, getting technical support within that short timeframe was impossible. As the 30 minutes expired, I was told the tickets were lost, but they remained in my basket and I got error messages when I tried to remove them, replace them or add anything else.

I tried another web browser, but of course that meant going back to square one, and by the time I was in, the tickets I wanted had gone.

Now, as it turns out, this isn't just a bitter rant as I actually did get what I wanted. I e-mailed Royal Albert Hall customer services and they responded within the hour (which is pretty impressive given the load they must be having). I was surprised to be informed that they were pleased my booking had been successful in the end, which was news to me. I replied expressing my puzzlement and they phoned me back and confirmed that I did indeed have all the tickets I wanted, even though the website had indicated otherwise and I received no confirmation. (I can't fault the person who I spoke to, who was excellent.) So while it is a happy ending for me, it is a slightly worrying one and it doesn't change my underlying assessment that system is insufficiently robust.

I would make the following recommendations. First, it is vital that there is sufficient capacity to ensure everyone gets smoothly and easily onto the queue. This should not be difficult and I would suspect that if done properly it should result in less load than they will have suffered today due to the problems people had getting onto the queue.

Secondly, all aspects of the website should be robust. The sort of problems I experienced, with a total disconnect between what was being displayed and the reality simply shouldn't happen.

Thirdly, they might consider exploring ways of reducing the demand on their servers. (Though this would also have drawbacks.) The Proms plan, wherein you go into their website at your leisure in the weeks before booking opens and mark the events you are interested in is an excellent idea. This saves you browsing to all those pages on the day, reducing server load, and allows you to make your order in just a few click (assuming tickets are left). However, you can still go in on the day and book manually. Perhaps on opening day booking should be restricted to those who have filled out a plan in advance, with full booking opening up later.

Another way to reduce load would be to stagger booking and not open everything at once. The Albert Hall has a capacity of 5,544 (according to wikipedia). Over 75 Proms, plus chamber proms, etc. this is in the ballpark of 400,000 tickets going on sale in one go, which is quite a lot (even if the actual number likely to be sold on the first day is going to be a fair bit less that that - 114,000, as it turns out). How about staggering it over a few weekends, breaking the season in two or more? The Royal Opera house, for example, staggers booking for the season into four periods. You could also consider doing Proms passes and the like separately.

Finally, I would suggest they consider forcing online booking, and keeping the phone free for troubleshooting problems. Certainly it would be good to be able to resolve problems, if you have them, within the 30 minute window. Whether or not the Albert Hall and the Proms are interested in our suggestions, I hope they will be analysing their system with a view to whether it can be improved. Even if you have a system which seems perfect you should be doing that (and this one certainly doesn't seem perfect).

And for those wondering what Where's Runnicles will be attending, the answer is we have a pair of arena passes for the opening weekend and Finn has another for the Ring Cycle week (clearly he doesn't agree with my assessment that they've overdone the Wagner). Personally I'm rather looking forward to promming properly for the first time.

The 2013 BBC Proms

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Wed, 08 May 2013 23:20:00 +0000

The BBC have announced their 2013 Proms season and while it is not perfect it still serves as a reminder of why the BBC offers good value to those of us who are fans of classical music in providing this unique festival. This is true even though it's been some years since I made it to the Albert Hall (not least as in many regards it can be argued that the best seat to listen from is actually your own sofa, especially now that Radio 3 is at 320 AAC online). I do find it puzzling that if you want an easy way to scan through all the concerts this is to be found via Bachtrack's clearly laid out site, which is much more user-friendly than the BBC's own if you want to look at the whole season rather than a specific Prom.

For me one of the expected highlights is the arrival of Sakari Oramo as the BBC Symphony Orchestra's new chief conductor. As I said when first proposing him for the post after a stunning debut concert, one of his potential strengths is that he is adept in both British music and new music. We shall see, hopefully, both of those traits in the first night, when he gives us a world premiere by Julian Anderson, Britten's Sea Interludes and Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony. I am particularly looking forward to the latter which is a favourite of mine and which I expect Oramo will ensure is suitably dramatic.

It is perhaps a slight shame that we will only see him twice this season, but hopefully that will expand in future years. His other programme mixes the world premiere of Param Vir's intriguingly titled Cave of Luminous Mind with Sibelius's violin concerto, Bantock's Celtic Symphony and Elgar's Enigma Variations. Oramo's Elgar was one of the many highlights of his decade in Birmingham, as evidenced by his recording with the CBSO of both Enigma and Gerontius. Similarly his recent Stockholm account of the second symphony. These are interpretations that are both powerful and feel fresh.

This second concert comes the day after a planned LSO programme of Tippett (including the magnificent concerto for double string orchestra) and Sibelius's second symphony. Alas, this was to have been conducted by Colin Davis, who died earlier this month and who was a noted specialist in both composers. Personally I would have asked Oramo to take the reins since he's an excellent Sibelian, a dab hand with many an English composer and in town. Arguably more appropriately the task will fall to the orchestra's principal guest conductor Daniel Harding. The Sibelius has been changed for Elgar's second. True, this may be more suitably "elegiac", as the Proms website puts it, but for me Davis's contribution to Sibelius was more important than to Elgar, and as such I think the original programme would have made a more fitting tribute.

Francios-Xavier Roth and his Orchestre Les Siecles have impressed me greatly in recordings I have heard (primarily French repertoire) so I would expect them to deliver a thrilling account of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Prom 4.

A centerpiece of the Proms programme is its celebration of Wagner's anniversary, though in my view they have gone overboard on this, presenting us with most of his major operas. The centrepiece is a Ring cycle. Billed as the first time it has been staged in a season, it should perhaps be noted that they have already done one cycle within the last decade, albeit with different forces, spread over four years (culminating with a superb Gotterdammerung from Runnicles and the BBCSO in 2007).

This time round we get Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin. At least, one hopes we do: it must be noted that Barenboim has recently had to withdraw from a number of performances for health reasons. We wish him a speedy recovery. Highlights of the cast should include Nina Stemme's Brunnhilde and Eric Halfvarson's Fafner and Hunding. It's worth noting that despite staging the opera over a single week we still don't get consistent casting, for example Terfel is Wotan in Walkure but not elsewhere (indeed, three different singers take the part). Terfel was confirmed late, not appearing in the printed brochure, so perhaps they had hoped to get him for the entire run. All that said, the cycle doesn't make it to my unmissable list. I do have a soft spot for Barenboim's cycle because I won a copy of it some years ago (when Radio 3 broadcast it in one day) and it's about the only significant thing I've ever won. However, while I admire Barenboim greatly as an artist, and have heard exceptional performances from him both live and on disc, his Wagner generally doesn't do much for me. There's nothing seriously wrong with his readings, but I find they lack that extra magical sparkle that marks out the greatest interpretations.

As if a Ring cycle in a week isn't enough Wagner to be getting on with, sandwiched between Siegfried and Gotterdammerung we find Tristan. This comes from the BBC SO under Bychkov, a sure Wagnerian hand. This should be worth hearing for his involvement alone but I am also keen to hear Violeta Urmana as Isolde and Boaz Daniel is a good Kurwenal (as evidenced on the Runnicles recording, also made with the BBC SO).

On top of that, a week or so later Runnicles himself arrives with the BBC SSO to do Tannhauser. This team have had good results with Wagner, both in the recent Tristan spread over the current season and in one of their earliest collaborations, a 2003 concert performance of Lohengrin at the Edinburgh festival. Runnicles is for my money one of the finest Wagner conductors available. Better yet, he is bringing over the superb Deutsche Oper chorus, who should add a wonderful weight to the event.

Finally, and for me least excitingly, Mark Elder and the Halle bring Parsifal. While I'm a big fan of this conductor / orchestra combination and their recordings of Ring operas have won acclaim, I have found those discs rather dull owing to what for me is Elder's leaden pace which does not seem to have the accompanying magic that the likes of Hans Knappertsbusch would bring.

Well, I say finally but you can also find a few overtures for good measure. You could be forgiven for thinking it was Bayreuth, not the Albert Hall. For me, the Proms seem to be doing their best to prove that you can have too much of a good thing. It's a shame we couldn't have had a few less and a little more Britten and Verdi instead. What about Britten's rarely performed and tricky to stage Paul Bunyan, a good candidate for a concert performance if ever there was one? Or, and here's a radical suggestion, some opera not linked to an anniversary but just programmed because it's good and worth doing.

It's good to see the Mahler Chamber Orchestra making a visit. They are one of the finest Chamber Orchestras in the world and they impressed me greatly when I heard them at Aldeburgh a few years ago. Daniel Harding conducts a programme including Schumann 2, Sibelius 7 and Mozart's 25th piano concerto with the superb Paul Lewis.

On a slightly different note, Nicholas Collon and his no less impressive Aurora Orchestra will present a programme later that same evening including works by Zappa, Nancarrow and Glass. While not strictly speaking a case of two for the price of one, this is certainly a case of getting a great chance to catch two excellent ensembles on one visit to the Albert Hall. That said, I would have liked to see their excellent Britten GPO films programme given a wider airing via the proms, though I realise that contradicts my dislike of anniversary programming.

Aside from the BBC Scottish, we haven't seen one of Scotland's main orchestras at the Proms since 2010. It is therefore good to see both the SCO and the RSNO invited this year (though in my view they should be invited a little more frequently than once every three years). Both come with their chief conductors so I will be particularly interested to see what the London critics make of Peter Oundjian and his programme including Tchaikovsky 5 and a premiere by Sohal. Ticciati and the SCO bring the Erioca, an arrangement of part of the Art of Fugue and Mendelssohn's 1st piano concerto with Stephen Hough.

The BBC SSO, aside from Tannhauser with Runnicles, present an interesting programme with Matthias Pinscher which includes his own concerto for two trumpets, one of whom will be the excellent Tine Thing Helseth, along with Stravinsky's Firebird. Under Runnilces they also bring Beethoven 5 and MacMillan's violin concerto.

The visit by Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra ought to be one of the highlights. They impressed me so greatly when I first heard them at the 2007 Edinburgh festival that I travelled to London for a series of appearances they made at the Festival Hall over the following years (with programmes including Bruckner, Shostakovich, Strauss and Mahler). For my money, this is one of the very best conductor / orchestra teams in the world and is absolutely not to be missed. Jansons is no slouch in Mahler 2 either, one of the works they're bringing, as he proved with the Concertgebouw at the Barbican a few years ago, rivalling the man himself for offstage brass placement. Be warned, he will almost certainly observe the five minute break Mahler marks in the score between the first and second movements (not a decision I agree with, and one which last time prompted me to fear seriously for his health). Their programmes are more or less identical to the ones they are presenting in Edinburgh a few days later. The main difference is that the Prommers get the Symphonie Fantastique in place of Tchaikovsky 6. It will be interesting to see who has the better deal. In both cases they are accompanied by the sublime Mitsuko Uchida who will perform Beethoven's 4th concerto, one which she ought to be particularly well suited to. A previous collaboration in the 3rd was a great success.

The Royal Albert Hall organ doesn't seem to have been as well utilised as in some recent seasons, though Saint-Saens' 3rd symphony from Paavo Jarvi and the Orchestra de Paris should be a lot of fun (if it is a slight shame that we are not getting this from Roth and Les Siecles).

For me, the last few weeks of programming have less that jumps out. This is no bad thing since Edinburgh will be keeping me more than busy enough. Bavarians aside, there are not too many other top name orchestras. We do get the men of the Vienna Philharmonic with Bach and Bruckner under Lorin Maazel, but I do not find this in any way an attractive prospect.

To much fanfare, Marin Alsop will conduct the last night. While it is great to see a woman in this role, I find my cheers muted by the fact I find it profoundly depressing that in 2013 this can still be a first. Surely this should have happened for the first time decades ago. Still, I enjoy Alsop's work and have done ever since I heard a very impressive Mahler 7 from her and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra the better part of a decade ago. As a programme it doesn't hugely appeal to me, though the last night never really does.

Elsewhere the Dr Who Prom returns (in my view an excellent thing, and a lot of fun). However, I find it infuriating that once again such a theatrical event it is not being televised live. Yes, it's being recorded for later broadcast, but the Proms is ultimately a festival of live music and listening along on the radio just isn't the same. It is an especially odd decision since this sort of Prom is the kind that might be able to lure people in to take a look at the rest of the season.

A couple of the more adventurous proms have attracted real ire in some quarters. These include the Urban Classical Prom and the 6 Music Prom. To be honest, from the material available, it is impossible to tell whether they will be any good. When done well, fusion can be fantastic and I am all in favour of it. One of my great musical heroes, Miles Davis, was one of the finest exponents of bringing together disperate styles and forging something great out of them. We shall have to wait and see, though I have no objection to the festival wandering off the beaten track for one or two proms a year, indeed I think it is very healthy.

Less adventurous is the return of John Wilson, who has previously celebrated British film music, MGM musicals and Rodgers and Hammerstein at the proms. This year we get the Hollywood Rhapsody Prom.

There are few things which catch my eye on the chamber music side of things. Vilda Frang has impressed me in appearances with the BBC Scottish with the sheer energy she brings to the performance. As such, her programme of Ravel, Mozart and Lutoslawski should be worth hearing.

I'm also looking forward to Tine Thing Helseth and her ten piece brass ensemble TenThing's programme of Grieg and Bizet.

Last but not least, there is also a late night Prom with Paul Lewis and Imogen Cooper playing Schubert (which rather astonishingly seems to be the composer's only appearance this season).

All in all, it feels a good season with plenty I want to hear. And I'm actually rather grateful that the things I'm most interested in are front loaded and so there shouldn't be too many clashes with the Edinburgh festival in August.

That said, for future seasons, and this goes for everyone not just the Proms (though they seem particularly vulnerable to it), let's call an end to anniversary programming. It's a little lazy and leads to overabundances followed by shortages (well, that's not entirely true, I'm not expecting a dearth of Wagner any time soon). Let's celebrate a composer because they're good, or under played, and instead of chosing the composers that happen to share a round numbered anniversary, let's choose composers who complement them in an interesting manner. That's probably harder to do, but in my view the rewards are commensurate with the effort.

The CBSO announce their 2013/14 Season

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Wed, 01 May 2013 23:46:00 +0000

There are a number of fine companies around the world that I wish were within an evening's easy travelling time of Edinburgh. Many of them, such as Deutsche Oper or the Chicago Symphony are quite some way away. Others are a little closer, though would still require an overnight stay and lack conveniently situated friends or relations to stay with. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra falls into the latter category and their newly announced season has many tantalising items.

I was rather surprised to learn this will be Andris Nelsons' sixth season with the orchestra. How time flies. Since I will be unlikely to partake of much if any of the season, this will not be as detailed a roundup as the local bands get, just a few highlights I'm most jealous of.

First up, one of my favourite works, Mendelssohn's 2nd symphony, Hymn of Praise, gets a rare and well deserved outing under Edward Gardner as part of a complete cycle. This joyful choral work is notable for one of the finest trombone themes in music, indeed it opens with a trombone solo, and also has a claim to very little fame as the only piece of music I have arranged (very slightly) for public performance (or really at all).

Then there is the always exciting and engaging Pekka Kuusisto with a programme of Reich, Bach and Adams (the concert is given the rather predictable punning title of Bach to the Future, but I can't blame them for succumbing to that). I wish one of the orchestras up here would get him to come and do something similar.

As if one of my favourite soloists wasn't enough, they also have Benjamin Grosvenor on hand for Saint-Saëns' 2nd piano concerto. If you haven't heard Grosvenor's recent recording, you should. It comes together with Tchaikovsky's Pathetique under Andrew Litton. And for the hattrick, towards the end of the season there is Paul Lewis for the Emperor concerto. Lewis, Nelsons and the CBSO did an excellent job with Beethoven's 2nd at the Proms a few years ago. In the second half comes Strauss's Symphonia Domestica.

As regular readers will know, I am a fan of concert opera and wish we got more of it up here. In fairness we have had two this season: Cosi from the SCO and a Tristan in instalments from the man himself at the BBC (you can listen to the latter on Radio 3 this week). Next year we have just Beatrice et Benedict from the SCO; the CBSO alone are providing double that. Nelsons brings Rosenkavalier with a cast that includes Soile Isokoski as the Marschallin, then at the end of the season Gardner conducts Bluebeard's Castle. (I'm not bitter, honest).

I feel Haydn is undervalued as a symphonist, so it's nice to see a couple on the menu, even if they are among the more obvious choices. I'd be interested to hear what Nelsons does with them, though I've recently been extremely impressed with Ticciati's efforts.

Soprano Erin Wall has wowed festival audiences up here in recent years, so the prospect of her performing Strauss's Four Last Songs is a tempting one indeed, especially when it comes with Don Juan and a good chunk of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (again with Nelsons). The final concert that particularly catches my eye is Gardner's Elgar 1st symphony, the more so as it comes with Steven Osborne playing Mozart's 24th concerto.

I'll also mention that, particular with comparison to some offerings elsewhere, it feels very nicely curated (though you don't get the full sense of that from this brief selection). I realise this makes for quite a long post given I started by saying just a few highlights.... All in all, Birmingham is very lucky.

English National Opera's 2013-14 Season, or, Oh God, All the Old Familiar Faces

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:56:00 +0000

Regular readers of this blog, or people who follow me on Twitter @heresfinn will know I have been strongly critical of the current artistic leadership of English National Opera. Recently, though, my frustration has intensified in the light of what has seemed to me to be a wilful determination on the part of many professional critics and arts journalists simply not to ask obvious questions about, or to ignore obvious explanations for, the state of affairs at the company (not least concerning possible reasons for its over £2 million losses in 2011-12 – which the company was bullish on today interpreted variously here and here and see further note at end of post). I have also been annoyed by the praise which has been directed at the company for being allegedly experimental and for its embrace of technology. There appears to be an idea, so far as I can judge, that opera is in deep trouble as an art form and that English National Opera's allegedly adventurous programming (such as the recent unimpressive Sunken Garden) is the path to a better future. I do not propose to go into a detailed analysis here of why I don't think the company should be regarded as especially adventurous, or presenting the future of opera. What I will suggest is that while we might debate some of this with regards to previous offerings under John Berry's leadership such adjectives certainly cannot be applied to a 2013-14 programme dominated by All the Old Familiar Faces and Approaches.

Let us start with the positives. The most exciting work on the agenda is unquestionably the world premiere production of Julian Anderson's The Thebans. I don't know Anderson's work at all, but I'm a big fan of anything related to Greek mythology. It's also great to see Roland Wood return following his superb performance in Vaughan Williams's Pilgrim's Progress last year. I'm also intrigued to see Pierre Audi in action whose work I don't think I have previously managed to catch. All that said, my brother heard an orchestral work of Anderson's at a concert last year and was not grabbed. [Editor's note. The piece was The Discovery of Heaven which I found dull and which did not to me evoke any of the things it was intended to, according to the programme. That said, I'm all for new opera and will certainly give this a try if I'm in the area at the right time.]

Also promising is the return of Terry Gilliam to direct Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini. Corinne Winters (the outstanding element of this season's La Traviata) returns, as does Nicky Spence. In general casting seems to be on more solid foundations across the season than has sometimes been the case in recent years which is certainly cause for a cheer or two.

The third promising new production (though the choice of work raises questions) is Simon McBurney's The Magic Flute. McBurney's staging of A Dog's Life a few seasons back was excellent but let down by the weak quality of the work itself, so it's good to see his talents being applied to a genuine operatic masterpiece. One has to ask whether this was the best choice of work since ENO did have a revivable Magic Flute in its repertoire (albeit a pretty venerable one). Given the company's shortage of revivable classics, might it not have been a good idea to commission McBurney to do something else? There's some interesting casting here too. Roland Wood sings Papageno, Ben Johnson follows his Alfredo with Tamino and it will be interesting to see if the voice stands up better to the lighter role. It bears noting that the Queen of the Night is as yet uncast. Gergeley Madaras, the Mackerras Fellow, conducts. He is unknown to me.

After these three, however, I'm afraid in terms of new productions it all goes rather downhill...or rather into the Land of All the Old Familiar (Awful) Faces. Top of the list, heaven help us, are two more productions from Christopher Alden (my most recent experiences of his work was the indifferent, in staging terms, Norma at Opera North and his lousy Makropulos Case at ENO). We begin in September with his take on Die Fledermaus. The best I suppose that can be said for this is that the work hasn't been seen in London for some time and in theory it's bankable which may help the company finances, but whether it can be the solidly revivable production of such a work that the company badly needs more of is highly open to question given the choice of director. Reviews from the production's original outing in Toronto raise doubts (see here and here - and a fairly complete unpacking which frankly makes my heart sink).

This is followed in the spring with C. Alden's take on Rigoletto which is open to the very same question (and also the one I previously asked about the new Flute). Indeed it seems to me highly likely that ENO will have discarded a venerable but revivable Rigoletto for another production of an in theory bankable opera which has to go straight on to the scrap heap. The casting of Anna Christy as Gilda also does not fill me excitement. Reviews of the production's original outing in Toronto raise further very considerable doubts - see here, here and here (and also alert one to the fact that this looks suspiciously like a production he originally staged in 2000 in Chicago – a whole new definition of the word “new”).

The second face (wearily familiar to Brian McMaster Edinburgh Festival regulars and threatening to become so in London) is Calixto Bieto, who follows last season's indifferent Carmen with a new production of Fidelio previously seen in Munich. Only one Bieto production of the many I have sat through has worked for me – his much derided A Masked Ball for ENO under Nicholas Payne. Reading this review suggests this one is unlikely to add to his tally. I remain fascinated by the reversal of London critical opinion which has occurred with respect to Bieto who was denounced for his productions for Payne (which seemed to contribute to Payne's subsequent firing) but who is now deployed as part of the narrative of the company's alleged upwards trajectory. I see little reason to think that this can provide the company with a bankable revival of a classic. Musically at least it is promising, with Gardner on the podium and Stuart Skelton singing Florestan (though not, it appears from the small print, in all performances which given there are only 7 is a little surprising). [Editor's note. From a purely musical perspective this is a highly attractive proposition to me. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the interesting directorial take we seem set to get in Edinburgh this summer.]

Finally, on the return roster is Richard Jones, another director beloved by some but whose misses for me have been far more numerous than his hits (the last time he had one of the latter as far as I'm concerned was the Royal Opera's Lady Macbeth). He brings us Handel's Rodelinda. I'll have another go with Christian Curnyn on the podium (who was far better in the Charpentier this season than on previous occasions). Among the cast it's great to see the return of Iestyn Davies, I'm less cheered at the prospect of John Mark Ainsley who did not impress me in the Glyndebourne Billy Budd nor my brother in a recent Edinburgh recital. [Editor's note. In fairness, he did appear to have a cold.] Production wise the company has had an abysmal Handel record in recent times so on statistical terms alone they are due for one to finally work out (the last being Agrippina in 2006-7).

Not a single one of these four strikes me as unmissable. The directorial choices are frankly foolhardy given last year's losses, the thinness of the company's base of revivable repertoire, and the general habits of the gentlemen in question. The repertoire choices are a long way from adventurous. Fidelio is the most justified in my view. Fledermaus is a second rank work. Rigoletto has been seen far too often in London of late.

The final new production is another which bears witness to the failures of the Berry regime (will anybody else comment on this?). It is the second new Cosi Fan Tutte he's commissioned (and apparently the last was the third in six years) and it's not as if we don't see the work pretty often in both London houses. Berry's first was from the Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami in 2008-9 which I didn't see, but I recall being indifferently reviewed and I can only assume was yet another Berry commission of classic repertoire which did too poorly to be revived. As with other new productions this season one might think that it would be sensible to commission somebody who could be relied upon to produce something revivable for all the reasons previously rehearsed. Instead Berry has selected Katie Mitchell.

And so we come to the revivals. I've commented quite a bit in this post already about the company's desperate need to deepen its roster of revivable productions. The revivals problem at ENO is indeed another aspect of the current situation which nobody seems to want to engage with. It is a product of the facts that little pre-Berry seems to get revived (again something that doesn't seem to get any debate) and that so few of Berry's commissions (particularly of core repertoire) have been revivable. This year is not quite as bad for old faithfuls as the last couple of seasons, but it's not much of an improvement, and some of the choices reveal how sadly bare the cupboard is.

There will doubtless be many rejoicing at the return of David Alden's production of Peter Grimes, and I am perfectly prepared to concede that at least among critics we are in a minority on this, but we absolutely detested it and will not be going anywhere near it again. [Editor's note. It seems only fair to mention that Donald Runnicles himself appears to be among those who don't agree with us, as he brought this to Berlin not too long ago.] I do also wonder whether we really need another run of Grimes which is everywhere at present. If you liked the production or can put up with an evening at the opera where you simply close your eyes to the insanities on stage then it should be musically of a high standard with Gardner on the podium and Stuart Skelton singing the lead. Were it not for the fact that I really loathed the production I would also have been curious to hear Iain Paterson as Balstrode.

It is preceded by the Minghella production of Madame Butterfly receiving what I calculate to be its fourth revival and last seen in 2011-12. I haven't actually yet managed to see this so will probably try to tick it off. Most of the cast ring no bells with me in terms of past performances, and I think the conductor will be new to me as well, but I'm pleased to see George van Bergan back who was excellent in the last revival of the Miller Boheme.

I had been cherishing the fond hope that the company might continue its championing of John Adams's operas by reviving Nixon in China (the only one I have not yet managed to see). Instead, in the American line and considerably less appealing we get a revival of Glass's Satyagraha. This I also missed first time round and hope to catch this time, although I have to say that Einstein on the Beach did not wholly convince me of Glass's talents as an operatic composer. Both this and the Butterfly should be well calculated though to bring in an audience.

And finally the season ends in June 2014 with a revival of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers. About this one can only say: Really? Are you quite serious? I can think of few more dreary third rate works in the repertoire than this and quite why it keeps getting dredged up is frankly beyond me. I heard the work once in concert at the Edinburgh Festival some years ago and it went firmly down on my list of things I didn't need to hear again, hence my missing the original run of Penny Woolcock's production. A cursory survey of the reviews from that original run suggest a mixed critical reaction. The casting of Sophie Bevan and George van Bergan is attractive, but I'm not even sure they can convince me to sit through Bizet's score a second time. [Editor's note. At this time, they appear not to have found a conductor who fancies it as the job is still listed as TBA.]

Beyond main stage productions two other dubious enterprises were also announced this morning. The company is to stage a site-specific production of Thomas Ades's weak first opera Powder Her Face. Given that this has recently had two runs in the Linbury it seems rather doubtful that London needs to see it again so soon – surely there are other contemporary works more urgently in need of revival. [Editor's note. As opposed to all the other productions staged across multiple sites.... I too am puzzled by this choice. I saw the first of those two Linbury runs ans was not overly impressed. Though I'm generally a fan of Ades, and it does contain some fine musical writing, I didn't find the story engaging.]

Finally, there is to be a screening of something called River of Fundament. Apparently this is another film-opera. It's hard to see from what a google search turns up quite where the opera comes in (see for example here and here) but doubtless this won't bother those who choose to see ENO's ongoing flirtation with film as proof of its adventurous agenda.

Already the critical chorus and the twitter fan club have been vociferous in their declarations of what an exciting season this is. I on the other hand look down the road at a Royal Opera who will be bringing us Die Frau ohne Schatten, Elektra, Moses und Aron, Dialogues des Carmelites and rare Verdi, not to mention visiting companies with Britten's Paul Bunyan, Tippett's King Priam and Turnage's Greek. There is frankly no competition. ENO – adventurous? Experimental? File under: Don't be ridiculous.

Financial Note: I wasn't able to be at the Season Launch, and I have not had time (and doubt I have the financial acumen) to examine such of the company's accounts which are in the public domain to properly understand the current financial position. The company states that the deficit has now been reduced to £800, 000 (still a sizeable sum) and that box office takings were up £1.3 million in 2012-13 on 2011-12. I have not seen a figure for how this looks in terms of percentage of tickets sold. This is good news, but I don't think it removes the problems with the way the original loss was debated in the media. An issue which I didn't comment on in the original post but which others have discussed is the question of the company's pricing structure. It would be very interesting (if they exist) to know what percentage of tickets are sold at full price and what percentage via the many varied discounts.

[Editor's note. I too find this overall a rather unexciting announcement. Certainly it does not have me reaching for my calendar and train timetable that I may frantically begin planning trips south. For me the likes of Paul Bunyan, which ENO despite its championing of more bankable Britten refuses to touch, is a far more exciting a prospect than anything on offer here. Finally, I note mention of the Peter Moores Foundation’s Swansong Project 2013–2015. This is presumably a reference to Moores' stated intention to wind up his foundation. Given he has been one of opera in English's most valuable champions, one hopes they have a solid plan in place to fill the hole.]

The Edinburgh International Festival's new director

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:09:00 +0000

Just over six years ago, on Friday 30th March 2007 to be exact, we launched this blog. In large part, to talk about the first Edinburgh International Festival programmed by Jonathan Mills. I mention this because yesterday the festival announced his successor, Fergus Linehan. This came as a slight surprise. Although Mills is due to complete both the 2013 and 2014 festivals, last October the search for his successor was announced, with a view to them being in place as director designate from this summer, so I hadn't expected the news quite yet.

This is a positive development. Mills' appointment began less than a year before his first festival and given how long in advance classical and opera artists must be booked, the lack of an early start was an avoidable handicap. There are, however, some similarities between Linehan's appointment and that of Mills. Mills was previously director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, whereas Linehan ran the Sydney Festival from 2004 to 2009, where he achieved a significant growth in turnover through increased ticket sales and sponsorship (perhaps he will look at some of the festival's pricing issues). Certainly their Instagram feed is always full of fun things (though that particular image came several years after his tenure). A tweeter who responded to my request for information was very positive about his tenure. That said, this slideshow from 2009 calls to mind the Fringe far more than the International. Prior to Sydney he directed the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Indeed, he seems to have a very strong theatre background, which will come as excellent news to those who most value the theatre and dance pillars of the festival programme. And, it could be argued, that following two more musical directors we are due someone from that area again. Frank Dunlop (1984-1991) was the last festival director to come from a theatre background.

However, Joyce McMillan's claim in The Scotsman that he is “an outstanding programmer across all art forms” seems to us rather more questionable, or at least lacking in evidence. This lack of obvious experience gives cause for concern to those who value the opera and classical programmes as central pillars of the festival, alongside those of theatre and dance. True, between 2010 and 2012 he was either Head of Music or Head of Contemporary Music (depending on whether you go by the press release or his LinkedIn page) at the Sydney Opera House. Slight care needs to be applied here as it is not, as the name might suggest, a role involved in opera but rather in music performances that take place at the house. A look back at their website for 2011 and 2012 does not list a single classical ensemble. Perhaps these are located elsewhere, or unlisted, as the festival's biography suggests there were some. However @freudenvollere indicates that there is not a huge amount of space left after you take out resident companies.

True, if you think that Edinburgh should be desperately seeking to emulate Manchester, this may seem a fuss about nothing. Charlotte Higgins, writing in the Guardian notes:

Both his immediate predecessors, Mills and Sir Brian McMaster, were specialists in classical music and opera, and the kind of eclectic pop that has been a feature of, for example, the Manchester international festival (which this year has the xx in residence, as well as an encounter between Massive Attack and Adam Curtis), has been notably absent.

Each to their own, but none of that would be on my list of notable absences in recent years. Unlike, say, Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic (not seen since McMaster's final year in 2006).

Now, one assumes that Linehan, either in interview or at some other stage of the process staked out a sufficiently impressive vision covering the festival's full range that put him ahead of some of the polymaths that might have seemed more obvious candidates (assuming they were interested). And one does like to keep an open mind. Even so, given how much of the festival's audience is classical and opera, and how little of that there is on his CV, one would have expected the press release to address this, perhaps with a reassuring quote or extra biographical information that google has not turned up. Or, that some of the other media might inquire into this gap. Alas....

Neither the festival nor Linehan have responded to these questions, albeit more briefly phrased, on twitter. However, in fairness we must note that since its original publication, Higgins' article has been updated with some reassuring quotes from Linehan:

"I think that each festival director brings their interests and passions to the role. I do love many different types of music – opera, symphonic and chamber music included. However, if we do present a season of contemporary music it will not be at the expense of the classical programme."

Responding to the issue of Manchester's arrival on the UK festival scene, he said: "It is a very different festival in a very different city. Certainly Edinburgh needs to continue to evolve and respond to the times but I don't see that in competitive terms. Of course, I do hope to bring new ideas and approaches to Edinburgh but it's too early to be specific."

So I think we can probably rest assured that classical music and opera are not about to be thrown under the bus. And perhaps with his theatre connections we can expect some decent directors in opera (rather than the worrying portents we hear of Opera de Lyon's Fidelio). Maybe he'll engage Runnicles to do what he does best (and hasn't been asked to do since 2003): conduct some opera. (We have plenty more suggestions if Mr Linehan is interested....)

All the same, there are still two questions we would like answered more fully:

Can we have more detail as to what classical and / or opera did he programme in his time at Sydney (or elsewhere)?
How does he define contemporary music? Does he mean contemporary classical or does he mean the likes of Brian Wilson, Bjork, Grace Jones and Elvis Costello (as mentioned in the Scotsman)?

It seems perhaps most appropriate to close with some words from that very first blog post back in 2007:

So is this just a bitter, twisted rant?

Not a bit. Our aim is to be positive, where possible, and open-minded about the new director and his programme. Hopefully we'll say the odd interesting or thought provoking thing along the way. We'll also cover far more than just the festival or Runnicles, but that can wait for future posts.

We sincerely hope that all the effusive praise that has appeared in the media since the announcement proves justified, but we won't know that for another two years.

Update - 2013-04-24 16.25

The Edinburgh International Festival has tweeted to clarify some of the questions raised. The first clarifies Linehan's role as an Artistic Associate of the festival. This involved researching shows and projects and making recommendations to Mills and was across the programme, rather than being limited to theatre. The second notes that his Sydney programmes included English National Opera, The Sixteen, Philip Glass, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Brodsky Quartet (so he does have some experience of programming / working with big international names in classical music).

ENO's Sunken Garden, or, Proving that Michael van der Aa is not a Triple Threat

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:04:00 +0000

For the last few years English National Opera has escaped the Coliseum once a year for something smaller scale and generally more experimental. Because these tend to be short runs at an academically inconvenient time of year this is the first of these escapes that I've managed to catch. On the whole I rather wish I hadn't, though I can't say I wasn't warned.

Sunken Garden is advertised as a film opera. The programme notes go to great lengths to insist that the art forms are organically linked together, or as the composer, director and film-maker is quoted as saying “3D would be locked into the DNA of the libretto.” Sitting through it this was not my experience. In the first part the musical sections don't feel well connected to the films and in the second the Garden's visualisation in 3D could be dispensed with at no loss to anybody. The only person who can be blamed for this, with the exception of the libretto to which we'll come, is Michael van der Aa. Van der Aa apparently labours under the delusion that he is some new kind of operatic triple threat – equally talented as composer, director and film-maker. In fairness he is undeniably passable at all three, but on the basis of this show in none of them is he of a quality to make one want to rush to see/hear more of his work.

He is not, it has to be said, helped by David Mitchell's libretto which commits three cardinal sins. First of all it failed to create characters which engaged my emotions. Secondly, it engages in tedious moralising about needing to live every moment despite all the awful things that occur – as I've remarked in other contexts this kind of messaging only really works if connected to a character for whom one really cares. Thirdly, it leaves so many plot points unexplained as to have one gnawing limbs off in frustration. To give just a few instances: What is the Garden doing there in the first place? How come Dr Marinus has the power to destroy it? And why is Tobias's only means of escape to jump through the pond of water (which explodes so we can be reminded how clever using 3D film is) into the body of Zenna Briggs thereby undergoing a bizarre sex change? I failed to grasp any of this by listening to the piece and the two page plot summary in the programme is not much help either.

Musically, the work is performed to a high standard with fine singing on stage from Roderick Williams (Toby) and Katherine Manley (Zenna ) and on film from Jonathan McGovern (Simon) and Kate Miller-Heidke (Amber). Diction, often a problem, is commendably good. The ENO Orchestra under Andre de Ridder also turn in a fine performance, it's just a pity that all of this is in the service of a not especially distinguished score.

Ultimately, what really sticks in my throat about this is the idea that it somehow represents the future of opera. To my mind it is yet another instance of a group of people responding to their own fear of the art form by running away from it. The best operas (standard rep or new commissions) are those which tell a compelling narrative through the traditional tools of the stage – effective setting, design and management of personal. Get all those things to work together (plus of course a really outstanding score) and opera is enormously powerful. To go further, I would argue that the most powerful moments in plays or opera often come from the smallest gestures or moments of stillness. Sadly some people, including John Berry, seem to lack faith in this. Opera, they apparently assume, is a fatally problematic art form and other things must be grafted on to it to avoid boredom and to get new audiences in. Hence here not merely 2D but 3D film and spoken interludes. The result is neither opera, nor some satisfying new form. It's an overblown fudge. Chalk this up as one to miss.

EIF 2013 - The Music Programme in more detail

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 09:44:00 +0000

In a sensible change, the launch of this year's Edinburgh International Festival programme was slightly less frantic than is traditionally the case. In past years, booking has opened on the day of the launch, but this year we had fully 24 hours to digest the programme first. This was just as well as it featured some tough choices, though for me at least somewhat front loaded with the most clashes at the start. I've already offered my first impressions, but since public booking opens today, here, a little later than planned, are my fuller thoughts on the music programme. (My brother looks at theatre and opera here.)

The task of kicking off the festival is in the hands of honorary president Valery Gergiev, though not as one might expect with either of his regular partners, the London Symphony Orchestra or the Mariinsky. Instead he takes up the baton (or more likely the toothpick, as is his preference) with the RSNO for Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto and Alexander Nevsky. It's unusual that we're not getting a single work but on the positive side, this should prove a far more exciting and appropriate curtain raiser than the damp squibs of the last two years.

This year sees a reasonable crop of visiting orchestras, chief among them the exceptional Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. They were last here way back in 2007, Mills' first season. They impressed me so greatly that I travelled to London for a series of appearances they made at the Festival Hall over the following years (with programmes including Bruckner, Shostakovich, Strauss and Mahler). Sadly they have not been back lately, making their visit all the more welcome. For my money, this is one of the very best conductor / orchestra teams in the world and is absolutely not to be missed. Jansons is no slouch in Mahler 2 either, one of the works they're bringing, as he proved with the Concertgebouw at the Barbican a few years ago, rivalling the man himself for offstage brass placement. Be warned, he will almost certainly observe the five minute break Mahler marks in the score between the first and second movements (not a decision I agree with, and one which last time prompted me to fear seriously for his health).I'm even keener to hear what they can do with Tchaikovsky 6.

The other big orchestral name is sadly a bit of a mixed blessing. The Concertgebouw have a unique and wonderful sound; they are also Jansons' other band. Alas, they are not coming with him. Instead, their conductor for Mahler 9 is Daniele Gatti who last summer delivered some dull Wagner followed by an interminable Mahler 7. On the plus side, this does neatly solve one potential scheduling dilema.

I am grateful for the opportunity to hear Yannick Nézet-Séguin in action, as he has been making waves. He comes for two performances with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with programmes including Strauss's masterpiece Metamorphosen and Beethoven's 3rd and 7th symphonies.

One rarely hears Schubert's earliest symphonies, so Marc Minkowski's Schubert symphony mini festival with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble will make interesting listening for this reason, and will hopefully also provide good performances of the unfinished and the great C major. (Though interestingly, and in a move surely not calculated to maximise audiences, in the brochure they're give the German numbering of 7 and 8 rather than the 8 and 9 more common here.)

Personally, Mikhail Pletnev's two programmes with the Russian National Orchestra don't especially appeal to me and I wasn't blow away by their last visit in 2010 (albeit with another conductor standing in for Pletnev). I don't rate the partnership of David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra as anything special though others, including apparently Mills, appear to. Doubtless their programmes of Brahms and Bruckner will sell well.

One slight oddity is the total absence of visiting orchestras from England, the first time for some while that has been the case. Perhaps this is a natural reaction the Brit heavy programme last year. All the same, it's a shame not to see the likes of the CBSO, the Halle or the LSO back and there are a couple of vistors I'd happily trade for them.

Of the local bands, the Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra have an interesting programme which includes Webern's Five pieces, op.10, Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht and Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune. What makes the latter interesting is that it is an arrangement by Sachs under the supervision of Schoenberg with which I am not familiar. In the second half, renewing a successful collaboration they made for the Durufle Requiem in 2011, they are joined by the National Youth Choir of Scotland for Faure's Requiem. Sadly, while on paper their other programme looks promising (Haydn's 104th symphony and Beethoven's The Creatures of Prometheus) I am no fan of conductor Rene Jacobs, though doubtless it will appeal to many.

Peter Oundjian makes his festival debut with the RSNO in a programme that includes Adams' City Noir (which a few months later will provide fodder for direct comparison with Runnicles and the BBC SSO) and a new composition by Tod Machover, an interesting figure in terms of blending music and technology.

The BBC SSO's first programme, under their former chief Ilan Volkov, is extremely tempting, and but for an opening weekend that is far too rich and provides too many difficult choices, I would be there. They present works by Varese and Berio's sinfonia. Sadly, the festival has not learned the lessons from two years ago. In 2011 they put Volkov, the BBC and a programme of works by Jonathan Harvey on the opening weekend. Getting a decent crowd into the Usher Hall for a concert of works by living composers, or composers not dead for a long time, is a challenge at the best of times. To do so at the same prices as for, say, the Concertgebouw, the Bavarians or the Verdi Requiem is just plain daft. To further handicap themselves they have (exactly as they did then) scheduled it against Philip Glass at the Playhouse, thus further splitting the limited Edinburgh audience for 20th century music. The result was that the orchestra probably outnumbered the audience, which was a shame as it was superb. This year there will be two fewer seats as we cannot go (or, at least, cannot make it, Fidelio and the Bavarians work).

As my brother noted, it is a shame there is no concert opera to be found in the Usher Hall. This is a first in recent memory and not a good one. It is doubly odd as Mills has on his doorstep two of the finest proponents of concert opera you could wish for in Runnicles and the BBC SSO and Ticciati and the SCO, though neither has been utilised in this manner during his tenure. Perhaps, if the next director is reading this, they will take note.

And speaking of the man himself, Runnicles is on hand with Verdi's Requiem for the closing concert. He has proved himself a sure interpreter of the work at the festival with the BBC SSO before, opening it in 2005, which was the first time I heard him. To make things better, stunning soprano Erin Wall is on hand, who so impressed in Mahler 8 a few years go. Speaking of Verdi, it's worth noting that the programme is light on composer anniversaries: you will find no Britten, no significant Wagner and the requiem aside, almost no Verdi. This is actually no bad thing: there has been no shortage of any of these composers and I tend to find anniversary programming a little dull and lazy. Expect the Proms to be swamped with them next month.

It's also excellent to see Mitsuko Uchida appearing. I'd be astonished if this is her festival debut, but at the same time I cannot recall her having been before so it's most welcome. She plays Bach, Schoenberg and Schumann at the Usher Hall.

The Usher Hall programme also features a couple of concerts that wander a little way off the traditional orchestral beaten track. This echoes some positive steps in this direction taken at the 2010 festival, with things like Kronos and, for me less successfully, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Sadly Kronos aren't back but we do get Bang on a Can All-Stars and Ensemble musikFabrik's tribute to Frank Zappa.

The closest thing the festival has to a theme this year is a link between art and technology. However, given that huge swathes of the programme are untouched by this, or at least, only tenuously so, I'm reluctant to call it a theme. There are some interesting offerings though, in what is the heaviest festival in terms of contemporary music which I can remember.

The highlight of this strand for me is cellist and composer Peter Gregson, whose praise we've sung many times. If you want an idea why, check out his album Terminal. He brings a collaboration with Mark Daniels and New Media Scotland called To Dream Again. The brochure speaks of interactions between audience and music so perhaps it owes something to The Listening Machine, in which Gregson was involved. Either way, I eagerly await it. In the meantime, he brings his and Gabriel Prokofiev's Cello Multitracks to the Queen's Hall tonight.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard has been at the Aldeburgh festival for a good few years now, so is an excellent choice for some contemporary music. He brings two programmes to the Hub which mix piano and electronics. I'll be going to the second, not least as it has some Messiaen and, unlike the first, does not have any Kurtag. The festival get their money's worth out of Aimard who also appears at the Queen's Hall with Debussy and Ligeti.

Elsewhere at the Queen's Hall, Nikolai Lugansky brings a programme of Janacek, Schubert, Liszt and Wagner arranged by Liszt while the Arditti Quartet bring Janacek, Zenakis and Nancarrow. It's not often you get the chance to hear the glass harmonica, so the Hebrides Ensemble's programme is worth checking out too (sadly I can't as I can only take so much of the festival off work).

All in all, it seems we have a good year in prospect. Indeed, it strikes me as one of Mills' more compelling programmes, the first week in particular posing some difficult decisions.

As ever, the festival closes with the fireworks concert. Once again Gary Walker conducts the SCO and this year's chosen music is Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition which should be an excellent fit (or at least, so I assume, the programme lists it as Musorgsky, but we're not really in any position to criticise other people for typos!).

Peter Oundjian and the RSNO present Má vlast

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:36:00 +0000

While I've long been familiar with Smetana's Má vlast, it is only comparatively recently that I came to love it. That was as a result of a glitteringly persuasive account from Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC SO at the Proms two years ago, so fine it swept me away completely even without being in the hall. Alas it has not been issued on disc.

A slight problem with having an experience like that is that nothing that follows quite seems to recapture it. This was the first time I've heard the piece in the flesh and so the fact that while I found the performance good, it didn't sweep me away, may owe something to that context.

Generally the playing was of a good calibre. The strings shone particularly, especially in some of the fierce chords found in Tábor. Oundjian's interpretation was rather what I have come to expect from him: solid, and often at his best in the realisation of some of the big climaxes. And yet, at the same time missing that extra x factor. In the smaller moments particularly he didn't let the score bloom and open up as it can. Interestingly, since it was the movement he chose to describe in his talk, for me Šárka fell flattest of all. He had said all the right things, but somehow he didn't bring them out.

The most interesting aspect of this performance was not, however, in the music, but rather in two key choices, one of which I applaud, the other I have reservations about. I think it was excellent to present it alone in a programme. Weighing in at close to eighty minutes it is of a similar length to other works that routinely get such a treatment. I like having just one work in a programme as it allows you to focus on it much better (and while arguably this is more a suite of six works, they fit together so well as one). Oundjian and the RSNO are also to be applauded for not doing something silly like having an interval and ruining the flow.

The decision that worked less well was to accompany the performance with video projections. In fairness, I can see the reasoning behind this and it must also be noted that it worked rather better than his last such attempt, attaching a volume related dimmer to the lights for Shostakovich's 11th symphony. Má vlast is an inherently visual work, depicting Smetana's Czech homeland, so why not help it along? Also, I tend to be a fan of art forms that blend media, such as comic books or opera.

That the projections didn't work for me, or to be more fair didn't always work, can be most neatly summed up by noting that there are excellent reasons why the 12:3 aspect ratio does not enjoy widespread popularity and over the better part of an hour and a half photochoreographers James Westwater and Nicholas Bardonnay showcased them extensively. The setup was three screens joined together in a row. These were of the 4:3 ratio (that of TVs before the days of widescreen). Together, this made for a sort of ultra-widescreen when they chose to show one photograph across them all. Which they did, a lot. A problem arises because the sort of shapes that most cameras work to are an awful lot closer to your old school TV than the screen on offer, so to fit such a photo on you basically have to crop off the top third and the bottom third. Imagine going through your photo albums and doing that and then think about how many of the results you'd want to keep. Most of the resulting wide shots looked badly over-cropped and any good composition that might have existed had been lost. Having said that, even when they showed shots on a single screen, these photographs were generally not anything to write home about. I can see why they chose this format: three small screens are likely cheaper than one big one and certainly cheaper than the four, six or nine small ones needed for a more conventional arrangement. However, this was the technological equivalent of starting off by tying their hands behind their backs. Occasionally they tried to escape the knot by joining pictures together, much like the panorama mode one commonly finds on cameras these days. However, this results in some rather odd angles and perspectives which I never find terribly pleasing.

Unfortunately such technical gripes are not my only objection to the projections. Too often, they bore little relation to the music. Now, it's true that, as Oundjian noted in his opening speech, they were not trying to depict the action exactly, but they still could have fitted the tone much better. Simply having a photograph of the Czech countryside or of some town doesn't automatically mean it will fit into Má vlast. At other times, the timing was just a bit off, so a big crescendo came in the famous Vltava and the screens went blank. Then, a few bars later, we saw some jaw dropping scenery which then lingered a little too long after the music had faded again.

That's not to say they never worked. At times they did, such as the photos of people shooting the rapids, again in Vltava, or the rock formations at the start of Z českých luhů a hájů. Elsewhere, the images of conflict which were set against Tábor were also effective, though I'm not sure we needed the swastika and then the hammer and sickle to tell us we were getting first the Nazis and then the Prague Spring.

So perhaps with better projections the idea could work well. Then again, the mixed art forms I like tend to have been created with this in mind. Smetana probably wasn't planning on this and so had to make sure it was all in the music. And so it is. At times I closed my eyes and enjoyed the picture painted by my imagination.

EIF 2013 - The Opera and Drama Programme

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:01:00 +0000

Opera

The 2013 opera programme is dominated by two returnees. It begins on the opening weekend with a new production of Fidelio from Opera de Lyon who previously visited the Festival with Porgy and Bess in 2010 (which I missed) and in McMaster's last Festival with two superb productions (a Weill double bill and Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa). According to the International Festival's Twitter account, Jonathan Mills apparently claimed at the press release that this production was one of the 2013 Festival's boldest offerings. This seems a remarkable claim when a) Fidelios are two a penny and b) there is an awful lot of other programming in this year's Festival which given what I regard as the general conservatism of Edinburgh audiences is remarkably bold. I can only assume that the basis for Mills' claim is the production's concept. Apparently director Gary Hill is to set the opera “on board the doomed spacecraft Aniara as it hurtles towards infinity” (to quote the Programme guide). A little digging suggests that he may be thinking of a poem by the Swedish Nobel laureate Henry Martinson entitled Anaira (I haven't read it). More concerning is the fact that Hill's background seems to be almost entirely in video installations – apart from some kind of loose staging of works by Edgard Varèse he doesn't appear ever to have directed an opera before and I'm afraid the London stages in recent times have been littered with disasters resulting from putting opera into such neophyte arms. The other immediate question raised by the description in the programme book is whether Hill has realised that the opera has a happy ending – presumably the doomed spaceship is going to turn out in fact not to be. The production opens in Lyon towards the end of this month, so more information may then be forthcoming. Kazushi Ono, the company's principle conductor, conducts. He previously conducted the Ravel double bill and Hansel and Gretel at Glyndebourne, but lists no other UK operatic engagements in his biography – I heard good reports of the former. Erika Sunnegardh sings Leonore having previously sung it in Frankfurt and the Met. She and most of the other singers will all be new to me.

The second returnee is Barry Kosky, a Mills regular. This time he brings a double bill of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Apart from the fact that I have some doubts as to whether these two works will pair well together, I can't say that I am thrilled by the prospect of more Kosky who has not impressed me on previous outings (here's what I said about his ghastly Poppea in Mills's first year). The productions were originally staged in Frankfurt in 2010 and reviews for both plus a selection of images may be found here and here. Regrettably none of them are in English. Surprise is always possible, but I'm not optimistic.

Finally, on the staged opera front, we have Berg's Lulu reimagined by Olga Neuwirth. The best thing about this is that it marks the Edinburgh debut of John Fulljames and The Opera Group. I am an enormous fan of Fulljames's work – I think he is one of the most promising British opera directors currently working. His staging of Jonathan Dove's The Enchanted Pig (read our review here) was so outstanding that we gave it two of the coveted Where's Runnicles Awards. I also much enjoyed the same company's staging of Street Scene, and Fulljames's staging with Opera North of Janacek's From the House of the Dead. Video designer Finn Ross has also been involved in a number of other recent productions which have impressed me including Complicite's Master and Margarita, ENO's The Death of Klinghoffer and Glyndebourne's Rinaldo. The singers are an intriguing blend of veterans of opera (Donald Maxwell) and jazz (Jacqui Dankworth) and the young American opera singer Angel Blue who will be new to me. Unfortunately there is a but to all of this, which is that reports of Neuwirth's work itself are less than encouraging. Andrew Clements in this Guardian review was obviously seeing a different production but is not favourably disposed to the music. The New York Times is slightly kinder here as is Shirley Apthorpe in the Financial Times here but it is difficult to escape the conclusion that this is yet another misguided attempt to reinvent a classic that was far better left as it was, and to fear that this will not allow Fulljames's talents to be seen to best advantage.

Finally, and somewhat oddly listed as Contemporary Music/Opera is a screening of Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la Bete accompanied by the Philip Glass Ensemble playing his own live score. Now I haven't actually ever seen the original film (I know, I know) but it doesn't appear to be operatic (at least judging by the entry on IMDB) and Auric's original score, according to the details of the Marco Polo recording involves chorus but no soloists. However, leaving aside questions of classification, I have had several experiences of live music accompaniment to classic films (highlights being the visits of Blue Grassy Knoll to the Fringe with Buster Keaton), so this will probably be worth catching if you can (difficult on the very strongly programmed opening weekend).

One final note on the opera programme is the absence for the first time in my memory of any concert opera which has been such a regular, and nearly always welcome, feature of the Usher Hall programme. This does make the Opera programme overall thinner than in many years, and there is also a particular missed opportunity this time. It's great to see Christoph Rousset and Les Talons Lyriques on the programme (I think this may be their Festival debut) but their Ariodante at the Barbican lives on as one of my great opera experiences of recent years – it's a pity they aren't bringing one of their concert operas to Edinburgh.

Drama

As last year, the Drama programme is again very extensive, and is dominated by returnees. Top of the list (and another highlight of the opening weekend) is the return of Wu Hsing-Kuo and Contemporary Legend Theatre. Hsing-Kuo wowed me in 2011 with his extraordinary 1-man exploration of King Lear (read what I said here). This time they bring the world premiere of a new adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis. I have to admit that the original is not a favourite of mine, but Hsing-Kuo is such a remarkable performer that I consider this unmissable.

Also returning is Barry McGovern in more Beckett, this time an adaptation of excerpts from Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable entitled I'll Go On. His solo adaptation of Watt was a highlight of last year's festival (read my review here) - so once again this is strongly recommended. A review is available from the New York Times but it lies behind their paywall. A freely accessible review is available here. It forms part of a Beckett festival within a festival. The Gate Theatre, Dublin also presents Beckett's television play Eh Joe in a production featuring the voice of Penelope Wilton and directed by Atom Egoyan (dating from 2006 and reviewed by The Guardian here and by The New York Times here). Previous performances of this have involved Michael Gambon and Liam Neeson, one hopes someone similarly starry will take the stage in Edinburgh. The Gate also offer an adaptation of Beckett's novel First Love (previously performed on Broadway by Ralph Fiennes and again very favourably reviewed here). These are complemented by productions of Pan Pan Theatre of Beckett's radio plays Embers and All That Fall (the latter sounds just a little odd see here and here). These kind of opportunities to immerse yourself in the work of one composer or writer have been a regular feature of the Festival over the years and have frequently provided memorable experiences.

A third returnee is Grid Iron Theatre Company with Leaving Planet Earth. They were last at the International Festival back in 2002 with Variety which I did not see but which received as I recall somewhat lukewarm reviews. Since then though they have been regulars on the Fringe with a series of highly successful shows. Up to now, however, the closest I've come to seeing one of their shows was being asked at one point during my PhD by my beloved supervisor whether I would vacate my flat so they could stage a show there (I decided against this). I'm not really a fan of immersive theatre (I've booked for the Punchdrunk thing at Aldeburgh this year and am if I'm entirely honest rather dreading it). However, the description of this was such that I felt I couldn't miss it, and my esteemed brother is keeping me company. The show also follows in another International Festival tradition of escaping its traditional venues (this time starting at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and finishing up at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena at Ratho – as I don't climb either I have slight misgivings about this too!) Altogether certainly likely to be a unique experience.

Next on the returnees front we have The Wooster Group who featured in Mills' first festival in 2007 with La Didone. That show which I saw but did not review was interesting but didn't blow me away. This time they bring a version of Hamlet making use of the film of Richard Burton's 1964 performance. As I have had occasion to say before the list of reimagined Shakespeares at the International Festival which have been complete disasters is a very long one. I actually doubt this will be added to the list because my sense is the Wooster Group are likely to be interesting, the big question is will they engage my heart? The run is accompanied by four film showings of other Wooster Group performances – again an opportunity for further immersion.

Teatrocinema were first at the Festival in 2010 with an adaptation of Baricco's Without Blood. The mingling of live action and cinema was rather disappointing as we reported at the time. This time they have adapted a novel by Regis Jauffret unknown to me. On the basis of my experience in 2010 I would suggest waiting for the reviews on this one.

Also at the Festival in 2010 (though I missed her on that occasion) was Meredith Monk with Songs of Ascension. She returns this time with what is described as “her latest music-theatre work” On Behalf of Nature. This has clearly beguiled some (see this LA Times review) but I must admit whenever I see a statement like “you don't know what the words are” my heart sinks a little. But then I seem to be often the odd one out in thinking that text continues to matter rather a lot in live performance. More about Monk's approach can be gleaned from this article. I have bought a ticket for this because I'll go and hear anything once, but I am a little sceptical.

Finally we have the Beijing People's Art Theatre with a version of Coriolanus. I cannot find any reviews of this at all so all I can only report what is in the Festival brochure: that it features two of China's leading heavy metal bands (I have heard of neither of them but am not of course in their target market) and proposes to “re-interpret Shakespeare's tragedy for the 21st century (see my many previous remarks about reinterpreted Shakespeare at the EIF). I imagine this will be unforgettable but it seems to me more than likely to be so for all the wrong reasons.

Altogether it is another abundant year for Drama at the Festival, but I do have exactly the same criticism as I made last year. This is that again Jonathan Mills has decided against one world class straight production of a major work. The one thing with his Drama programmes is that he has not, to my mind, managed to find a substitute for Peter Stein, and it appears in the last couple of years that he has decided not to go in that direction. I continue to feel this is a bit of a shame. Overall though, this is a varied and exciting Festival in both these genres. Roll on August!

The 2013/14 RSNO Season

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:07:00 +0000

Perhaps it's the fatigue of four programming announcements in eight days, but I'm afraid I can't get too excited about the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's 2013/14. In part, this may be because while a number of the individual works or concerts catch the eye, there is little by way of theme or overarching structure to tie them together.

The sole thematic exception is the programming of a number of works by Britten, including a his War Requiem, conducted by Peter Oundjian, who starts his second season, and featuring Susan Gritton among the soloists. This perhaps goes some way to explaining the absence of the work, and indeed the composer, from the Edinburgh festival this summer.

The Britten is not the only big outing for the RSNO Chorus. The other, which comes at the end of the season, is a performance of Mahler's titanic 8th symphony, again under Oundjian. That Erin Wall is singing will please those who recall her stunning voice when she sang it under Runnicles at the festival in 2010.

These are far from the only blockbusters in a season that is perhaps weighted too much towards favourites against more adventurous repertoire. So we will have Holst's Planets, Shostakovich's 5th symphony, Strauss's Heldenleben, Beethoven's Emperor concerto and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, among others. This is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it is a shame that more of these aren't used as lures for something a little further off the beaten track. There are a couple of notable exceptions, though, such as Susanna Mälkki's pairing of the UK premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Circle Map and the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition. Elsewhere Thomas Søndergård mixes Britten's violin concerto (and exciting soloist Vilde Frang) with Dvorak's 9th symphony and a new work by Brett Dean whom Edinburgh's more adventurous concert goers may remember from the opera Bliss which came to the festival a couple of years ago.

In general there is not a huge amount of new music: I count just five works by four living composers. That said, some that are there are exciting prospects: for me, Thomas Ades's exceptional violin concerto stands out among them. And in fairness this statistic does hide some works by composers not all that long dead. Kristjan Järvi's programme of Pärt and Ravi Shankar, featuring the latter's daughter Anoushka on sitar, looks especially interesting. Speaking of Järvi, it is a shame this is the first season I can remember without Järvi snr. Well, technically the second as ill health forced Neeme to withdraw from a concert last week. I hope he recovers and that we haven't seen the last of him on these shores.

Elsewhere, it's good to see the orchestra's talented principal flute Katherine Bryan get to shine with Nielsen's excellent concerto. Though sadly (or not, depending on your taste) it comes coupled with MacCunn 's The Land of the Mountain and the Flood. On a different note, I also look forward to hearing Søndergård take on Messiaen's Turangalîla symphony.

Often there are individual items in programmes that jump out at me, but somehow the concert as whole, much like the season, doesn't really seem to excite me all that much. It seems to be missing that extra sparkle. This somewhat mirrors my muted reaction to Peter Oundjian: while I find he turns in solid performances, he has not especially impressed me. In the interests of balance, it must be noted that if the press release is anything to go by, I'm in a minority here.

Still, you can make up your own mind tomorrow when the orchestra publishes full details (in a slightly odd move they stuck the press release on the website a day before the brochures - contrast this with the BBC who published everything to the public before they specifically told the press).

Here's Runnicles: The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra announce their 2013/14 season

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:15:00 +0000

Announcements appear to be like busses. You wait months for the Edinburgh Festival programme and then barely have you had time to digest it when two orchestras fire out their announcements. However, I must say that I rather like the fact that the BBC sent their announcement to the general public before the press.

Given the amount he's here these days, it's hard to remember there was a time when you couldn't hear Donald Runnicles conduct a concert in Scotland for love or money, outside the odd festival appearance. It's a little sad, therefore, that the orchestra has scaled its Usher Hall appearances back again from three to two, though the blame can probably be laid at the door of Edinburgh's audience who sometimes don't know a good artistic thing when it sets up and performs in front of them.

One interesting aspect of the season is the choice to pair Mahler with Britten. It's not a coupling that obviously jumps out at me so it will be interesting to hear. As we weren't swamped in Scotland during the anniversary year, three symphonies doesn't feel excessive, especially when two, the 5th and 9th, are conducted by Runnicles, always a sure Mahlerian. I'm particularly interested to hear the pairing of the 9th and Part's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten which should work well.

Runnicles' first Edinburgh concert features Mozart's Requiem, which I'm afraid I can't get too excited about, though it is excellent that they are working with the National Youth Choir of Scotland for this, coupled with Elgar's cello concerto. Elsewhere in the Glasgow season he can be found conducting everything from Beethoven 4 to Grieg's piano concerto to Shostakovich 1.

Another thread running through the season is the presence of various American greats, from Copland to Ives and Adams to Gershwin. It will be nice to hear Copland's 3rd symphony, which features the fanfare for the common man at the start of the finale. More intriguingly, under Runnicles' baton Adams' City Noir will provide a direct comparison to the RSNO's Peter Oundjian who is doing the same work at this summer's festival.

There's plenty else to tune in for, from Thomas Dausgaard with Nielsen's Inextinguishable 4th symphony to Jun Märkl's programme of Messiaen and Debussy. Andrew Manze concludes his Vaughan Willams cycle and hits two of my favourites, with both the Sea Symphony and the Sinfonia Antartica for which the Edinburgh Festival Chorus will be on hand. Lastly, Opera North's impressive music director Richard Farnes conducts a programme including the suite from Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen. He is a dab hand with the composer so this should be well worth hearing.

All in all, there's a lot to look forward to, it's just a pity more of it isn't in Edinburgh. True, a trip to City Halls is fairly easy and very pleasant, though given it's a Thursday it often clashes with the SCO and other commitments. Still, it's nice to be spoilt for choice.

You can download the brochures here: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen.

The 2013/14 Scottish Chamber Orchestra season

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:01:00 +0000

Next year will mark the 40th birthday of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and their celebratory season has a lot to like. Following on from the model of Ticciati's most successful opening concerts, it begins with a performance of Berlioz's Béatrice Et Bénédict. The cast includes Karen Cargill and John Tessier in the title rolls along with Sally Matthews and others. That said, if I had a reservation, it would be that I think there are other composers and operas to which the SCO would be better suited.

Towards the other end of the season, the principal conductor presents what for me is his most intriguing pair of concerts, mixing Ligeti, Dvorak and Haydn. Early on in his tenure he delivered some impressive performances of Ligeti and some exceptional Haydn symphonies which were among the finest I've heard. Add to this Stephen Isserlis for the Dvorak cello concerto and they should be well worth hearing. In between, Ticciati directs a complete survey of Schumann's symphonies, though for me the most exiting aspect of those concerts is Paul Lewis performing Mozart's 25th concerto.

There are interesting guest conductors, both new and old. Christian Zacharias's return, after a couple of seasons away, is most welcome. His programme in December features Mozart's K271 concerto, Jeunehomme, along with Haydn's La Reine symphony, some Poulenc and some Ravel. Meanwhile towards the end of the year John Storgards is on hand for Sibelius's beautiful 6th symphony coupled with MacMillan and Vaughan Williams.

It's always good to see Oliver Knussen return, though sadly with none of his own music (I wonder whatever became of the unfinished composition from a season or two ago). He premieres a new work by Maxwell Davies and is joined by Peter Serkin for Bartok's 3rd piano concerto. This is something of a mixed blessing as when I heard Serkin at Aldeburgh last year, I found him one of the most alienating performers I've ever seen.

There's some other new music too, though not a huge amount, with new commissions from Sally Beamish and Martin Suckling, both of whom have recently provided works for the orchestra. There are also a couple of pieces by James MacMillan.

Sadly, after his successful turn in this year's family concert, the orchestra haven't turned to James Lowe for an evening programme. Why? Who can say, but I'll be keeping on like a broken record until they see sense on the matter.

There is some impressive new blood as Masaaki Suzuki makes his debut. As those who know his nearly complete survey of Bach's cantatas with Bach Collegium Japan will be well aware, the brochure's description of him as "One of the greatest living Bach interpreters" is no hyperbole. Together with a cantata, he also brings Mendelssohn's 5th symphony. (It's a slight shame that amid all the Mendelssohn the orchestra have found time for in recent years they haven't done the underrated 2nd, which has one of the great trombone themes in music and provides a good outing for the choir.)

Bach appears to be one of the season's themes, appearing at chamber concerts, Cl@six concerts and also in a performance of the B minor Mass with Richard Egarr. Bach and Berlioz aside, the SCO Chorus also get Mozart's Mass in C minor and Beethoven 9 which for the second time in three years more or less ends the season. Indeed, a look back through recent years suggests that the orchestra may be working on a repeating two year Beethoven cycle. Nothing against the great man, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

As with last year, it's very good to see the SCO's talented section principals given a chance to shine as soloists. So we will hear Alison Mitchell in Mozart's K299 concerto for flute and harp, Maximiliano Martin and Peter Whelan in Strauss's Duet-Concertino and Alec Frank-Gemmill in Strauss's 1st horn concerto.

It's good too to see the chamber concerts increased in number from last year's low of two to three. The one not to be missed is December's, which features David Watkin playing Bach's suite No.6 for solo cello, the orchestra perhaps taking advantage of his project to record them this year.

Finally, as suggested above, the early evening Cl@six series returns. And, in a positive note, they have moved away from diabolical acoustic of St Cuthbert's church. The new venue is the revamped Assembly Rooms. Hopefully the sound is okay there; certainly I'll be venturing along to find out for the first which features Prokofiev's small but perfectly formed classical symphony. That said, it's a slight shame that they still appear not to have learnt the main lesson of the early evening Mackerras Beethoven series that inspired this, namely the power of having a single work in a programme.

Actually, my biggest problem with the programme is that most of the concerts are on a Thursday which happens to be inconvenient for me and means I can go to fewer than I would like. If that's the biggest complaint, then the season is pretty good.

On a similarly nitpicking note, it will do no good, but I wish orchestras would stop the scramble to announce their programmes ever earlier. A few years ago the SCO used to launch in April and there's no obvious benefit to being earlier. Add to which your tired amateur blogger would be grateful if they could avoid the same week as the Edinburgh International Festival.

You can view the full programmes online: Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews. (Slightly annoyingly these are via Issuu which I find rather clunky and which requires a login to get a PDF download. The Edinburgh Festival showed the way here with an easy PDF right on their front page.)

First thoughts on the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:35:00 +0000

So, the excitement of Edinburgh International Festival programme launch day is here again. Full thoughts will follow later, when such matters as work aren't inconveniently getting in the way, but in the meantime, a few first thoughts. (These were snatched on the bus and over lunch breaks, so please forgive the odd typo.)

Where is he?

With the BBC SSO, as expected, conducting the closing concert. This, too might have been expected since its Verdi's anniversary we're getting the Requiem. Runnicles does a good one, these same forces opened the festival with one in 2005. This time there is the added bonus of stunning soprano Erin Wall.

What orchestras are coming?

2013 seems to be a pretty good year in this regard. Top of the billing are the Bavarians under the baton of chief conductor Mariss Jansons for programmes including Mahler 2 and Tchaikovsky's pathetique.

Elsewhere there is rising star Nezet-Seguin with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. The visit of Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble to do no fewer than five Schubert symphonies is also interesting (as is the fact that the festival are presenting the last two under the German numbering).

The Concertgebouw would be an exciting prospect were it not for the presence of Gatti who last year produced interminable Wagner and Mahler.

Opera?

Opera de Lyon are back and bringing Fidelio. Also of note is The Opera Group's American Lulu.

What's Gergiev doing?

The answer is rather less than in many previous years. There is no sight of either the LSO or the Mariinsky. The festival's honorary president is on hand to open the festival though with the RSNO and a concert performance of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky. This is good news as it means we're likely to be spared the tedium of some recent curtain raisers.

Here's Gregson

We're big fans of Edinburgh born cellist Peter Gregson and his innovative musical offerings. It's very exciting that he gets a deserved festival debut with the premiere of To Dream Again. Indeed, Mills' commitment to bringing new music into the festival has been one his big achievements.

What's ludicrously ambitious piece of theatre is taking place in what unusual venue?

This year's prize goes to Grid Iron's Leaving Planet Earth which takes place at the EICC and then the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in Ratho (with a bus transporting the viewer between the two). I shall leave further description to the programme.

There's also a mini Beckett festival and the Wooster Group performing Hamlet and selections from their archive.

What's the theme?

There doesn't really seem to be one, but that's okay since there's lots of good stuff. Judging from Mills' forward it's all about the interaction between art and technology. While this clearly applies to some things (e.g. Gregson) there are so many vast swathes it doesn't, it could hardly be said to be a theme.

That or lightbulbs.

Anything else?

Well, Mitsuko Uchida is exciting. Ditto Aimard playing Ligeti at the Queen's Hall. Plus I've not even mentioned the dance. Then there's, well, just check out the brochure on the EIF website.

Konwitschny's Traviata at ENO, or, Oh Will They Never Learn

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:48:00 +0000

This is one of those occasions when no one can say they weren't warned. The advance publicity is careful to point out that the opera has been cut (something one feels so many current opera directors frequently yearn to do). The programme is even more explicit, Konwitschny having written his own version of the synopsis. It includes such memorable declarations as “he is a socially awkward bookworm” (Alfredo) and (of the conclusion of Act One) “In the midst of her philosophical and at the same time erotic reflections, Alfredo again points the finger of blame, whereupon she flounces off....” I can think of nothing in the text which suggests this of Alfredo, and I have clearly been utterly mistaken in previously thinking that the end of Act One sees Alfredo essentially pleading with her to trust in his love for her. The translation is not the one that I am perhaps overly familiar with from the classic Charles Mackerras recording and if I had time and a native Italian speaker to hand I should very much like their opinion on it. I strongly suspect it was being messed around with to fit Konwitschny's ideas about what the piece is about.

We'll come back to some of those a bit later, but a word must first be said about the performance's one outstanding feature: Corinne Winters's Violetta. I cannot remember a recent occasion where I have heard this kind of role performed so superbly at the Coliseum. Vocally she is really outstanding. Unfortunately there is a resultant problem – which is that the emotional richness of her musical portrayal only makes more obvious the emotional emptiness of the production in which she is stranded. Of the other two key roles, Ben Johnson makes a manful attempt at Alfredo but can't quite match Winters. Anthony Michaels-Moore's Germont pere growls his way through the part (with the occasional swoop) and I would have wished for a little more variation in tone and volume. But overall they are solid enough. The minor roles are well sung, and the ENO Chorus is in excellent voice. I had grave misgivings in advance about Michael Hofstetter's conducting after hearing him butcher Bach in Edinburgh a few years ago, but he is like other things solid enough, although there were places where I thought his tempi too slow (most conspicuously in Germont pere's great aria pleading with Alfredo to return home).

Overall, musically, this packs a lot of emotional punch. The trouble is that the staging packs none. Konwitschny's most fundamental error in my view is that he appears not to believe in the love between Violetta and Alfredo. Thus he has Alfredo being pushed into declaring that he loves Violetta in Act One, and also makes that classic decision of modern opera directors that the lover should go nowhere near his dying beloved at the end. The problem with this is very very simple –the music is consistently telling completely the opposite story. Konwitschny also manages to make a nice mess of the marvellous confrontation between Violetta and Giorgio Germont – one of the emotional highpoints of the piece. Readers may recall that Germont pere claims that his daughter will not be able to marry unless Violetta and Alfredo's liaison is broken off. Now up to a point I can see that you could make a case that he is lying, but it seems to me that Violetta has to believe it otherwise why on earth does she agree to the sacrifice. And it is frankly impossible to understand why she believes it when a pig-tailed daughter far too young for marriage is being paraded around the stage by Germont. The other major error is a movement one. At the end of Acts One and Four everybody except Violetta is placed in the Stalls Aisles. This in itself is inoffensive (if ineffective), but when you start having Alfredo scrambling his way down a full front row as Violetta is dying on stage it becomes ridiculous.

Beyond this there is a certain level of interest to be had from spotting Konwitschny's points. Thus we have a chorus member collapsing on a chair at the beginning while the rest ignore him, the chorus rushing in in Act Three all clutching their dining cutlery (yes, I get it, they're ravenous swine), and the endless curtains (according to David Nice on the Arts Desk they were supposed to represent “the characters' constriction or emancipation” - couldn't see it myself). It's not that, apart from the curtains, you can't find roots for these elements in the text but it all seemed a bit pointless to me.

Final verdict? Corinne Winters is clearly a major talent and I shall hope to hear her again soon. If Konwitschny and Marthaler are the best that German opera direction has to offer then the situation over there is clearly pretty dire and the less we see of them over here the better I shall like it. And the Coliseum? The management can probably breathe a sigh of relief in that this is not so awful a production that it can't be revived. But if it should be revived it will unquestionably happen without my being in the audience.

Port at National Theatre, or, Just Go. Seriously.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:27:00 +0000

I have developed a dubious habit of collecting theatres. This has meant that apart from the Christmas children's show and a couple of non NT productions I haven't missed a show on one of the National's three main stages since 2011. I mention this because it has meant that I am going to a lot of things which I might previously not have bothered with partly because I want to keep the run going. Apart from the fact that Marianne Elliot was directing it, there wasn't much else in advance that I was specially looking forward to about this. All of which goes to show that sometimes the best things come upon one most unexpectedly.

Port is first and foremost a really powerful play. As a story it is very simple – an oft told tale of a disfunctional family centred on the daughter, Rachael (the superb Kate O'Flynn). But just because it's simple doesn't lessen it as a work. Partly this is because Simon Stephens writes real poetry. This may seem suprising given that there is quite a lot of swearing, but for me this is like the swearing in Black Watch or D.C. Moore's The Swan. You could not tell this story about these people without it. It takes perhaps a scene for the ear to adjust and after that it just fits. The second thing about Stephens's writing is he captures those awful moments of trying to find words to express the hardest things. There are places where you can just feel the emotions under the surface that want to break out and can't. Perhaps the best way to sum up the play is that it feels emotionally true, and heartbreaking.

The play is ably supported by another excellent piece of work on the directing side from Marianne Elliot. As with The Curious Incident she's partnered by Scott Graham as Movement Director. I honestly can't think of another British director currently from whom one has this sense of care about the physical side of the performance. This manifests itself in the way the scenes flow into each other, in the awkwardness (which never feels staged) of the teenage encounter in the bus shelter, but also in those wonderful little moments I've talked about before which convey so much with so little. I could make a long list of them from this production, but I would single out O'Flynn hiding behind her locker door smiling as Calum Callaghan's Danny awkwardly tells her how much he likes her, and the early part of the hotel room scene with its undercurrent of breakdown.

The performances are uniformly excellent. Across the board they feel finely observed, perhaps organic is the word I want, natural. Kate O'Flynn's National debut is the most moving I can remember since Ruth Wilson appeared in Philistines. The role is a gift, but also a tough ask – the character has to age from 11 to 24 over the course of the evening. O'Flynn brings it off superbly. In the penultimate crunch scene my heart went out to her. As her brother Billy, Mike Noble is similarly impressive turning from manic shoplifting teen, to prison bruised and a little lost at the end. Calum Callaghan's decent Danny is endearing and his second scene with O'Flynn leaves you pondering what might have been. Even Jack Deam's Kevin is awful in a way that invites pity (I mean in terms of the character) rather than disgust.

In short, well as usual not really, this is a powerful, moving evening. It's disappointing therefore, that there were quite a number of empty seats and other critics have tended to sound rather grudging. According to a member of staff I chatted with on the way out there have been complaints from older members of the audience about the swearing. I wondered whether there might be some unacknowledged Southern snobbery at work. The Daily Mail critic denounced it as a piece left-wing pessimism. But I don't think this is particularly a political play, or a play with a message, or a play that preaches. To me it's a play about the trials of these people's lives, perhaps more than anything else about the trials of love. And it brought tears to my eyes. This is another occasion when I say put aside your preconceptions and/or prejudices and just go.

Eugene Onegin at the Royal, or, On Discipline and Inspirational Conducting (or the Lack Thereof)

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:49:00 +0000

Setting out for this performance I was bracing myself for a long evening. My parents saw the show earlier in the run and were sufficiently unimpressed to advise me to get rid of my ticket. Contrary to my expectations, however, I found quite a lot to enjoy.

First off, though, it must be admitted that there is one big problem, and he's standing on the podium. I have heard glowing reports from my brother about Robin Ticciati's work with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and from my parents of his Mozart at Glyndebourne. Unfortunately he is on this evidence not a Tchaikovsky man. In the long first half, in particular, things plodded badly such that one had that terrible feeling at times that the cast might as well have been singing about the contents of their sandwiches. On one or two occasions Ticciati had a bizarre burst of speed (such as in the first big chorus number) – this wasn't much better. Things did improve after the interval, but I think a glass of wine may have assisted.

Much of the singing is also not entirely perfect. The best performance vocally was Peter Rose's magnificent Prince Gremin. It wasn't until I got home that I was able to check who was taking the role and I was somewhat astonished. I've heard him several times and have never been especially impressed, but tonight his performance was beautifully sung and very moving. I didn't find either Krassimira Stoyanova's Tatyana or Simon Keenlyside's Onegin entirely satisfactory. Stoyanova, especially in the first half, just sounded a bit too contained and somehow not the epitome of youthful exuberance. Keenlyside in a number of places disappeared under the orchestra. But again both were better after the interval, and never less than solid. Pavol Breslik's Lensky gave a fine account of his pre-duel aria. The rest of the singing was solid.

And so we come to Kasper Holten's production, which has not been favourably received. It was here that I was quite surprised. There are a number of moments which suggest that Holten knows what he is doing. He has what I think of as a painter's eye for a good stage picture – most in evidence in a couple of full chorus scenes – after the harvesting in Scene 1 and in the opening moments of the ball in Scene 6. He also has what I think could have been a really compelling central idea – that is that the two leads are reliving the experiences that led them to the misery of the ending and hence are doubled. This is really compelling in the build up to the fatal shot in the duel when Onegin yearns to stop his younger self from pulling the trigger. In short I do think there's real potential and this certainly wasn't a staging that made me want to strangle the director.

But the big problem with it I decided as the evening went on is that Holten lacks discipline. The idea of the doubles isn't directed tightly enough so that elsewhere it's either ineffective (the Letter Scene) or downright silly – what on earth Tatyana's double was doing in an elevated cupboard during Scene 4 I could not tell you. That lack of discipline is more broadly in evidence in a general fussiness and clutter – there's far too much opening and closing of doors, ripping up of books, not to mention mistakenly leaving poor dead Lensky stranded centre stage for two scenes.

But all that said, I came away feeling that the promise transcended the failings. And, unlike at Medea, during the second half I was moved by the plight of the characters. With the proviso of a little more self-control (and a lot less Ticciati in this repertoire at least) I remain optimistic about seeing more of Holten the director at Covent Garden.

Charpentier's Medea at ENO, or, The Wait for a Hit Continues

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 08:30:00 +0000

English National Opera last had a hit by my reckoning exactly a year ago with John Adams's Death of Klinghoffer (there have been a couple of strong shows musically since, but nothing which ticked every box). Recent announcements of nearly £2.2million losses in the last financial year have demonstrated how badly they are in need of another one. On paper this was the best bet of this season's new productions for starting to reverse this situation. McVicar is one of the best opera directors currently working, who rarely succumbs to the kind of symbolic nonsense and ineffective management of personnel so beloved by so many. Sarah Connolly is one of the reigning mezzo-sopranos. Yet I did wonder even then about the wisdom of giving this work its British stage premiere, and I'm afraid I didn't feel the decision was justified.

As usual, let's start with the positives. There is some very good singing. Sarah Connolly gives a typically strong performance, though I didn't find her as commanding here as on other occasions. She is well supported by Roderick Williams's Orontes, Katherine Manley's Creusa and Brindley Sherratt's Creon. There is also one lovely McVicar directorial touch. In her few brief scenes, he turns Aoife O'Sullivan's Cleonis into a beautifully done timid, mousy lady-in-waiting (who quite frankly I would have taken out on the dance floor, providing she could put up with having her feet trodden on, in preference to either the dangerously barking Medea or the arrogant princess).

But, I'm afraid these positive elements are outweighed by the negatives. The big one from a performance point of view is Jeffrey Francis's Jason. Astute observers of the plot may notice that Jason is supposed to be irresistible to the leading women – Medea indeed is prepared to kill just about everybody else of any consequence in order to keep hold of him. Now it is true that Francis is not helped by costuming that appears designed to make him look as if he's old enough to be Orontes's father, but his acting doesn't help either – he just has no charisma. As a result I really couldn't see why anybody, and particularly any woman would waste their energies upon him. A ringing vocal performance would have helped too. Francis is passable in the role, but it isn't an exciting voice.

The second problem is McVicar's production. This is also passable, but like other aspects of the evening rather uninspired. He's updated this Greek tragedy to what looked to me like World War II. I can't really see why he bothered – it doesn't add anything. There are lots of opening and closing doors, and a surprising amount of busyness with moveable bits of furniture, map tables and gurneys all of which suggests that McVicar had an unusual lack of faith in the music to keep us occupied (and if that was the case I can't say that I blame him). There's also quite a bit of random wandering about by the principals and broadly speaking an absence of that physical tension which McVicar is often so adept at creating.

Then there's Lynne Page's choreography. Again she's done other work which enormously impressed me – most notably the Menier's superb La cage aux folles revival. As with McVicar, it isn't that the choreography is bad but it was one of those occasions where I felt a disjunction with the music, and where generally it wasn't reinforcing emotion or plot but just passing the time.

In the pit, once again, was Christian Curnyn with what I assume was a slimmed down ENO Orchestra augmented with some period specialists. I haven't been a particular fan of Curnyn up to now, and I'm afraid this evening didn't change my mind. The score may have contributed to the general lack of that crucial feeling of drama, but it seemed to me also as if Curnyn was either plodding or rushing. There were a few occasions when the speed from the pit seemed faster than soloists were comfortable with.

And finally there's the work itself. This is my second Charpentier opera. The first was David et Jonathas at the Edinburgh Festival last year with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. As I said in my review I was, to my own surprise, rather moved by that performance. As a score this had lovely moments, and long quarters of an hour (perhaps I should have had a drink in one of the intervals). I came away feeling that, once again, ENO has spent resources on a work which is deservedly neglected.

Overall then, it was another uninspiring evening at the Coliseum which left me emotionally cold. The wait for a hit continues.

Julius Caesar at the Donmar, or, The Concept Rules (Ineffectively)

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 14:02:00 +0000

The pity of this performance is that there are quite a lot of talented actresses on the stage. Some of them, most notably Harriet Walter as Brutus, manage, often for long stretches, to transcend the ineffective concept of a production in which they are stranded. But in the end, Phyllida Lloyd's new production is a classic case of the arrogant director who having thrown out the original setting has nothing to put in its place.

Lloyd's concept appears to be that the play is being put on by a theatre group in a women's prison. I say appears to be because for much of the time we are simply in a pretty bare, empty environment. After the prisoners are marched in at the beginning, Lloyd appears to forget about where she's set the piece for two thirds of the play. The main consequence of this is that although there is some sterling delivery of text going on from some of the performers, much of it falls flat because the environmental context has been removed and replaced with, well, nothing very clear. Would that this had persisted to the end of the evening. Unfortunately, at about the two thirds mark Lloyd suddenly seems to remember that she's imposed this concept on the show and obviously feels that she better do something to justify it. First a minor Citizen Prisoner is summoned by the guard to take her meds. She is replaced by another unidentified prisoner (outside of their parts in the play there is almost no sense that they any of them have separate characters as prisoners) who reads the next scene from the script. Then in the big Cassius and Brutus reconciliation scene, some prisoners start giggling giving Walter the opportunity to deploy a few choice swear words in their direction. Having duly reminded us, in this baffling fashion, of her concept, the thing once again subsides from view.

Two other consequences of this concept need to be mentioned here. First, the normal Stalls benches have been replaced by grey plastic chairs which are increasingly hard on the back in a two hour sit. Secondly, the interval has been dispensed with. Given how half baked the concept is, I do not think either decision is justified.

All of this is rather a pity since, as already mentioned, there is some fine acting labouring under these conditions, and on that basis it is an excellent advertisement for all-female Shakespeare. Harriet Walter's Brutus is superb. She persistently lifts things outside of Lloyd's concept and almost convinced me that there was something more than the prison over which everybody was fighting. She has stillness, delivery, nuance in spades, which makes it the more irritating that the production does so little to reinforce what she's doing. Also very good is Jenny Jules's Cassius. Her delivery is a bit too much at one level in places, but she too has great presence, and the Brutus/Cassius scene towards the close is compelling stuff (again making the interjection above mentioned the more idiotic). Ishia Bennison gives a nice turn as Casca. About Frances Barber's Caesar I was rather less sure, but I think she is especially a victim of the staging. The opening is incoherent, her scenes of power played in such a way as to make her almost ridiculous, and the stabbing was particularly unconvincing. Oddly, she becomes a compelling presence only as a ghost. Cush Jumbo's Antony also suffers in this regard – goodness knows who thought up all the movement, weird choral singing and grunting that goes on during the Brutus/Antony funeral speeches but it is successful, as others have observed, at making that crucial moment go for nothing.

In the end, despite the best efforts of the actors it's impossible for the evening to get past the fundamental problem. This is that Lloyd, having thrown out classical buildings and sandy battlefields, hasn't put sufficient in their place. And that makes for a sadly empty evening.

Highs and Lows of 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:33:00 +0000

We've reached that time of year again...

Best Opera: Not as good a year as 2011. Honorable mentions go to Aldeburgh Music's marvellous Knussen double bill, the Opera North Norma and the Berlin Phil/Rattle/Kozena concert performance of Carmen but the palm goes to ENO's superb new production of John Adams's modern masterpiece The Death of Klinghoffer reviewed here. A work which, as I said at the time, deserves to be staged widely and to remain firmly in the repertoire.

Worst Opera: There was a lot of very indifferent opera in 2012 but most of it was badly flawed in one category rather than across the board. Thus ENO's Julius Caesar and the Bayreuth Tristan were both awful productions but had redeeming musical qualities. So the award goes to an opera which I didn't review at the time, the awful Judith Weir Miss Fortune at the Royal Opera back in the spring.

Best Play: It's been a real bonanza year for theatre, even if much of it has been inexplicably over-looked by other awarding bodies. Josie Rourke's opening season at the Donmar was of generally high quality. The National had a number of gems of which the beautifully acted, moving Moon on a Rainbow Shawl deserved way more plaudits than it received. Gatz and the Yugoslavian-Albanian Henry VI were in different ways fascinating. However there were three plays which stood head and shoulders above the rest in all departments: the West End revival of Long Day's Journey into Night, the Chichester Arturo Ui and the Hampstead 55 Days.

Worst Play: The biggest disappointment of 2012 was the Almeida King Lear of which I had high hopes this time last year, but it was just dull and unenvolving rather than awful (the Almeida in general I'm afraid had an indifferent year). Big and Small avoids the palm by virtue of the presence of Cate Blanchett. Several works at the Edinburgh International Festival unsurprisingly came close, but are just saved by the Chichester Heartbreak House which was regrettably poor in every department.

Best Concert: There was no single concert that triumphed in all pieces and all departments. Some of the LSO/Gergiev Brahms/Szymanowski cycle was stunning. But the performance I enjoyed most of the whole year was the European Union Youth Orchestra and Garrick Ohlsson in Busoni's Piano Concerto performed, again as so sadly often, to a largely empty Usher Hall at the EIF. A real Festival experience, not likely to come around again soon. A totally bizarre piece played with real commitment and panache.

Worst Concert: Peter Serkin's recital at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Best Musical: It was a vintage year for off West End shows, particularly at the Union in Southwark who deserve much more attention in the mainstream press than they seem to get. A late honorable mention goes to the Menier for the revised Merrily We Roll Along. However the palm goes to All Star Productions who endeared themselves to me forever by producing, in the unlikely setting of a room above a pub in Walthamstow, a new production of the musical I love best in the whole world – Kander and Ebb's Flora the Red Menace. Not absolutely perfect, but pretty near it.

Worst Musical: No award.

Finally we introduce a new section this year of those shows urgently deserving a UK production:

Neglected Opera: The enterprising English Touring Opera has earned further plaudits from me by scheduling new stagings of two long neglected works – Britten's Paul Bunyan and Tippett's King Priam for 2014. At the top of the list now sits Stephen Oliver's Timon of Athens – originally premiered by ENO but apparently not out there enough to qualify for a new production under the current regime.

Neglected Musical: There's been a little bonanza of neglected gems this year headed by already mentioned Flora the Red Menace revival. However one of my all-time favourite musicals remains at the top of the neglected list – Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's 1776. I would therefore like to make the following offer with my professional hat on – if anybody is enterprising enough to stage this I'll write you a programme note and give you a pre-performance talk.

Neglected Play: David Mamet has had a number of recent stagings on Broadway which for reasons passing understanding have yet to make it over here. Top of the list for me is his political satire November, which so brilliantly captured, while not being limited by it, the atmosphere of American politics in the dog days of the second Bush administration.

What am I looking forward to in 2013: Britten's Gloriana at the Royal Opera. The rumoured Elektra at the same venue next autumn, and, if I'm allowed to anticipate productions announced for 2014 the English Touring Opera Paul Bunyan.

Where's Runnicles' favourite recordings issued in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 17:06:00 +0000

2012 has been a good year for recordings, of which more in a moment. However before I get onto that, I find I must rectify two omissions from last year's list. The first is Mark Elder and the Hallé's majestic account of Vaughan Williams' London Symphony. I'm not sure how this escaped my notice on release since I'm a fan of the Hallé's label. The disc is for me the more impressive as I'm not the world's greatest Vaughan Williams fan, yet my first impulse on listening to it was to put it on again immediately.

The second omission is this BIS disc of Anders Hilborg works. This is actually a fortuitous omission since it ties in nicely to one of the themes of my music buying this year, which has shifted heavily towards digital downloads, which the independent labels do far better. I came across this via the eClassical store (which I've written about extensively here), and after staring at the intriguing cover image for a while, decided to give it a go. The four works on the disc are all performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, but with different conductors (Esa Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert and Sakari Oramo). King Tide, for which Oramo is on duty, is probably my favourite, fascinating because it feels both organic in the way the climaxes grow but also industrial at the same time. Hillborg creates generally energetic and intriguing sound worlds. He writes well for all sections of the orchestra and often yields a sound somewhat akin to a synthesiser, perhaps unsurprising given the liner notes mention a background in electronic music. (I mean that as a compliment, incidentally.) At times frantic, tranquil or muscular, and moving effortlessly between, it is an impressive disc and Hillborg is definitely a composer to watch.

Last year's playlist has been amended accordingly.

But enough of that; onto this year's choices. And to begin, another discovery via eClassical and BIS. Though, to be frank, it's rather shameful for me to be describing it as a discovery since Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan team have been turning out exemplary Bach cantata recordings for so long that this year they reached volume 51 (having started way back in 1995).

What prompted me to finally take the leap was, as with the Hillborg mentioned above, the eClassical site, which offers new release HD downloads at a discount each week. I'm not hugely familiar with Bach's cantatas, so don't have much to compare them to, however what I have heard has impressed me greatly. For starters, there is the high calibre of the playing and singing. Suzuki also has an interpretive approach which I find highly convincing. Tempi often feel comparatively broad but always to the service of Bach's beauty. The second thing, which has become clear as I've begun to collect the series, is that this excellence is consistent throughout the many volumes (not to mention other works such as the B minor Mass) - to turn out that many recordings to that high a standard is a extraordinary achievement. The sort of thing for which the musical equivalent of a Nobel prize or a Fields medal is due.

The Erioca Quartet, with their historically informed approach, are not a million miles from Suzuki, though I came to them in a different way. Their cellist, David Watkin, is the principal of the SCO, in which capacity he routinely impresses. Their disc of Ravel and Debussy, which is their second recording for all-digital label Resonus after Mendelssohn's Octet, is not necessarily repertoire that I would go out of my way to hear. It is the sort of recording that has me questioning why on earth not. It begins with a persuasive and richly coloured account of the Ravel. There is plenty of bite too, such as in the energetic pizicatto of the second movement. I would also describe it as an unmannered performance. Now sometimes, often even, I enjoy a bit of manner and find unmannered can be dull, but to listen to this you wonder how that could ever be. Presumably it's because they have a very clear idea of what they want to say about the piece rather than having nothing to say. And there is no lack of beauty or fire, take, for example, the shimmering textures at the end of the third movement. While for me the Ravel is the standout work on the disc, the Debussy is hardly less compelling.

It is a slight shame that given Resonus is a digital label, they cannot be found on Spotify.

It has been a good year for Beethoven, with at least two cycles catching my eye. I'm not going to go through either in depth, or include the whole of each on my playlist (indeed, to show the contrast I've chosen the same pair of favourite symphonies from both - 4 and 8). The first is Daniel Barenboim's with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. It could be said that his approach is slightly old fashioned, yet no worse for it. Diversity is a good thing. And while his take is heavier than some, it is by no means stodgy as some such accounts can be. Furthermore, owing to the nature of the band there is no shortage of energy either.

Frans Bruggen's approach with the Orchestra of the 18th Century could hardly be more different. We are in period territory here with smaller forces and overall a lighter approach. There are many highlights to pick out, but in particular the calibre of the winds is a treat. Then there is the sheer energy of the performances and the way they make these works feel so fresh and thrilling. That said, the set isn't perfect and it is a pity both that the recorded sound is not idea and, more critically, the ninth is an underpowered damp squib with some poor solo performances (though I think it's very hard to bring off a period ninth). Despite this drawback, there's more than enough on the other four discs for the set to earn its place here.

News of a new Regina Spektor album is always welcome and there is certainly a lot to love here, from the quirky mix of styles to the vocal acrobatics. My favourite track is Oh Marcello, mainly for the wonderful gear change that takes place as she transitions into "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good" from Nina Simone's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. Having said that, I don't think the album on a par with Begin to Hope or Far, in large part as the lyrics don't stand on their own as poetry in the same way as many of the tracks from those albums. Nonetheless, it is eminently listenable and most enjoyable.

The Apostles is not the greatest of Elgar's choral epics but Mark Elder (arguably the greatest living exponent of them) makes the most persuasive case possible as he rounds off his cycle. His way with an Elgarian climax is second to none and he is equally at home in the quieter moments of beauty. Particular highlights include the Sermon on the Mount and the intensity of the ending. From orchestra, to chorus, to the impressive team of soloists (which includes Rebecca Evans, Alice Coote, Paul Groves, and Jacques Imbrailo), there really isn't a weak link. Except, that is, for Elgar himself. This simply isn't a composition that matches either Gerontius or The Kingdom, whatever its most ardent fans may say. All the same, there's more than enough to argue that a few more performances and recordings of this and a few less of Gerontius would be no bad thing; this absolutely isn't one of those neglected works that deserves to be neglected. Aside from Adrian Boult, I'm not aware of another conductor who has taped all three (Oramo did with the CBSO but sadly The Kingdom and The Apostles languish in the vaults of the BBC, commercial release having been prevented by licencing). This further highlights Elder and the Hallé's achievement on their own label with these works, and much of the rest of Elgar's catalogue too: it is commendable and one of which they can be proud.

We were lucky enough to be in Berlin in April and, thanks to having got up very early one Sunday morning (take note the Royal Opera House, booking periods opening on weekends are much more sensible for those of us who work), even luckier to have attended the concert performance of Carmen from which this recording derives. It was superb - the review is here. The highlights for me were threefold. The calibre of the orchestral playing was of the highest order, something underscored by the often tricky (and rapid) tempi which Rattle requested and to which the orchestra always rose. Then there was Kaufmann's magnificent Don José. So far, so uncontroversial. Where this recording seems to particularly divide is with Kozena's Carmen, with some people thinking she is wrong for the role. I admit I am not a huge fan of this opera, nor especially a connoisseur of Carmens, but on stage, not least by dint of her acting (right down to flirting with the wind players at appropriate moments), she totally convinced me. As such, the recording brings back many fond memories, and it must be acknowledged that had I not attended the performance it's always possible I might find fault, yet I don't feel like I'm making allowances when I listen.

When this disc was released it was a pleasant surprise. If I had known it was coming, I would have been on the edge of my seat. For the 2008 Aldeburgh festival, Thomas Ades's last as artistic director, he was commissioned to write a cello sonata which was to be performed by himself and Steven Isserlis. I was lucky enough to be at that concert (review here). Less fortunately, especially given one of the supporters had helped commission it as a birthday present for his wife, it was not ready in time. However, this had the happy result that Ades and Isserlis had to come back again in 2009 to play it (review here). Everything on this disc was performed at one of those concerts (with the possible exception of one small Liszt piece and the Kurtag in whose case I don't have a note of exactly what pieces were played at the concert) and it is every bit as superb, from the rich, almost orchestra textures of Janacek's Pohadka to the intensity of Faure's second sonata. Lieux retrouves (rediscovered places), the Ades sonata, is an impressive set of pictures, including waters, mountains, fields and the city, and no easy work to perform, though they seem to take the challenges in their stride. The only weakness is the presence of a few short pieces by Kurtag, a composer by whom I have never heard anything that I have cared for. Still, since it's an HD download from Hyperion (which in a nice touch come with the liner notes embedded into the files), this can easily be edited out of the playlist and still leave amply filled disc. If I had to pick just one disc of the year, it would be this.

This isn't the orchestra own label Sibelius I was really looking forward to this year (that was Salonen and the Philharmonia's Kullervo, from this concert in September 2011 - come on Philharmonia, get a move on!). However, this disc from Paavo Berglund and the London Philharmonic is no less welcome, not least as we lost Berglund at the start of this year. It contains the 5th and 6th symphonies, which make a good pairing. Both are paced well and vividly textured, the 5th has an especially nice jagged quality to it. There is not quite the sweep that Davis might bring but a good sense of momentum nonetheless. The structure and pacing of the 6th is especially well judged. It is pretty obviously live and unpatched though, by which I mean there are fluffs and blemishes, but I would personally always take a real live performance (assuming it's good, as this one is) over a cobbled together one masquerading as live.

This is my first proper exposure to Alan Gilbert's tenure at the New York Philharmonic and it leaves me most impressed (it is a slight shame that most of the orchestra's concert recordings only seem to be available through low quality services such as iTunes). For all the endless Bruckners and Mahlers we come across in concert programmes and on CD, it strikes me that we could happily do with more Nielsen instead. True, when they last did any at the Edinburgh festival the Usher Hall was nearly deserted, but I think if people got to know these works they would be popular. On the plus side, it is nice to see two emerging cycles just now, both drawn from live concerts (even if I do not get on especially well with Colin Davis and the LSO's). Gilbert has chosen not to start with the best known (i.e. the Inextinguishable and, to a lesser extent, the 5th), instead opting for the second and third. There is a powerful energy to these performances, indeed they are electric, played both extremely well and with great intensity. The brass have a wonderfully brash quality to them that one often finds in American orchestras and which suits the music very well. Add to that the HD recording and it is hard to complain. That these are not Nielsen's greatest works only makes the prospect of the 4th and 5th more exciting.

The eponymous maestro has been performing with the BBC SSO for over a decade and is now into his fourth season as chief conductor. Indeed, he is now in Scotland so often he has robbed our name of its original meaning as a request to see more of him up here. As such, it is rather astonishing that this disc is the first recording they have made together (aside from radio broadcasts and BBC Music Magazine cover discs taken from broadcasts). Still, they have chosen fairly well. Runnicles has a persuasive way with Bruckner, as he has shown over the years with performances of the 6th, 7th and 8th in concert, the latter being one of the great concerts of my life. This recording isn't that fine, but it is thoroughly recommendable nonetheless. Runnicles shows a mastery of the music's structure in an interpretation that is both measured and varied. He builds his climaxes well, yet never comes near the trap of making it feel like an endlessly repeating series of the same or similar climaxes. All in all, it is an excellent start. We hope for many more, an 8th would be high on the list. So too would be some Elgar, with which he has proved most adept.

I'm a sucker for a good bit of multitracking and overdubbing. I come by this honestly, and probably genetically (the great Thomas Dolby is my uncle) and enjoy it in a variety of places from Bill Evans' Conversations with Myself, to the Kronos Quartet in so many things, to Peter Gregson's superb Terminal. While we (well, I, certainly) keenly await Terminal II, his collaboration with composer Gabriel Prokofiev more than tides us over. The album consists of just four tracks, but is filled out with a variety of remixes (which, it must be noted, do not feel like padding). There is a nice variety of textures achieved, especially given at heart it is just one instrument. There is generally a strong rhythmic drive, especially in Outta Pulsor. Tuff Strum, which as the name implies has plenty of strumming, is probably my favourite but all are enjoyable. If I had to pick one word to describe it, it might well be funky, not necessarily a word you would expect to associate with the cello. The remixes really do add value (not something I always find). Home Loner's Float Dance and Waves on Canvas's Tuff Strum are probably the ones that work best for me. If there's a criticism it's probably that there is a little too much of a good thing. At just shy of 70 minutes there's more than I want in one sitting (which is why for my playlist I've only included my highlights).

Stephane Deneve left the music directorship of the RSNO this summer. There are two particular achievements of his tenure that I would point to and both are evident on this recording. He left a stronger band than he found in terms of the quality of playing they are capable of. He also made them a formidable force in French repertoire. Here he collects Debussy's orchestral work in a set that is strong and consistently so. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is broadly paced but exquisitely and seductively played. Another highlight, for which the ladies of the RSNO Chorus are on hand to lure the unsuspecting traveller to their doom, is Sirènes, from his three nocturnes. The disc is a fitting testament to his tenure.

One of the benefits of subscription services is that they prompt you to listen to things that you might not otherwise take a risk on. Perhaps the greatest discovery I have had through hi-fi manufacturer Bowers and Wilkins' Society of Sound is Dub Colossus. The music of Dub Colossus is rather difficult to describe if you've never heard it. From Addis Ababa, wikipedia notes that "Their sound fuses traditional azmari music, ethio-jazz and dub, and reggae." The result, to these ears, is a funky, richly textured, diverse fusion. This is not the sort of music to listen to if you want to sit still or as background for something else. Dub Me Tender vol. 1+2 is their third album and is dominated by reworkings of previous tracks along with some new ones. But don't let that put you off: in no way does this feel like a retread of previous albums, on the contrary it feels new and fresh. What time is Dub, asks one track? The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is now, especially if you haven't heard them yet, and this disc is a good place to start (if not quite so fine as their debut album A Town Called Addis).

A few years ago the SCO released a disc of Mozart wind concertos which is now a firm favourite of mine, not least for the superb solo performances by the orchestra's principals. The orchestra is fortunate to have a number of exceptional players on hand. Indeed, last year when a newspaper waxed lyrical that the Berlin Philharmonic was hands down the best in the world and cited fine solos as evidence, my response (having attended the same series of concerts that prompted the piece) was that if offered the choice I wouldn't swap the SCO principals for theirs. Because of this talent, it's nice to see them given the chance to do a little bit more. This disc is in many ways the sequel, though only one of the soloists, clarinetist Maximiliano Martin, appears on both. For these Weber concertos he is joined by bassoonist Peter Whelan and horn player Alec Frank-Gemmil. All three are superb. For Whelan and Martin I have little to add to my concert review and Alec Frank-Gemmill is hardly less impressive.

Benjamin Grosvenor featured on last year's list with an impressive solo disc of Chopin, Liszt and Ravel. This year he is back with an equally excellent set of concertos, something that will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who has heard his various Proms performances, and indeed many other concerts. These are impressively assured readings, starting with a persuasive and lyrical account of Saint-Saens' second concerto. Elsewhere there are the glittering runs of the second movement. And if you're wondering how well Saint-Saens, Ravel and Gershwin go together, the answer is, it turns out, very. I know Ravel's concerto for left hand better, but the G major concerto is gentle and magical (though with no shortage of thrills in the end). The solo tracks that bridge to the next concerto are effective and the accompaniment of James Judd and the RLPO compliments Grosvenor well.

You can find most of these discs on the Spotify playlist below, though sadly not the Chandos or Hyperion ones. Surprisingly, since much of their catalogue is there, Linn's SCO disc isn't (this may be because it's a recent release). Needless to say the playlist will be updated if the situation changes.

In addition to the discs mentioned above, there are doubtless some fine ones I've missed - do let me know via the comments below. In addition, there are some good discs that didn't quite make the cut. In his debut with the BBC SO, of which he is now chief conductor designate, Sakari Oramo was joined by his wife Anu Komsi for a stunning performance of Sibelius's Luonnotar, so this recording for BIS (with the Lahti Orchestra) is most welcome and amongst the finest available. Alas, one fabulous track doesn't an album make. In fairness, it's not that the other tracks are bad so much as it's the sort of compilation that doesn't do terribly much for me. Another Oramo disc also narrowly missed out. Together with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra he recorded a magnificent Prokofiev 6th symphony, something that will come as no surprise to anyone who heard his Prom with the BBC SO. What a shame then that the 5th is a slightly damp squib next to it.

Robin Ticciati's debut recording with the SCO of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is very good indeed, if for me not quite great. The sound isn't Linn's best effort, I want more weight than a chamber orchestra can provide, and more than anything I just feel that there are better projects they could have tackled. Paul Lewis continued his survey of Schubert's sonatas, and just as was the case last year there is a lot to love, particularly the D935 impromptus. However, the disc didn't entirely sweep me away, in particular the Wanderer left me cold. Then there's the frankly weird karate cover art.

All in all, 2012 was a good year for recordings, especially with smaller labels. We look forward to 2012, and there are already some discs I'm keenly awaiting. Hopefully Salonen's Kullervo and Oramo's Elgar symphonies will finally appear and I learnt just yesterday that Erioca Quartet and SCO cellist David Watkin is recording the Bach cellos suites for Resonus.

The Effect at the National, or, Yours Truly Wonders What Fellow Critics Are On

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:40:00 +0000

This show, I discovered on re-reviewing the reviews this morning, was even more overwhelmingly praised than I had thought. I cannot for the life of me think why. Of course, from my point of view it started with two big handicaps. The director was Rupert Goold, who has as yet failed to impress me, and the female lead was Billie Piper, who with my Doctor Who fan hat on made me grit my teeth in annoyance almost more than one or two particularly infamous companions of the classic series I could mention. Nevertheless, I retain, I hope, the capacity to have my prejudices overcome. Goold, Piper and their fellow collaborators largely failed to achieve this.

I didn't see Lucy Prebble's ENRON so I can't compare the two works, but this play for me committed a cardinal sin. It is a play about issues. Rather too many issues frankly including the nature of love, the morality of the drugs companies, the problems involved in tackling depression, or helping someone who is suffering from depression. These issues require a great deal of talk. Now I like a play with a message (see 55 Days or the best of Shaw when he's well done), but Prebble makes the mistake of sacrificing character for issues. The result was one which I have remarked on before and which is usually fatal for me in terms of my view of a piece, apart from one or two fleeting moments I didn't give a damn about any of the people on stage. I would also note that very similar subject matter has been far more effectively treated in the musical Next to Normal which sadly never made it to London.

The performers are nothing to write home about either. They're all perfectly solid, but nothing really leapt out and took me by the throat, though it is only fair to say they aren't helped by the material. Piper and Anastasia Hille as the depressed doctor have moments which do suggest that with a better script they could really shine, but it's not enough to save the evening.

And then we come to the production. I don't think I've seen the much talked of Headlong in action before, and on the back of this I cannot see what is special about their approach. They're described in the programme as making “exhilarating, risk-taking and provocative new work” - readers will perhaps have gathered that I would only apply the last two words to this show. The Cottesloe transformation on this occasion doesn't compare with recent work such as This House or The Curious Incident. There's flashing lights and video screens which Marianne Elliott used to much better effect in the latter. There's nothing wrong per se with Goold's management of his personnel on stage, but as with everything else about this piece it isn't anything to write home about either.

In short this is a long, dull evening to be avoided, and yours truly remains a sceptic about the merits of Rupert Goold.

The SCO present two Weber concertos for the price of one

noreply@blogger.com (Tam Pollard) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:53:00 +0000

Saturday's concert, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's last of 2012, is one of those I have been most looking forward to this season. It did not disappoint.

The reason for my interest was the two Weber concertos at its centre. Now, I am not especially a fan of Weber per se, nor do I know either the clarinet or bassoon concertos terribly well. What made this an interesting programme was the presence of two of the SCO's principals as soloists. This is a good prospect for several reasons. First, the orchestra is fortunate to have a number of exceptional players on hand. Indeed, last year when a newspaper waxed lyrical that the Berlin Philharmonic was hands down the best in the world and cited fine solos as evidence, my response (having attended the same series of concerts that prompted the piece) was that if offered the choice I wouldn't swap the SCO principals for theirs. Secondly, and because of this talent, it's nice to see them given the chance to do a little bit more.

Bassoonist Peter Whelan had his turn first. A few years ago we were treated to his reading of the Mozart concerto and he proved himself no less adept with Weber. Whelan has a beautifully rich tone to his playing and that was much in evidence, especially during the slow movement. In the outer movements Weber provided fiendishly rapid runs which were as breathtaking to listen to as one images they were to play, but Whelan was more than a match for them. Beneath him the orchestra, under Pablo Gonzalez, provided well judged accompaniment, never in danger of swamping the soloist but packing ample punch where needed.

After the interval, clarinetist Maximiliano Martin took to the stage (returned would perhaps be more accurate since he had been heading up his section during the first half, as Whelan went on to do in the second - there is, it seems, no rest for the stars!). Martin played with seemingly effortless charm and great elan. I found his concerto slightly the more satisfying of the two, though this has more to do with the works themselves than any difference in the calibre of the performance. From the grin on his face, Martin seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were.

The cynical might suggest that using your own soloists is just a good way of saving money, or that it was an effort to plug the orchestra's thoroughly recommendable recent CD which includes both pieces (as well as a concertino for clarinet and orchestra and a horn concerto with the orchestra's Alec Frank-Gemmill). There may be some truth in both those statements, and if there is, all I can say is that they should save money and plug their CDs more often.

Weber was bookended by Beethoven and Mozart. Gonzalez directed a stormy and forceful account of the Egmont overture. Indeed, so much so that early on it lost a little in flow. However, he drove the work to a thrilling conclusion.

The concert finished with Mozart's 25th symphony, which sits on the cusp between his early work and his later and greater symphonies. It also falls into the group of works which I couldn't recall the tune of if asked, but remember instantly on hearing. Of course, the SCO are a Mozart orchestra par excellence, and so it danced along beautifully. One could also hear flashes of what would come later. All the same it didn't quite seem like a big finish, the biggest cheers having already rightly gone to the concertos.

Meyerbeer's Robert le diable at the Royal, or, A Justified Revival

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:36:00 +0000

The opera year in London has ended with both major companies reviving neglected works: Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim's Progress at English National Opera and Meyerbeer's Robert le diable at the Royal Opera House. Critical reaction to the former was largely positive, to the latter largely negative, and one has a slight sense that one of those critical mood swings is in progress with ENO on the rise after a long period of very justifiable criticism. The distinction in reaction is not in my view justified, and I'll come back to why at the end of the review.

Much to my surprise, I very much enjoyed the Meyerbeer. First of all there's Laurent Pelly's production. The visual colour and the flexible design is wonderfully refreshing – I have sat through far too many eyesore productions this season. Personally I thought the still life horses and knights for the tournament work beautifully (I slightly wondered if Pelly had seen A Knight's Tale), the mountainside that reverses to become the graveyard is a clever bit of flexible set, and the final tableau of Act III with Purgatory suddenly conjured among the graves was especially striking. For a moment or two in Act IV I could see why some critics had complained about the mobile set, but actually the pay-off of that movement creates an effective final image and you've got to do something because one of Meyerbeer's problems is that he's very bad at endings. I've also seen complaints about, I think, Monty Pythonesque knights, but I think a bit of tongue in cheek around the whole enterprise is no bad thing – god help you if you tried to play the thing entirely straight. Also worthy of mention are the effective video designs of Claudio Cavallari. Away from the visuals Pelly also scores with me by being a director who is not frightened of stillness. One of my bugbears is over-fussy movement, and the inability to create telling relations between people through their physical positioning, and Pelly did a good job in both those departments.

The only area which doesn't work is the choreography of Lionel Hoche. There are two issues with this. The cluttered tomb set for Act III Scene 2 looks good but is rather a minefield for the poor dancers making effective variety of movement near impossible to achieve. Within that limitation I just didn't think that Hoche made his zombie nuns debauched enough, although this is another place where Meyerbeer's limits as a composer are shown up.

The line up of singers in this production has been an ongoing press saga almost since the production was announced, but in fact it all turned out happily. During the first two acts I found myself wishing all the voices were a bit bigger, but in Acts III-V voices seemed to open out more and there was some stunning singing. Bryan Hymel was good in Les Troyens earlier in the year but I thought outstanding here. He was well matched by the late substitute of Patrizia Ciofi as Isabelle. I previously heard here as Gilda in the last Rigoletto revival where she was not ideal, but I was much more impressed here. John Relyea played the villainous Bertram. Relyea was an Edinburgh regular during the McMaster era where he gave a number of impressive performances. I have heard him a couple of times in London since when he hasn't impressed me as much, but tonight I thought he was in superb voice – singing with real authority and character. The final member of the quartet was Maria Poplavskaya. I have been very critical of her on other occasions but in the inside acts there were some very good moments. The duet between her and Relyea in Act III was finely done. I'm afraid overall there remain big question marks about her as a singer because quite simply the voice is not secure enough and too prone to strain but these were less obvious in this performance than on other occasions. The minor roles were all well taken.

In the pit was Daniel Oren, who I don't think I've previously encountered, and I'm afraid is not ideal. As the evening went on I came to the conclusion that he was loving the score too much. He accompanied the singers very sensitively – and the support was just right in the many exposed vocal passages, but elsewhere he needed more oomph and feeling of drama. I also got the impression that he has shortcomings in terms of appropriate guidance to the chorus who often sounded a bit underpowered and hesitant. The Royal Opera House Orchestra were on typically fine form.

And finally there's the question of Meyerbeer himself. Does this performance indicate that he has been justly neglected and indeed should now be buried in a deep dark place where no one will ever find him? It is difficult to make a case for Meyerbeer as a first rank composer, though Robert Letellier has a pretty good try in the programme note. The best of his work comes in the virtuosic material for the soloists and in the small intimate ensembles, although there are no tunes to stick in the mind. Meyerbeer is not much cop as a writer of choruses, and as already mentioned he clearly hadn't really mastered the art of bringing things to a dramatic climax at the end of Acts. But having said all that I didn't find it boring (except in the final trio of Act V which seemed to go on and on). And I think it is historically interesting – in the opening of the fifth Act one can see the seeds which Verdi would transform into something incomparably greater in Don Carlo for example. Judging by Letellier's programme note, Robert le diable is not the most significant of Meyerbeer's operas, and if Covent Garden did revive another, I would go.

This brings us back to where we came in, the ENO/ROH contrast. Personally I would argue that Meyerbeer in opera terms is of much greater historical significance than Vaughan Williams. Neither now stands in the front rank, but personally I was more bored by the Vaughan Williams. Musical standards in both performances were high. What one can in fact see with these two productions is that what has happened with these companies is that the quality gap has narrowed. But overall, this year, it hasn't narrowed as much as some criticism might suggest.

Opera on Screen - The Met's Un Ballo in Maschera

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Pollard) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:01:00 +0000

I dithered about buying a ticket for this. My last try of a cinema relay of classical music was the Berlin Philharmonic performing Bruckner, where I felt that it just wasn't possible to achieve a sufficiently close approximation of the experience of hearing Bruckner live to make it satisfying. I also noticed that this production was directed by David Alden, whose work I do not generally care for. But in the end curiousity got the better of me, plus the fact that I want to support the Lincoln Odeon now that they've decided to bring in the Met Relays for the first time. Overall, I was very glad I went.

The sound worked much better for this than for the Berlin Philharmonic. Clearly you are never going to recreate the precise experience of live performance in a cinema but I actually thought they got pretty near it. There certainly wasn't any moment when I felt the sound was detrimental to my enjoyment of the music. I did wonder if one factor was the screening taking place in one of the small cinemas at the Odeon rather than the vast space we were in for the Berlin concert.

I also take my hat off to the Met's broadcast team. I'm not generally a fan of Deborah Voigt as a singer these days but she makes a good presenter for this – although inevitably some of the singers were more interesting to listen to than others. There was an additional treat in getting to hear Joyce DiDonato rehearsing for Maria Stuarda (to be broadcast in January), and an unintentionally hilarious interview with David Alden in which he insisted on all sorts of things about the production which I have to say were not very apparent to me.

Turning to the performance itself. Musically it was of a very high order. The stand out among the singers was Dmitri Hvorostovsky's Renato who was just a joy to listen to throughout. I don't think I've previously heard Marcelo Alvarez, who sang Gustavo. I've no idea whether the Royal Opera has hired him but on this showing they absolutely should do – I found him far more satisfying than Antonenko's Otello, though I daresay the parts cannot really be compared. Occasionally in the faster passages he didn't sound as completely secure, but these moments were few and far between. He's also a little bit in love with the old style grand operatic gesture. The women were less satisfactory, and I don't know whether this is a reflection of the fact that (as I saw a piece suggest last week) higher voices tend to come over less well in this format. Part of the problem for me was that Sondra Radvanoksy's Amelia reminded me of a decaying Royal (I couldn't quite think of precisely which decaying Royal) and I consequently couldn't quite see why Gustavo was so passionately in love with her. She had some beautiful moments, but overall I wanted a fuller, richer voice for the part. Stephanie Blythe gave a commanding performance as Ulrica – she's stronger in the lower part of the voice but was sufficiently dramatically convincing to carry over the slightly less satisfactory upper portions. Kathleen Kim's Oscar impressed me more than her Madame Mao which I heard from the Proms earlier in the year. She was especially fine in her Act Three number, but overall I do find her voice a bit small. In the pit Fabio Luisi kept things firing nicely.

And so we come to David Alden's production. This was ineffective rather than infuriating Alden. Visually it was a pretty spare setting (but with some nice art as a backdrop (a symbolic falling Icarus) and mirrors which kept it from being another entry in the boredom stakes. There were some odd costume decisions – anybody fool enough to go herb hunting in the sort of dress Amelia was got up in in Act Two deserves everything that comes to them, and I didn't feel that the chorus's yellow souwesters or Oscar's wings added much to the proceedings. But the real problems lay in Alden's movement of his personnel and fundamental interpretation. In his interview between Acts Two and Three, Alden implied that the whole thing may be taking place in Gustavo's mind. I'm not at all convinced this is a viable option, and in any case I don't think Alden had followed it through with sufficient conviction to make it work. Up to a point one can believe in a fantasy element when Gustavo is on stage, but it becomes problematic the moment he isn't, and it all rather fell apart with the assassination which seemed to be played completely straight. But the more serious problem for me was Alden's management of the Gustavo-Amelia meeting in Act Two. From then on to the end of the opera Gustavo insists on Amelia's innocence and the dramatic punch of the end of the opera really hinges on this. I'm afraid I didn't really believe in this innocence, and I found their kissing at the conclusion of their Act Two love duet a real problem. That duet also suffered from Alden's poor decisions with respect to movement – generally speaking this was another occasion when I just didn't think the way he positioned people in relation to each other on the stage was effective – and it was particularly problematic in terms of his use of the chorus who had several bouts of being given silly things to do.

But overall the musical performances, and the dramatic presence of the key principals was enough to outweigh Alden's ineffective ideas and make the evening a really enjoyable one. I've marked down DiDonato's Maria Stuarda as one to catch in January.