Andrew's music blog

Gustav Leonhardt has died

andrewinlondon — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:51:22 +0000

Gustav Leonhardt has died. His Bach recordings have been so much part of my life that I can’t quite believe it is true. In fact I only saw the Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach several decades after it first came out. I don’t know why I didn’t go along when it was on at the old Academy cinemas in Oxford Street. But when I did finally see it at the ICA it was amazing to see all these now fairly elderly musicians as such young people. I have the box record, the vinyl recording of Leonhardt performing the art of the fugue by Bach. I have many other Bach recordings, both vinyl & CD where he is the performer or one of the performers. I have seen him performing in London, possibly Utrecht as well. It won’t be easy to replace such a wonderful musician, such a wonderful Bach interpreter as Gustav Leonhardt. This is the Dutch link. I don’t speak Dutch (to my shame – I have been to Holland so many times over the decades but everybody in Holland speaks English.) But I think the meaning is clear.

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2012/01/17/dirigent-gustav-leonhardt-83-overleden/

RIP

You won’t be replaced.

Montserrat Figueras has died

andrewinlondon — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:05:56 +0000

Montserrat Figueras has died. I can’t let this terrible event go by without commenting upon it. I didn’t know her personally. I didn’t ever meet her. There is no particular reason why I should have. She was musician. I am not. Her voice was remarkable & wonderful. A Dutch obituary has compared her to Emma Kirkby which is an interesting comparison but not a very good one really. Emma Kirkby has the ultimate bel canto voice. Montserrat Figueras had a haunting voice best known for her singing with her husband the truly great Jordi Savall & Hesperion XX. She was only 63. She was young, younger than me. As is so often the case it is often never really revealed what disease it is that afflicted her. Often it turns out to be cancer. She will be missed, much missed. She leaves behind her many recordings, many of them on you tube. Montserrat Figueras RIP.

The Wigmore Hall

andrewinlondon — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:42:25 +0000

I am going to the Wigmore Hall tonight, Wednesday. To me, the Wigmore Hall is London. It represents everything that I live. London is or at was possibly still a centre of what is called classical music, an umbrella term that covers so many forms of music. In the early part of the nineties the Wigmore Hall closed for a year & I somehow lost the habit of going there. Before that I used to go on a regular basis; since then I have only been going spasmodically. After the World War 2, the Wigmore Hall became the most fashionable. Queues for an Amadeus string quartet concert stretched around the block.

At some point it fell into comparative obscurity. I did go occasionally & the audiences were pitiful. Then the legendary William Lyne became manager & transformed the Wigmore Hall back to the position & status that it deserved.

In the eighties especially, the audiences were huge. Often queues stretched outside & into the street.

In the eighties, there was much early music performed there, mainly on Thursday to full house or almost house to ecstatic audiences. Indeed in London, the Wigmore Hall was the very much the centre of early music.

The Wigmore Hall is the shoebox design concert hall so beloved of many musicians. Many musicians who could fill the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank perform at the Wigmore Hall because they like its acoustics.

I am going to the Wigmore Hall this evening for a performance of music by Bach performed the Retrospect Ensemble. I have not heard of them before but I am confident that they are good & will perform excellently. That is how it is at the Wigmore Hall. Only musicians who reach exacting standards perform there.

Much BBC radio3 music comes from there. The Wigmore Hall is an institution.

The Goldberg Variations

andrewinlondon — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:17:06 +0000

Tonight is the night. Bach’s Goldberg variations are being performed at Shotts music shop by the Slovakian pianist Ivan Siller. The Goldberg variations have a tendency to make you think you are walking on air. They have a tendency to make you think you are flying. All of Bach’s music is amazing. The most beautiful music imaginable. Even when not played perfectly, The Goldbergs are far superior to anything else ever created by anybody.

concert at Amsterdam Concertgebouw

andrewinlondon — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:25:55 +0000

I am going to a Bach & Monterverdi concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on Saturday. Very exciting. I will report back up on it on my return or before.

Bach Players at Downshire Hill

andrewinlondon — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:01:10 +0000

The Bach Players performed at St John’s Downshire Hill yesterday. It was varied programme. Ockeghem, Biber, Monteverdi Pergolesi & others in the lovely St Johns church at Downshire Hill at Hampstead. The Bach Players are an ensemble who do play in a particularly beautiful way. Nicolette Mooney, the leader & founder of the ensemble, performed 2 of the devilishly difficult & mystical of Biber’s mystery sonatas. The evening began with Sally Bruce singing Ockeghem’s Salve Regina offstage as it were. Sally Bruce Payne also sang some Monteverdi which I enjoyed. It was good evening. It is interesting mixing up the programme like this performing both mediaeval & renaissance music. The transition is great. Apart from anything no-one really has any idea how the music was played or sung.

Here are the photos of the ensemble taking a bow & the audience during the interval.Click to view slideshow.

Emma Kirkby receives the Queens medal for music

andrewinlondon — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:35:02 +0000

On Wednesday the 26^th of Saturday at a concert at St Johns Smith Square, the venue that is both a church & not a church, the great soprano Dame Emma Kirkby was a presented with the Queens medal for music, not in fact by the Queen but Peter Maxwell Davies the Master of the Queens Medal who instigated the medal in 2005. Various musicians including Bryn Terfel & Judith Weir have won in previous years. But Emma Kirkby is easily the most distinguished. I don’t suppose many even knew it existed before but probably they will now.

It was also Roy Goodman’s 60^th birthday. He first became well known because of high voice soaring above the others in Miserere’s Allegri. But he has come a long way since then. His ensemble the Brandenburg Consort performed a programme of Haydn & Telemann (no Bach mores the pity) These are the photos from the event.

Emma Kirkby at St Johns Smith Square 26/01/11 to awarded Queens medal for music

andrewinlondon — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:30:33 +0000

Emma Kirkby, the great great soprano of early music is to be awarded the Queens medal. Presumably the Queens medal is something like the Queens medal for Music. When I first I heard about I thought it must be the Queens medal for industry because she has sold so many records. In fact it is the first I have heard about something called the Queens Medal for music. Personally I am one to scoff at this sort of thing. I don’t believe in inherited leadership, nor do I at all like the idea of medals & honours & so on for doing yur job. I am in a minority about this I think.

I did think that Emma Kirkby would be too embarrassed to accept the elevation to being Dame Emma Kirkby but I gather that in fact it did give her much pleasure. If anyone deserves recognition it is her. She has raised the art of bel canto to new heights. And in spite of much use her voice is as good as ever. And she has raised early music to new heights.

Mozart marathon

andrewinlondon — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:09:53 +0000

Radio 3 are at present in the midst of a Mozart marathon. To me this is a shame. To me his music does not merit such an honour. Glenn Gould said Mozart was a mediocre composer who died too old. Something of Gouldism. Glenn Gould liked to be controversial & such a statement certainly is that. Earlier on in my life I was a Mozart fanatic. I couldn’t understand why anyone should not share my opinion. But at some point I am not sure when I felt that my opinion of Mozart was wrong. There is still much that I like about Mozart, much that is unquestionably great. There is much that I love about Mozart, specifically the piano trios, the string quartets if I am in the right mood, the operas or at least Cosi Fan Tutti & Don Giovanni. Possibly the Magic Flute thought the plot is so laughable that well, in the end who cares about the music.
I happened upon the marathon on Sunday evening. Someone was giving a talk about Mozart & his music & it was undoubtedly very interesting. Specifically that he, Mozart that is, had the composition in his head before he even started writing a single note. And then he wrote down the whole thing in one frantic rush of creativity. Apparently creative people who can do this have bits in their brain joined up in a way that non-creative people don’t. It sounds a bit like phrenology to me but you never know. Neuroscience is or at least claims to be much advanced these days. Mozart certainly lived a busy life what with his teaching, performing & composing; often he did all 3 in 1 day. The person doing the talk chose extracts from Mozart. They were some of the most beautiful pieces of Mozart’s music from the operas, the piano concertos, the symphonies etc. These days it is generally considered that Mozart’s early works are not that good. That there is not that much merit in them. And it was only when he had been composing for several years that his work showed true depth. But the speaker gave as an example Mozart’s requiem which in fact he didn’t write. In fact my opinion is that the early piano music is far greater than the mature work which is very formulaic.
Bach is a far greater composer. The music of Bach is more beautiful & more complex. It is immortal. Bach too was extremely prolific but somehow his music is less formulaic, more beautiful than anything any other composer including Mozart ever wrote. The Bach marathon on Radio3 of a few years ago was a great enterprise. It was more than perfect. I left the radio on at night & tried to stay awake at night to listen to it. It just went on & on getting better & better. When it was over, the World & life itself seemed flat.
When I have dipped into the Mozart marathon I cannot but help agree with Glenn Gould’s assessment that Mozart was a mediocre composer who died too old. It seems a sort of radio2 of classical music; endlessly tedious & boring.

Renaissance Singers at St James Spanish Place

andrewinlondon — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:10:45 +0000

I love the music of Tomas Luis Victoria. Of the 4 16th century composers normally considered the greatest, Lassus, Taverner, Palestrina & Victoria himself. I love Victoria the most & have done for several decades. His music is somehow more haunting, deeper,
Last night the Renaissance Singers gave a concert at St James Church, Spanish Place. In fact the church isn’t actually at Spanish Place It was a concert of Christmas music by Victoria & other Spanish composers of the renaissance. And it was truly wonderful. The church itself is awe-inspiring & the music lived up to the setting.