Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra streams four free concerts with Steven Isserlis, Michael Collins and Nardus Williams from Oxford’s historic Sheldonian theatre

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23, 30 September and 7, 14 October 2021
Streamed on the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s YouTube channel

Featuring
Steven Isserlis cello
Anthony Robb flute
Caroline Dale cello
Michael Collins clarinet
Charlotte Scott, Yuri Zhislin, Tereza Privratska, Katerina Nazarova, Shlomy Dobrinsky violins
Robert Murray tenor
Nardus Williams soprano

Marios Papadopoulos director
Marios Papadopoulos, Hannah Schneider, Douglas Boyd conductors
Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

This autumn, the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos will stream concerts from the historic Sheldonian Theatre, including an environmentally-themed concert, Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with Steven Isserlis, and two concerts exploring the works of Chevalier de Saint-Georgesand his contemporary, Mozart.

The concerts were recorded in front of a live audience in June 2021 as the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra made their long-awaited return to live performance. Free tickets for all concerts are available from the Orchestra’s website at oxfordphil.com/events, available to access for three months. All concerts are filmed by Apple and Biscuit Recordings.

Faiths in Tune World Music Day 20/21st June

Celebrate World Music Day 2021. Experience music and dance by artists and groups from 13 different faith backgrounds and more than 15 different countries at this global online live concert event!

Faiths In Tune is the largest interfaith music initiative in Europe, reaching over 20,000 people of over 20 different faiths every year with its Interfaith Music Festivals and events in the UK, Germany, Italy and beyond. It promotes respect and dialogue through music and personal encounters that can be experienced in the safe spaces of the festivals.

www.faithsintune.org

Make Music Day on Monday 21 June Brighton Dome

Monday 21 June sees the return of Make Music Day; a worldwide celebration of music in person, online and beyond. Brighton & Hove Music & Arts (BHMA) and East Sussex Music (ESM) will be celebrating in style with an all-day virtual event that everyone can be a part of.

Giving music-makers a platform to showcase their work, BHMA and ESM are inviting everyone, from beginner to expert, to submit videos of their own performances, which will be shared on social media throughout the day, as well as showcasing videos from their talented teachers, learners and more. On top of this, there will be competitions and giveaways, live streams with free teachings and performances, messages from special guests and awards for the best performers, all to be announced soon.

To submit your videos, visit bit.ly/MusicDayForm and to stay up to date with announcements, join the official Facebook event page at bit.ly/MusicDayEventFB.

Make Music Day began in France as Fête de la Musique in 1982 when the Ministry of Culture imagined a great popular event that would allow all musicians to express themselves and make themselves known. This worldwide phenomenon first came to the UK in 2012 and the number of gigs taking place has been growing year on year. 2017 was the first UK-wide coordinated event with support and funding from national organisations resulting in 147 performances. In 2020, there were 1,739 performances live and online and it’s still growing. This is an opportunity to get involved in the world’s largest grassroots music movement – it’s a wonderful way to celebrate the longest day of the year.

Watch the Opera Holland Park Young Artists Masterclass with Amanda Roocroft

On Saturday 24 April the great lyric soprano Amanda Roocroft spent an afternoon with three of the 2021 Opera Holland Park Young Artists, giving masterclasses on music by Mozart and Strauss. Filmed by Simon Wall, and accompanied by the YA répétiteur Thomas Ang, Amanda worked with soprano Isabelle Peters and bass baritone Alex Jones on arias from Der Rosenkavalier and The Marriage of Figaro.

The film offers captivating insights into the complex business of combining vocal technique, musicality, physicality, imagination and stagecraft to create a compelling character in song. As Amanda brings empathy, wit and a wealth of experience to a rapid learning process, Thomas demonstrates the subtlety and strength required of a répétiteur. Available to watch online from Friday 14 May, this is a delightful behind-the-scenes document of life as an Opera Holland Park Young Artist in the tenth year of the training scheme.

http://www.operahollandpark.com/

HPO PASTORAL -HASTINGS PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Premiered online on 24th April this concert was recorded the previous weekend in the beautiful setting of Christ Church, St Leonards-on-Sea. Throughout the performance the orchestra and soloist were in fine form under the enthusiastic baton of Marcio da Silva.

Setting the scene for the programme was Beethoven’s Overture:Leonore. This gave an opportunity for the orchestra to be heard together before being joined by the soloist for Tchaikovsky’s well loved Piano Concerto No 1. Maxim Kinasov gave a very committed performance alongside the orchestra. Since winning prizes at the 2019 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition he has given a number of performances around the area as well as establishing himself further afield including concerts in Europe and the United States.

The final music gave the title to this concert. Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 “Pastoral” is another popular work and it was good to see and hear it here in St Leonards being played with appropriate energy or lyricism as the piece demands.

A thoroughly polished performance and presentation giving a taste of what is hopefully to come when Covid restrictions are lifted to allow for more “normal” conditions will allow audiences to return in person. For now, though, these online presentations are to be commended and enjoyed.

A socially distanced concert is planned at Christ Church on 22nd May 7.30pm.

Details at www.hastingsphilorchestra.co.uk

Stephen Page

 

Hastings International Piano Concerts – Celebration Series – Tzu-Ying Huang

Part of an online series of performances this concert featured the 2016 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition winner. Tzu-Ying Huang played two substantial and lesser known works linked by their both being inspired by literature.

Lizst’s Vallee d’Obermann and Schumann’s Kreisleriana both contain passages of intensity and force alongside more lyrical movements. Naturally there was more opportunity for contrast in the second, the longer of the two works. Throughout the programme Tzu-Ying Huang gave fully of herself as she played this music with conviction and panache. A benefit of the online experience is the ability to see her dexterity and control up close on the keyboard. Opinions divide over the issue but, as a general rule, I like to experience an introduction to the music from the performer at the start of a concert and it was good to get that on this occasion.

Previous concerts from other performers are available on line. The next concert in the series premieres on 11th May. A newly recorded concert with Maxim Kinasov and the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra will be available from 24th April.

Full details are available from hastingsphilorchestra.co.uk

Stephen Page

Brighton Dome launches new online music courses

Having already inspired hundreds of children and young people to participate in music activities during lockdown through their Virtual Music Centre, Brighton Dome’s music education service have launched a new series of online music courses, accessible for all ages and abilities.

 

Brighton & Hove Music & Arts and East Sussex Music will be delivering three course styles to suit different skill levels. First is personal one-to-one tutoring sessions, with teaching available on 16 different instruments from keyboard, guitar, trumpet or saxophone to violin,  offering expert guidance every step of the way.

The second style of course on offer is a 10-week masterclass which specialises in song writing and production. Learning and participating as part of a group, this is a great opportunity to interact with other students and is a lower cost entry route to help learners get started. All that’s needed to take part in either one of these courses is an internet connection and a camera; upon completion, participants will earn themselves a digital badge, which could make an excellent addition to a musician’s CV.

The third type of course on offer are self-paced video courses available via instant video download; ideal for people with busy lifestyles, this course is designed to help people learn ukulele, drums or guitar at their own pace. The package is delivered in ten easy-to-digest sessions, alongside a support pack, to provide users with the perfect foundations to help them start on their journey towards instrument mastery.

All of these courses are available to residents in the UK, whether a beginner, intermediate or advanced performer.

As the largest music service in East Sussex, Brighton & Hove Music & Arts have over 20 years’ experience teaching thousands of students, their music teachers are some of the best in their field, and have finessed a fantastic approach to learning an instrument online.

Peter Chivers, Head of Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, said:
‘’Music has the potential to transform lives. Whether it is through the enjoyment of mastering instrumental and vocal skills, the excitement of developing creative ideas, the experience of seeing and hearing world class musicians or the thrill of actually performing, getting involved in music can be a truly fulfilling and lifelong experience.’’

To find out more information on pricing, course dates and more, visit the Brighton & Hove Music & Arts website bhma.org.uk or call 01273 261 565.

Isata Kanneh-Mason performs Clara Schumann, Coleridge-Taylor & Gubaidulina St George’s Bristol, Polyphonic Concert Club 15th April 2021 – available until 29th April 2021

www.polyphonic.club

The Polyphonic Concert Club concerts are a collaboration between television production company Polyphonic Films Ltd, artists and three leading arts venues outside of London: Bristol’s St George’s, Manchester’s Stoller Hall and York’s National Centre for Early Music.

As with all such online experiences there is the benefit of uninterrupted listening, a front row seat with excellent views and no rush to catch the last train home!

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason brings her assured but graceful presence to the platform and draws the listener in from her opening bars. This “personal selection of poignant music” is a beautifully programmed, contrasted set of piano works from names that may be familiar but are not really mainstream. Bookended with substantial works by Clara Schumann the concert begins with the Piano Sonata in G minor and ends with the Scherzo No 2 in C minor. A varied selection of song arrangements from Coleridge-Taylor’s 24 Negro Melodiesand the dramatic posturing of Gubaidulina’s Chaconne provide much interest. The reflective Notturno returns us to Clara Schumann before the final work.

Beautiful music in fine performances form a pianist who communicates so well. It just seemed a shame that without an in-house audience the performer receives no applause.

Stephen Page

 

The House of Life Ralph Vaughan Williams/Dante Gabriel Rossetti Opera Holland Park

The House of Life
-Ralph Vaughan Williams/Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Opera Holland Park

There are at least three good reasons for catching this short film from Opera Holland Park. Firstly, it is pleasing to encounter a work which doesn’t get many outings. Secondly, the rich resonance of David Butt Philip’s tenor voice is stunning. Thirdly, the musical rapport between him and pianist James Baillieu hits you between the eyes, especially during rubato passages.

The House of Life is a song cycle setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams of six of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s most heartfelt love sonnets. RVW wrote this in 1903/4 when he was in his early thirties. The poems, addressed to Rossetti’s troubled wife Lizzie Siddal, who died in 1862, had been published twenty years earlier.

Early RVW it may be but many of the hallmark intervals and harmonies are already there, especially in the third song Love’s Minstrels. The poems are through-set: lines sung one after another like a recitation in music without any of the repetition you get, for example in Baroque settings. Consequently they seem very direct and focused.

Philip delivers the big intervals, including octaves, with charismatic eloquence in Heart’s Haven and brings both passion and precision to Death in Love, with its fanfare intro and heavy chords for the dramatic climax.

James Baillieu, whose music is bravely on a tablet, has a terrific range of moods from a thoughtful, right hand introduction to the tortured ebullience which drives several of these pieces.

Leighton House, where this film was made, has a very warm acoustic which really adds an extra dimension to the recital. It was an appropriate choice, too, since it is very close to Holland Park and Frederic Leighton and Rossetti were friends.

Rossetti’s paintings are almost as well known and loved as Leonardo da Vinci’s or Rembrandt’s. He was also highly acclaimed as a poet in his own day. I have to say that his verse hasn’t stood the test of time very well. There’s only so much “deathless dower” and “hurtling harms” that a 21st century listener can take. That could just be why this work isn’t performed very often.

Susan Elkin