RNCM Symphony Orchestra with Sarah Bennett

RNCM Symphony Orchestra with Sarah Bennett

RNCM Concert Hall, 1 February 2013

After the blissful enchantment of Lowell Liebermann’s Flute Concerto, which saw Sarah Bennett bringing her considerable sonorous gifts to the fore, we were awoken by Beethoven’s Eroica.

It isn’t often that you are granted the opportunity to hear a live performance of any Beethoven symphony, and already with the Ludwig van Festival were on to the third, with others due to follow.  Interestingly, the festival means one is able to examine the music in terms of the composer’s development, from the standpoint of mastery and control.

Inspired by cataclysmic historical events and no doubt much else, not forgetting all that sui-generis stuff, Beethoven alternates ferocity with gentleness and even a semblance of quietitude, but keeps the music moving always forever forward.

The beauty of a lion is of a piece with its power and majesty and that’s true of this symphony too.

A memorable experience.

There’s no sighting of a t-shirt associated with the festival as yet, a pity considering the number of striking images that have been produced.  Anyway, further events in the Ludwig van Festival can be viewed here.

Uri Caine: Beethoven 1 Improvised

Uri Caine: Beethoven 1 Improvised

RNCM Concert Hall, 22 November 2012

Uri Caine. Photo by Bill Douthart.

We saw a master craftsman at work and a fine pianist at play.

Uri Caine’s concert closed day one of Ludwig Van, the RNCM’s Beethoven festival.  The idea is to devote one day every month or so over the coming year to the great composer, playing all his symphonies in the process.

In a talk beforehand, Caine had talked amongst other things about improvisation as practice.  Not just as a way of creating, but as a way also of exploring and understanding a piece of music, taking it apart and putting it back together, seeing how it all works.

He began with pieces by Mozart and Mahler, and then launched into an improvised version of Beethoven’s first symphony.  His playing was exhilarating.

Cropper/Welsh/Roscoe Piano Trio

Cropper/Welsh/Roscoe Piano Trio

Manchester Chamber Concerts Society

RNCM Concert Hall, 15 October 2012

Yet another varied programme, delivered by a trio of distinguished musicians: Peter Cropper on violin, Moray Welsh on cello and Martin Roscoe on piano.

The concert included works by Haydn, Brahms and (switching back in time, after the interval) Beethoven.  It was Beethoven’s so-called ‘Archduke’ piano trio which they played (official title: Piano Trio in B flat major), a grand edifice which can hardly be scaled and fully comprehended, much less superseded.

Can a work of art ever rival natural phenomena?  If so, this is as likely a candidate as any: Beethoven is (a kind of) god.  To live in a world where works of such complex beauty can coexist with a flower (also a work of complex beauty) is baffling in the extreme.

This was an excellent concert; for details of future Manchester Chamber Concerts Society concerts, click here.

Portrait of Faith

Portrait of Faith

Manchester Camerata

Manchester Cathedral, 4 April 2012

This was a memorable experience, an opportunity to hear religious music in the kind of environment for which it was intended, the hallowed space of Manchester Cathedral.

The programme was varied, though Bach was prominent and rightly so: Cantata no.4 ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’ related directly to the death of Christ, whilst Cantata no.82 ‘Ich Habe Genug’ expressed a serenity at the moment of death, resting upon a faith in Christ’s Resurrection.  A high point was the Chaconne in D minor from Partita no.2: the performance was breathtaking, compelling, decisive.  As one listened, one sensed it taking shape.

There then followed a brilliant orchestral performance of Arvo Part’s Summa, sacred twentieth century music surely written for the ages.  Works by John Tavener and Roderick Williams and Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang made up the rest of the programme.

In the main and taken as a whole, the concert was contemplative in character, solemnly drawing the mind towards matters grave – above all, to a reflection on the mystery of the death and Resurrection of Christ – and things that ultimately matter.

It was a salutary experience, edifying yet also curiously exhilarating.

Details of Manchester Camerata’s next concert, Portrait Of Love, can be seen here.

Francois Leleux Reed Trio @ the RNCM

Francois Leleux Reed Trio

Manchester Chamber Concerts Society

RNCM Concert Hall, 26 September 2011

Another classy concert arranged by the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society, this one perhaps best described as cheery and honey-hued.

Why so?  Well, because the programme of music – which included works by Saint-Saëns, Dutilleux, Jolivet, Poulenc and (unusually) Beethoven – was intended to delight, entertain and amuse rather than to convey profound emotion.  Sometimes profound emotion is not what you want; it can gnaw at and ravage the soul.

Anyway, those aesthetes with a sweet tooth were well served and, let’s be frank, the bassoon is an inherently amusing instrument due to both its appearance and sound.  Like an elephant’s trunk, it is both weird and wonderful.

The musicianship of Jean-François Duquesnoy, brandisher of said bassoon, was superb and his companions, François Leleux on oboe and Emmanuel Strosser on piano, were on a par with him.

Vive le basson!

Opera North’s Fidelio

Fidelio
Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
Opera North
The Lowry, 18 May 2011

Taken as a whole, this is an opera that leaves one with an undeniably strong aesthetic impression, though there are few arias that really stand out.

Rather, it is the story and the themes that inform it – the struggle against tyranny and oppression, the majesty of love, the need for courage in the pursuit of freedom – that make the opera such a success.  Not only a success in its own day, but a classic that is able to speak to all people in all places, and in all times.

Beethoven’s music, without doing anything showy or spectacular, does full justice to the drama of the story.  Those who say that the music just serves the story must concede that it deserves to be servant of the month, with extra bonuses and all.

As with all Opera North productions, the sets and lighting designs (courtesy of Stewart Laing and Peter Mumford respectively) were stunning, gorgeous to look at.  Don’t leave it too late that you miss out on seeing this excellent production.

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov @ the RNCM

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov
Manchester Chamber Concerts Society
Royal Northern College of Music, 6 December 2010

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov

This astonishingly accomplished couple were drawn back to the stage thrice at the end of the given programme; the audience simply did not want to part with them.

They gave an assured and irresistible performance of works by Beethoven and Schumann (a couple apiece, three of them violin sonatas), two composers who are quite different in character.  The ferocity of Beethoven’s music is startling even now.  Isabelle Faust wielded her bow like a slashing stiletto sometimes when performing his works.  That is what was required.

As a musician, Faust was quite extraordinary to behold.  She stood, for one thing, which is not always the case with a violinist.  Her poise was impeccable when it needed to be, but she made use of the sway of her body as well.  And her facility with the bow of the violin was phenomenal: delicate and nuanced yet possessed of a sinewy power.  At all times, she was in absolute control of her instrument; and as one watched, this wonderful music came into being.  Needless to say, Alexander Melnikov was her equal; and they worked together in complete harmony.

We got a movement from one of Beethoven’s larger works for the first encore and a piece by John Cage for the second.  It was all good stuff and no one could complain that they didn’t get their money’s worth.

An ostensive definition of the word ‘sublime’: Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov’s performance here, on this night.

This was one of a series of concerts organised by the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society.  For details of future concerts, click here.

The Auryn Quartet @ the RNCM

The Auryn Quartet
Manchester Chamber Concerts Society
Royal Northern College of Music, 15 November 2010

Photo credit: Manfred Esser

The Auryn Quartet consists of Matthias Lingenfelder and Jens Oppermann on violins, Stewart Eaton on viola and Andreas Arndt on cello.  Here they performed works by Janacek, Haydn and Beethoven.

They began with Janacek’s String Quartet No. 2 (1928).  The composer called this work ‘Intimate Letters’ since it takes as its subject his love and longing for a young married woman.  It is a stirring, tormented affair, absolutely engrossing.  In point of fact, Janacek’s desire was never reciprocated or indeed consummated.

Haydn’s String Quartet in D major, or ‘Famous Largo’, (1797) followed next.  Even some two centuries after its creation, this work seethed with vitality and life, especially in the central section.  Wonderful stuff.

The final piece was Beethoven’s String Quartet in E minor (1806), a complex and fretful work finely performed.

All in all, this was a terrific evening’s entertainment.  The Auryn Quartet are superb musicians and they gave confident and compelling performances of all these works.

This was one of a series of concerts organised by the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society.  For details of future concerts, click here.

The Auryn Quartet themselves have a website, which is here.