Verdi's Falstaff

It was a blast at the Liverpool Philharmonic a week ago last Friday.  We really enjoyed the performance of Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi, a comic opera loosely based on Shakespeare's the Merry Wives of Windsor.
In an opera house, there are sumptuous sets and the cast have the run of the stage, while the orchestra are relegated to the orchestra pit. Here the orchestra took their usual place, the scene changes were suggested by images projected onto the back wall, and the cast sung mainly from the front of the platform, though they also used the stall aisles and choir benches on occasions. From our second row seats, we could almost reach out and touch them.
While Bryn Terfel was excellent in the title role, and the most eye catching name, Rebecca Evans and Anna Dowsley were wonderful merry wives, Wanda Franek was a great bearer of messages, and the two young lovers, Murat can Guvem and Barbara Massaro are worth looking out for.
Opera in Italian is not the easiest to follow, but we were helped by reading the plot summary in the program notes beforehand, a screen at either side showing the English translation, but mainly by the expressiveness of the singers. they were real performers.
They added plenty of their own humour to the score. The kitchen utensils in Falstaff's hat serving as horns for the forest scene was a particularly fun touch. Vasily Petrenko is well able to add an element of humour to his conducting; I did catch some, but found myself watching the singers more.
Verdi wrote only two comic operas, one, not well received in his youth, and then this a masterpiece in his old age. I particularly enjoyed the first scene in Act 3; at the start Falstaff is dejected, but his spirits rise as he sings an ode to the joy of wine. The music expresses it so well.

The Armed Man

The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins is an amazing work, and surely all the better for being performed live, as it was last Saturday at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall by the Liverpool Welsh Choral Union and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer.

It is called a Mass, and has some traditional elements of a Mass, such as Kyrie and Agnus Dei, but it also draws material from different times and parts of the world.

It is called a Mass for Peace, but the title, and the liberal use of drums, gives parts of it a quite militaristic feel. Sanctus, one of the pieces which I was somewhat familiar with from classic FM, seems almost incongruous with the drum beat that underpins it.  One piece, called the charge, more than any other catches the excitement of war, and the way man gets dragged into the lust of battle.

But if it catches the adrenalin of war, it catches also the horror of war.  One of the pieces is a poem written by a Japanese person emerging from the ruins of Hiroshima, and ancient Indian piece called Torches is very graphic.  There is a one moment where the choir lets out a noise somewhere between a wail and a scream.

It is difficult to view it as a religious work, as it draws material from Christian, Moslem and Hindu sources, as well as secular poets. Even so, it is a spiritual work.  It starts with a call to prayer, and after celebrating and lamenting war it calls on the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Finally, after ringing out the old and ringing in the new, there are the words from revelation.. God will wipe away the tears..there shall be no more death or sorrow. It has the subject matter to be depressing, but it is, ultimately a work of hope.

All these great themes are well expressed in music, making it a very varied evening, an emotional roller coaster. As well as some big moments, making full use of the sizeable choir and orchestra, with generous use of brass and percussion, there are some beautifully lush pieces. Outstanding amongst these is the Benedictus, with an exquisite cello solo.

The four soloists were good, but spent most of the evening waiting their turn, it is certainly the choir that is centre stage. They were joined at the end by the fifth soloist, and 11 year old lad of Yemeni background from Childwall school who performed the Moslem call to prayer from the back of the orchestra near the start.

It was good watching Karl Jenkins conduct, his baton movements were very precise. It was especially good when he was conducting the choir, putting down the baton and controlling the choir with precise hand gestures.

In the first half we Te Deum, also by Karl Jenkins, followed by Elgar Serenade for strings, conducted by the leader of the orchestra. All part of a great evening.

Serita Cheeks

Last Monday a group of us went to see Serita Cheeks in concert at Nightnday cafe in Manchester.

We arrived in good time and got more than we bargained for as Serita was on after three other performers. They  probably got less than they bargained for, as besides groups that came to listen to other performers there were very few others in the venue that Monday night.
Rosie Dunn sang and played guitar, had a nice voice, and introduced each song, most of which she had written herself. The couple from Salt Lake City sang songs that were not to my taste, but they were great folk and it was good talking to them after their set. Judith Ude had an easy manner introducing hers songs, and a powerful voice with a touch of African sound, which came across very well in the songs she had written herself.
I was already familiar with some of Serita's songs, having bought then on iTunes. I was really glad to hear her in person, and enjoy her music much more than I did before.
She has a very distinctive voice, which the recordings do not fully do justice to, especially in the higher registers. Having now heard her sing live, I can pick out more of the qualities of her voice even in the higher notes, though the lower ones are reproduced with a richer in tone.
To say that Serita sings accompanied with guitar would be to downplay the guitar. Her guitar is as much part of the performance as her voice.  It sounded great when she was alone on the stage and even richer when she was joined by Simon Blake on the drums and Martin Ledger on base guitar. They had some good instrumental moments together which added to the evening. I have listened to the recordings quite differently since.
What stood out most about the live performance was the way Serita's voice blended with the instruments.  Her voice never overwhelmed the accompaniment as some of the other singers did, nor was it ever drowned out. It was always there, nicely in balance, giving a distinctive voice alongside the rich sound of the instruments.
Serita's songs are largely love songs that go down well in a music venue, without it being very obvious that they are worship songs, sung to God by one of his children.  The message is good, and the musicianship and performance added up to a great evening.

Gershwin at the Phil

We were well entertained at the Liverpool Phil tonight.
Clark Rundell introduced an evening of Gershwin music. David was disappointed when he saw the orchestra, he was expecting Jazz, but as soon as the first chord from Strike up the band, he said "I didn't expect that" It was very good.  After two pieces they were joined by the pianist Stefano Bollani, who then rounded the first half off with some improvisations.
The piano had a mellow tone, and the first two solos were quite mellow. The last two had a brighter melody in the right hand with the left hand accompanying. He played a joke at the end, as we saw some of the humour we saw more of later.
After the break there was music from Porgy & Bess, which was great. There were some familiar tunes, and some beautiful lush sounds in places, and some faster parts. There were some false endings, big grand moments that seemed like a finale but were not.
Then came Rhapsody in Blue, played with improvisations, as it was by Gershwin.  It is a truly great piece, with dramatic variations of pace and volume.  How the orchestra coped with the variations of timing was amazing.  A few of us were on our feet with applause at the end.
They played an encore, piano and orchestra, and Stefano was following a score. I am not sure that he was playing from the score at all, but it all part of the entertainment. He kept playing as the orchestra walked off, and proceeded to entertain us with a variety of tunes, including a Beatles number

Super-sing

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Super-sing concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
We had gone to hear two choirs brought together by the super-sing series. One classic choir and one Jazz choir each sang about four pieces that they had rehearsed during Thursday evenings during the previous six weeks.
Before the interval the orchestra played some Aaron Copeland and three movements from the planets.  It was a large orchestra, comprising probably three quarters from the philharmonic orchestra and one quarter amateurs who wanted to give it a go. They had only come together as an orchestra that morning, but whether this was preceded by six smaller rehearsals I do not know.  The friends we had come to hear were in the Jazz choir.
The audience was probably made up exclusively of family and friends of the performers, and the hall was comfortably full, but not packed.
The singing was a lot of fun.  We were invited to join the classic choir in their warm up exercises, and then treated to very good performances of Verdi and Vivaldi. There were probably about one hundred in each choir.
The Jazz was accompanied by piano drums and double base, each of which had solo spots on occasions, and were very good.  Some of songs has solo part sung by the conductor, and sometimes the choir was centre stage,  at least one time the instruments stopped and they were singing Al Capella. The conductor had us joining in at points. The Music included Blues, Duke Ellington and Ray Charles. It was a very enjoyable program and good afternoon.

St. Edward's College Farewell Concert

It was a great evening at St. Edward's this week, as the class of 2009 bade farewell to the school, with the best of their musical talent. The Chamber Orchestra performed well, the Chamber Choir were good, and the College Consort sang to a very high standard, but between a small selection of formal program items, most of the evening was taken up with performances from this year's leavers.

Before the interval there were a number of solo performances, largely accompanied by the piano, including the Adagio from Mozart's clarinet concerto, and two pieces from the cello, the first stood out as the highlight of the first half. Each performer was introduced by a master of ceremonies (M/C) who also kept us amused during the necessary shuffling round of performers between the pieces.

This aspect of the evening went up a gear after the interval, the performers had changed from school uniform to evening wear, and the M/C made a dramatic entrance to the music of "Also Sprach Zarastrutha" (used in 2001 a Space Odyssey) played through the loudspeakers. He continued to keep us well entertained between the pieces with a low key humour, ribbing performers in a way that only one of their own number could.

During the second half, there were some group pieces, a duet from a Mozart opera, and a brass group. Several of the solo performers were accompanied by the chamber orchestra, conducted by members of the orchestra so Mr. Moseley, the usual conductor could take a back seat. He did get on his feet in the middle of a piece with a post horn. This wonderfully played piece would have been a duet, had appendicitis not stood in the way, and the sole performer, with brass group accompaniment, took up positions at various points in the hall, playing an impressively wide range of notes on the long elegant post horn.

This was for me the most memorable part of the evening, a high quality, high octane performance, and I wondered how do you follow that? The answer came with a change of mood with two beautifully played piano preludes.

As well as the short excerpt on the post horn, Mr. Moseley also played a solo piano piece himself, as this evening also marked his farewell to the school, after 29 years as head of music.

As the evening went on, it took on more and more of a fun aspect. There was "Live and Let Die", a slide show presentation of pictures of the A level music class, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, sung with words honouring Mr. Moseley. Eventually the final part of the program got underway some hour or so after the intended finishing time.

Each year's farewell concert features "God Only Knows" what we will do without you, by the Beach Boys, as Mr. Moseley wonders how the school music will fare without the talented crop of leavers. This year it was the turn of the school to wonder how musical life will continue to thrive at St. Edward's without him. What was very clear to all, was that this year's leavers, a very talented crew, are united in holding him in the very highest regard and affection. We all enjoyed the fruit of his work this evening.

Ten Centuries of English Music

Last week we went to the Concert at St. Edwards College, and enjoyed some good performances.

John promised me that the early piece, 13^th century, was terrible, all he did was play the note of F# for three minutes, and I would not like it at all. He was wrong. I did quite enjoy it, and I like the drone effect.

The highlight of the evening was definitely a set of Miniatures by Frank Bridge, with piano, flute and cello. I do have to admit to being biased, but it was very good. The trio was well balanced – no one instrument dominated the other two. It was lovely hearing the pieces we had heard being practised a little, with the addition of the flute and cello.

There was quite a bit of brass during the evening. The first half finished off with some Jeremiah Clarke, while the most modern piece was for two Trumpets, French Horn, Tuba and Trombone by Peter Maxwell Davies. The same group will be playing it again later this month with the composer in the audience. It was certainly more enjoyable and accessible than I expected.

The second half started off with a very different modern piece – the Dam Buster march, which was quite good fun, and finished with some Gilbert & Sullivan, from Trial by Jury. There was quite a lot of singing, starting with 10^th century plainchant from off stage, a setting of Nunc Dmittis with a very fine treble performance, and a trio singing The Waters of Tyne which was quite outstanding.