Classical Notes: June 2024

'The frequent set changes bring constant interest, with clever use of different levels of staging, and strong singing and acting performances from all make this great fun, if one lets go of it all making a great deal of sense'.

'Golda Schultz was the clear standout here, negotiating effortlessly Fiordiligi’s extensive vocal demands, particularly in ‘Come scoglio’, with its range of over two octaves and massive leaps'.

Andrè Schuen (Guglielmo) & Samatha Hankey (Donatella)
© ROH/Clive Barda

'Daniel Behle displayed a beautifully lyrical tone, and played the less bombastic of the two men convincingly. In “Un’aura amorosa” he demonstrated incredibly delicate control at the top, as well as delivering a powerful sound when required.'.

'Jennifer France’s Despina was full of fun, with great comedic timing and clowning as the disguised doctor and notary, and was highly nimble vocally, with some cracking top notes too'.

'The Royal Opera Chorus were on fine form, with some subtly raunchy partner-swapping in the background, as well as delivering their pithy choruses. Alexander Soddy conducted with pace and precision, and there was some particularly fine horn and woodwind playing'.

Gerald Finley (Don Aldonso) & the Royal Opera Chorus
© ROH/Clive Barda

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Saturday, 22 June 2024

Wihan Quartet dedicates Wigmore Hall Concert to Cavatina Chamber Music Trust founder Simon Majaro to celebrate his 95th birthday

The Wihan Quartet
© Petra Hajska

The Wihan Quartet is dedicating its concert on 24 June at London’s Wigmore Hall to Simon Majaro, the London-based philanthropist and founder of the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, who celebrates his 95th birthday the following day. It performs works by Smetana, Janáček, and Dvořák, showcasing the deep Czech musical heritage that has defined its career.

The Wihan Quartet met Simon Majaro and his late wife, Pamela, after their triumphant win at the 1991 London International String Quartet Competition. Hugely impressed, the Majaros have supported and championed the Quartet since then, earning them the endearing title, ‘Our English Parents’ from the Quartet’s members.
In 1998, the Majaros founded the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust which enriches the lives of young people by providing opportunities to experience live chamber music through schools concerts and a special ticketing scheme which provides free tickets to young people (aged 5-25) in more than 50 partner venues across the country. Simon Majaro received an MBE for voluntary services to the Trust in 2011.
Following a distinguished academic career in the Business field, Simon Majaro published an acclaimed memoir 'Jerusalem’s Doctor of the Poor' and his debut novel 'Who is Mr. Poliakoff?'. He also fulfilled a long-term ambition to become a luthier (stringed-instrument maker). His instruments have been used by many professional musicians, including the Wihan Quartet, who performed with them at Wigmore Hall during the COVID-19 pandemic, having travelled to the UK without their own instruments.

The concert also marks the ‘Year of Czech Music 2024’, whose personalities have been commemorated every ten years since 1924, and, specifically, the 200th anniversary of Bedřich Smetana's birth. “In music is the life of the Czechs” declared Smetana at the laying of the foundation stone of Prague’s National Theatre.
The day before its Wigmore Hall evening concert, the Wihan Quartet performs an all-Haydn programme at one of Wigmore Hall’s popular Sunday Morning concerts, at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday 23 June.

Wihan Quartet:
Leoš Čepický (violin)
Jan Schulmeister (violin)
Jakub Čepický (viola)
Michal Kaňka (cello)

Sunday 23 June 2024 11:30am - https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202406231130

Haydn String Quartet in C Op. 76 No. 3 'The Emperor'
Haydn String Quartet in D Op. 64 No. 5 'The Lark'

Monday 24 June 2024 7:30pm - https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202406241930

Smetana String Quartet No. 2 in D minor
Dvořák String Quartet in F Op. 96 'American'
Janáček String Quartet No. 2 'Intimate Letters'

(Press release from Tashmina Artists)

Interview with Simon Majaro from 2017 on Bachtrack here.

Evocative Beamish and commanding Prokofiev from Noseda and the LSO

Sally Beamish, Martin Fröst, Janine Jansen & Gianandrea Noseda
© Mark Allan

Janine Jansen (violin)

Martin Fröst (clarinet)

London Symphony Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

7pm, Thursday 20 June 2024

Barbican Hall, London

★★★★

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Overture: Leonore No. 3, Op. 72b

Sally Beamish (b.1956): Distans: Double Concerto for Violin & Clarinet

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Symphony No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 131

Beethoven:

'Lively woodwind and precise skittering strings demonstrated the LSO’s expert ensemble'.

Beamish:

'Following more virtuosic skirmishes from the highly mobile and animated soloists, and droning strings evoking the nyckelharpa, complex, jerky rhythms abounded, with Noseda keeping a tight rein'.

'The highly expansive second movement conjured up open landscape, distance and longing, with birdlike flourishes from the soloists and bell-like percussion'.

Prokofiev:

'Noseda had a strong command throughout here, and from the opening angular violin theme, with cellos responding in kind, through to woodwind solos in the third movement’s relentless melodic line, orchestral precision was impressive'.

'... an emphatically commanding performance from Noseda and the LSO to end a highly engaging concert'.

Read my full review on Bachtrack here.

Wednesday, 12 June 2024

Engaging solo piano works by John Carbon given strong performances by Steven Graff

I have reviewed Chicago born pianist Steven Graff playing piano works by fellow Chicago composer John Carbon (b.1951) before (here), as well as a disc of Carbon’s orchestral works (here). On his latest disc, Graff has recorded two solo piano works by Carbon. The first is a set of 24 short pieces, Short Stories, composed over a period from 2013, with the whole set being revised in 2017-2018. Although there was an original intention to follow Bach in terms of rigorous coverage of major and minor keys, and a prelude/fugue alternation, Carbon eventually moved away from that rigour, but nevertheless still aimed for a broad range of chromatic, tonal, atonal and modal languages throughout the 24 miniatures, mostly around one or two minutes long each. The ‘stories’ are enigmatic – more of a suggestion of mood, with titles such as Quantum Hobgoblin, Convocation and Paean not revealing a great deal about any programmatic meaning. Quantum Hobgoblin is playful, with cartoonish perpetual motion, whilst Convocation, with its tolling first 3 notes and fugal entries building in insistence to a dramatic, declamatory ending. Paean has a simple bare melody, and like the gently turning, pastoral Heather Bells that opens the set, reminded me a little of some of John Ireland’s solo piano works. There are pieces that reference composers, such as the lilting Tea with Claude and Maurice, full of impressionistic seconds and rippling sweeps, and Czerny’s Id, its jumpy rhythms like a slightly off kilter exercise. George Sand’s Dream is the longest piece, at around seven and a half minutes, and is a beautifully conceived piece, from a circling idea at the start, rising and falling, through a slow waltz with ringing high notes, moving into a dreamy wandering central section, before tonality finally brings certainty at the end. A winding tune emerges from dancing octaves in Guadeloupe Calypso, whilst Joplin’s Tic is spiky, and pushes the sense of ragtime into a less tonal harmonic world, before winding down to a slow stop. There is such a variety of styles and sound worlds here, and Graff is alert to every change of mood, with grand weight in the thicker textures of Momentum, as well as soft-toned, dripping smoothness in Chocolate Velvet. Coming in at just under an hour in total, this is a set packed full of interest, and Graff brings the stark stylistic shifts to life throughout. The disc then ends with a single movement work, Icarus. Dating back to 1988, it is a highly virtuosic piece, and captures a sense of the danger and folly of the Greek myth. From a glassy, atmospheric opening, the rippling rises and falls, and driving rhythmic energy builds in intensity to thundering and crashing at the midpoint. There is a sense of falling, then a more rhapsodic episode, before the thundering returns, building to a final, scarily viruosic display at the end. Highly dramatic, it is much more overtly virtuosic than the Short Stories, and shows another side to both Graff and Carbon’s command of the instrument. All in all, this is another great insight into Carbon’s varied and engaging music.

Carbon, J. 2023. Short Stories. Steven Graff. Compact Disc. Convivium Records CR085.