The Big Bang

OMG, is it already October?? When did we get here and how?

Then again I think I may know how… in… erm… 4 song recitals at Wigmore (plus one on the radio ;-) , 3 Trittico and 5 Faust at the ROH, 1 Rosenblatt recital and 1 Abbado at the RFH.. and the Met HD have not even started yet!

As you can see I am in danger of becoming London’s musical venues main sponsor. Just kidding ;-)))) Yes, I have done all of that and still managed to have cereal and yogurt for breakfast every day. You have to love London! In spite of credit crunch, rising bills and so on you can still have a rich and fulfilling cultural life.

Some may say a crazy and excessive one but hey, try resisting these temptations. And lucky for the above institutions, especially the Wigmore Hall and the ROH, I am not the only one on a musical binge :-)

If the rest of the season will match the big bang start we are in for a joyride.

At the Wigmore we have had in about 2 weeks, Chris Maltman, Christian Gerhaher ( 3 times) and Gerald Finley. With repertoires and styles as diverse as one could wish for and all have left me with some amazing memories and some cherishable moments of total bliss. The Wigmore has done amazing work these last seasons, and this one will be no exception. I am especially glad that their Wigmore live label won a Gramophone Award for label of the year, well done, Congratulation! They are one of my favourite places in the world :-)

What about the ROH?! Believe me I wasn’t planning on moving into the House just yet :-p But the Trittico has been something else. I have to say I was bored by Puccini before Tony Pappano, but he has made me listen anew and I have learned to appreciate and love this music again and discover bits I didn’t know, like this Trittico. Anyone who has seen and heard the Pappano&Jones version at the ROH must wonder why on earth these were ever separated as they are a perfect trio. They bring exciting and modern music and certainly an amazing evening at the theatre. Where and when else do you get to transition from horror and fear to compassion and redemption and finally to comedy, all in the space of 4h. I never believd in advance that so much emotion can be packed in a single evening or that one, as a spectator, could go through all these stages so naturally. And amazingly it wasn’t a one off experience, but it repeated itself every time I saw it, with the same intensity. I hope to come back to this and give credit in more detail to all the amazing singers who have brought the charters alive in such vivid colours, but also give recognition to the one-and-only amazing orchestra! To make a world of such musical complexity and contrast sound so light and natural is really special and I feel I have to say thank you to every single musician in that pit!

Mind you I didn’t feel that when the Faust run started, I have to tell the truth and say I was yawning profusely all throughout the Faust rehearsal, and I wasn’t tired! I think I had heard the Trittico the night before and it seemed like I had gone fromTechnicolor to no colour. It didn’t bode well and I really thought that my love of French music simply didn’t extend to Mr Gounod and this work in particular. After all, he is neither Massenet, nor Bizet or Belioz. But I am all about second, third and more chances. And I’m not willing to give up on a work just like that, especially if I feel I haven’t really heard it enough times. Try it for yourself, give things more than one listen before you make up your mind ( except for Rosenkavalier, you are allowed to make an exception there;-))) So it may not have been love at first sight this time, but relax I didn’t see 5 of them out of stubbornness. By number 3 I was hooked :-) Two words: Rene Pape. I find for me the recipe with French music tends to be the same: gorgeous smooth voices, perfect clear diction, flowing line- works wonder and the music is transformed! But if we add charisma to the mix … ah then l’amour ensues with this music! For me Gounod really needs all of these things to work it’s magic, but when it does, it is addictive.

But it wasn’t just Rene, it was the whole production and all the other singers too. For me McVicar has nailed this one, I can see this production gazillion times and still be shocked, touched, amused and entertained by it. I like how attractive and addictive it makes evil, how pervasive it is throughout the scenes, how people, and not only the main characters, fall in its trap time again and how, just when you are having too much fun, it becomes dark and menacing. I have to say today I woke up with Mephisto’s Hahahaha.. hihihihi in my head and the swagger of the dancers in rhythms of valse at Cabaret L’Infer ;-) But last night was great on sooo many levels, Grigolo convinced me for the first time, by being genuine and engaged on all levels, not being over the top and mainly by singing really well. So did Malin Bystrom , who’s ending aria was uplifting to say the least ( and this is one of my favourite images from the production, with Mephisto and Faust trying to hold her back on earth while she aspires for forgiveness from above, a simple but very compelling image which makes you feel the strength of this women).

But I have to say this was Mephisto’s game throughout the run. Charisma, humour, style and elegance, darkness and menace all reunited in those devilish brows and in that uniquely beautiful voice (and he is a big oxygen saver in that closed space as he never ever seems to breath ;-)) . I do hope the ROH will bring Rene Pape back to London soon.

I may come back to the Faust too, as 5 of them is too much to squeeze in this post and there was more great singing throughout :-) Like for example from that amazing chorus!

I narrowly escaped my 6th Faust by exercising restraint and going instead to St John’s for a Rosenblatt recital with Marius Brenciu, an evening of style, elegance and all things nice, he really is accomplished and I especially loved the encores ( songs by Enescu and Strauss). I love it when singers challenge their audience to think outside the box for recitals and take them down less expected routes, without forgetting all time favourites either ;-)

By the way, the next Rosenblatt recital is already tomorrow and if you fancy hearing Lucio Gallo again ( a perfect Gianni Scchicchi in the ROH’s Trittico just a few days ago) go to At John’s tomorrow, Wednesday, 12th October, 7,30 PM. Full details here .

As you can see a rare full Tosti evening :-)

And here is, borrowed from the Rosenblatt recitals site, the usual interview with the singer:


11 Oct 2011
Rosenblatt Recitals in conversation with... Lucio Gallo



Prior to his Rosenblatt Recital tomorrow at St John's, Smith Square, the Italian baritone kindly answered some of our questions telling us about his love for films and for London and also revealed an amusing story from his 27-year-long career:
For your Rosenblatt Recital you are singing songs exclusively by Tosti – what is it about that composer that is special to you? Why did you choose such a programme?
I have always liked the music of Tosti but in the past I always made a point of singing music by several composers in my recitals, apart from lieder cycles of course. Then after my Rosenblatt recital in 2009, I had a long talk with Ian Rosenblatt about doing another recital and when he expressed his passion for Tosti, I suggested doing an entire concert of his music.
In a past interview you stated that opera was the most beautiful and complete art form. After opera, what is your favourite art form?
I really love cinema and I always had a fondness for 50’s movies with their theatrical style. A lot of them have enriched my acting on stage.
You have sung with many of the world’s most renowned opera singers – is there an anecdote or a story with a particular artist that you would like to share with us?
I sang with great artists, directors and for world-renowned conductors, obviously in a 27-year career there have been a few amusing episodes. One in particular goes back many years ago when we brought the Le Nozze di Figaro to a tour in Tokyo with the Vienna State Opera. On a day off from rehearsals, we went around the city with Ruggero Raimondi and other artists of the cast. Suddenly caught in the rain, we started singing (and dancing to) the famous Singing in the Rain, cheerfully led by Raimondi. Some photographers who had followed the group immortalized the scene in a rather beautiful picture which ended up in several international newspapers!
Tell us your secret to singing?
The voice is the instrument closest to the human being. Singing is within each one of us and it is often a way to express different emotions ... joy, anger, pain. It takes us closer to the birds and the way they express themselves through song; it gives us a great sense of freedom.
What is the role you have most enjoyed singing to date?
Iago from Otello by Giuseppe Verdi; I think it's one of the most interesting roles written for a baritone.
Many performers have a pre-performance ritual to help them feel less nervous – do you have any tricks to help keep you calm?
As mentioned before I am a big movie fan, so on the afternoon before a performance I watch a good movie to relax.
When you are not listening to opera and jazz, what kind of music do you listen to?
Classical, Pop….
If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
Always somewhere that makes me feel good. Apart from Italy it would be London; I think it's the most beautiful city in the world.
Do you play any musical instruments?
Before performing operas and song recitals, I played guitar and bass guitar in a band for many years. Unfortunately, the theatre commitments have become much more frequent and I have not had much time to continue to dabble with these instruments.

There are still a few tickets left to Lucio Gallo's Rosenblatt Recital on Wednesday 12 October. To book your tickets, please visit https://secure.sjss.org.uk/

Sorry to miss this…. Sounds like a lovely evening in a venue with acoustics that I really like… If any of you go, do come back and let me know how it was!

Oh and finally, Abbado :-))) If you haven’t been at the Southbank tonight you have missed an amazing evening. I have never heard any orchestra sound like the Lucerne one… and with Abbado at the lead, their sound is pure magic and the Bruckner tonight is not something you hear like that often in your life… The longest, most emotional standing ovation I have ever been part of at the RFH, ended sweetly , as is custom with the musicians of this orchestra with hugs on stage :-) Music from the heart :-)

Celebrate Mahler with Claudio Abbado, Jonas Kaufmann and Anne Sofie von Otter

Gustav Mahler (1892) from Hofphotograph Leonhard Berlin-Bieber (1841–1931)
--------------------------------------

UPDATE (21 April) unfortunately, the listed cinemas will no longer have the live broadcast :-(((( The only alternative available for most of us in the UK is the Digital concert hall live relay. Check the links from the Berliner Philharmoniker below for details, it is not free, but the cost is minimal.

http://www.digitalconcerthall.com/

http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/berliner-philharmoniker/

-----------------------------------

It's exactly 100 years from the day of his death on May 18th this year. And on this occasion, Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker are dedicating him a special concert. They present Mahler’s last symphony which remained unfinished at his death in 1911 and Das Lied von der Erde, considered by him as “probably the most personal composition I ever created”.

For the LvdE the soloists will be Anne Sofie von Otter and Jonas Kaufmann. And i think this is the first time maestro Abbado will conduct LvdE (but do correct me if i am wrong).

Photo Claudio Abbado © Priska Ketterer

And you can see it too!!!!!! Here is how :

It will be live on arte according to this EUROARTS site and the ARD TV guide. I think it is also very likely to be released on DVD afterwards.

Or in London it will be shown live in cinemas at:
Picturehouse Greenwich

Picturehouse Stratford

For other cinemas around the UK, you can contact the distributor Myscreenevent or just do a google search, there are several locations in the Uk where one can already book, including the two cinema's in London mentioned.

Enjoy!!!!

O, namenlose Freude! (Fidelio, Luzern)

Photo from Giornale della Musica, Georg Anderhub

(before reading this you might want to give the Verismo video a break, just press on pause ;-) As there is more music to be had in this post)

There have been so many extraordinary things that I have been able to experience musically over this past season that it gets almost too overwhelming to capture in words. I almost wish I was able to stretch time and create a gap around each of these to fully enjoy them. And basically when it is this good I just want to linger and hold on to the feeling for a while longer…

This Fidelio has certainly been one of those moments. I will forever remember it as the first time I saw and heard Abbado conduct live! It is something I wished for a long time and until I actually got on the train from the airport to Luzern I didn’t even allow myself to think about it. Sitting there and looking at the mountains surrounded by dark grey clouds it suddenly hit me! It was happening and I was only a few hours away :-)

Thank God I had heard the opera before, because I don’t think I would have been able to enjoy it quite as much otherwise. Because it certainly wasn’t like any Fidelio I had ever heard before! It in this case it made all the difference to be familiar with the general flow of things to let go of the same and just enjoy every single detail that came at you.

I’m glad there was nobody there to catch my face after the first few bars of music!!
I only ever had a somewhat similar experience, many years ago, when for the first time I heard a different orchestra in a different house than the one I grew up with. It was the first time I sat in the ROH and heard the orchestra play live. It’s a feeling you can’t explain, as if you had been deaf and suddenly were blessed with hearing! (*)


Except this in Luzern was on a much bigger and deeper level! I can’t put the word perfect to it, because it is cold and it would mean comparing it with things imperfect.. it was just sheer joy, happiness .. the one word that comes to my mind is the French “ivresse”! The sound that came from this orchestra was of such heavenly beauty that it cannot be described! It was so over whelming that I just would have wanted to time to stand still and just be able to let the sound in my ear sink in somehow…
And of course it has everything to do with Beethoven’s music!

This is not the perfect opera by any means. For one, there are those dialogues, which seem to induce directors to constantly play around with and try to improve upon. Ok, they are not that brilliant and sometimes may feel out of date. But I feel it’s not the words and phrases itself which are the problem, but the start and stop effect they create, especially during the first act. It probably creates a problem for the singers, to constantly have to switch between speech and singing, and it constantly interrupts the flow of music for the audience. You hardly get going, excited, you’re into it and then it stops. However, without them the plot is incomplete, so we do need them to fully follow the story. But the issue of the tension ebbing down and racking up with the stop and start of music comes also from the fact that singers generally don’t speak on stage or are no trained to do some with equal intensity. Usually as soon as they speak the volume drops significantly and since the music is gone you have to also fine-tune your own ear to catch what feels almost like whispers after the musical outbreaks.

In the Fidelio I saw two years ago in Paris, they overcame this by amplifying and prerecording some of the dialogues (which also were brand new and excessively long!). But it helped keep the tension up.

This was a semi-staged last minute staging in which the dialogue where lightly rewritten. But as these were just two performances it was not expected that singers would know them by heart, not would this be necessary for the libretto and score itself. This was always scheduled as a concert version performance of Fidelio and nobody was really expecting anything else. So the dialogues were read from script and were not really that audible (no worries this will not be a problem for the final recording as there were of course recoding microphones). Neither would they be delivered in any particularly emotional or effective way, but again this was not a staged performance. And to be perfectly honest I didn’t catch much of them, nor did I make a particular effort to since I was basically lingering in the music through them, like a breath of oxygen taking me through to the next bits of music.

I don’t mean to criticise in any way, or diminish their value of the completeness of the piece, but I kind of knew what they were saying and it’s not those bits that I went all the way there to listen :-) (I do hope though that when next I see Fidelio whoever directs the staging will find a way to keep the audience interested throughout them, as that is really necessary I think or could add even further to the experience).

But, as everyone there we came to heard the orchestra play, the chorus and singers sing and see Abbado conduct! I don’t thing generally the bits of staging added anything important, but I did appreciate some touches.

The lighting I found particularly sensitive and enjoyable. There were candles strewn around the stage among the musicians (which creates a major fire hazard, but looks sooo beautiful!). And there was a big while balloon anchored on the ground which lit up with light of warm shades of white and pale yellow, helping create a wonderfully intimate atmosphere. This allowed for the hall itself to be hidden away in darkness and there were moments when the orchestra played under the mysterious shades created by just the candles and the tiny lights on their scores… beautiful! I wish somebody had captured that on a photo! Candles and an image of the globe and a blinking eye were alternatively projected onto the balloon.

I also liked the choreography around the prisoners’ chorus a lot! They moved around the stage slowly when singing and hunched or lay down around , allowing for a real connection to the actual actions in the libretto to emerge naturally. Very very well done! Which is also a good place to say how unbelievable good they sang!!!! Rarely have a heard such beautiful voices and such heartfelt singing! (**) I remember saying with friends in the interval just that, that for the prisoners chorus alone it would have been worth making the trip!

Photo Georg Anderhub

And we still have the singers!!! An absolutely brilliant cast with a pairing of Leonore and Florestan I sooo longed to hear. No secret I looooove Nina Stemme since hearing her Isolde at the ROH and there is nobody today who sings Florestan like Jonas! Who knows what Beethoven thought when he wrote the score for the singers??? It feels almost as if he wrote it just like for any other instrument, you go from A to B to C and it will create these harmonies and it will sound like this. If only it were that easy ;-))))) But then again sometimes it seems to be, or at least that is how it largely sounded on Sunday in Luzern. As natural as any instrument, as elegant and fine tuned.

The placing of the singers behind the orchestra was not ideal for the hall, as it es a wonderful concert hall, but not appropriate for any staging. This put some of the singers sometimes at a bit of a disadvantage, like Christof Strehl who’s sweet lyrical voice packs somewhat less of a punch. And Falk Struckmann was also better audible on the more energetic outbursts , where he was truly menacing ( not quite as impressive though as I found Alan Held in Paris!) It was nice to hear Christof Fischesser again (after the Lohengrin in Munich) and to hear that he not only has beautiful diction and is such an accomplished singer, but also has a totally dark and warm speaking voice! And he also seems to know what to do with it not only while singing! Rachle Harnisch was a lively Marzeline and she made a very well received effort to act as well as sing her role :-)

Peter Mattei honestly had way to little time on stage!!!! His is a beautiful instrument and I have always admired his agility and warmth. A luxury cast for Don Ferrando indeed! (Can we please invite him to sing at the ROH?? Please? :-)

And then there were Leonore.. Florestan :-) If everyone was excellent, these two were something more! I suspect for Nina Stemma and Jonas Kaufmann it wouldn’t matter if they sang from outside or while doing a hand stand or something ;-) I’m exaggerating of course, but the way those two rode the sound from the orchestra, immersed themselves into it and emerged at the same time from amongst it is incredible! I don’t remember a Fidelio where the harmonies in the orchestra were so perfectly mirrored in the voices. This must truly by what Beethoven has wished for! The way they effortlessly spiralled into agile and ringing heights within the chorus towards the very end was something exquisite! (***)

Theirs is the O, namenlose Freude which I truly believed! They made every word sound true and indeed full of joy!

Before they started the duet Leonore and Florestan looked at each other and smiled and then held hands and when they sang I really heard for the first time what “namenlose Freude!”, “ubergrosse Lust” and “himmlisches Entzucken!” can mean! There was a radio broadcast of the Fidelio on the 12 and I simply can’t stop listening to their O, namenlose Freude!

I’ve always loved this duet, but this time it gave you a feeling of total total unlimted happiness which was only picked up and continued by the final chorus.

And what a finale that was! It fitted with the whole in as it didn’t crash down on your ear to squash you as is the case in most interpretations. Abbado’s Fidelio as from beginning to end intimate and delicate, intricate and detailed, with every single note lovingly spun by each instrument into a dizzying concoction. I loved the fact that it didn’t weigh down on you to crush you with its might and force. More than once it reminded me of that hearty joy once feels with Mozart, very human, offered to be absorbed and shared. Abbado made the music approcheable and so was the final chorus, a celebreation of love and hope and freedom, heartfelt and very very intense, but not forceful.

I remember feeling crushed almost in Paris at the end, as if it was almost a declaration of war on something. Here it felt like the celebration of enlightment.

And now I know why everyone loves Abbado so, while these musicians travel to Luzern every year for the chance to make music, together! He’s a quite charmer, but a very powerful one :-)

And all this was topped with waves of applause, a rain of flowers that came gently down on orchestra, chorus, singers and conductor and by one of the most beautiful images I have seen at the end of a concert, ever! On the final applause, as this was their last performance together I guess for this year members of the chorus and orchestra literally fell in each others arms and we witnessed the most wonderful symphony of hugs! What can be more fitting to an ending of Fidelio? :-)


Beethoven: Fidelio (Finale) - Abbado, Kaufmann, Stemme 12 August 2010



Thanks TheHumperdinck for the video!

So this was:
Beethovens „Fidelio op. 72“, in einer halbszenischen Aufführung
Textbuch von Joseph Sonnleithner, Stephan von Breuning und Georg
Friedrich Treitschke nach dem Libretto Léonore ou L’Amour conjugal
von Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Gesprochene Dialoge neu eingerichtet von Tatjana Gürbaca

Mahler Chamber Orchestra
LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Arnold Schoenberg Chor Wien (Einstudierung Erwin Ortner)
Claudio Abbado, Dirigent
Peter Mattei: Don Fernando
Falk Struckmann: Don Pizarro
Jonas Kaufmann: Florestan
Nina Stemme: Leonore
Christof Fischesser: Rocco
Rachel Harnisch: Marzelline
Christoph Strehl: Jaquino
Juan Sebastian Acosta: Erster Gefangener
Levente Pall: Zweiter Gefangener

15. August 2010
Konzertsaal des KKL, Luzern

Don’t be to bothered about the awful pics from my ageing and exceedingly crappy camera and enjoy the music!!


(*) There is actually one more of these… in Edinburgh a few years ago I heard Tatjana Vassiljeva play the Prokofiev cello sonata on a Stradivarius cello.. I still get blurry eyed just when I think of it … I have been looking for a recording of hers of it ever since, but with no luck :-(

(**) Which reminds me that I still have to share mu thoughts about the Meistersinger in Cardiff and the absolutely amazing chorus of the WNO!

(***) I am still amazed at how Jonas' full and rich voice travels so easily above such orchestration and its capacity to sort of expand and fill space like this has increased tremendously these years, how he does it I have no idea but it certainly is an almost physical phenomenon. I sometimes almost wish I had some kind of x ray vision to see the particles start vibrating away from him , touching the next and setting the wave in motion :-) And it’s a darn pity I can’t bottle those high notes at the end of Fidelio and roll them into a tight foil and smack them over the head of some of the absolutely daft critics I have read! I’d love them to feel those bright, shiny notes ringing in their ears!