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Richard Bratby

~ Classical music writer, critic and consultant

Richard Bratby

Tag Archives: Amati Magazine

On the Road

23 Monday Nov 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Post, Glyndebourne, Opera North, The Arts Desk, The Spectator, Welsh National Opera

Milton Keynes

Oh b*gger, that’s Christmas and it’s coming straight at us.

November was looking quiet; then a couple of emails and suddenly I haven’t blogged for over a fortnight. In the last 9 days I’ve somehow found myself seeing four different operas in three different cities, playing Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead and squeezing in a bit of contemporary music too. Here’s what I’ve been up to when not at my desk:

– Visits to the Royal College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and Guildhall School of Music and Drama for my ongoing Amati Magazine survey of string departments at the UK’s music colleges. The RCM article is here.
– Glyndebourne on Tour‘s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail at Milton Keynes (review forthcoming in The Spectator)
– Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for The Birmingham Post and The Arts Desk (plus the discovery that the composer Patrick Brennan is a really impressive new voice)
– Welsh National Opera’s I Puritani for The Birmingham Post
– Opera North’s Jenufa in Nottingham (also for The Spectator – watch this space!)
– Welsh National Opera’s Sweeney Todd for (I thought) the Birmingham Post, though it actually appeared in the Mail. And my feature-length preview of the same show popped up there too.
– and then playing the cello badly in a programme of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Elgar with my old friends at the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra. At last my arm is complete again!

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WNO’s Sweeney Todd: I could murder a pie

Plus I’ve been writing about James Bond for the CBSO, Ligeti for the Barber Institute, and some fun seasonal programmes for West End International and the RLPO; not to mention some exciting projects with the LPO, RPO and Ulster Orchestra, including an enjoyable chance to spend some quality time with Johan Wagenaar’s wonderful Cyrano de Bergerac overture (give it a try).

Anyway, that’s why I’ve been quiet.  Then I looked up and…it’s basically one month to Christmas. Oh, b*gger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throwback Thursday: Five Questions for Julian Lloyd Webber

05 Thursday Nov 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Conservatoire, Julian Lloyd Webber, Metro

JLW_BM

As a cellist of sorts myself (and I read Travels With My Cello over and over again when I was at school) I’m looking forward to interviewing Julian Lloyd Webber next week for my ongoing Amati Magazine series on British music colleges. He’s now principal of Birmingham Conservatoire, but when I interviewed him for a short Metro article in July 2008 for Metro he was touring small venues around the UK with one of his wonderfully entertaining programmes of neglected miniatures and anecdotes – one of the things we’ve really missed since he’s had to stop playing. But he’s already re-energised the Conservatoire and I can’t wait to hear what he has in store next.


Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber has just been appointed to lead the British pilot of El Sistema – the revolutionary Venezuelan music education programme. He’s also playing a recital at Alnwick Playhouse tonight.

What’s the idea behind this concert?

This is a new venture for me. I’ve been doing quite a few concerts in more intimate venues, like the Alnwick Playhouse, and we’ve come up with a programme that’s more involving and personal. I play a bit, read from my book Travels With My Cello and later on there’s a Q&A with the audience.

Are you unearthing any more rare repertoire?

It’s quite a mixture. Not so much in this recital, but I’ve been doing quite a bit of new music lately. I’ve just been playing a new piece by Howard Goodall, and I’ll be premiering a work by Patrick Hawes next month. I’m always keen to expand the cello repertoire, whether by rediscovering older repertoire or playing new music.

Why are you so outspoken, when so many musicians just turn up and play the notes?

I think classical music gets a bad deal in the media. It’s overlooked in comparison to other forms of music. If classical musicians don’t stand up for what we love and believe in, we can’t expect anyone else to do it for us!

Why does Britain need El Sistema?

When you see all the knife crime and drug problems, it makes perfect sense. People think Britain is too wealthy to need a Venezuelan initiative, but I don’t agree. El Sistema is about using the symphony orchestra as a catalyst for social change – and reaching children who would never get to learn an instrument, in the normal run of things. It’s very timely.

Have you had to play your cello at any airports lately?

Actually, yes – I was waiting for an internal flight in Turkey last week and was a bit short of practice time, so I got the cello out right there in the lounge and had a bit of a brush-up. People looked at me as if I was some sort of lunatic.

Nicola Benedetti on Tour

05 Monday Oct 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Post, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Nicola Benedetti, Reviews

Nicola Benedetti - photo (c) Simon Fowler

Nicola Benedetti – photo (c) Simon Fowler

I reviewed Nicola Benedetti’s “Italy and the Four Seasons” tour (complete with Turnage premiere) at Symphony Hall last weekend. The Birmingham Post isn’t currently able to post reviews online, so here’s the review (below). Please do the honourable thing and pop out and buy the print edition once you’ve read it!

And for something completely different (well, OK still string-related) click here for my feature for Amati Magazine on the Royal Academy of Music.


A performance by a youth ensemble. Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, in the string sextet version. A new chamber work by Mark-Anthony Turnage. There isn’t a promoter in Birmingham who could fill Symphony Hall for any one of these things. Yet when Nicola Benedetti fronts them, a near-capacity audience rises cheering to its feet.

That’s the thing to take away from this concert by Benedetti, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and an 11-player ensemble. OK, so other violinists play with a sweeter tone; and not everyone will have appreciated the glossy full-page pictures of Benedetti that filled the expensive programme. But none of that detracts from the hugely positive role Benedetti plays in British musical life, and the seriousness with which she approaches what she does.

Hence the Birmingham premiere tonight of Turnage’s Duetti d’amore, a Ravel-inspired duo for Benedetti and Elschenbroich that veered from tender, skittish humour to full-throated passion. This was Turnage at his most lyrical, and the pair projected even its smallest gestures to the very back of the vast space. Souvenir de Florence for some reason, came across less vividly, despite a smiling performance and some breakneck speeds.

As for Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, what lingered were some gutsy, red-blooded tuttis and the chamber-music delicacy of Benedetti’s solo exchanges with her colleagues. Baroque bows and a lack of vibrato acknowledged period practice, while dramatic tempo-shifts within each movement made clear that Benedetti has her own very definite interpretative ideas.

And it was her idea to bring on a team of young string players from the National Children’s Orchestra – who performed the outer movements of Vivaldi’s concerto RV.310 as joyously and as musically as any professional band we’ve heard (and with a richer sound than some). A special moment in a feelgood evening; let’s hope that Benedetti’s clearly-sizeable fanbase will continue to support music-making like this after she’s left town.

Full Ahead

25 Friday Sep 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Post, Carl Nielsen, CBSO, Christopher Morley, Cristian Macelaru, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Danish Orchestra, Simon Trpceski, The Arts Desk

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After 20 years in the business, you’d think I’d be used to it – but the new season has kicked in with a vengeance, and suddenly I haven’t a spare moment. That meant two separate reviews last week of the Birmingham concert by my charming hosts in Denmark back in June – Birmingham Post here and The Arts Desk here, and this week, yesterday’s season opener by my old colleagues at the CBSO.

Simon Trpceski was the soloist, and he was as glorious as we’ve come to expect.  But we’re well into the post-Nelsons interregnum in Birmingham now and the conductor – Cristian Macelaru – was new both to me and to Brum. I have to say, I liked him. OK, I wasn’t picking up “music director” vibes from the friends I spoke to in the orchestra, but I think everyone was still pretty impressed. Review here.

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And on Wednesday, I made my first ever visit to the Royal Academy of Music in connection with an exciting new project I’m working on for The Amati Magazine. Watch this space for more details of that, but meanwhile, I had no idea that the Academy itself was such a shrine to musical history. It’s got a lovely little public museum (why did no-one ever tell me about this before?): Mendelssohn’s letters, Maxwell Davies and Michael Kamen manuscripts, Ligeti and Tavener autographs – plus the manuscript score of The Mikado.

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And the college building itself is a real treasure house of music-related paintings and sculpture. They’ve got the stone composers’ busts rescued from the rubble of Queen’s Hall when it was bombed. They’ve got paintings of the Griller Quartet and Harrison Birtwistle.

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They’ve even got John (or “Giovanni” as he was then) Barbirolli’s baby-violin and waistcoat. And a whole room devoted to the saucy bedroom exploits of Harriet Cohen and Arnold Bax. OK, not quite. But apparently there’s a Chagall in there. I’m determined to get back in there some time soon, purely to have a proper look.

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Meanwhile: my Birmingham Post boss, mentor and colleague Chris Morley – the Midlands’ pre-eminent music critic for well over 30 years – has taken the plunge and joined Twitter.  Follow him on @cfmorley47

Visiting Sir Edward

14 Monday Sep 2015

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Amati Magazine, Elgar, Elgar Birthplace Museum, Sakari Oramo

I don’t know why we had the sudden urge on Friday to return for the first time this decade to Elgar’s birthplace. As the man himself said, there is music in the air, and when it’s early autumn in the English Midlands, that music has nobilmente written over it. The St Petersburg Enigma at the Proms last week may have been a factor, but anyway, it suddenly just felt necessary, like an overdue visit to a very old and dear friend.

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I was last there for the launch of Michael Foster’s book on the Apostles trilogy in about 2003 – when there was cake, bubbly and a speech from Sakari Oramo, but no time to look around the new visitor centre and exhibition. And the time before that was in 1993, when there was no visitor centre: just the cottage itself, packed with relics and with a shop crammed into a tiny back room. That time, I took the train from Oxford to Worcester and cycled through the lanes to Broadheath. It was a sunny day in early summer; they had the cottage door open and the Violin Concerto was drifting softly out into the garden and mingling with the birdsong.

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There was a lot of controversy about the building of the visitor centre in the late 1990s – I was on the “anti-” side of that argument at the time. Arriving on Friday, I had to admit that it’s barely noticeable and beautifully done. The traffic on the lane seems busier, but the lovely rural isolation of the cottage has been preserved, and you park your car in the middle of an apple-orchard. On this September day every tree was weighed down with fruit.

Elgar apples

I can’t quite recall, but the cottage seemed a bit emptier than I remembered, though many of the most wonderful relics – Elgar’s apparatus for making Sulphuretted Hydrogen, the framed signed photos from Henry Wood and Richard Strauss, and Elgar’s desk, complete with manuscript paper marked up by Lady Elgar and the rough-looking pen-holders he made out of branches that he picked up in the woods around Brinkwells while he was writing the Cello Concerto – are certainly still there.

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Probably most of the really priceless relics that used to be in the cottage are now in the visitor centre, where they have excellent displays (including the manuscript of the Second Symphony) friendly staff and a wry sense of humour.

Elgar Graffiti

And the cottage garden – where, more than anywhere in the world, you feel like the spirit of Elgar himself is standing right next to you – is as magical as ever; well looked-after but not too manicured. The late summer flowers were just starting to fade, the grave of his dogs Marco and Mina are well-tended and the summer house needs a bit of urgent TLC.

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But one magical new surprise remained, dating from 2007 – a familiar figure on a bench in the bottom corner of the garden, legs outstretched, looking out across the lane towards the Malvern Hills – which were just starting to vanish in the haze as we left.

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We were glad to see that they keep the hedge trimmed down at exactly that spot, so he can forever enjoy the view that he loved above all. We left him there, and listened to the Vienna Philharmonic’s Proms Dream of Gerontius in the car as we sped back north up the Severn valley.

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Back at the desk, meanwhile, I wrote this article for The Amati Magazine, inspired by my experiences with my own beloved CBSO Youth Orchestra, and a few more-or-less reprehensible memories from my own Merseyside and Wirral Youth Orchestra days. I’m keen to know what people think.

Lobster, chips and G&S

17 Monday Aug 2015

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Amati Magazine, BBC Proms, Edinburgh Festival, Gilbert and Sullivan, Glazunov, Jamie Phillips, LPO, Mahler, RLPO, The Arts Desk, The Spectator, Vaughan Williams

By mid-August, concert life in the UK has narrowed down to two basic locations: the Edinburgh Festival, and the Royal Albert Hall. Having already been to the Proms, I wasn’t planning on going to Edinburgh until ten days ago and out of the blue I received a review commission that…well, let’s just say I couldn’t refuse. Watch this space for more details.

A lot’s changed in Edinburgh since I last went to the Festival in 2004. The new trams, whatever their troubled history, are a huge asset to the city, and very handy indeed when sky-high August hotel prices have driven you out to the wilds of Haymarket. But it’s still just as hard to find somewhere decent to eat when you’ve emerged from a show that finishes at 10.30pm – and at my advanced age, my preferred Edinburgh late-night snack of deep-fried white pudding is no longer an option. Nor too is lobster and chips, at least not every day. Sadly…

Street Food, Edinburgh Festival style.

Street Food, Edinburgh Festival style.

And the place is still as maddening and exhilarating as ever in Festival season. I was delighted to bump into my colleague Anna Picard for the first time in person (rather than on Twitter) and I managed to duck out of the mayhem of the Royal Mile for a couple of hours for an afternoon catch-up and pint with a particularly brilliant conductor friend – bringing the Halle Youth Orchestra to town as part of a summer tour.

At the Edinburgh Festival, even the graffiti is meta.

At the Edinburgh Festival, even the graffiti is meta.

Anyhow – watch this space for my Edinburgh report. Meanwhile, we headed up the road again to beautiful Buxton to raid Scrivener’s bookshop (surely the only second-hand bookshop in the UK equipped with a fully-functioning harmonium) and see HMS Pinafore – it being a basic maxim of mine never to miss a chance to see G&S done professionally. Happily, at The Arts Desk, I have an editor who understands exactly where I’m coming from.

Scrivener's bookshop, Buxton.

I’ve also been writing about Berio’s Folk Songs and Vaughan Williams’ Eighth Symphony for the RLPO, and interviewing Vladimir Jurowski about Mahler for the LPO’s in-house magazine – always an astonishingly insightful and provocative (in the best possible way) interviewee. Oh and my official birthday tribute to my beloved Alexander Glazunov has gone live on The Amati Magazine – a bit of self-indulgence, very generously indulged by my terrific editor Jessica Duchen. Next stop: Rachmaninoff, Martinu and Rebecca Clarke!

Seven days, seven reviews.

13 Monday Jul 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Post, CBSO, David Matthews, David Nice, Donizetti, Ex Cathedra, Gavin Plumley, Jessica Duchen, Lichfield Festival, Longborough Opera, Newark, Salzburg Festival, The Arts Desk

It’s been a busy week, but gratifyingly, a lot of my reviews seem to have gone up nice and promptly. Here’s everything I haven’t already posted up here:

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My debut feature for The Arts Desk: and what a pleasant surprise when my colleague (and recent travelling companion in Denmark) David Nice and his husband Jeremy arrived unexpectedly in Lichfield on Saturday for an impromptu visit in which (I’d like to think, anyway) this article may have had some hand…

The CBSO and Lahav Shani play Beethoven, Mendelssohn and David Matthews. Let’s just pray no-one’s seriously trying to line this chap up to follow in the footsteps of Andris Nelsons (at least not for a few years yet, anyway).

Ex Cathedra at Lichfield Festival – it takes something fairly special to get me this enthusiastic about a capella choral music.

Longborough

Don Pasquale at Longborough – god, I love Longborough, where a picnic can cost £60 a head and still taste delicious.

Purfling Powerhouse

And my visit to the wonderful Newark School of Violin Making is up on Amati Magazine: my thanks, again, to Jessica Duchen for entrusting me with such a fascinating assignment and Ben Schindler at the School for making me so welcome.

Now, one more Salzburg Festival programme note to polish off – Mozart’s Symphony No.1 K.16 (Salzburg’s commissioning editor, Gavin Plumley, has an uncanny knack for spotting the bits of repertoire that only I could fall in love with) – and then we’re off to stay at the Gellert Hotel, Budapest: four nights of operetta (Kalman’s Die Csardasfurstin), art nouveau spas, goose liver, Tokaj and general Habsburg-era fun.

And I don’t have to write a single word about it! (Though I probably shall…)

West and East

22 Monday Jun 2015

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Amati Magazine, Andris Nelsons, CBSO, Ella Fitzgerald, Longborough Opera, Newark Violin School, Simon Rattle, Tristan und Isolde

Cotswold Bayreuth

Cotswold Bayreuth

I’ve been covering some fairly substantial mileage, both physically and in terms of repertoire, over the last seven days. Here, slightly delayed, is my review of Longborough Festival Opera’s Tristan und Isolde: another superb show whose musical glory wasn’t quite matched by directorial vision.

Newark Violin School

Newark Violin School

Then on Friday I was off to the far side of Nottinghamshire to visit the remarkable Newark Violin School, where I was made to feel extremely welcome. It’s a wonderful institution: you feel as if you’ve wandered into a modern-day medieval guild. Part of me simply wished I could just throw everything in and enrol myself. Maybe I will some day! That was another assignment courtesy of Jessica Duchen (whom I was delighted to see at Longborough – an island of sanity amidst all the black ties, vintage cars and popping champagne corks of country house opera: still a very disconcerting experience for me) for The Amati Magazine. Watch this space for the full report, probably next week.

Newark Violin School

Newark Violin School

Meanwhile – I’ve been writing sleeve notes for Warner Classics’ forthcoming 50-CD box of Simon Rattle‘s recordings with the CBSO. It was bittersweet, to say the least, to be writing those in the week when my former colleagues were marking the departure of Andris Nelsons – and a timely reminder that it takes more than just great conducting to make a great music director. And then, programme notes for the CBSO’s forthcoming Ella Fitzgerald tribute night. Talk about a  labour of love…Ella’s Rodgers and Hart Songbook was one of those albums that entered my life at the exact moment when it could strike deepest; she’s one of the only non-classical artists whose name on a CD sleeve will make me buy it on sight. I still can’t listen to A Ship Without a Sail without feeling crushed inside. Anyway, it’s an absolutely gorgeous programme…maybe someone will ask me to review it..?

Despatch from Denmark

15 Monday Jun 2015

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Amati Magazine, Carl Nielsen, Copenhagen, Longborough Opera

Carl Nielsen as Orpheus (or Tamino?): ceiling mosaic adjacent to the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.

Carl Nielsen as Orpheus (or Tamino?): ceiling mosaic adjacent to the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.

My article for The Amati Magazine about last week’s Carl Nielsen anniversary events in Copenhagen and Odense is now live. And – after a hectic week and a couple of false starts, I am now going to review Longborough Festival Opera’s new production of Tristan und Isolde tomorrow. So, if you’ll excuse me while I iron clothes, plan picnics, try to remember how to tie a tie, etc…

Amati Magazine: Essential Reads

14 Thursday May 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Town Hall, Jessica Duchen, Raphael Wallfisch

My colleague and greatest living Korngold fan Jessica Duchen took over editorship of The Amati Magazine earlier this year, and has quickly turned it into one of the must-read classical music blogs – which will come as no surprise to anyone who follows her own long-running music blog. Anyway, I was incredibly flattered to be asked to contribute, and delighted that Jessica was willing to indulge me with a project I’ve been keen to undertake for years – a series of articles about my favourite classical music reference books. Three have appeared so far – Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (crazy name, crazy book); The Well-Tempered String Quartet (if you’re an amateur quartetter yourself you’ll know it, if not…well, my thoughts are here) and the Pelican Guide to Chamber Music.

Have a look, and while you’re there, have a browse around – The Amati Magazine is full of good things these days. Jessica’s typically insightful and engaging interview with Raphael Wallfisch gave me quite a few nice talking points when I interviewed Raphael prior to the Orchestra of the Swan’s concert at Birmingham Town Hall yesterday.

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