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Richard Bratby

~ Classical music writer, critic and consultant

Richard Bratby

Tag Archives: Carl Nielsen

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

Double Danish

03 Thursday Sep 2015

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Birmingham Mail, Birmingham Post, Carl Nielsen

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The Birmingham Post liked my article on Carl Nielsen so much that they’ve let the Birmingham Mail print it too – my first appearance in the Mail. Compare and contrast both versions here:

Birmingham Post – Nielsen Article

Birmingham Mail – Nielsen

And here’s the full-length version of the final two paragraphs:


“We’re very excited to be coming to Symphony Hall, which I’ve been to twice, and consider to be the finest concert hall in Britain” says Müller. “We’re also excited to be doing Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony, because it doesn’t involve words – and as an opera orchestra, what we do here usually involves a lot of words! But we’re doing it with Nørgård and Schoenberg – a serious, substantial programme.”

And on the strength of the Royal Danish Orchestra’s performance in Saul and David, it’ll be a gripping one, too. Nielsen’s lust for life seems to have rubbed off on his old orchestra. A challenging concert? “In every man or woman there is something which, in spite of all defects and imperfections, we will like once we get to know it” writes Carl Nielsen in My Funen Childhood. Which is why the best possible birthday present to that quirky, exuberant country lad from Funen is a concert that acknowledges no musical boundaries.

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…

Birmingham, Stratford and Funen

12 Friday Jun 2015

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Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham Post, Carl Nielsen, Orchestra of the Swan, Welsh National Opera

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The Birmingham Post seems to have overcome its late difficulties with posting reviews – so here are my most recent: Birmingham Conservatoire’s baroque double bill, an interesting programme from the Orchestra of the Swan and Raphael Wallfisch and Welsh National Opera’s production of Richard Ayres’ Peter Pan. And the latest of my articles about favourite classical music books is now up on Amati Magazine – not for the faint-hearted!

As for my big Nielsen anniversary jaunt to Denmark – watch this space. Here’s a couple of pictures for starters. And have a look at this lovely blogpost from my esteemed colleague David Nice – who was wonderfully congenial company as we explored Copenhagen and Nielsen’s “home patch” around Odense on the island of Funen.

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Happy 150th birthday, Carl Nielsen.

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

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Carl Nielsen, Copenhagen

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…and I’m fortunate enough to be spending it with a terrific group of colleagues in Copenhagen itself, on assignment for The Birmingham Post and The Amati Magazine. We’ve heard a rehearsal of the 4th Symphony with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in its stunning new concert hall, been shown round Nielsen’s old stamping-ground at the Royal Theatre by the wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable Michael Schonwandt, and tonight it’s David Pountney’s new production of Saul and David at the opera. Off to the great man’s birthplace near Odense tomorrow.

Full reports follow presently. Meanwhile the sky is blue, the Carlsberg is ice-cool and here’s the birthday boy himself in the foyer of the old Royal Theatre, looking remarkably spry at 150.

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