Blog
Cadogan Hall
The orchestra rehearsed yesterday in London's Cadogan Hall. You know you've made it to chelsea when the emergency signs read like this.
We were joined by our soloists for the rehearsal - Karen and Andy pictured below - Andy taking time out from his current role as Director of the Marriage of Figaro at Wilton's Music Hall to come along and do a turn in our Stravinsky.
Tonight, the Prom! Join us live on Radio 3 or BBC4 at 7.30pm, or of course, in the Albert Hall itself.
To London
Just to prove how flexible a bunch we are, we've left behind the beaches of the Hebrides and the hills of the Highlands, and are on our way to London to play at the Proms. And, we are not only reunited with each other after our wind/strings schism of last week, we are augmented. We have for this concert 4 extra violins, 2 extra violas, cellos and basses, plus 3 trombones and a tuba. In case you're wondering, it's not organised this way on the off chance we suffer some losses at Terminal 5. It's the repertoire and the venue - the Albert Hall being a sizable place.
As you will see from the photo above, we are playing Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony. (Why didn't we do that in the Hebrides David?) Also Schumann's Piano Concerto (Nicholas Angelich on the piano) and the complete version of Stravinsky's Pulcinella (with Karen Cargill mezzo soprano, Andrew Staples tenor and Brindley Sherratt bass). You may also notice that the photo features the resting baton of conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who, presumably through his energy and brilliance, has bent it. (Images of Harry Potter now coming to mind.)
Talk to me about the Music
Perhaps it’s time I stopped talking about the beaches and the whisky on this Outer Hebridean String tour. (I notice ice cream seems to be featuring quite heavily on the Wind Tour.)
On our long ferry crossing from the tiny island of Barra back to the mainland, I spoke to David Watkin, our Director for this tour, about his role. First of all, I should clarify that this week we have been performing without a conductor. If you are surprised to hear this, remember that as a small performing group, we don’t really need one. You may well be familiar with the idea of someone directing from the violin, or from the keyboard (our recordings with pianist Piotr Andersweski and also with violinist Alexander Janiczek are examples of this), but directing from the cello, as David does, is a bit more unusual.
The idea of directing the concert from the cello is closely linked to David’s choice of programme. When performing Baroque and Classical music, where, as David believes, the music is shaped more by the harmonic structure rather than the melodic line, it makes particular sense to direct it from the bass line. The 19th Century tradition of musical hierarchy - Composer, Conductor, Orchestra Leader, Section Principal, Tutti Player (in descending precedence) - is less relevant to repertoire like a Bach Cantata, where the violins don’t play at all half time. There are stories of Bach himself directing his Cantatas from the viola. (Whatever next!)
Of the 200 of Bach’s Cantatas that survive, very few of them are widely known. David wanted to play some of this very wonderful music, and to perform with the beautiful soprano Julia Doyle, and so he selected a few gems from several different Cantatas. Explaining to our audiences his decision to put movements from both secular and sacred works side by side in performance, (don’t forget that the Hebrides are famously Presbyterian, even if they do allow ferries on a Sunday these days) David felt sure that the great composer himself would not have disapproved - believing that all of his music, sacred or secular, was written for the glory of God; Soli deo gloria being inscribed at the bottom of all of Bach's completed manuscripts.
Blue skies and ice-cream in Oban
Yesterday's weather in Oban was all you could hope for in a seaside town - glorious blue sky, constant sunshine and a warm breeze. So you can imagine the 45 minutes we spent getting lost in a one-way system thanks to an incorrect map wasn't particularly enjoyable - looking at the glorious blue sky, constant hot sunshine pouring through the windows and a stuffy car rather than a warm breeze! Luckily, the people of Oban turned out to be a very kind bunch and led us (literally) to our destination - the beautiful St John's Cathedral.
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St John's CathedralOn a walk along the sea front, it's easy to see why the town is hailed a breathtaking destination. Even from sea-level, Mull can be seen clearly peeking over the top of the island of Kerrera, whilst McCaig's Tower watches over from the hill - itself a great spot for views. Oh, and the local ice-cream is great too (would have been rude not to give it a try...)!
Set a street back from the sea, the Cathedral sits in the centre of Oban amongst the ice-cream shops and bustling shopping area. No surprise, then, that we welcomed many tourists of various nationalities into the concert, all eager to see the Ensemble. As successful as Birnam, the number of compliments to the programme and players was wonderful - another great evening!
And if you're wondering what the weather was like this morning... here's Marketing Officer, Jen Owens, at McCaig's Tower, along with a 'view' from the top!
Winds and Brass on Tour
So here we are, the Winds and Brass team, on the road to Oban after a hearty breakfast in Dunkeld, a quick coo over three cute black kittens playing in the hotel car park and a ridiculously hairy junction within the first five minutes of setting off this morning!
Last night's concert at Birnam Institute was a huge success. Set off the main road, the wooden-fronted Institute boasts a modern performance space, a cake friendly cafe and Beatrix Potter exhibition and shop.
A keen audience thoroughly enjoyed the concert with many commenting that while they love to see the orchestra in full, there was something rather special about seeing the Winds and Brass perform music specifically composed and arranged for this particular ensemble. Just the kind of feedback we like to hear!
The first half saw SCO Principal and 2nd trumpet players, Peter Franks and Shaun Harrold respectively, team up with percussionist, Caroline Garden on tenor drum, for a rousing performance of Two Renaissance Dances by Claude Gervaise (arranged by Peter). The rest of the Ensemble completed the first half with Arvo Part's Fratres and Jean Francaix's Nine Characteristic Pieces.
The second half began with a Wind arrangement of Gioachino Rossini's Operatic Overture to The Barber of Seville, followed by a captivating duet performance of excerpts of Mozart's The Magic Flute arranged for two flutes and performed by SCO Principal Flute Alison Mitchell and Janet Larsson. Krommer's Partita in E-flat major, Op 79 for winds completed the programme and all were received with thunderous applause.
Tonight will see us in picturesque Oban's St John's Cathedral and judging by the weather so far today, it should be a lovely warm summer evening - perfect for a Highland Tour!
From the sublime to the sublime
Fresh from the recording studio in Glasgow, the SCO String tour of the Outer Hebrides is now well under way. Last night we performed in the Arts Centre (An Lanntair) in Stornoway to a packed concert hall. A very enthusiastic audience were so persistent in their demand for an encore that, despite the fact the orchestra had left the stage, instruments put away in the cases and a few people already in the dressing rooms about to change, we gave in and went back to play one more Handel Aria with soprano Julia Doyle.
In our quest to take live classical music to the furthest corners of Scotland, the SCO splits, once a year, into two groups - the strings and the winds - for two separate but simultaneous tours. Supported by the Highlands and Islands Council, we are able to perform in venues that are too small for the whole orchestra, and thus manage to reach communities which otherwise have little live classical music access. Within the last 3 years, the SCO has visited Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides, as well as regular visits to the Highlands and other Islands. For obvious reasons, these tours always take place in the summer.
And, we have a very nice time doing it! In the mornings, before rehearsal, people are able to go hiking, swim in the sea, cycle, eat freshly caught fish, sleep in after drinking lots of local whisky the night before…and so on.
Pictures show a Benbecula beach, some people planning their walks around the island while on the Ferry, others having to work hard to prepare the rehearsal parts, our famous truck on the high seas, and an impromptu game of Boule while waiting for the ferry
SCO hits the Islands
SCO has arrived in the Outer Hebrides! Pictures show our lovely SCO van parked waiting to board the ferry to Stornoway this morning. And our director for the week, David Watkin, avoiding the glare of the paparazzi at dinner in the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool the night before...
Settling the Score
As a note of explanation, where the original autograph of, let’s say, a Mozart Symphony exists, there should be reliable later printed Editions, taken from that autograph. However, it may be that the early printed editions, no matter how closely they date to the original, contain errors. If later versions are taken from these editions rather than the autograph, (or if no autograph exists) then errors can be passed down, played and recorded, for generations of performance.
Hence, an entire profession of musical academics have a subject for their PhDs, and hence, as a performer, you will spend a lot of time worrying about whether to play a melody with or without a slur, with or without ‘staccato‘ dots above the notes, what do the dots really mean anyway, and are you sure that they weren‘t actually dashes written with a quill in a hurry to meet the patron‘s deadline?
In the end, you do have to make choices and interpretations, but Sir Charles insists on them being informed. He has made it his life’s work to inspect as many of Mozart’s originals as possible. This has taken him to library vaults all over the world, and the homes of collectors. We hear stories of an eccentric collector who wouldn’t allow anyone to see the autograph until she died and her collection was donated to the nation, of Sir Charles finding himself behind the Berlin Wall with access to all the collections held in Communist Europe, of discovering one of Mozart’s hairs stuck to an inserted correction made by the great genius himself.
So as a result, when Sir Charles insists that we play from his own collection of extensively corrected and constantly revised parts, we know why. [These parts were all bought by Sir Charles out of his salary from the East Berlin Staatsoper, when the East German Mark could not be spent in the West.]
And even yesterday, into his 85th year, when our viola player Brian Schiele presented Sir Charles with a score for Mozart’s 29th Symphony taken from an autograph that he hadn’t seen, Sir Charles was immediately ready to revise and correct his own parts, such is his great and lifelong passion for wanting to get as close as possible to the music.
The Listening Break
After the first Take of each movement, the orchestra principals retire to the Listening Room to hear how it sounds. Pictured here - Sir Charles discusses phrasing with Nick Bayley (Bass) and leader Chris George, under the watchful ear of producer James Mallinson. Meanwhile, the rest of the First Violin section play games on Zoe's iphone.
The perfect recording
Recording is a strange and very different experience from live performance. Studio recordings aim to be ‘perfect’. By this I mean that the listener will be able to hear the piece of music free of all defects - no wrong notes, no coughing fits, nothing that is out of tune, no sections too fast, too slow, even no page turns. But they also aim, particularly when working with great artists, to be a ’record’ of interpretation and style. They need to be more than perfectly accurate therefore - they need to be meaningful. And they need to be exciting! They are not a dry textbook presentation of an ideal Mozart Symphony - they have got to try and convey the thrill of the music being alive, so that it is a joy to listen to the finished product.
Imagine then, that you are on your fifth take of the opening of the symphony; you want and need it to sound like the start of a concert, not the end of a 3 hour recording session. Tempo is settled now, but the Fsharp in bar 5 hasn’t been quite in tune on any take yet, and the producer says your entry sounds a bit late in bar 20. Play it again, perfectly, but with feeling! Then there’s the time pressure - 3 minutes left to the end of the session, and you have got to get it right. (Overtime is almost never allowed in orchestral rehearsals or recordings - it costs a fortune.) At last you play the top note of the phrase as beautifully as you had hoped, but, no good, someone hit their bow on the stand while turning a page and the microphones picked up the noise so that take is no use.
It’s a tricky business....Miss Su-a Lee takes a break from it all...
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