I started this as an opera blog, but I realised that there are other topics I want to write about, so it has expanded to include my other interests!!
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Back from Edinburgh......
The garden's looking good, thanks to the neighbour who looked after it in my absence.
Harvested LOADS of cherry tomatoes when I got back!
I ate them for lunch today - well, there are one or two left for this evening, along with the salad, all of which was grown in the garden.
My last day in Edinburgh!!
I think I've used the time profitably....last night I went to a concert by the folk group Whistlebinkies.
Here's some info about them...
http://www.footstompin.com/artists/alphabet/pv/whistlebinkies
They played a varied programme of traditional Scots music and music from other Celtic countries, including Brittany, and also some music from the 17th. century. During the interval I was able to chat with Rab Wallace, who plays Lowland Pipes and Small Pipes (not the ones you blow into - more like Northumbrian pipes), about the overlap between Early Music and Folk Music, had a very interesting discussion.
The other instruments include a clarsach (Scottish Harp)
and more conventional instruments such as flute, fiddle, double bass.
After the interval they played a piece written for them by John Cage - 'Scottish Circus' - and some of the audience didn't realise it was the John Cage and carried on chatting.....
ah well..
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This afternoon (Sunday) I went to the People's Story Museum
http://www.cac.org.uk/venues/peoples_story.htm
which is a museum of the working lives of people in Edinburgh. it currently has an exhibition of Trade Union Banners.
St. Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh, August 2007
I have attended two recitals at St. Cecilia's Hall, which is part of the University of Edinburgh's Department of Music. It has one of the two best collections in the world of early keyboard and stringed instruments (the other is at Yale University). The harpsichords in the illustration are not from this collection, just illustrations of the sort of instruments they have in the collection.
The first lecture/recital was of music by C.P. E Bach, played on the clavichord, and the performer, Colin Kingsley, explained how Bach influenced Haydn, some of whose early pieces he then played on the fortepiano - he explained that may of Haydn's works would be impossible to play on a clavichord (although they can be played on a harpsichord),because the style, the chords, the fingering, every nuance of the piece is adapted to a fortepiano or a harpsichord. The fortepiano he used was one from the late 18th century - they are all original instruments, no reproductions! It includes an early sustaining pedal, but at this stage the player had to operate the pedal with their knee...the pedal at the base of the instrument appears with the pianoforte proper.
This afternoon I attended a recital entitled 'His Majesty Commands' - music from the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia, including a piece for flute and keyboard by the King himself, which was interesting, because I knew he was a competent performer, but I hadn't realised he wrote himself.
The next piece was by Frederick's teacher Johann Joachim Quantz, and the other pieces were by J.S. Bach and C.P.E Bach. The instruments were a baroque flute and a fortepiano - a different fortepiano from the one used in the previous concert, they have a very large collection!
During the intervals the audience was invited to visit the collection, it is quite stunning it its range, it has some of the oldest harpsichords and clavichords ever made - I talked to the curator, who said that she does play all of them, they have to be played in order to keep them in good condition.
(Sadly, I only have one more day in Edinburgh....)
Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, Tuesday August 21.
Anonymous 4 performing a Medieval Ladymass
Anonymous 4 is a group of American performers and scholars who specialise in Early Music, but are also venturing into the contemporary repertoire.
A Ladymass, as its name implies, is a Mass dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who was greatly venerated throughout Europe in the later medieval period. The programme note explained some of the background...
In the 13th century, a Mass to the Virgin (a Ladymass) was offered daily in the Lady Chapel of Salisbury Cathedral.Most large churches had Lady Chapels where such votive masses were celebrated, either daily (as at Salisbury) or on Saturday, a day dedicated to Mary. Of the English polyphony that survives from this time, almost all of which is sacred, roughly two-thirds is in honour of the Virgin; much of this music could play a role in the Ladymass. For this programme we have used liturgical polyphony and chant, along with other devotional works from thew 13th and earlu 14th centuries, to create a composite Ladymass.
This performance followed the performance by the Orlando Consort which I found so inspiring. The Ladymass doesn't follow the usual sequence of the Mass, but consists of poems and hymns dedicated to the Virgin, sometimes praising Her for Her own virtues, sometimes asking her to intercede with Her Son for the redemption of sinners. The Latin hymns were interspersed with two Middle English poems, one of which - Edi beo thu hevene quene - I know from other Early Music/Folk Song collections. (I'm very interested in the overlap between Early Music and Folk Music!)
The other is a Middle English version of the Stabat Mater.
The women's voices weaving together in polyphony sounded beautiful, rather unfamiliar, as most liturgical music that survives from the Middle Ages was written for male voices, but obviously there is no reason why it could not be adapted - one of the sequences I found most effective was O ceteris preamabilis, sung as a duet.
And some of the poetry - complete unfamiliar to me, and to most of the audience, is incredibly rich im imagery. I will just quote a few lines from Salve mater salvatoris.
Venter tuus o puella, thalamus, palacium,
aula, domus, templum, cella, civitas, sacrarium.
Virga, rubus appelaris flos, fenestra, ianua,
mater dei, lux solaris, iesse stirps ingenua.
Vitis, uva, rosa, stella, margarita, lilium.....
Thy womb, o maiden is wedding bed, palace,
hall, house, temple, chamber, city and shrine.
Thou are called sprout, blackberry-bush, flower,
window, door, mother of God, sunlight, genuine branch
of Jesse, vine, grape, rose, star, pearl, lily......
The recital included plainchant sequences, which make an interesting contrast to the polyphony.
Lousy weather all day, but hasn't stopped me enjoying the Festival!
Last night I went to Haydn's THE CREATION at the Usher Hall. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus were conducted by Roger Norrington, the soloists were Katharine Fuge, Ian Bostridge and Matthew Rose.
The orchestra contained instruments such as natural trumpets, which gave a different colouring to the music. I had never heard of Katharine Fuge before, but I loved her clear, sweet voice, especially in the section about the creation of plants and flowers (which is my favourite section anyway). Bostridge sang very authoritatively, his voice filling the hall, and without the dryness with which he has sometimes been afflicted in the past. Matthew Rose didn't appear to be in good voice at the beginning, there was some roughness and insecurity, but he improved as the evening progressed, and was very good in the role of Adam.
I've just come from Greyfriars Kirk, where I heard a recital by the Orlando Consort. I am returning at 9 p.m. for a Ladymass performed by Anonymous 4 ...
The programme consisted of music by Josquin and his contemporaries, including Ockeghem - mainly hymns to the Virgin, but concluding with a lament for the death of Ockeghem written by Josquin. It is part of a series of concerts of polyphonic music, and I found it fascinating, as, although I'm very interested in Early Music, I have concentrated more on the instrumental rather than the vocal repertory. One of the singers has to give the note before the hymn starts (like tuning in an orchestra), and the voices then weave intricately together.
After the performance I was able to talk to the performers and they explained more about how polyphony works. One of the members is a counter-tenor, because of course women didn't sing in church choirs during the Middle Ages, although it was explained to me that girls WERE taught to sing, and sang in choirs for convents.
All in all, a fascinating evening - I love Edinburgh, in spite of the weather!
Queens Hall, Edinburgh, August 20 2007.
Recital: KATE ROYAL, Soprano
CHRISTINE RICE, Mezzo-Soprano
ROGER VIGNOLES, Piano
This was a wonderful start to my visit to Edinburgh! The programme consisted mainly of duets for soprano and mezzo, and included some songs for one voice only. Hardly any of the songs are particularly well-known now, although according to the programme, "Vocal duets, trios and quartets with piano were popular vocal forms in the 19th. century, to be hear in the drawing-room as much if not more frequently than in the concert hall...."
The first group was three songs by Schumann, Herbstlied, Erste Begegnung, and Sommerruh. (Summer Peace; not that there's been much summer in the UK this year!) Discussion during the interval revealed that most of the audience thought the actual poems were pretty feeble, but that it didn't really matter because the musical settings are so delightful, and give equal weight to both voices, and the skilful, intricate interweaving of soprano and mezzo is very effective.
The next section consisted of four songs by Mendelssohn - this time the voices alternated; one song that IS very familiar is Auf Fluegen des Gesanges, sung by the soprano, then a Venetian Gondola Song for mezzo, Pagenlied (Page's song) for soprano, and finally Der Mond for mezzo. All four are love songs, and, like the Schumann songs, very attractive and charming, and beautifully sung. (Saying "attractive and charming" sounds a bit like damning with faint praise - but most of us felt that the songs were meant to be pleasant and enjoyable to listen to - and to perform -, rather than necessarily profound or plumbing the depths of human experience.
There then followed four French songs, two by Gounod and two by Chausson. Fleurs du bois by Gounod was perhaps the most attractive of this section - it's a jaunty, humorous setting of a poem by Charles Ligny, listing various flowers and concluding with the sentiment that the Daisy (Paquerette) is to be preferred above all the others. It has a lilting rhythm, and, like the Schumann songs earlier, affords the opportunity for the voices to blend and contrast.
After the interval, Christine Rice, the mezzo, sang Brahms' Zigeunerlieder - these are well-crafted for the mezzo voice, the one I liked best was Brauner Bursche fuehrt zum Tanze, about a young couple dancing the czardas - a very lively and upbeat song.
This section was followed by four Brahms songs for soprano, of which Die Mainacht is the most dramatic and expressive, and - yes, rather less 'lightwieght' than the others. Lerchengesang is a challenge to the pianist, which Roger Vignoles met with great skill.
The final section consisted of Moravian Duets by Dvorak - these are Moravian folksongs, which had actually been translated into English, although the name of the translator is not given in the programme. The final song is a Wedding Song, so the programme ends on a very cheerful note.
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