BBC Proms
Bach: Mass in B Minor
Orchestra & Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, John Butt
Royal Albert Hall, 29 March 2022
How should an atheist approach Bach? And, in particular, his Mass in B minor, arguably his finest work and one that, to him, seemed to sum up a lifetime of music dedicated to Soli Deo Gloria (Glory to God alone) – the meaning of the S.D.G that Bach appended to all his sacred works?
‘A New Created World’
Haydn: The Creation
Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings, Nina Dunn Studio
Barbican Hall. 28 Sep 2021, and online
After a successful series of AAM Live 2021 live-streamed Covid concerts, the Academy of Ancient Music returned to live performance with Haydn’s Creation, conducted in the Barbican Hall by Laurence Cummings, making his debut as the AAM’s new Music Director. Haydn’s joyous paean of praise to the Biblical creation story was a splendid way to open their post-lockdown “New Worlds” themed season. Their performance also featured inventive and elaborate video designs by Nina Dunn Studio, projected onto the wide wooden rear screen of the Barbican stage.
Bach: St Matthew Passion
Orchestra & Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Mark Padmore
The Anvil, Basingstoke. 31 March 2018
During Easter Saturday, I watched a broadcast from Berlin of the powerful Simon Rattle/Peter Sellars staging of the St Matthew Passion that I had reviewed back in 2014 at the Proms. And in the evening, an unstaged, but equally powerful Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performance in Basingstoke’s Anvil. The common factor was Mark Padmore, appearing as the Evangelist and, in the case of the OAE, as director. I don’t object in principle to stagings of the Bach Passions. Sellar’s use of the space in and around the orchestras was very effective, and I also liked Jonathan Miller’s inspiringly human reading in the mid-1990s, and Deborah Warner’s 2000 ENO staging of the St John Passion, which drew the audience directly into the unfolding drama. But sometimes just being presented with the music itself, without additional layering, is the way to focus on the complex human emotions that Bach portrays. Continue reading
BBC Proms: Reformation Day
Prom 47: Bach’s ‘Little Organ Book’ past and present
Prom 48: A Patchwork Passion
Prom 49: Bach’s St John Passion
Royal Albert Hall, 20 August 2017
Prom 47: Bach’s ‘Little Organ Book’ past and present
William Whitehead, Robert Quinney, organ
The BBC Proms’ acknowledgement of the anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation came with three concerts on Sunday 20 August, starting with a lunchtime organ recital featuring the premieres of three pieces from The Orgelbüchlein Project played by its founder/director, the organist William Whitehead. The programme opened and closed with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E flat (from the Clavierübung III, BWV 552), played by Robert Quinney (who also played Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata in A major (Op. 65/3)). It also included the fourth of Schumann’s Fugues on B-A-C-H and two of Bach’s own Orgelbüchlein chorale preludes played by William Whitehead and, just before the final Bach Fugue, Samuel Sebastian Wesley’s ‘Prelude to the Grand Organ Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach’: a duet for both organists. Continue reading
Handel: Apollo e Daphne
The Brook Street Band
17 July 2016
Given their name (referring to the London street where Handel made his home) it was not surprising that The Brook Street Band chose to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a concert of Handel: his cantata, Apollo e Daphne preceded by two Trio Sonatas and the ‘Oxford’ Water Music. Normally appearing as a quartet of two violins, cello and harpsichord, they added a flute for part of the Water Music, and oboes, bassoon and viola for the cantata. All the instrumental pieces had an interesting back story, Continue reading
Haydn: The Creation
Handel + Haydn Society, Harry Christophers
CORO: COR16135. 51’39+46’36
Sarah Tynan, soprano; Jeremy Ovenden, tenor; Matthew Brook, bass-baritone
Boston’s Handel + Haydn Society gave the first US performance of Haydn’s The Creation in 1819, just three years after their foundation, having performed Part One in their first year. Their name (at the time, a representation of their interest in ‘old’ and ‘new’ music), has a resonance with The Creation. It was Haydn’s response to hearing Handel’s Isreal in Egypt and Messiah in the 1791 Westminster Abbey Handel Festival, with a large choir and orchestra of more than 100 people. Two hundred years after their foundation, the Handel + Haydn Society’s bicentennial season ended with two performances in Boston’s Symphony Hall, Boston on 1 and 3 May 2015. This double CD is a live recording of those performances. I didn’t detect any audience noise or other potential live recording mishaps, but certainly detected the thrill and exhilaration of live music making. It bubbles over with the energy and vitality of a live performance, rather than a carefully crafted studio recording. Continue reading
Andrew Benson-Wilson : Early Music Reviews + 