This autumn, join Wigmore Hall for a major two-week celebration of piano music with a series of captivating performances by some of the world’s most distinguished pianists. With lunchtime and evening concerts across the festival, there is opportunity to enjoy the performances of some extraordinary artists.
Each concert promises a unique exploration through the rich tapestry of piano music, from the delicate nuances of Chopin with Pavel Kolesnikov to the bold expressions of Schubert with Elisabeth Leonskaja.
Highlights of the festival also include performances by accomplished artists such as Angela Hewitt, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason and Alim Beisembayev. Composer and pianist Vijay Iyer performs works by Mozart, alongside his own compositions in a concert with the Manchester Collective, while Morrocan-Hungarian pianist Marouan Benabdallah introduces the audience to works by composers from an Arabic background.
Limited tickets remaining – visit the Wigmore Hall website to secure your seats.
Tickets from £18.
£5 tickets available for U35s at selected concerts.
Finavia and the Finnish National Opera and Ballet this week installed a loop of opera and ballet at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport to distract passengers while they wait for flights and luggage.
The loop, lasting 20 minutes, includes extracts of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, with arias from Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni.
Makes a change.
The latest update to the catalogue of Mozart’s works, published yesterday after 18 years in the making, is 1,392 pages long and weighs 3kg.
It contains 95 new listings, among them a 12-minute string trio and various piano pieces written by the boy for his sister.
This week’s unexpected Billboard chart-topper is a studio retake of ‘Mea Culpa/ca ira’ from the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. It features heavy metal band Gojira and mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti.
Missing from the credits on the recording are the Orchestre de Paris and its chorus, let alone their conductors.
Klaus Mäkelä was somehow unavailable to conduct the recording session. Barbara Dragan directed the orchestra and Richard Wilberforce the chorus. They deserve a shout-out, to go with their #1 status.
Dear Alma,
My teacher made a public display of me in studio class today and I froze with nervousness. He was not happy with my intonation, and and instead of phrasing it in a constructive manner, he said, “You played it in tune before why are you so out of tune today? Did you practice?” I don’t know how to respond to leading questions like that in lessons and especially in front of colleagues.
Please help!
Traumatized Musician
Dear Traumatized Musician,
We have all been there – most likely both as the recipient of unwanted advice in public, and as a witness of a teacher being harsh to a student. You may have just gotten the short end of the stick and have an overly critical or insensitive teacher. Have you noticed similar behavior towards other students, or do you feel as if this is directed only at you?
The bare truth of the matter is that classical music is a harsh environment. It’s very competitive, can be incredibly stressful, takes an inordinate amount of time and energy, and compares people in public. It’s almost impossible to not take criticism personally, but we have to do everything we can to take a step back, a deep breath.
Traumatized Musician – I have an uncomfortable question for you. Do you agree with the teacher’s assessment? If so, listen to the teacher, and ask them for help to find a way to correct the flaw. No matter how annoyed you are at these comments, listen to the criticism in a calm way and then brainstorm a way to fix the problem.
Stay positive. You are there to learn and to train yourself for a career. In this particular case, your learning may not be about your instrument, but rather how to navigate situations and persist and stay strong when you are feeling insulted or belittled.
Criticism is not about trying to make you feel bad. This teacher might have been asking a straight-forward question. Examine that question. What about your practicing didn’t work under pressure? How can you stay solid under pressure? It is the type of practice, the amount, or the the at your body reacts to stress that you can investigate? Do you need to perform more often to be able to control your technique?
Ask your teacher for advice. Work hard. Work differently. Take this moment as an opportunity. It’s not a door closed in your face, but a chance to open a new door and find a new path.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Season of Joy opened last night with Beethoven’s ninth symphony to a packed house.
A correspondent writes: ‘The near-capacity audience was bolstered by an offer of tickets for a pound for those with a Birmingham postcode willing to queue for the special offer.’
The blurb about filming has been amended to this: We are happy for you to take photos and short videos at our concerts during applause breaks. We ask that you are mindful of disturbing artists and other audience members. Please dim the brightness on your phone, and do not use your flash.
This weekend’s season opening concerts of Verdi’s Requiem have been called off after chorus members called a three-day walkout.
Ticket holders for last night’s concerts were given two hours notice. Some were already on their way in to the hall.
The orchestra of San Francisco Opera issued an imediate solidarity srarement: San Francisco has long been home to one of the most distinguished classical music communities in the world. We stand in support of the members of the Symphony Chorus in their actions for a new contract, not only because it is needed to ensure that they can continue to live and create art here, but also because the draconian cuts they face threaten the future of the artistic culture in San Francisco.
It’s back to the mattresses.
The interim management of the NY Philharmonic has offered the musicians a 30 percent pay raise, taking the basic minimum wage in the strings to $205,000 a year. Players in other sections automatically earn more. The musicians will vote today on whether to accept the deal, which will be phased in over three years.
‘This is a restorative settlement that brings our musicians to the level of their peer orchestras,’ acting CEO Deborah Borda told the parish paper.
‘Our members deserved this raise,’ said Local 802’s Sara Cutler, who said yesterday that players could not afford to pay their bills on a mere $153k a year.
Caravaggio at the National Gallery
Letizia Treves, then Curator of Later Italian, Spanish, and French 17th-century Paintings at the National Gallery, guides us through the tumultuous life of Caravaggio.
Caravaggiowas a bad boy, the epitome of the adage that genius doesn’t carry its own virtue. He killed a man in a brawl, which led to a death sentence for murder and forced him to flee to Naples where he was involved in a violent clash; his face was disfigured, and it was reported that he had died, but he hadn’t. His erratic and bizarre behaviour gave rise to questions about his mental state. He died in mysterious circumstances and rumours continue to circulate that he was murdered.
But, despite his violent lifestyle, he was one of the greatest painters in history. Treves looks at how his innovative style developed from a focus on nature and expression in his early works to the sophistication of his mature works.
Created by David Bintley for the National Ballet of Japan in 2008, this production has been a favourite with Japanese audiences (this is the fourth revival), while also winning a place in the repertoire of Birmingham Royal Ballet and Houston Ballet. Bintley succeeds in presenting a familiar story with great clarity, whilst finding rich allusions to the nineteenth century classical form This production is streamed by Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision. It was Carl Davis’s score that convinced Bintley – listening on a single car journey – to make this ballet. The music captivates throughout, detailed in its description of the scènes d’action and lusciously romantic for the pas de deux. While it is widely recognized as an Arabian story, the tale of Aladdin in Arabian Nights is set in China. This production depicts him as a Chinese descendant in Old Arabia and beautifully incorporates Chinese elements including Lion and Dragon dances with settings inspired by the Arabian world.
The stage designs by Dick Bird are magnificent, starting in a lively Arabian town square complete with fortune-tellers and merchants. Bintley, Bird and costume designer Sue Blane are much influenced by Chinese design, seen in the dragon and the palace interior. Aladdin is danced by Ydai Fukuoka and Princess Badr al-Budur by Ayako Ono. Aladdin and his mother’s clothes show that they are also Chinese, which helps to set the story at a cultural crossroads. With a magic carpet ride before the happy ending, David Bintley’s Aladdin is a spectacle for whole-family viewing.
The Plot: much loved by children of all ages, Aladdin and his adventures are here brought to life in a glittering production, featuring lavish sets and costumes, stunning special effects and beautiful choreography. Expect extra magic when the Djinn of the Lamp appears from a cave of dancing jewels with a larger-than-life Chinese lion.
It’s curtains for the Vle of Glamorgan Festival which has been presenting new works each years since 1969.
Composer Huw Watkins says on its website: ‘This wonderful festival has championed an enormous range of composers over the last fifty years, and I am very fortunate to have been one of them. It has cultivated a sympathetic and adventurous audience for new music in Wales, for which, as a composer, I am deeply grateful.’
But no more, from today.
The money has dried up and the authorities have turned a deaf ear.
Wales is returning to the musical dark ages.
The Royal Opera informs us that Eva-Maria Westbroek has withdrawn from all performances of Festen ‘due to personal reasons’.
The new opera by Mark Anthony Turnage, based on the Danish cult film, does not premiere until next February. Whatever the personal reasons, they seem likely to last a very long time. Probably not to do with the score: she starred in Turnage’s last opera, Anna-Nicole.
Westbroek, 54, will be replaced by the young English mezzo-soprano Rosie Aldridge.
Also in the cast are Allan Clayton, Stéphane Degout, Gerald Finley and Natalya Romaniw.
