I have had the pleasure of playing with Harmoniemusik since around 1992. The group is a wind quintet plus piano, all of whom have been friends for 20 years or so. They resurrected St Columb festival in Cornwall after it fell into a hole in the late 80s, and set up a chamber music festival in the last week of August, which is quite nice for Nicky as I as our wedding anniversary lands in that week. So I have no excuses for forgetting!! Since 92 the group has performed 3 concerts a week. My first St C was 93 or 94, am not sure. I had a brief break of 15 years when I was in Australia, but was allowed back in 2010.
The Conway Hall concert is a sort of "highlights" of the 3 St Columb shows the previous August. I was in 3 works:-
Nielsen - Serenata Invano. I have done this piece a number of times over the years, at least 5 times, but it never gets tired. Its a quintet for cello, bass, clarinet, horn and bassoon. An odd mix, but it works. Its programmatic, in 3 sections based on a group of musos who spend the first disjointed section warming up and tuning. The next section is a serenade to a beautiful woman. The piece ends with a disgruntled march, as the object of the serenade is not impressed enough. Hence the title, which means Serenade In Vain. Its fun, with lots of solo link passages for the bass.
Vaughan Williams - Piano Quintet. I really must apologise for boring my family and friends about how much I love this piece. It is just magnificent. Its an early work that VW was unhappy with and was not published in his lifetime. Fortunately Ursula was persuaded to publish it when he fell off the perch. Paul Guinery believes there are signs of the mature composer - I am not so sure. It very approachable and a great play for all. I have to thank my in-laws Liz Kilpatrick, Kay Sobey and Howard Jones for introducing me to wonderful piece - Kay and Howard were at the concert.
Telemann - Concerto in E min for flute, violin and oboe d'Amore. Having enjoyed a slushy romantic piece to end the first half it was time to ditch the vibrato and make a cleaner, clearer sound for the Telemann continuo. Janna, Jo and Sarah played beautifully, and I followed Alec for my life!!
It was good fun, music, company, wine and nibbles. What more could you want??
Monday, February 20, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
After a quiet January, its back to running around the UK...
January is "dead" in the music world here in the UK. Promotors do not
put gigs on, as audiences dont turn up, due to shortages of cash after Xmas. The
session scene is drying up in London, the WE shows are toey about how long they
will run...doom...gloom. As I result I have one gig in Jan, but it was a ripper,
see below.
I have a 12 day period where I am in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Liverpool, London before returning to Bristol. And my accoutant just asked me for my business milage - 90%!!
I have a 12 day period where I am in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Liverpool, London before returning to Bristol. And my accoutant just asked me for my business milage - 90%!!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Auditions...
I failed my trial with WNO. Onto the next auditions - there are no 2 jobs with the Royal Liverpool Phil (tutti and no2 - I have an audition for the latter in Feb) and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (waiting to hear from them). The Northern Sinfonia have just readvertised their principal bass job. Have thrown my hat in the ring, lets see what happens...
Jan is a very quiet month - good for practicing.
Jan is a very quiet month - good for practicing.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Ulster Principal excerpts
The Ulster principal audition was in October - the excerpts were:-
Beethoven - 9, recit
Brahms - 2, 1st mov bits
Britten - Young persons guide var H
Ginastera - Var Conc solo
Haydn - 31 the post horn, var 7, bass solo
Mahler - 1, you know the bit!
Mozart 39 - last mov, the common excerpt
Prokofiev - Lt Kije solo
Saint Seans - the Elephant
Strauss - Don Juan, four common excerpts
Stravinsky - Pulchinella
Sight reading - nasty 7/8 bit from Holst's The Perfect Fool.
It certainly main a perfect fool of me! I stuffed up the sight reading. Am not sure why we have sight reading - even in the UK surely the days of bands having to read stuff are long gone? If if a piece is put on the stand for a reh before a gig, then surely you have time to look at it and do some preparation before the gig. Or are we saying players need to sightread stuff perfectly for the rehearsal? I dont get it.
I was not offered a trial. One thing I learnt from this audition was that there is little point in doing any audition without adequate preparation, I need to be at 110% to even bother.
And it was good to meet Steve Williams, who was running the auditions in London on behalf of the Ulster Orchestra. The others on the panel with principal cello and concertmaster.
Beethoven - 9, recit
Brahms - 2, 1st mov bits
Britten - Young persons guide var H
Ginastera - Var Conc solo
Haydn - 31 the post horn, var 7, bass solo
Mahler - 1, you know the bit!
Mozart 39 - last mov, the common excerpt
Prokofiev - Lt Kije solo
Saint Seans - the Elephant
Strauss - Don Juan, four common excerpts
Stravinsky - Pulchinella
Sight reading - nasty 7/8 bit from Holst's The Perfect Fool.
It certainly main a perfect fool of me! I stuffed up the sight reading. Am not sure why we have sight reading - even in the UK surely the days of bands having to read stuff are long gone? If if a piece is put on the stand for a reh before a gig, then surely you have time to look at it and do some preparation before the gig. Or are we saying players need to sightread stuff perfectly for the rehearsal? I dont get it.
I was not offered a trial. One thing I learnt from this audition was that there is little point in doing any audition without adequate preparation, I need to be at 110% to even bother.
And it was good to meet Steve Williams, who was running the auditions in London on behalf of the Ulster Orchestra. The others on the panel with principal cello and concertmaster.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Nov 2011
The WNO tour was in full swing by Nov 2011, with the company in Llandudno, Bristol, Birmingham, Oxford, and Southampton. Am really enjoying my time with WNO, and are a fantastic company.
Earlier in the month I nipped from Llandudno to Manchester/Macclesfield, to work with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, play Brandenberg Concertos no 3, 4 and 6, as well as Stravinsky's Apollo Musagete. NCO are awesome, both musically and socially. If I could have negotiated a few of 2p per note am sure I would be in a position to retire comfortably straight off! A lot of notes and a lot of fun.
Earlier in the month I nipped from Llandudno to Manchester/Macclesfield, to work with the Northern Chamber Orchestra, play Brandenberg Concertos no 3, 4 and 6, as well as Stravinsky's Apollo Musagete. NCO are awesome, both musically and socially. If I could have negotiated a few of 2p per note am sure I would be in a position to retire comfortably straight off! A lot of notes and a lot of fun.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Oct gigs - Forest Phil and Opera Project
October 2011 was another busy month. The main course was my WNO trial - the company prepares 3 operas in Cardiff then hits the road on tour, a week in each port. The first was the Empire Liverpool, another first for me to work in that city. The Empire is a wonderful old theatre, huge pit, great sound. Kayta went well, even if the house was only 1/3 full, which is a shame as its a terrific show. I met Danny Hammerton after the Katya show - great bloke and we got talking about old basses. Nothing new there then!!
Forest Phil opened thier symphony series for 11/12 with a concert on 16th October, featuring Vaughan William's "lush" Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus and Rachmaninov Symphony no 2. The latter was a first for me - great tunes. The former I had played before, 20 or so years ago, and a show that will stick in the memory. Nigel Amherst was conducting a chamber group in Cornwall. When we got to the end of the theme section, where the celli and bass gets the tune there a huge thud came from the bass. Nigel and most of the audience looked over in shock. To this day I have never broken a bass string, and I thought to myself, "be cool, a string has gone, just work out which one it is, and carry on". They were all floppy, no break at the bridge, none at the nut......what could it be. Nigel stopped the show, we inspected the bass and found the tailwire had broken, but luckily for me it was a stiff wire, that failed, opened an inch or so but kept its shape, or else the strings and bridge would have flown in all directions. I found a wire dry cleaning clothes hanger in the car, bent it in the interval to make a temporary tailwire and did the second half of the concert on my bass. One for the memoirs. There were no such dramas in Walthamstow, thank goodness.
The last show of the month was with the Scottish Ensemble, a youthful, talented, tight knit hi energy group that remind me for all the world of the Australian Chamber Orchestra - they have in fact worked together in a London prom. Jon Morton, leader/director played Vivaldi's four seasons with style and panache in the first half and Bobby McDuffie directed us thro Philip Glass's American Four Seasons, his violin concerto no 2 in the second half. It was a memorable occasion - SE are fantastic in every way and the result was an electric performance that was a honour to be able to take part in. Nicky and I stayed with Mike and Glynis Calder in Helensboro - Mike was my first bass teacher. I met Terry Darke, ex SNO, so there were lots of bass conversation going on, despite Nickys yawns!!
Scottish Ensemble
Forest Phil opened thier symphony series for 11/12 with a concert on 16th October, featuring Vaughan William's "lush" Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus and Rachmaninov Symphony no 2. The latter was a first for me - great tunes. The former I had played before, 20 or so years ago, and a show that will stick in the memory. Nigel Amherst was conducting a chamber group in Cornwall. When we got to the end of the theme section, where the celli and bass gets the tune there a huge thud came from the bass. Nigel and most of the audience looked over in shock. To this day I have never broken a bass string, and I thought to myself, "be cool, a string has gone, just work out which one it is, and carry on". They were all floppy, no break at the bridge, none at the nut......what could it be. Nigel stopped the show, we inspected the bass and found the tailwire had broken, but luckily for me it was a stiff wire, that failed, opened an inch or so but kept its shape, or else the strings and bridge would have flown in all directions. I found a wire dry cleaning clothes hanger in the car, bent it in the interval to make a temporary tailwire and did the second half of the concert on my bass. One for the memoirs. There were no such dramas in Walthamstow, thank goodness.
The last show of the month was with the Scottish Ensemble, a youthful, talented, tight knit hi energy group that remind me for all the world of the Australian Chamber Orchestra - they have in fact worked together in a London prom. Jon Morton, leader/director played Vivaldi's four seasons with style and panache in the first half and Bobby McDuffie directed us thro Philip Glass's American Four Seasons, his violin concerto no 2 in the second half. It was a memorable occasion - SE are fantastic in every way and the result was an electric performance that was a honour to be able to take part in. Nicky and I stayed with Mike and Glynis Calder in Helensboro - Mike was my first bass teacher. I met Terry Darke, ex SNO, so there were lots of bass conversation going on, despite Nickys yawns!!
Scottish Ensemble
Sept 2011 - WNO trial for principal bass
September was all about WNO - the start of my trial for principal bass. There are three bass players on trial - I am one of two based in the UK, and there is a third coming over from the US for a week's work on an orchestral concert in late Oct. Kai Carson West is principal for Don Giovanni, and half of Barber of Seville - I am doing the other half of Barber and all of Janacek's wonderful opera Katya Kabanova.
WNO is a stunning company and orchestra - this is my real view, not just a flimsy attempt at point scoring should one of the band come across this blog! I am seriously impressed with all musicians I haver worked with to date. It has been tough - its a trial in every sense of the word, which is the way I guess it should be.
Lothar Koenigs is WNO's principal conductor - he is passionate, focussed, incredibly well prepared, very clear and consistant among his other talents. There are not many conductors for whom that list of adjectives could be applied. He is also driven - he pushes himself and all those around him to the limit, and sometimes beyond, in his focus in the best possible result. This creates pressure for all of us. The result - a stunning interpretation of Katya, one that should not be missed. I have learnt a lot.
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