FROM THE STAGE TO THE PIT

CD REVIEWA Cry Was Heard

BY ALAN SWAIN

Emily White — tenor and alto sackbut; Guy James — countertenor; Robin Bigwood — harpsichord; Kate Bennet Wadsworth — gamba; Bojan Ciçic — violin and viola; Theresa Caudle — viola; Elinor Chambers — spoken voice and sackbut; Peter Thornton — sackbut; Adam Crighton — bass sackbut

During the pandemic the art world, and the music industry, suffered massive upheaval. With all concerts halted in 2020 we learnt how important live music is because it was taken away from us — performers and audiences both. Through this downtime much argument was angled towards the importance of live performances. There was also a question as to what this global upheaval would inspire in terms of creativity: would artists respond to the disaster and how?

Emily White responded with a project culminating in this album, which is extremely impressive: breathtaking in scope, class, versatility, and deep musicality. Every trombone player should listen to this album not just for the flawless technique, nor for the beautiful sounds and textures, but because we should all aspire to communicating art as our true end goal. Emily has succeeded in that at the highest level imaginable.

The first track — Palestrina’s Io Son Ferito, Ahi Lasso — sets the scene with Guy and Emily duetting. Emily shows her dexterity on the sackbut as she quasi improvises a decorating line. Of course, no actual recordings from the period exist so we are always left with an estimated reproduction of how it may have sounded. After careful research and years of honing her art, Emily gives a benchmark performance of which all future early music specialists will be taking note. The piece is sweet on the ear and sets the scene for the rest of the music to come.

Peter McCarthy’s O’r Galons is haunting in its simplicity. Our attention goes way beyond the sparkling technique and sound as we are led on a hypnotic monologue. The ongoing drone deepens the effect as the mournful soliloquy continues. Written in 2018 you could be forgiven for thinking this piece acts, somehow, as a harbinger of the trouble to come just a few years after it was written.

In Haiku, by John Kenny, we again hear voice and sackbut, this time with modern harmonies: it works beautifully. Those 400 years from Palestrina to our period is beginning to sound much closer than it might at first seem.

The vamp underneath the trombone in Spring in an Unreal World, possibly sounding like raindrops, accompany words by Brian Nisbet. They give a wonderful texture allowing Emily to express herself in what again sounds close to improvisation. The effect is calming, soothing even, with mystery and a hint of melancholy. In contrast Grandi’s O Quam tu Pulchra Es is joyful and reflective.

Strozzi’s Che si Puo Fare? and Frescobaldi’s Se L’Aura Spira Tutta Vezzosa both feature Emily and the violin of Bojan Ciçic. By now the ear is appreciating the recording quality which is allowing all this expression. The acoustics are well chosen.

Auf Dem Gebirge hat Man ein Geschrei Gehöret by Schütz is hauntingly beautiful using a full complement of sackbuts and voice. This piece clearly shows how close the sackbut is to the sound of the human voice.

Sonata Quinta from Sonate concertate libro secondo by Castello ends the album perfectly with its energy and joyful proclamations.

The best art effortlessly teaches us something about ourselves and our epoch. There is deep humanity in this album with a mix of mournfulness, worry perhaps, joy and beauty. Don’t listen to this album because you are a trombonist just wanting to learn how to play it better: listen to this because you are a human, and all humans are artists. This is art of an exquisite order. A Cry Was Heard is available for pre-order from Emily’s website. ◆

From the Stage to the Pit …

Well, it’s been a pretty crazy few months of programmes in the orchestral music scene around the country and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Now we’re at the end of this year’s Proms season the orchestras around the UK are kicking off their 22/23 subscriptions with some really intriguing programmes.

For the symphonic picks I’ve chosen a couple of the ‘must-see’ grand-spectacle pieces that bring together huge orchestral and vocal forces, and then focused on programmes that feature some of the most exciting new music around. Past stereotypes of contemporary music can be forgotten; this is all music that is at the cutting-edge of composition and will make for some inspiring listening!

BY JOSH CIRTINA // PRINCIPAL BASS TROMBONE IN THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

SYMPHONIC HIGHLIGHTS

GARDNER CONDUCTS GURRELIEDER — LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 7.00pm, Saturday, 24 September Royal Festival Hall, London For repertoire hunters this is a must: Schoenberg’s absolutely gigantic Gurrelieder is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra. It’s based on poems by Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen and tells the tale of a medieval love-tragedy set around Gurre Castle. (Features 7 trombonists…!!)

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’ 5TH SYMPHONY — ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 7.30pm, Thursday, 6 October Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Setting the scene before the symphony is Elgar’s Froissart Overture — a mood of 'When Chivalry lifted up her lance on high,’ followed by Symanowski’s rich and sensuous Violin Concerto No. 2 (one of my alltime favourites!). Vaughan Williams’ 5th Symphony is somewhat poignant programming for the times we live in, premiered in 1943 during WWII — its serenity is rather comforting.

JOURNEYS OF DISCOVERY: REDEMPTION — ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 3.00pm, Sunday, 23 October Royal Albert Hall, London Another of the visual spectacle works in this quarter’s picks — titled ‘Symphony of a thousand’ Mahler’s 8th Symphony brings together in this performance an all-star cast (see website for details!). ‘The first half is a celebration of the divine spirit. The second half, inspired by Goethe’s Faust, starts with “woodlands wavering into view” and ends with dazzling visions of angels and the life eternal.’

AWAKEN THE SLEEPER — AMERICAN MUSIC FOR OUR TIME — LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 7.00pm, Sunday, 6 November Barbican, London ‘One woman crosses centuries: a musical story of injustice, courage and enduring strength. A narrator and an orchestra lead a meditation, based on the words of James Baldwin, on the world as it is — and as it could be. And a jazz icon (Wynton Marsalis) takes the lowest instrument in the orchestra — the tuba — and makes it a star. This is music that speaks straight to the heart about the stories that matter right now.’ I’m really looking forward to this one!

SCHULDT CONDUCTS SCHUMANN — SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 7.30pm, Thursday, 10 November The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh 7.30pm, Friday, 11 November Glasgow City Halls, Glasgow Clemens Schuldt directs the SCO in what will be an interesting and polarising sandwich of a programme. Bookending the evening is Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo & Finale and the revered 3rd Symphony ‘Rhenish’ with its calming and evocative journey down the river Rhine. Nestled between these two classics is a lyrical and virtuosic cello concerto from Julian Anderson receiving its Scottish première.

DEATH & TRANSFIGURATION — HALLÉ ORCHESTRA 7.30pm, Thursday, 24 November Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Next in this small focus on new music is an epic programme from the Hallé and Clemens Schuldt (again!), featuring Icelandic composer Anna

FRANCESCA & DANIELE – ULSTER ORCHESTRA 7.45pm, Thursday, 1 December Ulster Hall, Belfast Francesca Dego joins her husband and the Ulster Orchestra for what will surely be a special performance of the Busoni Violin Concerto. Preceding it is Roxanna & Andrzej Panufnik’s Modlitwa (Prayer), which shares a mood of reverence and meditation with the second half - Bruckner’s 7th Symphony. Modlitwa is a collaborative work, Panufnik senior having written music for the second stanza of a poem by his friend Jerzy Pietrikiewicz but leaving the first bare. Roxanna has added some distinctive and entreating music at the outset.

fun, and it is only 90 minutes long! Do go and support the WNO Youth Opera, they are doing two shows on 9 October in Cardiff.

The Royal Opera House never fail to put on at least one masterpiece in a season, and in the Autumn, it looks to be Salome by Richard Strauss. Salome is a tale of ‘lust, power and revenge’. Based on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same title, the writing is intense, huge, unsettling and exciting with a rather gruesome finale. If the thought of sitting through a whole opera fills you with dread, you should sit through this one as it is only 1 hour 50 minutes, with no interval. You will be gripped, I can assure you! Running 9 September to 1 October.

Lastly, not an opera, but one of my favourites so I am going to mention it! Glyndebourne Touring Opera are performing Mozart’s Requiem around the country. It is such a wonderful piece of music and has the bonus of a tenor trombone solo in one of the movements. Such a joy to perform, do get to one of the performances if you can. The performances will be in Milton Keynes (3 November), Canterbury (10 November), Norwich (17 November) and Liverpool (25 November), culminating with two performances at Glyndebourne (3 and 9 December).◆

BY BECKY SMITH // PRINCIPAL TROMBONE AT THE ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA

OPERA PICKS

As I write this we are in the middle of summer, with so much going on including the BBC Proms, Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, Holland Park Opera; I could go on! So, I hope you have managed to get out there to see some live music, with so much to choose from there will be something there for you.

Looking ahead to the Autumn, it does calm down a little as we get into the swing of things and if you are undecided about what to go and see, maybe some of these will inspire you.

Welsh National Opera (WNO) are putting on a production of the Makropulos Affair. I have to give Janacek a mention whenever I see it is being performed because he wrote such fabulous music. However, it never seems to attract the huge audience it deserves. Please do go and see this if you can, it is on tour as well as in Cardiff (16–28 September) so maybe one of these venues would be closer to you: Llandudno (14 October), Plymouth (28 October), Birmingham (8 November), Southampton (25 November) or Oxford (2 December).

The WNO Youth Opera are performing an opera by Shostakovich of which I have never heard, Cherry Town, Moscow. On reading a bit more about it, this light-hearted musical comedy looks like it will be good Thorvaldsdottir. 'Nature provides me with my greatest inspiration’, she explains, as heard in Aeriality where she imagines ‘the state of gliding through the air with nothing or little to hold on to.’ Also featured is Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem and Strauss’ timeless masterpiece Death & Transfiguration.