Nearly 60 years since first playing in Manchester, Hammill is still a supreme communicator and a powerful performer
****
‘The hits just keep on coming’, quipped Peter Hammill early in his set at the RNCM in Manchester this evening. In 2013, when Guy Garvey interviewed Hammill for a documentary, The Art of Sequencing, which I produced for BBC Radio 4, he asked whether he would sequence his albums by starting with the hits. โWhat hits?!โ replied Hammill. Although not known for chart success, Hammillโs music, both as a solo artist and as leader of Van der Graaf Generator, has been part of the fabric of many lives and internal imaginative landscapes over several decades. The RNCM Concert Hall was packed with appreciative fans, who listened in spellbound silence, mesmerised by the power and conviction of Hammillโs performance.
Last time Hammill was in Manchester, in February 2022, he performed with Van der Graaf Generator, but this time he took the brave but ultimately justified decision to perform completely solo, alternating between piano and guitar. His instrumental playing was compelling, as was his guitar playing on an acoustic guitar. He had to keep retuning his guitar as he hit it so hard. The RNCMโs Steinway grand piano survived his pounding, even in the early highlight, The Lie (Bernini’s Saint Theresa) from The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage (1974), which starts with the line, โGenuflection, erection in churchโ, still startling over 50 years later. Twenty years ago, he was described as โthe Hendrix of the voiceโ, and his instrument has inevitably changed as he reaches the latter half of his seventies, but it remains remarkably powerful, and his artistry and ability to communicate remain gloriously intact.
Hammill was always wise beyond his years, a deep and poetic thinker, but now some of his lyrics have gained added resonance as time passes. In Autumnfrom Over (1977), he wrote,
So here we are, alone – Our children have grown up and moved away. Living their own lives, they say… It all seems very strange to me.
He was a young man when he wrote these prescient words, with which many in the audience would no doubt have deeply empathised. And the grim ending to Still Life from the 1976 Van der Graaf album of the same name, when Hammill embraces death, perhaps means more to Hammill and his fans now. Despite these sentiments, this was a life-affirming experience. Hammill seemed genuinely surprised to reflect that he played his encore, Afterwards, from Van der Graafโs debut album The Aerosol Grey Machine in Manchester 57 years ago in 1968, when the Hendrix of the voice supported the Hendrix on guitar. Two well-deserved standing ovations confirmed that the audience shared Hammillโs evident pleasure in performing for us.
A triumphant opening to the BBC Philharmonic’s new season
Violinist Augustin Hadelich with members of the BBC Philharmonic. Image ยฉ Chris Payne
On Saturday evening, Manchester was plagued by heavy rain of almost biblical proportions, causing roads to flood; we saw a stranded car on the drive in. So it was a pleasure to escape the weather and take sanctuary in the Bridgewater Hall, which from the front resembles an ark. A fanfare greeted us, a prelude to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra’s new season. In the Gallery foyer, no fewer than nine bagpipers were assembled to performLAD by the orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Julia Wolfe. The last time the piece was heard in the Bridgewater Hall was when it was performed by Rakhi Singh of Manchester Collective at the Manchester Classical festival in June. The version for bagpipes began with drones, joined by wailing upwards glissandos, marked in the score as ‘slow glisses’. They called to mind the auditory illusion known as the Shepard Tone, an effect Hans Zimmer used in his Dunkirk score, where the music seems to be constantly rising when it’s actually coming back on itself. The pipers played resolutely against the backdrop of a dystopian sky visible thorugh the hall’s huge windows. There were two folky tunes, one marked ‘Slow’, which was slow, and the second marked ‘Fast’, which was fast. It was an invigorating and spectacular opening to the new season.
One of the pipers playing Julia Wolfe’s LAD. Image ยฉ Chris Payne
The main concert began with another piece by Wolfe, Fountain of Youth. Composed in 2019 for the New World Symphony youth orchestra, it was heard for the first time in the UK on Saturday. Adam Szabo, the Director of the BBC Philharmonic, announced that Wolfe is ‘our very shiny new composer in residence’, and based on her two pieces, there’s a lot to look forward to in the collaboration.
Juilia Wolfe, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence. Image ยฉ Peter Serling
Fountain of Youth began with the terrifying scraping of strings and rattling washboards, which sounded like marching soldiers or a huge robot clanking as it walked. Wolfe directed that they should be ‘played like a work ritual.’ A fractured theme rose from the chaos, and a rising string theme reached for the light. The washboards reached a frenzy as a pounding theme emerged with growling brass. A heavy metal drum kit accompanied the orchestra as it wailed and cried like a wounded animal. The music reached a painful climax, then fell away to a single held note – a ray of light amidst the chaos? The piece ended with a frenzied, bacchanalian dance. A viscerally thrilling performance
My fountain of youth is music, and in this case I offer the orchestra a sassy, rhythmic, high energy swim.
Julia Wolfe
This was followed by Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, which he wrote in 1935. It was the last piece he was commissioned to write in Western Europe before returning to Russia the following year. The violin soloist was Augustin Hadelich, another in a long line of world-class soloists booked by the orchestra. The piece began with an unaccompanied theme for solo violin, which Hadelich played with beautiful legato and a gorgeous, rich tone before the theme was passed around the orchestra. A breathtakingly beautiful melody reminded us that Prokofiev was writing his ballet score Romeo and Juliet at the same time. Hadelich provided sweet-toned, virtuosic decoration above the orchestra, before his violin scampered away with majestic ease. There was a spellbinding moment when the orchestra sang the violin’s theme back to him, and he joined in with a luminous descant. The second movement began with the orchestra playing measured pizzicato in a stately dance. Hadelich played a stunning, long-limbed melody, revealing its romantic, fragile beauty. The orchestra danced balletically while the violin pirouetted like a principal ballerina. There was a moment of whimsy and subtlety as Hadelich played a sweet melody above a gentle waltz. The third movement featured passionate precision from Hadelich, the themes rustic yet sophisticated, like a peasant dance performed by a ballet troupe. Castanets provided a Spanish flavour, perhaps added by Prokofiev to celebrate the fact that the work was premiered in Spain. There was a final reprise of the opening rondo theme as the piece dashed to the end. The audience didn’t want Hadelich to leave without an encore, so he obliged with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Louisiana Blues Strut, ‘A Cakewalk.’ This was a bluesy piece for fiddle, evoking a hoedown as Hadelich donned a metaphorical cowboy hat. He played it superbly, and the audience applauded warmly.
The concert’s second half was devoted to Tchaikovskyโs Fifth Symphony, written in 1888 when the composer was plagued by self-doubt about his creative powers and his poor health. He was heartened by the success of the workโs premiere in September, writing to his brother Anatoly that โsome even say that it is my best work.โ But by December, he wrote to his patron Nadezhda von Meck saying, โI am convinced that this symphony is not a success.โ By March, he told his brother Modest, โI love it again.โ The symphony began with a motto that haunts the work, like Banquoโs ghost appearing to Lady Macbeth at the banquet. The orchestra played it with slow, lugubrious deliberation, bringing out the emotion of the theme under John Storgรฅrdsโ superb direction. He shaped lovely dynamics and orchestral balance in the movementโs romantic theme, with twinkling woodwind. The orchestra played stylishly as Storgรฅrds brought out colour and detail in the score. The movement ended with a sweeping, romantic theme that led to an epic climax as the players gave it their all, before a descent into the depths. The darkness continued at the start of the second movement as the strings rose from the deep. There was a lovely solo from guest principal horn Olivia Gandee, who played with a warmly nostalgic tone, intertwined with clarinet then oboe. The string playing was ravishing, as Storgรฅrds brought out the richly romantic themes. The movement ended with a series of romantic climaxes played with yearning and longing. The third movement was a delicate waltz, played with charm and quiet joy but with perhaps a touch of sarcasm from the horns. This led immediately to the final movement, with the main motto returning in a major key. If Tchaikovsky had doubts about this movement – and some critics have criticised it as being unconvincing โ the orchestra thoroughly assuaged those doubts. They played with great confidence and emotion, and the audience burst into enthusiastic applause at the end. We eagerly anticipate more delights from the orchestra this season, and from Composer in Residence Julia Wolfe.
Augustin Hadelich, John Storgรฅrds and the BBC Philharmonic. Image ยฉ Chris Payne
Performers
Bede Patterson, John Mulhearn, Finn MacPherson, Dougal McKiggan, Ailis Sutherland, Lorne MacDougall, Ruairidh Ian Buxon, Rory Campbell, Fionnlagh Mac AโPhiocar bagpipes BBC Philharmonic John Storgรฅrds Conductor Augustin Hadelich violin
Repertoire
Julia Wolfe LAD (Pre-concert performance) Julia Wolfe Fountain of Youth (first UK performance) Sergey Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson Louisiana Blues Strut ‘A Cakewalk’ (Encore for solo violin)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor
The concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 in Concert on Tuesday 28 October at 7.30 pm, and will be available for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds
Inรชs Loubet is a Portuguese singer-songwriter who combines Latin Jazz and Brazilian Tropicรกlia, with a touch of soul and funk. She released her debut solo album Senga on the Albertโs Favourites label last year. On Sunday, she was joined in the Festival Marquee by Julio de Castro on electric bass and Jansen Santana on a fascinating array of percussion, including the boom box he was sitting on, metal keys, a small samba drum and plastic bottle tops. Inรชs Loubet provided lead vocals and acoustic guitar.
Inรชs Loubet and Jansen Santana
An early highlight was Dandฤ da Bahia from the new album, a song about friends who significantly impact your life, even if you havenโt seen them for a while. Loubet smiled gently as she sang and played guitar, and de Castro played a lovely melodic bass line. Olha o Rio was an ode to carnival and its contribution to Brazilian music. The song began with a samba/bossa nova feel, Loubet sounding like the American jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux. Loubet announced Sambo Mesmo Sem, a song about coming together to celebrate despite the weather, as the first single she ever released, in November 2023. It was a lovely, laid-back song featuring mixed percussion and superb guitar, bass and vocal harmonies. Loubet had a charming stage presence, drawing us into her music and her stories with a mellow, soulful voice. Santana was relaxed and inventive in his percussion playing, smiling gently as he played. De Castro was a virtuosic bass player and played some excellent funky bass on Banho de Folhas, a cover of a song by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Luedji Luna.
Julio de Castro
Loubet explained that most of the songs in the set were from Senga, a superb album that is well worth investigating. Senga is Agnes (her name) backwards, but it also means fragments, and the record represents fragments of who she is. Guri (child in Portuguese) recounted a long journey in Brazil in a car with a nine-month-old boy, enjoying himself despite the journey. Loubet dedicated this song to the boy, saying she needs to be more like him. She danced while she sang this inspiring song. Semente (โseedโ) told the more serious story of a phone call from her mother in her native Porto ( โthe best city in Portugalโ) asking her to come home from university because her father was ill with depression. It was a gentle, soulful song with an excellent bass solo and anguished vocals at the end.
Two of the songs in the set were about womenโs role in society. Sapo Jacarรฉ used a rhythm that only women play, in the mountains in the North East of Portugal, as they sing verses about their struggles as women. Loubet dedicated the final song A Todas as Mulheres (To all women), to all the women in the room, and to family members she had seen in toxic relationships. A haunting song, it was slow and poignant. At one point, she moved away from the mic, and the audience leaned in to this intimate, vulnerable section. At the end of the song (and the set), the Minster bell chimed, as if in agreement with the sentiment of the song.
Performers Inรชs Loubet voice, guitar Julio de Castro electric bass Jansen Santana percussion
The Telyn Quartet (Tabitha Appel, Alma Vink, Isobel Neary-Adams, Seth Collin) is a young string quartet based in the UK, comprising students of David Takeno, Arisa Fujita and Louise Hopkins. They have received coaching from members of the Brodsky Quartet, the Lindsay Quartet and the London Haydn Quartet. They are currently on the professional mentorship scheme ChamberStudio UK. They appeared at the Southwell Music as String Apprentices. They take their name from โtelynโ, which means โharpโ in Welsh. This is because Beethovenโs String Quartet No. 10, Op. 74, nicknamed โThe Harpโ, was the first piece they properly worked on as a quartet, at the Wye Valley summer residency in Wales.
As might be expected from their CV, the quartet played with youthful exuberance, enjoyment, and remarkable precision. Their choice of opening piece was therefore highly appropriate, Benjamin Brittenโs Three Divertimenti, written when the composer was only 20. The quartet made a vigorous start to the opening march with lovely ensemble, ebullient playing, and incredible concentration. They smiled gently at each other as they played. They played the second movement, a relaxed Waltz in a lovely romantic style. There was a lightness of touch as they brought out the themes beautifully. The final movement, a burlesque, began with frenzied strings and precise playing, bringing out the serendipitous nature of the piece. After an explosive climax, the music returned to the fizzing frenzy of the start. The sudden ending brought indulgent, amused applause.
Elizabeth Maconchy (1907 โ 1994) deserves to be better known. She was the first woman to chair the Composers Guild of Great Britain and became President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music when Britten died in 1976. She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987. She wrote 13 string quartets, the subject of a Listening Service on BBC Radio 3, and she was Composer of the Week in 2024. Yet it appears that her complete string quartets have only been recorded once. So it was good to hear the Telyns performing her String Quartet No. 4. The viola player Isobel Neary-Adams introduced the work, which is in four movements but was played as one continuous movement: โItโs fast, but youโll know when we get to the end.โ The music was tightly structured, based on a single short theme, reminiscent of Shostakovichโs use of the short DSCH theme in his string quartets. The most obvious musical influence is Bartรณk, but Maconchy has her own voice in the fierce debate between the fractured themes. The Telyns expertly illustrated the composerโs statement, โfor me, the best music is an impassioned argument.โ They ended the piece with ecstatic joy, with a romantic melody on the first violin.
The Telyn Quartet. Photo: Sophie Williams
After a brief tuning break, the quartet returned with a much better-known piece, Ravelโs String Quartet in F Major. Cellist Seth Collin introduced it as part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the composerโs birth. He said that the colours and textures of the piece were novel for the time; in this performance, the Telyns brought out both these elements superbly. The piece still sounds intensely modern, although not in an avant-garde sense. The opening movement had moments of serene joy and passionate ecstasy, with much more impressionistic imagery than in the previous two pieces. The quartet played with poise and passion. In the second movement, the quartet explored the considerable range of Ravelโs invention and restless harmonies. They controlled the dynamics beautifully, and there was a remarkable range of orchestral textures and colours from just four players. The third movement began with a pensive viola theme and heart-stoppingly beautiful key changes. The quartet built up a magical atmosphere which gradually morphed into a nostalgic restatement of the main theme. A downward motif from the cello brought us into a glittering new world, with lovely legato playing at the end. The final movement featured fiercely rhythmic playing, but we were never far from a moment of joy. The audience applauded warmly at the end and seemed reluctant to let the quartet leave. Hopefully, we will see a lot more of this fine young quartet in the future.
Performers The Telyn Quartet Tabitha Appel violin Alma Vink violin Isobel Neary-Adams viola Seth Collin cello
Elizabeth Machonchy. Photo 1938 by Howard Coster. Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons
Repertoireย Benjamin Britten Three Divertimentiย Elizabethย Maconchy String Quartet No. 4 Maurice Ravel String Quartet in F Majorย
Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening The Nave, Southwell Minster
Amy Thatcher, Kathryn Tickell and Joe Truswell
Kathyrn Tickell is folk music royalty. She has been performing for 40 years and has been awarded an OBE and the Queenโs Medal for Music. She won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year twice. She was joined on Saturday by her band, The Darkening. The band takes its name from an old Northumbrian word for twilight, celebrating Tickellโs Northumbrian heritage as a piper and fiddle player. Her band on Saturday were Amy Thatcher on accordion, Tim Bloomer on guitar, Joe Truswell on drums and Stef Connor on vocals and lyres. Tickellโs pipe and fiddle playing was magnificent throughout, sometimes spiky and baroque, sometimes wailing and banshee-like, sometimes verging on progressive rock (a good thing in the opinion of this blog!) Tickell was a relaxed and compelling presence, taking care to introduce the songs and put them in context.ย
An early highlight was Caelestis, which Tickell said was based on a Latin inscription on Hadrianโs Wall. Tickell said she was surprised to discover that the wall was Roman, and multicultural as it had drawn soldiers from Europe, North Africa,ย Syriaย and Lebanon. The song was equally multicultural, with a Middle Eastern-sounding theme on guitar and pipes. There was a vocal duet between Thatcher, with a lovely contralto voice, and Conner with a light soprano voice, creating a spectral atmosphere.ย
Tickell celebrated much more recent Northumbrian history in The Waltz, which harked back to her grandfatherโs family dancing tradition. Thatcher provided a splendid clog dance with intricate steps, sometimes almost leaving the ground. Tickell then asked the audience if you could dance in a church. The audienceย seemed to thinkย that you could. She invited the audience to sing along with the chorus of In My Northumbria, which celebrated Northumbria’s good and bad points, depending on what weather you prefer. The song ended with a gorgeous a cappella trio of the three female voices. A more poignant event in Northumbrian history was referenced in Sycamore Gap, a mournful lament for the loss of the tree on Hadrianโs Wall that was chopped down by vandals in 2023. Tickell said curlews nested near the tree, and Joe Truswell triggered samples of the birds as an evocative backdrop. It was easy to imagine Tickell as a lone piper, playing at the gap where the tree once stood: a haunting image and song.ย
Sycamore Gap Tree in Northumberland. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The second half began with a coup deย thรฉรขtre, Tickell processing in fromย the back of theย Minster playing her pipes. Six women from Festival Voices joined her in Stefย Conner’s stunning arrangementย ofย Blow the Wind Southerly. Womenโs voices surrounded us as they gradually processed toย the stage. At the end, the audience breathed a sigh of pleasureย toย mark a truly specialย moment.ย โI knew I was going to cry, โย Tickell said.ย The women ofย Festival Voicesย also sang the world premiere of a new piece that Conner had written for the occasion,ย with words translated fromย the Old English poemย The Ruin.ย This was a spellbinding performance of a poemย that reminds us how fragile we are, and how great rulers and empires can crumble to dust. This sentiment is expressed inย Shelleyโs poemย Ozymandias.ย Just Stop and Eat the Rosesย was aย melancholy instrumental that becameย more joyful,ย reminding us to stop and smile when weย arenโtย quite feeling right. Tickell and Thatcher wrote One Night inย Moaรฑaย after attending a festival in Galicia, Spain. The piece describes the traditionalย Muiรฑeiraย dance in 6/8 time and begins with a sliding scaleย representingย musicians tuning. Connerย demonstratedย the shout used to activate theย musicians, something like ‘Yee-hee-hee-hee-hee.’ Some of theย audienceย were activated, too, clapping and whooping along. The concert ended with a stirring rendition of O-U-T Spells Out. Tickell explained that she had ‘clagged together’ some children’s rhymes to formย a chant. Sheย had meant it in all innocence, but she invited the audience to join in and consider it a call to throw out racismย and intolerance. The concert had certainly felt inclusive, welcoming to both hardened folk fans and theย folk curious. It was a wonderful evening.ย
Mahler and the Folksong – songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and traditional folksongs arr. Gemma Bassย The Quire, Southwell Minsterย
This took place in the beautiful and intimate surroundings of the Quire in Southwell Minster. The audience sat in the choir stalls while the musicians performed on the steps to the Chancel. Marcus Farnsworth, Founder and Artistic Director of Southwell Music Festival, and baritone for this recital, introduced us to the eleventh festival, following last yearโs triumphant tenth anniversary celebrations. He said he had enjoyed last yearโs Bank Holiday Monday concert in the Minsterโs Chapter House, with musicians including the mezzo-soprano Judy Louie Brown and the composer and violinist Gemma Bass, so they decided to do something similar this year.
The Quire of Southwell Minster, with the statue of Bishop George Ridding (far right)
Gustav Mahler returned to texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boyโs Magic Horn), an early nineteenth-century collection of German folk poems and songs, on several occasions, including movements of his second, third and fourth symphonies, various song collections, and the song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellenโฏ(Songs of a Wayfarer). In her programme note, Gemma Bass described Mahlerโs songs as follows:
โThereโs a focus on humanness and nature, both in his subjects and his approach, but thereโs also an incredible depth and something bigger being tapped into here โ his own genius, perhaps, or his faith โ and of course a remarkable command of musical language.โ
Libby Burgess and Marcus Farnsworth. ยฉ Tom Platinum Morley
Farnsworth sang the five Mahler songs in the concert with accompanist Libby Burgess. Both musicians skilfully drew out the subtleties of Mahlerโs musical language. They began with Wo die schรถnen Trompeten blasen(Where the splendid trumpets sound). Farnsworth brought out the tenderness and poignancy of this early morning meeting between a soldier and his lover before he went to war. He was more robust in Revelge (Reveille), with a rich tone and boisterous demeanour, Burgess superbly illustrating the drums played by the jolly soldier as he sang โTralalee, tralalay, tralala.โ But the song had an underlying poignancy, described in the chilling final verse, โThere in the morning lie their bones/In rank and file like tombstones.โ The Schubert-like folk song Rheinlegendchen (Little Rhine Legend) about unrequited love had a lovely flowing piano part, and there was a glimpse of hope at the end. Farnsworthโs superb word-painting was again evident in Wer hat das Liedlein erdacht? (Who made up this little song?) as he brought out the songโs gentle humour.But the highlight of his contribution was Urlicht(Primordial Light), the fourth movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony. The poem describes returning to God with the hope of resurrection, and as Farnsworth sang it, I noticed a statue of a praying figure with his back to us as if turning to God, George Ridding, first Bishop of Southwell (1884 โ 1904). Farnsworth sang from the depths of inward, contemplative stillness. Burgessโs touch on the piano was sublime. The song’s ending was ecstatic, as the protagonist passed into eternal life.
Judy Louie Brown, Gemma Bass, Lena Eckels and Nathaniel Boyd ยฉ Tom Platinum Morley
Gemma Bass said in her programme note that her English folk song arrangements were inspired by the contrast between Mahlerโs โsimplicity and complexity.โ She told the audience that she wanted to bring out Mahlerian contrasts between the personal and the universal, nature and humanity, love and war. Even the building where the concert took place was a mixture of the manmade and the nature carvings of the Minster (such as those celebrated in The Leaves of Southwell project). Bass took songs famously set by Benjamin Britten, Polly Oliver, O Waly Waly and Come you not from Newcastle? plus the traditional Northumbrian song, The Oak and the Ash, and radically transformed them. Mezzo-soprano Judy Louie Brown sang the songs with a warm, generous tone and a gentle, folky inflexion. The string players โ Bass herself on violin, Lena Eckels on viola and Nathaniel Boyd on cello โ often seemed to provide an ironic commentary on the jolly-sounding folk tunes, in the kind of contrast Mahler would have enjoyed. So Sweet Polly Oliverโs traditional tune was accompanied by violin and viola that sounded like bagpipes and a bell-like drone, perhaps to cast doubt on the female protagonistโs decision to please her lover better, having bravely followed him to war dressed in her dead brotherโs clothes. In the bold arrangement of O Waly Waly, the strings darkly enhanced the narrative of unrequited love. Bass also wrote two Mahler-inspired instrumentals. Rosy Dawn, which took its title from the words โDie Morgenrรถtโ from Wo die schรถnen Trompeten blasen, featured a folky violin tune, soon joined by the viola, over a cello drone. There was a feeling of gently pensive stasis, which shifted like a flowing river, constantly changing but always the same. Three Geese took its title from the โdrei Gรคnsโ of Wer hat das Liedlein erdacht? It began in the same contemplative mode as Rosy Dawn but gradually became more folky, jazzy and joyful. It ended with a humorous little squiggle, which made the audience smile. A lovely end to a delightful concert.
Performers Judy Louie Brown mezzo-soprano Marcus Farnsworth baritone Libby Burgess piano Gemma Bass violin Lena Eckels viola Nathaniel Boyd cello
Festival Cabaretย Southwell Libraryย
Festival Voices ยฉ Tom Platinum Morley
Amongst the displays about the local history of Southwell, this was the first time a Festival main event took place in Southwell Library on the high street, just a short walk from the Minster. The Festival Voices performed a well-chosen mix of songs from musicals, 60s and 70s pop and rock, and music from Gershwin, Flanders and Swann, the Ink Spots, Hoagy Carmichael and Victoria Wood. All were guaranteed to raise smiles of recognition and tapping of toes in the capacity audience.
The concert began with a showcase for the superb a cappella close harmony singing of Festival Voices, including two lovely Beatles covers. Here, There and Everywhere followed the template of the original harmonies, but with added decorations in a Swingle Singers style. Blackbird was part of the concertโs avian theme, which somehow got lost along the way; no matter! The singers mimicked guitars and whistled stylishly. A false ending raised laughter from the audience, and the real ending raised more laughter. In between, there was a stunning rendition of The Ink Spotsโ 1940 hit Java Jive. There were vocal sound effects, including drumming, an upright bass and hearty โAahsโ to show how much the singers loved coffee and tea.
Individual singers from within the choir had a chance to shine, too. Chris Webb sang Hippopotamus by Flanders and Swann with operatic aplomb, and the audience gamely covered themselves in metaphorical mud in the choruses. Oliver Hunt sang Bernsteinโs On the Town in a poignant rendition, and a passionate Lost in the Stars, acting out the words expressively. Alastair Brookshaw created a Bridge Over Troubled Water, echoing the delicacy of Art Garfunkelโs voice with a liquid legato in a rousing performance. He returned in a fantastic coup de thรฉรขtre, dressed as a priest and wishing the house peace as he flew onto the stage in ecclesiastical turmoil. He perfectly illustrated the painful dilemma of the protagonist in Bishopโs Song from Sondheimโs last musical, Here We Are. There was another ecclesiastical protagonist when Carrys Jones, minus the habit of the Mother Abbess, sang an operatic, heartfelt version of Climb Ev’ry Mountain.
There was a piano interlude when the two accompanists, Libby Burgess and Paul Provost, treated us to a selection of four-hand arrangements from Gershwinโs Porgy and Bess. They played a lilting version of Summertime, a rollicking, jazzy version of It Ainโt Necessarily So, and a short but very sweet I Got Plenty Oโ Nuttin. The concert ended with more joyous close harmony frolics from Festival Voices. There was a witty version of Queenโs vaudeville pastiche, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, complete with kazoos, honouring the bandโs famous โNo Synthesisers!โ avowal. There was Tin Pan Alley close harmony in Hoagy Carmichaelโs Skylark, with excellent solos from the choir. But perhaps the highlight of the whole concert wasVictoria Woodโs wickedly naughty Ballad of Barry and Freda (Letโs Do It), which features the immortal line, โBeat me on the bottom with a Womanโs Weekly.โ We felt sorry for poor old Barry being harassed by his wife. The song went down a storm – a fantastic ending to a superb concert. A splendid time was guaranteed for all.
Performers Libby Burgess piano Paul Provost piano Festival Voices โ soloists Chris Webb, Oliver Hunt, Alastair Brookshaw, Carrys Jones
Duke Ellingtonโs โSacred Concertโย The Nave, Southwell Minsterย
When conductor and Artistic Director Marcus Farnsworth was 12 and studying trumpet, he discovered Simon Rattleโs TheJazz Album, which he recorded in 1987 with London Sinfonietta and others. Farnsworth was fascinated by the final piece on the album, Leonard Bernsteinโs Prelude, Fugue and Riffs and always wanted to conduct it. With trumpeter Graham South, he devised a concert which included the Bernstein piece, and his dream was realised – in what he described as โa new departureโ for the Festival – an orchestral jazz concert with choir and clarinet and soprano soloists.
South and Farnsworth chose music from Duke Ellington and his long-time collaborator, Billy Strayhorn, to pair with the Bernstein. In his invaluable programme notes, South quoted a comment Bernstein made to Ellington in a TV interview in 1966,
Well maybe thatโs really the difference between us โ you wrote symphonic jazz, and I wrote jazz symphonies
Leonard Bernstein talking to Duke Ellington on 2 July 1966 ยฉ WTMJ-TV, a Journal Broadcast Group Station
The musicians were the Manchester-based Cottontail Orchestra, comprised of freelance musicians from various ensembles, including Beats & Pieces Big Band and Manchester Jazz Collective. Appropriately, they began the concert with the Duke Ellington composition Cottontail. This was lively big band jazz, idiomatically played with superbly virtuosic soloists. At one point, a sax quintet stood up to play some gorgeous close harmony, similar to what we had heard in the Festival Cabaret earlier. Strayhornโs Isfahan showcased the extraordinary talent of alto sax player Emily Burkhardt, whose beautiful tone featured sensuous slides and a melismatic flow, with quivering vibrato and bluesy note bends. A surprise but welcome addition to the programme was Ellingtonโs Happy-Go-Lucky Local, which has a slightly sleazy and sarcastic sound, describing a local train heaving its way along the track – some material from the much more famous Night Train could also be heard. For Prelude to a Kiss, the band were joined by soprano Clare Wheeler, whose voice was suitably mellow with a touch of the great Ella Fitzgerald. The final Ellington piece in the first half was Kinda Dukish/Rockinโ in Rhythm, with a lovely syncopated piano intro from Adam Fairhall, followed by joyfully intricate big band music. Farnsworth described Prelude, Fugue and Riffs as the โmeeting point of classical and jazzโ, with a prelude for brass and kit, an โactual fugueโ for saxophone, and Matt Glendening on solo clarinet in the riffs section. Touches of 20th-century classical music could be heard, such as Stravinskyโs Les noces, which features four pianos. There was an almost avant-garde section, but also some Rhapsody in Blue-style clarinet playing and plenty of stunning big band music. Farnsworth worked very hard, bringing out a superbly life-affirming performance from the players.
Duke Ellington. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Part two was devoted to Duke Ellingtonโs Sacred Concert, which has a complicated performance history. The Concert ofSacred Music was premiered sixty years ago, in mid-September 1965,at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The Second Sacred Concert was premiered in 1968, and the Third in 1973. Ellington had reused some of his music from previous compositions, and when touring the Concert he was often joined by local choirs, and he adapted music from all three versions to suit their abilities. Farnsworth conducted a fourth version, which he described as โthe best of all three Sacred Concertsโ, produced in 1993 by John Hรธybye and Peder Pedersen for soprano solo, choir and big band. The version he chose was, in his words, โappropriate for the building.โ This was true in a religious sense, but also in an acoustic sense as the Minsterโs superb acoustics are clear, warm and generous, ideal for big band jazz and chamber choir.
Graham South (standing). ยฉ Tom Platinum Morley
Farnsworth was right to choose a version of the Concert that emphasised the choirโs contribution. The Festival Voices were ecstatic in the opening Praise God, based on Psalm 150, and when they repeated the words, there was a bluesy big band beneath. In Heaven, they sang like the best of Hollywood choruses. There were moments of sublime beauty when they sang a cappella in Freedom, Come Sunday and Almighty God. There was also the chance for soprano Clare Wheeler to demonstrate her skills, including scatting in The Majesty of God, some avant-garde vocalising in T.G.T.T. (Too Good To Title) and a warm legato in David Danced Before the Lord. The Cottontail Orchestra matched the quality of the choir. Highlights included: Graham Southโs trumpet solo in The Shepherd, using his mute to create an earthy, almost feral growling sound; Johnny Hunterโs drum solo at the start of David Dancedโฆ; and the tireless playing of bass player Joshua Cavanagh-Brierly throughout. The piece ended with an invitation to Praise God and Dance, an ecstatic hymn to God. Although there was no actual dancing in the audience, our spirits danced as the concert came to a rapturous end.
Performers Clare Wheeler soprano Matthew Glendening clarinet Festival Voices The Cottontail Orchestra Marcus Farnsworth conductor
Repertoire Duke Ellington Cottontail Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington Isfahan Duke Ellington Happy-Go-Lucky Local Duke Ellington Prelude to a Kiss Harry Carney, Irving Mills and Duke Ellington Kinda Dukish/Rockinโ in Rhythm Leonard Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
Duke Ellington, arr. John Hรธybye and Peder Pedersen Sacred Concert
For a review of Day Two of the Festival, click here
“We look inwards so much, and when you look outwards at space there’s so much out there which is unattainable and unreachable for a lot of humans, so maybe we don’t give much thought to the perspective of what we are and what our reality is.” Miles Skarin
A still from The Overview film directed by Miles Skarin
Miles Skarin makes music videos for Steven Wilson and his band Porcupine Tree. He also designs websites such as Stevenwilsonhq with his brother, Rob Skarin. Miles has recently made a full-length animated film to accompany Wilson’s latest solo album, The Overview. The film has been shown during the tour to support the new album, and the track Objects: Meanwhile from the first song on the new album Objects Outlive Us has been released as an official video.
Nick Holmes Music has been given an exclusive insight into the making of the new film with Miles Skarin [MS].
Nick Holmes Music: How did you first meet and work with Steven?
MS: We go back about ten years or so. We originally started out as massive Porcupine Tree fans. We made the fan site starsdie.com. Being big fans of Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, and the other progressive rock bands at the time, we made a couple of fan sites. We really wanted to know everything about Steven and Porcupine Tree, and where the music was coming from because we just loved it so much. A lot of these bands hadn’t really taken off on social media at the time.
Miles Skarin
My brother wrote a load of the news articles for the website. I did a lot of the design work. And then one day we had an e-mail that dropped into the inbox. That was Steven saying, “Hey, you guys are doing this really well, do you want to come on board and help us out?” Which was incredible as fans, to have that message just land in your inbox, it was a fantastic day. And so we just jumped at the chance. We redesigned Steven’s website and tried to boost his presence on social media, and we’ve been helping with that ever since.
Nick Holmes Music: Didn’t he say at the time that your website was doing better than his?
MS: I think that was what he said. I think it was just because we were putting way more content onto our website. One of the things that we were thinking about was that every now and again you’d have an album release. And then after the album cycle there would be nothing posted online. Maybe a year, two years later, thereโd be another album and maybe there’d be some press.
Steven always did incredible box sets. There was always a massive wealth of artwork and stuff to complement the music. So it was just a way of keeping fans engaged with Steven, even outside of the album cycles. And also while on tour as well, making sure to post photos and updates from live shows and just build that online community.
We had a forum at one point which we really enjoyed doing because it was bringing fans together and talking about the music that we loved. Through that process we met a few more people in the progressive rock space, record labels like Inside Out Music, Sony and Kscope; Steven was on working with those guys through Blackfield and his own releases at the time.
Nick Holmes Music: How did you feel when you saw your film on a massive screen at BFI IMAX in London at the premiere of The Overview?
MS: Oh wow. It’s just the peak, isn’t it? As a filmmaker, it doesn’t get better than that, surely. It was such an incredible experience, to see your work on a screen that’s the size of a building is something that I didn’t think I’d ever experience. As I was delivering the DCP file you take to give to the cinema to put it on the screen, the projectionist, Michael, took me up into the projection room at the back of the IMAX. And that’s cinema history, because you’ve got all of Christopher Nolan films; these huge spools of film, and they’re just labelled with handwritten notes saying โTenetโ, โInceptionโ and โInterstellar.โ it was just an absolutely wonderful experience to know that my film was going to be on the same screen.
I feel so fortunate and lucky to have to have been able to do it and it’s all thanks to Steven, for creating the music and placing his trust in me to do a film, hopefully that does some sort of justice to the incredible music that he produces.
Nick Holmes Music: Steven himself has often talked about his albums or individual tracks being like a film and even described his last solo album The Harmony Codex as โcinema for the yearsโ Was The Overview always going to be a soundtrack for a film? Is that how he saw it?
MS: I think he always saw it as a piece that was two halves, side one and side two. When we were talking about visuals for it, one of the things that we were talking about was if you’ve got two 20-minute-long songs there isn’t really a concept of singles. So the idea of doing a promotional single didn’t really apply. Of course we went with the Objects Outlive Us section Objects: Meanwhile as a single.
Steven Wilson – Objects Outlive Us: Objects: Meanwhile
MILES SKARIN ON THE SHAPES IN ‘OBJECTS MEANWHILE’
“The shapes in Objects Meanwhile are constellations, connecting the stars into these shapes. The first one we see are constellation shapes based on the real star positions but later on we see this effect in 3D, where we see the connections forming between a โpoint cloudโ of stars.“
From the start, Steven wanted there to be visual material, a film to go across the entire audio, which is such an incredible challenge to have to try and think about, because especially in my style, which is animation that’s a big undertaking. It was always from the start, โlet’s make a film, let’s make a movie for this.โ
Nick Holmes Music: How much scientific research did you do for the film?
MS: I’ve always loved space. I’ve always been aware of space, been aware of missions into space and where we are in space, and galaxies and solar systems. So I think there’s a lot of knowledge I had already accumulated about space. I really wanted to build that kind of idea of scale into the film as well, because that was what we were trying to produce from the start, the idea of perspective.
And so I was looking up scales in numbers of how large planets are on Wikipedia. You can search any star or planet and it will tell you in astronomical units how large that planet or star is. And the numbers get big very quickly. I tried putting all those numbers into my computer software thinking, โthis will be great. I’ll just put all the numbers in and then I can just pull the camera out and that would show me the scale.โ But it starts to glitch physically on the screen. It can’t work out the coordinates for the polygons and the shapes you’re making to exist in a space that large because the computers can’t handle the sheer size of it.
So I was trying to find out as much as I could about space, and trying to keep it very scientific in a way. But as soon as I realised it was going to need a certain level of artistic direction, because the software couldn’t handle it, I had to kind of deviate. But I did definitely try to keep as much of the scientific information there, and I was also looking into different phenomena and objects in space; one of them is called a magnetar, which is these incredibly dense stars which have a very strong magnetic field. And it’s fascinating reading about these objects in space that just don’t seem real. And yet they are out there somewhere. It was very enjoyable doing that.
Sunrise seen from space. Illustration inspired by the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Image by Michael Melchinger. Source Wikimedia Commons
Nick Holmes Music: Tell me about the visual language of the film. How much were you influenced by space films like 2001 or Interstellar, which are fantastic films visually?
MS: Those films are incredible. I would say those films would be my main inspiration and reference points for The Overview. I remember watching Interstellar in the cinema and being absolutely blown away by it, not just visually from how it depicts space, but also the performance of the actors as well, and the emotion, and the effect that time dilation would have on people experiencing it. They did that very, very well.
I guess our challenge was to try and create a new visual language. But the person I have to thank for most of that is Hajo [Mรผller] who had already created all this incredible artwork. It’s so stark and beautiful in the way that he’s used real imagery and texture to create the pieces. I love the large format images that Hajo produced to really give you that sense of a wide screen or cinematic format. He sent through a load of the artwork quite early in the process. His artwork by the time that I was really working with it was already mostly there and just incredible images. I was looking at that and thinking he’s done it, he’s created the visual language of The Overview and if I can even get a small piece of that into my film then I’ll be happy because I love his work.
Nick Holmes Music: You have said the biggest challenge was to convey the scale of space?
MS: I think the main piece that really shows the scale would be Perspective, the first section of the second half. We’ve got Rotem [Wilson]’s voice, speaking through these incredible numbers such as ten to the power of twelve. But what does that mean? And so one of the things we were talking about was by putting up that number onto the screen, do people know that that’s going to be? The number of zeros that are at the end of these numbers, your brain can’t process it that well. And so when we were thinking of showing the scales, I had to split up those sequences and of course it has to be stylized to the music as well.
But there’s one moment where you can see the sun and you can see the different rings of the orbits of our planets in our solar system. And the camera bounces back and bounces forward quite fast. One of the things that I’m not sure if people quite catch is that our Sun just shrinks by a huge amount and then these absolutely colossal stars that are the next scale up swirl into the frame. So even on a 4K screen, placing these objects next to each other, our Sun suddenly becomes minuscule against these larger stars out there. So it’s actually very difficult to have a reference point when you’re looking at these sorts of visuals in a way that really puts it in perspective for us humans to understand.
‘The combination of analogue electronics and my wife Rotemโs narration, accompanied by Miles Skarin’s brilliant visuals depicting the sheer enormity of our known universe and the idea of cosmic vertigo, is proving to be an incredible high point of the current live show.’Steven Wilson on The Overview: Perspective (1 July 2025)
The other part of the film that talks about scale is the section called Cosmic Suns of Toil which is midway through the first half. For that we’ve got the camera that just pulls back and goes through all the different layers of space. I wanted to frame our solar system and then what’s outside of our solar system. This is where I was doing my research on what these layers are, if I set a course for the stars and kept going, what objects would I move through. As you get outside of our solar system, there’s The Local Bubble, and The Local Cluster.
It’s amazing to consider that there’s so many other stars and solar systems out there, and then it just keeps going and keeps going until we can’t see any further because light can’t travel. There’s a certain amount of light that it can travel compared to how fast the speed of light is and that’s elapsed. Then eventually at the end of that section, Cosmic Suns of Toil, we reach the edge of the Cosmic Web, which is these, almost like strand filaments of the matter of galaxies.
And then what’s on the outside? We don’t know. So we have a slightly more abstract, stylized section and then we just dive straight down. The thing that I find amazing about that is it’s set up to be relative scale, not absolute scale. So when the camera flies straight back through the Local Cluster of our solar system and then back onto Earth, all of that’s over in about like three or four frames of video. Itโs incredible that we cross so much distance in the space of a millisecond.
The Alien on the moor
Nick Holmes Music: Can I ask you a bit more detail about the film? It starts off with the alien, saying, โDid you forget I exist now?โ Steven himself has said that’s slightly tongue in cheek. How do you feel about the alien? There’s a beautiful section at the end of Part I, where the alien is floating around in space. What’s your reaction to that alien?
MS: I feel like it’s a great way to introduce where we are right now as a species. I think the key takeaway from the film is that we look inwards so much, and when you look outwards at space there’s so much out there which is unattainable and unreachable for a lot of humans, so maybe we don’t give much thought to the perspective of what we are and what our reality is. I don’t know how many people in the modern age are looking up at space and thinking, “I know what’s up there and I know what that means about where I am.”
MILES SKARIN ON THE DESIGN OF THE ALIEN
“The alien design came from Hajo [Mรผller‘s] artwork… thereโs the image of the alien, so using that as reference we designed it as a 3D modelled character. The image in Hajoโs artwork had lots of earthy textures over it, so our first design used only these same materials for quite a flat, matte look. Steven Wilson then suggested that it needed to look more alien and like it had just crawled out of the muddy depths of the moor, and that influenced the more organic looking final design of the alien and the animation at the start of Objects Outlive Us.”
Every time I go outside and walk down to the end of my road at night, and I’ve got stars above me, I’m always looking up and thinking, โthat’s all right there.โ I feel like that’s a great moment to start the record and say we’re not looking at humans this time around. We know we’re looking out at space, but then we are looking back at what that means for the human race.
A teenager with his first telescope
And there with his first telescope A teenager stands full of hormones and hope As he squints at the night, like a painting of light He doesn’t suppose that a black hole implodes In a trillion years from now.
The section Objects Meanwhile, discusses a black hole swallowing an entire galaxy. And when you think, were there people in that galaxy, did they know what was about to happen to them and if so, what would they be thinking? We get wrapped up in things that maybe we should have a little bit more perspective on. If every single human on planet Earth was able to recognise that we are all just trapped on a rock that’s being flung through space, maybe we’d have a different worldview. But the human race is so complex, I’m not going to go there.
Nick Holmes Music: Talking of the human race, The Buddha of The Modern Agefeatures a series of man-made disasters that lead to the destruction of the Earth?
MS: That section is looking at humans and what we’re doing on Earth before we go out into space. We meet the alien, and then after that we are presented with Earth. It’s not meant to be a future version of Earth. It’s meant to be a current version of Earth. I think it’s very easy to look at dystopian scenes of natural disasters, wars and climate change and think this is all set 20 years in the future, and we’ll work it out, we’ll be fine.
But actually, this stuff is happening now. It’s interesting that while all of these events are playing out and things are getting more and more serious, is enough being done by the human race to really set us on a course where we’re not just going to end up in that dystopian world of Interstellar, a global food crisis and dust storms that swirl around the planet, to the point where the planet is not habitable anymore. Are we barrelling towards that future, and is it too late to stop it? Thereโs a lot of those classic narratives tied up in that section.
But of course presenting it in such a stark way on screen and moving through all of those environments is one way of really showing this is the state of things right now. Of course it’s dramatized a little bit with animation, and at the end you’ve got all of the figures stampeding and falling off a cliff. I mean take what you want from that.
The message of that section is that maybe the human race could be doing more, but then of course the human race is massively complex in itself. And there’s a lot of problems we need to work out. And I don’t think I’m the person to be able to offer the answers; but hopefully collectively, we can put differences behind us and actually try to work out these things.
‘And now in her old wedding bed/A lady will dream that her husband is dead/ Of course he’s alive/He’ll be back around five’
Nick Holmes Music: Objects: Meanwhile is a very literal and specific description of small-town England with lyrics by Andy Partridge, contrasted with what’s going on in other galaxies. I was interested to see that you turned it into something almost magical with all these shimmering figures, but it’s not a detailed rendition of the lyrics.
MS: The lyrics tell a story, but I’m very mindful about not just taking the lyrics and putting that into visuals. The lyrics tell such a wonderful story and the way it flows from scene to scene, I felt that had to be the way forward for that section. And by setting these small sequences but made out of stardust and put them into these cosmic-looking scenes, I hopefully created a quite a nice way of showing that.
That was one of the things we were talking about first. Stevenโs note was he wanted to have everyday objects presented as though they were like a nebula or a galaxy out in space. So I was trying to build different ways of showing that. We had a Nebula Generator [which digital artists use to create configurable space nebula effects]. I could put a 3D model into it, and then it would render it as a galaxy or a nebula out in space.
Her shopping bag broke sending eggs and flour crashing Down to the ground, just like star clusters smashing.
And I wanted there to be moments like the opening where the shopping bag falls and then the flour spreads out and there’s stars inside of that. I really wanted it to look like we were seeing like the birth of a galaxy or the birth of stars or something like that, where an event on Earth has a parallel to events out in space, visually at least.
Nick Holmes Music: There are some very abstract instrumental sections on The Overview. How did you decide to illustrate those, because there are no stories in those sections?
MS: A lot of the designs come from Hajoโs artwork. There are various sections and we wanted to have a journey, especially in the section, where we’ve got Randy McStine’s fantastic guitar solo, just after the Ark sequence where we go into an alien planet and we see the ghost on the moor again. For that sequence, I really wanted to put the viewer into that environment. And the idea there is that we had launched ourselves towards the end of the galaxy into the end of the universe, and now we’re flying back and landing on some other planet somewhere else. That was definitely trying to bring in as many of the colourful possibilities that alien worlds could have and just trying to realise that, and trying to show what it could look like.
I think a lot of these things were so influenced by films that we’ve seen already and designs that have been made, but also there’s probably limits to what we can imagine these alien worlds would look like because we are only influenced by what we see directly around us.
Nick Holmes Music: And in Perspective where Rotem Wilsonโs spoken words provide all the perspectives of sizes of planets and galaxies, how much were you drawing on real images and how much was your imagination?
MS: The James Webb Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope have been taking some absolutely fantastic images which are available online where artists can use them. That was a massive resource to be able to look at and get inspiration from.
But for all of the scenes in โPerspectiveโ, especially the ones where we’re going through nebulas and the larger cosmic objects, what I’m doing there is creating what is called a Pyro simulation which creates these kind of smoke effects. And that is driven off images and source material that’s taken from these incredible pictures of space.
And because they’re only two-dimensional images that we’ve got from these telescopes, what I wanted to be able to do is create that, but in a 3D space so I can fly a camera through it and we can see there’s some depth to it. I’m sure there’s probably some very technical way we could scientifically accurately do that. But imagine there’s just a slice of the photo or the image of that galaxy or that nebula, and then smoke starts to rise from both sides of that piece of paper that then creates this 3D object that I can then fly a camera into. I can then scatter stars inside of that as tiny little spheres that can then emit light, and that creates the effect of this 3D nebula.
Nick Holmes Music: Iโm going to ask a slightly less serious question now, but I have to say when I saw Steven as an astronaut, which obviously he was very excited about, I had this image of Buzz Lightyear.
MS: Yes! [laughs] One of the early notes that Steven gave me was that we didn’t want it to almost come across like an action figure, floating in space; but the actual range of motion you get in those space suits, there is only a certain amount of movement that you can do in zero gravity. But we added a little bit more movement into the character to try and hopefully reduce any sort of, ‘Look, it’s Buzz Lightyear floating out in space.’
That was really good fun. I think the idea for came from Steven – looking across the Earth initially and then just being pulled across time and space and then experiencing the entirety of everything in a flowing strand across the screen, and what that’s meant to represent is the passage of time in this thin thread that’s going across space. Steven falls into that thread and then visits the earth and all these different places and then falls in and out of that in space, which is quite disorientating in a way for him.
Nick Holmes Music: Steven has been quite open about his fear of flying, but has also said that on balance, he probably would go into space given the opportunity. Would you go into space if you had the chance?
MS: I would probably share his fear of flying in a way, because I guess I think about it too much. You’re being rocketed in a tiny little capsule across the sky. But we’ve got ways of managing it, and everything’s tested. And when we know that the technology works, it’s amazing. We’ve had so many years of space exploration that it’s now coming to a point where weโve commercial astronauts going up and experiencing space. You don’t have to be a NASA-trained astronaut, you need a lot of money at the moment, but maybe one day it will be a point where we can maybe think about doing that, and maybe going on a trip to the moon won’t be something out of The Jetsons. It would be achievable for most people and a regular occurrence.
To answer your question, I think I’d have to think very carefully about whether I did it or not. I guess I like having my feet on solid ground. But I think if I were given the opportunity, I don’t think I’d be able to pass it up, because not many people get to experience something like that. So I probably would be saying yes.
Nick Holmes Music: The final section, ‘Permanence,’ with Theo Travisโ beautifulsaxophone solo. Can you describe what’s happening visually there? Is there a green shoot of hope?
MS: At the end, we’ve just had the Infinity Measured in Moments section, which is such a huge crescendo to the piece. There’s so much going on in that section and everything’s building up, and then we get this very soft end to the film where we’re floating in space.
After the visual onslaught of the ending section, because it is quite a lot and it is intended to make the viewer feel dizzy, it is blurry in sections where it is difficult to focus on it. That section was meant to be a ride through space where we can really just take a moment to consider the frame and see this asteroid that we’re flying down onto, and in the background of that scene, we have a huge black hole. And so we’re just one of the rocks that’s orbiting this black hole. Inevitably, these rocks are going to be sucked into that black hole and shredded.
And then as we reach the surface, we have this green shoot of life appearing in a place where it really shouldn’t. We really wanted to have some sort of ending where it wasn’t all about space as a cold, dark place, where it’s about death and nothing exists out there. I would like to think that there is more life out there and that the chances of there being life are quite high, especially when you look at how many solar systems and planets are out there. We wanted to leave it with somewhat of a positive view after diving into the darker aspects of it.
Nick Holmes Music: It’s also a very Steven Wilson way to end an album, isn’t it? So many of his albums with Porcupine Tree and his solo albums end on a gentle, quiet track rather than in a very loud climax. Is it a technique which he employs a lot?
MS: Well, thereโs always been the really big epic tracks at the end of Steven Wilson albums, but yes, it’s going in the opposite direction and putting something quiet has been very effective as well. It just feels like you’ve got that moment to just sit back and take in what you’ve just heard.
Nick Holmes Music: Can I ask you a more general question? Are you a musician? Because watching it again, it struck me how clever the editing is, and how beautifully it matches the pace, the rhythm, and the emotion as well. But from a technical point of view you’re matching the music really well. Where does that come from in your background?
MS: When I was at school, I took music, but mainly music technology and production rather than a classical musical education. I was a kid who was trying to learn as much as I could on guitar, but I found all of the photography, video production, and animation side, and that’s what I ended up doing more music production than guitar. But I still play from time to time, and I still want to try and do something musically because I’ve been so fortunate to work with a lot of my musical heroes.
At some point, maybe I’ll decide to give music another shot. But it’s interesting you mentioned that, because I spent a lot of time listening through the music and finding the moments and following the music, and a lot of the time I find that as a filmmaker, you normally have to build your narrative structure, but what I’ve found is that the musicians have done that job for me. They’ve done the hard job of working out the journey that they’re taking the listener on; all I’m doing is just putting visuals to that story that they’ve already produced. As long as I can follow where the music is going and the moods and the styles of it, then I guess that’s all I need to know musically.
Nick Holmes Music: How would you sum up the narrative of The Overview?
MS: I think the main thing with The Overview, as Steven will say as well, is the idea of having perspective on what we’re doing and our legacy on Earth. What if an alien was looking down at Earth, what would they see and what would they think about us and the way that we live?
It’s a story of sustainability and trying to really protect the home that we all have and trying to forge a path towards being a sustainable human race where we’re able to live in harmony with the planet. A lot of people have had that same dream. But we have to make that align with the way that civilization has to run; we’re going to be consuming a certain number of resources for the human race to exist.
But I think that as long as decisions are being made, we’re consuming the right resources in terms of animals, forests that we’re cutting down, what we’re putting in the oceans. It’s an environmental message, but also an animal rights message as well, where I think that humans, hopefully at some point in time, can look at our impacts on the world and hopefully see a nicer world around us.
Nick Holmes Music: But I think, as you’ve touched on, it’s also a very human message about perspective, isn’t it?
MS: Yes, definitely that. We all get wrapped up in our own lives and everything can feel very overwhelming. You look at the news these days and it’s difficult to think we’re heading in the right direction. We are all just floating on a rock that’s flying through space. And as long as we can just be nice to each other – and I know that’s quite a naive thing to say – but maybe that is the way that we have to look at the world, to take each problem as it comes and make the most empathetic response where we’re understanding our fellow humans on the planet, but also our fellow species on the planet, looking at animals and making sure that we’re providing the best world for us all to live in.
I feel like these days we have the technology to make a better world. And so it saddens me when I see that decisions are being made that are not maybe for the greater good of the planet, and it’s more just to make a bit more money, which only benefits a certain few.
I think there’s a lot of complexity in the human race, but I think that there’s definitely a message in The Overview, which is perspective; let’s try and forge a good path forward.
Nick Holmes Music: Is there anything you would like to add?
MS: I should also mention that I was assisted by my good friend Jack Hubbard, who helped me out with a lot of the more technical visual effects. We both worked on the film, and we were both there at the BFI IMAX show, and it was just an amazing thing to be able to share that experience with someone who has supported me massively over the years on pretty much every single project.
Jack is a visual effects artist who works at Framestore, one of the largest visual effects houses in London. He’s a very good friend and heโs always up for a challenge and he was amazing in answering a lot of the more technical visual effects questions because he uses a more advanced 3D software than I do.
Part of the process of putting it into the cinema is that you have to follow a certain amount of spec and quality control to be able to put it in that sort of environment. And so a lot of what I’ve been learning about in terms of video production and filmmaking is how to produce content to that kind of high-resolution, high-quality scale, and of course Steven works with Dolby Atmos and all of the high-end audio standard. So throughout the production of The Overview, I was really keen to bring that kind of high res, high end workflow towards the visuals as well.
Jack works in high end visual effects for TV, film, and advertising. I try to bring as many of those workflows from these high-end visual effects productions into the work that I do, which is much smaller scale, but it’s amazing what anyone can now access on YouTube software that’s freely available. And you can just follow these same standards and quality processes that feature films go through.
We had a test day at the Dolby showroom in London, where we screened the first version of the film and listened to it back in the Atmos mix. And it was fascinating talking to them about the Dolby Vision and the Dolby Atmos standards that they produce, the high-end HDR imagery. And then also the high-resolution surround audio.
Maybe that’s next on my list of things to do, to try and work out how I produce the highest quality image possible. I know that if you’ve got a Dolby Vision capable TV, there is a way that we could start to create a version of The Overview so that future projects could be Dolby Atmos, but also Dolby Vision as well. I’d love that.
Nick Holmes Music: Thank you very much for your time, and for spending so long talking to me.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.All stills from the film provided courtesy of Miles Skarin, with thanks.
This post was edited on 2 August 2025 to include details about the design of the alien and the shapes in ‘Objects Meanwhile’ provided by Miles Skarinand again on 4 August 2025 to add a link to the Official Video for The Overview: Perspective.
Guthrie Govan Joins Shez Raja for Triumphant Birkenhead Show
Shez Raja (and Chris Jerome, back left)
This was a triumphant homecoming gig for bass player Shez Raja, returning to his native Birkenhead. Raja announced that he was born on the Wirral; it felt like a home audience – his parents and some of his school friends were there in the capacity crowd.
Afterwards, a relieved Raja revealed that disaster almost struck before the gig. He was being interviewed when he felt a wasp behind his ear. He flicked it away, and the wasp, obviously part of the anti-joy police, decided to sting him on his fretting hand (the left). Playing bass with a swollen index finger would have been difficult. Fortunately, his resourceful interviewer supplied antihistamines and ice, and the disaster was averted.
Guthrie Gova (left) and Shez Raja
Raja launched the first set with three cuts from his new album, Spellbound. The lineup on Friday was very different from that of the album itself, as all ’37 guest musicians’ on the album (as Raja later quipped) couldn’t come. This meant that some of the songs from the album had less of an Indian feel – there was no sitar, tabla, sarangi, or bansuri. Instead, Raja was backed by a superb rock/jazz band, with the legendary Guthrie Govan on guitar, Chris Jerome on keyboards and Adam Texeira (a new addition to the Raja fold) on drums.
Govan played guitar on three Steven Wilson albums, including Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015), and it was good to see an audience member wearing a t-shirt with the album cover on it (this year marks the tenth anniversary of the album. Govan’s playing throughout the evening was astonishing. Govan himself often looked mildly surprised as he looked down at the incredible dexterity of his quicksilver fingers as he created a continuous flow of joy. But he also brought delicate ornamentation to one of the highlights of the first set, ‘Together We Fly’ from the new album. There was some gorgeous duetting from Govan and Raja in this song, with Raja playing the lovely melody that Fiza Haider sings on the album version. The two musicians shared a smile as they headed towards the contemplative ending of the song.
Raja, a genial host, explained that there are three different versions of Spellbound (cue rising chords from Jerome on keyboards to increase the sense of anticipation). Raja showed us the vinyl version (which sold out during the interval), the CD version, then the download, which he illustrated with a wave of the hand. He said if we liked the live versions of the new songs, we should buy the album; if we didn’t like the new ones, the album versions are better! To illustrate the point, the live version of the title track was heavier than on the album, with uplifting, virtuosic guitar and bass, and a thundering drum solo from Adam Texeira, which left the audience transfixed.
Raja did take us on a brief tour of the Punjab, with ‘Maharaja’ from 2021’s appropriately named Tales From the Punjab, inspired by his visit to the Punjab the previous year to explore his cultural roots. Govan provided Indian-style improvisations, and there was fantastic keyboard work from Jerome, syncopated chords with a lively instrumental commentary from Raja and Goven, which led to a flowing keyboard solo that drew warm applause.
The final song of the first set was ‘our craziest tune’, a stunning version of ‘Get Cosmic’, from Journey to Shambhala (2019), which Raja promised us would suck us into a black hole and out the other side. Reader, it did. The song began with eerie psychedelic noises, then an invigorating bass and guitar riff in perfect unison. There was a lovely spacey section, over which Govan’s solo was thrilling, giving the audience no time to breathe. The perfectly controlled madness of the song brought the first set to a euphoric end.
The bar had been set very high by the first set, but the second set was even better. It began withan ecstatic version of ‘Chakras on the Wall’, in which the band traded four-bar phrases which became increasingly extreme, making the audience smile. There were some cheeky moments when the four musicians quoted riffs from famous rock songs. Raja quipped that the bands might sue; an audience member replied, ‘We won’t tell anyone!’ ‘Vishnu’ from the new album ‘brought the Punjab to Birkenhead.’ This was completely different from the album version. It began with raucous drums, the kick drum providing visceral support for the syncopated, upbeat opening tune. A pensive breakdown section brought a quicksilver bass solo from Raja at the top of the fretboard. Govan played a bluesy solo with string bends and some tapping, making it all sound very easy. There was a break from all the structured jazz/rock mayhem with ‘Song for John’, a beautiful ballad written for Shez’s newborn son 14 years ago. This featured a mellow, emotional bassline played with superb legato by Raja, with a fretless bass sound reminiscent of the great Jaco Pastorius. There was a lovely repeated phrase, with a yearning interval the second time around, expressing Raja’s parental joy.
Raja quoted a review in Jazzwise magazine of the next song, ‘Quiverwish’, which apparently said it began with some Mark King-style slap bass but ‘it soon subsided.’ NickHolmesMusic enjoys a bit of slap bass, so that wasn’t a problem.This was a seriously funky track, with a Moog-like synth solo from Jerome with some evocative pitch-bends and another drum solo from Texeira, sounding like a complete percussion section on his own. According to the setlist, the band was due to play ‘My Imaginary Friend’ next, but in his excitement, Raja left it out, so we were left to imagine what his friend was like. Instead, for the encore, Raja asked us whether ‘anyone liked African music… well, we’re going to play an Eastern European folk tune.’ Before we had time to register our disappointment (although NickHolmesMusic does enjoy a bit of Eastern European folk music…), the band launched into ‘Freedom’, in which Govan introduced some African-style guitar playing, showing how versatile he is. By now, the audience was dancing and the joint was jumping. A joyful ending to an excellent evening.
Personnel
Shez Raja bass Guthrie Govan guitar Adam Texeira drums Chris Jerome keyboards
For a review of Shez Raja’s new album Spellbound click here
British-Asian bass player Shez Raja has been voted one of the โHottest Bass Players in the Worldโ by readers of Bass Player magazine. His mother is Asian, and his father is English. He began playing the violin at nine years old, then replaced that instrument with the bass guitar a few years later. He travelled with his father to the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, where he learned to play tabla. His background is similar to that of the musical polymath Nitin Sawhney, who was born in Rochester, Kent to Punjabi immigrant parents. Both musicians successfully blend East with West in their music.
Shez Raja
Raja has just released his eighth solo album, Spellbound, in a genre which has been described as Indo-jazz-funk. He is joined by an eclectic mix of virtuoso jazz and (prog) rock musicians including guitarists John Etheridge (Soft Machine) and Guthrie Govan (the Aristocrats, Asia, Hans Zimmer, Steven Wilson), drummers Dennis Chambers, Jamie Murray and Sophie Alloway, and saxophonists Vasilis Xenopoulos and Tony Kofi. He is also joined by traditional Indian instrumentalists Gurdain Rayatt on tabla, Roopa Panesar on sitar, Ashan Papu on bansuri (bamboo flute) and Zahab Hassan on sarangi (a three-stringed bowed instrument).
‘I believe that the ultimate goal for a musician is to make music that is raw, real and from the heart, that moves and inspires people’
Shez Raja
Raja’s bass playing, on a custom-made Fodera, is superb throughout the album. His lower notes sometimes bring to mind the great Jah Wobble (Public Image Limited), the bass lines prowling around in almost dub style. Above this, he sometimes plays ornamental lines towards the top of the fretboard and makes imaginative use of effects pedals. The album is recorded in pristine quality, in audiophile sound (the review copy was available in high definition). For that reason, it’s only available on CD and vinyl, and as a download, rather than on streaming services that may degrade audio quality.
The opening track, Quantum Spirits, is infectiously joyful jazz-funk with deliciously spiky guitar. Mahirishi mindtrip begins with a drum flourish and then throws itself into a groove with an Indian flavour from the sarangi and a spacious, bluesy feel. The title track has a lovely running saxophone line and a gloriously syncopated main riff. The drumming is stunning, and nicely balanced with percussion from the tabla. Together we fly is an evocative, gently aspirational ballad with melismatic vocals from Fiza Haider, which become more Indian in style as the track progresses, with a yearning sitar solo and subtly offbeat drumming. Lucid path to the golden lotus is the only track to feature bansuri, which sounds at first like the flute playing of the late, great Barbara Thompson, then becomes more Indian in style near the end with a weeping sound that is so characteristic of the instrument, but there’s also a hint of Moog-style soloing. Vishnu is a life-affirming track, with blistering, joyfully dystopian guitar, and an evocative breakdown section with a moving call and response section. Through the multiverse features cascading sitar and an infectious bass part. Our journey takes us into darker parts of the multiverse; we head into King Crimson territory, where everything is darkly ambiguous, a fractured universe with an explosive saxophone solo.
Shez Raja live at Ronnie Scott’s
The album ends with two live tracks recorded at Pizza Express Live Soho in London. The first is a live version of the opening track, Quantum Spirits, with the raw, emotional and supremely virtuosic soloing of guitarist Guthrie Govan. The second is Rabbits, which builds to a stunning climax. Both tracks bode well for Raja’s forthcoming live performances.
Spellbound is out now via ShejRaza.com. Raja plays live at Future Yard, Wirral on 18 July, at Ronnie Scott’s on 17 September and at the 606 Club on 21 November.
For a review of day one of the festival click here and for the opening night click here
Musicians from the Hallรฉ, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, RNCM, The Chorus of ENO and Hallรฉ Choir. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
Manchester Collective: The Body Electric
The title of Sunday afternoonโs concert, The Body Electric, has been used in many cultural contexts, including music by Weather Report, Rush, The Sisters of Mercy and Lana Del Ray. The phrase comes from an 1855 poem by the American poet Walt Whitman, I Sing the Body Electric. The poem is divided into several sections, each celebrating a different aspect of human physicality. Rahki Singh, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Collective, explained that the analogy of the body electric referred to the imaginative structure of the programme โ the body as a big house with lots of different rooms, with โsomething new behind each door.’
One of the joys of following the Collective’s work is that the forces always vary from one concert to another – from a fairly large ensemble with choir in Rothko Chapel to a smaller ensemble with African drums, bass guitar, and the fantastic African cellist and singer Abel Selaocoe in Sirocco. On Sunday, the Collective consisted of two musicians, Singh on violin and the cellist and composer Zoรซ Martlew.
Rakhi Singh and Zoรซ Martlew. Images ยฉ Alex Burns
The concert began with Singh โin outer space among the starsโ, playing โJoyโ, the first movement from David Langโs Mystery Sonatas. Bathed in white light, with the rest of the hall in complete darkness, Singh played on the upper strings and with harmonics to create images of glacial beauty, an icy landscape in the depths of space. The piece had an almost spiritual feel, and Martlew retained the mood of a piece she described as โiconicโฆ encoding geometry in soundโ, the โPreludeโ to Bachโs Cello Suite No.1. Martlew played with a lovely tone, relatively slowly, and with expressive rubato.
Martlewโs response to Bachโs piece was her own composition, G-Lude, commissioned by Spitalfields Festival, and premiered in July 2021. She explained to the audience that she had become weary of live performance and spent lockdown in a ‘state of profound silence, looking out to sea, communing with nature.โ This marked a move from being a cellist to composing. She said her tribute to Bachโs piece was โbased on the architecture of the original.โ G-Lude is a remarkable, unsettling work. At times, Martlew appeared to be fighting her cello, with exaggerated breathing that was written into the score. She felt like the Jimi Hendrix of the cello, playing like a rock star, with heavy metal riffs, scraped strings and gorgeous harmonics. She put the bow down and ended with a gentle, stately pizzicato.
This segued into Missy Mazzoli’s Vespers for solo violin, which Singh had performed in the Rothko Chapel concert. Embellished by electronics, the amplified violin part features echoed flourishes and long, held chords in the accompaniment. Singh created a vision of light, with a recorded female voice gradually becoming more prominent, creating a cathedral of sound. It was a profoundly moving, spiritual experience, which was enhanced by Martlewโs calm performance of the โAllemande and Sarabandeโ from Bachโs Cello Suite No.1.
It would have been easy to end the concert with something equally contemplative, but Singh had other ideas. She finished with her arrangement of LAD by Julia Wolfe, written for nine bagpipes and premiered by the Bagpipe Orchestra in New York City in June 2007. Her arrangement was for solo violin and eight pre-recorded violins. Perhaps inspired by Martlewโs rock star stylings, she announced that she would put her violin through an octave pedal, normally used by rock guitarists. She told us the piece would take us to โthe depth of the earthโ and that the โgnarlyโ opening always made it feel โlike her insides had been rearranged.โ Tunes were also promised.
LAD began with a fiercely disquieting, visceral two-note theme and then a terrifying rising phrase. The combination of a drone and this rising phrase created an effect like the Shepard Tone, where an auditory illusion is created of an endless, constantly rising phrase. Itโs used very effectively to ratchet up anxiety and tension in Hans Zimmerโs score for Christopher Nolanโs 2017 film Dunkirk, and also by Pink Floyd at the end of their track Echoes. Singh eventually played the folky tune she had promised, an ecstatic smile on her face. A second, folky tune featured an evocative swoop, which brought to mind the stunning score that Jรณhann Jรณhannsson wrote for Denis Villeneuveโs 2016 film Arrival. A truly cinematic ending to an excellent concert.
Finale
The festival ended with a joyous celebration of classical music in Manchester, with combined forces from the Hallรฉ, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the RNCM, the Chorus of ENO and the Hallรฉ Choir, superbly conducted by Alpesh Chauhan.
Aloesh Chauhan. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
The concert opened with the pulsating joy of John Adamsโ Short Ride in a Fast Machine, with all the musicians playing as one with infectious exuberance under Chauhan’s passionate baton. The audience reaction at the end was highly enthusiastic. The buzz that had been palpable throughout the festival, in the outdoor events as well as those on the main stage, continued right to the end of the festival.
Perhaps the highlight of the Finale was Iain Farrington’s Street Party, which had its world premiere on Sunday. In a fascinating pre-concert talk with Elizabeth Alker, he explained that he had written the new work in a jazzy style, partly inspired by composers like Gershwin and Bernstein, continuing a musical line from Saturday eveningโs concert. He said that British orchestras are now used to playing jazz; when Alker asked him whether they might improvise during his piece, he replied, โI hope not!โ
Farrington’s brief was to write a piece for the final concert in โthis amazing festival.โ His aimed to create something โjoyous, celebratory, open and inclusive… with a carnival atmosphere.โ He grew up in the market town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Some of his earliest memories are of outdoor festivals and street parties, including one that was closed down by the police because it was too popular (an experience which fed directly into the piece, as we found out later). He wanted to bring โoutdoor music to an indoor situation.โ Along the way, he gave a huge compliment to Manchesterโs Bridgewater Hall, โThe most amazing concert hallโฆ Weโd kill for a hall like this in London.โ
Street Party began with rollicking percussion and jazzy brass. There was a series of solo sections for wind, strings, brass and tuba. Farrington explained that this was to showcase the parts of the orchestra, a bit like Benjamin Brittenโs Young Personโs Guide to the Orchestra. It also sounded at times like the theme tune from an American TV series, of the kind that the late, great Quincy Jones used to write. The chorus joined, with a wordless chant of โNa, na, naโ, which Farrington said was meant to sound like a crowd singing along at a pop festival. The piece was immediately attractive and moved the feet as well as the soul. At the end, there was an amusing coup de thรฉรขtre. Two โofficersโ, from the entertainment division of the police, walked to the front of the hall and โarrestedโ the composer, presumably for creating excessive joy in a built up area. It was a fair cop.
The Chorus of ENO and Hallรฉ Choir. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
Borodinโs Polovtsian Dances provided us with an early opportunity to hear the chorus of English National Orchestra prior to them coming to Manchester later in the year. They didnโt disappoint; the sound was huge but well-balanced. The final piece was Respighiโs Pines of Rome, a chance for the combined orchestra to shine. There was a glittering opening, perfectly describing children playing amongst the pines. In the second movement, luxurious lower strings were joined by evocative, muted horns to create the subdued atmosphere of the Roman catacombs. An offstage trumpet, played in the gallery, had a lovely limpid tone. The plainsong chant of the priests was beautifully evoked as the movement reached its climax. The third movement was a nocturne, which began with a piano motif and a mellow clarinet solo. There was a lovely moment when there was a sudden change of harmony in the strings and heart-meltingly gorgeous orchestral playing in a huge romantic sweep. The recording of a nightingale that the score demands was perfectly blended with the orchestra. To end, we went back in history to the marching of Roman soldiers along the Appian Way, gradually building to a climax with majestic inevitability. Coruscating offstage brass joined, and finally the organ, as the music reached its apotheosis. What a way to end a wonderful festival!
Artists and repertoire
Manchester Collective: The Body Electric
David Lang Mystery Sonatas, mvt 1. Joy J.S. Bach Prelude from Cello Suite No.1 in G Major Zoe Martlew G-Lude Missy Mazzoli Vespers J.S. Bach Allemande and Sarabande from Cello Suite No.1 in G major Julia Wolfe arr. Rakhi Singh LAD
Rakhi Singh violin (Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Manchester Collective) Zoรซ Martlew cello
Pre-concert talk – Iain Farrington and Elizabeth Alker
Iain Farrington composer Elizabeth Alker presenter
Finale
John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine Iain Farrington Street Party (world premiere) Borodin Polovtsian Dances Respighi Pines of Rome
Alpesh Chauhan conductor Musicians from the Hallรฉ, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, RNCM, The Chorus of ENO and Hallรฉ Choir
For a review of the opening night of Manchester Classical, click hereand for day two click here
Riot Ensemble. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
RNCM Symphony Orchestra and Chorus – Gustav MahlerSymphony No. 2 โResurrectionโ
Manchester has a long association with Mahler’s music. His Symphony No. 1 was performed in Manchester as long ago as 1913, conducted by Michael Balling, only two years after the composerโs death. Later, Sir John Barbirolli became a great advocate of Mahler with the Hallรฉ, apparently spending nearly 50 hours rehearsing the Ninth Symphony. In 2010, there was an epic cycle of all his symphonies in the Mahler in Manchester series, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composerโs birth. And one of the early concerts in the newly refurbished RNCM concert hall about a decade ago was a performance of Mahlerโs Symphony No. 2, with RNCM forces so big that the chorus had to perform from the balcony above the audience.
Manchester continues to showcase Mahler. The most recent concerts of his symphonies I have heard in the last year are Symphony No. 5 (Sir Mark Elderโs last concert with the Hallรฉ) and the BBC Philharmonic performing Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 9 . Mahler famously said, โa symphony must be like the world. It must contain everythingโ, so his Second Symphony, with a vast orchestra, choir and two female soloists, was an excellent way of ensuring that as many members of the RNCM as possible could pack the stage and the Choir seats. The Dutch conductor Antony Hermus gave an insightful analysis of the five movements of the symphony and ended by quoting a Dutch saying, โwho has the youth has the futureโ, which certainly applied here.
Members of the RNCM Symphony Orchestra. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
Hermus was an undemonstrative conductor but very clear. He brought out the pacing in the first movement with a lovely, slow unfolding of its Wagnerian lines. The audience respected the short silence he requested at the end of the movement (Mahler asked for five minutes). The second movement began with a beautifully controlled Lรคndler, before a second, more anxious theme, teeming with intense life. It was lovely to see the smiles on the faces of the musicians as they gently plucked the returning Lรคndler theme. The Scherzo captured the movement’s uplifting joy, lightness, and sarcastic, almost outlandish spirit. After this, we headed without a break to the triumphant final movement. The mezzo-soprano Yvonne Howard, who studied at the RNCM and now teaches there, brought smooth legato lines, with clear diction and a calm stage presence. Scottish soprano Ellie Forrester, who is studying at the RNCM under Mary Plazas, sang with incredible, Wagnerian power, soaring majestically above the huge forces. The two singers were well-matched in their duet. The excellent RNCM Symphony Chorus began singing while seated, with a gorgeous sotto voce. Later, when they stood up, they showed that their voices could match those of the ENO Chorus (who we heard later in the festival) in operatic power and precision. The offstage brass parts brought an evocative depth to the sound. After a series of sensational climaxes from the orchestra, we reached the moment of resurrection. At the end, Hermus thanked the performers for their passion. There was a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience, and a cheer for each section as Hermus asked them to take a bow.
Riot Ensemble: Coral Formations
Riot Ensemble is an international collective of virtuoso musicians, with members and projects across the UK, Germany, Iceland, and beyond. It specialises in contemporary classical music and has given over 350 World and UK premieres by composers from more than 35 countries since 2012. The good news for Mancunian music lovers is that the Ensemble has chosen Manchester as their home base. This was the first concert to mark their new home. As they say on their website,
‘Why Manchester? Because the classical music scene here is simply electric: welcoming, ambitious, and fiercely creative.‘
Violinist and Co-Artistic Director Marie Schreer introduced the two works, both UK premieres. The first was Shrimp BIT Babyface by Alex Paxton, born and bred in Manchester. Schreer said it was a mix of โbonkers discoโ and folk music. It started with an eerie violin solo, then an explosion of free jazz cacophony, followed by a gentle electronic section, feeling its way towards a tune. A collection of alarming noises led to more free jazz, and a sound of a tape machine speeding up. There was sometimes a 1960s avant-garde vibe, like John Lennonโs Revolution 9 from The Beatlesโ White Album (1968). There was a sudden pause, and the music tried to come together as if the score for a string quartet had been smudged while still wet, accompanied by bleeping electronics. Then there was a jolly folk tune. Followed by frenzied, contrapuntal gaming music. An unhinged disco section with heavy electronic percussion collapsed into utter chaos. All the while, Aaron Holloway-Nahum conducted with admirable resolution and precision. An invigorating performance of a fantastically unnerving and colourful piece, which brought joy and confusion in equal measure – a riotous explosion of euphoria.
Riot Ensemble. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
The second, much shorter piece was Seafloor Dawn Chorus by the Norwegian composer Kristine Tjรธgerse, who has worked with biologists researching at the Barrier Reef. Schreer explained that the fish have dawn and dusk choruses, although sadly, they are quieter now. The piece began with slow, contemplative electronics and evocative sound effects. Scraped cello strings, string harmonics and Whirly Tubes created the noises of undersea creatures. Analogue noises replaced the electronics of Paxton’s piece. It gradually gained momentum, then suddenly stopped. If this programme is typical of Riot Ensemble, we have much to look forward to.
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra: Gershwin, Bernstein and Strauss
The BBC Philharmonic has had a superb season. On Saturday evening, German conductor Anja Bihlmaier conducted them in a programme of Strauss, Gershwin and Bernstein, titled โMusic from Beginnings and Endingsโ. The concert began with Richard Straussโs tone poem, Death and Transfiguration, which Bihlmaier described as a natural successor to Mahler 2, with its themes of โpassion, life, death, and life after death.โ Her conducting was calm at first, as warm strings played at a measured pace with the smooth, luxurious sound we have associated with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra this season, with perfect ensemble. As the piece reached its first climax, Bihlmaier became more animated, expressive and communicative, dancing on the platform. She combined passion with precision, drawing out stunning detail in the orchestral parts. The orchestra responded superbly to her direction, and this was a compelling performance.
Piamist Hayato Sumino with members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Image ยฉ Alex Burns
The concert continued in a jazzier style with George Gershwinโs Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra. The soloist was the Japanese pianist and composer Hayato Sumino, whose playing was a revelation. He had a lovely touch, with an even tone and impressive weight in the lower register, but also brought out the jazzy elements of the score. At one point, he brought out a small keyboard and perched it on top of the piano, playing solos with his right hand with a clarinet-like sound that matched the famous opening clarinet solo. The orchestra was an able partner, with characterful solos and syncopation so joyful it was difficult to sit still. At the end, Sumino showed the more romantic side of his playing โ it would be fascinating to hear him play a romantic piano concerto. He played delicately at the top of the piano, with fantastic speed and precision. Bihlmaier pulled the orchestra tempo back at the end for one final, ecstatic statement of the main theme, and Sumino received a well-deserved standing ovation and roars of โbravo.โ
The concert ended with more jazz, this time a description of, in the conductorโs words, the very different style of Leonard Bernstein โ the grooving vibes of โflashy New Yorkโ. She reminded us also that Bernsteinโs Symphonic Dances from West Side Story are not just โniceโ to listen to, but also describe the fight between two gangs from different worlds; universal themes are brought to life by the kaleidoscopic colours of Latin American percussion and rhythms. Like a close-knit jazz band, the orchestra played the syncopated rhythms with style and grace. Bihlmaier swayed to the rhythms, and it was difficult for the audience not to sway with her. They did join in with an ecstatic chant of โMamboโ, which she turned round to conduct. The orchestra showed its versatility by playing the romantic melody at the end of the piece like a symphony orchestra performing a romantic symphony. There was another standing ovation, ending a joyful evening.
Anja Bihlmaier told Elizabeth Alker that she had performed at the first Manchester Classical festival in 2023, and that one of her hobbies was collecting t-shirts (worn by staff and volunteers) from the festival. She expressed the popular view that โManchester is second only to London nowโ for classical music. Many proud Mancunians โ and others from outside the city โ would agree.
