Juilliard415 Archives - Nick Holmes Music

A Memorable Year for Music: Highlights from Manchester and Beyond

*The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor John Storgårds. Image © Chris Payne.*

Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the death of my father, John Charles Holmes, under whose benign and loving influence I developed a lifelong passion for music. He was the choirmaster and organist of the local church choir. I joined his choir at the age of six and went on to sing with several ensembles, including the choirs of Exeter and Worcester Colleges in Oxford, the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Hallé Choir and the John Powell Singers. Whenever I visit an English cathedral city, I always try to go to choral evensong, which remains part of the great choral tradition that has produced many great classical singers. Although it’s a while since I sang in public, I still appreciate choral music and several highlights of 2024 featured choirs.

I was honoured to be invited to review concerts by the superb Philharmonia Orchestra in London. I enjoyed Elgar’s choral masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius, with a premiere of a wonderfully evocative new piece, Cusp, by the baritone and composer Roderick Williams, which describes end-of-life experiences in a powerful libretto by Rommi Smith. Another moving libretto, with war poems by Wilfred Owen, featured in another stunning concert by the Philharmonia with The Bach Choir in Britten’s War Requiem. The orchestra joined forces with Garsington Opera for a joyful, semi-staged performance of another Britten piece, his opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Douglas Boyd at the BBC Proms.

The Bach Choir and the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall — *The Bach Choir and the Philharmonia. Image credit Andy Paradise*

David Hill conducted both of the concerts by the Bach Choir. He appeared at Manchester’s Stoller Hall in another guise as conductor of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the young student forces of Yale Schola Cantorum and Juilliard415, who brought joy and precision to a performance which seemed to reveal Bach’s soul in all its intellectual and spiritual glory. That weekend was very special for music-making in Manchester, as the previous day was the end of an era as Sir Mark Elder ended his tenure as Hallé Music Director, a position he held for nearly a quarter of a century. His final concert included the European premiere of James MacMillan‘s splendid new choral piece Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia, a performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, and a passionate, moving speech by Sir Mark. He is replaced by new Principal Conductor Kahchun Wong from Singapore, who I have only seen once so far, conducting a lively Rush Hour Concert in October in Tan Dun’s Violin Concerto: Fire Ritual and Stravinsky’s Firebird: Suite. He seems to be a bright prospect with an engaging stage presence.

I made two choral discoveries in Manchester in 2024. Firstly, The Apex Singers, a Manchester-based chamber choir of eight voices, founded and directed by Ollie Lambert, who directs this young choir remotely in his stunning folk song arrangements. Then Kantos Chamber Choir, under their conductor Ellie Slorach, brought Behold The Sea, a bold and innovative programme of maritime music to the Stoller Hall. I also discovered the fascinatingly intense music of Tim Benjamin, whose evocative pieces The Seafarer and The Wanderer were beautifully recorded by Kantos Chamber Choir.

Manchester Collective perform Rothko Chapel at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester — Manchester Collective and SANSARA in Rothko Chapel

There were more fantastic chamber music performances from Manchester Collective, who I have seen perform live probably eight or ten times in the last few years, at all sizes and shapes of venues from Salford’s White Hotel to the RNCM, the Stoller Hall, the Bridgewater Hall and even the Royal Albert Hall. The Collective makes choosing to go to one of their concerts an easy decision, as it’s guaranteed there will be high-quality music-making, inspired programming and fascinating collaborations. I saw them twice in 2024, first in the uplifting Rothko Chapel with SANSARA chamber choir at the Bridgewater Hall, then in Sirocco with the force of nature that is the cellist Abel Selaocoe at the Stoller Hall. Both concerts brought deep, life-affirming joy across time and genres.

Mark Padmore - English Song Recital Image Credit Joe Briggs-Price — *Mark Padmore and Libby Burgess. Image © Joe Briggs-Price*

I spent the August Bank Holiday weekend in the charming market town Southwell in the heart of Nottinghamshire, enjoying the delights of the tenth annual Southwell Music Festival directed by the indefatigable baritone and conductor Marcus Farnsworth. There was supreme artistry in all the concerts, not least from the artist in residence, Mark Padmore, whose word painting in his Recital of English Song with pianist Libby Burgess was astonishing. There was new music from Martin Bussey and Gemma Bass and a world premiere of With What Sudden Joy by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, with a text compiled by the poet Kate Wakeling from words of local people in Southwell about the power and effect of music.

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra were on excellent form as well in 2024. Early in the year, under conductor Nicholas Kraemer they were joined by Manchester Chamber Choir in a moving and dramatic interpretation of Bach’s St John Passion, 300 years after the first performance. In the Proms the orchestra under John Storgårds (Chief Conductor) played a searing version of Shostakovich’s fourth symphony, and Cassandra Miller‘s viola concerto I cannot love without trembling with Lawrence Power a remarkable soloist. The next evening, they performed Messiaen’s remarkable Turangalîla-Symphonie with pianist an Steven Osborne an energetic and compelling piano soloist. Osborne was stunning in another Messiaen work, Des canyons aux étoiles… with conductor Ludovic Morlot and outstanding solo contributions from Martin Owen (horn), Paul Patrick (xylorimba) and Tim Williams (glockenspiel) in a concert that also featured a lively wind machine and an instrument invented by the composer himself, the geophone.

The BBC Philharmonic also shone in two themed concerts. In Mischief and Magic, the orchestra under John Storgårds played one of the best live performances of Stravinsky’s Petrushka I have ever heard, and veteran Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger brought incredible virtuosity and great charm to Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto and Betsy Jolas’ Onze Lieder, and a warm arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides, Now. In A Hero’s Life the orchestra under Alpesh Chauhan celebrated the human spirit with: Richard Strauss’ description of a heroic life; Alban Gerhardt‘s fiercely dedicated performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2; and the UK premiere of This Moment by Anna Clyne, inspired by Buddhist writings and Mozart.

The Lovers from A Midsummer Night's Dream — *Peter Kirk as Lysander, Siân Griffiths as Hermia, Camilla Harris as Helena and James Newby as Demetrius in Opera North’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Photo credit: Richard H Smith*

Not content with one production of Britten’s opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the year brought a second one, this time a fully-staged version by Opera North. It was fascinating to compare the production with the Garsington/Philharmonia version a month earlier at the Proms. The most striking difference was the role of Oberon, played in Leeds by countertenor James Laing. He played the character in the more imperious style of James Bowman in Peter Hall’s Glyndebourne production from the early 1980s, rather than the more troubled, argumentative character played by Iestyn Davies in the Garsington version. Opera North also revived Mozart’s Magic Flute, starring Emyr Wyn Jones as a very human Papageno. The lovely, warm rich tones of his voice matched the warmth of his personality.

Musical polymath Nitin Sawhney – producer, performer, and composer – joined the Hallé Orchestra for The Hallé and Nitin Sawhney in Concert. Last year wasn’t a good year for Sawhney – in early March, he announced that ‘out of nowhere’ he had suffered a heart attack.

Nitin Sawhney and Nikki Bedi — *Composer* *Nitin Sawhney in conversation with broadcaster Nikki Bedi. Image credit: Hallé/David Hughes*

Sawhney turned this experience into a new work for orchestra, Heart Suite. In this highly descriptive and powerful new piece, Sawhney drew on his vast experience as a film composer, taking us on a vivid, moving and immersive journey. On a personal note, I hope you will forgive me for quoting his lovely response on the new social network Bluesky to my review of the concert:

Finally, I would like to thank all my readers for sharing my musical journey in 2024. I hope you will join me again for more adventures in 2025.

For the year in Progressive Rock, click here.

Sunday 2 June 2024

The Stoller Hall, Manchester

*****

A joyous and moving performance of Bach’s masterpiece

Yale Schola Cantorum and Julliard415 conducted by David Hill

Three hundred years ago, JS Bach took up a post in Leipzig where his St John Passion was first performed on 7 April 1724. On the three hundredth anniversary of the first performance, the BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Chamber Choir performed it at the Bridgewater Hall. On Sunday afternoon, the centuries rolled back again in Manchester with a performance of Bach’s masterpiece of Western Art Music, the B Minor Mass. The ‘Sanctus’ from the Mass was also performed in Leipzig in 1724, although the full piece wasn’t actually performed until 1859, also in Leipzig, over a century after Bach’ death in 1750. Bach, quoted in Harry Haskell’s illuminating programme note for this concert, said that ‘the aim and final reason’ of all music should be,

‘… none else but the glory of God and the recreation of the mind. Where this is not observed, there will be no real music but only a devilish hubbub.’

So what is the status of the B Minor Mass? Is it the supreme expression of Christian belief, or is it an intellectual insight into one the greatest musical minds? It’s probably both. It appears that Bach saw it in both ways. As Haskell says in his programme note, before Bach was appointed at St Thomas’s School he was examined in detail on his knowledge of theology – part of his duties there were to provide religious instruction. But he also took a pragmatic approach to sacred works – he used the Missa Brevis which later formed part of the much longer B Minor Mass as a calling card to obtain a new post under Frederick Augustus in Dresden. Further, it seems unlikely that the B Minor Mass was ever meant for liturgical use, simply because it’s far too long to be used in a worship situation. It has been suggested that it was written to be performed at the opening of a new Catholic cathedral in Dresden; the building wasn’t completed at Bach’s death and the Mass wasn’t used. It seems more likely that Bach wrote the piece as a summary of his life’s work, drawing on musical styles from several different eras of his work. But this doesn’t preclude the possibility of Bach’s religious expression being genuine. And the genuineness of his devotion, seeing God through human eyes, adds an element of human emotion that prevents the music being a mere intellectual exercise (albeit of the very highest order) – Bach’s sorrow at the Crucifixion of Jesus and his joy at the Resurrection are viscerally real.

The most remarkable aspect of Sunday’s concert was how pure it felt, allowing direct access to the emotions and intellectual power of the music itself, to the mind and soul of Bach himself. It was often impossible to untangle whether the effect of this stunning performance was because of the virtuosity of the musicians or the virtuosity of the writing; it was probably both. It was if the veneer of romanticism had been stripped away to reveal the vibrant colours of an Old Master. This was partly because the choir and orchestra maintain the highest standards of Historically Informed Performance, using instruments (such as natural trumpets) and performance styles based on what history tells us about practices in Bach’s time; the name of the orchestra even references the Baroque performing pitch of A = 415 Hz (as opposed to the modern A = 440 Hz). It was also because of the youthful freshness and enthusiasm of the performers, mostly students from Yale University and the Juilliard School of Music. In a brief conversation after the concert, conductor David Hill revealed that none of them had played or sung the piece before the current tour, so at the most they had only known it for a couple of months.

The opening Missa began with the ‘Kyrie’, ten minutes of some of the most sublime music ever written. It was slow and stately, with authentic Baroque woodwind, precise orchestral playing, agilely sung and beautifully shaped vocal lines with limpid textures, revealing the ethereal beauty of the music. The duet in the ‘Christe Eleison’ featured the perfectly matched voices of soprano Juliet Ariadne Papadopoulos and mezzo Sandy Sharis, who like the male soloists also sang with the choir. Papadopoulos in particular was a compelling stage presence throughout, smiling beatifically at the audience and fellow performers. In the ‘Gloria’, the balance of singers and instrumentalists was ideal. There were moments of jaw dropping beauty in ‘Et in Terra Pax’, as the choir negotiated the difficult vocal lines of the fugal parts with ease. In the ‘Gratias’ the voices appeared organically, as if out of nowhere. In the ‘Domine Deo’ duet between Papadopoulos and tenor Michaël Hudetz, again the soloists managed their complex parts with ease, and the detail of the accompanying orchestral textures – aided by the Stoller Hall’s clear acoustic – was evident in the clarity of the plucked basses. The ‘Qui Tollis’ was a lovely moment of contemplative stillness, textures drifting magically, to use TS Eliot’s phrase, ‘at the still point of the turning world’ (from Burnt Norton, Four Quartets 1936). Carys Sutherland provided superb virtuosity in the horn solo in ‘Quoniam tu solus sanctus’, accompanying warm-voiced bass Fredy Bonilla. Ending the ‘Missa’, and the first half of the concert, ‘Cum sancto spiritu’ was joyfully fast and energetic, the chorus never coming off the rails even in the fugue. David Hill’s direction of the orchestra was immaculate.

Part Two, the Credo, the basic statement of Christian belief, began with dancing rhythms and complex polyphony, with clear textures from the string and bass parts in ‘Credo in Unum Deum’. The soprano and alto duet in ‘Et in unum deum’ had a perfectly balanced handover of the vocal line from one singer to the other and back again. There was rich word painting from the choir in ‘Et incarnatus est’, with its stately, majestic, falling motif and crunchy harmonies. The ‘Crucifixus’, with warm and expressive bass parts, was devastating. The sheer joy of ‘Et resurrexit’, with its immensely long lines was palpable. There was a massive, highly dramatic rallentando before the triumphant explosion of confidence about the prospect of eternal life in ‘Et expecto resurrectionem’, with glittering trumpets. The feeling of joyous celebration continued in Part Three, the Sanctus with its Baroque dance rhythms. Part Four, the Osanna, Benedictus and Agnus Dei began with splendid contrapuntal singing from the choir in the joyful ‘Osanna’. Conductor David Hill had a brief rest while tenor Michaël Hudetz sang the contemplative ‘Benedictus’, earnestly devotional, with lovingly crafted vocal lines. But perhaps the highlight of the second half of the concert was the alto aria ‘Agnus Dei’ sung by Sandy Sharis, her voice floating over the orchestra with supreme control, sometimes smooth, sometimes fragile, sometimes blooming as the voice opened out. A heart stopping moment. After that, the final chorus, ‘Dona nobis pacem’, started quietly as if beamed in from a distant planet, with a gradual crescendo and stratospheric trumpets, reaching a golden splendour on the final ‘pacem’, a prayer for peace.

Performers

Yale Schola Cantorum

Juilliard415

David Hill, conductor

Juliet Ariadne Papadopoulos, soprano
Sandy Sharis, alto
Michaël Hudetz, tenor
Fredy Bonilla, bass

Presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music

Category: Juilliard415

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