A tribute to the variety of sounds that strings make, and the human connections that music brings
Manchester Collective
Some concerts are about the music only, the sheer joy of music-making. Others have an external framework, which may be emotional, intellectual, musicolgical, or even spiritual; or a mixture of all of these. Sunday afternoon’s excellent concert by Manchester Collective at the RNCM in Manchester combined all these elements.
Linda Begbie, the Collective’s new Chief Executive, introduced the concert. Last week, she had been auditioning young students for the new Manchester Collective studio at the RNCM. They expressed their fears about a world that was ‘very dark and dangerous, a very scary place.’ With evident emotion in her voice, she said that music is all about connection, ‘if we move away from this, that’s where things go wrong. โThe Collective’s ethos, she said, was about bringing full humanity to their performances so audiences could meet them there. The concert would address life, death, and divine ecstasy.
Rakhi Singh, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Collective, and lead violinist and conductor for this concert, took up the theme, describing her arrangement of the ninth-century Christian hymn Veni Creator Spiritus as an invocation of the Holy Spirit. She said that the Collective tries to evoke its spirit in the rehearsal room, but it usually only appears in front of an audience. She echoed the feelings of Begbie’s students, that the world seems to be falling apart; we need to find our kindness and courage, and use our despair and outrage to take positive action.
I would try to imagine what a Shaker ceremony must have felt like – those normally stern souls suddenly sprung loose in a rapture of religious ecstasy as they shook in sympathetic vibration with their creator
John Adams on ‘Shaker Loops’
The John Adams piece, Shaker Loops, also has a spiritual aspect. Adams was inspired by the minimalism of pieces for tape loops, repeated looping patterns found in pieces like Steve Reich’s It’s Gonna Rain (1965).
Adams was also inspired by the ecstatic, spiritual dancing of the Shakers religious community, which was set up in the North West of England in the eighteenth century before moving to America. Reading his works over sections of the music, Lancashire-born poet Christ Bryan celebrated the Shakers and its founder Ann Lee in the first of three poems, Genesis. He honoured Lee as ‘The Seer.. God the Mother’, who founded the Shakers as an offshoot of the Quakers, during the Industrial Revolution, when,
‘The town’s waters are no longer used for baptism Crucified new to the crux of commerce.’
The second poem, Exodos, laments, in Bryan’s words, ‘the spiritual malaise of modernity and materialism of all forms – theological, philosophical and economical.’ It begins with evocative words describing a post-industrial landscape,
‘The provocation of concrete is now in bloom The endless bankrupt brick blossom.’
The third and final poem, Revelation, like the other poems, takes its name from one of the books of the Bible. It’s a joyful reworking of the Shaker Hymn A Beautiful Day,
From brook and from fountain come voices of welcome To look beyond to that region where the supernatural lay Where beameth forever a beautiful day.’
Singh described the divine connection of music and dance in Adams’ piece; she said the Collective sought a divine connection in their playing and brought it to the audience.
The musicological aspect of Sunday’s concert was touched on by Adams in his programme note to Shaker Loops, referring to the musical meaning of to shake, ‘meaning either to make a tremolo with the bow across the string or else to trill rapidly from one note to another.’ The viola player Ruth Gibson introduced Terra Memoria for string quartet by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho by asking players to demonstrate the varied string techniques used by the composer. This was not just a technical exercise. The piece illustrated the whole range of emotions that form part of the grieving process, from lamenting, pain, anger and resignation to moments of reconciliation and yearning, and hope.
“The title Terra Memoria refers to two words which are full of rich assoยญciยญations: to earth and memory. Here earth refers to my material, and memory to the way I’m working on it.”
Kaija Saariaho
The concert’s opening piece, Such Different Paths by the Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova, also featured varied string techniques. The composer asks for playing at one point to sound ‘like a folk fiddle, and elsewhere asks the players to ‘think Baroque.’ The Collective, here consisting of a septet, brought out the full range of colour in this dense and complex piece.
Throughout the concert, The Collective embraced all the music’s musicological, intellectual and spiritual aspects, absorbed them, and created an emotional whole. Their playing throughout was virtuosic, passionate, precise yet emotional. They continue on their mission of communicating deeply through music.
Manchester Collective and Christ Byran
Performers
Rakhi Singh Violin Haim Choi Violin Will Chadwick Violin Donald Grant Violin Rose Hinton Violin Anna Tulchinskaya Violin Bethan Allmand Violin Mira Marton Violin Eloise MacDonald Violin Ruth Gibson Viola Abby Bowen Viola Gemma Dunne Viola Ben Michaels Cello Alex Holladay Cello Jess Schafer Cello Alice Durrant Double bass Christ Bryan Live poetry
Repertoire
Dobrinka Tabakova Such Different Paths Kaija Saariaho Terra Memoria Hymn arr. Rakhi Singh Veni Creator Spiritus John Adams Shaker Loops feat. Christ Bryan
Nearly 60 years since first playing in Manchester, Hammill is still a supreme communicator and a powerful performer
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‘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
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
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
***** Steven Wilson’s Epic Return to Solo Performance
Steven Wilson last performed as a live solo act in England seven years ago at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in a series of three concerts, one of which was later released as the concert film Home Invasion. That tour supported his fifth studio album, To the Bone, released in 2017. Since then, he has released three solo albums: The Future Bites (2021), The Harmony Codex (2023) and The Overview, released earlier this year. He tried twice to tour The Future Bites, but was twice thwarted by COVID-19.
In the meantime, to the surprise of many, he returned in 2022 with a new Porcupine Tree studio album, Closure/Continuation. Recent tours have been in support of that album โ he played at Wembley Arena in London in late 2022, and at Castlefield Bowl in Manchester the following summer. He now has two touring bands: Porcupine Tree with Gavin Harrison on drums, Richard Barbieri on keyboards and Nate Navarro on bass; his solo band with Craig Blundell on drums, Nick Beggs on bass, and Adam Holzman on keyboards. The only common denominator, apart from Wilson himself, is the versatile American guitarist and backing vocalist Randy McStine.
Wilson did a short solo performance of tracks from The Harmony Codex at EartH in Hackney to mark the release of that album, but apart from that, this concert marks his return to his home town to play a solo gig. And he seems very happy to be home. Modestly describing himself as the worst musician in his band (if thatโs true, thatโs only because heโs surrounded by a group of phenomenal musicians), he acts as lead vocalist, and sometimes guitar and keyboard player. At other times, heโs more like the leader of a jazz band, bringing the other musicians in and at one point joining Beggs in a forensic but benign examination of Blundellโs drumming.
And the jazz analogy doesnโt end there. We are lucky enough to see the jazz saxophonist, flautist and regular Wilson collaborator Theo Travis performing for one night only (โno expense spent’ quips Wilson) on two songs from Grace For Drowning: No Part of Me and Remainder the Black Dog. His playing is as inventive as it was in the stunning solo set he did at the Prog the Forest festival last December. He also plays in Permanence, the final section of The Overview, one of those gorgeous, profoundly contemplative songs with which Wilson has often ended his albums โ Collapse the Light into Earth from Porcupine Treeโs In Absentia (2002) springs to mind. The latter song contemplates the aftermath of 9/11, while the former considers whether there may be green shoots of life on other planets or in other galaxies after mankind has destroyed the Earth; both are weighty subjects.
The jazz theme of the music continues into Adam Holzmanโs keyboard playing. He shows his full jazz pedigree tonight (he was Miles Davisโs Music Director in the mid-to late 1980s), with lovely Fender Rhodes chords, exhilarating Moog runs, as well as rich Mellotron harmonies for the prog purists. Nick Beggs plays upright jazz bass on a couple of songs, and Craig Blundellโs drumming is fiercely syncopated, with some jazzy cymbal work. He drives the band with intense snare beats, and the physicality is visceral. Itโs high but deserved praise to say that he has become to Wilsonโs solo band what drummer Gavin Harrison has become to Porcupine Tree. Both drummers are amazing.
The concert begins with a complete performance of the two-part new album, The Overview. Projected behind the band is Miles Skarinโs stunning new film, which explores and illuminates the themes of the album. Seeing it at the IMAX launch in London revealed its pristine quality, but with strong concert lights and dry ice in front of it, the animated film seems to take on an almost 3-D quality. Having a live band playing in front of it makes this a truly immersive experience, of which both Wilson and Skarin can be justly proud. The pristine visuals are matched by the clarity of the live sound, which is superb throughout the gig.
From the opening few bars, itโs clear that Wilson is in excellent voice; his falsetto on the words โI incline myself to spaceโ is as powerful as it has ever been live. Three hours later, in the encores, his voice is as strong as ever. Instrumentally, despite his protestations, he is a powerful player. Itโs great to see him showcasing his skills on the PRS guitars, which are beloved by his prog fans for their mellow and versatile tones. McStine matches his virtuosity, the two of them coming onto the apron of the stage to duet close to the audience.
Beggs is on stunning form too. The opening of Luminol from The Raven That Refused to Sing reminds us of the robust virtuosity and rhythmic precision of his playing. His sound is reminiscent of Chris Squire, the bedrock on which the sound of Yes was built for so many years. The song is an opportunity for Wilson and McStine to join Beggs in mellifluous three-part harmonies. It also showcases another jazzy element of tonightโs band: an extended improvisation at the end of the song. Beggs also shines in the driving instrumental Vermillioncore from the EP 4+1โ2 . But perhaps the biggest surprise is that he and drummer Blundell perform the only Porcupine Tree song of the evening, Dislocated Day (from the early space-rock LP The Sky Moves Sideways) in such a blisteringly funky version.
Earlier, space rock is represented in a very different way, with Wilson playing analogue synths, spreading himself from one bank of synths to another like Rick Wakeman without the cape. His wife Rotem joins him on an evocative spoken word description of the Earth viewed from space, tying in neatly with the view of Earth from space described in the Overview Effect, in which astronauts are emotionally and sometimes spiritually affected when viewing the Earth from space.
This is a resolutely proggy evening. Itโs fascinating to speculate what the abandoned tour for The Future Bites would have been like, with its much more electronic sound, but only one song has survived the Pandemic into this set list, King Ghost. Wilson graciously accepts that some members of the audience may be there with friends or family who are less prog-minded. His concession to them is to play the rocky ballad, What Life Brings (from The Harmony Codex), which he announces is only four minutes long.
But Prog Widows and others who like short songs shouldnโt be lulled into a false sense of security. Wilson announces at the end of the concert that there will be two encores, but one of them is fifteen minutes long. This is the prog epic Ancestral from Hand. Cannot. Erase. which is performed here in an uplifting version. On earlier tour dates, Wilson ended with an emotional song, Pariah from To the Bone. Tonight, he chooses an equally emotional song, the title track from The Raven, with Jess Cope’s powerful video behind him.
The audience pays rapt attention throughout the concert, aided by Wilsonโs insistence that phones shouldnโt be used for photos or videos, which is largely respected. So we live in the moment, revelling in the joy of musicians playing at the very pinnacle of their game. It’s a privilege to be here.
The standing ovation at the end of the gig.
This post was updated on Thursday 15 May 2025 to add Theo Travis’s name,ย and to credit Jess Cope for the video of TheRaven That Refused to Sing
This post was further updated on 13 September 2025 to confirm that Adam Holzman worked with Miles Davis in the mid-to late 1980s, not the 1990s as previously stated
A double-header of new prog rock albums in a Sunday afternoon launch
Despite the London sunshine, rather than lazing on a Sunday afternoon, progressive rock fans packed themselves into the small but perfectly formed venue that is the Camden club. Long songs and high concepts were promised, and this gig didnโt disappoint. The event, organised by the tireless Chris Parkins of London Prog Gigs, saw the launch of two new albums. Hats Off Gentlemen Itโs Adequate were here to showcase their eighth studio album, The Uncertainty Principle. But before that, a relatively new band – albeit made up of veterans – Ghost of the Machine had travelled from Yorkshire to launch their second studio album, Empires Must Fall.
Charlie Bramald and Malcolm Galloway in the Q&A Session. Photo courtesy of Bรฉla Alabรกstrom
The afternoon began with a short Q&A session hosted by Charlie Bramald of Ghost of the Machine and Malcolm Galloway of Hats Off. An audience member asked if there would be any dancing. Galloway said that, as a former doctor, he would recommend physical exercise and invited the audience to โexpress themselves physically,โ before admitting that sounded wrong. He asked Bramald which came first in creating an album, โthe concept, the musicโฆ or the choreography.โ
As Genesis themselves admitted, prog rockers generally โcanโt danceโ โ presumably because of the complex time signatures (one of the most amusing sights I have seen at a prog rock gig was several seated gentlemen on the front row of a Steven Wilson concert, desperately trying to head bang in time to one of Wilsonโs more esoteric rhythms). Bramald, whose band have been compared to Genesis, admitted that the genesis (see what he did there?) of the songs was usually a keyboard part from Mark [Hagan]. Galloway said that he usually wrote in speech rhythms, and did an uncannily inaccurate [sic] demonstration of Beyoncรฉ singing a melismatic melody.
Bramald asked Galloway how the eighth Hats Off album differed from the previous seven. Galloway quipped that the main difference between the albums was the colour scheme of the booklet. But there was a serious point โ the album traces the development of quantum physics up to the 1950s, so a Cold War colour scheme was felt appropriate. Some of the highly imaginative images from the album were projected on a screen behind the band. However, before we became too impressed by the technology, the band’s bass player, Mark Gatland admitted he couldnโt hear his bass amp as it was hidden behind the screen.
Ghost of the Machine have only one fewer word in their name than Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate, although it could be argued they are syllabically challenged in comparison. They made up for their lack of syllables by having six band members on stage โ Bramald (vocals), Graham Garbett and Scott Owens (guitars), Mark Hagan (keyboards), Stuart McAuley (bass) and Andy Milner (drums). They decided to treat us to the entire album, Empires Must Fall, in the order it appears. This was their first London gig, and early on Bramald said it had been worth coming all the way from Yorkshire; the sold-out audience was very enthusiastic.
The new album is, naturally, a concept album. It continues the narrative from the first album, Scissorgames (2022). At the end of that album, the main character, Hope, who appears on the cover of both albums, freed herself from a tyrant but ended up in prison as a result. She becomes a superior being and creates an empire of light into which she draws those who are due to commit crimes in the future. As Bramald told Stephen Lambe of Prog magazine, the moral ambiguity of this is similar to that of the 2002 film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. She starts a revolution which leads to war, but the album ends on a more hopeful note of forgiveness.
Vocalist Charlie Bramald flanked by Scott Owens and Andy Milner on guitar, with Andy Milner on drums. Photo courtesy of Chris Parkins of London Prog Gigs
It’s tempting to play a game of spot the influence with a relatively new band. As mentioned earlier, Genesis is a possibility, as is Marillion. There were touches of Asia, and Yes, and Bramaldโs voice was sometimes reminiscent of Geddy Lee of Rush or Roger Hodgson of Supertramp. However, while acknowledging that these luminaries make excellent musical company, the band itself prefers not to be categorised. The only overt influence was when keyboard player Hagan gave a brief rendition of Tubeway Armyโs 1979 smash hit Are ‘Friends’ Electric, written by Gary Numan, his musical hero. However, there was a definite influence from Rick Wakeman’s 1974 classic, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, particularly in the opening song, Keepers of the Light. The instrumental section was lacking a glittering cape but was suitably proggy, before the band returned to one of its great strengths, strong melodies. Bramald, as in all the songs, was a compelling stage presence, acting out the lyrics while his voice soared above the band.
Days That Never Were began with gentle piano and synth, and a lovely bass riff that introduced a rocky number with a beautiful harmonic change. The song ended with a mighty drum flourish. Bramald explained that the next song, Panopticon, is the centre piece of the album. For those who donโt know (I admit that I didnโt), a panopticon is a circular prison designed by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the eighteenth century, to allow all the prisoners to be seen at the same time. Itโs a perfect metaphor for isolation, as in the wall that surrounds the protagonist in Pink Floydโs 1979 album The Wall. As the lyrics of Panopticon state, we are โprisoners of our own designโ, who eventually break out from prison, just as Pink Floydโs character tears down the wall. The panopticon is also a metaphor for surveillance culture, a malevolent form of the benign accumulation of data that Peter Gabriel describes in his song Panopticom(note the change in the final letter) from his 2023 album i/o. But, as Days That Never Were states, โEmpires must fallโโฆ and, according to Bramald, we can help bring them down. Interestingly, Hats Off expressed a similar opinion in the song All Empires Fall from 2022โs The Confidence Trick. As Galloway writes,
Even the most evil dictator will, like everyone else, die. Every empire eventually crumbles. At the most basic level, the second law of thermodynamics suggests that any conquest is ultimately temporary. All empires fall.
The highlight of Ghost of the Machineโs set was the final song from their new album, the 14-minute epic After the War. The first section, ‘Runs Away’, began as a piano ballad, featuring gentle guitar and backing vocals from Graham Garbett. The song built up pleasingly to a metal guitar section, with a sense of inevitability and majesty. The next section, โBellsโ, featured a suitably bell-like piano part by Mark Hagan, frenetic percussion, and swirling guitars. Section three, ‘Sunrise and Sirens’ began with a flowing piano part and an almost funky guitar riff, expressing optimism around the lyric โthe war is overโ. In the next section, the instrumental โSorrow in the Silenceโ, Scott Owens played a spiky guitar solo, and Garbett joined him in a lovely duet. The final sections, โThe Sound of Homeโ and โWith Meโ were uplifting, including another fine solo from Garbett, whose playing had been superb throughout the set.
Malcolm Galloway of Hats Off self-deprecatingly offered to โkill the moodโ with โan hour of very educational stuff about quantum physics.โ As a former neuropathologist, the concepts behind the Hats Off albums often have a strong scientific basis. But as Galloway said in the Q&A session, the songs arenโt โjust dry physics.โ For each track, he adopts the perspective of a different character. A good example is the One Word That Means The World (Arkhipov), the first single from the new album, in which Galloway describes an agonising dilemma in an eloquent and moving vignette about โnot starting a nuclear war.โ Galloway and Gatland performed a blistering version; Gallowayโs agonised vocals bring out the song’s anguish and essential humanity in a stunning performance. The opening song, Certainty, the first track on the new album, began with a vocal duet, Galloway and Gatland singing in gentle unison. But as the song reached its climax, Gallowayโs voice exploded with emotion. The deep bond between these two gentlemen (they have known each other since school) was evident when they faced each other, and a warm smile passed between them.
Galloway reassured the audience that there would be โno shoutingโ on the third song in the set, the instrumental The Ultraviolet Catastrophe. This is difficult to play, but as Gatland quipped at the end, โsomeoneโs been putting the hours in.โ There was a spacey, psychedelic intro with sequenced keyboards, and virtuosic guitar-playing from Galloway โ those hours of practice paid off. Gatlandโs bass-playing was delightfully chunky, and at one point he played his bass around his knees like a prog rock Peter Hook. A genuinely inspiring performance. Gallowayโs voice was lower, richly warm in Copenhagen, another single from The Uncertainty Principle, bringing out the humanity and ambiguity of the much-disputed meeting between quantum physicist Niels Bohr and his former student Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen in 1941.
The deep humanity of Gallowayโs performance was evident in another new song, Between Two Worlds, which one suspects is more personal, given that he has suffered from complex medical conditions. To use an analogy from quantum mechanics, the song explores the dilemma in Schrรถdinger’s cat thought experiment, the uncertainty in waiting for test results which could be either positive or negative. Galloway performed a moving version on solo piano, with half-spoken contemplative vocals, drawing us into a strange world between two worlds.
From the personal, Galloway brought us back to the political in another new song, Think Tank. In a lengthy and fascinating introduction, Galloway explained that the song is inspired by a whistleblower from a US nuclear war think tank in the 1950s, which decided it was too complicated to have two different plans… so the best thing to do was to nuke both China and Russia. As Galloway dryly pointed out, โthe apocalypse leads to some administrative challengesโ, some of which were resolved by the five-digit nuclear code being incredibly hard to guess (00000 in case you were wondering). At least, as Galloway said, we were lucky that we werenโt in some hideous post-apocalyptic wasteland. โHow do you know?โ came the witty response from an audience member. Whatever the theoretical background of the song, Galloway and Gatlandโs performance was stunning. Gallowayโs guitar playing throughout the set was fluid, passionate, virtuosic and compassionate. Gatland was also playing at the top of his game. It was a privilege to witness the two of them together.
Kathryn Thomas, (Werner Heisenberg), Malcolm Galloway, and Mark Gatland. Photo courtesy of Chris Parkins
The set ended with an โencoreโ (due to time pressure, the band didnโt leave the stage and wait for adoring applause and shouts for more), the new album’s title track, The Uncertainty Principle. Kathryn Thomas joined them on flute. With a look of fierce concentration on her face, watching Galloway like a hawk, she matched his bluesy guitar solos, bringing a lovely jazz element in contrast to the distorted guitar. At the end of the song, Galloway bade the audience โgoodbyeโ.
But there was a surprise to come, an extra song, dedicated to Bรฉla [Alabรกstrom], who had come all the way from Brussels, Century Rain from 2020โs Nostalgia For Infinity. The song also came as a surprise to the laptop providing the backing tracks; it gave up and left the trio to perform โa cappellaโ as it were, with a very witty false ending in the style of King Crimson. The audience rose to its feet to give the band a well-deserved standing ovation.
Sources
Stephen Lambe Empire of Ghosts (Prog Magazine Issue 158, 07.03.25) Malcolm Galloway The Confidence Trick – Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate (hatsoffgentlemen.com)
A celebration of the human spirit: the cello concerto Shostakovich wrote for his 60th birthday; Richard Strauss’s description of a heroic life; an Anna Clyne UK premiere inspired by Buddhist writings and Mozart.
The BBC Philharmonic with Conductor Alpesh Chauhan. Image ยฉ BBC/Chris Payne
Anna ClyneThis Moment (UK premiere)
Anna Clyne is the BBC Philharmonic’s Composer in Association. In 2023, she was commissioned to write a new work for the Philadelphia Orchestra. The piece was premiered with, and partly inspired by, Mozart’s Requiem, and quotes directly from that piece. It was also a reaction to the shared loss and grief of the pandemic.
“The meditation on death is a very important meditation. When you meditate on death, you love life more, you cherish life more. We can learn many lessons from it.”
Thรญch Nhแบฅt Hแบกnh
This Moment was also inspired by the work of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Zen Master and peace activist, Thรญch Nhแบฅt Hแบกnh, known as the ‘father of mindfulness’, who died in 2022 at the age of 95. Before his death, he told his followers not to contain his ashes in an urn,
‘If I am anywhere, it is in your mindful breathing and in your peaceful steps.’
The title of Clyne’s piece is inspired by another quotation from Nhแบฅt Hแบกnh, ‘this moment is full of wonders.’ She told Alex Ariff in a YouTube interview that Mozart’s Requiem is ‘bursting at the seams with wonder’, and that she wanted to match the drama of that piece.
Clyne told Ariff that the first quotation from the Requiem came from the ‘Kyrie’, an ‘ascending chromatic line in the sopranos, and the first fugal subject in the basses.’ The second was from the ‘Lacrimosa’, the first line of which, ‘Lacrimosa dies illa’ [that day of tears and mourning] reminded her of another quote from Nhแบฅt Hแบกnh, ‘the tears I shed yesterday have become rain.’
The piece, for large orchestra, began mysteriously, with enigmatic strings chords and a bowed gong, and a rising romantic figure with gorgeous harmonies. It slowly eased itself into another, stately theme, and then into a lower key with brass and woodwind flourishes. The piece built to a climax, with meditative woodwind swirling above a Requiem quote in the strings. A further climax led to quieter, limpid textures and a brief hiatus. A Mozart theme in the brass led to an unexpected key change, and a new theme with shimmering glockenspiel. A baroque-style melody led to a serene ending to this evocative and highly effective work.
Anna Clyne. Image credit Victoria Stevens
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2
The rest of the concert featured the composer as hero of their own work. DmitriShostakovich wrote his Cello Concerto No. 2 to celebrate his 60th birthday on 25 September 1966, dedicating the work to the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Strauss wrote Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s life) as an unashamedly joyful celebration of his heroic life as a composer, and his disdain for his critics. But the view of the hero in each work could not have been more different. As Robert Matthew-Walker wrote about the Shostakovich concerto, it ‘unveils no great Romantic hero battling against orchestral might.’
The concerto opened with an intense, low theme on the cello joined by low strings. The concentration on soloist Alban Gerhardt’s face was evident throughout, and he barely took his fingers or bow off his cello during the whole piece, stopping once to throw a glancing smile at conductor Alpesh Chauhan, and on another occasion when the orchestra allowed him brief respite. The concerto was played as one continuous movement, making this a remarkable feat of concentration, memory, virtuosity and the expression of profound dark emotion by Gerhardt.
Cellist Alban Gerhardt with the BBC Phil conducted by Alpesh Chauhan ยฉ BBC/Chris Payne
Although the orchestra was huge, it often felt like a chamber orchestra, with individual sections – often the massed lower strings – accompanying the cello as Gerhardt played with passionate vibrato. The first movement featured a series of thrillingly bizarre duets: cello and xylophone with leaping, dystopian woodwind; cello and a robust bass drum; cello and a plaintive, mellow solo horn.
Shostakovich was at his most sardonic when he wrote the second movement, based on a street song from Odessa, Bubliki, Kupite Bubliki!’ [Bagels, buy my bagels]. Gerard McBurney described the song as, ‘saucy, cheap, vulgar and indecent’. Apparently the bagel-seller had, ‘more to offer than bread rolls.’ The story goes that Shostakovich, when asked to play his favourite melody at a New Year’s Eve party, teased the other guests by choosing this one. It’s also evidence of Shostakovich learning from Mahler’s symphonies in his use of folk song. On Saturday, Gerhardt dug deep into his strings, bringing out the sarcasm of the writing, with bitter slides up and down the fingerboard, accompanied by grumbling low winds. The xylophone joined the macabre dance, sounding like a dancing skeleton.
There was another strange but effective pairing with the cello in the third movement, this time with a solo tambourine. There was a brief moment of consonance with a serene, lyrical classical theme ending with an elegant trill from Gerhardt. This theme appeared again several times amongst the organised mayhem of the rest of the movement. Gerhardt’s playing was profound as he again dug deep, sometimes angular and lyrical, sometimes light and subtle, sometimes beautifully smooth as the mood demanded. He was again joined by an array of percussion – solo xylophone, and what felt at times like a jazz band. The full orchestra had a brief chance to assert itself with a return of the folk song from the second movement, complete with the sound of whips. But it was left to the cello and percussion to end the piece, as in Shostakovich’s 15th symphony which also ends with percussion. The cello had the final statement, but only just, a long held note subsiding briefly after the other instruments had given up.
Cellist Alban Gerhardt with the BBC Phil conducted by Alpesh Chauhan ยฉ BBC/Chris Payne
To end the first half, Gerhardt delighted the audience with an encore, Moderatoby Mstislav Rostropovich, one of two studies for solo cello written in the 1940s but not published in Moscow until 1972. As Gerhardt said, the work had nothing to do with Shostakovich or the atmosphere of the cello concerto, althoughRostropovich was an obvious connection. In Gerhardt’s performance it was great fun, jolly and virtuosic with so much double stopping that a times it almost felt as if Gerhardt was accompanying himself to create a string quartet.
Richard StraussEin Heldenleben
In 1898, Richard Strauss wrote to a friend from the Bavarian Alps, with what Robert Philip described as ‘characteristic irony’
“As Beethovenโs Eroica is so very unpopular with our conductors and is therefore seldom performed nowadays, I am meeting a pressing need by composing a great tone poem entitled โA Heroโs Lifeโ (true, it has no funeral march, but it is in E flat major and does have lots of horns, horns being quite the thing to express heroism).”
Richard Strauss, letter to a friend July 1898
The stage on Saturday was specially extended to accommodate all the 100 or so players needed for Richard Strauss’s description of his heroic life as a composer, which he completed in 1898. In the opening movement, ‘The Hero’, conductor Alpesh Chauhan brought out the individual heroic themes very clearly – this movement can sound muddled with such a large orchestra. The ensemble in the low and upper strings was impeccable.
The second movement, ‘The Hero’s Adversaries’ , began with a characterful description of a swarm of irritating critics [did Strauss mean us?!] and weary strings expressing Strauss’s response to them. Wagnerian chromaticism brought some Parsifal-like regret. The sniping critics returned, but were overtaken and obliterated by the joyful playing of the rest of the orchestra.
Richard Strauss’s wife, the German operatic soprano Pauline de Ahna
The highlight of the BBC Phil’s performance was the third movement, ‘The Hero’s Female Companion’, referring to Strauss’s wife, the opera singer Pauline de Ahna. This movement was in effect a short violin concerto, with the Leader of the orchestra Zoรซ Beyers taking the solo part in a stunning performance. Beyers described the female companion’s various moods, her playing alternately sweet, emotive, tender, flirtatious, deeply passionate, sensual and skittish, contrasting with the lugubrious bass theme representing her husband. There was a spellbinding bloom of orchestral sound as a huge, sweeping Romantic tune showed the couple united in love, overcoming the snarky critics who briefly tried to break in at the end.
Offstage trumpets announced ‘The Hero’s Battlefield’, in which we experienced the visceral thrill of a massive orchestra, with fiercely war-like percussion, stentorian trumpets, and golden-sounding horns, conductor Chauhan dancing with delight on the podium as the hero won his battle.
The fifth movement, ‘The Hero’s Works of Peace’ was an ecstatic summary of the composer’s work to date, includingquotations from Don Juan (1888), Death and Transfiguration (1889) Don Quixote (1897), and Till Eulenspiegel (1894โ95) recently performed by the BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall. The brass were magnificent in this movement, and the timpani must have been hit harder than they have ever been hit before in the Bridgewater Hall.
The final movement, ‘The Hero’s Retreat from the World and Fulfilment’ began with an ominous tuba theme from the critics and the hero’s anger in return. A lovely cor anglais solo from Lydia Griffiths led to a pastoral section and a return of the solo violin and the horn theme from earlier, Chauhan conducting delicately now, with one foot slightly raised. Although the critics briefly re-appeared, the piece ended in a blaze of Romantic glory, with a nod to Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896) as the lovers retreated into their love nest. Chauhan gave numerous, well-deserved ‘curtain calls’ to individual soloists and whole sections of the orchestra, bringing a lovely evening to a close.
Performers
Alban Gerhardt cello BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Alpesh Chauhan (Principal Guest Conductor of the Dรผsseldorf Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company) conductor
Repertoire
Anna Clyne This Moment (UK premiere commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2023) Dmitri Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2 Mstislav RostropovichModerato (encore) Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben
Sources
A Conversation with Composer Anna Clyne. Credit WRTImusic/YouTube/Alex Ariff.
Ariff, Alex, A Conversation with Composer Anna Clyne (WRTImusic YouTube 30/01/2024) Philip, Robert, The Classical Music Loverโs Companion to Orchestral Music (Yale University Press, 2020) Schuh, Willi, Richard Strauss: A Chronicle of the Early Years, 1864โ1898,trans. Mary Whittall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982) Bryant, Miranda, From MLK to Silicon Valley, how the world fell for โfather of mindfulnessโ (The Observer 22 January 2022) Clyne, Anna Programme Note on This Moment Matthew-Walker, Robert, Sleeve Notes to Shostakovich Cello Concerto No 2 in G major, Op 126/Britten Cello Symphony (Hyperion Records/Signum Classics) Burney, Gerald Repertoire Note on Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2 in G major op. 126 (1966) by Shostakovich (Boosey & Hawkes)
Saturdayโs concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 in Concert on Wednesday 20 November at 7.30pm. It will be available for 30 days after broadcast via BBC Sounds.
