Samantha Hankey, winner of the Glyndebourne Opera Cup, with Dame Janet Baker Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
You've heard about the journey home, so now here is a view from the inside on the Thing Itself, i.e. the brand-new Glyndebourne Opera Cup. I've written about it for The Arts Desk and you can find it here: https://theartsdesk.com/opera/glyndebourne-opera-cup-view-inside-0
Taster:
I was on a panel of six critics convened to
choose the winner of a special ‘media award’ at the Glyndebourne Opera Cup on
Saturday evening. What follows is therefore not a review, but rather a chance
to chew over the concept and its highs and occasional lows. And you may be
intrigued to hear that our panel and the main jury picked the exact same top
three winners.
From its first season in 1934, Glyndebourne
has been inextricably associated with the music of Mozart. Having decided to
devote every edition of its new contest to the works of just one composer,
Wolfgang Amadeus was therefore the natural choice for the inaugural event. Mozart suits young voices, as the
competition’s founder, ex-Glyndebourne CEO Sebastian Schwarz, pointed out (all
the finalists were aged 21-28). But also, as any professional musician will
tell you, his music is the ultimate challenge. There’s nowhere to hide. His
writing is so streamlined, precise and exposed that if performers are able to
draw out its subtle shadings of meaning, with gorgeous tone and sincere
emotional expression, you know about it fast. And if they don’t, you know about
that too. It’s magic hidden in a minefield...
On Saturday night I was honoured to be a member of a media panel, six critics convened to select the winner of a special award in the Glyndebourne Opera Cup. It was a wonderful event, and nice to see the gardens in early spring for a change, full of daffodils and primroses. Describing us and our task, presenter Chris Addison quipped: "That must be a fun room." You better believe it, buster - we were tucking into our sandwiches very happily, and reached exactly the same conclusion as the chief jury, but in a fraction of the time. We gave our media prize to the lovely American mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey, who also emerged with overall first prize. I'm writing a full account of the evening at the moment and will post a link as soon as it goes live. What follows now is what followed. Unfortunately Southern Trains had decided to do weekend engineering works that day, so the Lewes line was closed south of Three Bridges. The press office kindly agreed to provide the five of us who needed transport with a large taxi to and from Three Bridges station. Coming back afterwards, large taxi is late, but eventually turns up driven by cheerful if charmingly dim cabby, who treats us to a CD of Christian devotional songs from the 1970s twice through. After three hours of unadulterated Mozart, it's briefly refreshing; we could, of course, use some silence, but politely do not object. At some point the critic of the Financial Times notes quietly: "This journey feels longer than the one on the way down, doesn't it?" He's not wrong. "Oh," says cabby, "I missed the turning. Sorry 'bout that..." We go round a roundabout in a concrete wasteland for a second time, take a bumbly right turn across a carriageway on which a maniac is speeding towards us at what looks like 95mph, and pull up outside...Crawley station. But we don't want Crawley - the trains crawl. We want Three Bridges, whence trains go lickety-split to Victoria via Clapham Junction, and it's very nearby. Indeed, it's round the corner. There were signposts to it. Cheerful cabby can't find it. "Uh, that's where the satnav sent me... Dunno why I did that... I think it's just down here, let's go round this roundabout again." We do. We turn right. "Oh whoops, I think this was the wrong one..." - and, boing, we're back on the M23, with no turnoff before Gatwick, 'Amazing Grace' blaring out. One of us suggests going to Gatwick instead - it's only a mile away and there are more trains. We head for Gatwick... ...to find that the motorway exit, bless its cotton socks, is closed for roadworks. There isn't another for many miles. The deputy editor of Opera Magazine discovers on Google Maps that it will now take 26 minutes to get to Gatwick, despite it being 1 mile away, and it's only 3 mins longer to drive to East Croydon... Cheerful cabby, eye on meter, agrees to take us to the latter, as we can't turn round now in any case. A few miles up the A23 by a traffic light, there's a sign to Coulsdon station. Taxi screeches to halt: "Is it that station you mean?" No. The name's Croydon. East Croydon. We trundle through the backwoods of Surrey, which are quite extensive, to South Croydon. "Is it that station there?" No. That one's South Croydon. It's only just down the road from.... Full credit to the deputy arts editor of The Times, who is in the front seat, asserts his authority, finds the right turnoff and navigates us safely to East Croydon at long last. Moral: never underestimate a bunch of music critics. And if your cabby puts on a playlist of devotional songs from the 1970s, exit the cab at once. Don't wait. Run. If you enjoy reading JDCMB, please support it here. No amount is too small or too large...
One conductor's plane delayed in a snowstorm is another's....opportunity. Not that the snow helps. Last Sunday George Jackson was home and looking forward to a well-earned day off when all of a sudden the phone rang. Next thing he knew, he was dealing with a clutch of brand-new scores, cancelled Ubers and a banana case...
JD
George Jackson faces the music
Photo: Brian Hatton
BANANA CASE AT THE BARBICAN
A guest post by George Jackson
Sunday morning.It’s 6:30, and for some reason, I am wide awake.
I have just spent a week on tour with the Orchestre de
Paris, where I have been Daniel Harding’s assistant: Cologne, Dortmund,
Luxembourg, and Brussels.The week
before that, my first Schumann Symphony No.4 with the Transylvanian Philharmonic in Cluj; the
week before that, the first leg of the OdP tour, at ‘home’ in Paris, and then
in Vienna.
I was grateful for my first full day off in three weeks:
Sunday lunch planned with a couple of schoolmates, followed by the new Ricky
Gervais show on Netflix.Bliss!
I manage to doze back off at around 7:30am, but was woken
by my phone ringing at 8:21am.Unusual,
I thought, for a Sunday morning…
The previous day, I'd had the pleasure of conducting the premiere of Jasmin Kent Rodgman’s ‘The Letter’ at LSO St Luke’s, as part of the Barbican’s ‘Open Ear’ Festival. A Jerwood Foundation composer, Jasmin curated an inspiring afternoon featuring performances by the best of London’s spoken word community, culminating in the premiere of her own piece with Salena Godden’s poetry and a quartet of LSO musicians. During the break, I had
jokingly quipped to a colleague: ‘Let’s hope Francois-Xavier Roth’s plane takes
off tomorrow morning...’.One of the LSO St.
Luke’s plasma screens was advertising Sunday’s Panufnik Composers’ Workshop,
where eight brand-new pieces would be publicly workshopped with the orchestra.
As my ringtone echoed into the slumber, I realized how cold
it was.Which means snow.Which in the UK (and, incidentally, Frankfurt)
means travel chaos… I answered about three octaves lower than usual.Natalia, the LSO’s artist development associate projects
manager, greeted me with her chirpy and friendly tone (she had
managed the Jerwood project too).‘Morning George!It’s Natalia at
the LSO.Francois-Xavier’s plane has
been temporarily grounded in Frankfurt.Do you fancy coming in and starting the session this morning?How far away are you?Can you get here?’
The slow-motion realisation of what this
meant dawned upon me: the chance to spend the morning with one of the world’s
finest orchestras, conducting music by the most talented young composers in the
UK.‘Yes.I’m at home in Hanwell.Can you email me pdfs of the scores?What’s the dress code?’
I scramble around: batons are
still in my bag from yesterday; I throw on the only non-creased shirt I can
find, some jeans, the nearest shoes.I
make an espresso, but then ignore it, since the adrenaline buzz is already
doing the coffee’s work. An Uber is
ordered: ‘Driver completing journey nearby’.It could take up to 18 minutes…..
I risk it, thinking that if the
Uber arrives at 9am, with a 40-minute drive to Old Street, I should have a
little bit of time to run through the PDFs at the piano at home, before looking
at hard copies in the conductor’s room.
Perfect!
Sunnier times in Bolzano...
At 8:50am, Uber cancels the order
– there are no drivers available.
I call two minicab companies with
no luck.The third one answers and can
send a car in 15 minutes.9:05, so I
should get to Old Street at 9:45.Great.
I attempt to find some
last-minute sustenance, and eat all that I can find in the house: a square of Dairy
Milk, three Jacobs’ cream crackers and two Trebor mints.I call Natalia: ‘Please can you leave a
banana in the conductor’s room?’I am
incredibly grateful for this later on.
The taxi driver clearly thinks I
am mad.I tell him that it is an
emergency, and can he race through London (he agrees, and does a wonderful job).I spend the next 40 minutes roughly
‘conducting’ my way through the scores, metronome app open in one hand.Yes, he thinks I am mad.No time to think about that.
I am now informed that
Francois-Xavier’s ETA is 11:15am, which means I will definitely be working on
the first two pieces of the day: Grace-Evangeline Mason’s Beneath the Silken
Silence and Han Xu’s Buddha Holds the Flower.I focus on these two, identify a list of
questions for each composer, and make sure I can at least work my way through
any tempo and metrical changes.Does
‘the new minim is the previous crotchet’ mean that I should just stay in 2?Those sorts of questions.The things that Simon Rattle likes to call ‘dental
hygiene’.
We arrive at the Old Street
roundabout.The friendly driver, for
some reason, misses the turn off for St. Luke’s, so we have another go round
the roundabout.Just to keep the
adrenaline running.
I race out the car, get to the
conductor’s room, and thank Natalia for the banana - which comes in a rather
dashing banana-shaped plastic case.The
scores are there, and I race through, underlining, highlighting, making notes.
I have a couple of very welcome
visitors to the conductor’s room before we start.The LSO’s managing director, Kathryn
McDowell, says a friendly hello and wishes me luck, and Colin Matthews, who is
mentoring the composers, pops in for a quick chat: he gives me a few invaluable
bits of advice about the two pieces, and describes how the workshop will run, as
a form of public conversation between myself on the podium, principal second violin
David Alberman, and the composer in
the hot seat.
At 9:59am, the orchestral manager
knocks on the door.
Time to go and face the music….
Winner of the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize, London-born conductor George Jackson came to attention after stepping in at short notice with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducting the Austrian premiere of Michael Jarrell’s Ombres. Highlights in 2018 include his company debut in Opera Holland Park’s new production of Così Fan Tutte. Recent and forthcoming highlights include his Hamburg State Opera debut conducting the premiere of Immer weiter by Irene Galindo Quero and Jesse Boekman, and concerts with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and the Haydn Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento.
A century and still running? Several things have happened in the last few weeks that seem to add up to more than the sum of their random parts. These are they:
Debussy in 1908
1. The centenary of Debussy's death has sparked so many recordings, concerts, etc, that it looks as if he's more popular than I thought. Debussy is wonderful, amazing, original, seminal, groundbreaking, crucial, one of the all-time geniuses, etc, yet I've never thought of him as either a special audience draw, like Mozart, or a media-friendly dead-celebrity type, like Stravinsky (who pinched lavishly from him). But the CD releases have been hitting my desk at the rate of several a week, a nice big new book has already emerged, and it's still only the middle of March. What conclusion to draw? Debussy is super-duper-popularoony after all? Or: take a centenary, any centenary, jump aboard and expect to watch sales soar? Forgive me if I sound cynical, but this is 100 years, and 100 years is, nowadays, in living memory.
2. At the Institut Français discussion on Equality and Conductors last week, the French conductor Claire Gibault remarked that she thought the next big equality to tackle would be that of age. In a time in which everyone is hungry for the next bright young star to come along, older artists - well known or 'emerging' - can find themselves having a hard time, passed over despite having much to offer in terms of experience and wisdom. I have come across individuals (whether in person or sounding fed up on Twitter) attempting to pursue musical paths in later life, finding everything skewed against them. We forget sometimes that people develop at their own paces, and not always by choice: if you peak at 16 you may be forgotten by 56, or if your life gets in the way early on, your artistry may be waiting for a chance to shine through later. By the time you start to make the lemonade out of the lemons life has given you, other people may assume mistakenly that you are too old to know how much sugar to put in, adding insult to injury... We recommend they taste the lemonade before deciding.
3. Today there breaks news that the actress Olivia de Havilland, aged 101, is suing the makers of the TV series Feud, about Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, for misrepresenting her. More here. De Havilland is the last surviving star of the 1930s golden age of Hollywood (and was, indeed, leading lady in a number of Korngold movies - apparently the composer rather took her under his wing when she appeared, very, very young, in Max Reinhardt's film of A Midsummer Night's Dream). She is quite right to speak up. Why should she not, just because she is 101? She is quoted as saying: "I feel strongly about it because when one person’s rights can be trampled on this way, the rights of others who are more vulnerable can be abused as well." What a heroine.
4. The pianist Marjan Kiepura has got in touch with news that it is now possible to listen to recordings by his mother, the legendary soprano Marta Eggerth (1912-2013), on Youtube, in a release of 43 numbers entitled My Life, My Song (it's also available on CD). These recordings were made as early as 1936 and as recently as 2002 when the Hungarian-born operetta star was 90. In some, Eggerth and her husband Jan Kiepura (Korngold's original tenor in Das Wunder der Heliane) sing together, in the mid 1950s. In others, Marjan accompanies his mother in beautifully paced Chopin songs. The voice changes, of course, but to hear Eggerth across some 70 years is to hear beyond the surface sound and delve into the underlying artistry that is conveyed by that sound through the decades. Here are some samples:
What is the linking factor in all these events? It's not just age - it's our attitude to it. Really we ought to be ashamed of ourselves, especially as we have these days an ageing population. Think about this a moment: our composers are producing music at three times Schubert's final age, or more. Elliott Carter was still composing at 100, Dutilleux into his nineties, Birtwistle and Gubaidulina are still going strong in their eighties. I'm not going to list the conductors or soloists, but you don't have to look far to find them. But isn't it strange that we celebrate the anniversaries later, rather than appreciating these individuals strongly enough when they're still with us?
Here's Mieczyslaw Horszowski in 1986, in his 90s, playing the Franck Prelude, Chorale and Fugue. I remember hearing him play it that year at Aldeburgh and have never forgotten how bowled over I was as it emerged almost as a mystical holy trinity, a three-in-one creation of utterly luminous intensity.
It's wonderful that Debussy's anniversary is big-time. It's great that we're celebrating Bernstein's centenary so lavishly this year. But Bernstein is dead. What about the venerable artists who are still alive? Shouldn't we celebrate them while they're here? And why wait until they're 100? How much fine musicianship, creativity, insight, empathy and excellence are we missing out on if we judge people by their birthdays?
Above all, Marta Eggerth's singing is proof, if it were needed, that though the body may age inevitably, the soul only ages if we let it, and we don't have to. Enjoy JDCMB? Support it here...
Music student Zerlina Vulliamy was playing the trumpet in the WOW Women of the World Women's Orchestra on Sunday in the annual Mirth Control concert at the RFH, presented by Sandi Toksvig. She was so inspired by the occasion that she wanted to write about it. I couldn't be there myself this time, annoyingly, so I am very grateful to her for covering it for us. 'Mirth Control' is part of the Southbank Centre's year-round work to give a platform to female musicians, artists and more. JD
Sandi and the WOW Orchestra
Deeds Not Words
By Zerlina Vulliamy
I am a self-confessed hypocrite. I realised this on Sunday
11March, when playing the trumpet as part of the Women of the
World Orchestra in the ‘Mirth Control’ event at the Royal Festival Hall,
conducted by Alice Farnham. The orchestra was about to play a piece by the
British composer Elisabeth Lutyens, titled ‘Overture (En Voyage)’, but before
this, the presenter Sandi Toksvig informed the audience of the difficulty the
orchestra manager experienced trying to get the score and parts of this music.
After contacting many publishers, archives and libraries she finally managed to
track it down and distribute the parts to those of us in the orchestra.
However, this was on the harsh condition that they were to be used for one
performance only and had to be destroyed afterwards. Naturally, those of us on
stage and in the audience expressed concern at such a tragedy – first, that the
work of an excellent composer was so difficult to find, but also that it might
be never be performed again. Sandi herself strongly called on all of us to
support this cause of the forgotten women composers, a message that featured
prevalently throughout the evening.
Jude Kelly, the WOW Orchestra and some inspiration
Yet whilst I was sitting there, thinking about how limited
the representation of women in the arts still is, I suddenly realised that I
too was contributing, without realising, to this archaic canon which consists
entirely of male composers. I present a weekly show on music called Behind the
Classics at the University of Oxford’s student radio station, and I thought I
was helping the cause by dedicating an entire episode to raising awareness of
relatively unknown female musicians such as Mel Bonis and Melba Liston for
International Women’s Day. Yet I too have unknowingly contributed to the
tradition of playing music entirely by men in a few episodes.
This is
ridiculous when you think about it, seeing as women make up half the population
and there are millions of female musicians throughout history to the present,
all with music worth playing to an audience. And yet, because of the music I
have been exposed to throughout my life, whether it be classical, jazz, hip hop
or others, at the time it seemed normal not to feature a single woman in an
episode.
The RFH is decked for the occasion
Well, to quote the slogan appearing on red carpets recently:
time’s up. As Sandi Toksvig said herself at ‘Mirth Control’ - it seems absurd that
still, in 2018, women are so under-represented in the arts, as well as other
fields. She showed the audience many slides which projected shocking statistics,
such as the percentages of women composers and conductors who featured at the
2017 BBC Proms, which was 7.5% and 11% respectively. Tragically, women have often
been discouraged throughout history from picking up a pen and writing, or from
standing on a podium and conducting.
Perhaps the important work being done by
the WOW festival, which encourages women to strive for success in all fields
across the globe, will help rectify the situation. The WOW Orchestra consists
entirely of excellent women who are students, young professionals or amateurs;
we were also joined by the Voicelab choir, conducted by Jessie Maryon Davies
for this event. The music that featured was by a large host of female composers
such as Dame Ethel Smyth’s ‘Serenade in D’, Nina Simone’s ‘Mississippi Goddamn’
and ‘Revolution’ featuring Josette Bushell-Mingo’s stunning vocals and the song
‘What’s Up’ by 4 Non Blondes.
From my own perspective, it was truly an inspiring night,
with some hilariously memorable moments such as Sandi’s masterclass with Marin
Alsop, or the conducting relay where students of Alice Farnham’s ‘Women
Conductors with the Royal Philharmonic Society’ had the chance to conduct the
orchestra for a few bars each. The perfect balance was cast between humour and more
earnest moments, such as the profound words Jude Kelly, the founder of WOW and
Artistic Director of the Southbank, had to say about her own rather difficult past
of being a prominent woman in the arts. Yet more importantly, she proved
herself to be an inspiring figure when talking passionately about how
optimistic she was for the future.
Some more of the hand-stitched banners
This message must have been powerful to
those in the audience, looking at the huge number of women on stage (over 300)
against the backdrop of 50 hand-stitched banners, each inspired by historic
Suffragette posters. As a female brass player myself, one of the most
empowering moments of the night was playing the ‘Fanfare for the Uncommon
Woman’ by Joan Tower, with the brass section of the WOW Orchestra, conducted by
Alice Farnham. More often than not I have been the only woman in an all-male
brass section, hence why it was most refreshing to play in such a fantastic section
made up entirely of women. I hope it proved to those who were watching that
women fundamentally deserve equality in music, and perhaps inspired young girls
out there to pick up a brass instrument.
After a brilliant evening, there was certainly a positive
buzz in the foyer afterwards. Sandi Toksvig managed to leave us all in good
spirits, with a fundamental message of hope: that raising awareness is the next
step. To quote the slogan of the brave Suffragettes, who achieved a measure of
equality exactly 100 years ago with the Representation of the People Act (which
gave the vote to men over 21 and women over 30 who owned property), we need
‘Deeds Not Words’.
So to anyone reading this, I urge you to do something to try
and raise the profile of all the wonderful women composers out there, whether
it be attending concerts run by organisations who have pledged a 50/50 balance
or even by word of mouth – talking about women composers will not only put
their names in people’s minds but also will hopefully encourage publishers and
concert programmers to promote them to a place where equality exists. I myself
will do what I can but the more there are devoted to the cause, the better. To
quote Jude Kelly, if you can do anything to promote women musicians: “Pass It
On”!
ZV
Zerlina Vulliamy, 19, is a writer, broadcaster, trumpeter/singer and composer from London. She is currently in her first year studying Music at the University of Oxford where she produces and presents a weekly radio show on music called Behind the Classics on Oxide Radio: all episodes are available at www.oxideradio.live/behind-the-classics
