David Hill News
English choral conductor and organist
- organ, pipe organ
- United Kingdom
- organist, conductor, composer, choir director, musician
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2024-03-19
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2024-03-18 07:35:00
Quite an achievement: the North London Chorus' ambition rewarded in a performance of Ethel Smyth's The Prison that intrigued and engaged
Henry Brewster (HB) in 1897Beethoven: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Smyth: The Prison, Brahms: Nänie: Rebecca Bottone, Alex Otterburn, North London Chorus, Meridian Sinfonia, Murray Hipkin, Lucy Stevens; St James Church, Muswell HillReviewed 16 March 2023A welcome opportunity to hear Ethel Smyth's late work live, in a fine performance which rewarded the choir for its daring in programming The PrisonEthel Smyth's late work, The Prison, which she described as a 'Symphony for soprano, bass-baritone soli, chorus and orchestra' does not get many concert outings, despite being rediscovered on disc [see my review]. The enterprising North London Chorus under their conductor Murray Hipkin gave a rare performance of Ethel Smyth's The Prison at St James Church, Muswell Hill on 16 March 2024 with the Meridian Sinfonia and soloists Rebecca Bottone and Alex Otterburn. Also in the programme was Beethoven's Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt and Brahms' Nänie. Lucy Stevens, who has developed a show […]
2024-03-06 09:14:00
Ian Venables' intense settings of John Clare at the centre of the Dante Quartet's Conway Hall concert alongside Gurney and Elgar
Brinkwells in the Surrey Hill, where Elgar wrote his QuartetBeethoven, Ian Venables, Gurney, Elgar; Dante Quartet, Brian Thorsett; Conway HallReviewed 3 March 2024Venables' quartet of intense John Clare settings for the relatively unusual combination of tenor and quartet at the heart of this concert that often felt like conversation amongst friends On Sunday 3 March 2024, the Dante Quartet was joined by tenor Brian Thorsett for a concert at Conway Hall that featured Beethoven's Quartet in F, Op. 135, Ian Venables' 1997 song-cycle, Invite to Eternity, four songs by Ivor Gurney in arrangements for tenor and quartet by Ian Venables, and Elgar's Quartet in E minor, Op. 38. Before the concert, I gave a talk introducing the works by Venables, Gurney and Elgar, all of whom have West Country links. The Dante Quartet was founded in 1995, and currently features Zoe Beyers, Ian Watson, Carol Ella, and Richard Jenkinson.Beethoven's Quartet in […]
2024-02-26 14:02:00
A Vast Obscurity: SongEasel bringings song celebrations to South East London including Gabriel Fauré's centenary
[…] McLachlan. Gabriel Fauré's centenary is celebrated with a pair of concerts, the 1893 version of the Requiem with Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), Malachy Frame (baritone) and The Corbett Consort at St Mark's Church, Kennington on 11 May, then Gwilym Bowen (tenor), Jared Andrew Michaud (bass-baritone), Lucy Gibbs (mezzo-soprano) and SongEasel Young Artists will be performing the composer's complete songs across an entire afternoon on 12 May at St Laurence's Church, Catford. Then on 31 May at St. Catherine‘s Church, Telegraph Hill, soprano Ella Taylor and pianist Jocelyn Freeman chart the course of Lord Byron's poem Don Juan in music including the first performance of a new commission from Emily Hazrati setting texts by Dr Joseph Spence (Master of Dulwich College and librettist of Dani Howard's opera, The Yellow Wallpaper).Soprano Francesca Chiejina joins Jocelyn Freeman at St Laurence's Church, Catford on 16 June for a concert celebrating Shakespeare with music by from the Baroque to the present day […]
2024-02-23 12:43:00
Being performed for the first time for almost 20 years: Murray Hipkin & the North London Chorus give us a chance to finally experience Ethel Smyth's The Prison in concert
[…] to have anything of a life after her own death.The work was finally recorded and issued in 2020 on Chandos in a terrific performance, by an American choir and orchestra [see my review]. Now the work is getting a proper outing in concert in London when Murray Hipkin conducts the North London Chorus and Meridian Sinfonia with soloists Rebecca Bottone and Alex Otterburn in a performance of Ethel Smyth's The Prison at St James' Church, Muswell Hill on Saturday 16 March 2023.It is fatally easy to be lazy and assume the work has rightly been confined to the dustbin of musical history, but exposure to the piece makes you realise that it is past generations who were being lazy. As Smyth's German-influenced, late-Romantic, tonal music went out of fashion, as Smyth herself, elderly, very deaf and still a combative character, was easily dismissed as a crank, people simply stopped bothering.The Prison came […]
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