David Roach News
British musician
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- saxophone
- classical music
- United Kingdom
- musician, saxophonist
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2024-04-25
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2024-02-27 09:59:00
Classical music must not cease from exploration
Today is a poignant personal anniversary, so I have been listening to Valentin Silvestrov's Stille Lieder (Silent Songs) in the 1986 ECM recording. This morning that performance by baritone and Sergej Jakowenko accompanied by Ilja Scheps was, for me, the most sublimely appropriate masterpiece. But that is because of the personal conditions relating to today. Tomorrow, depending on the conditions, a Sibelius symphony, a Mozart string quartet, Iiro Rantala's jazz improvisations, or Steve Roach's electronica will be sublimely appropriate. Masterpieces, like every human condition, are impermanent. They come and go, and return and return - Silvestrov's Stille Lieder first featured here back in 2008, many years before the Ukrainian tragedy gave their composer his 30 minutes of fame. (Newcomers to Silvestrov's music should know that Stille Lieder are the root from which his better known masterpieces, the Fifth Symphony and Requiem for Larissa grew.) For decades classical music has been trying, without success, […]
2023-10-27 06:30:00
A bold statement of cultural synthesis: Vache Baroque's Jonathan Darbourne on celebrating the art of Salmone Rossi
[…] so strongly with our mission at Vache Baroque and those of so many other arts organisations. Taking inspiration from this, our first offering was to mix old and new by making two music videos with madrigal backing tracks - one by Rossi, the other by a fan of his, Thomas Weelkes. We gave the texts modern storylines which were realised through the movement of two dancers from BirdGang Ltd and choreographed by the dancer-actor Ukweli Roach. [watch FAREWELLS on YouTube]To place Rossi within his musical and cultural world, we are now in the middle of a series of performances being given in London synagogues [11 November 2023, further details] and in the hall of The Vache house [4 November 2023, further details]. These programmes place the sacred and secular vocal music by Rossi alongside pieces by contemporaries such as Monteverdi, Caccini, Byrd, Weelkes, Campion, and Kapsberger. Madrigals, solo songs, motets, […]
2023-08-22 13:00:00
Vache Baroque's Rossi 400 project
[…] music notation is read Left to Right.This Autumn, Vache Baroque, music director Jonathan Darbourne, is presenting a project to celebrate the 400 years since Rossi's publication of his ground-breaking The Songs of Solomon. The project aims to encompass all of Rossi's musical styles, so that two videos have just been released of madrigals by Rossi and by Thomas Weelkes (who championed Rossi's music) in performances that include two BirdGang Ltd dancers, with Movement Director Ukweli Roach. The videos are:Farewells Tu parti?There are a series of intimate evening concerts, presenting a mix of solo and ensemble music by Rossi and his contemporaries at Liberal Jewish Synagogue (9/9/2023), historic hall of The Vache house (4/11/2023) and Belsize Square Synagogue (11/11/2023). The performance at The Vache will be accompanied by a five-course dinner of Jewish-Italian cuisine and the performance at the Belsize Square Synagogue will be presented as part of the 2023 Tsitsit Jewish Fringe Festival.Then on 13 […]
2023-04-29 08:24:00
That 'normal' classical concerts are dying is clear
Lukas Fierz knows a thing or two about classical music, and he has added this thoughtful comment to my post Are concert halls half-empty or half-full? That the "normal" classical concerts (recitals, sonata evenings, orthodox orchestral concerts) are a dying routine is clear since the end of last century. No diet plan, no protests nor petitions will prevent further slow death from starving. Priority should rather be to resuscitate the dying routine with the novelty, relevance, interest, adventure and thrill that attracts public and fills halls. Some try and even manage to do this. And only those will survive. Ambient Church is a concert series where weird meets mindfulness: it presents meditative, devotional, and minimal music in churches around Brooklyn. Featured album by ambient electronic composer Steve Roach was recorded live at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, NYC in June 2022. Classical music needs to bring on the adventurous and thrilling, the weird and the mindful […]
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