Harold Vicars News
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2020-12-03 07:36:02
Bristol Brass Consort This year's round up of discs for Christmas and Advent proved to be quite an eclectic mix. There are carols of course, traditional, modern and everything in between, but we also visit 17th century Puebla with its lively villancicos (showing that nuns singing with guitars in church was certainly not a new phenomenon) and skip back 800 years for a programme of medieval carols with readings. Contemporary music features quite strongly, with at least one disc featuring exclusively contemporary composers. Also featured rather too strongly is Britten's A Ceremony of Carols in various different combinations of forces. Alongside discs from Christmas regulars, it is nice to see other choirs such as Clifton Cathedral Choir, and the choir of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Perhaps the most surprising disc is a large scale work for male voice choir, children's choir and orchestra by a Georgian composer, […]
The Boston Musical Intelligencer
2016-04-28 21:15:44
Saul’s Rage and Handel’s Maggots
Harry Christophers (Stu Rosner photo) Harry Christophers, one of today’s finest Handel interpreters, promises to deliver an emotional wallop in the master’s big and dramatic three-hour oratorio Saul. Acclaimed baritone Jonathan Best sings the title role of the Israelite king who reluctantly yields his throne to David. A triumph at its 1739 premiere, Saul receives its first-ever complete H+H performance on Friday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm at Symphony Hall. Tickets here . Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus with Frances Kelly, harp; Jonathan Best, bass-baritone (Saul); Iestyn Davies, countertenor (David); Robert Murray, tenor (Jonathan); Elizabeth Atherton, soprano (Merab); Joélle Harvey, soprano (Michal) FLE: Handel was a creature of the opera house to begin with, yet because of changes in taste, and because of censors and religious objections, he created his English oratorio style. How different really is Handel’s oratorio from his opera? Harry Christophers: Not very different, that’s […]
2013-06-10 13:25:27
Pipe organ provocateur Cameron Carpenter is hoping to reclaim the instrument from the fusty realm of Vicars and nerdsThe pipe organ was once the most sophisticated instrument ever built, filling cathedrals with music to "elevate the soul". But it somehow got stuck in the cinemas and churches of middle America, a symbol of deference and decay. Cameron Carpenter, the instrument's punk prodigy, is scathing about those responsible for its fate. "The supreme indifference of organists to the needs and wishes of a broader audience can be observed at an organ concert in any city," he declaims. "The audience will be comprised of either organists, or inveterate organ nerds who carry their clothes around in paper bags and breathe through their mouths."Carpenter's strategy for wrenching the instrument out of its torpor is first to dress like an ice-dancing Skrillex, then to deliver performances of great physical drama, his body convulsing, his […]
2012-07-29 01:06:25
Royal Albert Hall; Cadogan Hall; Opera Holland Park, all LondonOne of Daniel Barenboim's more unnerving habits, witnessed during his electrifying Beethoven-Boulez cycle at the Proms this week, is to stop conducting mid bar, usually when the orchestra is going full throttle and the tempo is breakneck. Typically he prods, pokes, throws punches at his players – gestures only, that is – before gathering them in like a bundle of loose lagging, casting his arm in a big arc and leaving them to it until the next cue.It is a form of musical freewheeling which only the most experienced can risk. Generally it pays off: many of these musicians have worked together since Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO) in 1999, its aim to unite young Arab and Israeli players in the intensity of music making. The youngest, already a veteran of four years, is 15. He […]
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