Henry Waller News
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2024-04-24
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2023-10-30 07:17:00
Two Cities: Ned Rorem in Paris & New York - centenary celebrations at London Song Festival
[…] on the clarity of the word settings. Many of the songs had quite discreet piano parts (not necessarily simply, I must emphasise) which supported a long vocal line so that words were paramount. We began with For Poulenc, a song written in 1963 in the wake of Poulenc's death which combined a witty waltz with lyrical vocal line. Some songs stood out for the element of imagination that Rorem brought to the challenge. So the Edmund Waller setting, The Dancer (from Nantucket Songs of 1979) featured a striking alternation between voice and piano, whilst in the 1959 Theodore Roethke setting The Waking the piano very much coloured the words. Nantucket (also from Nantucket Songs) set William Carlos Williams and the results were wonderfully languorous, almost seductive, and Such beauty as hurts to behold (a Paul Goodman setting from 1957) was positively rapturous.Ned Rorem in later life (image from http://www.nedrorem.net/)With the return […]
2023-10-25 08:26:00
Spring/Summer 2024 at the Southbank Centre: Rothko Chapel, DSCH, Winterreise staged, the RFH Organ at 70, Voices from the East and more
DSCH - Pekka Kuusisto, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (Photo: Magnus Skrede)The Southbank Centre has announced its classical music plans for next Spring and Summer. Booking opens on Friday 27 October at 10am for Southbank Centre Members and Supporters Circles. General booking begins on Monday 30 October at 10am.The artists on the Southbank Centre's residency programmes are all busy. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja continues her residency with her absurdist Nonsense music-theatre production, works by Cage, Ligeti, Brecht and Kopatchinskaja, whilst Manchester Collective collaborate with Scottish pianist Fergus McCreadie culminating in a late-night cèilidh. And the collective return with Morton Feldman’s sonic meditation Rothko Chapel alongside new pieces by Katherine Balch, Edmund Finnis, Isabella Summers and Isobel Waller-Bridge inspired by Rothko's artworks. And the Manchester Collective will be contributing to the showcase concert for second instalment of the Southbank Centre and Royal Academy of Music’s artist development scheme, Future Artists.Organist James McVinnie joins as a Resident Artist and his first performance will be part of the Royal […]
Royal Opera House (The Guardian)
2023-10-23 23:01:12
[…] level of delivering words and movement at the same time, they’re impressive.The play’s original director, Ed Madden, is on board for this production, with the Royal Ballet’s Kristen McNally creating the moves. It’s fascinating how you approach a fusion of forms like this. They’re not acting out the play in gestures, nor would I say they’re adding different meaning with movement. The dance feels faithful to the text, without ever corresponding word for word. Isobel Waller-Bridge’s music, played live, underlines this without being too pushy. Like the characters, the choreography isn’t voluble; it’s careful, sometimes distant. Yet they echo each other’s phrases in affirmation and they’ve quietly got each other’s backs (and legs, heads, arms, and all the other dancing parts).
2023-02-05 23:32:00
emergency shelter intake form at San Francisco Sypmphony
The Chorus of Inconvenient StatisticsPhoto: Kristen Loken, care of San Francisco SymphonyOfficial caption:Edwin Outwater conducts the SF Symphony, Conrad Tao, Gabriel Kahane, Alicia Hall Moran, Kristen Toedtman, Holcombe Waller, Community Music Center Choir, and Skywatchers Ensemble in a performance of emergency shelter intake form at Davies Symphony Hall on Thursday, February 2, 2023. Photo credit: Kristen Loken.Somewhat unusually, I reviewed San Francisco Symphony for the San Francisco Chronicle the other day. This is my third review for the Chron since fall, 2014. Joshua Kosman is available almost all of the time, and his usual backup is Steven Winn, who was a critic for the Chron for many years.This was quite a program, with Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (Conrad Tao, piano) paired with Gabriel Kahane's emergency shelter intake form. The latter has been described as a song cycle and as an oratorio, and I went with oratorio, given the forces involved […]
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