Louisa Gray News
composer
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Last update
2024-04-21
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2024-04-16 12:38:00
The Empress Reawakens
OK, since late 2022 Sieglinde's been to a few more spectacles for sure, some in opera houses she'd never visited before. How can she restart this baby amidst this thrilling gloom? But the fire hydrant of life continues to spew experiences, her impressions rushing down the drain, emulsifying in the Gray soup. Posts from decades ago, here in this blog, relive traces of faces and sound. As she reawakens, she looks around and finds that some recent feelings are also worth encoding, for the time when all she will have are these words.
2024-02-16 07:46:00
Olawale Olayinka: Songs My Mother Taught Me
Olawale Olayinka is a young Nigerian classically trained violinist, currently based in London. If you have seen Brixton Chamber Orchestra or Chineke! then you may well have seen him. His performances with Chineke! include appearances last Summer performing Beethoven, Holst, Vaughan Williams' and Coleridge-Taylor, conducted by Kellen Gray, as well as with the orchestra at the 2023 Brit Awards at the O2 performing with Stormzy.Olayinka has just released a self-produced EP entitled Songs My Mother Taught Me, six tracks in which he plays traditional songs in modern versions with a mix of his solo violin and electronics. We begin with Oluronbi, just violin melody over ambient electronics, intriguing and engaging. The irregular phrase lengths in the music make it distinctive, whilst Olayinka's decision to not dress up the material pays dividends. The same approach applies to Labe igi orombo, with rather touching results and to the haunting Iwe Kiko. There is […]
2023-12-06 07:44:00
A lifetime's experience: John Nelson finally records Messiah in a finely engaged performance, with a fantastic quartet of soloists
[…] so that the regular alto solos, including 'He was despised' are all sung (very finely) by Potter. But Nelson does seem to have been fascinated by Messiah's history so there is a bonus section of eight variants, including the original 12/8 'Rejoice greatly', a selection of beautiful feet and even an alternative 'But who may abide'.Handel: Messiah - Lucy Crowe, Alex Potter, Michael Spyres, Matthew Brook, English Concert & Choir, John Nelson - Coventry Cathedral (Photo: Jamie Gray)Nelson's recordings have largely been on modern instruments, including his Berlioz series from Strasbourg and the very fine recording of Handel's Semele with Kathleen Battle in the title role, a recording which uses one of the longest versions of the work on disc. Here, he is conducting the period instrument forces of the English Concert. But his approach is pretty traditional, the speeds in the overture and the subsequent arias certainly do not frighten the horses, […]
2023-12-02 09:33:00
The Hidden Light: composer Joanna Marsh on her triptych of pieces for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge
Joanna MarshComposer Joanna Marsh has been commissioned for a triptych of pieces for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge, the first commission under its new director of music Christopher Gray. Joanna's first piece, The Hidden Light was premiered at the recent Service for Advent with Carols at St John's College, and the service is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 3 December 2023. Joanna's other pieces for the commission will be performed at Epiphany and during Lent, and all three use texts by the priest/poet Malcolm Guite.I spoke to Joanna whilst she was in Cambridge for rehearsals before the Advent Carol Service on 25 November, though problems with Wi-Fi meant that we had to make do with a rather indifferent connection in a café that she had found! When I asked how rehearsals were going she was most complimentary; the music is complex, using eight parts, […]
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