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Showing posts from May, 2010

Away in search of thin places

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' Donald Allchin , the Anglican writer who is a contemporary chronicler of Bardsey , has referred to the island in one of his books I read before going over as a 'thin place', not in the sense that it is small and insignificant, though of course geographically it is, but rather that it is a place where the barrier between this world and the world of the spirit dissolves' - from The Extra Mile by Peter Stanford . 'Thin places' as defined by Donald Allchin have become something of a leitmotif of this blog. Thinness can be created over the centuries by culture and geography, as in Marrakech where I took the header photo. Or thinness can be transitory, created in the concert hall by Britten's holy triangle of composer, performer and listener. As happened last night when the Theatre Royal, Norwich became a very thin place indeed thanks to the musicans from many countries and cultures who presented Jerusalem - City of the Two Peaces . Jordi Savall's intr

What is a music festival?

At so many music festivals these days creativity seems to be losing out to conformity. A festival should be where you are surprised, challenged, delighted and outraged, not where you feel comfortable. Without serendipity a music festival is no more than a branded concert series, which is exactly what so many of today's high profile festivals such as the BBC Proms have become. Festival programmes should be mazes with many paths to follow, dead ends to encounter and delights to discover. Just like the Norfolk & Norwich Festival programme, which yesterday included the serendipitous delights of Zic Zazou from France. Zic Zazou are part music, part theatre, part comedy and part engineering with nine musicians making music from a huge collection of 'found' instruments ranging from bottles of red wine to chair legs. It is all enormous fun, but it is also musique savant that follows the path of Lou Harrison and Harry Partch . But don't take my word, watch the video: F

We need more mad geniuses

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This blog spends quite a lot of time musing on what makes great recorded sound . So it was rather ironic that yesterday evening I found myself musing on the futility of the recording process. The occasion was Jordi Savall's solo viol recital in the church of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich. As the evening progressed Marais, Abel, Forqueray and above all Jordi Savall took us to the edge of a precipice where the view was spell-binding, but from where you knew there was an awfully long way to fall. It was one of those magical moments that can only happen in a concert and can never be captured by a recording. How right Benjamin Britten was when he said "music demands more from a listener than simply the possession of a tape-machine or a transistor radio". How wrong Glenn Gould was to abandon the concert hall for the recording studio. How right Sergiu Celibidache was to abandon the recording studio for the concert hall. Celibidache has been called the last of the mad genius cond

Castles made of sand

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Under a full moon in the hills behind Diabat in Morocco a lilas , a secret spirit-possession ceremony, is taking place to the repetitive rhythms of gnawa music. As the possessed whirl and writhe in an ecstatic trance a jinn materialises in their midst. This is a very special jinn who in a previous existence wove his own intricate rhythms and spoke of castles made of sand that eventually fall into the sea. Darkness is the natural habitat of the spirits, but as dawn comes the jinn rematerialises at the ruined fort of Bordj El Berod. The spirit knows this castle made of sand is celebrated as the inspiration for a track on the classic rock album Axis: Bold As Love . But this very special jinn chuckles because he also knows Castles Made of Sand was written in 1967, two years before its writer made his one and only visit to Morocco. As the African sun banishes darkness the spirit moves to the ruined summer palace inland from Bordj El Berod and looks across to Diabat. 1960s Folklore pla

Cure for Twitter fatigue

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From America JMW ponders on the future of music in our soundbite age . From Pakistan Billoo wants less fusion and more traditional music . From different countries and different cultures musicians are arriving at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival for Jordi Savall's Jerusalem . So to capture the zeitgeist Future Radio is repeating my 2008 programme which features a complete traditional African trance ritual recorded in the Medina at Marrakech , Morocco, see photo above. Forget that 140 character nonsense. This trance ritual itself lasts for more than two hours and is followed by a one hour electro-acoustic ‘minimalist trance’ set from two young DJs from Marrakech. The uninterrupted 3 hour 33 minute broadcast/webcast is going out at 2am UK time Sunday night/Monday morning (May 16/17). Convert to local time zones here and listen online here . The station is looking at a podcast, but the file size presents some technical challenges. For full details and background to the broadcast,

Move over iPod

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Here comes the latest in mobile media. Radio Barkas from Holland is playing at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival . Last night we were at La Vie from Montreal based company les 7 doigts de la main which is not to be missed if you can get to Norwich . There are some very exciting things happening where music meets dance meets circus. Is the answer to take classical music to the visual ? All photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2010. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Early music's poster boy

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On Thursday (May 13) Jordi Savall plays a solo viol recital in the 15th century church of Saint Peter Mancroft in the centre of Norwich as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival . Two days later he performs his multi-cultural masque Jerusalem across the road in the multi-purpose Theatre Royal . It is going to be a very interesting three days acoustically as well as musically. The early music legend is familiar with the acoustic of the 15th century church of Saint Peter Mancroft as he performed his Orient-Occident programme there to great acclaim two years ago. But the contrast with the Jerusalem venue could hardly be greater. The 1300 seat Theatre Royal was rebuilt in 1935 following a fire to a standard design used for Odeon cinemas . Due to its cinematic pedigree the sound in the steeply raked auditorium was notoriously dry until a 2007 refurbishment. As described here previously the refurbishment included installing the French CARMEN® sound enhancement system. Digital reve

Letter to a young composer

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'To dismiss a work merely because it does not fit into the critics' category of what constitutes modernity is a fatal narrowing of vision' - from Edmund Rubbra's 1956 article Letter to a Young Composer . That quote comes from a book that I have a feeling will be making more appearances here. BBC Music in the Glock Era and After is a memoir by the former BBC producer Leo Black who is also author of the excellent study Edmund Rubbra, Symphonist . What makes Leo Black's new volume on BBC Music so remarkable is the sheer breadth of music that it embraces. As well as making an eloquent case for Rubbra's music the text ranges from a 1961 performance in Vienna of Schoenberg's uncompleted oratorio Die Jakobsleiter to substantial appreciations of Luigi Dallapicolla , Hanns Eisler , Roberto Gerhard , Franz Schmidt and Hugh Wood . All this plus wonderful line drawings, as seen below, by Milein Cosman who is the widow of Hans Keller and is known for her portraits

Ondes Martinu

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One work that has slipped down the cracks in the current Martinů revival is his 1944 Fantaisie scored for ondes Martenot , piano, oboe and string quartet. The Fantaisie was originally written for theremin but Martinů approved the use of the ondes Martenot as a more practical alternative to the temparemental theremin. Martinů's Fantaisie is one of the works on the disc seen above. Thomas Bloch studied the ondes Martenot with Jeanne Loriod , who was the younger sister of Olivier Messiaen's second wife. The composers on the CD range from Messiaen to Etienne Rolin (b.1952) as well as including Thomas Bloch's own compositions. This 2004 Naxos disc ticks all the boxes: it showcases rewarding music with wonderful performances, fills some important gaps in the catalogue, is captured in particularly vivid sound and comes at a very affordable price. More on the ill-starred theremin here . The Naxos ondes Martenot CD was bought online. Any copyrighted material on these pages

Are concert halls the new recording studios?

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This could indicate that the center of economic activity in classical music is no longer records but live events. On top, concert halls are the new recording studios and EMI LBO [leveraged buy out] was doomed from the start. That comments was added by Antoine Leboyer to What price Mahler ? Now Antoine is one of the few bloggers still writing what he thinks rather than what big music wants him to think and I can't disagree with his point. But the eclipse of the studio by the concert hall as a recording venue has many implications. Live recordings have been around for ages. But how many of your all time favourite discs come from concert recordings? A quick scan across my well-stocked shelves identifies only two, Richter and Gavrilov's Handel Suites and Bruno Maderna's Mahler Nine . Just recently a musician friend was lamenting the compromised technical, musical and emotional quality of the new generation of orchestra label live recordings. This guy has good ears and he

Memo to PR agencies

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From: Charlotte HJ To: overgrownpath Sent: 30 April 2010 10:32:42 To whom it may concern, We’re working on a project with Opus Arte , a music and arts label that I’m sure you will already be aware of . They’re looking to engage the online opera/classical community with information on the best orchestras, classical music composers, significant dates in the history of Classical music etc. We’re happy to provide you with free concert tickets or free CDs of your choice if you get involved. We have a video that we can share with you – would be great to hear your feedback and if you’d like to be part of this project. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Kind regards Charlotte – The 7th Chamber Memo to whom it may concern at PR agencies. Before sending the email read the blog . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken

What price Mahler?

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'That pricing indicates that with back catalogues stuffed full of excellent Chopin and Mahler recordings anniversary price deflation will be the next life-threatening disease to hit the record industry' - On An Overgrown Path January 2010 'In connection with the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's birth, as well as Christoph Eschenbach's 70th anniversary in 2010, christoph-eschenbach.com in collaboration with the websites of the Orchestre de Paris and Medici TV will each offer a unique free streaming experience of all of Gustav Mahler's Symphonies' - christoph-eschenbach.com April 2010 Is recorded classical music too .... Mahler coins from the Czech Mint . Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

I am in an even larger prison

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In man's attempts to get on well with potential destroyers: gods, storms, wild animals, demons and even human enemies, he has made sacrifices, developed rituals, made up stories, played music, sang songs and danced. Gnawa music can be regarded as a means of self-expression and communication with spirits. In other words, it is a centre of communal celebration intended for the pleasure and entertainment of both human beings and spirits. Just as some renaissance painters couched their anti-Christian ideas through apparently Christian paintings, Gnawa, a pagan practice appealed to the possessing spirits through apparently Islamic songs and rituals. This conflict between the Islamic and the pagan, the sacred and profane, the dark and the light has helped this music to create its own context and audience. In a maze of narrow vein-like alleys where houses mushroomed against the rules of gravity and architecture, bottom-bellied and top-tapered like a public display of giant terra-cotta pot

Our politicians face the music

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1. Tangled Up In Blue , Bob Dylan 2. Ernie , Benny Hill 3. Wish You Were Here , Pink Floyd 4. On Wings of Song, Mendelssohn, Kiri Te Kanawa and Utah Symphony Orchestra 5. Fake Plastic Trees , Radiohead 6. This Charming Man , Smiths, 7. Perfect Circle , R.E.M, 8. All these Things that I've Done , The Killers If the Conservatives win tomorrow's general election that list will be the musical tastes of our new prime minister, David Cameron. He chose those tracks in 2006 for the BBC's long running Desert Island Discs programme. It prompted a wonderful rant from Peter Maxwell Davies who described it as 'musical garbage' . Gordon Brown appeared on the programme back in 1996 and his choices were only marginally more inspiring: at least there was no Benny Hill and there was Bach, albeit predictably the Suite for Orchestra No 3 in D major. When Nick Clegg appeared on Michael Berkeley's Private Passions programme on BBC Radio 3 in 2008 his selection was notably eclectic

Echoes of ECM

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Pierre Boulez used the term musique savant to describe 'knowing music' that transcends conventional categories. In the same way should we not now be using the term musique sans frontières to describe classical music that transcends the conventional frontiers between East and West? An excellent example of musique sans frontières is the newly released CD Mantra , seen above. Musical conversations across the Indian Ocean is the disc's subtitle and it brings together The Orlando Concert and Indian forces. Mantra takes as its starting point the mix of Catholic liturgy and Indian instruments heard in the churches founded by Portugese missionaries in Goa in the 16th century. These medieval experiments in musique sans frontières were not notated so the CD is an exercise in conjecture rather than scholarship. Which is not a problem as it is the music that matters and musically this is a very adventurous and stimulating release. If you want to hear what the plainsong Salve Re

If you like Korngold try this

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The programming of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's lyrical Violin Concerto at a BBC Prom on August 10 is confirmation that Korngold is getting the recognition he rightly deserves. But there is still an awful lot of deserving music that is crying out for rediscovery, including that on the newly released CD seen above. Quincy Porter (1897-1966) was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He studied at Yale and in Paris and then held a series of high ranking academic positions in America after founding the American Music Centre in 1939 with Aaron Copland and Howard Hanson . His Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (now known as the Concerto Concertante) won a Pullitzer Prize in 1954. Quincy Porter was an early advocate of hi-fi sound, and all the rooms of his retirement home in Bethany, Connecticut were networked for audiophile sound. The 1948 Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is the main work on this invaluable new CD. Comparisons between it and Korngold's Violin Concerto written just thre

Meanwhile on the BBC Radio 3 message board

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'In short, Mr. Ross's insights are not particularly compelling and he has a fairly shallow vision of classical music' - discuss . Remember folks this is a heads up, so please don't shoot the messenger or start talking about whining Brits - the writer of that comment seems to be American. But I had to laugh at a comment on the BBC Radio 3 message board about a fairly shallow vision of classical music . Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk