Jordi Savall and the just-in-time interview

Jordi Savall's office in Spain was quite certain, he really wanted to give an interview On An Overgrown Path when he was in Norwich. The maestro (above) even phoned me back from his home in Barcelona to say yes, he would definitely find time. I couldn't raise him again on his mobile phone after he arrived in England, but on the morning of the concert I met him at his signing session and he told me to come to the concert venue of St Peter Mancroft at the end of the sound-check at 6.45pm, and he would do the interview between the rehearsal and the 7.30pm concert start. But I arrived at St Peter Mancroft at 6.30pm to find a disaster. The taxi sent to collect him had arrived at his hotel 30 minutes late. So everything was behind schedule and the event manager thought an interview was unlikely. But a message came back from the maestro, he would do the interview after 7.00pm.

The sound-check finished late at 7.05pm and as the capacity audience started to fill the church a charming but tired Jordi Savall said he wanted a cup of tea before facing my microphone. Just after 7.10pm the recording started to the side of the stage in view of some of the audience and soon it really started to flow. But with five minutes to go to the concert start time and only half my questions asked it looked as though On An Overgrown Path might go down in history as the first blog to delay the start of a Norwich Festival concert. So I decided discretion was the better part of valour and bailed out using my scripted exit which thanked the maestro for his time. At which point, and we were now four minutes from the start of the concert, to my disbelief he said 'I just want to say one more thing...' and went on to deliver a short but inspirational message about the power of music and the need inner peace.

He never missed a beat, the concert started on time and was, of course, magnificent. And after it had ended many of the audience wouldn't leave, and the four musicians from Hesperion XXI stayed on stage for some time to talk to members of the audience about the rare instruments they had been playing including an oud, rebab, santur and 100 year old Moroccan drum. The next morning was Sunday, and Jordi Savall was leaving his hotel in Norwich at 7.00am to return to Spain. Before the interview he told me had played 182 concerts last year.

Hear my just-in-time interview complete with audience noise and Jordi Savall's message on inner peace on Future Radio at 5.00pm on Sunday May 25 repeated at 00.01am on Wednesday May 28. Or listen to the podcast which will be also be available on May 25.

The words 'Prayer for inner and outer peace' are written in Beethoven's own hand in the manuscript of his Missa Solemnis over the line in which the 'Dona nobis' theme first appears. 'For Inner and Outer Peace' was also used as the title of a moving book (below) inspired by Beethoven's masterpiece and written by another great musician and humanitarian. Read more about Antal Dorati here.

Now playing - the Sanctus from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in the recording with Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Choeurs de La Chapelle Royale and the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and soloists. It is surprising how many of today's 'jet set' conductors have failed to scale this peak of Beethoven's creativity satisfactorily. Like Jordi Savall, Philippe Herreweghe built his reputation in early music, but, also like the Catalan musician, for Herreweghe there is no early, classical or contemporary music, just music. For me Herreweghe's performance, which was recorded live at a concert, is one of the great interpretations of Beethoven's masterpiece, as indeed is Dorati's own on BIS. Dorati's version is still in the catalogue but his book and Herreweghe's recording are both, alas, no longer available. Dorati's book was published by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, read more about their vital work for inner and outer peace here.

Photo of Jordi Savall taken by my wife during the just-in-time interview and (c) On An Overgown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Symphonic suite after the Arabian Nights

This visual celebration of different cultures starts a week of cultural diversity On An Overgrown Path. I took the photos in the Majorelle Gardens in Marrakech, Morocco. These famous gardens were created in North Africa in the 1930s by two generations of French artists, Jacques and Louis Majorelle and are now owned by Yves Saint Laurent who was born in Oran, French Algeria.

My week's celebration will culminate with two exclusive Future Radio programmes over the coming holiday weekend. At 5.00pm UK time on Sunday May 25 I will present an interview I recorded with Jordi Savall minutes before he went on stage last night with Hesperion XXl for the rapturously received closing concert of the 2008 Norfolk & Norwich Festival. Hear Jordi Savall talking about the relationship between early, contemporary and world music, about the music of Arvo Pärt, about the shortcomings of major record labels and about music as a humanitarian force in this exclusive interview. Jordi Savall's Norwich concert presented music from his Occident-Orient project, and my programme will also feature this truly multi-cultural music.

My interview with Jordi Savall will be followed a few hours later by another multi-cultural celebration, the webcast premiere of a complete African trance ritual recorded in the medina of Marrakech, Morocco. The performance is played by traditional gnawa musicians and is being broadcast at 12.01am on May 26 on Future Radio followed by a contemporary 'minimal trance' set.

Now playing - Rimsky-Korsakov's Symphonic Suite after "A Thousand and One Nights" Scheherazade in the classic 1959 recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner. It is easy to understand from this extraordinary performance why Reiner was feared and hated by members of his orchestra. It is hard-driven with almost impossible tempi for the exposed parts and the result is one of the wonders of the gramophone. Not a first choice for Scheherazade, but no CD collection should be without it. Meanwhile back at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra it is still love 'em, hate 'em.

All photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Stravinsky - oh wow sacred cow!

'The more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives ... It turns out that unless we continue to learn new things, which challenges our brains to create new pathways, they literally begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. No one is sure why, but scientists speculate that getting out of routines makes us more aware in general' This extract from a New York Times article by Janet Rae-Dupree could be the mission statement for the Michael Clark Company's Stravinsky Project.

Last night's double-bill by the company at the Norwich Festival, showed the power of working outside comfort zones with an ultra-modern Rite using nudity in the sacrificial dance as a talisman against dementia. Budgetary comfort zones also took a battering as the forty-minute Rite in the first half used the economical four hand reduction, while for the second half two more Steinways, a supplemented Britten Sinfonia, four soloists, the New London Chamber Choir and conductor Jurjen Hempel were added for a marginally less modern, but still sublime, twenty-five minutes of Les Noces - see header production shot.

Visual comfort zones were also up for grabs, with the second half of Les Noces (except it wasn't - see below) opening with a stunning video of Stravinsky himself conducting the closing pages of The Firebird (how did the players ever follow his beat?), with the maestro's virtual performance drawing enthusiastic applause from both the live and recorded audiences before the real dancing started. The Stravinsky video filmed at the Royal Festival Hall was courtesy of the BBC, and is a timely reminder of the priceless riches locked away in the BBC archives while their 'culture channel', BBC4, fights Alzheimer’s with challenging programmes such as Val Doonican Rocks.

Aural comfort zones become dead-meat with the Michael Clark Company with the exemplary musical forces 'benefitting' from substantial amplification and remixing via a state-of-the-art sound system. Strange when the words don't actually come from the mouths of the New London Chamber Choir, but if it stops dementia who is complaining? (Apparantely some of the audience did by walking out of the previous evening's performance of a different programme which featured very loud music by the Sex Pistols and Wire).

Pesky box-office comfort zones were also ignored by billing the two works as Mmm.. and I Do rather than The Rite and Les Noces. Thankfully there are some big sponsors behind the Stravinsky Project, but I wonder whether the 40% audience capacity would have been bigger had the publicity talked a little bit more clearly about a good old fashioned Rite of Spring?

But overall one of the most stimulating and dementia defeating evenings we have spent in the theatre for a long time. And the headline is for real, it is back-projected during The Rite, sorry Mmm... .

Now watch a video sample of Mmm.. here, read about the four pianists in Les Noces here and about the piano reduction of the Rite here, while Stravinsky has a topical Tibetan connection here.
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 don't worry about status

My photo shows Sir Colin Davis conducting the Chamber Orchestra Anglia in Elgar's First Symphony in an open work shop yesterday afternoon at the Norwich Festival.

We talked to the 80 year old Sir Colin after he had topped two full length rehearsals with a full-on play through of the three last movements of the symphony. I commented to him that there weren't too many conductors of his status who would give up a day to rehearse a student orchestra. Back in a flash came his reply -'Oh you see, I don't worry about status'.

The student musicians really played their heart's out for Sir Colin. But, as my photo below shows, they do seem to have picked up some of the bad habits of their professional colleagues. (Why is it always the brass players?)


More on Sir Colin and Elgar 1 here.
Photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Summer in the city

Summer has arrived early in Norwich, the sun is blazing, the Festival is in full swing, live music rules, and here are just some of the events we will be enjoying this week:

May 10 - afternoon, open workshop with Sir Colin Davis rehearsing the Chamber Orchestra Anglia in Elgar's First Symphony (free!): evening - Stravinsky project, Britten Sinfonia make the music and Michael Clark Company dance a double bill of music by the master ending with Les Noces sung by New London Chamber Choir.

May 13 - cutting-edge circus performance, live music and video from NoFit State Circus, seen in my header photo.

May 16 - Barcelona Sunset, Catalunyan contemporary dance company Erre Que Erre bring film, live music and dance, includes music by the Beach Boys, Tina Turner and Kraftwerk. YouTube sample here.

May 17 - Jordi Savall & Hesperion XXI in Orient-Occident in the 15th century church of St Peter Mancroft.

And I haven't mentioned the Hilliard Ensemble, King's College Cambridge Choir, Willard White and many more Festival visitors. Can it get any better? - the full Norfolk & Norwich Festival programme is here.

Amid all the excitement don't forget Jacobus de Kerle's Missa Pro Defunctis and James MacMillan Veni, Veni, Emmanuel on Future Radio on Sunday May 11 at 5.00pm UK time and 12.50am May 12.

More summer in the city here.
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