Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble concert
17 April 2013
For an
orchestral musician, playing chamber music can be a scary experience. In a
small group there is nowhere to hide and you don’t get the lengthy breaks that
brass players are used to in the symphonic repertoire. But chamber music is
rewarding in a different way to larger works. It is satisfying and enjoyable
being part of a small team, where every individual is vital to the whole,
everyone gets their moment in the spotlight and everyone has a degree of
control over the performance. I was, therefore, both delighted and terrified to
have been invited to join the Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble for their concert at
Abington Avenue United Reformed Church in Northampton last Saturday.
We were
tackling a new piece for double wind quintet by the American composer Jeff
Scott. ‘Sacred Women’ was first performed at the Nevada Flute Association
Conference in Las Vegas in August 2012 and ours was to be the first performance
outside North America. ‘Sacred Women’ celebrates three female deities – the
Egyptian god Isis, Caribbean Iemanja and African Mawu. It is a fiendishly
difficult piece – tuneful, atmospheric and rhythmically complex. All ten parts
are incredibly challenging and it was very hard work trying to fit it all
together.
We were
fortunate that Frank Jordan and the other regular members of the Heliotrope
Wind Quintet had assembled a very impressive group of musicians and we were
grateful for the services of conductor Stephen Bell to help us pull it
together. We also benefited from working with the recording of the work’s
Nevada premiere and some of our group managed to talk to the composer after a
recent recital at the Wigmore Hall in London. By Saturday evening, however, it
still felt a bit touch and go. Concentration levels were high and nerves were
jangling but I think we had all come to really like the piece and we were
looking forward to trying to do it justice.
The concert
got off to an excellent start with Kimberley Chang playing the lengthy,
haunting, opening alto flute solo beautifully. While we may have been guilty of
a few missed entries and wrong notes, most of the performance went really well
– with several excellent cadenzas, sensitive playing and rhythmic neatness.
Even the most complex, multi-layered passage of competing rhythms in the middle
of the last movement finished with us perfectly together.
As we
approached the very end of the work, however, I was aware that my most
difficult solo line was still looming. Out of silence the first horn is
required to play a series of unaccompanied notes rising to a long, held, top
‘C’. Top ‘C’ is a note which is theoretically possible on a French horn but
rarely called upon. I knew I could manage to hit it but whether I would, at the
end of a complete performance of the piece, in the pressure of the live concert
atmosphere, was another matter. In the passage leading up to this solo we found
ourselves playing at a faster, adrenaline-fuelled, pace than we had rehearsed
and by the time we reached the silent pause I could feel my heart pumping fast.
I took a deep breath and went for it. I was aware of the top ‘C’ emerging, but
it sounded weak and squeaky and I realised I was running out of breath. As I
tried to hold the note for its full length, my head began to ache and I could
feel that I was close to passing out. I managed to hit the following notes and
grab a lungful of air. Then I realised that the others were waiting for me to
continue with the next part of the tune. I pushed my way through to the end of
the line and recovered sufficiently during the following rests to be able to
join in with the final bars of the piece which finished triumphantly.
I am not sure
what the audience made of this odd, squealing interlude towards the end of the
piece – I hope it sounded worse to me than to anyone else – but overall I think
our performance of ‘Sacred Women’ was fairly presentable, with some really
excellent playing. I was completely drained at the end – and in awe of those of
my colleagues who went on to play two further pieces. I enjoyed the rest of the
concert from the audience, discovering two other incredibly tuneful chamber
works that were completely new to me.
Eric Ewazen’s
‘Roaring Fork’ is a contemporary wind quintet that conjures up the Rocky
Mountains with a feel of Aaron Copland’s American soundscapes. And the ‘Nonet’
by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, written in 1894, is a gorgeous piece for oboe,
clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, ‘cello, double bass and piano. It was a
lovely concert and I really enjoyed the experience of working with the
Heliotrope Chamber Ensemble towards our performance of Jeff Scott’s ‘Sacred
Women’, but I’m looking forward to returning to the relative safety of my
position in the ranks of the Northampton Symphony Orchestra.
Labels: Concerts, Music
'Mr Whatnot' by Alan Ayckbourn
4 April 2013
I’ve always
loved comedy dancing – providing it is done with straight-faced seriousness
like Laurel and Hardy in ‘Way Out West’ – and there was some great serious
comedy dancing in the Northampton Royal and Derngate production of ‘Mr Whatnot’
by Alan Ayckbourn which we saw on Wednesday. Ayckbourn is known for his realistic
dialogue and characters but this very early work (this production marks its 50th
anniversary) displays neither of these traits. ‘Mr Whatnot’ is a celebration of
mime and comic caricature – and it was laugh-out-loud funny. The Northampton
production is directed by Cal McCrystal who was Physical Comedy Director for
the National Theatre production of ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ (reviewed here in October
2011) and has previously worked with the marvellous Spymonkey (reviewed here in
February 2012). He has created a wonderful combination of physical theatre,
mime, dance and slapstick which is charmingly silly. ‘Mr Whatnot’ is a stage cousin
of the silent film comedy genre with a character at its heart that could have
been played by Buster Keaton or Norman Wisdom. Though there is some dialogue,
most of the action is conveyed by mime, involving perfect co-ordination with an
extensive range of sound effects. The speechless hero (played here by Juanma
Rodriguez) is a loveable chancer with a twinkle in his eye and a strong sense
of mischief. There is very little plot, some remarkably over-the-top acting and
it’s all terribly childish, but on Wednesday it had a packed audience laughing
uncontrollably all the way through. ‘Mr Whatnot’ is not what we have come to
think of as an Alan Ayckbourn play but this production was great fun.Labels: Comedy, Drama, Theatre
