Category Archives: In concert

In concert – Pocket Ellington @ The Vortex

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Alex Webb (piano, musical director), Tony Kofi (tenor saxophone), Alan Barnes (saxophones/clarinet), David Lalljee (trombone), Andy Davies (trumpet), Dave Green (double bass) and Winston Clifford (drums)

The Vortex, London, 14 December 2024

by John Earls. Photo credit (c) John Earls

One might think at first that the idea of a ‘Pocket Ellington’ – big band jazz played by a smaller ensemble – is something of a contradiction if not illogical. But then there’s the tunes and then there’s this particular group of musicians (under the musical direction of Alex Webb) and their love of the music.

Duke Ellington’s stature and influence as a pianist, composer and band leader is pretty much unsurpassed. Miles Davis is supposed to have said “At least one day out of the year all musicians should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington”. So it was fascinating to see and hear this seven piece band interpret some of the best big band charts there are.

Three of the Ellington compositions played – Main Stem, What Am I Here For and Happy Go Lucky Local – feature on his Piano in the Background album which contains the following lines in Irving Townsend’s sleeve notes: “The piano used for this album has three more keys than regular pianos, allowing Duke to play ninety-one keys instead of eighty-eight. He wants you to know that he played them all madly”. I assume Alex Webb’s piano had the standard number of keys but I was reminded of this quote with some of his playing and the enthusiasm and respect for the music that was on display from the rest of the band.

Mood Indigo featured some raspy trumpet from Andy Davies and smoky tenor saxophone from Tony Kofi as well as Alan Barnes – “more reeds than you can shake a stick at” according to Webb – playing saxophone and clarinet.

As well as compositions by Ellington there was also a nod to other artists influenced by him. Thelonious Monk’s Ruby, My Dear and Monk’s Dream were combined in a fantastic Ruby, My Dream medley and Charles Mingus’ Boogie Stop Shuffle featured some terrific mute trombone by David Lalljee who also went full throttle on Gil Evans’ Las Vegas Tango. The rhythm section of Dave Green (double bass) and Winston Clifford (drums) were solid throughout.

It wasn’t just full-on swing either. Come Sunday (from Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige suite) was smooth and gorgeous with the horns in lovely collective harmony and the ballad Day Dream enchanting.

Day Dream is a Billy Strayhorn composition and not surprisingly, given that Strayhorn was Ellington’s great songwriting collaborator and friend, there were a number of other Strayhorn tunes in the set. These included a moving Blood Count which was the last finished piece that Strayhorn wrote. It features on the terrific album of Strayhorn tunes by Ellington and his Orchestra …And His Mother Called Him Bill recorded in 1967 after Strayhorn’s death. On the album the saxophone is played by Johnny Hodges for whom Strayhorn often wrote – “We have our own Johnny Hodges” said Webb acknowledging Alan Barnes’ affecting rendition. (Apparently, Ellington never played the tune again after the recording session.)

The set finished with – what else? – the Ellington Orchestra’s signature tune Take the “A” Train (another Strayhorn composition). It was a great version of a great tune that has a great story (the title refers to the opening words with which Ellington gave Strayhorn directions to get his house by subway but there’s more to it than that). It was a fitting end to a wonderful night’s live music paying tribute to one of the greats.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

Published post no.2,395 – Monday 16 December 2024

In concert – Martin Helmchen, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Mozart Piano Concerto no.26 & Bruckner Symphony no.9

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Martin Helmchen (piano, below), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada (above)

Mozart Piano Concerto no.26 in D major K537 (1788)
Bruckner Symphony no.9 in D minor WAB109 (1887-96, ed. Nowak)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 12 December 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Pictures (c) Beki Smith (Kazuki Yamada), Giorgia Bertazzi (Martin Helmchen)

This last concert before its Christmas and New Year festivities found the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra back with music director Kazuki Yamada for a coupling of Mozart and Bruckner that worked well as a programme over and above its D major-D minor framework.

Lauded for decades after his death, Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.26 was then dismissed as one of his few mature failures through a steely brilliance concealing little, if any, more personal expression. While it may lack the pathos or ambivalence that inform its dozen predecessors, its extrovert nature is complemented by a poise to which Martin Helmchen was well attuned. The martial undertow of its opening Allegro was offset by its winsome second theme and by the harmonic freedom of one of Mozart’s most capricious developments, then the Larghetto had a lilting charm cannily offset by the suavity of the closing Allegretto. That the autograph omits much of its piano’s left-hand part has led others to extemporize their own completion, but Helmchen restricted himself to cadenzas that were inventive and never less than apposite.

Yamada and the CBSO were unwavering in support, making for a performance that certainly presented this work to best advantage and reaffirmed Helmchen’s credentials as a Mozartian. Hopefully this soloist’s and conductor’s first Birmingham collaboration will not be their last.

Birmingham audiences had not so far encountered Yamada in Bruckner but, on the basis of his Ninth Symphony, here is a composer for whom he has real affinity. Not that this performance had it all its own way – the first movement, if not lacking either solemnity or mystery, did not quite cohere across its monumental span. Each thematic element was potently characterized, but their underlying follow-through felt less than inevitable such that the development lacked something of the centripetal force needed for a properly seismic impact, though the coda built with due remorselessness to a baleful close. If the Scherzo’s buoyant outer sections eschewed the ultimate violence, Yamada judged almost ideally the contrasting tempo for its trio – which latter emphasized a spectral or even sardonic humour which is surely unique in this composer.

In the absence of a finale (though such a movement was well on its way towards completion, as numerous realizations attest), the Adagio represents this work’s nominal culmination. Here orchestra and conductor gave of their interpretative best. Once again, the issue is how to fuse its almost disparate components into a sustained while cumulative totality and Yamada faced this challenge head on – the music exuding gravitas but with enough flexibility of motion to encompass its textural and emotional extremes right through to an apotheosis numbing in its unrelieved dissonance. Not that it pre-empted the coda’s benedictive quality from endowing closure on this movement as on the work as a ‘whole’, woodwind and strings gradually being drawn into the timbre of horns and Wagner tubas as these resounded eloquently into silence.

It hardly needs to be added that the CBSO’s playing abetted this impression, while Yamada’s placing of the double-bases in a row at the rear of the platform audibly galvanized the music-making and so set the seal on a performance which will doubtless linger long in the memory.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about pianist Martin Helmchen – and the orchestra’s principal conductor Kazuki Yamada

Published post no.2,394 – Sunday 15 December 2024

In concert – Eugene Tzikindelean, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Elgar Violin Concerto & Walton Symphony no.2

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Eugene Tzikindelean (violin, above), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada (below)

Elgar Violin Concerto in B minor Op.61 (1909-10)
Walton Orb and Sceptre (1952-3)
Walton Symphony no.2 (1957-60)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 4 December 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

His tenure so far as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has shown Kazuki Yamada to have real sympathy for British music, hence it was no surprise to encounter this programme of works by Elgar and Walton, which itself proved (unexpectedly?) satisfying.

Following on his highly regarded performances of Nielsen and Walton over previous seasons, CBSO leader Eugene Tzikindelean took on Elgar’s Violin Concerto for a reading which was fine if not consistently so. The opening movement, in particular, lacked forward momentum in its restless first theme so that not enough contrast was established with its rapt successor – the highlights being Yamada’s vigorous handling of its orchestral introduction and a development as powerfully sustained as it was combatively rendered. Tzikindelean was more fully at home with the central Andante, its variously reflective and heartfelt melodies drawn into a seamless continuity enhanced by a notably beguiling response from the CBSO woodwind. Whether or not the most profound of Elgar’s slow movement, this is arguably his most perfectly achieved.

The finale was, for the most part, equally successful – this being hardly the first performance setting off at a suitably incisive tempo, only to lose impetus once the poised second theme has entered the frame. Not that there was insufficient energy to make the emergence of its lengthy accompanied cadenza other than startling – this latter proceeding with a suffused mystery and poignancy, not least in recalling previous themes, as finds Elgar as his most confessional; the movement then resuming its earlier course as it surged on to a decisive and affirmative close.

Although his later orchestral works have never quite fallen into obscurity, Walton’s tended to fare better in the US than in the UK. Not least the coronation march Orb and Sceptre – all too easily denigrated next to the opulent grandeur of predecessor Crown Imperial, but evincing a jazzy lack of uninhibition and, in its trio, a suavity Yamada clearly relished in the company of an orchestra that made benchmark recordings with Louis Frémaux almost half a century ago. Even the latter could not summon the pizzaz conveyed here with that trio’s infectious return.

Walton’s Second Symphony has been equivocally regarded ever since its Liverpool premiere, but Yamada clearly harboured few doubts as to its conviction. The opening Allegro unfolded methodically if remorselessly, its main themes subtly yet meaningfully differentiated not least in bringing out the compositional mastery of sizable orchestral forces. Nor was there any lack of pathos in the ensuing Lento, its ominous tones denoting music shot through with intensely ambivalent emotion. Much the most difficult movement to sustain, the final Passacaglia was no less successful – Yamada binding its successive variations into a tensile if never inflexible whole, while making a virtue of Walton’s premise that a 12-note theme can resolve effortlessly in tonal terms at the peroration: a journey as fascinating as its destination proved exhilarating.

Interesting to note this concert was ‘being recorded for future release;, given the Walton was undoubtedly an account to savour. Yamada is back with the CBSO next week in a programme which pairs Mozart’s penultimate piano concerto and Bruckner’s (unfinished) final symphony.

For details on the 2024-25 season A Season of Joy, head to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about CBSO leader, violinist Eugene Tzikindelean – and the orchestra’s principal conductor Kazuki Yamada

Published post no.2,386 – Saturday 7 December 2024

In concert – King Creosote @ Union Chapel, London

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Union Chapel, London, 29 November 2024

by John Earls. Photo credit (c) John Earls

I fell in love with King Creosote (real name Kenny Anderson) in 2006 with the release of the special edition of KC Rules OK (which included superb sleeve notes by author Ian Rankin) and have been smitten ever since. He is a great singer-songwriter.

I first saw him live at London’s 100 Club in 2009 playing to about 100 people and then again at Union Chapel in 2011 where he performed the masterpiece Diamond Mine album with Jon Hopkins.

As an aside, I also met him on a bus in London in 2013. I was going to a concert at the Barbican and he hopped on with crutches and his ankle in a cast. He was utterly charming and it says something about him that he was on his way to play a gig (yes, on a bus and on crutches).

Needless to say I was looking forward to seeing him again at Union Chapel which is a stunningly beautiful venue. So let me get a couple of gripes out of the way.

Firstly, the sound system. Kenny Anderson is not just a superb singer – he is also a consummate wordsmith. It was therefore particularly disappointing that his words were often unintelligible (at least where I sat in the fifth pew). One can patch things up if familiar with the lyrics, but what a shame for those coming to KC for the first time. I’ve seen a number of live acts at Union Chapel (including, as mentioned, KC himself) without the same issue.

Secondly, the concert was performed in front of a screen which showed graphics accompanying the music. These were an interesting visual accompaniment and I get that they would be effective against the usual stage setup, but when gifted with such a magnificent backdrop as the wonderful stained glass East Window above Union Chapel’s pulpit and stage why obscure it? (again, this may have been more of an issue from my vantage point).

So to the concert which mostly consisted of a performance of the excellent 2023 I DES album in full. Inevitably, this will seem as much a review of that album (which I think will also be regarded as a masterpiece) as of the gig itself, for which KC was joined by an excellent seven piece band (including Emily Barker who performed a very good solo opening set) featuring acoustic guitar, accordion, fiddle, keyboards, synths, drum machines and percussion.

The performance effectively portrayed the album’s themes of love, loss and mortality, as well as its sense of optimism, hope and gratitude and opened with It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us with thumping beats and sweet strings.

We then had what Anderson has referred to as his “death trilogy” starting with the wonderful Blue Marbled Elm Trees. There can’t be a better song about one’s own funeral (I recommend listening to the fabulous episode of Nicola Meighan’s Kick Up The Arts: All Back To Mine with Anderson, where he says of this song “it had to be a jaunty death”). Burial Bleak and Dust complete the trilogy, which is then followed by the melancholic Walter de la Nightmare, the very bouncy Susie Mullen and Love Is a Curse.

The piano ballad Ides is one of the standout songs of the album (in my view it’s one of Anderson’s best ever), a perfect example of his unparalleled combination of voice and lyrics. Take the opening verse which amounts to a short story in itself:

When I said ‘excuse me, please’
You asked oh what did I want
I wanted someone to lie with on a Tuesday afternoon
Let’s say sometime around one o’clock
You must have looked shocked I fast changed tack
Right enough Thursdays are better for me
Once the clocks have gone back.

Mournful and beautiful, he sings, “But once I heard your voice / Like a punch to the chest / A kick in the gut / And a blow to the head all at once” and it takes my breath away.           

The I DES section of the show closes with Please Come Back I Will Listen, I Will Behave, I Will Toe the Line, shorter than the 13-minute album version but equally absorbing with fine backing vocals.

The rest of the concert consists of four numbers, a lovely So Forlorn, a lively No One Had It Better (from 2009’s Flick the Vs), Spystick (from 2007’s Bombshell) which (movingly for this reviewer) includes a taste of Not One Bit Ashamed (from KC Rules OK), and a groovy cover of Amanda Lear’s disco banger Follow Me. Kenny and the band then take a bow and are gone. As I left Union Chapel I said to myself “Thank God for Kenny Anderson”, a unique voice – lyrically, musically and literally.

John Earls is Director of Research at Unite the Union. He posts on Bluesky and tweets / updates his ‘X’ content at @john_earls

Published post no.2,370 – Friday 22 November 2024

In concert – Alexander Roslavets, Gidon Kremer, LPO / Andrey Boreyko @ Royal Festival Hall: A Dark Century

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Alexander Roslavets (narrator / bass), Gidon Kremer (violin), London Philharmonic Choir (men’s voices), London Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrey Boreyko

Schoenberg A Survivor from Warsaw Op.46 (1947)
Weinberg Violin Concerto in G minor Op.67 (1959)
Shostakovich Symphony no.13 in B flat minor Op.113 ‘Babi Yar’ (1962)

Royal Festival Hall, London
Wednesday 27 November 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Pictures (c) Richard de Stoutz (Andrey Boreyko), Angie Kremer (Gidon Kremer)

Anyone who heard one or other of these works for the first time at this concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra could be forgiven for thinking that the twentieth century, if not a ‘dark century’ per se, was at the very least a troubled one for all that the quality of its music was undeniable.

With its elements of melodrama and cantata, Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw is one of his most original conceptions and necessarily so, given the unnerving immediacy of its text in which a speaker has to take on the roles of survivor and officer in just six minutes. Alexander Roslavets rose to this challenge, bringing out emotional contrasts as surely as he instilled his words with that ominous dread whose culmination in the prayer Shema Yisrael was intoned by the London Philharmonic Choir with the right balance between desperation and defiance.

One composer who witnessed something of such atrocities was Mieczysław Weinberg, and if his Violin Concerto demonstrably continues the ‘Romantic’ tradition, this is still an inherently personal statement. Gidon Kremer has championed the composer extensively in recent years and, while technical issues seemingly inhibited the respectively incisive and impetuous outer movements, the restless searching of its intermezzo-like Allegretto then confiding eloquence of its Adagio were abundantly in evidence. For all its outward virtuosity, the music’s essential inwardness is what prevails as the soloist remains musing when the orchestra fell silent at the close of the finale. Kremer was in his element here, as in a touching rendition of Silvestrov’s Serenade which made for an apposite encore and was dedicated to all the people of Ukraine.

Best known for giving the posthumous premiere of Gorecki’s Fourth Symphony with the LPO 10 years back, Andrey Boreyko is well established as an exponent of Shostakovich so that his take on the Thirteenth Symphony did not disappoint. At a distance of over six decades, it can be hard to recapture the provocation of that most eminent Soviet composer using verse by the most populist younger poet, as Yevgeny Yevtushenko then was, but this setting of Babi Yar retains all its expressive force through the immediacy and resourcefulness in which it relates official indifference to the Jewish massacre as that ravine outside Kyiv was transformed into landfill. Broodingly restrained, Roslavets emerged into his own with Humour – its scabrous send-up of bone-headed officialdom inspiring one of Shostakovich’s most scurrilous scherzos.

Fashioning the last three movements into a cohesive if cumulative unity, Boreyko underlined the potency of Shostakovich’s creative vision as he takes the Soviet establishment to task for various failings economic as In the Store, political as in Fears and cultural as in A Career. Implacable then volatile, these first two are rounded off by Yevtushenko’s considering of the relationship between society and the individual; framed by an undulating melody, for flutes then strings, which is one of its composer’s most evocative as well as affecting inspirations.

It duly brought this work, and this performance, to its subdued yet spellbinding close. As the relationship between East and West becomes ever more confrontational, Shostakovich’s 13th remains a testament to rationality and compassion whose denigration is to everybody’s cost.

For details on the 2024-25 season, head to the London Philharmonic Orchestra website. Click on the names to read more about soloists Alexander Roslavets and Gidon Kremer

Published post no.2,373 – Monday 25 November 2024