BBC Concert Orchestra - Seeing The Light (recorded 26 Feb 2023)

Recent broadcast of a February concert from London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, themed around 'light'.  Starting off with Philip Glass' piece for the centenary of the Michelson-Morley experiment, the first half is rounded out with Peteris Vasks' Lonely Angel, introducing violinist Mari Samuelsen as the concert's featured soloist.  A great run of pieces after the interval, by Meredi, Guðnadóttir and Pärt further showcase Samuelsen, before the grand finale of Rautavaara's Angel Of Light symphony.  Great programme, brilliantly played.

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pw: sgtg

BBC Concert Orchestra / Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Tribute To Tomasz Stańko (live at EFG London Jazz Festival, 16th Nov 2022)

As the noted in the radio host's intro, the late, great Tomasz Stańko would've been 80 this year.  An ideal time for a tribute concert, then - and this one definintely delivers the goods, with the trio who worked with him for several years augmented by orchestra and special guests.  Since the Polish trumpeter's death four years ago, we've been left with a truly great catalogue in European jazz, and the impression (I certainly get) that Stańko just kept getting better with age.  His last few years are my favourite to return to over and over, and music from this period forms the core of the setlist, the elegaic melodies enhanced by the BBC Concert Orchestra in ways that serve the material well.

The first half begins with Yankiel's Lid and Street Of Crocodiles from Polin (links to other albums below), spotlighting young saxophonist Emma Rawicz.  To fill the essential trumpet role, we then get Avishai Cohen for the rest of the evening, starting with a beautiful rendition of the Wisława title track.  More guests are introduced by way of a duet interlude - guitarist Rob Luft, a recent addition to the ECM stable, backs singer Alice Zawadzki on a folk song arrangement of hers.  Luft is then the featured player as we return to Stańko's music for Terminal 7, to lead in to the interval - and I've left this 20-minute section of the broadcast intact for a change, as the announcer features clips of an interview with Stańko recorded in 2008.

 

Tomasz Stańko's early association with Krzysztof Komeda, mentioned in the interval, is also reflected in the concert resuming with the Lullabye from Rosemary's Baby, sung by Zawadzki backed by the orchestra. Stańko's own music for film and theatre is also touched on, with A Farewell To Maria and Roberto Zucco - good to hear from a corner of the Stańko ouevre that remains lesser-known (not least because those obscure soundtracks could do with being reissued).  Other than Celine, an arrangement of material from Suspended Night, the rest of the set returns to the Wisława album - Faces, April Story and then a brief rip through Assassins to close a superb concert.  Avishai Cohen sounds fantastic throughout, given the not inconsiderable task of stepping into Stańko's shoes; the Marcin Wasilewski Trio a perfect link to the composer in life (and Wasilewski is always such an incredible pianist), and well-chosen guests and sympathetic arrangements all make this a fitting tribute.  If you love Stańko's music even half as much as I do, don't miss this one.

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Tomasz Stańko at SGTG:
Jazzmessage From Poland
Purple Sun

TWET 

Balladyna
Freelectronic in Montreux
Bluish
Bosonossa And Other Ballads
Matka Joanna 

Suspended Night

Neighbourhood (Manu Katché) 

Wolność W Sierpniu - Freedom In August
Dark Eyes
Wisława
Polin

BBC Concert Orchestra & Guy Barker's New Jazz Orchestra - Celebrating Mingus (30th Sept 2022)

Broadcast of a tribute concert held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London just over a month ago.  Celebrating Mingus, in his centenary year, is achieved by the two orchestras and saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin not in a straightforward programme of Mingus tunes - as was the case with a previous tribute concert posted here - but through Mingus' formative influences, and a grand narrative work in the second half.

The concert does start off with a pair of Mingus classics - Don't Be Afraid, The Clown's Afraid Too and Us Is Two, freshly orchestrated by Guy Barker (as is the whole programme) and providing a punchy, vivacious curtain-raiser.  The tempo then comes down for a lovely Fleurette Africaine, and stays with Ellington for Money Jungle's title track and I Got It Bad.  This section, sketching out Mingus' early influences, next reaches all the way back to Joplin and an orchestration of Jelly Roll Morton's arrangement of Maple Leaf Rag, before returning to Ellington by way of Tizol for a great Caravan.

The single work devised by Barker that takes up the remainder of the concert is titled Mingus 100, and over 70 minutes paints the colourful life of its subject in vivid hues.  Far from being just a run-together medley of Mingus themes (although many classics are present and correct), the beautifully-arranged suite is narrated by Allan Harris, to a text by Rob Ryan.  Harris is a thoroughly engaging guide to the musical events, inhabiting the mercurial character of Mingus in all his joys, sorrows and memorable moments, turning the suite into something approaching a mini-musical biopic.  Just listen to the whole thing and enjoy, it's a wonderful tribute.

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Mingus at SGTG:

East Coasting
Jazz Portraits: Mingus In Wonderland 

Mingus Ah Um & Mingus Dynasty 
Oh Yeah

Tijuana Moods

Mingus Revisited (aka Pre-Bird)
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady  
Mingus Plays Piano  
Let My Children Hear Music

Mingus Moves
Changes One & Two
Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
plus:  

The Quintet: Jazz At Massey Hall
Blue Moods  
Money Jungle  

Mingus (Joni Mitchell album)
BBC Proms Tribute by Metropole Orkest

BBC Concert Orchestra with Mari Samuelsen - Glass, Higdon, Taylor-West, Perivolaris (live in London, 5 May 2022)

Broadcast concert from a month ago held in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, London.  As well as the main attractions of the programme, the Glass and Higdon concertos, two commissioned pieces were given their premiere and introduced by their composers.  First up is Liam Taylor-West's Making Space, inspired by non-repeating mathematical patterns; the bright, bustling music made me think of Steve Reich's cityscapes.  Gaelic call-and-response hymn singing and forest regrowth combine next in Electra Periovolaris' A Forest Reawakens, an intriguing four-minute introduction to another young and promising composer.

Philip Glass' Violin Concerto then takes us back to the 80s, and the beginning of his embrace of more traditional classical forms, but still with the trademark gradually-shifting repetitive strucutures and a great showcase for the featured violinist Mari Samuelsen.  The second half of the concert is taken up by Jennifer Higdon's Concerto For Orchestra (2002), getting off to a whirlwind start before passing the spotlight round the strings, the soloists and percussion.  It's a great finish to a highly complementary programme of first-class musicianship and composing.

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Merry Christmas!

Have a great one tomorrow.  Here's a radio broadcast from Christmas night last year, featuring the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra.  First, the collaboration Hymn, originally a spoken-word release by writer Alan Bennett with string quartet backing composed by George Fenton, is re-arranged for choir, with Bennett reading about half of the original-length narrative on his formative musical experiences.  It's not a Christmas-focused story as such, but it is a moving insight into mid-20th century Britain.  The other work is an old Christmas classic, adapating Dickens for orchestra with narration read here by Stephen Fry.  The music was composed by Richard Allain.

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BBC Concert Orchestra / James McVinnie - Rautavaara, Glass, Pärt, Jóhannsson etc (BBC Proms 2021)

Another great Proms concert, recorded a week ago and this time pairing the BBC Concert Orchestra with organist James McVinnie.  A well-selected programme of atmospheric modern orchestral music is punctuated by a couple of fantastic solo organ pieces, then both come together in the finale.

 

Einojuhani Rautavaara's chilly soundscape Cantus Arcticus is up first, the music woven around taped birdsong captured by Rautavaara in northern Finland in the early 70s.  A brief piece by Judith Weir is next: she describes Still, Glowing as "an attempt at ambient music".  The first feature for James McVinnie is Philip Glass' Mad Rush, in its original organ version - recording by Glass here, or on piano here.  The orchestra return with Arvo Pärt's Festina Lente.

No interval in this performance, so the orchestra continue on with two pieces from the late Jóhann Jóhannsson's Orphée album, reproducing their lovely melancholy in fine style.  In between them is another solo organ spotlight, this time one of Messiaen's Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité.  American composer Missy Mazzoli's Holy Roller is next, taking fragments of Tallis to create "a monument to a non-existent religion", then McVinnie joins the orchestra for Canadian Samy Moussa's incredible A Globe Itself Infolding to give a memorable conclusion to the programme.

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Arvo Pärt at SGTG: Spiegel Im Spiegel, etc

Jóhann Jóhannsson at SGTG: Fordlandia / Orphée

and lots of Philip Glass.

Bang On A Can All-Stars / BBC Concert Orchestra - Bang On! (recorded live, 28 Feb 2020)

A fantastic concert given last Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in which the BBC Concert Orchestra were paired with the Bang On A Can All-Stars.  The group's parent organisation Bang On A Can, founded in the late 80s, have performed works by Reich, Riley, Glass and many others, as well as a famous full-album cover of Brian Eno's Music For Airports.

John Adams' The Chairman Dances proves to be the perfect curtain-raiser for the show, played just by the BBC Concert Orchestra with great swing and verve - find the original recording here.  The main event concludes the first half of the concert, with the orchestra backing the All-Stars in the European premiere of Julia Wolfe's (one of the BOAC founders) Flower Power.  Written as a tribute to 1960s counterculture, it starts in woozy drones that reminded me a bit of Fausto Romitelli, before kicking into gear and embarking on a stunning journey through rock and psychedelia, dramatic orchestral evocations of protest and social upheaval, some gorgeous reflective passages and much more.

The group and orchestra play separately in the second half, with Bang On A Can All-Stars up first.  They play Horses Of Instruction, a work written for them in 1994 by a composer I only discovered last year, Steve Martland.  Like Martland's Babi Yar on that album, the influences of muscular, driving rock and Martland's teacher Louis Andriessen are both very much in evidence, but this work is much less dark in tone.  Made me think of a more melodic version of 90s King Crimson at times.  To close, the strings of the orchestra perform Philip Glass' Symphony No. 3.  I've largely avoided symphonic Glass over the years, but for all the received wisdom of this facet of his ouevre being interminable stodge, it was an enjoyable listen and a nice reflective comedown to end such a spectacular concert. Highly recommended, especially the Julia Wolfe centrepiece.

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