 |
 |
|
 |
||
|
Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Barbican, London 11 & 12 June 2003 Carl NIELSEN Maskarade
11 June Maskarade
(Comic opera in three acts) A rare and welcome opportunity to become acquainted with Denmark's
national opera in the theatre, where it belongs; the rumbustious
overture sounded better emerging from the deep Guildhall pit than
as a virtuoso concert party piece for visiting Danish orchestras.
It fields a huge cast, ideal for a student production, and the carnival scenes, with numerous revellers charging back and forth, give scope for complicated choreography which Sarah Fahie contrives to make seemingly natural rather than obviously contrived set pieces. The setting was fairly uncomplicated, but effective, with the second act leading everyone down into what turned out, in the third, to be a basement club/dive, just right for a bit of harmless flirting in masked disguise and a divertissement about unfaithful Venus. The rich orchestral score has numerous felicities and supports some gorgeous arias and ensembles, with the chorus kept busy. Earlier reviews were a little grudging, but by the last night the complicated mechanics of Martin Lloyd-Evans’s production were working smoothly.
Another production for which London is indebted to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Peter Grahame Woolf Recording:
Nielsen Maskarade (in Danish)
London's music colleges are a hive of performance activity open to the public. Attending Masquerade at the Guildhall, my eyes were drawn to a lively flyer for Alison Luz's recital there the following afternoon. That we attended it, to our great pleasure and reward, carries lessons for agents and concert promoters everywhere. With so many in London to choose, critics are drawn to unknown artists by repertoire more than by hype - and this was an attractive programme of Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, followed by Barber, Crumb & Rzewski, which suggested a young musician of enterprise and a flair for presentation; both essential for launching a career. It turned out to be a degree finals examination event, with a cohort of supporters in the audience and a panel of adjudicators at the back - which did not faze her in the least. A personable young pianist, originally from Spain, she displayed
many welcome attributes and a platform manner which exuded quiet
confidence, and enjoyment in savouring her instrument and in performing
her chosen music, nearly all by memory. She has fine ears and a
sensitivity to pianistic colour, shown immediately in the voicing
of undemonstrative opening of the Shostakovich magnum opus, and
in the most delicate of Rachmaninoff's major solo works - but with
no lack of fire when called for. The Music Hall at the Guildhall is an excellent venue for recitals, clear acoustic, not too dry; there I first heard Rolf Hind when still a music student (elsewhere!) and noted him for a great future. What does the future hold? So many vicissitudes beset the numerous accomplished pianists who pass through the colleges. We look forward to hearing Alison Luz again. Forthcoming events at Guildhall School of Music & Drama can be found at http://www.gsmd.ac.uk/ |
Tenor
Benjamin Hulett and his servant Arv, Nicholas Smith,
made a splendid double act, and it was good to see the versatile
Gudrún Ólafsdóttir for the third time
in a short period (q.v. 
ALISON
LUZ Piano Recital 
was
his Down by the Riverside, not the ubiquitous Winsboro
Cotton Mill Blues, which is the only piece of his which makes
regular appearances (she may review her interpretation when she
has heard