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Barbican. London, 28th October 2015
As befits this deep thinking musical polymath, the programme for Stephen Hough’s Barbican concert was carefully constructed to reveal every side of his personality – artistic, creative and philosophical. The concert showcased Hough’s new Piano Sonata III, written to celebrate the 175th anniversary of The Tablet, which Hough intelligently linked to his choice of other composers. The spiritual preoccupations of Schubert, Franck and Liszt match Hough’s own, but there were motivic connections between the works in the programme too: for example, the final movement of Hough’s Piano Sonata mirrored the grandeur and hymn-like qualities of Franck’s Fugue. Liszt’s Valses oubliées looked forward to Schoenberg and his cohort in their unexpected harmonies and fragmentary melodies, while Hough’s own work looked back to the 12-tone compositional technique, originally conceived by Schoenberg. There was also virtuosity aplenty too – in his own work and in two of Liszt’s Transcendental Études, which closed the concert.

Read my full review here 
(Photo credit: Sim Canetty Clarke)

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Who or what inspired you to take up jazz, and pursue a career in music?

Since I was a child music made me feel happier, but it took me a long time before it became a professional career. I tried to distract myself with a degree in English Literature at the University of Cagliari and a Master in theatre directing at Goldsmiths College London but in the end music has always been the strongest part of my soul. I needed to express myself through my voice. I started singing and performing when I was a student in Cagliari, Sardinia, where I also attended theatre workshops and contemporary dance classes; I wanted to be a complete performer. All these years of studying literature and theatrical semiotics and practising theatre directing have become part of my performance style, a fusion of jazz, theatre and literature. I even now run a theatre direction course at Essex University, and I’m giving a workshop on 4 November with Cleveland Watkiss at the Italian Cultural Institute. 
Who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

I used to listen to jazz records and attend live concerts when I was very young and had a special interest for Brazilian music. Pat Metheny and Elis Regina were one of the very first jazz musicians I listened to regularly, as a student. I was playing in a Latin Jazz band at the time and it was the bandleader who got me into Brazilian jazz, for which I’m still grateful. Of course, there are jazz stars from my homeland of Sardinia too: Paolo Fresu, Antonello Salis, and the woman I was lucky enough to have as a teacher, jazz singer Maria Pia De Vito. The Sardinian musical tradition has a strong presence in my work, and I’m incredibly curious about rhythms from different parts of the world too. I’ve travelled to many countries – Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal, which have a language in common. Portuguese has music and a natural, fascinating rhythm of its own. I am especially interested in seeing how the voice is used in different cultures.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

Directing the big theatre production Misterioso, a theatre/jazz play about Thelonious Monk, was a big test. I knew that Stefano Benni, one of Italy’s most prominent authors, had toured with a text about Monk throughout Italy. Through my friend and colleague Paolo Fresu I approached Benni to turn his text, which I translated, into a theatrical production.

Misterioso is a script or poem about the last years of Thelonious Monk’s life, when he fell into a complete creative silence in response to the persecution of the McCarthy years. I got a huge team together, technical staff and also managed to get funding through the English Arts Council. Its first run at the People’s Theatre in Camden in 2006 resulted in a three week run at the Riverside Studios, which was sold out night after night, and the reviews were great.

Now I’ve asked Stefano Benni to join vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and me on stage for a jazz adaptation of ‘Misterioso’ at the PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Soho on 11 November. 

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

Organising the annual Theatralia Jazz Festival is a huge but rewarding challenge; seeing all these musicians come together and make great jazz is fantastic and fills me with pride.

I am also proud of the recording Jester of Jazz with my own quartet as well as my most recent album Scaramouche. That CD contains a track ‘Momentum’ featuring Kenny Wheeler, which might have been one of the last recordings he made before he passed away last year. Hugely memorable to me. 

Which particular works do you think you play best?

Free jazz. Thelonious Monk was a huge inspiration to me; he was so open to all the possible sounds, and so expressive in his use of them. I want to capture that same spirit of exploration, and use my voice to discover new sounds, new melodies, new rhythmic possibilities in performance. I believe that jazz music is a continuous challenge, a never ending learning process. I like to challenge myself continuously, learning difficult melodies, harmonies and rhythms, otherwise I get bored very easily.

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

 My repertoire is entirely original year on year, so every season there are new projects, new songs to write, new musicians to work with. I love meeting new artists and creating new collaborations. I mainly look to poetry, literature and art objects for inspiration. I love going to concerts to see what’s happening around me and meeting people who are just as open-minded as I try to be for collaborations! Having a language in common helps, naturally, but they need to be on my wavelength too.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

I love to travel and perform in theatres and international festivals. I’ve enjoyed touring in Germany, Croatia, Italy and remember great clubs like A-trane in Berlin, Night Club in the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich, Alexanderplatz in Rome, I love the Edinburgh Queen’s Hall too. Last year B-flat opened its doors in Cagliari, a new club that reminds me largely of the PizzaExpress Jazz Club in Soho. The PizzaExpress have believed and supported me in my projects from the very start. They are open to projects that are not exactly conventional, but sometimes experimental and challenging, for the audience as well as for the musicians. Largely, my favourite venues are theatres, I feel at home there.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

I love the work of Hermeto Pascoal and other Brazilian masters. I love the way they use the voice as an instrument, with or without words, and their melodies are a challenge and an experience to learn and perform. I’m always very curious, always looking for new vocalists I could work with. At the moment I’m working on a piece written by Luciano Berio, Sequenza III; I love Cathy Berberian’s performance of it.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Paolo Fresu, Monica Salmaso, Nana Simopoulos, Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss, Maria Joao, Egberto Gismonti, Demetrio Stratos and many more.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

A duet with Antonello Salis (accordion and piano master), performing ‘Stripsody’ by Cathy Berberian together in a beautiful theatre in Sardinia, Italy. Stripsody is a composition by Berberian, totally based on the onomatopoeic sounds from comic books. Salis didn’t know the piece, written only for one voice, and he started improvising and following my vocal sounds with his piano/vocals and the incredible objects he uses during his performances. It was great fun. I also remember a splendid moment in a huge theatre in Wolfsburg, Germany, when a big Sardinian traditional choir joined my jazz quartet onstage, and we all improvised on a Sardinian tune called No Potho Reposare. There’s even a video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdaKjGmbl40). We joined in with their singing bit by bit and it was magical, unforgettable. 

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

Learning to search for their own unique voice and sound, never just imitating others. Young musicians must have the courage to take risks and create something new. As for women in jazz, I want to show that they can be leaders of bands, they can be composers of jazz music. I put together my group the 4Njanas as a celebration of women’s art, of women’s contribution to jazz. 

How do you choose the programme for your annual jazz festival? 

I always want to bring together musicians who haven’t performed together before. The duo of Paolo Fresu playing with tuba player Oren Marshall is an example of these new encounters. The revival of ‘Misterioso’ is by popular demand. I look forward to seeing Stefano Benni on stage this time himself in this jazz adaptation of what originally was a theatre production.

For Theatralia this year, we’re putting together Paolo Fresu, a trumpeter, with Oren Marshall, a tuba player. It shouldn’t work, but it does; but who would have thought of it?! Having this kind of open mind is so important to carve out a niche. Not just calling themselves a ‘vocalist’; they’re a jazz artist using their voice. 

What are most looking forward to in this year’s Theatralia Jazz Festival?

The Njanas! This is a new all female-band I started up with three colleagues of mine, all jazz musicians who are leaders of their own band. The Njanas will open this year’s festival as a real statement, to give a voice to women in jazz.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?

Where I am now. I love London, I moved here 14 years ago, I love being around people and artists from all over the world. It’s something I could not live without. 

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Touring the world performing with fab musicians.

What is your most treasured possession?  

My music and my books.

What is your present state of mind?

Really excited looking forward to my forthcoming festival.

Filomena Campus’s Theatralia Jazz Festival comes to the PizzaExpress Jazz Club, Soho, from 9-11 November, with preliminary events at the Italian Cultural Institute and Italian Bookshop, London, on 4, 6 & 7 November.

http://www.theatraliajazzfestival.com/
 

 

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(Picture source: ClassicFM)
Recently I was contacted by a marketing company working for superstar Dutch violinist, composer and concert master André Rieu. In addition to inviting me to review Andre’s latest CD ‘Roman Holiday’, I was also asked if I might help advertise “André Rieu themed parties”.

For many “serious” classical music fans, André Rieu epitomises high schmalz and low culture: the Disney-esque concert master with the curly mullet, his concerts brimming with Viennese waltzes and polkas, the women in his orchestra resplendent in bouffant crinolines. Ye gods! The man even has his own tv series on Sky Arts. However, for many people he also represents an accessible way into classical music: his concerts sell out, he makes millions in CD sales, he has undeniably clever and powerful marketing and PR. The latest strand in the André Rieu empire is “themed parties” where, presumably, people sit around listening to his new CD (mullets and crinolines not necessarily obligatory). Whilst enjoying a joint guffaw with my musician friends and colleagues on Facebook, a number of people suggesting that these parties might be like updated Tupperware or Anne Summers parties which take place “guiltily behind closed doors”, the idea of a classical music themed party began to gain some credence – for me at least…..

How to engage new audiences is a constant preoccupation of almost everyone in the classical music industry. Many things have been tried, from The Late Shift (classical music in a pub) and Speed Dating with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to performers eschewing formal clothing in favour of comfy sneakers and jeans and swearing a lot while talking about Bach’s sex life, or asking the audience to pay only what they think the concert is worth (a recent initiative from the Hallé). These days you can enjoy contemporary classical music in a carpark, or Baroque music in a semi-ruined church (The Asylum in Peckham). I’ve hosted and performed in several concerts at Brunswick House, part of the London Architectural Salvage & Supply Co, where you can buy the chair on which you are sitting, or even the piano, as everything in the building is for sale. 

Performers, promoters and concert organisers are constantly trying to find new ways to rebrand the notion that most classical music was written by “dead white males” to sex it up for new audiences and the younger generation. Trouble is, the younger generation can spot an older person trying to get on down with the kids a mile off, or recognise when they are being patronised – and to be honest, classical music doesn’t really need sexing up: it’s quite sexy – and exciting and varied and heart-stoppingly wonderful – enough as it is.

(Picture source: Kef store)
Is the idea of a “themed party” where one enjoys classical music really such a preposterous one? Once upon a time there were record clubs where people met to listen to LPs and enjoy and discuss the music/performers they heard. If not André Rieu, what about a Philip Glass themed party, or a Mozart party (with the option to wear powdered wigs and brocade waistcoats), or a Messiaen party where we all wear shades of mauve and orange with flashes of sky blue? Joking apart, such events could be another way to engage new audiences by allowing people to sample classical music in an informal setting (someone’s home or a small intimate venue), where there is no etiquette (beyond good manners), no need to worry about clapping at the wrong time, or not knowing enough about the Second Viennese School….. (In fact, this notion is not so far removed from something I was involved in until recently – the London Piano Meetup Group, an informal group of pianists and piano fans who met in various venues to perform, share repertoire and generally rave about what we love about the piano and it’s literature.) You see, I believe that if people are allowed to explore classical music on their own terms in a friendly and unpretentious environment, they might just consider buying a ticket to a concert at the Southbank or Wigmore Hall. In some ways, it’s just about giving them to confidence to make that leap from living room to Leipzig Gewandhaus…..

Returning to Mr Rieu, here is an intelligent and entertaining article on what mainstream classical musicians and orchestras might learn from André. After all, he must be doing something right, given his full houses and million-dollar CD sales….. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

More on engaging audiences for classical music here

Five Ways to Attract New Arts Audiences

What’s wrong with the classical concert experience in the 21st century?

Classical music isn’t a secret society unless we allow it to be

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Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music? 

I grew up surrounded by a family of musicians. Everyone played in the local brass band and my grandparents were really my first teachers. When I was 15 I received a scholarship to study at Chethams School of Music in Manchester and whilst there a friend and I sneaked out of school one day to see a production of the Rite of Spring. It was the first time I’d experienced orchestral music and dance performed live together and I found the whole experience hugely overwhelming. As soon as I left the theatre I knew I wanted to write music.

Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer? 

Early on in my career it was brass bands that provided me with a way into music. I grew up playing the tenor horn and moved onto French horn when I started at Chethams. It was here that I experienced orchestral music for the first time. The music of Stravinsky, Turnage, Prokofiev, John Adams really struck a chord with me. Even now I find those early influences really underpin what I want to do as a composer. My music is often very fast, driven and rhythmic. It’s immediate, and for me that’s important.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? 

I’m about to start working on an opera. I think this will be my most challenging project, but I can’t wait to get started on it.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece? 

For me the aim of the process is to hear my music performed. I’ve never been good at writing music without a performance in mind. The process is hard, long and at times frustrating but to finally hear the music performed is what drives me. Of course when you are working to a specific commission or brief you can’t necessarily write whatever you want, but the restraints that come with a commission are good for me; it gives me structure and a guide.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles and orchestras? 

I love collaborating with other artists. As a composer you spend a great deal of time alone and this can sometimes be counter productive. So the opportunity to actually create music with other musicians, artists or choreographers is something I thrive on. I really work my best when I’m working with others, so when I’ve collaborated with choreographers or librettists I feel I’ve written some of my strongest pieces. When you know the ensemble you are working with so well it can help drive the creative practice. I have a great relationship with Tredegar Town Band, for whom I have written two large works now. Since I know the players and conductor so well we can just get straight the heart of the music. It’s wonderful.

Which works are you most proud of?  

That’s a tough one because I am very self-conscious about the music I write. In most of my works there are moments that bother me, either because listening now I find it naïve or I feel I could do it better if I was able to write the piece again. But I suppose the two pieces I’m most proud of are Dark Arteries, a ballet I’ve just completed about the miners’ strike, and Velocity, which was commissioned to open the Last Night of the Proms in 2014. It was such an honour to be asked to write that piece, the whole experience was just incredible.

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

A few years ago I heard the Berlin Philharmonic play Brahms 2 in Oxford at 10:30 in the morning. I have never heard such an incredible sound in my life. Every single player, from the front desk to back, played like they were leading the orchestra and the performance was thrilling. I heard them play the whole of the Firebird score last year at the Proms and I was in tears at the end. They’re such an incredible group of musicians.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians? 

A career in music is tough and is full of challenges and frustrations and so you have to work hard and practice your craft every day. Go to lots of concerts and listen to lots of different kinds of music. Take what you do seriously and be self critical, but don’t be self critical it impedes on you improving, know when to give yourself credit!

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time? 

Happy, comfortable, maybe taking a walk in the Blue Mountains.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Having a lovely time on my roof with my London family…. Also eating sushi….

What is your most treasured possession? 

My pictures of my friends and family.

What do you enjoy doing most? 

Time in London. I love this town and it breaks my heart to see what’s happening to it at the moment. I just hope that we can get it back on track, it’s the most amazing city in the world and we shouldn’t allow greedy, corporate villains to take it from us. It is the centre of cultural universe and we must fight to keep it that way.