Wigmore Hall lunchtime concerts
“It’s the most wonderful time of optimism and a new start,” said pianist Stephen Hough on ‘Breakfast on Monday’ 1st June He was looking forward to walking on to the Wigmore Hall stage for the first concert in the Radio3/Wigmore Hall series of live lunchtime broadcasts. Every weekday in June one or two classical musicians will play an hour–long programme in a UK concert-hall, for the first time since mid-March. The catch of course is that this is to a hall empty, save for the announcer and the broadcast technicians.
It is a long way from the kind of performance that we want to get back to. But Stephen Hough is right: we have to start somewhere, and his concert proved an excellent beginning. The concerts are streamed live from the link below, which also provides a full list of the concerts. After a couple of distant shots of the announcer Andrew McGregor half-way back in the hall, we had close-ups of Stephen Hough, resplendent in high-collared dark grey silk jacket, intent on the Steinway, and might mostly forget the empty space in front of him.
https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/wigmore-series/special-broadcasts
His programme today began with J S Bach’s ‘Partita for violin’ (arranged Busoni), chosen to evoke the first performance in the Hall almost exactly 119 years ago when the pianist, Feruccio Busoni played this same work. It consists of over 20 variations on Bach’s theme, some slow and meditative, some complex and thrilling. This was followed by Schumann’s ‘Fantasie in C’. (The titles for the individual sections were given in German, though not in English. Might there be surtitles for the song recitals?) It was a suitably serious, though not solemn, re-introduction to the longer classical repertoire that we have missed for the last three months. No applause, but there was an encore. Andrew McGregor asked Stephen Hough if he ‘happened’ to have one ready, and he introduced Gounod’s Bach arrangement, ‘Ave Maria’. Almost as moving in this empty hall as was Nicola Benedetti and Lawrence Powers’ SCO ‘Farewell to Stromness’ at the end of the last live concert I heard in a busy Usher Hall on 12th March.
There are further solo piano recitals by Paul Lewis and Imogen Cooper, both playing Schubert and Beethoven, and Angela Hewitt playing Bach. Other pianists feature in intriguing duos: Kristian Bezuidenhout plays Schubert and Beethoven with violinist Alina Ibragimova. Melvyn Tan with cellist Guy Johnston have more Beethoven and Schumann. Bezuidenhout and Tan, both early keyboard specialists, are playing piano in these concerts.
It will be a welcome treat to hear this quality of chamber musicians. Not all the music is from the standard repertoire. Try, for example, Scottish guitarist, Sean Shibe’s concert of music from the Scottish Lute Manuscript, a Bach Suite in E minor, and Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint for Electric Guitar and Tape!
I am particularly looking forward to the song recitals. Lucy Crowe, accompanied by Anna Tilbrook, is first up on 2nd June, singing Schumann and Berg and what’s described as a survey of English song, starting with Arne, and including the occasional Irish one on the way. Songs in English feature in three more of these recitals. (All of the artists performing this month are, unsurprisingly, UK – probably London- based.) Ailish Tynan includes a selection of songs in English by Irish traditional and US composers, finishing with ‘Over the Rainbow’. Allan Clayton’s programme has works by Vaughan Williams, Bridges, and Britten. Counter-tenor Iestyn Davies, accompanied by lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, provides a survey of songs in English from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
There are also two lieder recitals. In the first, Roderick Williams (accompanied by Joseph Middleton) poses the question, “Should a man be singing these songs?” in his programme, by Schubert, Brahms, and Clara Schumann, of songs which are usually sung by women. If anyone can convince us of this, it will be Williams, whose lyrical baritone and engaging personality are always worth encountering. Probably the highlight of the series is the performance on its final day of ‘Winterreise’ by Mark Padmore with Mitsuko Uchida. Padmore is one of the finest lieder singers around today. He is a magnificent story-teller, having the ability to communicate with apparent simplicity.
So a month of terrific music-making to look forward to. Many musicians have done sterling work in the last few months presenting us with mini concerts from their homes, welcome and entertaining, but all too brief and unsatisfying. Radio 3 and Wigmore Hall are to be congratulating in organising these concerts to present us with some challenges as well as much of interest.
What next? We are promised some Proms, though when, where and in what format have still to be agreed. A Guardian leader on 1st June notes that the low level of British arts funding will make socially distanced audience spaces impossible to operate in any economical fashion. Meanwhile with German levels of up to 80% funding for the performing arts, the Berliner Ensemble who play in an older style theatre have taken out 500 of their 700 seats, and are opening in September with ‘relaxed’ performances with no interval, but audience members being free to go out to the toilet any time. Because of their subsidy, seat-prices won’t have to be raised either. The Usher Hall, spacious and well-ventilated with a large stage, has removable seating in the Stalls – and an Upper Circle which isn’t always in use for concerts. It can seat 2000. How hard would it be to reconfigure it to seat 600?
There has been some support in the UK through furlough measures for the permanent staff of arts organisations, and for individual artists through self-employment schemes, but now is the time for a major package of funding to ensure the survival of live performances.
