PETER Buck is far and away the most well-known member of The Minus Five, which is essentially a vehicle for the tuneful songs of Scott McCaughey, sometime second guitarist to Buck in REM.
Likewise, the “support act” The No Ones, comprised of exactly the same musicians, playing the same instruments.
Buck quietly played the bass in a not dissimilar style to his rhythm guitar playing. While all eyes were on him, his total attention was on following the changes in the music.
Guitarist Frode Strømstad’s solos were fast but essentially empty but his rhythm guitar was good. In truth, Buck also lacks his own voice as a bass player. This is a band whose members are happy to play in the service of the material rather than competing for the spotlight.
Drummer Arne Kjelsrud looked like he was having a wonderful time, a smile fixed on his handsome face as he and Buck held the songs together. McCaughey was the front man and singer, the one speaking to us too.
The Minus Five performing at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds. Picture: Paul Rhodes
Having toured this same venue with Luke Haines in February, Buck and The Minus Five were back in Leeds, this time playing second fiddle to a Bon Jovi act next door on the Brudenell’s bigger stage.
“Is this the biggest place I’ve ever played?” Buck joked, in response to an early audience question. “Perhaps, in Leeds, in the last month.” It was the one nod to being in the presence of a man who has sold out stadiums around the world.
While lacking any overt star appeal, the band has a loyal following. The songs are mostly strong but never scale the same heights as REM. The No Ones sported a couple of more memorable songs; one about the late, great Phil Ochs and the best about a very much alive Jenny Lewis. A song for The Beatles was by some stretch the worst of the night.
The Minus Five set was unsurprisingly the stronger. Better sound, better songs, same personnel. Quietly prolific under the critical radar, their latest is the second instalment about Neil Young. Two back-to-back Young numbers were among the highlights, a fuzzed-up Hitchhiker and then a seemingly impromptu Revolution Blues.
In short. no razzmatazz, just good songs well played. The Minus Five are not really a big deal, but fun to see live.
The King’s Singers: “Aural clarity blending seamlessly with the purity of Fretwork’s viols”
Ryedale Festival: The King’s Singers and Fretwork, St Peter’s Church, Norton, July 14
TWO of British music’s most venerable small groups, The King’s Singers and Fretwork, united to open this year’s Ryedale Festival in fine style. Marking the 400th anniversary of the deaths of composers Thomas Weelkes and William Byrd, the concert mirrored their recently released album Tom And Will.
Weelkes’s Hark All Ye Lovely Saints Above set the tone for the evening, The King’s Singers aural clarity blending seamlessly with the purity of Fretwork’s viols. His mischievous Thule, The Period Of Cosmography was given a kaleidoscopic performance with fleet changes of sonic colour, the singers revelling in the words.
Byrd’s This Sweet And Merry Month Of May was joyous: classic King’s Singers material served up with relish. Their purposeful, surefooted and expressive negotiation of Byrd’s uncompromising counterpoint in O Salutaris Hostia was a marvel.
As well as underpinning vocal numbers, Fretwork contributed instrumental consort music, always easy to listen to, rich and resonant. Rhythms in Byrd’s Prelude & Ground, The Queen’s Goodnight, were nicely sprung.
But his Canon Fantasy was peculiarly unsmiling, conveying but little delight in its imitative cleverness, no sense of the lead violist challenging the treble to reciprocate his flights of fancy.
Appropriately for a death anniversary there were tributes: Byrd’s tribute to his teacher Tallis and Weelkes’s to his teacher Thomas Morley were each succeeded by a modern counterpart commissioned specially for Tom And Will.
Sir James MacMillan’s Ye Sacred Muses is richly textured, expertly crafted, its ending quietly affecting. Roderick Williams’s Death, Be Not Proud is right up these performers’ street, with harmonic effects showcasing the familiar King’s Singers sound world. More than twice as long as their models, these new works overburdened the concert’s long first half.
A nice touch was the short first-half encore incorporating the Ryedale Primary Choir, the fruits of a masterclass earlier in the day. An initiative supported by the Richard Shephard Music Foundation, it’s lovely that these seasoned pros, and the festival, take time out to encourage such youngsters.
Shed Seven, 2023: Vocalist Rick Witter, left, guitarist Paul Banks, second from right, and bassist Tom Gladwin,right, are joined by drummer Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield and keyboardist Tim Willis at Millennium Square,Leeds, tonight. Picture: Barnaby Fairley
GOING for gold, whether with the Sheds or down at the maze, Charles Hutchinson heads outdoors but is drawn back indoors too.
Outdoor gig of the weekend: Shed Seven, Sounds In The City 2023, Millennium Square, Leeds, today, from 6pm
FRESH from announcing next January’s release of their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, York’s Shed Seven head to Leeds city centre for a sold-out, 6,00-capacity Millennium Square show.
Performing alongside regular vocalist Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks and bassist Tom Gladwin will be Tim Willis on keyboards and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield on drums. Support slots go to fellow Britpop veterans Cast and rising York band Skylights.
Be amazed: York Maze reopens for a new season today
Opening of the weekend: York Maze, Elvington Lane, Elvington, near York, today until September 4
THE Cobsleigh Run race and Crowmania ride are among the new attractions when York Maze opens for its 21st season today with a new show marquee too – and the giant image of Tutankhamun cut by farmer Tom Pearcy into a 15-acre field of maize.
Created from one million living, growing maize plants, Britain’s largest maze has more than 20 rides, attractions and shows for a fun-filled family day out. Where else would you find a Corntroller of Entertainment, corny pun intended? Step forward Josh Benson, York magician, pantomime star and, yes, corntroller. Tickets: 01904 608000 or yorkmaze.com.
Gary Stewart: Celebrating the songs of Paul Simon at Helmsley Arts Centre
Show title of the week: Gary Stewart, The Only Living Boy In (New) York – An Evening of Paul Simon Songs, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
GARY Stewart, singer, songwriter, guitarist, Hope & Social drummer and programmer for At The Mill’s folk bills, turns the spotlight on the songs of New Yorker Paul Simon, his chief folk/pop influence.
Born in Perthshire, Stewart cut his Yorkshire teeth on the Leeds music scene for 15 years before moving to York (and now Easingwold, to be precise). He is sometimes to be found fronting his Graceland show, another vessel for Paul Simon songs. Tonight, his focus is on The Boxer, Mrs Robinson, Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Kodachrome et al. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
The Young’uns: Playing Ryedale Festival on July 20 at 7pm at the Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Pamela Raith
Festival of the week outside York: Ryedale Festival, running until July 30
DIRECTED once more by Christopher Glynn, Ryedale Festival returns with 55 concerts, celebrating everything from Tchaikovsky to troubadours in beautiful North Yorkshire locations. Artists in residence include Anna Lapwood, Nicky Spence, Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.
Taking part too will be Boris Giltburg, the Dudok Quartet, Jess Gillam, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, guitarist Plínio Fernandes,trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, jazz singer Clare Teal and north eastern folk musicians The Young’uns, among others. For the full programme and tickets, go to: reydalefestival.com.
Mark Thomas: Performing one-man play England And Son at Selby Town Hall on Sunday. Picture: Tony Pletts
Work in Progress of the week: Mark Thomas in England And Son, Selby Town Hall, Sunday, 7.30pm
POLITICAL comedian Mark Thomas stars in this one-man play, set when The Great Devouring comes home: the first he has performed not written by the polemicist himself but by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards.
Directed by Cressida Brown, England And Son has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s lived experience in jail. Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, Thatcherite politics and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
Bee Scott: Presenting her queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This at Connect Festival on Thursday
Festival of the week in York: Four Wheel Drive presents Connect Festival, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Sunday
FOUR Wheel Drive’s Connect Festival opens with Women’s Voices on Wednesday, staging two new shows, Giorgia Test’s Behind My Scars and Rhia Burston’s Woebegone. Thursday’s Non-Linear Narratives features Bee Scott’s queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This and Natasha Stanic Mann’s immersive insight into hidden consequences of war, The Return.
Friday’s Comedy and Burlesque bill presents Joe Maddalena in Gianluca Scatto and Maddalena’s dark comedy about male mental health, Self Help, Aidan Loft’s night-train drama On The Rail and A Night With York’s Stars burlesque show, fronted by Freida Nipples. More details next weekend. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Four Forty Theatre’s cast for the Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet comedy doube bill: Amy Roberts, Luke Thornton, Dom Gee-Burch and Amy Merivale
Unhinged comedy of the week: Four Forty Theatre in Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday, 7.30pm
MACBETH in 40 minutes? Romeo & Juliet in 40 minutes? Both shows performed by only four actors on one raucous night? Yes, welcome back Four Forty Theatre, returning to the JoRo with a brace of Shakespeare’s tragedies transformed into an outrageous, flat-out comedy double bill.
In the line-up will be actress and primary school teacher Alice Merivale; Liverpool actress, musician, director, vocal coach and piano teacher Amy Roberts; company debutant actor-musician Luke Thornton and company director and pantomime dame Dom Gee-Burch. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for Legend – The Music Of Bob Marley
Tribute show of the week: Legend – The Music of Bob Marley, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm
LEGEND celebrates the reggae music of Jamaican icon Bob Marley in a two-hour Rasta spectacular. “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright” when the cast re-creates No Woman No Cry, Could You Be Loved, Is This Love, One Love, Three Little Birds, Jammin’, Buffalo Soldier, Get Up Stand Up and I Shot The Sheriff. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jorgie Willingham’s Referee and Jim Carnall’s boxer Paul Stokes in rehearsal for The Sweet Science Of Bruising at York Theatre Royal. Picture: James Harvey
Knock-out show of the week: York College BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen Graduating Students in The Sweet Science Of Bruising, York Theatre Royal, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm
JOY Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science Of Bruisingis an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism in the world of 19th-century women’s boxing, staged by York College students.
In London, 1869, four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring as they fight inequality as well as each other. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Sarah-Louise Young: “I have made this show from a place of strength and recovery,” she says. “It is ultimately a very positive story of resilience and healing”. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
WARNING: Sarah-Louise Young’s show in York tomorrow night, The Silent Treatment, includes themes of trauma and sexual violence.
After her celebrations of Kate Bush (An Evening Without…) and Julie Andrews (Julie Madly Deeply), the Canterbury-born writer-performer returns to Theatre@41, Monkgate, with the highly personal true story of a singer who loses her voice and embarks on an unexpected journey of self-revelation and vocal healing.
In a career as a musical theatre actress, singer, writer, director, Showstopper! improviser and cabaret performer with Fascinating Aida, Sarah-Louise had “always known something wasn’t right with my voice but, like many singers, I assumed it was my fault,” as she revealed to the Guardian in June last year, ahead of the show’s Edinburgh Fringe run. “When a singer loses their voice we question their technique, their lifestyle, even their commitment.”
She had to hide how, every few months, her soprano voice would disappear, inducing a paralysing shame until it returned after few days’ rest. Then, after 11 years of ceaseless performing, “secret collapse and hidden recovery”, she lost her voice on stage mid-performance. “I was mortified,” she told the Guardian.
A consultant discovered cysts, probably there since childhood, he suggested, prompting him to ask Sarah-Louise if anything in her childhood – expressly before she was ten – could have traumatised her voice.
The answer was yes; she was sexually attacked at the age of seven, in daylight. “After the initial distress, I never gave it much thought. But the hand on my mouth, the stifled scream…what the mind forgets, the body remembers,” she wrote in her Guardian piece.
Self-care was advised, coffee became a no-no, work flowed, but after three years, her surgeon deemed an operation was necessary after her cysts burst when performing Julie Madly Deeply through bronchitis for six weeks.
Now there was something else to hide: she would be considered “damaged goods” if it became known she had undergone surgery, or so the “industry gatekeepers” forewarned. Stay silent? No, vowed Sarah-Louise, and nine years on, The Silent Treatment is her story, her voice found anew and her diary busier than ever at 47.
Sarah-Louise Young: “The first time I sang after the operation it was like night and day from singing pre-surgery”. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
Here Sarah-Louise discusses singing, healing and dealing with what life throws at you with CharlesHutchPress.
What has been the reaction to The Silent Treatment, especially to your revelations about the sexual attack you suffered aged seven?
“The audience and critical response has been overwhelmingly positive. Whenever I make a new show, especially one which is autobiographical, I ask myself the same question: why should anyone care?
“So although the details of the story are personal to me, it connects with many other people’s lived experiences of being silenced, singers and non-singers alike.
“In terms of the sexual attack, my brilliant director Sioned Jones and I spent a lot of time discussing how best to portray it without sensationalising it or traumatising anyone watching.
“Close friends who didn’t know about it were understandably moved or concerned when they watched it but I have made this show from a place of strength and recovery. It is ultimately a very positive story of resilience and healing.”
How do you structure this show?
“Without giving too much away about the piece, I play several different characters, ranging from my suave surgeon to a fruity diaphragm. It’s part quest, part journey into the past. It’s definitely not a conventional linear narrative but you’ll have to come along and see it to find out more.”
Where do songs fit in?
“Music is important and I was lucky enough to work with a fabulous composer called Chris Ash who I knew from Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. He created beautiful soundscapes for the different worlds of the piece, including scenes which take place inside the human body. He even sampled my voice electronically to add to the mix.
“I write the lyrics and we worked together on the songs, which were all created originally for the show to serve different moments. For example, the cysts get their own big solo number, which is great fun.”
An Evening Without Kate Bush and Julie Madly Deeply both had personal elements within them, but this is your most personal show. How does that feel when you perform it?
“I love connecting with an audience and have found with both of those shows that the more generous and open hearted I am, the more the audience will join me. It’s always a privilege to perform for people who have chosen to spend their time with you and the fact that they are invested in my journey is of course very rewarding for me.
“Most importantly, I want them to see themselves reflected back and find a universal meaning within the story.”
Both the Bush and Andrews shows were joyous. What is the tone of The Silent Treatment?
“It’s funny, surreal, intimate and heartfelt, incorporating songs, stories, characterisation, puppetry, movement and mime. There’s a lot going on and while I’m required to give the show a trigger warning due to its sensitive thematic content, I hope I have created a piece of cabaret which is uplifting and entertaining.”
Will there be any audience participation?
“Much less than in my other shows! I chat to the audience as they enter the space and collect tongue-twisters from them. The show is very much performed to them without a fourth wall, but I don’t invite anyone up onto the stage. Well, not yet anyway!”
“I believe it’s a story which needed to be told and I know I’m not alone in this,” says Sarah-Louise
When did you first find your voice, not the prescribed musical theatre voice?
“I think I found my voice as a child, before I was aware of training. It was free and playful. It took many years later on in life to re-discover that sense of play. I had a fantastic singing teacher, Maureen Scott, who guided me through my surgery and a wonderful vocal therapist called Dr Rehab afterwards.
“Our voices change and develop as we age and making this show has really empowered me to sing with my own authentic voice. I love singing Kate Bush and Julie Andrews’ songs too and enjoy the vocal gymnastics of switching between styles.”
Did you have to re-find your voice after the operation for the cysts?
“I did a month of vocal therapy six times a day. The minimum recovery time from surgery is four weeks and I only had four weeks and a day before opening in Julie Madly Deeply in Toronto, so I had to focus entirely on getting match fit.
“The first time I sang after the operation it was like night and day from singing pre-surgery. My voice has been strong and happy since then and I’ve never looked back.”
Describe a singer’s fear of being treated as damaged goods after an operation…
“At the time I felt vulnerable and also very angry because I knew it wasn’t true. It was someone else’s idea which I had absorbed. Singers get injuries just like athletes and there was no reason for me to feel any different.
“What happens to us is not our shame and I should never have been made to feel embarrassed or that I needed to hide the truth. The Silent Treatment is my response to being told I needed to stay quiet about my experience. I believe it’s a story which needed to be told and I know I’m not alone in this.”
“What the mind forgets, the body remembers,” you say. How have you dealt with that psychologically and physically?
“I’ve been through talking therapy and practice movement as part of my creative process. Our bodies have an incredible higher wisdom and if we listen to them, they will often guide us in the right direction.
“I’ve been mentoring a number of other artists recently and one of the things we explore is readiness to tell your story. Although the rehearsal room can feel therapeutic at times, the performer must be on the right side of therapy before they share that work with a paying audience.
“It must be safe for them and their public to perform the show. If it isn’t, in my opinion, then you might not be ready yet.”
The voice is the most vulnerable, personal, unpredictable instrument, even by comparison with a highly-strung guitar or piano. The only human instrument too.
Why are we not more understanding of its delicate nature for performers, who often pray to “Dr Theatre” to continue performing, as you did for so many years?
“Unless you are fortunate enough to have a laryngoscopy, the voice remains invisible to most people. It is a mysterious instrument and everyone’s voice is unique to them.
“I hope for the next generation of performers there will be more compassion and understanding moving forward,” says Sarah-Louise. Picture: Steve Ullathorne
“Some singers swear by gargling with cider vinegar, others smoke 20 cigarettes a day and still sing like an angel (although this isn’t a behaviour I endorse for obvious reasons).
“History also has fetishised singers who push themselves to the edge: Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Amy Winehouse, for example. How can these incredible voices come from such damaged people?
“We love watching people on the edge, on a tightrope, and when they fall, we make them martyrs for their art.
“It’s getting better for performers now, partly thanks to high-profile artists like Adele going public with their vocal challenges and partly, I think, because in general we’re waking up to the importance of looking after our mental health.
“Our voices and our well-being are intrinsically linked, and I hope for the next generation of performers there will be more compassion and understanding moving forward.
“I was chatting to the principal of an Australian musical theatre course recently and he told me they get all their students scoped in the first term, so not only do they see and understand their voices, but they also have a visual record for the rest of their careers to refer back to if they run into any difficulties.
“Had that been available to me all those years ago, I might have discovered my issue decades earlier.”
Did your voice change after the cysts were removed?
“The tone and sound was the same, but it was much stronger and I don’t have any breathiness any more, even when I’m tired.”
How does your voice behave now?
“It’s a joy to sing and I have no concerns whatsoever.”
How do you take care of your voice on tour, at the Fringe etc?
“Out of habit from so many years of looking after myself, I tend not to drink alcohol when I’m working but that is as much about mental clarity as vocal care. I used to have acid reflux but I don’t any more, so I mainly focus on getting good sleep, staying hydrated and warming down after a show as well as warming up.”
Are you off to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer?
“I’ll be there for the first week to bed-in two shows I’ve directed: Gertrude Lawrence – A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening, with Lucy Stevens, and Kravitz, Cohen, Bernstein And Me with Deb Filler. I’ll also be running a drop-in for solo performers on August 7, offering solidarity and support to artists on their own.”
Sarah-Louise Young in The Silent Treatment, Theatre@41, Monkgate, tomorrow (16/7/2023), 7pm. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
York Early Music Festival: Helen Charlston & Toby Carr, Undercroft, Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, York, July 10; The Marian Consort & Rose Consort of Viols, National Centre for Early Music, York, July 11
THERE is something special about a late-night recital, especially when the lights are low. The low-ceilinged Undercroft, with the audience in darkness and the performers dimly back-lit, was just the ticket for a spot of drama.
With the trusty theorbo of Toby Carr for support, Helen Charlston brought her considerable voice to bear on battle-hardened heroines.
Hers is no ordinary mezzo, as in soprano without the high notes. She has a considerable range, both high and low, but her tone is smoothly focused throughout, without sign of gear changing. Add to that a flair for diction which adds conviction to her theatricality, and you have a voice like no other. This was an exciting evening.
She opened and closed with Purcell. His most successful song in Bonduca (Boadicea as imagined by John Fletcher), O Lead Me To Some Peaceful Gloom, neatly captured the heroine’s inner conflict, and An Evening Hymn spoke of bold spiritual confidence.
She also evinced a special feel for the music of17th-century Italian Barbara Strozzi, a singer herself. The bitter-sweet pain of L’Heraclito Amoroso and the marvellously Italianate decorations in La Travagliata (The Tormented Woman) were meat and drink to Charlston’s skill.
She took her programme title, Battle Cry, from an eponymous work by Owain Park setting poetry by Georgia Way, which she premiered in 2021. It pictures intimate reactions to four ‘abandoned’ women: a lament for Boadicea, the solitude of Philomela, a prayer to Sappho and love-regret for Marietta.
Here she showed an uncommon affinity for the words, in vocal lines that were grateful even when occasionally flowery. Carr’s underpinnings were invaluable; as so often elsewhere, his rhythmic awareness added colour to the ebb and flow of passion. Its harmonies were modern but its aura evoked a much earlier era.
The highlight of the programme was the nobility in Charlston’s approach to Monteverdi’s Lamento d’Arianna, which allowed us to discern a steely centre to the heroine’s emotional roller-coaster. Her dramatic style suggested that she must soon have a future on the operatic stage.
Carr was with her every step of the way. Indeed, it would have been good to hear more from him alone than the three brief solos we were allowed. Either way, they made a powerful duo.
The Marian Consort, represented by six voices at the NCEMon July 11
THE following lunchtime saw the combination of two consorts, the Rose Consort of Viols, which harks back to this festival’s origins, and the Marian Consort (of six voices). Byrd At Elizabeth’s Court celebrated the great man’s high-wire act as a Roman Catholic under a Protestant ruler.
It also allowed anthems normally heard with organ accompaniment to be experienced with the intimate richness of viols.
At its heart lay Byrd’s carol anthem Lullaby, My Sweet Little Baby, which features the Virgin Mary’s gentle retort to the Massacre of the Innocents.
Responding to a new commission from the consorts to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Byrd’s death, Juta Pranulytė sensitively chose the same text to reflect the number of children born into war, cruelty and oppression in our own day.
Pranulytė’s smooth vocal lines moved in mainly close harmony over viols required at times to produce trills and portamentos. The soprano opened at the top of her range and needed to negotiate several high semi-tonal shifts.
The atmosphere thus conjured was elegiac, combining comfort with tears, in a style reminiscent of Byrd’s own musical misgivings about the plight of Roman Catholics under Elizabeth. Apart from its prologue, which was diffuse, this was a canny piece of writing that fell easily on the ear.
Several verse anthems surrounded this centrepiece. The higher-voiced soloists mainly needed to enunciate more clearly, but choral blend was exquisite. Byrd’s rare setting of Italian, the Ariosto poem La Verginella, was delicately treated by the soprano Caroline Halls.
Other highlights included the madrigal-style Come To Me Grief, For Ever, sung unaccompanied, and a gorgeous Amen to close the New Year carol O God That Guides The Cheerful Sun. The Tallis motet O Sacrum Convivium, sung from the back of the hall, was an apt reminder of Byrd’s important mentor and (later) close colleague.
The Roses offered several pieces on their own, including a five-part Tallis fantasia reconstructed by John Milsom and Byrd’s voluntary for Lady Nevell, infused with snappy figurations. His variation-packed Browning was typical of the ensemble’s smooth dexterity.
THE King’s Singers and Fretwork open the 2023 Ryedale Festival tonight at St Peter’s Church in Norton, near Malton.
They will be marking the 400th anniversaries of Thomas Weelkes and William Byrd in a concert affectionately titled Tom & Will. Focusing on the humanity behind these two behemoths of Elizabethan music, the 7pm programme comprises well-known pieces alongside works performed less often.
New works by Sir James MacMillan and Roderick Williams find their place among the tributes to Byrd and Weelkes, and the unique fashion of The King’s Singers’ performances will bring drama, beauty and storytelling to Ryedale for the festival’s grand opening.
The King’s Singers have maintained their six-strong formation of two countertenors, a tenor, two baritones and a bass throughout their 55 years. In the 2023 line-up tonight will be countertenors Patrick Dunachie and Edward Button, tenor Julian Gregory, baritones Christopher Bruerton and Nick Ashby and bass Jonathan Howard.
The Fretwork consort of viols is heading into its 37th year of exploring the core repertory of English consort music alongside pioneering contemporary music for viols, with more than 40 commissioned new works in their repertoire of old and new.
Fretwork consists of Richard Boothby, Emilia Benjamin, Jonathan Rees, Joanna Levine, Sam Stadlen and Emily Ashton.
Fretwork
Taking part too will be the Ryedale Primary Choir, a new initiative for children aged seven to 11, run by Caius Lee and launched this year in collaboration with the Richard Shephard Music Foundation. Children attend free music sessions in school holidays, where they meet and sing with professional musicians, especially Ryedale Festival Young Artists.
The choir will be making its festival debut by appearing on stage with The King’s Singers in a special encore at this opening concert, having worked with them in a masterclass.
Festival artistic director Christopher Glynn says: “We open this year’s Ryedale Festival with a fantastic concert celebrating the life and work of two of England’s greatest composers of early music.
“Bringing together the best in a cappella singing and in viol consorts with The King’s Singers and Fretwork, there aren’t many better ways to bring up the curtain on the festival and mark the anniversaries of William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes.
“We are also very excited to have the Ryedale Primary Choir join the ensembles on stage for a very special encore. The festival is all about sharing great music with more people every year – and having this choir join us for free music sessions over the summer holidays and up on stage to open the festival is a great part of that. I look forward to seeing St Peter’s Church in Norton fill up for what will be a magnificent opening night.”
The Consone Quartet: Playing at Castle Howard on July 26
Triple Concert, Castle Howard, July 26, 7pm.
IN the festival centrepiece, separate concerts are held in the stately home’s Long Gallery, Chapel and Great Hall, featuring the Consone Quartet, Historical Fiction and Guildhall Gold Medal winner Oliver Wass.
Venus And Adonis, All Saints’ Church, Kirkbymoorside, July 21, 11am; All Saints’ Church, Helmsley, July 22, 4pm; St. Michael’s Church, Malton, July 23, 4pm.
THE first great English opera, composed by John Blow, comes to life in a Ryedale Festival Opera pop-up production in three historic churches. Experience everything from tragedy to comedy, cynicism to flirtations in a tale of love and lust.
Myrtles, All Saints’ Church, Kirkbymoorside, July 16, 7pm; Kate Wakeling, All Saints’ Church, Kirkbymoorside, July 16, 9.30pm.
ROBERT Schumann’s love for his talented pianist wife Clara Wieck finds new form almost 200 years later in the world premiere of Myrtles, translated into English from the original Myrthen by Jeremy Sams with added poems from Kate Wakeling. Wakeling performs her own poetry collection, Her Stride Says Comet, in a separate concert afterwards.
Anna Lapwood: Organ, Ampleforth Abbey, July 15, 7pm to 8pm; Come And Sing, St Peter’s Church, Norton, July 16, 3pm to 5.30pm; Double Concert, Sledmere House and Church, July 17, 7pm; The Echo Of Angels, St Mary’s Church, Lastingham, July 18, 3pm; Discover The Organ, St Mary’s Church, Lastingham, July 19, 3pm to 5pm (free tickets).
ANNA Lapwood is among several young artists-in-residence that form the backbone of the 2023 programme. Noted forher impromptu organ performance with Bonobo at the Royal Albert Hall, she will perform, conduct, lead masterclasses and talk attendees through her instrument throughout the festival.
Tenor Nicky Spence
Nicky Spence: The Food Of Love, Duncombe Park, July 18, 8pm; Vocal Masterclass, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 20, 3pm to 5pm (free tickets); A Most Marvellous Party, Helmsley Arts Centre, July 21, 7pm.
TENOR Nicky Spence, the BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year 2022, brings his singing and acting skills to Ryedale to mark the 400th anniversary of composer William Byrd’s death and 50th anniversary of Noël Coward’s passing, with a masterclass for budding singers squeezed in.
Dudok Quartet and Philip Ross Bullock: Pre-concert talk – From The Depths Of My Soul I, All Saints’ Church, Hovingham, July 19, 6pm; Dudok Quartet, All Saints’ Church, Hovingham, July 19, 7pm.
Pre-concert talk – From The Depths Of My Soul II, Birdsall House, July 20, 10am; Dudok Quartet, Birdsall House, July 20, 11am.
Pre-concert talk – From The Depths Of My Soul III, All Saints’ Church, Slingsby, July 22, 10am; Dudok Quartet, All Saints’ Church, Slingsby, 11am.
Late Night Candlelit Concert – What Remains, St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, July 22, 9.30pm.
IN addition to a beautiful candlelit concert, the Dutch quartet take festival attendees on a journey through Tchaikovsky’s compositions for the ensemble, with time to take in quartets from Glinka, Shostakovich, and Mozart, and songs from Boulanger performed with soprano Siân Dicker. Professor of Russian Literature and Music Philip Ross Bullock delivers talks on the Tchaikovsky pieces before each performance.
Bomsori Kim and Mishka Rushdie Momen, Church of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering, July 22, 7pm.
Mishka Rushdie Momen: Church of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering, July 24, 4pm.
Orchestra of Opera North and Bomsori Kim, Church of St Martin- on-the-Hill, Scarborough, July 24, 8pm.
Mishka Rushdie Momen and Friends, National Centre for Early Music, York, July 25, 8pm.
THE final two artists-in-residence join forces for a vivacious night of Beethoven violin sonatas. Classical Breakthrough Artist in The Times Arts Awards 2021 Mishka Rushdie Momen also performs both a varied solo programme ranging from Byrd to Prokofiev and as part of a piano trio for a Romantic period-fest.
Korean violinist Bomsori Kim plays with the Orchestra of Opera North, performing Brahms’s stirring Violin Concerto between orchestral masterpieces from Mozart and Tchaikovsky.
Saxophonist Jess Gillam
Jess Gillam Ensemble, St Peter’s Church, Norton, July 27, 8pm.
CUMBRIAN saxophonist Jess Gillam will pique interest and begin journeys of musical discovery with her ensemble.
The Clare Teal Seven, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 23, 7.30pm
YORKSHIRE jazz vocal legend, four-time winner of BBC Jazz Singer of the Year and performer of popular songs Clare Teal leads seven-piece troupe through a night of storytelling and euphoric music
Concerteenies and baby-friendly concerts: A Musical Story I, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 23, 11am; Baby-friendly Concert I, Milton Rooms, Malton, July 23, 1pm (free for babies).
Concerteenies – A Musical Story II, Scarborough Library, July 24, 11am; Baby-friendly Concert II: Scarborough Library, July 24, 1pm (free for babies).
Concerteenies – A Musical Story III, National Centre for Early Music, York, July 25, 11am; Baby-friendly Concert III, NCEM, York, July 25, 1pm (free for babies).
POLLY Ives and Louise Thomson narrate and play a reimagining of Arre Chung’s Mixed for children aged three to seven in Concerteenies, as well as performing concerts from all genres for pre-crawling babies where parents can learn baby massage techniques and enjoy their own dose of relaxation.
Ryedale Festival runs from today to July 30.For full festival details and tickets, go to: ryedalefestival.com.
RYEDALE Festival artistic director Christopher Glynn’s eye for spotting and supporting early-career artists runs through his 2023 programming.
Among the artists in residence is organist Anna Lapwood, who gives two recitals, conducts her choir and invites all to join her in open-access Come and Sing and Discover the Organ events.
Also in residence is BBC Music Magazine’s 2022 Personality of the Year, Scottish tenor Nicky Spence, Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen, won The Times Classical Breakthrough Artist Award.
The King’s Singers and assorted actors lead celebrations of the 400th anniversaries of William Byrd and the First Folio of Shakespeare, while Boris Giltburg is among performers marking Rachmaninov’s 150th birthday. The Dudok Quartet presents a complete cycle of Tchaikovsky’s string quartets, as well as bringing audiences their arrangements of jazz and folk legends.
Groundbreaking musicians such as Cumbrian saxophonist Jess Gillam and the joyful Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective mingle with young artists, among them guitarist Plínio Fernandes, showcasing his debut album Saudade, trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, innovative pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu and the vibrant voices of the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Yorkshire jazz singer Clare Teal performs with an all-star band; The Young’uns, from the north east, present a folk night; A Light Music Afternoon celebrates Max Jaffa, remembered fondly in North Yorkshire for his many seasons performing in Scarborough, and a concert at Birdsall House revels in the music of Noel Coward, with Mary Bevan among the singers.
Further highlights will be the Orchestra of Opera North with Jonathan Bloxham; Royal Northern Sinfonia with violinist Maria Włoszczowska; a Triple Concert at Castle Howard; a pop-up production of John Blow’s magical mini-opera Venus and Adonis that tours to ancient and atmospheric churches across the region, and four world premieres, including an innovative new take on Schumann’s song cycle Myrthen, sung in English and interwoven with poems by Kate Wakeling.
Young audiences can enjoy Arree Chung’s Mixed, as presented by Polly Ives and harpist Rosanna Rolton in Concerteenies, while babies and their grown-ups are invited to a magical musical experience across classical, folk, world and popular music.
The festival takes place in more than 30 venues, ranging from Castle Howard to a remote moorland chapel, taking in York and Scarborough too. The event was runner-up in the Best UK Concert Series category at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2023 with the citation: “Yorkshire’s Ryedale Festival always wraps its arms around its community. Local people don’t just watch the star visitors; they come in droves to get equally involved.”
A new initiative this year is the Ryedale Primary Choir for children aged seven to 11, run by Caius Lee, launched in collaboration with the Richard Shephard Music Foundation.
Children are having fun attending free music sessions in school holidays, where they meet and sing with professional musicians, especially Ryedale Festival Young Artists. The choir will make its festival debut by appearing on stage with The King’s Singers at the opening concert, having worked with them in a masterclass.
Christopher Glynn says: “This year’s programme brings together great performer-communicators like Anna Lapwood and Nicky Spence, with exciting talents such as superstar violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.
“Trailblazers like Jess Gillam and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective mingle with world-famous artists like the King’s Singers and stars of the new generation. We celebrate the anniversaries of composers William Byrd and Sergei Rachmaninov but also break new ground with five world premieres, including a co-created Community Song Cycle.
“The festival is all about quality, innovation and enjoyability, sharing great music with more people every year. I look forward to welcoming audiences to be part of this year’s adventure.”
Artist in residence Bomsori Kim says: “I am absolutely thrilled to be chosen. This is an incredible opportunity for me to connect with audiences in the UK and share my love and passion for music. I am particularly excited to perform Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas, as these are true masterpieces that have always inspired me.
“I cannot wait to communicate with the festival audiences through the universal language of music, and I hope to create a truly meaningful and unforgettable experience for everyone who joins me on this wonderful journey of discovery.”
Fellow artist in residence Anna Lapwood says: “My first performance after lockdown was filming a performance for Ryedale Festival after the in-person festival had to be cancelled. It feels really special to be returning to the festival now and to have the chance to perform to a real audience, both on some of the amazing organs in the area and conducting the Pembroke College Chapel Choir.”
Mishka Rushie Momen says: “I’m delighted to be returning to the Ryedale Festival this summer for a residency at the end of July. The three concerts encompass wonderful works by Byrd, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Smetana, in solo, duo, and trio programmes. I’m really looking forward to reconnecting with the fantastic festival audience and sharing this great music together.”
Nicky Spence says: “It’s a privilege to bring such a varied offering to the Ryedale Festival this year. What could be better than making music with longtime collaborators in the beautiful surroundings of North Yorkshire?
“Having so enjoyed the audience’s response when I featured in the festival in Wagner’s Parsifal a few years ago, I look forward to buttering many a crumpet with new friends and music lovers alike.”
Shed Seven 2023: Regulars Rick Witter, left, Paul Banks, second from right, and Tom Gladwin, right, with new additions Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield and Tim Willis. Picture: Barnaby Fairley
SHED Seven will mark their 30th anniversary by releasing their first album in more than six years, A Matter Of Time, on new home Cooking Vinyl on January 12 2024.
Look out for special guest contributions from The Libertines’ Peter Doherty, Happy Mondays’ backing singer Rowetta and Reverend And The Makers’ Laura McClure.
The announcement coincides with today’s release of lead single Kissing California, their first new material since November 2017’s fifth studio album, Instant Pleasures, on BMG. Their first too since guitarist/keyboardist Joe Johnson and drummer Alan Leach left the York band after the 2021 summer festival season.
The remaining Shed three, vocalist Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks and bassist Tom Gladwin, have since been joined by keyboardist Tim Willis, from Ian Brown’s band, and Audioweb/Ian Brown drummer Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield for their live engagements, and they now play on the new album too.
This also will be the line-up for the Sheds’ Sounds Of The City 2023 outdoor gig at Millennium Square, Leeds, on Saturday, when Cast and York combo Skylights will be on the 6pm bill too, and for an eight-date headline tour (with no Yorkshire shows, alas) in October.
For A Matter Of Time, the Sheds reconnected with the classic albums that first inspired them to form a band in York in 1990. The resulting record “sparkles with the liberated exuberance and full-throttle rock’n’roll attitude of a group who are making music for the sheer joy of expressing themselves and performing together”. Three songs out of 12 featuring “Let’s Go” in the title would testify to that!
Sheds’ publicist Simon Blackmore, of Black Arts PR, reports: “While the album broadens the Shed Seven sonic palette a touch, it’s full of the towering, arms-in-the-air anthems and yearning melancholia that fans have come to love them for.”
Shed Seven line-up, 2007-2021: from left, Tom Gladwin, Joe Johnson, Rick Witter, Alan Leach and Paul Banks
As with Instant Pleasures, the album was produced by the Grammy Award-winning Youth – famed for his work with Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, The Orb, Killing Joke and The Verve – at his residential El Mirador Studios in Andalucia, southern Spain, before being completed by leading mixer Cenzo Townshend (Florence + The Machine, Inhaler).
Paul Banks says: “For this album, we took a nostalgic journey back to our roots, immersing ourselves in the records and sounds that ignited our passion for songwriting at the tender age of 12.
“The influences of bands like The Smiths, R.E.M., U2, Simple Minds, The Cure and Duran Duran permeate every note, making it a heartfelt homage to those cherished times. It embodies the essence of rebirth, empowering individuals to embrace their true selves without inhibition.
“With utmost conviction, we declare this as the pinnacle of our musical endeavours: the record we’ve always yearned to create.”
Lead single Kissing California is billed as “instantly addictive, with chiming guitars, sun-scorched melodies and charismatic vocals all contributing to its life-affirming positivity”.
Rick Witter asserts: “Kissing California is Shed Seven’s summer anthem. It’s essentially a celebration of being alive and grabbing the opportunity to paint the town red with someone special and have the best of times. It’s the medicine we all need sometimes.”
Elsewhere, A Matter Of Time flows from adrenalised punky power-pop right through to epic slow-burners, further bolstered by Rowetta contributing fervent gospel vocals to In Ecstasy, Laura McClure singing on the folk-pop Tripping With You and Peter Doherty duetting with Witter on the dramatic closer Throwaways.
The poster for Shed Seven’s sold-out outdoor show at Millennium Square, Leeds, on Saturday
A Matter Of Time can be pre-ordered or pre-saved at https://shedsevenn.lnk.to/AMOTPR. A wide range of physical formats is available with exclusives for Amazon, Assai Records, HMV and selected indie stores. A special bonus A Matter Of Time: Deep Cuts CD is available only with bundles purchased from the Sheds’ official store, with options including a signed digipak CD, a signed dolphin-coloured vinyl and a dual pink/green cassette.
Shed-heads who pre-order A Matter Of Time from the official store will receive access to a pre-sale for tickets for this autumn’s UK tour. The pre-sale will open at 9.30am on Wednesday, July 19 and will remain live until any remaining tickets go on general sale at 9.30am on Friday, July 21.
Those autumn dates will be: October 19, The Tramshed, Cardiff; October 20, London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire; October 21, Rock City, Nottingham; October 23, Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent; October 24, Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton; October 26, The Barrowlands Ballroom, Glasgow; October 27, Middlesbrough Town Hall, and October 28, Albert Hall, Manchester.
Before then come this weekend’s sold-out, 6,000-capacity gig at Millennium Square, Leeds, and a headline set at Party At The Palace, Linlithgow, Scotland, on August 12.
Shed Seven emerged as one of the big hitters during the heyday of Britpop, their catalogue of singles taking in 15 Top 40 hits from 1994’s Dolphin to 2003’sWhy Can’t I Be You?. Seven made the Top 20: 1995’s Getting Better and Going For Gold (a maximum high of number eight); 1996’s On Standby, Chasing Rainbows and She Left Me On Friday; 1998’s The Heroes and 1999’s Disco Down.
This was complemented by the albums Change Giver (1994), A Maximum High (1996), Let It Ride (1998), Going For Gold: The Greatest Hits (1999) and Truth Be Told (2001).
Their popularity has risen anew since reforming in 2007, notably with 2017’s Instant Pleasures album debuting at number eight, their highest-charting record in 18 years. Sold-out shows have included Leeds First Direct Arena, the Brixton O2 Academy, London, and Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, while their June 2018 open-air concert at Castlefield Bowl, Manchester, drew a crowd of 8,000.
Hot off the presses: The artwork for Shed Seven’s sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, released next January
A Matter Of Time: album track listing
1.Let’s Go
2. Kissing California
3. Talk Of The Town
4. Let’s Go Dancing
5. In Ecstasy (featuring Rowetta)
6. Tripping With You (feat. Laura McClure)
7. Let’s Go (Again)
8. Real Love
9. F:K:H
10. Ring The Changes
11. Starlings
12. Throwaways (feat. Peter Doherty)
Just to clarify
SHED Seven were formed in 1990 by Rick Witter (vocals), Joe Johnson (guitar/keyboards), Tom Gladwin (bass) and Alan Leach (drums). Next year’s 30th anniversary celebrations mark the 1994 release of debut double A-side Mark/Casino Girl and debut album Change Giver.
Helen Charlston: “Alto voice so clear in both quality and volume in the lower range”
York Early Music Festival: Yorkshire Baroque Soloists & Rose Consort of Viols, Body And Soul, St Lawrence Church, York, July 11
THIS was excellent. Real refinement and clarity was the order of the day, both in texture and line. The balance was impeccable, the instrumental playing was crisp, articulate, and the singers a joy.
They seemed at ease as soloists, in ensemble engagement and comfortable too in their own vocal range: this was particularly true of Helen Charlston. Not that she was the pick of an excellent quintet, but I haven’t heard an alto voice so clear in both quality and volume in the lower range. The church acoustic was excellent, and it behaved itself too.
However, my role isn’t just to soak the performance with appreciation and blessings but to review it, so here we go.
The concert was descriptively labelled Body And Soul, which was particularly appropriate for the first-half performance of Buxtehude’s vocal masterpiece, Membra Jesu Nostri Patientis Sanctissima. The work is a set of seven short, beautifully crafted cantatas for Holy Week. The text is a medieval hymn cycle in which the author looks in wonder at the body of the crucified Christ.
We experience the mystical contemplations of different parts of his body: the feet in the first cantata, to the knees, hands, side and breast, and the heart to the face. Quite extraordinary.
Buxtehude’s music has a gentle, austere beauty to it, and this was enhanced by the economy of performers: five soloists, six instrumentalists, including Peter Seymour on organ, plus the Rose Consort of Viols.
The soloists teased out every nuance of the text. They lingered deliciously on every expressive dissonance and suspension, while the players added warmth, colour, as well as crisp commentary.
There was a gorgeously intense, yet poignant concerto Quid Sunt Plagae Istae. Maybe it was just me, but I thought the dramatic percussive opening of this third cantata suggestive of the nails being hammered into Christ’s hands. Perhaps not.
The dramatic focal centre of the work was the fourth movement Ad Cor. The Vulnerasti Cor Meum had a tortured intimacy, the singers embracing the honesty and humanity of the text. The precision in the agitated off-beat accents of the concluding Amen worked well.
Nevertheless, in the concluding four movements of Ad Faciem there is a relaxing of the tension, a meditative closure.
The performance captured a fascinating subtle layer of creative tension between the Catholic mysticism of the text and Buxtehude’s Lutheran faith. Maybe. We don’t seem to dwell on the sufferings of the crucified Christ but celebrate the “graces that flow from that suffering”, its humanity.
In short, the performance was both radiant and illuminating. A triumph for Peter Seymour, who must have been delighted.
Two little grumbles. Firstly, although it did have the intended dramatic effect, change of colour and so forth, the introduction of the excellent Rose Consort of Viols did temporarily break the spell. But then again, I wasn’t ready or expecting the changing of the guard.
Secondly, although I invariably find (composer and) performer biographies tedious essays in vanity, I would have expected some biographical acknowledgement of these superb performers in the programme: sopranos Bethany Seymour and Helen Neeves, alto Helen Charlston, tenor Jonathan Hanley and bass Frederick Long. Violins, Lucy Russell and Gabriella Jones; cello, Rachel Gray; violone, Rosie Moon; theorbo, Toby Carr and organ & director, Peter Seymour. Take a bow.
Finally, the concert was dedicated to the memory of Klaus Neumann, an important figure in the York Early Music Festival. Mr Seymour gave a touching tribute and kept the programme photo on the organ next to the Buxtehude score. It summed the evening up nicely.
The City Musick: Twenty, rather than seven, played at York Early Music Festival last Friday in a Renaissance Big Band line-up
York Early Music Festival: The City Musick, The Count and The Duke: A Renaissance Big Band, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, July 7
IN the YEMF brochure, director William Lyons said: “With a band of 20 musicians, The City Musick presents a homage to the iconic recordings made by David Munrow in the 1970s, but with a modern twist”. Which is exactly what we got, with a jazzy title too. The Count and The Duke: A Renaissance Big Band.
Praetorius’s opening rustic welcome was indicative of what was to come: gorgeous sounds, ripples of florid decoration, music of such intimacy and balance. Balance, I think, is key here.
The Renaissance Big Band was arranged into groups of soft instruments: strings (the splendid Monteverdi String Band) and woodwind, plus the (not very) loud instruments – brass, keyboard, lute and theorbo, and percussion.
This also gives us a link to the ‘big band’ set-ups of the great Duke Ellington and Count Basie that were also grouped into instrumental sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and rhythm.
The way the instrumental groups engaged with each other throughout the concert was especially rewarding. Firstly, the alternating loud and soft instrumental groups meant that these contrasting exchanges were inherently employed to gentle dramatic effect.
They also reinforced the Renaissance dance music, adding another (gentle) dramatic layering. For example, the second-half collection of Masque arrangements of Robert Johnson, John Adson and William Brade.
Not only did the opening string section pass on the musical baton to the brass section, but there was also role play involved in these courtly dances. The strings asked the brass players to join the courtly dance; the music was seductive and invitational. And readily accepted.
We were also able to enjoy the musical moment as the individual ensembles embellished their own musical offerings before the exchanges and then collectively signing off. We could also savour the timbres, the instrumental tone colour.
Like the delightful intimacy of strings and theorbo in Praetorius’s Courante, the woodwind and percussion in the Suite des Bransles arrangement and the extraordinary wind sound when joined by the uniquely rasping racket in Susato’s Suite des Rondes.
The arrangement of Thoinot Arbeau’s Suite des Branles was arguably the most memorable contribution of the first set, with its ground-bass ushering in other instrumental players, metric (hemiola), syncopated gear changes and infectious foot-tapping music designed to put a smile on your face. Or as Count Basie put it: “If you play a tune and a person don’t tap their feet, don’t play the tune.”
Then there were the John Skene English Country Dances arrangements. They were performed by bagpipes and a hurdy gurdy. Bagpipes, surely not! But music for the original country dances of the (English) villages were indeed played by a bagpipe. Don’t know about the hurdy gurdy. The pastoral, chocolatey tunes were a delight.
And then we had the promised modern twist, notably in William Lyons’s arrangement of Maurizio Cazzati and Tarquinio Merula’s Ciaccona. Here a simple ground-bass is joined by weaving lines of string variations, then by the other players in a sound world reminiscent of Pachelbel’s Canon. Maybe. There also seemed to be echoes of the Penguin Café Orchestra and minimalism: the signing-off with striking woodblock hits and pizzicato strings recalled music by John Adams. Well, it did for me anyway.
