Principal Player Focus: Michael Thompson

 This month, we catch up with our Principal horn, Michael Thompson, who’ll be featured as soloist in our concert on Saturday 12 May when he’ll be performing Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto.

What has been your favourite London Sinfonietta experience?

Can I pick two? Performing Hans Werner Henze’s Voices at La Scala, Milan is particularly memorable.  I was still a student and as such it was one of my early London Sinfonietta experiences.  The work is scored for 15 instrumentalists, plus tenor and mezzosoprano, and all of the players are required to play additional instruments, and sometimes sing – so I can claim to have sung in La Scala!

I’d also pick out performing Messaien’s Des canyons aux étoiles (From the Canyons to the Stars) which is famous amongst horn players for the sixth movement scored for solo horn, but the whole piece is an incredible journey.

 What is the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to do in a musical work?

 I was asked to burst balloons once during a BBC Proms performance!

Michael Thompson, London Sinfonietta Principal horn

What, or whom, inspires you most?

By now, I’ve reached the point in my career where I am inspired by my students.

 Soon you’ll be revisiting Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto, which you gave the UK premiere of with the London Sinfonietta in 2001.  Can you tell us a little about the work?

It’s a challenging work (which I’ve enjoyed revisiting a number of times since the UK premiere), with the soloist being required to play both natural and valved horns.  The ensemble itself contains 4 horn natural horns, each in a different key, which results in the most extraordinary harmonies which include quartertones.

I think Ligeti was a composer who really understood the capabilites of the horn- his writing is challenging, but very idiomatic.

 And finally, what upcoming London Sinfonietta performance are you most looking forward to?

 In Portrait: George Benjamin on Saturday 12 May, including the Hamburg Concerto, of course!

 

Interview with Netia Jones, Projection Designer

We are delighted to be working with Netia Jones, designer of projections for our performance on Saturday 21 April as part of Impossible Brilliance: the music of Conlon Nancarrow. We caught up with Netia to find out what’s involved in producing and  designing her projections.

Can you tell us a little about your background?  How did you end up working as a projection designer?

I currentlywork as an director/designer in opera and concerts always using projection and film. I studied music and visual art simultaneously and introducing technology was a natural progression. Along the way I have worked in editing, installation and interactive media to forage for techniques that can best be applied to dealing with live music in performance, which has its own very specific demands and negotiations.

How do you go about designing projections to accompany existing works?

On any given project I will spend an earnest amount of time in preparation, both listening and reading up. Some projects have a greater narrative content and some, as this one, are just about creating a supporting layer to enhance the listening experience. There is always a visual language that emerges after this period of research, which can only really come out of total immersion.

 And how do you go about realising them?

I film and collate all the visual material, and edit to sound or to scores depending on the project. Then there is an extended period of programming to enable it all to be played live. The fundamental idea is that the film and projection follows the live performance, rather than the other way around. For me visual technology is a fantastic toolbox for responding to sound worlds in a way that enriches the experience of participating in live music. Projection can be as simple as integrated projected text, or it can encompass interactive triggers, sound, live cameras, film, or any combination of these.

Here’s a video of some of Netia’s previous work:

Who, or what, inspires you?

I am completely inspired by quiet geniuses, the kind of creative innovators who are impelled along a certain path whether anyone is listening or not. I’m afraid I am also slightly obsessed with mechanisation, machines, mathematics, science, technology and projected light.

If you could pick a favourite project or personal career highlight to date, what would it be?

Projecting 30 metres high onto Sizewell Nuclear Power station while performing Ligeti, Scelsi, Ockeghem and Mazulis. I can’t believe I was allowed to. Possibly I dreamt it.

Can you tell us about the projections in Impossible Brilliance: the music of Conlon Nancarrow?

Unlike other projects that are more narrative or concept-driven, I see projection in this concert to be a way of supporting this amazing and exhilarating programme, and perhaps suggesting, or allowing, some ideas about the composer to emerge. We have some really wonderful images of Nancarrow, and the tools of his fairly unique trade are so beautiful that I think some reliance on stills, and possibly text, can bring together these startlingly brilliant pieces and create some kind of picture of the man behind them. I am very interested in this quote from Nancarrow: “My essential concern, whether you can analyze it or not, is emotional; there’s an impact that I try to achieve by these means”. I have been slightly in love with Nancarrow for quite a while and it is a pure joy to be working on this project.

 And finally, what is the most played piece of music on your mp3 player right now?

Conlon Nancarrow String Quartet No.1, Oliver Knussen Upon One Note, György Kurtag Jatekok.

Five Questions with Andrew Watts

Andrew Watts, countertenor and soloist in In Portrait: Olga Neuwirth talks about Hommage à Klaus Nomi, his ideal musical collage, and who he’d most like to be for a day…

Countertenor Andrew Watts

On Saturday 11 February, you’ll be performing as soloist in Olga Neuwirth’s Hommage à Klaus Nomi.  Can you tell us a little about Nomi’s character and how this influences your approach to the role?

Taking on the persona of someone like Klaus Nomi is almost impossible. Unlike such things as Stars in Your Eyes on the television the role is in no way meant to be an impression of Klaus Nomi  (vocally or in a fashion sense!), it is more an evocation of the times and spirits of the period when Klaus Nomi was singing and performing.

My approach to singing this music is to treat it simply in a classical form even though some of the songs are based in the rock genre. Good singing along with a natural performance style is needed for these songs. The arrangements by Olga Neuwirth are incredible and full of musical nuances and detail.

Klaus Nomi used music to adopt a new persona.  If you could be someone else for a day, who would you choose, and why? 

I am fairly happy with being the person I am but if I were to become a person for the day I think I would like to be the President of the United States of America. I have become obsessed with the TV series The West Wing and carry it with me when away from home singing opera around the world. It is incredibly written and has a real insight into the working of politics in the US.  Being President would give me access in to the most secure building in the world.

Olga Neuwirth has said that she has been intrigued by Klaus Nomi since the age of 13 and “was always a fan of his songs and his personality.”  Which performer or hero, real or imagined, intrigues you?

I guess as a classical singer I am supposed to think of some other singer who has influenced me or who has inspired me. Most of the great singers have had some influence on me; I simply love the human voice. This is my healthy obsession. However if there was a person who intrigues me then I would have to say Diana, Princess of Wales. I had the pleasure of meeting her both publicly and privately and together with the rest of the world I still wonder what went on in her mind behind the smile and the gentle nature.

In Hommage à Klaus Nomi, Olga Neuwirth takes inspiration from 9 Klaus Nomi songs that were originally performed by a great variety of performers.  If you were to create your own musical collage of favourites, what songs would you include?

This list can be endless! Looking at my iPod to see what I listen to all the time, I would include the following; The Carpenters We’ve Only Just Begun; The Weather Girls It’s Raining Men, Elton John’s Candle in the Wind,  Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked This is the Moment from the musical Jekyll and Hyde, Isolde’s Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Whitney Houston’s One Moment in Time and anything by Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson.

And finally… in a previous period of his life, Klaus Nomi worked a pastry chef.  If you hadn’t become a musician, what would you be now?

Well I have done many jobs in my time before this music thing took off. I cleaned offices, put the jam in the middle of doughnuts in the local bakery, worked in the local grocers weighting out vegetables, worked in restaurants and pubs, played cocktail piano in a wine bar, and cooked pub food.  I often wonder if I had not been a musician what would I have actually been doing now.

Click here to watch Klaus Nomi on YouTube

And hear to listen to Andrew Watts performing Olga Neuwirth’s Five Daily Miniatures.

The Return of Written/Unwritten

In June this year we collaborated with pianist Matthew Bourne in our Written/Unwritten, which involved collaboration between musicians from both notated and non-notated backgrounds.  On Friday 18 November Written/Unwritten returns, and this time we’ll also be joined by experimental percussionist Vladimir Tarasov.  Ahead of the workshops for this event, Matthew tells us a little about his current musical preferences, and reflects on his previous Written/Unwritten experience.

Back in June, you were listening to Shostakovitch’s String Quartet No.13, Peter Gabriel’s eponymous debut album and Ben E. King’s Stand by Me.  What’s on your favoured playlist right now?

Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me, Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’Oiseaux, The Fall: Totally Wired – The Rough Trade Anthology, Dirk Bogarde: Lyrics for Lovers

Tell us a little about your previous experience of working with the London Sinfonietta. Is there anything you might do differently this time?

Matthew Bourne in rehearsal

It was a great experience and I learned a lot from the London Sinfonietta players.

I sketched out some rough ideas and took them along to the workshops and we recorded the results. I then decided which sections would be kept or altered, worked on a new piece and finally ordered the sections.This time the line-up is roughly the same so I’ll be sticking quite closely to the original piece albeit a little shorter in duration…

You’re also to be joined by percussionist Vladimir Tarasov.  How do you think this might alter the process and end performance?

I have no idea! It’ll be fun finding out, though.

Check out our blog next week for an update following the first batch of workshops for Written/Unwritten.

Developing the Double Bass Concerto

Enno Senft, soloist in the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Double Bass Concerto on 5 November, talks about his close involvement in its composition.

Enno Senft and Dai Fujikura in rehearsal (image © Briony Campbell)

The Double Bass Concerto grew out of a close collaboration between Dai and I.  After  performing two of Dai’s  challenging ensemble pieces, Fifth Station and Blue Sky Falling, I was excited as well as daunted by the idea of him writing a bass concerto for me. We met at my house looking for inspiration for Dai’s creative mind. I first freely demonstrated the instrument’s more conventional characteristics- its timbre, resonance, harmonics, gentle dynamics, and colours in the middle register.  Then I moved to more experimental, extended techniques, for example treating the bass like a big guitar  (many taxi driver’s preferred description of the bass!), using arpeggio chords, fast tremolo and slap effects.

Dai’s lateral approach to the instrument encouraged me to get carried away with suggestions like changing the tuning of the instrument altogether, extreme tremolo effects on high treble harmonics (imitating an electric guitar) and playing both parts of the stopped string. I forgot in this process that Dai videoed all of this, but certainly remembered when the score of his first preliminary solo piece ES  landed on my music stand! This piece introduced many of the ideas that later became the material for the Double Bass Concerto.  Now I faced unprecedented technical challenges, partly brought about by myself!

Subsequently, we worked closely together to find realistic solutions which make musical sense and fit with Dai’s aesthetic language.  In some ways, the new techniques used in the Double Bass Concerto has meant that learning the concerto has been like learning a new instrument.

I believe that Dai has created a truly innovative concerto that tells its own story and well as realising the full potential of the solo double bass.

Enno Senft, London Sinfonietta Principal double bass

Click here to hear extracts of Enno and the London Sinfonietta rehearsing the Double Bass Concerto.

Insomnia, by Charlie Piper

Charlie Piper

On Saturday 5 November we’re presenting a feast of new music in Pavilions: New Music Show 2.  We caught up with Charlie Piper to hear more about his new work Insomniac, which you can hear at the event.

Your work Insomniac portrays several different forms of insomnia.  Can you tell us a little about the different states reflected in the music?
Insomniac has three movements. The first movement has a frantic feel and portrays the sort of insomnia caused by anxiety or stress when your mind can’t shut down and thoughts spin frustratingly round and round in your head. The middle movement is a much calmer portrayal of the surreal sensation when floating between sleep and wakefulness. And the last movement looks at the effects of external influences on the ability to sleep.

One of the common causes of insomnia is anxiety.  What single thing makes you most anxious?
Deadlines.

Whilst writing this composition, I believe you spent some time in Sweden.  Do you find that your surroundings affect your writing at all?
Absolutely. I was staying in Gotland, which is a small Swedish island and very serene and beautiful. My work studio looked out over the sea and so, when I wasn’t staring distractedly out the window, I was in a good calm state of mind to work. However that isn’t always ideal – if I’m trying to write frantic music it helps to be in my rail-side London flat! Also I was in Gotland during the summer and so I experienced, for the first time, all-night sunlight – which certainly doesn’t help with insomnia – but the extraordinary colour and iridescent glow over the sea was a big influence in the atmosphere of the middle movement of this work.

And what time of day do you find is the best to compose?
I usually give myself 9-to-5 business hours to compose (unless there is a deadline looming!) which helps me focus my energy but I think the morning is probably my most productive period.

Your programme note for Insomnia states that ‘the final movement is concerned with insomnia caused by other external influences – such as a neighbour having an all-night party’.  Describe your ideal party.
One that I haven’t had to organise…

And finally…Insomniacs are often told to play music to relax before trying to sleep.  What is your favourite piece of music to relax to?
Possibly the Aria from the Goldberg variations.

You can hear Insomnia on Saturday 5 November at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.  Click here to book tickets.

Dai Fujikura: 8 questions

Dai Fujikura’s Double Bass Concerto is one of the pieces receiving its world premiere during our Pavilions: New Music Show 2 on 5 November at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.  Find out what Dai worries about during concerts, where he has many of his compositional ideas and what he considers to be perfection.

Dai Fujikura

 

What do you fear the most and why?

“Will musicians play the actual notes I wrote at the concert?”…”What if someone collapses in the audience during my piece and unwittingly disrupts the performance?”…”What if a power cut happens during the performance, and all the monitors for observing the conductor also shut down, will the musicians still be able to see the conductor and play?” and so on….

I think I don’t need to explain why…

Which mobile number do you call the most?

I hardly call anyone, nor does anyone call me. If I decided to cancel my phone, I don’t think anyone would notice!

What ­or where­ is perfection?

If it is music, music which doesn’t have any bits I dislike.

A perfect world exists only in my imagination where nothing I dislike exists, which I try to recreate in my composition. In a way, that’s the reason why I compose music.

 Who is your favourite hero from fiction (book/comic/film/opera) ­ and why?

Right now? I don’t know….when I was a child, I guess Dragon Ball and all those heroes in Japanese comic books; I am sure any kids in Japan (who were born in late 70s) would say the same.

What’s your favourite ritual?

Taking a long bath where I write emails, sketch, read books etc., but also think. Almost all of my compositional ideas come from the bath. I can’t live in a flat without a bath.

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?

I never thought about it…. even musical talent (since your question is “OTHER talent” so I presume you think that I think I have some musical talent?), do I have a drop of it, or not, I never thought about it…..

I don’t know, I am ok, being like this; maybe this would not be ok for others, but I have always done and am doing everything I want to do in my life, so I don’t think I have any desire for an extra talent or skill in addition to what I have already.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

You can’t have everything, and it is always good not to set your expectations too high so that when something good does happen, however little it is, I will feel positive.

What is the most played piece of music on your MP3 player or in your CD collection?

Secret of the Beehive by David Sylvian.

Writing the Future: First Pieces (part 3)

Tim Hodgkinson is another of the six composers selected to take part in the London Sinfonietta’s new Writing the Future scheme, and has been working with the ensemble’s Principal horn Michael Thompson since the scheme’s launch in February.

The result of this collaboration is a Sinfonietta Short, as yet untitled, which will be premiered at a free pre-concert performance as part of Pavilions, the London Sinfonietta’s celebration of new British music on Sunday 29 May.

Tim tells us more about his new piece…

Tim Hodgkinson (L) and Michael Thompson meet at the Writing the Future launch, Feb 2011. Image (c) Briony Campbell

I am at the stage where there is a great deal of impetus coming from what already exists but there are still major decisions being made that require me to step back and think or not think about what I am doing.

I’m not sure about the flavour: ripe fruits with dark undertones of tobacco perhaps.

Just had (Monday) an excellent session with Michael in which we went through the first part working on details of playing and notation. This all went fine. I thought he might tell me the second part was unplayable – it has a lot of little notes in it – but he didn’t. It simply sounds more snakey than I was expecting, which is fine, as the material all derives from a complex wave form. Then we looked at sound ideas for the third part and he suggested using a microphone for the performance so we can use varied breath sounds and they won’t disappear in the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The next step for me is to firm up the third part whilst keeping hold of how it reflects on what goes before it, as well as how it reflects on a possible fourth part. I think what really holds the piece together is the silences and I have to keep weighing these up. They are hard to fix because they don’t feel the same length if you count them, and the listener won’t be counting them.

Tim Hodgkinson

Book your tickets to hear the premiere of Tim’s new Sinfonietta Short at Pavilions at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday 29 May, 2011.

Click here to find out more about how the London Sinfonietta is creating new music with some of the finest emerging composers on Writing the Future.

Pavilions is generously supported by Arts Council England, the Holst Foundation, PRS for Music Foundation and the RVW Trust.

Writing the Future is generously supported by The Boltini Trust, The John S Cohen Foundation, Anthony Mackintosh and Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner.

Writing the Future: First Pieces (part 2)

Shiva Feshareki is another of the six composers selected to take part in the London Sinfonietta’s new Writing the Future scheme, and has been working with the ensemble’s Principal clarinet Mark van de Wiel since the scheme’s launch in February.

The result of this collaboration is a Sinfonietta Short, titled departing in peace, arriving with love which will be premiered at an exclusive London Sinfonietta’s Pioneers’ event on Wednesday 13 April 2011.

Keep your eyes on the London Sinfoniettta website for news about the first public performance.

Composer Shiva Feshareki (r) at the launch of Writing the Future, February 2011. Photo © Briony Campbell

Shiva tells us more about her piece…

Mark and I already knew each other, when we met on stage of the Royal Festival Hall in a Q&A session last year. Not exactly the most common place to meet, but a lot started even then. In regards to this collaboration, I think he had already understood my way of thinking. I like picking up things that come my way very spontaneously, which then register in my head as being significant, or having had an impact on me. So during the time we have spent with each other so far, we have been focussing on emotions and meanings, and what’s significant for both of us, both in music and in our everyday lives. Now, this will remain between just the two of us, however, for example, I asked him about what makes him happy, what makes him smile, why he likes certain passages of music (which he played a lot of for me: such a luxury), why certain things are scary for him or tedious etc (rather than what sound does it produce if you shove a pen knife in the clarinet or what extended technique can we bastardise this time(!)). In other words, for Mark and me, it’s about the personal, not the technical (or techniques). And I really did find some really beautiful moments emerged between us, so far, in the collaboration. This doesn’t mean that the piece I am writing for him will be so tailored for him that other clarinettists can’t play it; it just means that we have found a soul for the piece, and it’s something that I am now translating into the music (it never had any verbal identity anyway).

The next time we meet, Mark will receive the complete piece. He already knew that that’s what I do: something just clicks in my head after much internal thought, and then I write ’the whole’, with no disruption.

Mark is a fantastic person. Not only does he produce one of the best sounds I have ever heard, but his attitude and commitment to music have no comparison. We both trust each other wholeheartedly, and that is the definition of a collaboration.’

Shiva will not be using electronics in this piece.

Book your tickets to hear more of the Writing the Future pieces at our Pavilions pre-concert performance on Sunday 29 May 2011.

Click here to find out more about how the London Sinfonietta is creating new music with some of the finest emerging composers on Writing the Future.

Writing the Future: First Pieces

Edmund Finnis is one of the six composers selected to take part in the London Sinfonietta’s new Writing the Future scheme, and has been working with the ensemble’s Principal viola Paul Silverthorne since the scheme’s launch in February.

The result of this collaboration is a Sinfonietta Short, titled Veneer, which will be premiered on Tuesday 5 April 2011 at the ensemble’s Chopped and Screwed – itself a collaboration between the London Sinfonietta and rising stars of the experimental pop scene Micachu and the Shapes.

Edmund tells us more about his piece…

Edmund Finnis begins his collaboration with LS Principal Paul Silverthorne at the Writing the Future Introduction Weekend, Feb 2011. Photo © Briony Campbell

I have been working on my piece for solo viola while on residency at the Banff Centre in Canada. For the piece, the viola’s lowest string is tuned down a tone to a Bb. I am interested in the way that this seemingly small adjustment to the instrument alters the nature of its resonance. In particular, when played loud, partials from the low string now set up sympathetic vibrations in the D string. The work makes use of the scordatura tuning by exploiting its concomitant range of natural harmonics. These harmonics are played loud and stridently, in a way that lets them continue to resonate beyond the moment the bow leaves the strings. To accentuate the kind of singing quality that I am after, I am looking at the possibility of using subtle, unobtrusive amplification along with a small amount of artificial reverb. I am very keen not to alienate the sound of the natural viola by connecting it to an amplification circuit, and only want to use reverb to emulate the kind of sound one might hear if the piece were played in a large reverberant space such as a chapel.

My work on this piece will doubtless inform aspects of my next large composition, to be scored for 2 viola d’amores and 14 modern strings.

Edmund Finnis

Book your tickets to hear the premiere of Veneer at Micachu and the Shapes with the London Sinfonietta: Chopped and Screwed at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday 5 April, 2011.

Click here to find out more about how the London Sinfonietta is creating new music with some of the finest emerging composers on Writing the Future.

Micachu and the Shapes with the London Sinfonietta: Chopped and Screwed is presented by Southbank Centre in association with the London Sinfonietta as part of Ether.

Writing the Future is generously supported by The Boltini Trust, The John S Cohen Foundation, Anthony Mackintosh and Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner.