Living Toys in Budapest-Part 1

On 29 January 2011, London Sinfonietta performed in the Palace of Arts in Budapest for the first time. Included in the programme was Living Toys by Thomas Adès, which has a particularly challenging part for trumpet.

Alistair Mackie, Principal trumpet of the London Sinfonietta, gives us an insight into how you go about preparing such a piece:

I got an e-mail last summer from the London Sinfonietta’s Chief Executive Andrew Burke highlighting a concert in Budapest on 29 January. The concert was going to include a piece by Thomas Adès called Living Toys, a piece that has gained a certain notoriety among trumpet players. As I was a new member of London Sinfonietta Andrew was flagging up Living Toys well in advance. I had the music sent to me and at first glance it really didn’t look too bad; some tricky rhythms, a lot of mute changes and a couple of jazz inspired solos with plunger mute. Good fun but nothing to stress about. It was clear, I concluded, that some of my colleagues had been exaggerating the difficulties of this piece.

My smugness was short lived.

I soon realised that most of it was written in piccolo trumpet pitch, which is to say it sounds an octave higher than written. Stamina is one of the biggest issues for trumpet players and high register playing severely restricts the amount of time you can play for. 

This part felt ridiculous, full of relentlessly high passages combined with all the usual complexities of contemporary repertoire. Living Toys surely wasn’t playable.

In order to prove myself right, I tracked down a recording made by the London Sinfonietta shortly after the piece was premiered in 1994. 

My heart sank – John Wallace, Principal trumpet at the time, could play it!

I put the music on my stand and began the long process of preparation. Part of that process was the usual technical work-fingers, tongue, pitch, rhythm. Most of it though was a combination of stamina building and brain bullying-trying to gain enough self belief that I could come close to playing it.

By mid January my kids were begging me not to practise it any more and, while not confident, I was beginning to feel better about my prospects. Inflicting some overdue revenge on my drum playing teenage son was an unexpected bonus! 

To be continued…

The London Sinfonietta’s recording of Living Toys, featuring John Wallace on trumpet was released on EMI Classics in 1998 and can be purchased here.

Adelaide Festival- Part 2

Here is another update on the second half of our current tour to the Adelaide Festival in Australia:

“Well, I’m writing this on Monday – the day after our two concerts at the Adelaide Festival. 

After our two days of rehearsals, the first concert on Saturday was a classic Sinfonietta programme.  Nancarrow’s Player Piano Study No.7 is a fantastic piece to not only show off the virtuosity of the players, but a great concert opener, instantly engaging the audience.  That and the Revueltas Ocho por Radio set up Unsuk Chin’s Double Concerto.  We met the amazing pianist Lisa Moore in Adelaide and rehearsed with her here, as one of the soloists sharing the front of the stage with percussionist Owen Gunnell.  Both did a fantastic job – and the piece went down really well.  The second hall started with Cage’s Credo in US and finished with John Adams’ Son of Chamber Symphony.

Then onto the Sunday concert – and the experimental collaborations.  Scott Tinkler brought his amazing musicianship onto stage with our players, and together held the audience captive.  John Rodger’s score for the London Sinfonietta carefully left space for Tinkler to improvise in his extraordinarily way. I’ve not heard playing like it – and chatting to Scott over breakfast it’s clear how dedicated he is to exploring the possibilities of improvisation, and has spent years developing his technique for playing and how to create structures in music with the language of sounds he develops for each piece.  He had his supporters in the audience – but I would say everyone in the hall, on stage and in the audience, was a fan by the end. 

 The Sinfonietta performed works by Tansy Davies (the rhythmic and quirky neon), Gavin Bryars (the haunting The Sinking of the Titanic) and Brett Dean (his beautiful Dream Sequence).  The concert ended with a new piece by Erkki Veltheim that brought the London Sinfonietta together with the Young Wagilak Group, a quartet of Aboriginal songmen.  The score for the London Sinfonietta provided a bedrock of sound upon which the singers performed – an extraordinary and unusual combination of ancient song tradition with contemporary music.  I sensed the collaboration was a hugely significant moment – the Young Wagilak Group have been performing often with the Australian Art Orchestra, but Erkki told me today that they had not performed before with such a large number of musicians in a concert quite like last night.  A truly one-off experience for the London Sinfonietta, and another new project to add to a long line of past collaborations.  Brad Lubman did a fantastic job for us across this project as conductor, dealing with a huge range of repertoire and steering all the musicians through some very unusual collaborations.

We were all really pleased with the response to the performances – what a fantastic audience Adelaide has.   It seems to be a feature of the festival that they come out in great numbers to experience many performances of things that are new, different and unusual. They seemed so genuinely excited by the music we performed, and so open to the huge range of music and ideas in our programmes.  We were told that Adelaide audiences very rarely give standing ovations – but that’s what happened. 

It’s been a real honour to be part of this festival.  Many great musical memories for everyone.  For me our performances of course, and then a fantastic Saturday night when I went onto a performance by recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey in her new installation project ‘en masse’, followed by a brilliant set by the Grabowsky Washington project – festival director Paul Grabowsky with singer Megan Washington and band.  Washington has a fabulous voice and has a great songwriting talent, and Paul is a demon pianist and songwriter too, so together they kept the packed Spiegeltent venue captivated until 1 in the morning.  One of those nights of music making that comes around rarely – and only possible at a fantastic festival like this one.

Great friends made here – Paul, Sarah, Lesley, Kate, Ali, Scott, John, Erkki, Lisa, Ben and the Songmen and all the festival production team who helped with our concerts.  I hope we’ve made some friends too in the Adelaide audience.  We all hope we will be back someday.  Great part of the world – and a great great festival.”  

London Sinfonietta at Adelaide Festival-Part 1

The ensemble are currently on tour in Australia performing 2 nights at the prestigious Adelaide Festival. Here’s an update and some pictures on the first few days from Andrew Burke, our Chief Executive:

So, we are here at last – at the Adelaide Festival.  Coming to Australia seemed such an extraordinary proposition in the planning.  Such an exciting idea – and such a long way to travel! 

Everyone enjoyed (and needed) the rest day yesterday. The jet lag hits you like nothing I’ve experienced before.  You think you are fine, and then mid afternoon your body just shuts down and you have no absolutely no choice but to sleep.  Apart from learning about that side of coming to Australia, I can also report that the water really does drain clockwise down the plughole.  It’s true!

I’m writing this on Thursday 25 Feb, and I’m sitting now in the first rehearsal in Adelaide Town Hall.  Improvising trumpeter Scott Tinkler is playing through with us the new work by John Rodgers for the second concert which happens on Sunday.  We are all blown away by Scott’s playing - he makes an extraordinary sound on the instrument, bending notes, singing and growling down the trumpet. A crazy range too – notes off the scale.  Virtuosic stuff.  And not a note of music in sight.

There are giant inflatable space men and women all over town (some of them climbing up the side of buildings) advertising the Fringe Festival which is already underway.  The town is winding up to the weekend when the main festival will start.  We’re looking forward to the opening night party on Friday and the fireworks, which are meant to be very special.

We are all very endebted to Paul Grabowsky and the great team at the Adelaide Festival for inviting us out here, with the help of the British Council Australia.  More news soon as this fantastic trip for the London Sinfonietta unfolds….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harry Moments

We’ve been doing a lot of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s music recently – because it is fantastic – and because it is his 75th birthday. So, two experiences in the last few weeks that I will remember for a long time.

Last weekend – went to Bregenz for the last performance of Semper Dowland/The Corridor (the new music theatre piece that London Sinfonietta premiered at Aldeburgh and then Southbank – both of whom commissioned it). Amazing place for one, and great to find the band, cast and crew on great form. Everyone has enjoyed this one because it’s been a real ‘company’ project. The musicians never get to rehearse for long on any performance, but with this they had a great lead in for the premiere in Aldeburgh, and then several performances. Mark van de Wiel (clarinet) convinced that last Saturday in Bregenz was the best perf of the lot. Mark Padmore and Liz Atherton stunning. Performance was in the Werkstattbühne – audience very close to the action and could hear lots of new things in the text and the music. Post concert Bregenz banana-split incredible! Can’t do 3.00am in the morning much more though.

Tuesday night – Harry’s 75th birthday concert at the PROMS. Late night London Sinfonietta performance of Carmen Arcadiae, Silbury Air and Verses for Ensembles. Before the concert, we hosted a meal for Harry at Café Anglais to say happy birthday. At the end he said some kind things about the Sinfonietta musicians, and also some amazing things about his composition and his work in general. One idea in particular that stuck with me was about tradition – not about worrying about how to keep something going, but perhaps more about creating something new that then makes the tradition. And then the music…compelling stuff, and a performance that makes the admin work worthwhile.

Andrew Burke