Music events to welcome in 2014- Part 3/3…

New Year’s Eve Musicals Gala with the Manchester Camerata @ The Bridgewater Hall 

The use of this image is solely for the purpose of this blog post. With thanks to The Bridgewater Hall for its use.

So, this is the last of our top three music events to welcome in 2014. It is of course the day before New Year’s Eve but the last pick is for those who have made up your mind at the last minute to go out and celebrate the last eve of 2013.

Tomorrow evening Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall invites you to join the Manchester Camerata and its outstanding soloists for an evening of favourite songs from the musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, George Gershwin, Lerner & Loewe and more.

West End stars Hannah Waddingham & Graham Bickley join the world class chamber orchestra that is the Manchester Camerata for a night to remember, culminating in a rousing seasonal finale. Tickets are available to purchase here. Tickets range from between £32-£52 depending on seating (seats are still available spanning all ticket ranges). The event starts from 8.00pm but we advise that you arrive early, from 6.30pm to enjoy the informal foyer entertainment including a fire performer, stilt walkers, magicians and a performance from the Northern Brass quintet.

American-born, UK-based conductor Robert Ziegler will be leading the concert, one of the most versatile conductors working today. Known for his inventive programming and innovative collaborations Robert Ziegler has worked with artists spanning a range of genres from opera, jazz, theatre through to contemporary pop music. The conductor’s repertoire ranges from core symphonic music to the avant garde, with his orchestral arrangements played around the world. Robert maintains a lively career as a broadcaster for BBC Television and Radio.

Soloists for the evening are Hannah Waddingham & Graham Bickley. English actress and singer Hannah is best known for her contribution to West End musical theatre, particularly her performances in the original London production of Spamalot, A Little Night Music and most recently, The Wizard of Oz as the Wicked Witch of the West. She has also had a successful film and television career and was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance in Spamalot.

Graham Bickley trained at The Liverpool Theatre School. He has performed in the West End since 1981 in productions including Pirates of Penzance, and as principal lead in Les Misérables, Metropolis, Miss Saigon and Sunset Boulevard (playing opposite Petula Clark). He has received two nominations for the Laurence Olivier and The Whatsonstage Award for ‘Best Actor in a Musical’.

The New Year’s Eve Musical Gala promises a spectacular and varied programme with the following performances confirmed for the evening:

Oklahoma: Overture; Oh, What a Beautiful Morning | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend |Funny Girl: Don’t Rain on My Parade | Les Misérables: Bring Him Home; I Dreamed a Dream; On My Own | West Side Story: Tonight; I Feel Pretty; Mambo! | Girl Crazy: Overture | Shall We Dance: Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off | Cats: Memory | My Fair Lady: I Could Have Danced All Night; On The Street Where You Live | Wizard of Oz: Main Title; Somewhere Over the Rainbow | Sunset Boulevard: As If We Never Said Goodbye | Phantom of the Opera: Music of the Night | Spamalot: The Song that Goes Like This; Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

This will be one end of year performance that will definitely call for an encore!

Written by Hannah Bayley for @mcrcultureshow

Baroque with a Fats slice of Jazz

Nigel Kennedy
Please note use of this picture is purely for the purpose of this review. With thanks to Nigel Kennedy for its use

On Wednesday 12th September I ventured to The Bridgewater Hall to see a very unique performance…

So it’s only fair for me to set the stage if you have never seen a live performance from the multi-award-winning virtuoso violinist and Yehudi Menuhin’s most famous protégé- Nigel Kennedy. With countless international tours, performing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors all under his belt it seems poetic that Kennedy’s actual belt is far from what you would imagine such a renowned and leading musician to wear… In fact to continue on such an unusual point for a musical review it seemed amusing that Kennedy was actually wearing a tie/scarf haphazardly tied around his waist as if in a rebellious school boy fashion, but this really should not come as a surprise. Those who know Kennedy can expect such an openly rebellious image. So for the first half of the concert Kennedy enters wearing ripped jacket, shirt with belt and baggy grey trousers and of course there’s his usual trademark spiky hair!

One of my favourite parts of a concert is just before when the lights dim and you can hear the off stage strokes of tuning taking place it always adds to the anticipation of the eagerly waiting audience. Of course these are the sounds of one of Kennedy’s treasured violins- his 1732 instrument by the great violin maker Carlo Bergonzi.  Following this moment Kennedy’s accompanying musician friends then enter on to the stage one by one. On guitar there is Jarek Smietana, the legendary Krakow jazz guitarist and pianist, well known for recording with the likes of Art Farmer, Carter Jefferson and Vince Mendoza to name a few. On double bass there’s Yaron Stavi- on of the UK’s most talented bass players with the ability to capture such diverse styles as jazz, world music, rock and of course classical. He famously was the principal bass player under conductors Seiji Ozawa and Pierre Boulez performing for the Mahler Youth Orchestra. Then there is Polish percussionist Krzysztof Dziedzic. Who, expelled from school as a boy developed his own idiosyncratic way of playing and went on to study at the Academy of Music in Katowice and is now a member of the Nigel Kennedy quartet.

So the programme kicks off and Kennedy’s humour is in full swing on stage informing the audience that if they get through the first half of listening to J.S. Bach that they would get to enjoy the lighter side of his Fats Waller arrangements in the second half of the concert. Personally, I was looking forward to Bach arranged for solo violin anyway so win win for the first and second half of the concert! So yes, the first half began with the Praeludium from Bach’s ‘Partita No.3 in E major BWV 1006’ for solo violin and the last work of in the set of ‘Six Sonatas and Partitas’. Kennedy’s mastering of the advanced bowing technique required to play this piece was certainly not in question and as he informed the audience in the program that his background was through the Menuhin-Enescu-Casals tradition he captured the soul, pathos and emotion that was foremost in his delivery of the work. Kennedy then moved on to the final three movements of Bach’s ‘Violin Sonata No.2. in A minor BWV 1003’ with the Fugue, Andante and Allegro. What I particularly liked about his performance was not just the fluidity of Kennedy’s double stopping and ability to create a multi-instrumental timbre but that in between each musical movement he would join the other three onstage musicians as a quartet to perform little improvised bridge badges ranging from a blues feel to a scuttle of an Irish jig cleverly bridging itself back to Kennedy’s solo movements. This approach interestingly also reflected the accuracy of musical performance of the work in Bach’s day as they were never performed as complete works and so, by missing the first movement of the Grave and fitting in improvised interludes Kennedy stayed true to the authenticity here.

Now, Kennedy wouldn’t be Kennedy if he didn’t rebel just a little and stray from the traditional and the second part of the concert reflected this streak as he took the works of Jazz legend Fats Waller and arranged them for violin, bass, percussion, guitar and the odd vocal from the on stage group.  Following the intermission Kennedy’s turn to the more contemporary musical program was well represented in his change of top to his beloved Aston Villa’s football strip. In effect this also added to the line in the program that while Bach and Fats Waller had so much in common as entertainers in their day Fat’s music would ‘ensure the concert this evening does not become chronically serious’. So the two musicians centuries apart have something in common and as Kennedy went on ‘I think playing Fats Waller’s music with no piano is a fantastic way to find an original and organic viewpoint’.  Kennedy certainly embraced Fats’ catalogue from ‘I’m Crazy’ Bout My Baby’ to closing Jazz number ‘The Spider and The Fly’ of course Kennedy made a few suggestive statements about the economy and he government when they came to play ‘Viper’s Drag’ but that is left unsaid.

Of course by the end of the concert it was understandable to see why this musical programme performed at the late night Proms in 2011 sold out I mean the team work of the improvisation on stage between the musicians, the wave pattern that followed from every instrumental solo to another from percussion to guitar to bass and violin was just so connected and vibrant. Of course Kennedy’s natural born talent for playing the violin with such ferocity and a clear knowledge of its note range taking it to every possible octave just had the audience’s full attention, captivated every second. For a man with a slightly shabby appearance there was nothing shabby about that concert!

Nigel Kennedy has just recorded his new EP titled ‘The Four Elements’ for Sony Records to be released soon which premieres his new composition composed for members of the Orchestra of Life and Voices inspired by the elements: earth, wind, air and fire and also includes a  new take on ‘The Four Seasons’.