• Thursday March 22, 2012: A 60ieth Anniversary Concert for Lucien Posman. Miryzaal, Ghent Conservatory, Hoogpoort 64, 9000 Ghent at 20:00

• Wednesday March 28, 2012: Russian Woods by Chto Delat? Part of the Sapere Aude, Dare to Know! Festival at the Beursschouwburg, A. Ortsstraat 20-28, 1000 Brussels at 20:30

• Thursday March 29, 2012: The 6 Bach Motets, Laudantes Consort. Chapelle du Sacré-Coeur de Linthout, Ave. des 2 Tilleuls 2A, 1200 Brussels at 20:30

• Sunday April 1, 2012: The 6 Bach Motets, Laudantes Consort. Salle Philharmonique de Liège, Boulevard Piercot 25, 4000 Liège  at 16:00

Then, we will be singing Stevie Wishart’s Out of this World as part of Hannover’s Herrenhausen Festival in June.  This splendid work, inspired by Hildegard Von Bingen, was commissioned by the BBC and performed in the UK Proms series last summer.  What a pleasure to get the chance to sing it again.

And in the meantime, a host of smaller projects in ensemble and with my pianist promise a busy start to the year.

And my New Year’s resolution?  To keep my website up-to-date, of course…

I wish you all Health and Happiness in 2012.

On the programme, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols and Holst’s Choral Hymns from the Rig-Veda, as well as pieces by Arvo Pärt, Kodaly, and many more.

Come and join us!

Facebook link

At about 18:00, as part of the festivities, my new group X-Ambitus will perform a short programme of music from the Franco-Flemish musical tradition.  5 singers, performing a capella, will make the new premises of Daarkom resonate with Flemish Renaissance polyphony.

Entry is FREE – Come and Experience!

Volgend weekend opent het nieuw Vlaams-Marokkaans cultureel centrum Daarkom zijn deuren in Brussel.  Vanaf 17u00 kan je de pas gerenoveerde ‘La Gaité’ bezoeken (dat was vroeger een variété theater) en genieten van optredens met zowel Vlaamse als Marokkaanse dans en muziek.

In dat kader brengt mijn nieuwe groep X-Ambitus rond 18:00 een kort programma met Frans-Vlaamse oude muziek. Vijf zangers, a capella, zullen Vlaamse renaissance polyfonie laten klinken in de nieuwe gebouwen van Daarkom .

De toegang is gratis – kom luisteren !

For anyone who missed the concert, and for anyone who would like to hear it again, you can listen here until Saturday 2nd September.

Petroc Trelawny’s interview with Stevie Wishart and the members of Sinfonye, recorded live for the Radio 3 programme In Tune and broadcast on August 24th last week, can, I believe, be heard here until this Wednesday (31st August).

Sinfonye, Stevie Wishart‘s group, is taking part in the première of Stevie’s new piece, ‘Out of this World’. This piece was a BBC commission for the BBC Singers, conducted by Robert Hollingworth. It is based on Hildegard’s song-texts for which the original music has not survived.

“For Hildegard it seems music was a way for mortals to experience something of heavenly or spiritual ecstacy, and it is perhaps this desire which we can most clearly empathise with today.” – Stevie Wishart.

The full programme is :

• Hildgard of Bingen – a selection of her chants from her Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum;
• Benjamin Britten – Sacred and Profane;
• Harrison Birtwhistle – Narration: A Description of the Passing of a Year;
• Stevie Wishart – Out of this World: BBC Commission, World Premiere London Proms 2011.

Saturday 27^th August | 3pm – 4:30 pm | Cadogan Hall, SW1

www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2011/august-27/66

Being a bit of a medieval music fan, I was delighted that the Huelgas Ensemble was putting on a programme of music that is far too seldom performed.

The musicians were magnificent and the concert was well-done.  A couple of the pieces were really very beautiful.

But it wasn’t all I’d hoped.  The biggest disappointment for me was their rendition of a piece by Léonin from the Ecole de Notre Dame.  The organum duplum (2-part polyphony) of Léonin being something I have spent a good part of my professional career experimenting with, I found Paul Van Nevel’s interpretation unsatisfactory in several ways.

Organum duplum is a florid, extravagant music based on Gregorian Chant.  (If you want a quick idea of what it’s about, my group Ut Sol has recorded a short extract (the Deum time from the Offices for Trinity, to which you can listen by clicking here).

Mr Van Nevel’s approach was to make the lower voice (which sings Gregorian chant in long note values) the leading voice.  This resulted in what sounded like a piece of chant with a few ornamentations on top.  For me it did not work at all, as the two voices seemed virtually independent of each other and the piece did not hang together.

I believe that the upper voice is the leading voice in organum duplum wherever there is free rhythm.  This was originally an improvised music.  It seems most likely to me that the upper voice (the improvised voice) would have worked with signals – making it clear through the manner of singing when the lower voice should change note.  In Mr Van Nevel’s interpretation he, as conductor, led the ensemble.  This is the only solution, of course, if your singers are not giving clear signals to each other, but it should be unnecessary.

Secondly, I believe that the intervallic relationship between the two voices is of paramount importance and binds the work together.  In Mr Van Nevel’s interpretation you would say that the two voices were unaware of the intervals at play between them.  I see this music as structured around consonant pillars – places where the two voices come together – with dissonance being the tension that is built up in order to resolve.  It makes the music so much more interesting!

Finally, I would add that this music was controversial at the height of it’s popularity.  Religious purists felt that it was too extrovert and egotistical, and that it detracted from prayer.  I suggest that an interpretation that so heavily favours the Gregorian chant and consigns the upper voice to the background would not have offended anyone.

I should point out that I am not in favour of an approach that values authenticity above all else.  However, I do believe that attempting to understand the music can help to bring out the best in it.  Sometimes, of course, a less-than-well researched performance can be stunning, but it’s a dangerous strategy.

In short, what troubles me about Paul Van Nevel’s interpretation of Léonin’s organum duplum is that it did not do justice to a rich and wonderful music (about which I apparently feel quite passionately!).  I only hope that the fact of performing it in a lack-lustre manner does not put people off.  Lets hope it’s a case of ‘no such thing as bad publicity’.