Classical music in Leicester and Leicestershire 2011

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Niladri Kumar and Talvin Singh at the Peepul Centre, 28th April

Harjinder Ohbi reports.

Both Nildari Kumar, a fifth generation sitarist and Talvin Singh, internationally renowned tabla player have a grounding in indian classical music yet share a passion for being contempoarary in their approach to their genre of music.

Talvin's groundbreaking first album ' OK ' gained him the prestigious Mercury award in 1998. The duo are currently into their national tour promoting their CD ''Together'. There was no interval during this exciting two and half hour set, as the auditorium at the Peepul Centre briefly resonatated with the sounds of electronica tablas from Talvin who was joined a few minutes later by Nildari on the sitar and what a combination of truly innovative styles the pair brought together.

Nildari's fast paced style of sitar playing gave an audience an insight of his depth and understanding of indian classical music equally measured by the softness of Talvin's tablas reminding me of the legendary tablaist Zakir Hussain. Raag jyonjoti followed with both artists giving solo performances but what took my breath away was the intensity of Nildari's sitar playing as both performed a juggalbandi as he teased Talvin with his play, who responded almost to the brief.

The audience responded too as the concert came to an end with a standing ovation and wanting more. The duo returned with a light raag bhairvi and another standing ovation ensued. What a combination of young talent given many in the audience were musicians of high calibre including the likes of sitarists Roopa Panesar and Ustad Dharambir Singh to give support on the occassion!

"Expect the expected and the unexpected" I was told during my interview with Nildari and how true those words still ring in my ears. Bring on more quality musicians to the city, I say!

The event was presented by Shruti Arts. Find out more about these artists.

Collegium Regale at Leicestria Cathedral

The Cathedral Chruch of St. Martin, Tuesday 5th April 2011

Reviewed by Trevor Locke.

Seven members from The choir of King's College, Cambridge, came to our Cathedral tonight to delight a capacity audience with the beauty of their well blended voices. Even the Bishop of Leicester was there to enjoy a night of varied choral offerings. One of their number, David Cane, now in this third year at Kings, was a chorister here around fourteen years ago. So, many in the audience were pleased to greet his return as one of a band of very distinguished artists.

Although there are 17 members of the Collegium Regale close harmony group, they split into smaller groups when on tour around the UK. They are all Choral Scholars of the world famous Choir of King's College, Cambridge. The seven students were all undergraduates at Cambridge with most being in their second or third years. Not all of them were reading music however.

Leicester cathedral was the setting for the concert by Collegium Regale

The Cathedral has a long tradition of musical education and tonight's concert helped to raise some funding to help with its programme of 'choral outreach'.

The entire programme was sung a cappella without any obvious sign of amplification. The Chorister's first five pieces represented a musical tour of Europe, beginning in sixteenth century Catalonia with Mateo Flecha's Riu, Rui Chiu.The song list then moved to Italy for Dei Donum by Orlande de Lassus. The seven young men had voices that were finely tuned and delivered radiant harmonies - a well oiled machine, a well-tempered Clavier, they worked together to produce ravishingly ear pleasing sounds.

The first half was serene, peaceful and transporting. Moving on to Saxony, they sang J.S. Bach's Also Hat Gott die Welt Geliebt (BWV 68), The 1725 Cantata for Whit Monday. Byrd's Civitas Sancti Tui brought us to England. Often one particular voice would stand out from the others allowing each vocal part to be examined. These young men have been selected for the sheer quality of their voices, the elite of England's fine choral tradition. Bear in mind that this was an all male group with the soprano parts being handled with clarity by the two young men who could each those upper register notes.

The first set ended with Gaudete in Domino, a motet for five voices by Giaches de Wert, a late sixteenth century Franco-Flemish composer. Gaudete (a Christmas carol), however, reminded me of the song made famous by Steeleye Span but this wasn't it. You can hear several pieces by Giaches de Wert on the Collegium's album. The sonorous harmonies were delivered magnificently by the Choral Scholars. The ensemble has a richness of tone, mellowness of harmony and delicacy of touch that was simply astonishing.

The very first time I ever set foot in Leicester's Cathedral Church of St. Martin, was to hear a performance of Faure's Requiem, which was later to become one of my favourite choral works. For decades since, the church has been a destination for those who love fine music. It is good that our Cathedral can be shared not just with the Christian community but also the with wider population of Leicester's music lovers.

The choristers retired for an interval during which organist Parker Ramsey, who flew over from Tennessee to perform tonight, played Bach's Prelude and Fuge in G Major (BWV 541, I assume). The organ has been well maintained and enjoys a reputation as a fine instrument. The work drew to a grand conclusion but not the kind of roof raising roars you can get from some organ pieces; this was redolent with intricate arpeggios and full of Bach's magical mathematical figures and patterns. It was the first live music event I had been to this year when I didn't need ear plugs. Indeed the acoustics of the hall were such that you could hear every note perfectly, even at the back of the tiered seating.

The second set of the first half moved away from the ecclesiastical traditions. They opened with an American piece, Daniel Gawthrop's There is sweet music. Given that many people's experience of the King's College Choir is limited to seeing them on the television at Christmas, it was intriguing to see that the Choristers group can also perform an extremely wide range of modern works. From their repertoire of traditional songs they chose Danny Boy, a Londonderry Air, allowing a demonstration of their virtuosity across all styles of vocal music. What this piece lacked in passion, it made up for in technical accomplishment. They could have given the piece a little more commitment but preferred to take a more restrained approach to its delivery.

The concluding part of their first set included works by Durufle, Vaughan Williams and Richard Rodney Bennett. Whilst their ensemble singing was sheer joy to listen to, there were various points at which individual singers would carry over the backing and you could hear what amazingly good voices they each had, human equivalents of a Stradivarius. These guys are the thoroughbreds of choral singing.

Tom Crow and Robbie Jacobs from Collegium Regale

The audience relaxed during the interval, socialising, partaking of a glass of wine or inspecting the Group's merchandise. The Choristers had brought an ample collection of their CDs with them. No Ts sadly for I would surely have had one of those.

After the interval the audience relaxed into the markedly different second half, a few glass of red or white helping the atmosphere. The student Septet opened with Marshall Bartholomew's Little Lamb, a jazzy number that contrasted dramatically with the plain chant origins of the first half. They showed how they could get passionate about singing and their spirited rendition was warmly received by the mixed crowd of people assembled in the hallowed edifice of St. Martin's.

I would guess that a large proportion of those in the seats were members of the Cathedral congregation. I found myself sitting next to former Master of the Music, a couple of rows up from the Bishop. When it was David Cane's turned to be introduced, he got a round of enthusiastic applause. Forgive me for thinking he was the Gary Linekar of the Leicester choral scene but Leicesterians are always keen on local boys who make in the big world outside.

Negro spiritual Swing Low Sweet Chariot showed just how versatile these guys can be with music and indeed their concluding repertoire was full of swing. The traditional Steal Away, much beloved of choir competitions, was delivered with effortless precision. Even when they broke into a rendition of the Beach Boys, Get Around, you could see where they were coming from. As much as I love the European choral tradition, there is no reason why singing should not be fun.

Moments of undergraduate humour lit up the anchors between the songs, as when Tom announced "It's time to introduce the members of the group" and they then proceeded to shake hands with each other. When he told us that it was time to look at the background to the Collegium they all turned round to peer at the Chancel. They clearly enjoyed what they were doing and the audience warmed to them.

The arrangement of Joshua at the battle of Jericho, with solos from Robbie Jacobs, the Music Director of the group, was interesting. He launched himself into the score with the enthusiasm of a soccer team manager and, we are told, "aspires to be the Arsene Wenger" of close harmony." The lads counterpoised jubilant vitality with moments of mesmerising delicacy.

Parker Ramsey returned to the organ's console with a couple of reflective pieces from Walton's film score to Henry the Fifth. This included Touch her Soft Lips and Part.

The Group's programme was decidedly eclectic. Even their popular numbers were laced with technical wizardry; they did not compromise their virtuosity for the sake of a few 'floor fillers.' Jerome Kerr's The Way You Look Tonight was brought to life.

It was a master stroke to engage the audience in the choruses to their last piece, Minnie the Moocher. This risky ploy could have gone down like a lead balloon but the Cathedral crowd rose to the occasion and actually did remarkably well in keeping up with the increasingly demanding tempo of their bits. Well I imagine they are all well used to Congregational singing.

An enthusiastic response from the crowd greeted David Cane's solo in Frank Sinatra's Blue Moon, as the group did their encore, following sustained applause from a clearly delighted audience.

An evening of remarkable music; from the glorious example's of the best traditional choral pieces through to the delicious confections of the second half. It was not what I was expecting from such an august body of scholars but I have to say I was in no way disappointed.

A brilliant night of sheer musical magic.

Find out moe about the Collegium Regale.

Leicester Symphony Orchestra - The Last Night of the Proms - Saturday 12th February 2011

As part of the Leicester Comedy Festival, The LSO came under the conductorship of comedian Rainer Hersch for an evening of hilarity and good music.

They called the event "The Last Night of the Proms ... ever". Apparently there have been "LNoTP" type events before at the De Montfort Hall. Perhaps it the Last Night to end all Last Nights but it was definitely a cheeky and hilarious take on one of our great British Institutions, the finale of the Henry Wood Promenade concerts at the Albert Hall.

Rainer Hersch is a comedian and musician who specialises in making fun of classical music, or perhaps we should say, making fun with classical music. A surprising combination that actually worked rather well.

His love of comedy grew out of Monty Python and he has studied conducting and piano. He found his vocation by combining stand-up with orchestras and has worked with some of the top ones. He appeared with the Leicester Symphony Orchestra in 2006 with his show "All classical music explained".

The LSO has a long and prestigious history in this city; the programme notes shows a picture of them on stage at the DMH in 1937 with Dr Malcolm Sargent on the conductor's podium, (later to become Sir Malcolm), the distinguished conductor of the Proms, who presided over many a memorable last night.

The "proms" has played a major role in the musical history of this country, in popularising classical music and opening it up to to a wider audience. In recent times, the last night has enjoyed an even wider audience through being broadcast on the television and now stands as one of the iconic institutions of British life.

Tonight's hall-filler attracted some people who might never attend a symphony orchestra concert but were drawn to an event with a party atmosphere. The audience were provided with Union Jacks to wave and the stage was festooned with them, creating the ambience associated with the last night event.

Rainer Hersch warmed up the audience with some introductory stand-up and soon had them shouting responses; many of his cracks were about Leicester, like, him telling people he was staying at the Grand Hotel; they called it that because that's how much it cost to build. Of course, he had to have a joke about our local football club: "The police reported that the trophy room of the LCFC had been broken into. A man had been arrested for stealing a carpet." He also made a few jokes about the De Montfort Hall itself, it's financial problems and the cloud of issues that is still surrounding its management. "Don't let them take this wonderful hall away from us", he exclaimed and an enthusiastic cheer echoed forth from the audience.

The orchestra opened with Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla, the overture to his 1842 opera, a fast and tuneful piece with some comic bits thrown in, such as the theme from Star Wars. This interpretation might have had Glinka rolling in his grave; or rolling with laughter. The audience certainly found it funny.

Rainer's jokes were witty and he had a knack of getting the audience involved in the action. When he asked them a question, 1,200 people shouted back. When the orchestra played the theme tune from the film Bridge of the River Kwai, the audience whistled along to it. Audience participation was very much what the night was about. Even to getting one of them, a student called Lucy, to come up on stage and play the Glockenspiel with the orchestra.

Rainer showed the audience that he was a musician by playing a real australian Digeridoo; he explained that he had purchased this for £600 but the pipe from a vacuum cleaner would have done just as well, so he played a tune on that as well.

In between the comic turns, the orchestra played some 'straight' pieces, including The Jupiter Suite from Holst's 'The Planets', delivered with panache and feeling as well as sense of grandeur.

The Dam Busters march was accompanied with a slide show in which icons of Britishness were lampooned; everything from the monarchy and royal family to our castles were poked fun at, in a Pythonesque series of images.

So, the concert did not follow the established pattern of the famous Last Nights but it did draw on some well-known aspects of them, like the Hornpipe, where the audience was encouraged to clap in the right places.

Rainer was joined on the stage by baritone Mark Holland, who, for his first piece sang Postman Pat in his rich, deep voice, to a full orchestral setting. By the second half the audience was well warmed up. Rainer asked the audience if they would like to hear Mark sing a proper piece of opera. After several attempts to get them to show real enthusiasm for this, he turned to the orchestra and picked up his baton. A man with a Braunstone accent shouted from the back of the Hall "Go on Mark", to which Rainer responded "Ah we have someone in from the Tigers".

Mark sang the arias in Italian and a translation was provided on the screen above the orchestra. What Rainer had done was to the listen to the Italian phrases and write sentences which, in his view is what he thought it sounded like in English. A bit like what you sometimes get when using Google translations. For example, one slide stated:

"I sold by Uncle's scrotum
for a lacey bra"

which had the audience in stitches and which was definitely not what was in Puccini's original lyrics.

The audience swung into action during Bizet's Toreador song (from the opera Carmen), singing the chorus from words on the screen - again, not always quite what was in the original.

Similarly, during Rule Britannia, the slides gave Rainer's version of the lyrics but curiously half the audience stuck to the original song and the other half tried to sing what came up on the slides. An hilarious moment of confusion.

It was a very entertaining and seriously funny night. Quite surprising but most enjoyable. Music and comedy brought together for two hours of side-splitting frivolity and cheeky witticisms, which the Leicester audience showed great enthusiasm for.

Find out more about Rainer Hersch and the Leicester Symphony Orchestra.

Leicester Symphony Orchestra - Spirit of the Dance - Saturday 13th November 2010

Now in its 88th Season, the LSO joined forces with the Ann Oliver Stage School and Leicester College of Performing Arts to bring a delightful evening of music and dance to the De Montfort Hall. artsIn was there:

The programme was judiciously chosen: some of the best known and most loved dance tunes. The orchestra was brilliant and the dancers delightful.

The evening commenced with the Prelude and Mazurka from the ballet Coppelia by Delibes. The dancers appeared on stage at the opening of the piece; the motionless doll being wheeled in on her chair by the doll maker (a female dancer with a very unconvincing wig.) The main corps of dancers arrived on stage, clad in traditional style costumes, the girls in red dresses and the boys in white shirts.

They came to life as the strains of the familiar melody flowed from the strings of the orchestra. The dancers worked well together and their timing was tight, though not always as in role as it should be. Some of the female dancers had fixed smiles on their faces, some wore blank expressions and the boys looked rather stern. Ah well, minor details; overall it was well put together and the students did a creditable performance throughout the evening.

The Adagio from Khachaturian's Spartacus Suite No.2. seemed like an ambitious idea for a family night out until you realise its also one of the best known dance tunes in the repertoire. In fact several of the tunes we heard tonight have been made famous as television show themes.

The female corps de ballet were dressed in shiny orange skirts. Some of the costumery was bordering on strictly standards for my taste. The choreography was somewhat enigmatic at times but the dancers kept together and showed a considerable degree of discipline in their hand movements and ability to synchronise together.

The main body was joined by two of the principal dancers for a duet, dressed in white costumes. Another gloriously famous tune flowed from the stage. The LSO under conductor John Andrews did a great job of evoking the atmosphere of the piece. The duet was well executed, the moves flowing smoothly and the steps in time with the music.

Swan Lake is probably the most famous ballet and because everyone knows it, it would have been remiss to leave it out. From the opening bars, the audience knew what to expect. The LSO warmed into the set and caught the drama of the more edgy passages.

Swan Lake can be mistaken for being a chocolate box ballet. In fact, it has some dark undertones and these can be easily overlooked in the rush to focus on the romance and the tutus.

This part of the programme gave members of the the orchestra a chance to shine, with some fine solos from Harpist Soraya Vermeulen and lead violinist Catherine Cole. The programme mixed purely orchestral pieces with those that included dancers.

The dancers ranged in age, from some very tiny ones through to older ones, looking probably in their late teens. I have to say the very little ones did an amazing job of keeping in time or keeping still when they were needed to.

The corps de ballet, some in traditional costume were a fairly tightly controlled ensemble - some smiling, some not. Fixed smiles are de rigueur in synchronised swimming but look out of place in the theatre of the dance.

I have long been a fan of Leonard Bernstein. West Side story is my favourite musical. In fact, it's the only musical I like. Candide of course is strictly speaking an operetta, even through it opened as a musical. It's overture is one of those lollipops, loved and enjoyed widely for its catchy tunes. It's two themes get played around with by Bernstien. The first subject dances a kind of duet with the second subject. The appealing tunes are brightened and underscored by a range of percussion.

Malcolm Arnold's work is known more widely than his name, some of his compositions having been used in film scores, these being much more widely known than the rest of this impressive English composer's repertoire.

Another great favourite of mine concluded the concert: The Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin. The female dancers appeared, clad in fresh white costumes, for the Gliding Dance of the Maidens. The famous theme is played. Now, everyone should know this one because it became a hit song when it was adapted for the musical Kismet, being better known as the song "stranger in paradise". I remember it being played frequently on the wireless when I was a child. Sadly the lighting engineer seems to have gone for a couple of pints during the interval and all was not as it should be on the stage. I still have a recording of The Dances when they were performed at the Last Night of the Proms in 1991.

The fourth dance is big, brassy and thrilling and loaded with vibrant themes, which the wind section caught superbly. The percussion section were also enjoying the lime light. Pieces full of drama and colour gave the LSO a chance to exhibit their technical skills and certainly brought The Dances to life. The main theme returns triumphantly, the engaging melody gliding from the strings, laced with flourishes from the wind section. The dynamics build up through a recapitulation and coda leading into the climactic finale. No choral backing of course tonight.

The concert came to a close and the entire company assembled on stage to take their bows. The leads appeared, to enthusiastic acclaim from the audience, the orchestra giving them a bit of an encore as they did some russian gymnastics and ended with a bit of a choreographic humour, in true Russian style.

A wonderful night of family entertainment. Very enjoyable. It is highly laudable that Leicester can support its own orchestra and a flourishing and successful school of performing arts.

This adds to the great richness of the cultural life of this city and to its considerable reputation as a vibrant and distinctive centre for the arts.

Leicester Symphony Orchestra | Leicester College of Performing Arts

Concert news

The Leicester International Music festival takes place 15th to 18th September 2011. One of the finest chamber music festivals in Europe.

Classical music concerts takes place on a regular basis at the De Montfort Hall, the Universities, Leicester Cathedral and various churches, such as St James the Greater in London Road.

Leicester Cathedral is a venue for organ recitals, choral music and concerts.

Our concerts listing does not cover the De Montfort Hall but focuses on the smaller venues.

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