Brussels Sprouts and Christmas Carols

Ahead of the looming excitement of Christmas day we asked our Musically Gifted composers what they're most looking forward to and what they really think about Brussels sprouts... 

All of these composers will have new works premiered by Britten Sinfonia this season, find out how you can get involved on the Musically Gifted website. Watch our Christmas video here. 

Ben Comeau

What’s your favourite Christmas song and why?

Unashamedly highbrow response!  Any of Bach’s Christmas music, especially O Jesulein süß (O Little One Sweet). Poulenc’s four Christmas motets. Messiaen’s Dieu Parmi Nous for organ.

The one you really can’t stand?

I’m usually very eclectic in my tastes, but Christmas really brings out the very worst in pop music. The tropes and cheap tinsel of Christmas hits are so depressing. I could probably enjoy Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody if it were an obscurity, but the Pavlovian response when it starts playing in a club brings out a rare misanthropic streak in me...

Favourite thing about Christmas?

Obviously (some of) the music. And if it ever snows, going out on a long walk.

Your Christmas pet hate?

The pop music...

Brussels sprouts, yes or no?

YES and then some! I could eat barrels of them.

Tom Coult

What’s your favourite Christmas song and why?

12 Days of Christmas – hands down the most structurally innovative of all Christmas songs. It’s a cumulative form with an irregular metre and irregular, additive phrase structure – introductory lines and the ‘partridge in a pear tree’ segment in 4/4, then incrementally adding 3/4 bars, excepting the 5th phrase (‘five gold rings’) which is in 4/4, after which point the melody of the following three phrases alters for each subsequent verse. I’ve done a diagram of the phrases in each verse – italics denote the changed melody after ‘five gold rings’:

AB - ACB - ADCB - AEDCB - AFEDCB - AGFEDCB - AHGFEDCB - AIHGFEDCB - AJIHGFEDCB - AKJIHGFEDCB - ALKJIHGFEDCB - AMLKJIHGFEDCB

The one you really can’t stand?

The Holly and the Ivy. The word setting is awful – all the lines seem to have different numbers of syllables that have to fit into the same tune, and accents fall on strange words. 'Of all the trees that are in the wood’ – very odd.

Favourite thing about Christmas?

The Father Ted Christmas special.

Your Christmas pet hate?

People moaning about Christmas decorations going up in October and November.

Brussels sprouts, yes or no?

No. Yes? Dunno. Was Pierre Boulez not available for this Q&A?

Iain Farrington

What’s your favourite Christmas song and why?

My favourite ‘original’ Christmas work is Britten's Ceremony of Carols: fresh, brilliant, and moving. To think it was composed on board a ship on the Atlantic during World War II makes it even more remarkable. Of the ‘traditional’ carols, I love the original 16th Century Coventry Carol which has such tension to it, unsettling major/minor shifts and uneven bar lengths. Also The First Nowell, especially as arranged by Elgar at the end of his The Starlight Express (nothing to do with Lloyd Webber!)

The one you really can’t stand?

Any of the contemporary pieces that are loaded with saccharine sentimentality, cloying harmony and butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-your-mouth naivety. Like having to eat an extra-large Christmas pudding in one go.

Favourite thing about Christmas?

The positive atmosphere, lights, colour, food and drink; all the best things to get through the darkness of winter.

Christmas pet hate?

Dewy-eyed and cynical TV adverts (Sainsbury’s, this year).

Brussels sprouts, yes or no?

Definitely, and all year round too. However, will we have to change the name if we leave the EU?

Joey Roukens

What’s your favourite Christmas song and why?

Although I don’t have any real favourites, I prefer the ‘classic’ Christian hymns and carols such as Adeste Fideles, Silent Night and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, partly because of their sentimental value – I used to sing these as a child at school and with my mother, and partly because they simply have lovely melodies that are both tender and solemn.

The one you really can’t stand?

Most Christmas pop songs I can’t stand, but if I had to pick one, it would be Last Christmas (by Wham!) which I find the most aggravating Christmas song ever penned. All I want for Christmas is you (Mariah Carey) and Simply having a wonderful Xmas time (Paul McCartney) are pretty terrible too. The thing is, even the great Christmas songs become vexatious just by maddening repetition during the Christmas season.

Favourite thing about Christmas?

Christmas dinner with family!

Your Christmas pet hate?

See question #2 – hellish repetition of the same annoying songs, all the crappy programs and movies on TV, massive consumerism.

Brussels sprouts, yes or no?

Yes!

Nico Muhly

What’s your favourite Christmas song and why?

Well, let’s back up and say that the all-time best is O Come, O Come Emmanuel, because there is nothing more joyful than moving from that minor mode to the expectant major on the word, “Rejoice!"

The one thing you can’t stand?

Everybody losing their mind about Christmas before Advent starts. 

Favourite thing about Christmas?

Having the entire city to myself. Everybody peaces out and I can walk up and down the middle of the street.

Christmas pet hate?

I actually have no idea what this could possibly mean. Do you mean is there a thing my dog hates at Christmas?

Brussels sprouts, yes or no?

Firmly yes! You just have to handle them right. Sometimes raw is the way forward, indeed, and other times, the opposite.  

Musically Gifted - An Update

This time last year, we were busy setting up our newest fundraising campaign: Musically Gifted. In case you’ve missed it (and we hope you haven’t!) the aim of the game is to enable people from all walks of life to be a part of something special and timeless - the opportunity to help us commission a new piece of music and be credited in the score forever.

With composers ranging from Sally Beamish, James MacMillan and Nico Muhly (plus many more), we’re delighted to offer such a wide range of musical worlds and we know that there is something to please every ear.

We’re also extremely pleased to be able to include lesser known composers in the roster, which gives them a real chance of gaining exposure and creating an emotional link with listeners right from the very start of their careers.

The varying benefits received by donors depending on the size of their gift is also something we are thrilled with. All donors are credited in the score forever, although you can opt out if you wish to remain anonymous (and many do). There is then a wide range of gifts going from a signed front page of the score to the possibility of having Afternoon Tea with the composer and musicians (which we hear through the grapevine is quite a lot of fun!).

Our first commission received the support of 24 donors, our second had 35. We’re liking this trend and hoping that each commission will get increasingly popular.

Let’s not forget that Arts Council England will match-fund pound for pound each gift that we receive until 31 March 2014, which is an incredible fundraising opportunity for us. Of course, we believe it is vital for our orchestra to perform new music, and all money we raise through this campaign will permit us to commission yet more emerging and well-known composers.

I am the person who sends you the thank you card, wraps your scores in purple ribbon and makes sure that the adventure is worth it, and I must say it’s been a real pleasure this far. I love having a close connection with the composer as well as with the donors, and I really hope that we’ll be able to develop this campaign into a staple of what Britten Sinfonia offers to their followers.

Right, I think it’s time for you to discover it yourself. Get stuck in at www.musicallygifted.org.uk and get inspired.


Gabrielle Deschamps
Development Assistant

Pekka Kuusisto explains...

Have you see the programme for our Serenade concerts in November?  With no less than 12 works by nine different composers, there's a high chance that you'll be hearing some pieces of music for the first time.

The programme was jointly devised by Pekka Kuusisto and Britten Sinfonia and we thought it would be a good idea to ask Pekka about why and how the programme has taken shape.


In Pekka’s words the programme is a ‘voyage’ with Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings at the journey’s end. For Pekka, the programme should unfold as one interconnected string:

‘Since I am completely addicted to the Serenade and Les Illuminations, not to mention the Nocturne, I wanted to build a programme that would feel like an extended version of the voyage those pieces take the listener on, and have the whole concert be like a preparation, an approach, to the Serenade. Like Britten himself wanting to have the Fantasia Upon One Note by Purcell performed at the premiere of his String Quartet No. 2… I wanted to have pieces that would, in a concert situation, feel like they are connected, or that our way of performing them has to feel like we are stretching ropes from one musical bell-tower to another, or chains between stars... and then we will dance. Yes! That's what this concert must be.’

The programme journeys through works by Nico Muhly, Bartok, Erkki Sven-Tuur, Nordheim, Berg, Arvo Part, George Crumb and a new piece by Judith Weir. Pekka has requested that the audience refrain from clapping until the interval and end of the concert, as the works are designed to segue from one to the next.

He hopes the performance will take audiences to new and unfamiliar places: ‘I think we could afford to have some more concerts that don't follow the most common patterns. At the moment it doesn't take more than a violinist performing without shoes to create a stir, and that says a lot. I don't want to outlaw average programming, that's not it, but there's just so much we should try as well.’

The concerts take place at Norwich Theatre Royal on Sunday 17 November, Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall  on Friday 22 November (part of Cambridge Music Festival) and London's Milton Court Concert Hall on Sunday 24 November (part of Barbican Britten).
You can find full details here.

Antony and the Johnsons - A Review

Last Thursday I was thrilled to have the chance to watch Britten Sinfonia perform Swanlights at the Royal Opera House with Antony and the Johnsons. The orchestra have a long running relationship with the Royal Opera House, having previously performed with Rufus Wainwright and most recently a fully staged performance of Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest in the Linbury Studio.

Antony Hegarty, who originally hails from England, but moved to New York City in 1990 has released four albums and was awarded the Mercury prize in 2005 for I am a Bird Now which featured guest appearances from artists Boy George, Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright and Devendra Banhart.

But Antony is as much of a visual artist as he is a musician. Originally commissioned by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and first performed in January 2012, Swanlights is a performance piece with dazzling light installations, featuring Antony’s poignant songs which talk about his views on gender, relationships and spirituality.

Swanlights begins with a brief dance piece. A feminine but strong figure emerges, dressed as a swan and stands just in front of the footlights, flapping her wings frantically. The first number is then accompanied by a green light, delving into the layers of mist and curtains, whilst Antony’s quivering yet serene voice dominates the auditorium.

By the third or fourth number, the layers have gradually been peeled back to reveal the angelic Antony, swaddled in white cloth. As we move through each song in the performance, we are immersed in a new lighting design, all the while the vulnerable looking singer drifting across the stage under an enormous, metallic, cloud-like structure.

Particularly memorable were songs The Cripple and the Starfish and the title song Swanlights. Also included was a very interesting cover of Beyonce’s Crazy in Love, much more insular and mournful than the original, but true to Antony’s style.

The final reveal moment occurs when a thick screen is lifted mid-song and Britten Sinfonia, with almost fifty musicians in total (which is a large ensemble for us) is on full view, conducted by Rob Moose, a long-term collaborator of Antony’s.

After a standing ovation, Antony finally addresses the audience. “It was really a dream to bring this to London”, he announces. His encore finishes with Salt Silver Oxygen, a slightly more up-tempo and jovial song which he tells us he worked on with Nico Muhly. In Friday night’s show he was also joined in the encore by Boy George.

Once I settled into the somewhat bizarre landscape on stage and my ears acclimatised to Antony’s peculiar and distinctive voice, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Swanlights is a completely otherworldly performance, full of emotion and expression and something I would gladly see again.

Antony and the Johnsons’ website www.antonyandthejohnsons.com
Read the reviews of this performance in the national press here.

Lisa Buckby
Marketing Assistant

A highlight a year!

As we approach our 20th Birthday season we've been looking back at some of the highlights over the past twenty years. We've selected a highlight a year (but you can also read what else we were up to each year here).

1992

Britten Sinfonia launches following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognise the need for a world class orchestra in the East of England.

1993

Britten Sinfonia’s part in Jonathan Miller’s production of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos provides the orchestra’s first critical success.

1994

The number of concerts increases from 12 in 1993 to 27 in 1994, including the orchestra’s first foreign tour, a residency at the Wratislava Cantans Festival in Poland.

1995

Britten Sinfonia’s debut CD is released to critical acclaim, featuring David Pyatt in the Strauss Horn Concertos and the Duet-concertino and Serenade for Wind Op.7. It wins a Gramophone Award.

1996

Orchestra works with tenor Ian Bostridge for the first time, with a young Daniel Harding conducting. This successful collaboration leads to other concerts and an EMI recording of Britten repertoire including Our Hunting Fathers.

1997

Britten Sinfonia awarded £150,000 from the Arts Council’s Arts for Everyone scheme for the development of its work in the East of England.

1998

Landmark concert series Frank Zappa and the Fathers of Invention, setting Zappa’s music against Bach, Stravinsky, Varese, Ives and Steve Reich

Proms debut

1999

Britten Sinfonia makes its BBC Proms debut, featuring a new symphony by David Matthews.

2000

Britten Sinfoina’s first tour to Germany includes performances at Munich’s Gasteig and Frankfurt’s Alte Oper.

2001

Joanna MacGregor directs a 10 date tour – Light and Shade - featuring music by Arvo Pärt, Lou Harrison, Schnittke and a new work from Nitin Sawhney. The tour is featured in a Joanna MacGregor South Bank Show profile for LWT.

2002

Celebrations for the orchestra’s 10th Anniversary begin with a national tour featuring Evelyn Glennie.

2003

Following a national review of the chamber orchestra sector, Arts Council England announces 100% increase in Britten Sinfonia’s funding.

2004

A major tour with Nitin Sawhney takes the ensemble to Brussels and around the UK in the autumn, including a debut at the Royal Festival Hall.

2005

We launched our first ever lunchtime series, Britten Sinfonia at Lunch, at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.

Jacqueline Shave was appointed leader in September.

2006

Lux Aeterna, our Hyperion recording of music by Morten Lauridsen, was nominated for a Grammy award.

2007

The ‘Britten Sinfonia at Lunch’ tour continued to be recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and the tour expanded to include Krakow (Poland), Aldeburgh, Cambridge and Norwich. 

2008

In a truly unique production that attracted a great deal of press and attention, Britten Sinfonia joined the Michael Clark Company for the Stravinsky Project at the Barbican.

2009

Britten Sinfonia appears at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk , the first classical group to appear at the festival.

Latitude Festival 2009 - photographer: Rebecca Walsh

2010

Nico Muhly was in residence with Britten Sinfonia throughout January and February 2010. A new work by the composer featured as part of Britten Sinfonia’s award-winning lunchtime series in January, and Impossible Things, a major commission for voice and violin, premiered as part of an acclaimed 14 date European tour which brought together Mark Padmore and Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto.

2011

The orchestra launched a new residency at Brighton Dome and Festival and founded its own choir, Britten Sinfonia Voices.

2012

Britten Sinfonia became Associate Ensemble at the Barbican.

We will be clebrating our 20th Birthday with special concerts at the Barbican and in Cambridge and Norwich

Creative Learning Bus(es)

Here in the Creative Learning Department it feels a little like we’ve been waiting for a bus. December and January were relatively calm – a few days at schools down in London, our annual Composers’ Workshop [with Nico Muhly] and our regular work at Cambridgeshire Pupil Referral Units, but by and large we’ve been in the office planning and preparing and watching February sail into view like the proverbial three buses that all come at once when you’ve been waiting for ages.

So on Monday 1 February, we were split three ways – quite a feat when you consider that there are only two of us in the department. Creative Learning Intern Nick Jukes spent the day in Witchford Village College, near Ely, for the conclusion of a project based on Aaron Copland’s Sextet. The aim of the project was for pupils in years 8 and 9 to discover more about minimalist techniques used by Copland, and to compose their own pieces in a similar style. In early January, Rachel Leach (workshop leader) worked alongside Joy Farrall and Miranda Dale (principal clarinet and principal 2nd violin respectively), using music, games and group activities to explain the theory behind Copland’s music. Between then and 1 February, students worked on their own pieces, and attended a concert at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, to see Joy and Miranda playing the Copland sextet and (amongst others) a new piece by Nico Muhly. On our 2nd and final trip to the school, Rachel listened to the students’ pieces and spent the day developing and extending ideas through group discussion and performance.

Meanwhile I, along with oboist Emma Feilding and project leader Hannah Conway, journeyed to Norfolk to visit the lovely Browick Road Infant School in Wymondham (one of those wonderful English place names that is pronounced nothing like how it’s spelled – more like “Windam”, but why use one letter when three will do?).

Along with five other primary schools in the area, Browick Road is working with us on a project inspired by a children’s book about a character called Mr Big – a scary-looking gorilla who, despite his gentle persona, frightens off any potential friends. Finding his voice through music, his beautiful piano playing eventually charms his neighbours, until one day he receives a letter asking him to join a band, bringing fame and, more importantly, friends. The story is a gift to music making – from thumping gorilla footsteps to the sad and tender sound of lonely Mr Big’s tears as he watches other people enjoying themselves.

Hannah Conway has already led a training session for the teachers at the six schools, giving them plenty of ideas and resources to create music based on the story with their classes. The visit on Monday enabled us to see how they were all getting on, and help the children to develop their ideas further. With many primary schools lacking a music specialist on the staff – and music often a much-feared subject amongst teachers – projects like this one can be hugely helpful in demystifying the process of composition and showing that, as long as children are being creative and listening to each other and the sounds they are making, there’s no “right” or “wrong” way of doing it. Oh, and to continue with the bus theme, we also discovered that, when asked to mime being on a bus, most children did the traditional steam train action (arms shunting round, knees bobbing). Maybe with all the rail replacement services going around at the moment, it’s all getting a bit too confusing for young minds.

Finally workshop leader Simon Gunton and Britten Sinfonia flautist Sarah O’Flynn spent Monday afternoon at Romsey Mill in Cambridge, working with a small group of pupils from Ascham Road Pupil Referral Unit on writing and recording music. As that’s the bus that Nick and I both missed (so to speak) we will have to wait until we hear the results to find out what went on, but I’m sure that the pupils will have gained enormously from the opportunity to work so closely with such experienced musicians.

Looking ahead, there are plenty more Creative Learning projects to hop on to. We’ll be starting major new projects with two more providers of non-mainstream education in Cambridgeshire: Fenland Learning Centre and Hartford Student Support Centre, which both take pupils who are excluded from mainstream schools for medical, behavioural or other reasons. We’ve also got another visit to Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham; the culmination of our Mr Big project in Norfolk; coaching / mentoring work with Orchestra Europa in London; and a masterclass at Krakow Academy of Music. So whether by bus, train, plane or (more usually, because - try as we might to be a green orchestra - carrying 30 percussion instruments on public transport attracts a bad back as well as some pretty strange looks) the Britten Sinfonia van, there will be a Creative Learning project coming to somewhere near you soon.

Sophie Dunn, Creative Learning Director

Iconic Musical Buildings

The concert hall is the natural home of the orchestra and although Britten Sinfonia regularly perform in alternative spaces (Latitude, Colchester Heritage Weekend etc) the concert hall is where we are more than likely to be found. During January the orchestra will be performing in many concert halls throughout the UK (Cambridge’s West Road Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Birmingham Town Hall) and also the Netherlands. However, perhaps the two most iconic music buildings we’ll be playing in this month are London’s Roundhouse followed by Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. What makes these buildings so special though?

The Roundhouse started life as a Victorian steam engine repair shed before becoming the legendary cultural venue it is today. It was first used as an arts venue in 1964 when playwright Arnold Wesker established Centre 42. In 2006 following extensive refurbishment the Grade II listed building was opened as one of the major venues in London and since then has hosted the BBC Electric Proms, James Brown, Paul McCartney and Jarvis Cocker amongst others. Although not a traditional concert hall, this month the Roundhouse hosts Reverb, a series that explores the many sides classical music. Reverb is about introducing new audiences to classical music and breaking down the barriers that exist for audiences.

The final date of Britten Sinfonia’s tour to the Netherlands is the orchestra’s debut performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Literally meaning concert hall, the Concertgebouw is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world. Bernard Haitnik once described Concertgebouw as the best instrument in the orchestra it houses. This must have been what the great and the good of Amsterdam had in mind in 1881, when they decided that the Dutch capital should have a proper concert hall worthy of the name. Seven years later, in the marshy fields just outside the city limits, there stood a wonder of neoclassical architecture, the Concertgebouw. Acoustics were something of a black art (some may say they still are) so when the Concertgebouw was built designers drew upon what had worked in the past without entirely understanding the underlying science. When the building was completed, the acoustics were not perfect, and a lot of effort went into fine-tuning the aural ambience. During later restorations, particular care has been taken not to alter the materials used for interior decoration with this in mind. The building now enjoys a worldwide reputation.

We’re very much looking forward to performing at both of these venues. At the Roundhouse on the 23rd January we’ll be joined by pianist Joanna MacGregor - find out more here. Then on the 24th January (also at the Roundhouse) young American composer, Nico Muhly will direct and perform Britten Sinfonia in a programme of his own compositions alongside works by Steve Reich and Philip Glass - find out more here. On 31st January Britten Sinfonia perform a programme of music from both sides of the Atlantic at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw including music by Purcell, Tippett, Britten, Steve Reich, Nico Muhly and John Adams - find out more here.