BBC Radio 3 Live

Do you love the live concert-going experience but can’t always get to the concert hall? In early May BBC Radio 3 introduced a vastly increased evening programme of live concert broadcasts from venues across the country – capturing the energy and excitement that surrounds live pertformance. Previously the radio station pre-recorded almost all concerts. BBC Radio 3 controller Roger Wright said when announcing the change said "Live is always good, which is why we do so much of it…Live is the essence of music-making. It has a real excitement, and means we can give audiences the best seat in the house."


This evening (Wed 25 May) Radio 3 will broadcast the opening performance of the Bath International Music Festival live from Bath Abbey with pianist (and director of the festival) Joanna MacGregor, jazz trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Britten Sinfonia all on stage. They will perform music by James MacMillan and Joanna MacGregor, to see the full programme click here. The excitement starts with presenter Petroc Trelawny at 7.30pm.

So if you can’t get to Bath why not enjoy the excitement of live music-making tonight from the comfort of your favourite arm-chair, as you drive home from work, from the kitchen as you cook your supper or even in the bath!

A Japanese Discovery

This week we start on a project with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. Whilst we’ve been putting together the programme for this tour we’ve discovered that Arve has a fascination with the Japanese instrument, the Shakuhachi.

You may ask what is a Shakuhachi? It’s a Japanese flute traditionally made of bamboo, held like a recorder but blown like a western flute (i.e. like blowing across an empty bottle). It was originally used by Japanese Buddhist monks in the art of suizen meaning blowing meditation. The Shakuhachi has five finger holes which are tuned to the pentatonic scale however the player can vary the pitch by adjusting the blowing angle and shading or partially covering the finger holes.

A Shakuhachi

I became familiar with the Shakuhachi a few years ago when my Dad took it up. I’ve heard many hours of him practising and seen him perform live a couple of times before with a traditional Japaense Zen ensemble featuring a koto, biwa and shamisen. The tone of the Shakuhachi is hauntingly beautiful and it is said that it replicates the full range of nature on earth. Due to the way a player can bend the pitch there are a wide variety of subtle and incredible sounds which can be produced.

A koto

Whilst Arve was studying the trumpet at Trondheim University he was introduced to recordings of Japanese music and in particular to the sound of the Shakuhachi. Arve was fascinated by the timbres of this traditional Japanese instrument: ‘I let the music “ring” and develop in my head. I was astonished by the sound of this flute...’ Although it stemmed from an altogether different sound world to that which he had been used to, ultimately it began to influence his own playing as a trumpeter: ‘This has made me work with tone and sound-making in a new direction.’

Henriksen’s forays into Japanese music led him to develop new ways of playing the trumpet, using different forms of breath control and embouchure to create new sounds. As reviewer Brian Howe writes: ‘He made his instrument sound like a woodwind, a flock of birds, a Japanese flute, a punctured helium balloon. His strangled yet fluent tone is marked by a vivacious Scandinavian melancholy and a hint of noir... Notes float on cushions of air or clang like lead; they sigh, squeak in distress, bleat, and taper off into thin shrieks. When ravishingly full tones break out from the baroque constraints, the effect is devastating.’

We’re really looking forward to working with Arve and hearing his unique sound. Alongside pianist Joanna MacGregor we will be performing pieces from his acclaimed ECM album Cartography alongside works by Arvo Part and James MacMillan. The concerts take place in Norwich (as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival), Cambridge, London and Bath (as part of the Bath International Music Festival).

Tenner for a Tenor Campaign

On Tuesday we launched our exciting new crowd-funding campaign Tenner for a Tenor. The aim of the campaign is to fund a new commission by Jonathan Dove for tenor Mark Padmore and Britten Sinfonia. We hope this model of funding new commissions will inspire people who have never thought of donating to contribute as we are only asking for donations of £10!

Working with Carly Murphy-Merrydew (design concept) and the guys from Wash Media (film) the promotion of the campaign compares items which cost £10 (which doesn’t get you much these days) and includes sausages, train tickets, wine and flowers! Take a look at the short film which captures the fun and quirky nature we’ve taken with promoting Tenner for a Tenor.

Launch events took place at our At Lunch concerts in Cambridge on Tuesday and London on Wednesday and tomorrow (Friday) we’ll be launching the scheme in Norwich. We’ve also created a giant postbox where people can post their donations at concerts but you can also donate online and via SMS text message.

So far we have had over 50 donations and the scheme is generating press and viral interest for its innovative way of encouraging philanthropy in the arts. Donors will have their name acknowledged in the score of the new work and will also get behind-the-scenes access with special email and video updates as the new work is written.

You can keep up to date with the campaign by following #10fortenor on Twitter or the Tenner for a Tenor page on Facebook. What are you waiting for? To donate text BRITTEN to 70700, or visit http://www.tennerforatenor.com/. 4lb of sauasages or a piece of music that will last a lifetime – which will you choose?

Nanobots

We've been finding out about nanobots in the past couple of weeks. Nanobots are small microscopic robots. More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots. Nanorobots (nanobots, nanoids or nanites) would typically be devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometers and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have so far been created, they remain a hypothetical concept but have the potential to revolutionise the fields of medicine, chemistry and electronics.

Now you may ask why an orchestra is interested in these tiny robots. Next week will be giving the world premiere tour of Enrico Chapela's work, Nanobots. Mexican composer, Enrico has been fascinated by the possibilities of nanobots and wanted to explore these in music. His work is constructed by the build up of small individual sections into seven one-minute sections of music. Enrico constructed these tiny ideas using binary codes as a numbering system to obtain individual binary atoms that were then paired with others to form bigger musical ideas: binary molecules. This is the core basis for the primary materials and the work as a whole.

Nanobots will be premièred at Bury St Edmunds new venue, The Apex on Monday evening and then forms part of Britten Sinfonia’s renowned At Lunch series which travels to Cambridge on Tuesday 12 April, London on Wednesday 13 April and Norwich on Friday 15 April. Find out more info here

Paris in the Spring

Earlier in March Britten Sinfonia musicians travelled to Paris for a performance as part of the At Lunch series. The concert took place at Musée d'Orsay and featured Schubert's Trout Quintet alongside a new work by Simon Holt entitled everything turns away. The performance was recorded and subsequently broadcast by Radio France. Below are some photos from the trip

The Musée d'Orsay

In rehearsal at the Musée d'Orsay

Jackie Shave (violin) & Martin Outram (viola)

Simon Holt (composer), James Calver (Concerts Assistant), Martin Outram (Viola) and Roger Linley (double bass) at dinner in a posh Parisian restaurant the night before the concert

Jackie enjoying a glass of wine in the restaurant

You can read the reivews from the tour here.

Jackie on Sabbatical

Britten Sinfonia's leader Jacquelne Shave is now on sabbatical for the next year. She has lots of exciting things planned including spending time at her house on the Scottish Isle of Harris working on Beethoven Quartets and other chamber music plus spending time on her boat and travelling across the Atlantic. To keep up with what she's up to Jackie now has her own blog and you can see her first post here

Our fabulous co-leader Tom Gould will be taking over from Jackie whilst she's away and his first project with the orchestra is Angela Hewitt directs. We'll all miss Jackie over the next year but wish her lots of fun and happy adventures during her sabbatical and look forward to welcoming her back to the leader chair in May 2012.

Stephen Bell's Desert Island selection

Britten Sinfonia's prinicipal horn, Stephen Bell is currently touring with the orchestra as soloist in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Mark Padmore. Leeds Town Hall asked him to come up with his own Desert Island Disc selection and these are his choices;

HANDEL – CORONATION ANTHEM, ZADOK THE PRIEST
Not that I’m particularly a Royalist, but there has to be good reason for including this anthem at every Coronation since 1727! From that opening orchestral crescendo until the wonderful first entry of the choir, this music is simply joyous and uplifting – one of the main reasons my wife chose it to walk down the isle at our wedding in 2007. Our village church was packed, and with a local choir and visiting musicians, it made for a very special and emotional start to our big day.

STRAUSS – EINE ALPINESINFONIE
As a horn player, there is nothing better than being in a section of horns in full flight, and Richard Strauss excels in writing full-bodied unison horn melodies. At the climax of this wonderful tone poem (at the summit of the mountain) is such a melody written for all 8 horns, and even though I have been lucky enough to perform this piece on many occasions including a couple of times at the BBC Proms, it still never fails to thrill. Also, this was the first piece I bought on CD when I visited Hong Kong in the early 80’s and came back (as did most of the orchestra) with the latest must have gadget - a CD Walkman.

MICHEL CAMILLO – WHY NOT?
I’ve played the piano since I was four years old, and despite the best efforts of my elderly and rather strict piano teacher, my greatest pleasure was playing music by ear rather than off the printed page. I was first introduced to Michel Camillo in 1985 when he was performing at The Blue Note Jazz Club alongside such notable jazz musicians as Dave Weckl (drums) and fantastic trumpeter Lew Soloff. His music has a distinct Caribbean flavour (he was born in the Dominican Republic) and he plays with effortless style, huge rhythmic intensity and sounds like he must have at least three hands! Why Not? is the title track of his first album released at around the time I met him in New York.

MAHLER – SYMPHONY NO 2
Mahler 2 has without doubt one of the most thrilling endings to any piece – and again, one that always has a buzz to be part of in performance. Mahler is one of those composers who always has the bigger picture at the centre of all his vast musical structures, and at the end of almost 90 minutes, this magnificent final section never fails to thrill audiences and performers alike.

MOZART – HORN QUINTET IN Eb
It goes without saying that Mozart’s contribution to the repertoire of the French Horn is so significant (especially the four well-known concertos), but in many ways, the pinnacle for me is the wonderful Quintet in Eb for horn and strings - (slightly unusual line-up of string quartet which has violin, 2 violas and cello) - and which combines the stylistic horn writing of the concertos with the brilliant sense of chamber music that Mozart seemed to produce so naturally. It was also the piece that I made my first commercial recording with, alongside the fabulous members of the Lindsay String Quartet for ASV records.

LUXURY ITEM – Fawlty Towers DVD collection (and something to play them on.)
Still pricelessly funny after almost 40 years!

BOOK – Margery Williams: The Velveteen Rabbit

Charming, innocent and still enjoyed.

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You can catch Stephen Bell performing Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in Southampton on Thursday 10 February, Birmingham on Friday 11 February and in Leeds on Saturday 19 February 2011.