Meet Roderick Williams

Next week we'll be performing Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ in London, Cambridge and Brighton. Baritone Roderick Williams will be performing in our cast of soloists under the baton of Sir Mark Elder. In our regular series of Q and A's Roderick answered a few questions;




What has been the highlight of your career so far?
That’s very hard to answer – perhaps singing on stage at La Scala Milan, even if it was for the ballet… but at least I got to stand in the Maria Callas spot.

When are you happiest?
When I’m out walking in the countryside with a clear blue sky and a beautiful view.

What is your greatest fear?
That something might happen to my family,

What is your earliest musical memory?
Recorder and singing lessons with Mrs Druce (or was it Mrs Juice?) when I was about four or five. She taught me how to hold my hands when I sing.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Bishop Desmond Tutu is probably hard to beat.
If you were an animal what would you be?
A dolphin.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Cornish clotted cream.
How do you relax away from the concert platform?
Walking, for me, is one of the simplest and best ways to relax mind and body, and find a real sense of perspective.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Probably writing the music for an entire broadcast of BBC R3 Choral Evensong. How many composers get that chance, even dead ones?

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
That it is never too late to learn and you can learn something valuable from anybody.

Berlioz and Sir Mark Elder

Sir Mark Elder recently spoke to our programme note writer, Jo Kirkbride about his forthcoming performances of Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ. Despite a career dedicated to Berlioz’s music the tour with Britten Sinfonia will be the first time he has conducted L’enfance du Christ, so it is a wonderful opportunity for him to embrace this unique work, as he remarks;

‘I can’t even remember ever hearing it live – since it is very rarely done. Of course I’ve studied it, and thought about it, and I think I have an old recording of it... I’ve been thinking about L’enfance du Christ for many months and letting it marinate inside me.’

Berlioz had been criticized by the French press for his style of composition. At a concert in 1850 Berlioz presented a short choral work entitled L’adieu des bergiers (The Shepherds Farwell) under the name of a ficitional composer – the critics adored it and this confirmed to Berlioz that it was his name and not his music that the critics were biased against. Emboldened with this knowledge he continued the work and it was finally completed in 1854.

Sir Mark says “Everyone thought that this was Berlioz finally learning how to write music but that is so short-sighted of them. What’s fascinating for me is that he conceived the work as a series of pictures, and that he then went about finding a sound-world for them. There is a deliberately judged archaic quality to the music that needs a great sensitivity and yet it must never be sentimental, it must never be filled with a false emotion. Everyone must trust the intimate, honest, direct quality in it.”

When talking about the drama and colour of L’enfance du Christ Sir Mark commented; ‘I am always reminded of those Renaissance painters who painted a series of smaller pictures which would be adjoined by their colours – I see this piece very much like that. Each particular scene has its own timbre. It is not a rich, twentieth-century sound but rather more restrained with little vibrato in the voices and instruments. One has to make the drama of the words live without being too respectful – you need to give it full blood. Thinking about this and getting to grips with this is something that I adore.’
Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ will be performed in London at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Thursday 8 December, West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge (sold out) on Friday 9 December and Brighton Dome on Saturday 10 December.


This blog post uses extracts from the programme note for L'enfance du Christ by Jo Kirkbride which will be available online from Thursday 1 December.

Meet Sarah Connolly

In December we'll be performing Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ in London, Cambridge and Brighton. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly will be performing in our cast of soloists under the baton of Sir Mark Elder. In our regular series of Q and A's Sarah answered a few questions;



What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Mahler 2 with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester.

When are you happiest?
When singing with responsive musicians or at home, playing with my daughter.

What is your greatest fear?
Generally, fearing for my daughter's safety. Musically, forgetting my words!

What is your earliest musical memory?
Improvising nursery rhymes at the piano and discovering infinite possibilities.

Which living person do you most admire, and why?
The Dalai Lama. "Love is the absence of judgement". "Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength. No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster".

If you were an animal what would you be?
A female wolf.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?
I'm not telling ! Second guiltiest ? Chocolate.
How do you relax away from the concert platform?
A glass of wine, a bath, reading a story with my daughter.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Giving birth to a wonderful child.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Don't take anyone for granted and be kind.