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Gwyneth Herbert interview

January 31, 2008

Rich Jevons discusses British singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert’s Blue Note album Between Me and the Wardrobe in advance of her show at Leeds College of Music’s The Venue.

How much of your work is autobiographical?

Between Me and the Wardrobe is a particularly personal album and I did it at a time when it was something I really needed to write. Some of them are about me and some of them are loosely autobiographical, the songs take on a life of their own and progress into things that you never thought would be. Read more

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BBC Phil at Leeds Town Hall

January 28, 2008

Paul WatkinsThe programme commenced with Liszt’s ‘Battle of the Huns’ under the dynamic direction of Gianandrea Noseda with the various sections of the orchestra battling it out for pride of place in this passionate piece. The intermittent organ is interposed with luscious strings and woodwind harmony until the whole ensemble build to a martial finale.

For Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto’ Paul Watkins’ (pictured) soulful deeply felt cello is echoed in tender strings. This is essentially an elegiac piece but it does kick in with some considerable gusto at times. When the orchestra is pared down to the plaintive cello the work lifts to a higher plane, full of restraint and poise, focused and powerful.

There is a lilting melancholy and brooding sombre nostalgia to the performance with Watkins giving a brilliantly physical and intense performance, his magical bow every moment in line with Noseda’s equally ethereal baton. Read more

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Stacy Makishi on Bull: The True Story

January 24, 2008

Rich Jevons talks to Hawaii-born Stacy Makishi, an artist who works in a variety of media including site-specific installations, video, new writing, physical theatre and live art. Her latest work, ‘Bull: The True Story’ is inspired by the film Fargo.

What particularly interested you in the film Fargo to make it a trigger for the piece?

Initially I was interested in the film because I’m obsessed with Steve Buscemi, who plays a kidnapper. But also I liked the ‘noir’ overtones, the ‘dark humour’ in a white landscape, the countless (white) lies… snowjobs…etc. I love the snow. For a person from Hawaii, Fargo is a mighty contrast, it’s pretty ‘far to go’.

But after I began to discover the various thematic strands within my own show, I saw how Fargo provided a structure, a kind of overall map. Fargo is supposedly based upon a ‘True Story’…. which in fact is a lie. My  research brought me to another lie, the one about Takako Konishi, the 28 year old Tokyo woman who supposedly was obsessed with the film Fargo, and supposedly died looking for the buried ransom money in the snow. But that story is also a lie. Read more

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Salonika at West Yorkshire Playhouse

January 24, 2008

Photo by Catherine AshmoreLouise Page’s ‘Salonika’ has been performed in over twenty countries including a Stateside version with Jessica Tandy. Set in the Greek seaside setting of Salonika (now Thessaloniki) its main themes are the way our society deals with the elderly and the futility of war.

There is something essentially problematic and flawed about Nikolai Foster’s production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Firstly, it is simply not funny enough to keep our interest for the sake of side-splitting or even rib-tickling comedy. Then there is the fact that neither is it poignant enough to serve as a piece of radical pacifist theatre – this is no ‘Mother Courage’.

Josephine Tewson’s performance as 84-year-old Charlotte, gone to Greece to visit her late husband’s grave, is capable but hardly scintillating. Her relationship with her daughter Enid (Lynn Farleigh) is one of the main focuses of the play, but frankly it really does not have the dynamics required to make us that interested in their lives. Read more

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Pianist Imogen Cooper with Britten Sinfonia

January 22, 2008

The Britten Sinfonia was formed in 1992 and alongside their established excellence in the performance of Viennese classics have premiered works by modern composers such as Harrison Birtwhistle as well as more unlikely interpretations of jazzers like Frank Zappa, Miles Davis and Gil Evans. Last year saw the company receive the Royal Philharmonic Society award “for its aspirations in presenting music countrywide in a stylish and accessible manner”.

This month they come to The Venue at Leeds College of Music with internationally renowned pianist Imogen Cooper to perform works from three centuries. Cooper was born in London, daughter of musicologist Martin Cooper, and studied in Paris and Vienna. She has performed in Europe and the US with the Boston and London Symphony Orchestras, New York, Vienna and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras as well as the Northern Sinfonia.

Her recordings include the last six years of Schumann’s solo works and she will be performing these as part of the International Piano Series in London. Widely known for her interpretations of Schubert and Schumann she has also premiered work by Thomas Ades and Deirdre Gribbin. Read more

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