ensemble360 (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ensemble360) wrote,@ 2007-04-12 12:48:00 |
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The Wigmore
There is something sacred about the Wigmore Hall. I am not sure if it is because of the fact that it is the epicentre of chamber music in Britain, or because of the religious-looking painting on the ceiling of the recess of the stage, or the generally church-like feel of the hall, but when entering, one is immediately struck by the feeling that it is a place of worship and maybe passing of judgments. Nowhere else (with the possible exception for the Crucible Studio!) is the audience so knowledgeable, and the chance of a critic being present is high. The date for our concert had been ominously present in our diaries, getting ever closer, and now, finally, the time had come for Ensemble 360´s Wigmore debut…
The whole group had met up the day before in London after quite a long period of not having played together. We got down to work with our old friend the Spohr Nonet, this time with the welcome participation of the brilliant guest-bassoonist Peter Wheelan. I am not sure if it is youthful arrogance, but after having played it so many times, and recorded it, it feels like we have squeezed almost all the juice out of that piece, charming as it is. But if we could make one final effort, it would be for the Wigmore…
After a relatively brief rehearsal, we dispersed, in high spirit but with a lot of anticipation for the next day (and dreading having to get up so early!).
The next day we found out that the piano would be on stage for the Spohr as well, contrary to what we had been told, so we would have to squeeze a bit.
The rehearsal went very smoothly, with mostly cheerful faces all around. The moment had inexorably gotten closer and closer, and, now, finally, after an hour’s break we walked on to the Mother of all Stages, to find the hall completely full, and the row of our friends and supporters happily cheering in the middle. The clear, bright light of the spring sky was streaming down through the windows in the ceiling and gave the whole situation a slightly surreal ambience (we are not particularly used to playing in daylight!).
It was a long and pretty exhausting programme we performed, with the Dvorak Piano Quintet to finish of. It is an absolute masterpiece, but a long masterpiece, and by the end one’s thoughts run the risk of straying to completely unrelated topics. But we managed, and we enjoyed (almost) every second of playing in the extraordinary acoustics. After finishing with the final bombastic chord of the quintet, we were greeted with appreciative applause. (When I was standing there on the stage looking out at the stalls, I almost burst out laughing since the image looked exactly like a scene from Scorsese´s The King of Comedy which I had been watching a day earlier, when Robert de Niro is practising his monologues in front of a wallpaper-sized picture of a laughing audience.)
In perhaps the greenest of all Green Rooms, we received our supporters and members of the audience. The sherry flowed, laughters all around, and one could read a sense of relief on all the faces of the Ensemble members.
Pollyanna from the record company had shown up and before we all went to our own business, we had a short meeting with her outlining the future recording projects of the group.
Wigmore Hall concerts, meetings with recording companies, eh? Who would have thought it two years ago…
Martin
There is something sacred about the Wigmore Hall. I am not sure if it is because of the fact that it is the epicentre of chamber music in Britain, or because of the religious-looking painting on the ceiling of the recess of the stage, or the generally church-like feel of the hall, but when entering, one is immediately struck by the feeling that it is a place of worship and maybe passing of judgments. Nowhere else (with the possible exception for the Crucible Studio!) is the audience so knowledgeable, and the chance of a critic being present is high. The date for our concert had been ominously present in our diaries, getting ever closer, and now, finally, the time had come for Ensemble 360´s Wigmore debut…
The whole group had met up the day before in London after quite a long period of not having played together. We got down to work with our old friend the Spohr Nonet, this time with the welcome participation of the brilliant guest-bassoonist Peter Wheelan. I am not sure if it is youthful arrogance, but after having played it so many times, and recorded it, it feels like we have squeezed almost all the juice out of that piece, charming as it is. But if we could make one final effort, it would be for the Wigmore…
After a relatively brief rehearsal, we dispersed, in high spirit but with a lot of anticipation for the next day (and dreading having to get up so early!).
The next day we found out that the piano would be on stage for the Spohr as well, contrary to what we had been told, so we would have to squeeze a bit.
The rehearsal went very smoothly, with mostly cheerful faces all around. The moment had inexorably gotten closer and closer, and, now, finally, after an hour’s break we walked on to the Mother of all Stages, to find the hall completely full, and the row of our friends and supporters happily cheering in the middle. The clear, bright light of the spring sky was streaming down through the windows in the ceiling and gave the whole situation a slightly surreal ambience (we are not particularly used to playing in daylight!).
It was a long and pretty exhausting programme we performed, with the Dvorak Piano Quintet to finish of. It is an absolute masterpiece, but a long masterpiece, and by the end one’s thoughts run the risk of straying to completely unrelated topics. But we managed, and we enjoyed (almost) every second of playing in the extraordinary acoustics. After finishing with the final bombastic chord of the quintet, we were greeted with appreciative applause. (When I was standing there on the stage looking out at the stalls, I almost burst out laughing since the image looked exactly like a scene from Scorsese´s The King of Comedy which I had been watching a day earlier, when Robert de Niro is practising his monologues in front of a wallpaper-sized picture of a laughing audience.)
In perhaps the greenest of all Green Rooms, we received our supporters and members of the audience. The sherry flowed, laughters all around, and one could read a sense of relief on all the faces of the Ensemble members.
Pollyanna from the record company had shown up and before we all went to our own business, we had a short meeting with her outlining the future recording projects of the group.
Wigmore Hall concerts, meetings with recording companies, eh? Who would have thought it two years ago…
Martin
