Pre-concert talk tension

Back in the spring of this year, when I was putting the pieces in place for this season's programme I thought I'd mix things up a bit by not giving an end-of-season pre-concert talk. Sir Mark Elder was conducting the final concert and he always gets a huge crowd when he does the pre-concert talks, so it was obviously the right thing to give way to him. Watching BBC 4's Symphony programme recently has also been a telling reminder of what a superb advocate he is for orchestral music.

The sensible thing to have done at that point would have been to book in the pre-concert talks as normal and take a break from this season. But somewhere my adventurous (for which read reckless) head took hold and I decided I've have a go at a beginner's guide to a concert. Since I'd had the most input into the Halle's concert on 24 November, that seemed the obvious slot to pick...et voila!

Of course, it's obvious enough until you sit down to write the thing! Yes, I knew all the pieces pretty well, and they all had great stories attached to them. As a group of composers, Dukas, Jongen , Faure and Respighi also fit together really well, so there wouldn't be a problem finding enough to say about them. But when you've got just half an hour to cover the essential points with some musical illustrations and a bit of anecdote, it really hits you how much of this game is about leaving stuff out. And pitching it correctly - not being too technical, or basic, formal or informal, was a real headache.

I read my first draft out to Deb, my wife, as we drove down to London on Saturday. Speaking at a speed that would be far too quick for a lively acoustic like the Royal Concert Hall, I managed it in 29 minutes. But that left out six music clips and a five minute chat with the organist, Jonathan Scott. Yesterday afternoon saw the text reduced by a page, making it just about workable. But I'll still need another evening spent on it tonight, to get it to a comfortable length. And I've got a handout to make, too. All in all I suspect Ill have spent about a week, on and off, on a talk that will be over in thirty minutes. Hopefully it'll all be worth it but I reckon that next time I'll stick to a conversation piece.

If you're curious, my first ever pre-concert talk (in the proper sense) will be at 6.30pm on Thursday 24 November in the auditorium.

What a difference a year makes

This morning was one of those rare occasions when I was grateful for the clocks going back. Normally this signals the start of at least a week's lugubriously mood as I come to terms with the prospect of four months of long nights. However, as I had to get up at 6.45pm on a Sunday to go down to the Royal Concert Hall to let in the piano technician in advance of the first Sunday Morning Piano Series of 2011-2012, I was relieved to get an extra hour in bed.

And it turned out to be one of those days where I felt really pleased by the outcome. We launched the Piano Series as a pilot, hoping we'd get big enough audiences for the series to break even, but by the end of last season it was clear that we'd done substantially better and would be able to continue the series if we could maintain the box office performance.

So this season I've been scanning the sales figures and hoping that the marketing has done its job and that the momentum from last season has carried through into this one. You can never tell with something like the Sunday Piano Series because quite a large percentage of the sales are taken on the door, rather than through advance sales. Now this morning, as I was 'walking the floors' it felt really busy and it looked like the walk up had been big. When I checked the sales report afterwards I discovered that we'd sold 120 tickets on the door alone, with a total audience of 438.

This is a really significant figure. Not only is it our largest paying audience so far in the series - getting on for nearly 50 more than in the previous season, but an audience that size means that the concerts, far from costing us anything, actually contribute positively to the overall Nottingham Classics income. And at a time when Nottingham Classics no longer receives any direct subsidy, finding alternative income streams is hugely important.

So, that's a really good piece of news at the start of this season. And the signs from the orchestral series are also very encouraging. This time last year I was actually feeling quite deflated by the slow start we'd made, and it took until January for things to turn around. From discussions I've had with other arts marketers it seems this wasn't confined to us. This season, however, we've had two really good houses and we are firmly in the black...

...so far. I'm not going to tempt fate by making any predictions but the next two concerts - 9 and 24 November - are performing well, even though in some respects they represent something of a risk. For Nottingham Classics, being able to take some risks with repertoire is vital if we're going to keep the season fresh and to offer the opportunity for discovery, particularly amongst the regular subscribers upon whose loyalty the season depends. For a venue like the Royal Concert Hall, without its own professional symphony orchestra, a piece like Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony on 9 November is a difficult one to call. Yes, it has a great story behind it and, yes, it is an epic piece that will sound fantastic in the RCH's famous acoustic, but that's no guarantee of success. Similarly, the Halle concert on 24 November is something of a wildcard because although three of the pieces are familiar, the central piece - Joseph Jongen's Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra - is almost unknown and lack of familiarity can prove an insurmountable obstacle when trying to persuade a potential audience to buy tickets.

As it's turning out, though, it looks like many of the Nottingham Classics audience are going to give Jongen's piece a go, which I'm delighted by because it's a truly amazing piece. It was a highly unusual commission, written especially for the Wanamaker Organ in the Philadelphia Department Store of the same name. These days it's barely conceivable to think that anyone would want to build the largest pipe organ in the world in a department store, but that's exactly what the Wanamaker family did. And it's still the biggest in the world, and a mighty impressive instrument, too. My wife, Deb, has just been to a conference in Philadelphia and she made special trip to Macy's (as it now is) to hear the organ being played. And here's the proof:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MixP8cCi9Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

We don't, of course, have a pipe organ like that in the RCH; indeed, there aren't any pipes at all, but I'm confident that Jonathan Scott can work similar magic on our electronic organ as he did with the Saint-Saens in June last year. It's one of his favourite pieces but he doesn't get that many chances to perform it because, almost inexplicably to me, Jongen's piece rarely gets programmed. But if you've never heard it then you're in for a treat. It's one of those pieces I listen to very often because its blend of rich Romanticism, exotic impressionism and sheer, virtuosic brilliance never fails to generate a tingle.

Anyway, if we do as well at the box office as I think we might, then we will have enjoyed a significantly stronger start in 2011-2012 and, knowing how valuable good news is in times like these, that's something worth getting up for at 6.45/7.45am on a dreary Sunday morning.

Bye for now,

Neil

A tale of three Proms...and one amazing house

A new season approaches so it's time to dust off the blog and let you in on a few things that have been happening in the world of Nottingham Classics.

Last week I took the chance to get down to London to hear some of the BBC Proms. The thought of making several separate trips down and enduring the late train back (and by 2.00am it does start to feel like the slowest train in history) was enough to prompt me to do three in a row and stay in London for a couple of days. It's not as expensive as you might think. Over the last couple of years my wife Deb and I have discovered the joys of LSE accomodation. It has a half dozen colleges dotted around central London and they're often staggering value - my last two nights, about three minutes walk from Sadlers Wells - cost me £32 each, including very big breakfast, part of which got recycled into lunch. It's not the Ritz, but it's not bad either - maybe one to consider next time you're doing a cultural overnighter in the big city.

And the fringe benefit of staying a couple of nights was having the time to experience a few of London's special places. Before I went, you may remember me asking for a few suggestions from the Nottingham Classics audience - which proved to be really rewarding. Of the places suggested I made it to two characterful pubs - the George Inn in Southwark (a 17th century courtyard inn owned by the National Trust - thanks to Anna Lloyd for the recommendation) and the Princess Louise in Holborn (an opulent Victorian drinkery) - a sophisticated Italian 'tapas' restaurant, Polpo, in Soho (thanks to Peter Speakman for both of these), and a really astonishing museum. I'd never been to the Sir John Soames Museum, in Lincoln Fields, just off Holborn, but the fact that four of you suggested it meant that it went to the top of the list. And what an amazing place it is! - a monument to a great architect's passion for antiquities with every room crammed with great paintings, exquisite architectural models and huge chunks of Greek and Roman temples, sometimes suspended in improbable places. Here's a snapshot to give you a flavour.

Poor Sir John ended his days a rather bitter man, alienated from his sons and something of a recluse but he certainly left a wonderful legacy behind. The picture room, containing treasures such as paintings by Canaletto and Hogarth is a real eye-opener, not least because the room itself has massive panels which actually function as extra walls for hanging even more great paintings. It was one of the highlights of the last couple of years for me so thanks to Peter Speakman, Kath Jones, Pauline Hillyard and Dorothy Kurpanik for the recommendation.

As for the Proms themselves, I really couldn't have done much better. I did the Pittsburgh Symphony on 6th September, BBC Symphony on 7th and Philadelphia on 8th, with a late nighter by the BBC big band on 7th. They all had something special to enjoy, whether in Anne-Sophie Mutter's stratospheric lines in Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit or the Pittsburgh Symphony's flawless horn section in Mahler's 5th. Even Sir Harrison Birtwistle seems to have taken on the status of 'grand old man of music' these days, judging by the ovation after his angular Violin Concerto. Charles Dutoit's peerless stick technique really impressed me in the Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances and there was real sheen to the legendary Philadelphia strings. Perhaps the only disappointment was David Robertson's rather earthbound The Planets but that was followed by the BBC Big Band's tribute to Stan Kenton, whose often-derided progressive jazz was fiercely exciting, harmonically rich and played for all it was worth by a crack ensemble. Claire Martin's effortless vocals added some real class to a really enjoyable event. Band leader Jiggs Whigham certainly approved of the red dress!

After four concerts and two days of almost non-stop walking around the city I was ready for a return to the office chair, but, as ever, it was a great privilege to hear some of the world's great orchestras in some heavyweight repertoire. Inspiring, too - it certainly got me in the mood for thinking about the shape of next season.

Which is a big one, of course. 2012-2013 is the 10th anniversary of the Halle's residency in Nottingham, a very important moment in the history of Nottingham Classics and the point at which things really began to look up for the series. The times we're in and the squeeze on our finances will mean we'll have to be imaginative but we'll definitely be celebrating the anniversary throughout the season. I've got almost half of the concerts booked in now and it's looking really exciting so far, but there's still a long way to go. And not forgetting that we start the 2011-2012 season in a fortnight with the Halle and the wonderful German cellist, Alban Gerhardt. Alban is not only a very exciting performer but he's also a really engaging commentator on music and on the ups and downs of being a soloist. His blog is always worth reading - you can sign up at http://www.albangerhardt.com/ and you can hear his thoughts on Dvorak's Cello Concerto which he thinks may be the best concerto ever written in a video on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkjEbF0ulOw - highly recommended, not just for his insights into the piece, but also for some demonstrations of his prowess as a performer.

That's it for now. More to follow in a fortnight.

Neil

Monday mayhem - it must be the end of the holiday

This year I and my wife Deb took the unusual step of taking a week off immediately after new year. We didn't go anywhere (unless you count a day away at Clumber Park Hotel Spa as a short term break) and chose to spend a few days at home recharging the batteries before plunging into our respectively busiest periods of 2011. As usual we somehow found a way to add some toil to the break and spent a few days on the next D-I-Y project (an endeavour always tinged with tension for us) but overall it was a pretty relaxing time. Just enough, in fact, to go back to work with a renewed sense of purpose.

And it's just as well, as the first day back has proven to be as frenetic as anything I can remember. That maybe something to do with having (in a moment of unguarded enthusiasm last season) piling up new projects in the early Spring, including some that are going to take up a helluva lot of time. The main one that's pre-occupying me as I type is the BBC Philharmonic's family concert on 3 April - not just because we've not run a large scale family event before as part of Nottingham Classics during the time I've been working on the series, but also because we've added some whistles and bells in the form of the Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City Family Orchestra. The model is a proven one - the BBC Philharmonic created the Salford Family Orchestra a year and a bit ago as a means of engaging more deeply with its local community and of providing an inspiring opportunity for its participants to perform in a big public concert (The BBC Proms in fact). And the response was really wholehearted from those who took part. We're hoping to do the same in Nottinghamshire and most things are now in place - our first applications for places came in at the end of last week. But even after several hours organising it there's still seemingly a mountain of things to do. I had intended, arriving back in the office to make some real headway today but I should have known better. With next season still taking shape, our first concerts this weekend and the end of next week, and numerous bits of admin to sort out, the window of opportunity quickly turned into a porthole and many things are now on the to-do list for tomorrow.

Oh well, at least I did stick to one of my New Year's resolutions and used my lunch hour to pick up my shiny new bass trombone and get to work on remembering how to play it. I'm going to be joining the University Philharmonia in a performance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique in February and I really need to put in some hard yards to get some semblance of tone and technique back. I guess it's a bit like rejoining a gym after several months spent avoiding it - your know what you're meant to be able to do but your body just won't play ball. Nevertheless I figured that 30 minutes to an hour of hard graft through scales, legato exercises, and lip flexibilities would be manageable even within the non-stop environment of the Royal Concert Hall.

Well...just! By the time I'd worked my way through the emails, meetings, phone calls and proofing it was 4 o'clock - a late lunch by anyone's standards. Nevertheless I did manage 20 minutes' practice and used the time to try out the sample orchestral chair which we're considering to replace the long-serving and, frankly, exhausted chairs that have been here since 1982. And, I'm pleased to say, it was really excellent - plenty of support, the right shape and a serious looking chair to boot. Let's hope the orchestras like them too.

So, the first day back was as relentless as expected, probably more so, but inch by inch the pieces are falling into place. The next big thing is turning the draft 2011-2012 programme into a fully-fledged season. And there are four Sunday morning piano series concerts to add in too - apart from one date in the diary I haven't done anything with these yet. I have a feeling that there will be a few more late lunches this Spring.