Part Two – The John Wilson Orchestra | Recreating the musicals of Rogers and Hammersein at the BBC Proms
It was the concert day at last and I set off to London to sing with the John Wilson Orchestra, recreating the musical gems of Rogers and Hammerstein. When I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall for our short microphone test and rehearsal, there were already lots of people queuing for promenade tickets. For those of you who are not familiar with the set up of the BBC Proms concerts, there are many different ways to enjoy the music. You can listen live on radio 3 and sometimes watch the concerts on BBC4 – the really popular ones are featured on BBC2 (as was ours). You can enjoy it on the iPlayer for another week afterwards. If you want to be part of the excitement of the live event, you can buy one of over 5000 tickets for the seats and private boxes in the Royal Albert Hall. Best of all – anybody can ‘promenade’. The stall seats are removed for the Proms and about 500 tickets can be bought on the day for only £5 cash – There is a choice of the arena, right in front of the stage, or the gallery, right up in the ‘God’s’. You have to be willing to stand all the way through and get there early to queue for the popular concerts. Read more »
Recreating the Musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein at the BBC Proms
Well this is the one I’ve been looking forward to all year – singing with The John Wilson Orchestra and being a very small cog in a VERY large ensemble, recreating the timeless musicals of Rogers and Hammerstein at the BBC Proms. The orchestra is 100 strong (where DID they get that budget?) and has some the best players from London Orchestras, the BBC big band and the world of Jazz. Last year I was lucky enough to be asked by Christopher Dee, director of The Maida Vale Singers to sing in a choir for the MGM Musicals Prom. All of the original scores and band parts from the MGM studios had been put into the landfill for the carpark and were lost forever under the tarmac. Ever since he was a child, John Wilson had a dream that he would transcribe the music by ear and bring that music back to life. It was an extraordinary achievement and the atmosphere among the audience and musicians alike was wonderful. Every time a player would get up and do a solo the other musicians who weren’t playing would applaud – It was one of those concerts I would have sung for free – please don’t tell the fixers though! The BBCTV broadcast was watched by three and a half million people and it’s already been repeated twice.
I will always remember the first rehearsal we had with the John Wilson Orchestra. The singers listened awestruck as they played the MGM Overture. The energy and virtuosity of the players was so uplifting. We’re mostly a cynical bunch, professional musicians, but sometimes we’re reminded why we came into the business – certainly not for the pay! This was one such occasion. So when Chris asked me to sing in the Rogers and Hammerstein Prom, I had no hesitation in accepting.
We had our first rehearsal at the Warehouse Studios near Waterloo and as the piano reduction hadn’t arrived, the rehearsal pianist only had a full score – she did a valiant job of score-reading the music which was written for 100 players. Half way through the rehearsal John Wilson arrived – he’d been delayed with some last minute transposition (changing the key for one of the solo numbers). Suddenly the music came alive as he injected his innate understanding and feel for the style into the accompaniment.
rehearsing with the John Wilson orchestra at LSO ST. Luke's
John wanted a shimmering, fast vibrato from the ladies on Bali Ha’I – “no choral evensong – a full vibby tone” he requested in his broad Geordie accent. He told us that the most important thing for the up-tempo numbers was for us to sing like a big band – with incision and a ping to the front of every note. (His orchestra contains a fabulous rhythm section at it’s heart and even a few members of the BBC Big Band).
The next night we had a rehearsal with the full band and soloists at LSO St Luke’s Church. This is a church which the LSO converted so they would have a large space to rehearse and it has developed into a venue for rehearsals and live concerts for all types of music. Here’s a picture I took of some of the orchestra from the gallery (I couldn’t get them all in!) The orchestra sounded great, of course, and it was a thrill to put our singing to their lush accompaniment. John Wilson was a very long way away so it was a bit difficult to see him. We weren’t amplified either, so it’s always difficult for the conductor to judge if we’re singing absolutely on the beat because of the physical delay in the sound reaching their ears.
On Saturday we had our run through in the Royal Albert Hall. We were called in the morning as time is of a premium when Prom season is in full flow. We finished at 1pm so that the stage management could clear the stage and set up for the 3pm, afternoon Prom concert by I Fagiolini and the Britten Sinfonia performing Monteverdi. Later that evening the Rotterdam Philharmonic would perform Mahler and Wagner – a busy weekend!
We started a run-through promptly at 10am and behind the scenes the rehearsal was used for the broadcast team to set microphone levels and camera angles. We carried on rehearsing regardless and there were some funny moments – one where John asked the saxaphone section to play a bit louder – he joked (imagine the Newcastle accent) “I would have written that tune for you to play on clarinets but I know that you’s all have sold your clarinets to buy a car”.
It was our first chance to hear the great cast of soloists. In the previous evening’s rehearsal they were the other side of the orchestra so we hadn’t heard them properly.
Another lovely moment was when the soloists were singing the lovely ballad Somewhere in my Youth or Childhood from The Sound of Music and they reached an instrumental interlude. The Baritone, Rod Gilfry asked Sierra Boggess, who was singing Maria, “is there somebody I should ask for permission to marry you?” There was a pause from the Sierra and John Wilson shouted over his shoulder “Andrew Lloyd Webber”.
I must run now and catch the train up to London to get to the Albert Hall for the show – It’s a sell out and I know that many people will listen live on Radio 3 and listening again on the BBC iPlayer in the coming week. The TV broadcast is next Saturday.
To be continued…….
If you enjoyed this blog entry, then you can sign up in the box above and you’ll get an email to let you know when I write again - your email address is totally confidential.
I really value your comments too, so feel free to let me know your thoughts in the box below!
The Logistics of a Synergy Vocals Photo Shoot
A couple of months ago, the Musical Director of Synergy Vocals sent out an email asking for our availabilities to do a photo shoot – the logistics of this are always very difficult.
Synergy Vocals is a pool of singers who specialise in Classical, Contemporary Music on microphone. We have a lot of concerts coming up where singers will be used in different combinations. This is because Micaela Haslam (the MD) picks her singers very specifically for the particular piece of music the group has been asked to perform. Berio’s Sinfonia is one of the pieces that Synergy Vocals specialises in. We are invited by orchestras all over the world to take part in performances of this very difficult piece of music. It was originally written in the late sixties for the a cappella group, The Swingle Singers. Nearly all the current Synergy members have sung with the Swingles at one time or another. I was the second alto for ten years.
We have performances of Sinfonia coming up with the LSO and Daniel Harding (click on his picture to visit his website), the Concertgebouw Orchestra and London Sinfonietta. Micaela needed some publicity shots for the various orchestras. We also have quite a few concerts of Steve Reich’s music, which can range from two to four female singers in different combinations. Micaela asked us to give our NAs (when we are not available) over a two month period and after much juggling of dates it seemed impossible to get all the correct people together on the same day. Four of the girls had a day they could do and the boys had a different day. Micaela decided to try to take our photographs against a background where she could fix a place for us to stand and the try to merge the two groups together in Photoshop. Read more »
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-08
- on @stephenfry‘s advice I just signed up to a great classical music website http://www.dilettantemusic.com/member/heather-cairncross # Read more »
Cracking the code of the Christmas Nutcracker Film
This week I was reminded of the time I spent cracking the code which the Russian director set in his Christmas film The Nutcracker in 3D. I figured that if the blogging fairy had sent me two subliminal messages in a day for the subject of my next post, then who was I to ignore her spell?
I was doing a bit of filing (ah the glamour!) and found some forms which I needed to deal with. When musicians are booked for a session for a film or backing vocals, we have to fill in either a MU or Equity form to release the rights to our performance. It used to be just for the recording but now it can extend to Interactive, Backing Track, Music Video and Film Rights. (I touched on this practice in the final paragraph of my second Blog about Susan Boyle ). There is a body called PPL which collects royalties from radio airplay. If you register your performance there, then they collect the small amounts of money that radio stations pay to use those recordings. When you’ve done as many recordings as my colleagues and I have, this can mount up to a small regular payment not to be sniffed at. (Hey – us musicians will take whatever we can get). I was looking through the file to see which forms I hadn’t yet submitted to the PPL website Read more »
Live Radio Interview on radiolive.co.nz with Ewing Stevens about singing on Susan Boyle’s new Album
Today I was interviewed by Ewing Stevens on radiolive.co.nz – and this came about because my blog post about singing on Susan Boyle’s new album had been spotted by her fan club forum in America. It’s a strange old international thing – the internet!
You can listen by clicking on the picture of Ewing:
Twitter Weekly Updates for 1-08-2010
just adopted ‘singer’ for the year @adoptaword to help a child communicate http://www.adoptaword.co.uk # Read more »
Rambling on: the long trek from Hogwarts to Eewoks
Where were we?…….ah yes, we’ve had our scotch egg and a reviving pint of ale and we’ve set off again on our ramble from Hogwarts to Ewoks.
John Williams is one of the last of a dying breed of composers.
Nowadays, music is composed on a computer programme where, instead of beats per minute being the measuring tool, film frames per second are used. Using this method it is quite easy to sync the music with the screen action. We usually then record the film soundtrack listening to a ‘click track’ which is linked to that frame rate. If the music stays in time with the click, then it will stay in time with the frames of the film. John Williams, on the other hand, writes music which, when played at the right tempo, fits perfectly with the screen action. He conducts, facing the screen, with the orchestra seated in between. 
The screen is showing the movie in real time and he uses his inner metronome and immense musicianship to link the two. In fact, he conducts his film recording sessions in the same way that William Walton must have conducted his music for the 1944 Laurence Olivier film, Henry V. Williams is the only composer I have worked with who has recorded his film music in this way .
I was lucky enough to do a session just like this with the LSO for Star Wars – Revenge of the Seth. Read more »
Rambling on: the long trek from Ragwort to Hogwarts
On Sunday I escaped from work to ramble for nine miles on the Sussex Downs, chatting with my fellow walkers about everything from Ragwort to Hogwarts.
‘The Downs’ are a bit of a misnomer, as my poor old leg muscles will testify……..although the wonderful views are probably worth the pain of the Ups!
I walk with a small, private and very friendly rambling club who have an astounding knowledge of the many beautiful pathways right across the south of England. I found them on the internet about three years ago when I decided I wanted to walk more and didn’t really know how to start. The map location for the start of the walk was on the website and I turned up to a lane just by junction of two busy roads on a cold, February morning. I wondered where on earth we would walk to, being so close to the road. We set off across a field and for the next ten miles all we saw was woodland, beautiful countryside and tiny hamlets. They were such a friendly crowd and one lady told me that she was the conductor of the Brighton Welsh Male Voice Choir. Another man was an usher at Glyndebourne, so we immediately had an interest in musical things in common. I remember walking past a stream and looking at the snowdrops and feeling an overwhelming feeling of happiness – I was accidentally hooked on Rambling! My legs, which seized up on the drive home leaving me almost unable to walk to the house, felt rather differently.
With all the hustle and bustle of touring and concerts, I find that it really clears my head to get out into the countryside and enjoy a picnic on the top of a hill. This is a picture I took as we broke out the flasks following a couple of particularly steep climb….see what I mean about the view! So – this Sunday, we all met up at the National Trust car park at the Devil’s Dyke. Read more »
Twitter Weekly Updates for 24-07-2010
- Lordy……just been booked to do BVs on Susan Boyle’s new CD! Read more »
4 Comments