The Little Sweep in Bristol

To St George’s in Bristol – my favourite music venue in Britain ‒ for Benjamin Britten’s The Little Sweep. In a superb production, full of strong performances, was the debut at ten of my grand-daughter Isobel.

The Little Sweep was created as the final part of Britten’s entertainment for young people, Let’s Make an Opera! He wrote it in 1949, just four years after the première of his breakthrough opera, Peter Grimes. And, although it’s written for children, there is no sense that it is dumbed down for them. This is real Britten.

At St George’s, the excellent musical director Mark Lawrence started proceedings by coaching the whole audience in singing the four “audience songs”.

Altogether a magical evening.

Leading, directing, conducting?

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has been advertising its recent concert series as “Look! No conductor”. I caught them at my favourite venue, St George’s in Bristol.

Now in itself doing without a conductor is not a new thing. Neville Marriner “directed” rather than “conducted” the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from the first desk in the early 1960s – and many have followed in his footsteps.

What was special about this OAE gig was that three different soloists directed the orchestra. First Stephen Isserlis (together with his cello) directed Haydn’s scintillating last symphony, No 104 (The London). Then the violinist Isabelle Faust directed and played (meltingly beautifully) Mozart’s third violin concerto. And finally, Isserlis and Faust were joined by the American fortepianist, Robert Levin, in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (for violin, cello, piano and orchestra).

Who knew that this could be such an exciting work? And who on earth was directing? Well, so far as I could tell, leadership switched constantly between the three soloists, with Levin perhaps doing most.

But when they started the second movement, none of the soloists moved a muscle. It was the OAE’s leader, Kati Debretzeni who discreetly beat them in. I suspect that there were other leaders at work around the orchestra that I didn’t spot.

That’s how orchestral music can be. Completely collaborative. Just like chamber music. And jazz, of course.