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Wednesday July 30
Temple Church
'Sound the Trumpet'
The renowned countertenors James Bowman and Nicholas Clapton are joined by recorder players John Turner and Laura Robinson, harpsichordist Ian Thompson and cellist Jonathan Price in an exciting programme combining Baroque and present-day music. The latter is represented in songs-cycles by Peter Hope and Nicholas Marshall, as well as a first performance by the British pianist and composer Stephen Hough. The Baroque part features music by Purcell (Henry Purcell, 1659-1695, including the famous duet ‘Sound the Trumpet') and the wonderful Ode by John Blow on the death of Henry Purcell.
James Bowman
One of the world's leading countertenors for nearly 30 years; James Bowman's career spans Opera, Oratorio, Contemporary music and Solo recitals. He was born in Oxford on 6 November 1941 and began singing as a boy chorister at Ely Cathedral. He later went to New College, Oxford. He was a member of the New College and Christ Church choirs.
In 1967 he auditioned for Benjamin Britten's English Opera Group and was cast as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream , a work he has subsequently had a long and distinguished association with.
James made his London debut at the opening concert of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and was soon in demand on both the opera stage and concert platform. He appeared at Glyndebourne in 1970 La Calisto (the first countertenor to sing there), English National Opera in 1971 Semele and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden 1972 Taverner .
At the same time James met David Munrow and was invited to join the Early Music Consort of London. The ensemble made numerous recordings and toured extensively, inspiring many to explore and join the revival in early music and period performance.
During his career James Bowman has appeared at almost every major opera house including La Scala Milan, Amsterdam, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Sydney, Verona, Vienna, Strasbourg, Sante Fe, Dallas and San Franscisco. His concert career is equally wide ranging: in Europe he is well known as a recitalist, with a large following particularly in France. In 1992 the French Government honoured him with admission to "L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres" and he was also awarded the Medal of Honour of the City of Paris, in recognition of his long-standing contribution to the musical life of that City.
James has made over 180 recordings with all the major record labels and has worked with all the major directors including Harnoncourt, Bruggen, Gardiner, Norrington, Hogwood and Leonhardt. Most of his recent recordings have been with The Kings Consort and Robert King on Hyperion. These include the complete Purcell odes, secular songs and church music and two stunning discs of Handel arias.
His work is not confined to 'early music', he has given the world premieres of many contemporary compositions by composers such as Burgon, Ridout and Richard Rodney Bennett.
In May 1996 James Bowman received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.James is also President of the Holst Singers.He was made a CBE in the Queen's birthday honours list in June 1997. In November 1998 James was made an Honorary Fellow of New College Oxford.
Nicholas Clapton is one of the leading countertenors in Britain and is celebrated for his acclaimed performances in opera and song recitals both here in Britain, but most especially in Europe and the United States of America. He is a regular performer with the Locrian Ensemble, having recently collaborated on projects of Handel's music in concerts at St.Martin-in-the-Fields and in Norwich.
Nicholas Clapton made his public debut in in 1984 at London's Wigmore Hall, and went on to win the English Song Award in 1987. These two successes led immediately to many engagements in opera houses through Europe, especially in high profile performances in France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Italy. The public interest and passion for listening to recreated "period" performances was then at it height, and he took many roles which fully exploited his own high-voiced tenor range, roles which had often for many years previosly been sung by female singers.
In more recent times, he has performed from Santiago to Singapore, and recorded a vast repertoire, most notably including ground-breaking discs of Cantatas by Marcello and Porpora.
He devotes some of his valuable time passing on his knowledge and skills to pupils at Trinity College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London and also the National Music School in Budapest.
John Turner is Manchester born-and-raised and, apart from his student days, which were spent at Cambridge, he has lived his life there. “My interest in music was enthused by my music master at school, Douglas Steele, who had been Beecham's assistant at Covent Garden. He was a wonderful man and would get those who were interested to stay behind after classes to listen to music; it could have been Janácek, a pop song or whatever…as long as it was interesting.”
Although he studied the flute at the Northern School of Music's junior department, on going up to Cambridge he read law, feeling that music would be little other than a hobby. He admits, however, that its pull was enormous: “there were so many good musicians there at the time, Christopher Hogwood, John Eliot Gardiner, Andrew Davis, to name but a few. It was lectures in the morning, a couple of hours of work in the afternoon and the rest of the time was spent playing concerts!” But, above all, it was David Munrow who was to provide him with an opportunity that was to change the course of his life. Munrow was in his year and was looking around for a recorder player to partner: “he was quite specific in his requirements and felt that someone who only played the recorder might not be a good enough musician and wanted someone who was versatile on another instrument.” Turner fitted the bill and started what was to become, for him, a lifetime's devotion. He didn't think that way at the time: “Once I had qualified as a solicitor I thought, that's it…there'll be no more music for me . But one day Munrow rang me up and asked if I would be willing to play in Britten's Alpine Suite at the Aldeburgh Festival. I did, and things didn't stop after that. The second and third performances I did were at the Proms and the rest is history!”
He managed to juggle such musical commitments alongside his duties as a solicitor in the Manchester firm in which he was ultimately to become a senior partner. “The firm did quite a lot of musical work, most of which tended to gravitate towards me – we acted for the Hallé, the Royal Northern College of Music and many composers – and through it I managed to get to know many musicians, most of whom I am still in contact with, despite no longer working for the firm.” Although more recently he rarely toured – “it's a bit of a bore having to take a week off work to play a three minute obbligato on the recorder” – he continued to do one-off performances and recordings.
Laura Robinson, recorder.
Laura was born in Rugby in 1986 and began to learn the recorder with Dorothee Savage at the age of seven. Later she had lessons from Caroline Jones and Beryl Craven, and gained her DipABRSM before reading music at the University of Manchester . There she studied the recorder with John Turner and the viola with Robin Ireland and graduated with First Class honours in 2007. She is now studying for a Masters at the Royal Northern College of Music on the viola whilst continuing with the recorder. In 2006, she performed Brandenburg 4 with Chris Orton and the Sale Chamber Orchestra and played the treble solo in Britten's ‘Noye's Fludde' in Prestbury. She has recently been involved in recording The Manchester Carols with John Turner and the Northern Chamber Orchestra which they performed in December 2007 at the RNCM.
Ian Thompson, harpsichord
Ian Thompson was born in Bradford and studied at Queens' College, Cambridge (where he was Organ Scholar) and the Royal College of Music. (his teachers included Sir Adrian Boult, Geraint Jones, Thurston Dart and, later, Ettore Campogalliani).
He was active as organist, harpsichordist and conductor before turning to singing, which rapidly became his principal professional activity. He sang in all the principal London-based ensembles, working frequently under leading conductors from Klemperer and Solti to Norrington and Gardiner and was for 9 years a vicar-choral at St. Paul's Cathedral. Following a period of study in Italy, Ian commenced a solo operatic career which still continues, with regular appearances at leading opera houses including La Scala, Milan.
Since moving to Cumbria in 1995, Ian has revisited his earlier skills, now performing frequently on the harpsichord. He formed Lonsdale Music in 2001 to present professional concerts in Cumbria, has performed extensively with James Bowman and distinguished recorder player John Turner, and recently has enjoyed playing the Bach multiple harpsichord concertos with David Roblou and Pamela Nash. He was also for several years a visiting lecturer at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
Jonathan Price, cello
plays with a wide variety of chamber musicians, performing music spanning four centuries. For ten years he was a member of the Matisse Piano Quartet, broadcasting most of the piano quartet repertoire for the BBC. In addition to his work with the Legrand Ensemble he also performs and broadcasts with the baroque group Musical Offering, and the Camerata Ensemble, whose members are principal players with the Manchester Camerata . He is also cello tutor at Manchester University. In addition to concerts throughout Europe and in North and South America, he has also played in Australia, Israel, the Azores, Hong Kong, Macau and Hawaii.
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Lunchtime Concert: Lizzie Drury, soprano & sax with Brendan Ashe, piano
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For Children: Pixie Maz in the Fairlynch Museum
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Late Night with Mark Bebbington. Please see Tuesday for programme
