ST VALENTINE’S DAY 2018
Mansion House
With Special Guest HUGH LAURIE CMF Team
Dr Clare Taylor Managing Director
Tabitha McGrath Artist Manager
Philip Barrett Executive Assistant
Trustees
Sir Mark Boleat
Sir Roger Gifford
Sir Nicholas Kenyon
Sir Andrew Parmley
Advisory Board
Guy Harvey Partner, Shepherd and Wedderburn
Wim Hautekiet Managing Director, JP Morgan
Alastair King Chairman, Naisbitt King Asset Management
Kathryn McDowell CBE Managing Director, London Symphony Orchestra
Lizzie Ridding Board Member, City Music Foundation
Ian Ritchie Artistic Director and Music Curator, Setubal Music Festival
Seb Scotney Editor, London Jazz News
Philip Spencer Development Consultant
Adrian Waddingham CBE Partner, Barnett Waddingham
St Valentine’s Day 2018
2 WELCOME
Welcome to the Mansion House and to a celebration of all that is good about life! Not least the wonderful music we are going to hear in the splendour of the greatest surviving Georgian town palace in London.
The City Music Foundation – CMF – is just five years old and it was created in this house. Its mission is to turn talent into success by giving training in the “business of music” to soloists and ensembles at the start of their professional careers, as well as promoting them extensively in a modern and professional manner. Several - the Gildas Quartet, Michael Foyle, and Giacomo Smith with the Kansas Smitty’s, are playing for us this evening.
This year CMF hopes to move into a more permanent home in the City at St Bartholomew the Less, within the boundaries of St Bartholomew’s Hospital – and within the City of London’s ‘Culture Mile’. This anticipates the relocation of the Museum of London to its new site in Smithfield and the creation of a new Centre for Music on the south side of the Barbican – all exciting developments in the heart of the Capital. CMF intends to play its role alongside these institutions and we look forwards to hearing from Sir Nicholas Kenyon about these plans during the evening.
We are delighted that CMF Patrons the Brodsky Quartet and Iain Burnside have joined us tonight and thrilled that Hugh Laurie is here with us as a special guest, and he will be performing with Iain later this evening.
And it is St Valentine’s Day – so let’s enjoy the connection between music and love, food and good living.
And again, welcome.
Alderman Sir Roger Gifford Founder, City Music Foundation
St Valentine’s Day 2018
3 IAIN BURNSIDE
Iain Burnside is a pianist who has appeared in recital with many of the world’s leading singers (“pretty much ideal” BBC Music Magazine).
He is also an insightful programmer with an instinct for the telling juxtaposition. His recordings straddle an exuberantly eclectic repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Schubert to the cutting edge, as in the Gramophone Award-winning NMC Songbook. Recent recordings include the complete Rachmaninov songs (Delphian Records) with seven outstanding Russian artists (“the results are electrifying” The Daily Telegraph). Iain’s passion for English Song is reflected in acclaimed CDs of Britten, Finzi, Ireland, Butterworth and Vaughan Williams, many with baritone Roderick Williams.
Away from the piano Iain is active as a writer and broadcaster. As presenter of BBC Radio 3’s Voices he won a Sony Radio Award. For Guildhall School of Music & Drama Iain has devised a number of singular theatre pieces. A Soldier and a Maker, based on the life of Ivor Gurney, was performed at the Barbican Centre and the Cheltenham Festival, and later broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on Armistice Day. His new project Swansong has been premiered at the Kilkenny Festival and will play in Milton Court in November.
Future highlights include performances of the three Schubert songcycles with Roderick Williams at Wigmore Hall. A Delphian release of songs by Nikolai Medtner launches a major series of Russian Song in the 2018 Wigmore Hall season. Other forthcoming projects feature Ailish Tynan, Rosa Feola, Andrew Watts, Robin Tritschler and Benjamin Appl.
Iain is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
4 HUGH LAURIE
The award-winning, multitalented Hugh Laurie has had an exceptional career as an actor, producer, writer, musician and composer.
Hugh’s film credits include: Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, box office hitThe Man in the Iron Mask, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2, Flight of the Phoenix, and Monster vs. Aliens, which made a staggering $198 million at the US box office alone.
Hugh’s television credits include playing the infamous character of Bertie Wooster in an impressive four series of Jeeves and Wooster, which aired on PBS’s “Masterpiece Theatre” from 1990 to 1995. He has also starred in Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, Tracey Takes On..., and Friends. He has taken part in three series of Saturday Night Live and in 2010 starred in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, which he co-wrote for the BBC with Stephen Fry. Hugh is arguably best known internationally for his performance in the FOX series, House, which ran for eight seasons.
Although Hugh is a predominantly self-taught pianist, he has gone on to have an incredibly successful music career. In 2011, he released a New Orleans Blues album, Let Them Talk, which was distributed worldwide by Warner Bros Records. After the huge success of his debut album, Hugh released his second album, Didn’t It Rain, in May 2013 with Warner Music Entertainment.
In April 2015, Hugh returned to US television to star as vice-presidential candidate, Senator Tom James, opposite Julia Louis-Drefus in the much-anticipated fourth season of HBO’s award-winning Veep. In February 2016 Hugh played a leading role in the award-winning BBC/AMC TV series adaptation of John Le Carré’s novel The Night Manager. Hugh’s supporting role was acknowledged internationally and he received over six nominations for his performance, including an EMMY and this year he collected a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series. Hugh has led two seasons of the primetime television series Chance based on the psychological thriller of the same title by Kem Nunn. The show launched on streaming service Hulu in 2016, with a two season, 20-episode order.
Hugh’s latest film Holmes and Watson is due for release later this year. A humorous take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mysteries featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. The title also stars Ralph Fiennes and Will Ferrell.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
5 MICHAEL FOYLE
Praised for “playing of compelling conviction” (The Daily Telegraph) and “full of sparkling detail, with tonal beauty and incisive rhythmic clarity, balancing wit and poetry” (The Strad), Michael Foyle won The Netherlands Violin Competition 2016.
His acclaimed performance of Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra led to an immediate invitation to give his debut recital at The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. In December 2017, he returned to the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Korngold’s Violin Concerto and in May of this year he makes his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, playing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Other London appearances this season include performances of the Beethoven, Dvorak, Elgar and Tchaikovsky concerti.
In the past two seasons, Michael has made his recital debuts at Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Bridgewater Hall, Usher Hall and Buckingham Palace. Abroad, he has performed Brahms’s Violin Concerto in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and has given recitals for the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, New York Chamber Music Festival, and Evgeny Mravinsky Festival in Tallinn and St. Petersburg. This year, he records his debut CDs: the complete works for violin and piano by Lutosławski and Penderecki for Delphian Records, and a World War One centenary release for Challenge Records.
Born in Ayrshire in 1991, Michael gave his concerto debut in Edinburgh Festival Theatre aged eight. He went on to win the BBC Young Musician of the Year Tabor Award 2008 and to lead the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, before studying at the Vienna Konservatorium with Pavel Vernikov and at the Royal Academy of Music in London where, upon graduation, he was awarded the Regency Prize for Excellence and the Roth Prize for the highest violin mark of the year. At the same time, Michael won the Royal Overseas League String Competition, while his acclaimed duo with pianist Maksim Štšura won the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Competition and the Salieri-Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition. He subsequently performed as a Park Lane Group, Kirckman Concert Society and Making Music Young Concert Artist, and is currently a City Music Foundation ambassador.
Michael plays a Gennaro Gagliano violin (1750) on loan from a CMF supporter, and is represented by Interartists Amsterdam.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
6 BRODSKY QUARTET
Daniel Rowland, violin (not playing tonight) Ian Belton, violin Paul Cassidy, viola Jacqueline Thomas, cello
Since forming in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet have performed over 3,000 concerts on the major stages of the world and have released more than 60 recordings. A natural curiosity and an insatiable desire to explore has propelled the group in a number of artistic directions and continues to ensure them not only a prominent presence on the international chamber music scene, but also a rich and varied musical existence. Throughout their career of more than 40 years, the Brodsky Quartet have enjoyed a full international performing schedule, touring major festivals and venues throughout Australasia, North and South America, Asia, South Africa, and Europe, as well as in the UK, where the quartet is based. Over the years they have undertaken numerous performances of the complete cycles of quartets by Schubert, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, Webern and Bartok. It is, however, the complete Shostakovich cycle that has now become synonymous with their name: their 2012 London performance of the cycle resulted in their taking the prestigious title ‘Artistic Associate’ at London’s Kings Place.
The Brodsky Quartet have had an extensive recording career and currently enjoy an exclusive and fruitful relationship with Chandos Records. Releases on the label include recordings of quartets by Debussy, Verdi, Paganini, Wolf, Puccini, Dvorak, Copland, Gershwin, Brubeck, Zemlinsky, and Brahms. 2016 saw the Quartet tour a new programme of original songs set to texts by poet Judith Wright, sung by renowned Australian singer Katie Noonan; the recording With Love and Fury was released to great critical acclaim in Australia. Awards for recordings include the Diapason D’Or and the CHOC du Monde de la Musique for their recordings of string quartets by Britten, Beethoven and Janáček, and, for their outstanding contribution to innovation in programming, the Brodsky Quartet have received a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
The Quartet have taught at many international chamber music courses and have held residencies in several music institutes including, at the start of their career, the first such post at the University of Cambridge and, more recently, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where they are visiting International Fellows in Chamber Music. The Quartet took their name from the great Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky, the dedicatee of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and a passionate chamber musician. The Brodsky Quartet appears by arrangement with Hazard Chase Ltd.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
7 GILDAS QUARTET
Christopher Jones, violin Gemma Sharples, violin Kay Stephen, viola Anna Menzies, cello
The Gildas Quartet have performed to critical acclaim across the UK and Europe at major venues including the Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall, Wigmore Hall, and live on BBC Radio 3.
Praised for their “refreshing approach” and “exciting precision”, they are fast establishing themselves as one of the most exciting young ensembles to emerge in recent years. Passionate exponents of a diverse and varied repertoire, the Quartet have had the privilege of working with composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Colin Matthews and Howard Skempton, performing their works at London’s Southbank Centre and The Forge.
They have recently given recitals at international festivals such as the Two Moors Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, and the Cheltenham Festival, and they were invited to teach and perform at Dartington Summer Music last August. With generous support from the Britten Pears Foundation, the Quartet is delighted to have been able to commission a new quartet from Philip Cashian; they were invited to give its première performance last June at the St Magnus Festival, Orkney. The Quartet have recently completed a debut recording of two works by Cheryl Frances-Hoad to be included in a disc of the composer’s music for the Champs Hill label.
The Gildas Quartet are City Music Foundation Artists and have recently finished their tenure as Junior Fellows at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. They have frequently been featured by the Park Lane Group Young Artists scheme and are grateful for awards and support from the Tunnell Trust, the Richard Carne Trust and the Royal Northern College of Music. In larger chamber music collaborations, the Gildas Quartet have joined musicians such as Alexander Baillie, Robin Tritschler and Matthew Barley. Ongoing partnerships include quintets with clarinettist Jack McNeill, soprano Raphaela Papadakis and pianist Sholto Kynoch, in addition to a number of exciting projects with the New English Ballet Theatre.
The Quartet are delighted to have been selected as Making Music Featured Artists for 2017/18 as well as being selected to take part in the final of the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
Christopher plays a Bernardo Calcani violin (1755) through the Stradivari Trust facilitated by CMF.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
8 KANSAS SMITTY’S HOUSE BAND Giacomo Smith, alto sax Dave Archer, guitar Ferg Ireland, bass Pete Horsfall, trumpet Joe Webb, piano Will Cleasby, drums
Founded by City Music Foundation Artist Giacomo Smith, Kansas Smitty’s are quietly carving out a name for themselves as one of the driving forces in the UK jazz scene.
Their reputation, built on their incendiary live shows, including four sold-out main shows at Ronnie Scott’s, has recently been cemented by the release of their full debut album and the opening of their own bar venue in East London.
Both bar and band have received praise across the jazz and mainstream press, with extensive coverage from The Evening Standard, and reviews in The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. The Band’s debut record was nominated as one of the top jazz albums of 2015 by The Daily Telegraph. The Sunday Times summed it up nicely, saying “Conservatories or cocktails? If jazz is to survive it will need more bands [like this one]”.
The House Band don’t like to be boxed in. As their debut album exemplifies, they make wide use of the sour mash of styles that has allowed them to cross the divides between generations and dispositions. Moving through sounds of swing, blues, R&B, New Orleans ethnic music, and gospel, they relentlessly pursue a sound of their own, seeking out and creating a genre-blind audience for their music.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
9 MENU
Confit salmon cured with beetroot fennel purée, wasabi crème fraiche, pickled cockles
Macon-Lugny, Louis Latour, 2015
Champagne Sorbet
Fillet of beef with asparagus, kale, wholegrain mustard croquette, oyster hollandaise sauce, tomato, mushroom and tarragon salad
Lirac Vignoles Abeille 2015, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Chocolate and chilli fudge cake sweet chilli caviar, coconut ice cream
Colston Bassett stilton mousse, toasted brioche
Fonseca Bin 27 PROGRAMME
Salon 6.45pm Cocktails
Old Ballroom 7.15pm Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20 i. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco ii. Andante iii. Scherzo iv. Presto Performed by Michael Foyle, members of the Brodsky Quartet & the Gildas Quartet
Egyptian Hall 8.00pm Dinner Poulenc’s The Story of Babar the Little Elephant performed by Hugh Laurie and Iain Burnside Elgar’s Salut d’Amour and Kreisler’s Liebeslied performed by Michael Foyle and Iain Burnside
10.00pm Speeches Sir Nicholas Kenyon, Sir Roger Gifford
10.10pm Auction followed by Loyal Toast
Salon 10.40pm Jazz from the Kansas Smitty’s House Band
11.45pm Carriages AUCTION Auctioneer: Giorgia Parodi Brown
Lot 1 Lot 2
The Foyle-Štšura Duo. Two premium stalls tickets for the Last Night of the Proms.
Michael Foyle, whom you have just heard, with duo partner Two of the most sought after, impossible to buy tickets, for the pianist Maksim Štšura, will play a recital for you and your culmination of the world’s greatest classical music festival. guests at your private party or function. Since starting Join the incredible atmosphere and participate in rousing their collaboration in 2012, Michael and Maksim have won patriotic singing, as well as hearing world-renowned soloists multiple prizes and performed in prestigious venues such such as Nigel Kennedy, Janine Jansen, Jonas Kaufmann, and as The Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and London’s Wigmore Juan Diego Florez. Hall. The recital (not background music!) will be for up to one hour, will be taken at a mutually convenient time and date, The Last Night of the Proms is on 8th September 2018. and in central London.
Lakeside in Winter. Lot 3 Etching by Norman Ackyord CBE RA
Ackroyd attended Leeds College of Art before continuing his studies at the Royal College of Art, where he was later elected Senior Fellow. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1988, appointed Professor of Etching at University of the Arts in 1994, and in 2007 was made CBE for services to engraving and printing. As well as etchings, he is famed for his watercolours, murals, and reliefs. His work can be found all over the world, including at the Tate and the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and Queensland Art Gallery.
Lakeside in Winter is a limited edition etching of Lake Windermere (65/90). Exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition 2017.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
12 Lot 4
Skellig in Sunlight. A limited edition (90) etching of Skellig Islands of the coast of South West Ireland – artist’s proof. Etching by Norman Ackyord CBE RA
Exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition 2017.
Lot 5 Lot 6
A half-day photoshoot with A box for 4 at English National Opera Benjamin Ealovega. with backstage tour.
If you’ve purchased a classical album in the last 10 years, Experience a night of spectacular theatre at English National you’ll doubtless have seen Benjamin’s work already, many Opera. On arrival, you and three guests will be treated to an times over. Benjamin has shot portraits and album covers exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the beautiful London for world-class artists such as Alfred Brendel, Ian Bostridge, Coliseum, London’s largest theatre and ENO’s home. A Edward Gardner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mitsuko Uchida, and bottle of champagne will be waiting for you as you take your Tasmin Little. Benjamin has also photographed politicians, seats in one of the theatre’s boxes to enjoy one of ENO’s royalty, actors, and writers including Tony Blair, HRH The iconic productions. Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Mozart’s The Duchess of Cornwall, Michael Palin, and Philip Pullman. A Marriage of Figaro, and Britten’s The Turn of the Screw are half-day outdoor photoshoot at a mutually convenient time, playing in the coming months. and a location within the M25, for you and your family – children and dogs can be included! You will receive 6 edited, The prize is redeemable for 4 guests in total and can be finished, high-resolution, digital photographs to use and enjoyed on any night in ENO’s 2018 season (February – reproduce as you wish. December 2018), subject to availability.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
13 Three silver Cavendish Picture Frames, made by Grant Macdonald. Lot 7 Silversmith Grant Macdonald began learning his craft in 1949, aged 14. After attending the Central School of Art in London and perfecting his skills restoring fine antique pieces and exhibiting silver artworks in the 1960s, his first workshop was founded in Palmers Green under the name Silverform. In 1966, Grant began taking commissions from the City of London’s famous guilds and livery companies, who required the highest standards of workmanship for their ceremonial chains and coats of arms. In 2015, Grant Macdonald Silversmiths was awarded the Royal Warrant to HRH The Prince of Wales, acknowledging both its work and commitment to environmentally sustainable processes within the precious metal industry.
Frames made of sterlng silver and mahogony measuring 10 x 15 cm, 13 x 18 cm and 18 x 24 cm.
Tours for prospective undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge.
Know a precious teenager, keen to study at Oxford or Cambridge? Despite their fame and intrigue, these ancient universities can seem something of a mystery and possibly even intimidating. These tours will be tailored to the interests of the prospective student, visiting the most relevant colleges, chapels, libraries, dining halls, bars, rooms, faculties and exploring popular student haunts in town, to give a sense of what it really feels like to live and study there.
Lot 8 Lot 9
Tour of Oxford University. Tour of Cambridge University.
This bespoke personal tour with a 2017 graduate and current This personal tour with a recent graduate and current post undergraduate will include a visit to the Deanery Garden graduate student will include an all-access tour of King’s of Christ Church Cathedral, where the real-life Alice in College Chapel, including the roof and inside the famous Wonderland played as a child. fan-vault, to which there is no public access.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
14 Lot 10 Lot 11
The Gildas Quartet. A box for 10 at the BBC Proms 2018.
The Quartet, heard earlier this evening in the Octet, will In a box for 10 in the Grand Tier, next to the Royal Box, with play a recital for you and your guests at your private party champagne on arrival, watch a 2018 BBC Proms concert in or function. Selected to take part in the fi nal of the 2018 style. Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, they are fast establishing themselves as one of the most exciting Concert to be chosen from a selection of 4 Proms, to be young ensembles to emerge in recent years. off ered once the 2018 programme has been announced in late April. The recital (not background music!) will be for up to one hour, and will be taken at a mutually convenient time and date, and in central London or Manchester.
Commission a new work from Misha Lot 12 Mullov-Abbado.
A 2014 City Music Foundation Artist and current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Misha is a rising jazz double-bassist, composer and arranger. Having studied music and composition with Robin Holloway and Jeremy Thurlow, as well as writing for his own band, Misha has been commissioned by a variety of musicians and ensembles including Viktoria Mullova, Thomas Larcher, the LSSO, the Pelleas Ensemble, the Hermes Experiment, and the North Sea Ensemble. “Both his composing talents and his propulsive bass-playing are currently such hot UK jazz news” (Th e Guardian).
You will meet with Misha, as his muse, and discuss the kind of piece you want and possible titles. Once written you will be given the sheet music, and the piece will be recorded by Misha’a band and presented to you on CD.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
15 CMF EVENTS IN 2018
TUESDAY 10th APRIL 2018 Tabea Debus Album Launch.
Dr Johnson’s House, 6.30pm
WEDNESDAY 16th MAY 2018 Mihai Ritivoiu and Michael Foyle with English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michael Collins.
Cadogan Hall, 7.30pm
Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
MONDAY 23rd - FRIDAY 27th JULY 2018 CMF Summer Residency at the Wallace Collection.
A series of lunchtime concerts, including a celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Sir Richard Wallace
St Valentine’s Day 2018
16 Our mission is to turn Following a rigorous annual audition process, successful applicants join the innovative two-year CMF Artists Programme, exceptional musical talent which provides artistic and business mentoring, professional into professional success development workshops, professional performing engagements, promotional tools – website, CDs, films – plus support developing by equipping outstanding a unique musical project. musicians with the tools, skills, CMF’s key position in the City means that we can use our experience and networks they experience, knowledge and connections within the music need to build and sustain industry, as well as the City’s cultural network and business institutions, to provide unique and unrivalled support and rewarding and profitable education for our musicians. careers. A high proportion even of the most talented musicians fail to convert their great talent and extensive training into a career in music. We believe that by investing in these talented musicians early in their professional careers we can not only secure their employment, but help to ensure the future of quality music in the UK and beyond.
St Valentine’s Day 2018
17 City Music Foundation are especially grateful to Hugh Laurie, Iain Burnside and Giorgia Parodi Brown from Sotheby’s for their very generous support of this event.
And thank you to all those who have made donations for the auction:
Norman Ackroyd Benjamin Ealovega Christ Church College Oxford and Frederick Waxman English National Opera Charles Fairweather Foyle- Štšura Duo King’s College Cambridge and Philip Barrett Roger Giff ord Gildas Quartet Grant MacDonald Misha Mullov-Abbado
We would also like to thank members of the Brodsky Quartet, Michael Foyle, the Gildas Quartet, and the Kansas Smitty’s House Band for their wonderful music this evening.
And fi nally we are most grateful to The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor, Alderman Charles Bowman for allowing us to use Mansion House, and to Kings Place for the loan of the cello risers.
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18
www.citymusicfoundation.org [email protected] @CityMusicF
Registered charity number: 1148641