The Best Classical Music at Christmas

By Chris Billingham 

Christmas is a time that most of us connect to music in some way, whether it’s standing outside supermarkets singing carols, singing along to previous Christmas number ones or putting on that Michael Buble Christmas CD that is seemingly reissued every year. Just to be clear that isn’t a complaint! His version of Silent Night is beautiful. On Tuesday The Telegraph selected its Top Ten best pieces of Christmas classical music, a lovely read that you can find here. As regular readers will know, the Southern Sinfonia team selected its favourite pieces of Christmas music last year and I’m pleased to say that some of our choices and the Telegraph’s choices matched! It turns out great minds do think alike.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio appears in both lists, which is hardly surprising given how popular the piece is this time of year. The six-part piece was written to be performed in church over the Christmas season of 1734, a date confirmed in Bach’s autographed manuscript. It is widely believed that the piece was not performed again until Christmas 1857 when it was played by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under Eduard Grell. Each of the six parts was originally intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. However in modern times the piece is commonly performed as one with a running time of nearly three hours. Southern Sinfonia performed the full piece twice last year, once with Windsor and Eton Choral Society and once with Bath Minerva Choir. Both performances were rapturously received and as an audience member for the performance with Windsor and Eton Choral Society I have to say that when watching it, it doesn’t feel like 3 hours. The movements are captivating and the time goes by in an instant.

A piece we have played a number of times this Christmas that is unfortunately missing from The Telegraph’s list is Handel’s Messiah, which we performed with The Old Royal Naval College Chapel Choir. This isn’t that surprising given the fact that this piece isn’t solely a Christmas piece, despite the fact that it is performed most at this time of year. The piece is also performed at Easter because it deals with Christ’s death and resurrection. However as Richard Whittall said in a recent blog for The Guardian, the fact the piece is so popular at Christmas gives it a special place in everyone’s heart:

“Since it has become an annual Christmas tradition, most choristers have sung it in every venue, in every iteration, with every instrumentation and in every tempo, no matter how deranged or pseudo-experimental. And in that time they have come to know the strange miracle of Messiah: after years of the good and the bad and the ugly, there is always something new, something breathtaking, to be rediscovered in Handel’s writing and Charles Jennens’s libretto.”

A choice, exclusive to The Telegraph list is Tchaikovsky’s ‘Waltz of the Flowers’. As Ivan Hewett states in the article “What could be more appropriate for a child’s Christmas than a magic kingdom of sweets and presents? That’s the scene for Act 2 of Tchaikovsky’s last ballet The Nutcracker.” The connection between childhood and Christmas is perhaps the reason this time of year is so special, Christmas music and all the other elements of the season people love (the food! We can’t forget the food!) will no doubt take them back to childhoods filled with Santa’s and presents. Memories that are evoked by this exuberant and youthful waltz.

What are your favourite Christmas pieces? Let us know on our Facebook and Twitter pages what you will be listening to over the next few weeks! Southern Sinfonia has had a fantastic year and behalf off the whole team I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has attended a performance, played with us, sang with us and interacted with us online. We have a lot of surprises and treats coming up next year and can’t wait to share these with you. Keep an eye on our website for more. 

We hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

“Come back when you're older”

© facebook.com/chungkyungwha

By Richard Brewer 

From my previous blog posts, you have probably ascertained that I feel rather strongly about audiences in the concert hall, in particular young children. In writing about this once again, I am running the risk of repeating myself and sounding like a broken record. However, I'm afraid I just couldn't resist writing about this particular topic this week...



Reverberating through the classical music world this week was a concert at the Royal Festival Hall. The concert, dubbed 'The Legend Returns', was performed by violin legend Kyung Wha Chung. As the rather self-assured title suggests, this was her big comeback concert after 12 years away from the performing stage. Reviews were very positive about her performance, stating that she “gave a recital in which every note was brim-full of her impetuous, intense personality”. 



The focus point of all articles about the concert, however, was not so positive. Kyung had just finished one movement of a sonata and, as with every classical concert that has ever happened, and ever will happen, a cacophony of coughs began to ring around the hall. This then led to cause amusement amongst some of the audience, who had a light chuckle. Unfortunately one young girl had a prolonged tickle in her throat. We've all had this feeling, where you just can't stop yourself from coughing, it's not a nice feeling. The remedy is simple; cough more. 



Now, Kyung took particular offence to this innocent young girl and decided to shout something from the stage. 



“Come back when you're older”. 



I'm not quite sure where to start in response to this quote. As a professional musician, it is surely one of Kyung's responsibilities to actively ensure that all of her audience feel comfortable when at her concerts, especially young children. Also, after 12 years away, would you not just be grateful to have a full audience of 3,000 people? Whether they are young, old, animal or human, they all paid for their seat and made an effort to see her.



Kyung wrote an article on the Guardian in response to the criticism she received. Perhaps understandably, she began by commenting how classical music is still most definitely 'alive' in the 21st century. This is true, and it has been shown by the amount of national press this event has seen, despite it being negative. However, for Kyung to then go on to say how she still believed the child shouldn't have been at the concert was beyond me; as were her comments about the ways in which we should listen to classical music in the concert hall. 



Kyung believes that listening should be done in complete silence with no noise at all, as this is the only way to truly appreciate the beauty of what is being played in front of you. What she doesn't seem to understand, however, is that this is completely unnatural. Again, as I mentioned in my previous blog, I am certainly not suggesting that we should all make noise constantly through a performance. What I do believe though, is that we should all feel comfortable. Feeling uncomfortable at a concert will not lead to a positive listening experience. Kyung suggests that we need to educate young people on “the art of true listening”, also stating that children should only attend “children's concerts”. Is this not completely alienating them from the real classical music world? In doing so are we not further enhancing the pre-conceived ideas many people have about classical music concerts? It is not healthy. 



This is actually my final blog post of the year, and it is a shame to have to finish on a negative story in the classical music world. However, it has to be said that Southern Sinfonia do not feel the same way as Kyung. We want as many young children as possible to come to our concerts; we actively encourage and strongly believe that everyone has the right to experience musical excellence. I can't wait for 2015 to start so we can show our beliefs through the many exciting projects we have got coming up. 



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

You can find out more about Southern Sinfonia by visiting our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram 

'Cultural Value and Artistic Importance' - Orchestras Potentially in Line for Tax Break

By Chris Billingham 

I’ve got to admit, I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to the Autumn Statement. I know I should, I know it’s important and I also know they even use words like ‘Beer Tax’ but the reality is it doesn’t usually grab my attention. However this week’s announcement caught my eye. I wasn’t alone either; a number of Orchestra or Classical Music related social media accounts and people I know had a lot to say about Wednesday’s speech from The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. 

The bit that caught people’s attention was: 

“The government is committed to supporting the creative industries so they continue to thrive in the UK. This government has introduced tax relief for high-end television programmes, animation, video games and theatre productions and has expanded the successful tax relief scheme for films. Building on this, the government will introduce a new tax relief for children’s television programmes from April 2015. The government will also launch a formal consultation in early 2015 about introducing a new tax relief for orchestras from April 2016, in recognition of their cultural value and artistic importance”. 

The fact that Orchestras and potential tax reliefs were specifically mentioned is a positive sign that the financial situation for Orchestras may be about to improve. When discussing this with a friend not connected in any way to the classical music world, the first question they understandably asked was “is the situation that bad for your industry?” Keith Motson, an executive at the Association of British Orchestras has helped clarify the situation by pointing out that "Orchestras earn well over 50% of their income from other sources so the chancellor’s commitment to tax relief can boost orchestras’ entrepreneurial efforts". He also explained “"British orchestras play more than 3,500 concerts a year to more than 4.5 million people. But they are facing one of the toughest periods in their history with cuts in public and, in particular, local authority funding”.

Researching into the subject, it does seem odd to me that Orchestras were not considered back in March when Osborne confirmed tax breaks of at least 20 per cent for commercial productions and regional touring companies, benefiting opera and dance organisations as well as plays, musicals and theatre groups. As previously explained my knowledge on the subject is not particularly wide but it seems unfair to differentiate between art forms and the financial advantages each one can have. Whilst it is fantastic that this consultation will take place next year, why is it that Orchestras aren’t paired with the “high-end television programmes, animation, video games and theatre productions” and “films” that already have various tax relief schemes. I suppose that is quite a naïve attitude, lines have to be drawn somewhere and the reality is if all forms of art were viewed by the government in the same way there wouldn’t be opportunities for tax breaks for anyone. However from the romantic viewpoint of someone that loves creativity it does seem a shame that imagination and art has to be judged and labelled in this way.  

 

Speaking of creativity and moving us firmly away from financing music and into the more comfortable territory of playing it, Southern Sinfonia have a number of exciting concerts on the horizon. On the 9^th December we join forces with the Windsor and Eton Choral Society for a performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt at baroque pitch on ‘period’ instruments. After this we change locations to the candle-lit Old Royal Naval College, but stay with Handel and play his Messiah with the ORNC Chapel Choir on the 17^th December. To find out more about these concerts and next years events please click here for the What’s On section of our website. 

You can also find out more about Southern Sinfonia by visiting our main website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.