Here are some of the projects that we currently have in development:
Classical Opera Our relationship with the incredible Classical Opera continues. Work is underway on footage from the recording sessions of Mozart’s early sacred singspiel Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots and we are preparing to go back to the studio this summer, this time with Mitridate, re di Ponto and an all-star cast including Miah Persson, Andrew Kennedy, Sophie Bevan and Lawrence Zazzo.
Royal College of Music A major new project is about to get underway with the Royal College of Music to craft a series of films aimed at prospective students. Captured across multiple events and putting personal stories at the fore, we will communicate the breadth and quality of opportunities available to those considering studying at one of the world’s finest musical institutions.
Oxford Philomusica We are excited to be working with Oxford Philomusica during their stellar 2012/13 season creating films around two high profile guest appearances in April 2013. The first brought Valery Gergiev to Oxford to conduct for the first time. A thrilling concert of Strauss and Mendelssohn followed a insightful masterclass with young conductors who had a rare chance to learn from the master. Just a week later Maxim Vengerov arrived to play an all-concerto concert of Britten and Dvorak. Founder and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos and his remarkable orchestra provided wonderful support to the astonishing musicianship of Vengerov. He too followed his sell-out concert with a masterclass for local students. Check back on the site for a set of films that go behind the scenes at rehearsals and take a front-row seat for each performance.
Trio Owon This summer, TallWall Media will hit the road with Trio Owon as part of their festivals tour around France. Visiting some stunning locations, the film will chart life on tour with Sung-Won Yang, Emmanuel Strosser and Olivier Charlier ahead of their recording sessions for their new Beethoven disc out in September 2013. Click here to watch extracts of the trio in performance at their own Festival Owon.
La Nuovo Musica We had the pleasure of working with La Nuovo Musica and their Founder/Director David Bates. Joining rehearsals and concert for their return appearance at the London Handel Festival, we will be creating a film that charts the rise of an ensemble that brings new energy to a broad repertoire from the baroque onwards.
London Handel Festival TallWall Media is thrilled to be working with the 2013 London Handel Festival, creating a suite of films to showcase (arguably) London’s most famous composer and the development of this important festival in the annual music calendar. Alongside performances and interviews with Laurence Cummings and other key contributors, we will bring a special focus to the Handel Singing Competition which has launched the careers of many notable young artists over the years.
Joseph Swensen Filmed across two performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet Paris and St John’s, Smith Square London, we feel privileged to be collaborating with conductor and violinist Joseph Swensen in creating a set of films that showcase his unique musicianship, whether on the podium or as a sensational violin soloist/director. Check back on the site to watch a performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, an engaging interview with Joseph and one of the most extraordinary violin encores you’ll likely see..
Gabrieli Consort & Players 2013 kicked off in the studio with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players recording Britten’s monumental War Requiem. With massed choirs and top soloists in Susan Gritton, John Mark Ainsley and Christopher Maltman, the sound in the hall was incredible.
Charlotte Bray, composer Last year we met young British composer Charlotte Bray. Intrigued by her background and path to becoming a composer, we were inspired to produce a profile film on her and her work. Over several months we have followed Charlotte with a camera capturing footage at the Oxford Lieder Festival (where she was composer-in-residence), at concerts in London and most recently at Schott Music’s offices in an interview with Mark-Anthony Turnage, her teacher at the RCM.
The following is an extract taken from that interview:
Charlotte Bray: “I remember my first lesson with Mark really clearly actually, we had a consultation lesson before I’d started [at the RCM], and I was pretty nervous before the lesson, but I guess it is quite a big deal showing your music to someone for the first time, especially someone that you really admire and want to study with.”
Mark-Anthony Turnage: “What I did find really remarkable is that I noticed from the first lesson that you’d take lots of notes, it was amazing! It was great because some students just look blankly. I’d only been teaching two years when Charlotte studied with me and what I realised is that some students just want to be praised, some want to be ripped apart in a constructive way… what I noticed about Charlotte was that she took everything in.. she was writing things down and I thought this is great – it reminded me of when I studied with Olly Knussen because it was really a joy to teach her, because it wasn’t difficult!”
CB: “I guess there is that curiousness as well when you start composing later that you’re already aware of wanting to learn so much and wanting to absorb everything around you and wanting to just try everything out…”
MAT: “Yeah, but the remarkable thing about you Charlotte is that you developed really quickly. I see potential in quite a few students, but some just stop and you just really took off…”
CB: ”I’m inspired by so many different things, I think that’s why it’s so hard to answer what inspires you because, one piece has so many different elements coming into it. There might be musical things that have struck you about another piece that you want to try out… I think you can’t help but be influenced by where you are in your life and what is happening around you or where you’re living.”
MAT: ”I’ve changed actually… I would say that early on I had to have extra musical things to hook pieces on, for instance a painting, or poem or even a novel, there had to be something that would spark me off… But as I’ve got older, the music I write is more abstract, more probably about other music… At certain points over the last three or four years I’ve got very influenced by going back to Bach and Beethoven and people that I admired when I was younger… and the pieces are much more abstract – I even wrote a cello concerto which I’ve just called cello concerto, which I never thought I’d do.
With world premieres planned for the Verbier Festival and the BBC Proms this summer, Charlotte’s star is on the ascendance and we look forward to helping bring her story to more people soon.
Gregynog Festival 2012 In June we travelled to Gregynog in Powys, Mid Wales for the opening two days of the Gregynog Festival, Wales’s oldest music festival. This year the theme is “Venezia” and headline artists include the likes of Jordi Savall, Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang, Ottavio Dantone and pianist Alesandro Taverna. We captured footage of the opening concert with violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk and The Avison Ensemble who gave fiery performances of Vivaldi, Locatelli, Scarlatti and Albinoni. The following day we were introduced to Spanish mezzo-soprano and lute duo, Marta Rodrigo and Andreas Martin and an opportunity to hear rarely-heard music from 17th-Century Venice. On the second day we recorded the inaugural Gregynog Festival master-class in authentic performance, in which four students from the Royal Welsh College of Music were tutored by Pavlo Beznosiuk and harpsichordist Roger Hamilton. Check back on the site to experience a taste of what, for the moment at least, is one of Wales’s best kept festival secrets.
