Introduction
# 087: Colin Currie Group, Steve Reich
# 055: Marc Andre Hamelin, Morton Feldman
# 021: Francoise-Green Duo, György Kurtág, J.S. Bach
# 007: Cedric Tiberghien, Béla Bartók
# 001: Stewart French, Steve Gibson, Tarik O'Regan
# 014: Steven Isserlis, Imogen Holst
# 034: Rosey Chan
Credits
Between 2015 and 2018 we filmed a community of producers, engineers, artists and labels dedicated to producing records. Based in and around South-East London, they worked in a network of recording locations developed and refined there during the 'golden age' of recording.
This third collection is a subset of these films, examining the landscape of classical music in the UK through new and contemporary music projects. From the historic venues of Henry Wood Hall, the Warehouse Studios, St. John's Smith Square and the Peckham Asylum, it is a curated journey of music by Steve Reich, Bela Bartok, Imogen Holst, Tarik O'Regan, György Kurtág, and Morton Feldman. The performers are The Colin Currie Group, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Cedric Tiberghien, Steven Isserlis, Stewart French, Steve Gibson, Antoine-Francoise, Robin Green and Rosey Chan.
On 25th April 2017, we wrote to one of our contacts at Intermusica Artists to ask about their artists' coming projects. With the Fly On The Wall series now being shared on Classic FM, we wanted to dig deeper into the London recording scene. She told us about Colin Currie's coming recording of Steve Reich's Drumming and asked if we'd like to film the group in pre-recording rehearsals.
The sessions were held at the Warehouse Studios, in Waterloo on May 8th 2017. Colin is an extraordinary percussionist, with an equally extraordinary entrepreneurial streak. We had met and filmed him in duo the year before at London's Southbank Center to film composer Steve Reich's Clapping Music for our series. This time, the project was far bigger. The recording was of Reich's seminal work Clapping Music. It would soon be described by the composer as "the best recording of Drumming ever made".
The Warehouse Studios had been selected as a ideal recording space for the group of 18 musicians. Previously a factory for toy planes, the studio had become one of the key recording venues in and around South East London. The studio had been converted from a group of derelict warehouses by Ross Pople, conductor of the Royal Festival Orchestra in the 1990s. Originally built in the Lambeth marshes in the 19th century, he repurposed the buildings to provide a dedicated rehearsal space and recording location during the booming orchestral recording activity of the period.
The film presented here is the very first performance that day, as shared on YouTube and ClassicFM to promote the album. The work begins with four percussionists, who had arrived early at 9am for a final run through before the red recording light went on. We put up a couple of spotlights, and set the tape rolling. Colin told us they would run the piece through just once that day. This clip is that single complete take, raw and uncut.
On June 6th, 2016, we were invited to film Marc Andre Hamelin during his sessions with Hyperion. The repertoire, we were told, was a passion-project for the 11-time Grammy-nominated pianist; Morton Feldman's For Bunita Marcus.
Since the beginning of the Fly On The Wall project, we had built strong ties with Hyperion and its owner Simon Perry. Based in South London, the label had been founded by his father Ted in London in the 1980s, with Marc Andre joining the label at 32 years old in 1993. Now at 55, this was also to be the pianist's 55th album with the label.
The selected work holds an iconic place in musical history. Characterised by fragility, space and silence, Feldman's piece is an epic 75-minute long reflection in time and space.
We captured the pianist here during the opening sessions of the three day recording in this single 10 minute take.
On August 18th 2015 we received an email from pianist Robin Green, who had seen our Fly On The Wall series - launched a few months before. He told us about his duo's coming recording project Games, Chorales & Fantasy featuring a selection of György Kurtág’s piano duets alongside transcriptions of Bach chorales and Schubert’s Fantasie in F minor, D.940.
The film here is a moment from those sessions in the afternoon of September 2nd 2015. The setting, St. John's Smith Square, is amongst the most important concert venues in the UK. Originally a parish church, the building was severely damaged during the London Blitz of WWII and was subsequently decommissioned. However, in the 1960s a significant and high-profile campaign was founded to restore and convert the building into a leading concert and recording venue. The resultant superb acoustics led to many important recordings of the late 20th Century being made there.
The music in this clip begins with Hommage à Soproni from György Kurtág's Játékok (Hungarian for "Games"). The piece aims to capture the spontaneity and exploration reminiscent of a child's play. This miniature, seemingly improvisatory in nature, is set immediately next to the formal structural perfection of a short Bach choral.
On March 18th 2015, we travelled to South London for the first in a series of films at Henry Wood Hall in Trinity Square. We had been invited by one of Hyperion's star production duos - Simon Eadon and Andrew Keener - having reached out to them about the Fly On The Wall concept. They told us about their premium recording venue, Henry Wood Hall, a private rehearsal space a stone's throw from Borough Market. And that they, the venue and the pianist for their next session, Cedric Tiberghien, were all happy to stay for a film session once the label's recording day was over.
As we arrived we were presented with an unexpected scene. A single Steinway grand piano stood alone in a vast rehearsal space. A floor below, a deserted canteen stretched the same distance beneath the hall. Simon - a legendary ex-Decca sound engineer - told us about the history of the great hall. Its origins as a disused church, and conversion for the London Philharmonic Orchestra as a rehearsal and recording space. Its use by most of the most prominent artists of the 20th century. And its history as the location for some of the finest solo piano recordings ever made.
Once the recording day had come to and end we quickly set up our scene. Two spotlights. Two microphones. And we watched as the pianist - engulfed by the shadows - gave his one final performance of the day.
In 2015 we launched Fly On The Wall. However, the idea was two years in the making. On March 6th, 2013 we shot what would become the very first Fly On The Wall video, an improvised arrangement for guitar and cajon of a new solo guitar work by Tarik O'Regan. The music had been composed by O'Regan as part of Accallam na Senorach, which I performed on guitar with the National Chamber Choir of Ireland in 2010 for a recording with the Harmonia Mundi USA label.
The film took place at the Peckham Asylum. The building was originally a church at the centre of a community of alms-houses, a charitable organisation to support retired pub landlords. However, with the relocation of the charity outside London the church would fall into disrepair in the mid-twentieth century before being revitalised by two new custodians in the 21st. Two artists who would repurpose the location for artistic and musical events, in particular as a location for films.
The scene filmed here is of myself, Stewart French, on guitar with percussionist Steve Gibson. The recording was released in 2014, reaching no. 7 in the iTunes music charts.
The second film in our series shot at Henry Wood Hall, this session took place on 10th April, 2015. The cellist was Steven Isserlis, one of the greatest cellists of our time. This was the occasion of his recording of the Walton Cello concerto, a major undertaking for any cellist. After the success of the first film in the venue with Cedric, we had arranged to film some footage of Steven recording the challenging solo cadenza.
When we arrived, however, it was clear that the clock was ticking. Session time was at a premium, as the orchestra - highly unionised - would need to finish at 5pm on the dot. Worse still, the cadenza had already been recorded earlier in the day.
So we waited behind the scenes. Once the recording day was over Steven was clearly exhausted. But true to his word, with the orchestra now gone, he stepped back into the empty hall lit with just our two solitary spotlights. Pausing for thought, he seemed to change his mind. "The Fall of the Leaf..." he whispers. The cadenza now a distant memory, this film is a document of those few magical minutes.
The final film in the collection was filmed the following year on March 16th, 2016 at Henry Wood Hall. The artist is Rosey Chan, who - during a lunchtime break in recording sessions with the English Chamber Orchestra - took a brief moment to share an improvisation with us.
The film, entitled Blues for Ravel was released on our Classical FM series.