Exhibition 8: Behind Closed Doors

From 2015-2023, we filmed over 300 musicians, behind closed doors. We wanted to document the reality of classical music-making in the 21st century. Uncut. Unadulterated. Real.

This final collection brings together some of the more private musical settings. Daniel Bovey and Julian Vickers run through a guitar duo at Filtzgrovia Chapel. The Mela Guitar Quartet in a private flat overlooking the Thames. Angela Theis and Ivan Moschchuck during 'secret sessions' in a decrepit Detroit film studio. Julian Metzger & Marco Fatichenti in a school hall in-between teaching. The Navarra Quartet in rehearsal. Ben Tarleton & Robin Green in the St. Pancras Clock Tower. And Sofia Fomina during a coaching session at the Royal Opera House.

On July 17th, 2017, we went to a small chapel - just meters away from London's Oxford Street - to film guitarists Daniel Bovey and Julian Vickers. The young duo reached out to us following a film with Daniel's quartet some months before. They had recently graduated from London's Royal Academy of Music and had asked the local chapel if they could rehearse and film there.

The piece performed is Les Guitares bein temperees, Op. 199, No. 18 by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

The second film in this collection was filmed in a small penthouse flat along the Thames in London on September 16th, 2016. The group was the Mela Guitar Quartet, a young ambitious group of recent graduates who would go on to win the Guitar Foundation of America seven years later. They told us how they were preparing a new programme and were using an uncle's apartment as a convenient meeting point; and wondered if we might like to document the moment for our series.

The piece in the film is J.S. Bach's Fugue in G minor, BWV 578.

In March 2018 we met with a young pianist and festival director Ivan Moshchuk in a pub in Battersea, London. He told us about his community in Detroit USA and his ambitious project to rejuvenate the struggling city's classical musical scene. So he had organised to host a set of secret sessions held in a disused film studio. Would we like to come and document the project?

So with our single camera and a bunch of spotlights we headed to the US. The project was based around the compositions of the founder of the Detroit Opera House, David DiChiera, an entrepreneurial tour de force who had contributed immensely to the artistic fabric of the city. The composer and musicologist had been responsible for generations of professional music-making. And had cultivated the love and loyalty of a community of passionate friends, colleagues and students.

The scene filmed here is a performance of one of his previously unrecorded songs, by soprano Angela Theis and pianist Ivan Moshchuk.

The fourth film in the collection is a portrait of pianist Marco Fatichenti and cellist Julian Metzger playing Manuel de Falla's Nana.

From 2014-2019 we regularly visited Marco at his 'second home', a private school in the Berkshire countryside. The pianist and teacher was just beginning a PhD into the performance practice of Enrique Granados, and would spend many hours at the beaten-up Steinway in the school's old hall. Sometimes he would be joined by his colleague and friend Julian to play through duo works. With our having produced an audio album for him there in 2014, Marco was to become the first artist in the Fly On The Wall project. And over five years we would follow his private journey as teacher, academic and performer.

This film was shot on February 11th, 2018.

When we started Fly On The Wall, the idea was to document the real experiences of musicians. Having been living and working as a classical guitarist since 2008, one of the first things I did was to write to friends and colleagues from music college and ask if they would be willing to be involved with the project. One such colleague was Brian O'Kane, a talented cellist I had known while studying a the Royal Academy of Music. We had a coffee and a chat. And the idea faded away.

Four years later Brian got back in touch. His quartet had been going from strength to strength, and he wondered if I might document a moment with them. The group were to be recording a new CD at Potton Hall. He asked if I might be free to film them during a closed rehearsal there.

This film is a document of that moment. The music performed is the third movement from Ravel's String Quartet in F Major.

On April 5th 2024, we received an email from pianist Robin Green. Robin had been an early contributor to the series back in 2015, when we had documented his Viennese Salon project at St. John's Smith Square. Nine years later, we were discussing its inclusion in the final collection. He mentioned he would soon be in London, rehearsing with cellist Ben Tarlton in a private flat in Kings Cross built into the clock tower of St. Pancras station.

The flat was a fascinating place. Owned by an actuary with a passion for the arts, the living room area sat beneath the vast St Pancras tower above - a landmark that I had experienced from the exterior throughout my entire life. With a permanently installed grand piano it was used regularly by young classical musicians who needed space to work. So on May 21st, we headed there to film Ben and Robin.

This is the first of two clips we filmed that day: Elegie Op. 3 No. 1 by Sergei Rachmaninov, arranged by A Vlasov.

The sixth film in the collection is a solo performance by pianist Marco Fatichenti from the same visit to Wellington College on February 11th 2018. As the Sunday session with Julian drew to a close, and the piano began to fall out of tune, Marco took a moment to play one last piece of Debussy for us. The magical performance is of Debussy's Danseuses de Delphes from his first book of Preludes.

In this final film of the 'Behind Closed Doors' collection we visit soprano Sofia Fomina and conductor backstage at London's Royal Opera House. The pair were due to feature in the iconic opera venue's production of Verdi's Rigoletto and were in the intensive preparations for the opening night on December 14th 2017.

The film captures the final moments of a coaching session backstage on Friday December 10th.