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Preaching to the converted?

This time last week I wasn’t sleeping much and in a cold sweat. But now, things feel very different. Agnes of God has started and the audiences are loving it. We’ve had lots of ‘”marvellous”, coupled with some “wows” and “wonderfuls” too, and a showering of critics stars, so the whole team is on a fantastic high! My relief is huge, but the challenge now is to keep the actors energy and concentration up and the freshness of the piece alive. Agnes of God is, as one audience member put it last night, an “interesting choice for the fringe festival”. When I read it about two years ago I was captivated by it. It’s based on a true story, of a young nun who is accused of murdering her own child. In the play, a court appointed psychiatrist is sent to assess her sanity however her investigation is complicated by the interference of the Mother Superior. The interrogations that follow force all involved to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love. This is not for anyone looking for some light entertainment. It’s challenging subject matter, few punches are pulled, and it makes for rich and serious theatre….

March 3, 2013
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CD and Other Review

Review: Alison Balsom: Sound the Trumpet

When any classical musician wears milliondollar jewels and designer micro-dresses to industry events, is dubbed by Fleet Street as the “Trumpet Crumpet”, and sends the tabloids into a frenzy when she breaks up with her boyfriend, you could be forgiven for assuming that she’s just a rubbish player trading on her good looks. But from the moment Alison Balsom enters on Sound the Trumpet, her fifth album since the career-defining Caprice of 2006, all cynicism and doubts are cast aside. Playing natural (valveless) trumpets, the 34-year-old multi- Classical Brit award-winner is in rare form and this follow-up to last year’s Seraph, which featured scary contemporary concerto repertoire, contains ceremonial music by Britain’s two greatest early masters in the form. With an inspired English Concert, reunited on disc with their founder Trevor Pinnock for the first time since 2002 and captured vibrantly within the album’s rich sound palette, Balsom’s trumpet at first seems strangely subdued by comparison. But it soon becomes clear that it’s the less flashy tone of the period-instrument itself – blending rather than dominating like its modern successor would – and also part of an overall strategy to keep the trumpetweaving in and out of the album fabric……

February 28, 2013