Blog Post

Madeleine wins RPS Enterprise Award for Film: Music & Art - V&A Fabergé & Anglo-Russian Music - click to see video

  • By Manager
  • 06 Oct, 2022

London Chamber Ensemble concert with Wartski Fabergé slides + fascinating RCM archive material

I was thrilled to win a Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Award and very grateful to Harriet’s Trust for making possible my creative idea linking art and music in film. I’ve learnt a great deal in the process.

The initial idea stemmed from a meeting I had at the V&A before the pandemic to do some concerts with my London Chamber Ensemble combined with exhibitions and the Fabergé: Romance to Revolution sparked my imagination the most. During the lockdowns I did some live streamed concerts and thought how interesting it would be to combine my longstanding passion for art with music on film. After months of research and negotiations with the V&A, where there were staff changes, we were invited to give a concert for the Membership on a cold day in January - 21.1.22 during the exhibition and were able to film the event. Whilst it was not possible to perform or film in the exhibition itself I was able to project slides of Fabergé objets d’art kindly provided by Wartski, who were closely involved in the exhibition. The string quartet concert which I introduced, was sold out within 2 days. Only being able to have use of the V&A auditorium to film, I had the idea of using 2 other locations close by, on the same day as the concert - doing pieces to camera at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral - linking the fellow Huguenot architect Lewis Vulliamy with Fabergé) and the Royal College of Music, where I’ve been a professor for many years. A conversation with the Chief Librarian about my project produced fascinating archive material, in the treasured Visitors’ Book is the signature of Tchaikovsky in 1893, adjacent to the page witnessing the official opening of the College by Edward, Prince of Wales, closely connected with Fabergé, and also letters to Stanford, all of which I didn't know about previously.

In my research for the music to go with the exhibition, which spanned from St Petersburg in the 1880s and setting up a Fabergé shop in London in 1903, to the Revolution of 1917, I discovered Les Vendredis, the salon featuring and publishing the latest musical works for quartet. I also knew the Russian Lament, Luchinushka by Herbert Howells of 1917, originally for violin and piano which I’d played many times, both for BBC Radio 3 and in the USA and Russia where I'd presented works by several RCM composers. I got permission to arrange this for string quartet.

I enjoy introducing concerts and was very pleased to do the commentary for the film, all of which we somehow did in one take on the day. Simon Wall of TallWallMedia made the film, there were many delays in editing it and I had to get some help doing the final editing. I think it's important in future to have a clear contract with a finish date and funding permitting, not to have to do everything on the day of a concert so one can concentrate on the performance! The filmed concert took place before the invasion of Ukraine and we hope people will appreciate that the wonderful music and art therein should not be associated with the current regime in Russia. We added #StandwithUkraine at the end of the film.
 
I very much want to do more of this sort of thing, presenting concerts with music which relates to art and giving the context.



By London Manager 23 Aug, 2023
Many classical musicians are content to spend their careers in the snug embrace of the great or not-so-great works of the past. There’s no shame in that. Bringing those dots on the page to life needs not just the mastery of an instrument but deep cultural and historical imagination, as well as a capacious emotional responsiveness.
By London Manager 18 Aug, 2023
Madeleine Mitchell's new album Violin Conversations has received glowing reviews by respected critics Ivan Hewett in The Telegraph and Fiona Maddocks in The Observer
By Manager 10 Jun, 2023
Following Madeleine Mitchell's outstandingly successful last Naxos album, no.2 in the Classical Charts, this personal collection includes 8 world premiere recordings in an appealing range of styles. Violinist Madeleine Mitchell has inspired new works from a variety of composers, four of whom* join Mitchell to perform their works. The music encompasses Alan Rawsthorne’s quicksilver 1958 Violin Sonata, in a BBC broadcast to honour Mitchell’s two-decade partnership with the late Andrew Ball to Thea Musgrave’s vivid Colloquy. The sequence of atmospheric, communicative pieces explores natural phenomena, songs of freedom, telephonic frustration and a pas de deux love duet. Music by Richard Blackford,*Howard Blake,*Martin Butler,*Wendy Hiscocks, Joseph Horovitz, Douglas Knehans, Kevin Malone, Thea Musgrave, Alan Rawsthorne,*Errollyn Wallen+. With pianists Andrew Ball, Nigel Clayton and Ian Pace. Pre-order link: https://naxosdirect.co.uk/items/violin-conversations-604482 Free postage UK + https://youtu.be/0psZ1NtT97g
By Manager 23 Mar, 2023
Madeleine Mitchell gives the premiere of the new solo violin piece written specially for her by Michael Berkeley on Radio 3 In Tune 31.3 6pm and at St John's Smith Square 2.4 noon in her recital
By Manager 19 May, 2022
Grace Williams Violin Concerto live BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Radio 3 broadcast plus interval talk including Madeleine Mitchell's Naxos recording of Grace Williams Violin Sonata. The Grace Williams concerto recording will be issued on CD by Nimbus. Review here: https://seenandheard-international.com/2021/11/bbc-now-play-grace-williams-and-ralph-vaughan-williams/
By Manager 12 Jul, 2021
Hear a movement of Schubert and Debussy quartets live here from the sold out concert: https://salonmusic.co.uk/highgate-festival-music-ends-with-a-flourish-of-debussy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=highgate-festival-music-ends-with-a-flourish-of-debussy Madeleine Mitchell and Gordon MacKay - violins, Bridget Carey - viola, Joseph Spooner - cello
By Manager 12 Mar, 2021
Madeleine Mitchell's International Women's Day concert programme 'A Century of Music by British Women' (1921-2021) with her London Chamber Ensemble at St John's Smith Square, received wide coverage and enthusiastic reviews. Madeleine was featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour weekend highlights, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, Scala Radio and Classic FM. The new piece which Mitchell commissioned from Errollyn Wallen was selected by The Strad magazine as their Premiere of the Month. The concert was reviewed by the Guardian and Arcana.fm https://www.sjss.org.uk/century-music-british-women-1921-2021-international-womens-day-directed-madeleine-mitchell Available till 8th April. Please support the artists and the venue by making a donation if you can.
By Manager 13 Nov, 2020
Hear Madeleine Mitchell's latest live-streamed concert 09/11/2020 of Elgar, Ravel, Strauss Violin Sonatas and Massenet Meditation here:
By Manager 25 Aug, 2020
Madeleine recorded a new piece for solo violin specially written for her by Richard Blackford during lockdown 2020 called Worlds Apart for the Musicians for Musicians eclectic album Many Voices on Themes of Isolation  - available here: https://musiciansformusicians.bandcamp.com/releases   She gave the private premiere of the work on 12th August in a new solo violin programme of music spanning 300 years - from Bach's great Chaconne of 1720 to 2020, also including Caprices by Wendy Hiscocks and Grazyna Bacewicz, Elliott Carter Riconoscenza per Goffredo Petrassi,  Stuart Jones Kothektche  (Turkish Gypsy Dance https://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/sunlight-pieces-madeleine-mitchell   ) and Joseph Horovitz Dybbuk Melody . The concert had a unique platform of scaffold boards against the wall of a Victorian House in Highgate, hosted by the widow of well known recording producer James Mallinson, for whom Madeleine made her very first album - Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time with Joanna MacGregor, in 1994. The select group of guests listened to the programme, spread out in the garden.
By Manager 21 May, 2020
Sad to hear of the death of Michael Tumelty 19.5.20. very grateful for this review in The Herald and others of The Fires of London etc
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