I was rather taken aback when I read the title in our brochure describing our concert of Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion: “Truly, this was the Son of God”. The reference to Matthew 15:39 stuck in my mind as I stood in front of the Oxford Philomusica and Oxford Bach Choir to conduct, for the first time in my life, Bach’s masterpiece. Whenever I hear divine music it is as if I hear the voice of God. On this occasion the allusion to the Son of God seemed to me to refer not only to Jesus Christ, but also to Bach himself. For are we not all children of God and doesn’t He speak through us and those whose earthly creations touch our hearts and souls and are often described as divine and miraculous?
Marios Papadopoulos
Archive for the ‘Direct from the Maestro’ Category
“Truly, this was the Son of God”
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Young Artists Platform: 28 November, 6.30pm
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
There is a Young Artists Platform before Classical Romanticism on Sunday 28 November 2010. Marios Papadopoulos will give a ’Directing from the Keyboard’ masterclass from 6.30-7.30pm.
It is unusual that a student (albeit with one foot already on the international performing stage) plays with and conducts a professional orchestra. As part of our Young Artists’ Platform, Alissa Firsova – you may have encountered her as a composer whose work was recently premiered at the Proms – will work with Marios Papadopoulos and Oxford Philomusica on Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A, K. 488 in a public ‘Directing from the Keyboard’ masterclass. It should be a fascinating insight on how professional musicians interact and respond to leadership and what tools a leader needs to have and use to coax the best out of the orchestra.
The class begins at 6.30pm in the Sheldonian Theatre and admission is free.
Motion in Music
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
In my previous Blog, I touched on the subject of tempi and the importance of sustaining a musical line. For me, all music is movement: I see patterns when I play, when I conduct. Indeed, the latter discipline allows me to carve shapes and figures in the air of how I see the musical line move while I communicate with members of the orchestra.
Like everything else in motion, the musical line has weight, speed and direction. On one hand it is a perceived motion while on the other it is a real one, emanating from the movements the body makes in producing a sound when playing an instrument. Together they form the basis for a wonderful synaesthetic musical encounter which transforms music-making to an auditory, visual and tactile experience.
I have written and lectured extensively on this subject; I have presented the paper at a number of colloquia, which you can read HERE. I hope readers find it interesting.
Looking for a real legato
Monday, September 6th, 2010
It was a fantastic week at this year’s Philomusica Piano Festival. A week that I particularly look forward to every year, as it gives me the chance to acquaint myself with the young talent emerging from our conservatoires and from amongst the most gifted around the world. There were certainly no let downs: the standard of participating students was extremely high.
Despite the flair and innate musicality shown by all of them, there is one aspect of music-making that often disappoints me and one that our conservatoires need to address urgently; that is the inability of pianists, or other instrumentalists for that matter, to play a real legato and to sustain. I often hear teachers or conductors demand, sometimes obsessively, that the music flows. Slow tempi are often regarded as preventing the flow of the music. How wrong! Instead of encouraging our musicians to “move along”, we should be encouraging them to learn to sustain and maintain the flow of the musical line by truly connecting one note to the other.
Young Artists Platform: 17 June
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
I would like to inform you that this year’s Music Director’s Award, an extension of our Young Artist’s Platform, is taking place at the Sheldonian Theatre on 17 June, 7pm, and is free to all ticket holders attending the evening concert of Verdi’s Requiem.
Next Season: Treats in Store
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
At this time of the year, we are also busy in planning the season ahead. I am delighted that we will be welcoming a number of celebrities to appear with us over the next two years: our Patron Vladimir Ashkenazy has accepted our invitation to come to Oxford again and so has Andras Schiff, who will be presenting Haydn Masses in December 2011.
Next season I intend to extend the YAP scheme to also present a series of masterclasses, particular one or two on Directing from the Keyboard: a young student will play and conduct the OP in a Mozart Piano Concerto.
A Recapitulation of the Concert Season: Spring 2010
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010The focus of our 2010 season is on individual players from the Orchestra.
We began the new year with a traditional Viennese-style concert in the Town Hall featuring works by the Strauss family. This was the first time OP put on a concert reminiscent of those we all enjoy around this time of the year at Vienna’s Musikverein.
Raymond Blanc & Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons Reaching out to local & national charities
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Raymond Blanc OBE and Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons have donated £10,000 to the Orchestra, as part of the Manoir’s programme of supporting local and national charities.
Board Update: Robert Jackson
Thursday, March 18th, 2010We are delighted to welcome Robert Jackson as a new member of the Advisory Council. Robert is a quondam fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a past President of the Oxford Union. After serving as an MEP (1979-84), he entered the Commons in 1984 as MP for Wantage, standing down in 2005. He served as a minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, with responsibilities for higher education and for science policy. His interests include reading, music, and walking.
On conducting Mahler’s 1st Symphony
Monday, March 15th, 2010Conducting a massive work such as Mahler’s 1st Symphony is always a daunting task.
It is not an easy work to bring off: the first movement can be elusive, requiring translucent textures from the orchestra and a tempo that allows the many florid passages to remain melodious. The numerous accelerations that the composer demands, need to be made ‘imperceptible’, as the score indicates, and that is another challenge that faces the conductor when asking the musicians to speed up.
Mahler 1 (2nd mov) Mahler 1 (3rd Mov)
The rustic flavour of the 2nd and 3rd movements, in true Klezmer style, demands excess and my request to the Orchestra in the rehearsal that they should “leave their good manners at home” paid off! The lyrical Straussian sonorities of the last movement, in contrast with the bombastic outcries, are a dream for any conductor, particularly as played by the wonderful Philomusica players with sensitivity and full blooded passion.
This concert proved once again that the Sheldonian musical experience, by which the audience is enveloped by the wonderful sound the orchestra makes, is unique, and an asset we should be grateful for.
If you attended this concert, I’d love to hear from you.
Marios Papadopoulos
