Manchester Camerata, supported by the Brian Kennedy Trust, created a project for parents and early years children at Stockport Art Gallery. The sessions - involving Cellist Emma Dixon and Violinist gemma Bass - encouraged parents and small children to use music together, to help in strengthening relationships, as well as assisting in developing language, musical skills and physical co-ordination in very young children. The sessions ran for 10 weeks from February and all parents were given a booklet of lyrics from the sessions to take away at the end.

Comments from some of those who took part in the sessions: “We will miss this class terribly” – Samantha “Can’t praise the artists enough…I enjoyed every week and Harriet did too” – Adele “Such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, what will I do on Tuesday mornings now?!” – Adele “What I enjoyed most is listening to the lovely music and meeting new people” – Natasha “Would love further sessions even if we had to pay for them” - Natasha “The sessions helped me gain confidence to go away and do these songs with my children” – Dawn “Thank you, we loved every minute!” - Cara

Supported by the Brian Kennedy Trust

Manchester Camerata's Learning Projects

The children produced two pieces of new music and a photographic collage reflecting their experiences of their locality, their lives and what living in Grasmere and Ulverston means to them. The children created their own lyrics, composed their own music and took their own photographs as well as doing some research along the way, to find ‘beautiful in the ordinary’ as they reflected on their own views of where they live.

		The team from Manchester Camerata included composer Andy Smith, Visual Artist Dave Hulston, and Camerata musicians Clarinettist Hannah McCabe and Flautist Amina Hussain.  A video of the project will be available shortly. The photographic collage will stand alongside Portraits from other areas to create a large geographic photographic collage. The installation will feature as a pre-concert exhibition piece at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on the 26th May.  The project was generously supported by the Sir John Fisher Foundation, and the Freida Scott Charitable Trust.

Read more about Manchester Camerata Learning Projects

Manchester Camerata Concerts in Ulverston and the South Lakes

Portrait of an Englishman - 26 May 2012 - The Bridgewater Hall

Manchester Camerata's Portrait of Love concert will be bursting out of the concert hall in more ways than one to reach audiences across the UK and around the world. The orchestra has teamed up for the first time with BBC Music Magazine to stream the performance - starring the mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany with Manchester Camerata conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy - on the magazine's website at www.classical-music.com. And for the third time this season, the prestigious classical music broadcaster Medici.tv will be carrying the show live, and then offering the concert after the event to subscribers. In addition to all this, Camerata has been working with a consortium of top flight orchestras to bring its music to a wider audience in the North East of England.

Watch the Concert on Medici.tv

BBC Music Magazine Website

North East of England Venues

The show will also be seen in the North East of England at the Alnwick Playhouse, Northumberland, The Maltings Theatre and Cinema, Berwick- upon-Tweed and Gala Theatre, Durham.   The project to bring Manchester Camerata's music to venues in the North East is part of collaboration involving Northern Sinfonia, orchestra of The Sage Gateshead, and the London-based ensemble Aurora. It was just eight projects out fo 500 applications which successfully attracted half a million pounds worth of funding from the Digital Research and Development Fund for Arts and Culture run by the Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and NESTA.  Manchester Camerata's Head of Creative Programming, Manus Carey, says it's an exciting development. "We are committed to using digital technology both within our programming and also to bring the orchestra’s work to as broad and diverse an audience as possible through our website and live concert streaming.  We are very excited to be partnering with the Sage Gateshead and Aurora orchestra on this research project"

Gala, Durham - Live on the 28 April 2012 The Maltings, Berwick - 29 April 2012 Alnwick Playhouse, Northumberland - 28 May 2012

About Arts Council England Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts. Great art inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves, and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, we will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and a further £0.85 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.  www.artscouncil.org.uk

About AHRC The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.

About NESTA NESTA is the UK’s foremost independent expert on how innovation can solve some of the country’s major economic and social challenges. Its work is enabled by an endowment, funded by the National Lottery, and it operates at no cost to the taxpayer.  NESTA is a world leader in its field and carries out its work through a blend of experimental programmes, analytical research and investment in early-stage companies. For further information, visit www.nesta.org.uk

Camerata's North East Digital Partnership

Portrait of Love - 28 April 2012

Manchester Camerata's teamed up with BBC Music Magazine to livestream the Portrait of Love concert to their website.  This Saturday's concert of works inspired by love – including pieces by Webern, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, live from the Royal Northern College of Music, will be available at www.classical-music.com. This Portrait of Love concert opens with a performance of Webern’s Langsamer Satz which was inspired by the composer’s future wife, Wilhelmine Mörtl.

Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes follow and then mezzo-soprano Anna Stephany joins the orchestra for Dvořák's Love Songs in an arrangement by David Matthews.  Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence – dedicated to the patron he never met, Nadezhda von Meck – closes the concert. The concert starts at 7.30pm and BBC Music Magazine will also be on twitter during the concert using the hashtag #CamerataPortraits.

Visit the BBC Music Magazine website

See more about this concert

Camerata reaching new audiences

This is the third time this season that Manchester Camerata has teamed up with Medici.tv to share its music worldwide - building on a strong creative partnership. Since it started broadcasting in 2008, medici.tv has built an international reputation by broadcasting over 300 classical music events and by connecting a community of aficionados from 198 countries.  In three years an estimated 12 million people have watched videos with an average of 80 thousand individual visitors each month.

The Anglo-French mezzo-soprano Anna Stephany teams up with Manchester Camerata again to perform, along with the ensemble's music director Gábor Takács-Nagy a portrait of works by composers struck by the love bug.  The muse for Webern’s uncharacteristically lush early Slow Movement was Wilhelmine Mörtl, his future wife. Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes explore love in all its shapes and forms.  Dvorak’s Love Songs, in an arrangement here by David Matthews, are all settings of romantic poems by Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky. Souvenir de Florence by Tchaikovsky, king of melodies, was dedicated to his mystery patron, Nadezhda von Meck, whom he never actually met.

This concert will also be streamed to the BBC Music Magazine website, and also the following venues: Gala Theatre, Durham (Live on 28 April), The Maltings, Berwick (Nearcast on 29 April) and Alnwick Playhouse, Northumberland (Nearcast on 28 May)

Visit the Medici.tv Concert Page

Browse Manchester Camerata's Medici.tv show page

See Gábor Takács-Nagy on Medici.tv

Read more about the Digital transmission to North East venues

"For some, all classical music speaks to the soul, but for Kraemer there are a few pieces that do so particularly. He had three works by J S Bach on the programme – one of them, the great Chaconne in D minor, which was played by orchestra leader Adi Brett, an unaccompanied violin solo long seen as a pinnacle of solemn expression. There was John Tavener's Eternal Memory, for solo cello (Hannah Roberts) and strings. As in Arvo Pärt's Summa, which came later in the evening, its serener moments – brief as both pieces are – were handled tellingly. But it was the two Bach cantatas and Beethoven's Elegischer Gesang that formed the substance of the evening."

"The Beethoven (a memorial to a personal friend who died very young) was sung by the RNCM Chamber Choir with a blended, balanced and accurate choral sound that did them great credit. The textures of Bach's early cantata, Christ Lag In Todesbanden, proved a greater challenge for them (and the orchestra at times) – but the summit of the entire evening was Ich Habe Genug, cantata no. 82, for baritone solo (Roderick Williams) and with oboe obbligato (Rachael Clegg). Williams' own excursus on it for solo oboe, Enough, was a preparatory foil, but the abiding memory was of the unearthly beauty of Bach's music in the three arias that make up its main substance. The soloists, vocal and instrumental, imparted great beauty to their lines, and the extraordinary thing was the way in which the mind and faith of an 18th century provincial German musician – relatively obscure, even in his own time – spoke vividly to our 21st century consciousness."

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Manchester Camerata Concerts

"Anyone who feels that a period style performance of this towering masterpiece is a contradiction in terms should hear this impressive account, one that can still hold its own with some of the best modern instrument versions and easily surpass some of the less attractive period ones".  "The hushed other-worldiness of the harmonically vague opening is aptly mysterious, expanding gradually into a D minor eruption in which the brass have welcome colour and bite. Never rushed or unduly protracted, the pacing is steady and constantly pressing forward while avoiding even a hint of rigidity."

"As heard under Boyd, the movement gains a gorgeous lyrical flow that conveys an apt unity, tenderness and delicacy." "The finale is also impressive, erupting, with exceptional clarity and aptly terrifying in its dissonant brashness." "The orchestra variations of the main theme that follow press forward but with ample breathing room and exception clarity, their expanding orchestration culminating in the splendorous main theme in the bright sunlight of D major. The passage is of course familiar but I mention it here because I have never heard it conveyned better." "Boy's approach may differ a bit from Toscanini's in its closer adherence to Beethoven's instructions, but it is to his credit that he does not go to Furtwanglerian extremes. Rather his performance shines musically and sonically, as the finest of the 'period' accounts I have heard. An Outstanding release. The release of Manchester Camerata's latest Recording marks the completion of a mammoth project to record the entire Beethoven Symphony Cycle, lasting the ten year tenure of the Ensemble's former Music Director Douglas Boyd!

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About Manchester Camerata's Beethoven Cycle

International Record Review

Visit the Avie website

"Of all Beethoven symphonies, I'm guessing there are probably more folks who love the "Pastoral" best of all than any of the others, although certainly the Third, Fifth, and Ninth are right up there. I'm not talking about sheer popularity, understand, where the Fifth and Ninth would no doubt win the day. I'm talking actual love for a piece of music. The Sixth is simply the most loveable of all the symphonies Beethoven wrote. I mean, who can doubt the appeal of the work's continuously happy, bucolic, tranquil, frolicsome qualities? Not even a storm cloud can interrupt this music's playful, joyous charisma. Maybe it's why Disney chose it as one of the highlights of his 1940 animated movie Fantasia. "

"The Sixth Symphony begins with an Allegro non troppo (fast, but not too much) that Beethoven describes as "The awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country." Admittedly, Boyd's opening does sound cheerful. It has a light step, a nice bounce, and a zippy gait without sounding frenetic. Although it perhaps loses a little something in overall grace by not slowing down at least occasionally but continuing to forge ahead at all times, it makes up for it in sheer exhilaration." "In the central Allegro, the "Merry gathering of country folk," Boyd shines, his quick tempos raising one's spirits, even if the music hasn't quite the flowing lines of several of the conductors cited above." "Avie recorded the music live in January and October of 2009 at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, England. It's among the best live recordings I've heard, miked neither too closely nor too distantly, with excellent transparency and air. It's also very clean, with little noticeable distortion, and well balanced from the upper bass to the lower treble. Dynamics seem a tad constricted at times, though, especially compared to my remastered Blu-Spec CD of the Walter recording from Japanese Sony. However, that may be a trifle unfair to the Avie disc, which does hold its own." "To make the situation all the more agreeable, we hear little or no noise from the audience during the performances, and the Avie engineers cut out any distracting applause."

Read the whole review

See more about Manchester Camerata's Beethoven Cycle

Manchester Camerata's Latest Releases

Rochdale Sixth Form College students arrive for rehearsals - Teacher James Reevell (centre) with from left to right: Catherine Ayres, Alicia France, Bradley Harrison, Amy Upton, Calum McIvor, Nathan Hobson

"Six talented musicians from Rochdale Sixth Form College took to the stage this week in a unique performance that saw pupils and students from around the North West play alongside professionals from the world-renowned Manchester Camerata, at the Royal Northern College of Music. Around 200 students, and 35 professional musicians, were involved in the performance, which was the climax of NoteAble Numbers, a learning project to get children and young adults involved in music-making, while also promoting a greater awareness of numbers, with the piece exploring topics such as Pi and counting. The Year 12 and 13 students involved from Rochdale Sixth Form College - Catherine Ayres, Alicia France, Bradley Harrison, Nathan Hobson, Calumn McIvor and Amy Upton - not only played at the concert, but had also been involved in the composition of the piece when composer Kate Pearson ran two workshops at the College earlier this year."

Read the whole article in Rochdale Online

Watch the Performance

About NoteAble Numbers

Manchester Camerata's Learning Projects

NoteAble Numbers is suported by:

Gabor Takacs-Nagy conducts Manchester Camerata in Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in D minor. A visit to the Italian city of Florence in 1890 inspired Tchaikovsky to write his string sextetSouvenir de Florence which is performed tonight in its version for full string orchestra. The thirteen year-old Mendelssohn composed his Violin Concerto in D minor for his beloved teacher and friend Eduard Rietz but the work completely disappeared from the concert platform until 1952 when Yehudi Menuhin resurrected it in a performance at New York's Carnegie Hall.

Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen - a study for 23 solo strings is subtitled "In memoriam". It's one of Strauss's last works, written during the closing months of the Second World War and dedicated to the Swiss impresario and conductor Paul Sacher.

See Concert details

Manchester Camerata in Ulverston

Manchester Camersata's Up Close series aims to offer top quality classical music experiences and ground breaking experiences in relaxed surroundings. The latest in the series took place at the Deaf Insitute Concert Hall and Bar on 6 March 2012 and started with a short new projected work by John Hyatt, Musical Spirits, accompanied by some of the artist’s own minimalist-inspired music.  The atmosphere was electric for this concert themed around minimalism featuring works by Satie, Glass, Part, and Ysaye. The second half was taken up by a sole monumental minimalist work, Steve Reich’s Different Trains, for string quartet and tape.

There will be one more UpClose concert this season  - Wednesday 16 May at the Anthony Burgess Foundation, featuring pianist Anthony Hewitt, as part of his Olympianist tour.   The programme will include piano quintets by Brahms and Sibelius, as well as a new solo cello work by Camerata’s Composer-in-residence Brahim Kerkour.

Read more about Up Close

Next Up Close on May 16

The Olympianist Anthony Hewitt

Meet artist and Musician John Hewitt

Manchester Camerata has a long standing relationship with Sound and Music - the national agency for the promotion of Contemporary Music and Sound Art. Through SAM's Embedded project - Manchester Camerata appointed Brahim Kerkour as its first composer-in-residence.  As part of the scheme Brahim has been spending the season working across a range of the orchestra’s on and off stage activity, as well as composing a number of works for the orchestra.  The first of these - 'Moment Translucent' - an Octet inspired by Franz Schubert’s famous 1824 Octet, was performed as part of the Lancaster International Concert Series in January, and in February at St Nicolas Church in Thorne and at the Coronation Hall in Ulverston.

Read more about Moment Translucent

His next piece - a solo cello work is currently in preparation and will be performed as part of Manchester's Up Close series on Wednesday 16 May 2012 at the Anthony Burgess Foundation.  Brahim will also have an orchestral work performed at the Bridgewater Hall on Saturday 26 May 2012.

Brahim says, "Its been a terrific experience so far. Camerata and SAM have been really supportive, and along with the structure of the residency, the conditions have been ideal for pursuing a long term creative endeavor. The orchestra's music making is inspiring, and I've been gaining a lot from my interactions with staff, musicians, audiences, and learning participants".

Manchester Camerata's Up Close Series

Read more about Brahim

Visit Brahim's Website

Sound and Music

Each year Manchester Camerata calls on young Manchester based composers from the RNCM and Chetham's School of Music to take part in its annual Composers Project.   From all the entries - ten compositions were then chosen to be workshopped by members of the orchestra, under the baton of Eduardo Portal, who was joined this year also by the respected composer and mentor Peter Wiegold. Each work was short - five minutes long - and had to be inspired by a portrait in the City's Art Gallery - reflecting Manchester Camerata's season theme of Portraits.

The ten works chosen were workshopped at the RNCM on Saturday 21 January.  From that selection, Manchester Camerata's Head of Creative Programming, Manus Carey and Peter Wiegold selected one piece to be performed as part of a Manchester Camerata concert. This year - the successful piece 'Look into My Eyes' came from Aaron Parker, who is currently studying at the RNCM.  It was premiered at Manchester Camerata's Portrait of War concert at the college on 10 March 2012.

Aaron Parker studies composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and has already built an extensive portfolio of work, with some of his works having been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC 1, and also performed in venues across Britain, France, Italy and the Netherlands, by ensembles such as the BBC Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the National Youth Orchestra, and the Aurora Orchestra. He has taken part in collaborations with the Royal Ballet School in London, the Northern Ballet School and The Place (London Contemporary Dance School).  In July 2010 he took part in the Lake District Summer Music Festival's 4×4 Composer Residency led by Robert Saxton and Garth Bardsley, during which the first scene of a new chamber opera Rhodopis was premièred in Keswick.

Manchester Camerata's Composers' Project is an annual event.  Next year entries will be accepted from young composers at the RNCM senior and junior schools and Chetham’s School of Music.  They'll be joined by students from Salford University.

Manchester Camerata's Composers' Project

Manchester Camerata and New Music

Composers and Manchester Camerata

Read a Review of Manchester Camerata's Portrait of War concert on 10 March 2012

See Peter Wiegold's Website

Visit Aaron's My Space Page

Anthony Hewitt has a passion for the piano, sport, and travel. He's performed across the world for over twenty years and in his spare time he enjoys cycling out into the countryside and competing as an amateur triathlete in Olympic distance races with his brother.   He's now embarking on a chllange which combines the physical challenges of endurance sport with some of the philosophical and mental challenges of performing on a concert tour.  During May he's cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats, playing recitals at the end of each day.

He's now embarking on a chllange which combines the physical challenges of endurance sport with some of the philosophical and mental challenges of performing on a concert tour. During May he's cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats, playing recitals at the end of each day.

Anthony reaches Manchester on 16 May 2012 and will be part of Manchester Camerata's next Up Close session - a series of events aimed at presenting the finest classical and new music in a relaxed atmosphere.

On the programme for this session of Up Close - Cello quintets from Brahms and Sibelius - and also a newly composed piece by Manchester Camerata's Composer in Residence Brahim Kerkour for solo to be performed by the orchestra's principal cellist, Hannah Roberts.

The third Up Close evening too place on Tuesday 6 March 2012.  "The atmosphere was electric for this concert," says Camerata's Head of Creative Programming, Manus Carey. "The concert was themed around minimalism and featured worked by Satie, Glass, Part, and Ysaye. The second half was taken up by a sole monumental minimalist work, Steve Reich's Different Trains, for string quartet and tape. The performance started with a short new projected work by John Hyatt, Musical Spirits, accompanied by some of the artist's own minimalist-inspired music."

Throughout the Up Close series, artist and musician John Hyatt has been presenting his own music and visuals as a means of exploring new ideas and ways of presenting Classical music.

Artist and Musician John Hyatt

Manchester Camerata's Composer in Residence - Brahim Kerkour

Anthony Hewitt's Olympianist Tour

Read more about Up Close

Anthony Burgess Foundation

Manchester Camerata and John Hyatt

"One suspects that Mozart would have been rather chuffed that almost two hundred years after he wrote it, one of his masterpieces has taken on a life of its own, even if it is only as the theme music to a rather superior chick flick. He'd have been particularly delighted, of course, to be still raking in the royalties.  "One suspects that Mozart would have been rather chuffed that almost two hundred years after he wrote it, one of his masterpieces has taken on a life of its own, even if it is only as the theme music to a rather superior chick flick. He'd have been particularly delighted, of course, to be still raking in the royalties.

Alas, I too am one of the people who've never seen it, but my friend Andy saw it in the seventies, and it's thanks to him that I first discovered the marvels of the Mozart piano concerto. Knowing I was keen on classical music, he asked me if I had a disc of the lovely piece of music from the film (he didn't actually know what it was). I pretended I knew what he was talking about (I'd never heard a single Mozart piano concerto) and went off to try and find it. In fact, it was years later before I heard the 21st, but in the search for the right one I discovered all the others, and was totally bowled over by their drama, melody, and brilliant structure. Kathryn Stott seems determined to give the people of North Staffordshire a performance of every concerto, though at the rate of one a year it might take some time. She started back in 2010 with the 20th, not a bad place to start, for to my ears it is the best of a marvellous bunch. In 2011 we got the final one, number 27, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. And last night at the Stafford Gatehouse with the Manchester Camerata, we got number 21, Elvira Madigan. The Camerata's conductor, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, paraphrased the bible to declare that unless you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of Mozart. I think he was talking about a certain level of open-ness and honesty necessary to play that apparently straightforward music. You also need to be extremely skilled; to take just one example, the triple chords which open the andante have to be clearly heard but soft, and all at the same level. Kathryn Stott was completely in the zone. She refused to be drawn on which was her favourite Mozart concerto, but she admitted she left them completely alone for ten years before discovering how wonderful they were. She is doing them justice now she's found them. The Mozart was sandwiched between Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin and Strauss's Metamophosen. Gaby Takacs-Nagy said the Ravel was all about colours, but I couldn't help thinking many of the colours were wiped out by the Gatehouse's dry acoustic. On the other hand, that acoustic made it easier to tease out the strands of the Strauss, a work which can often seem too dense and interwoven. By the way, Elvira Madigan is apparently also the name of a Swedish symphonic black metal band (no, me neither). Would Mozart have signed up to be keyboard player?

Details of this concert

Read the Whole review at Notes from Middle England

Manchester Camerata in Stafford

"Hungarian conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy continues to display his considerable talents in this his inaugural season as music director of the Manchester Camerata. Their last concert at the Bridgwater Hall a few weeks ago was one of the most gratifying concerts that I had attended for some time in this country. Entitled 'Portrait of War' the Camerata's programme given at the Royal Northern College of Music concert hall worked a treat cleverly demonstrating how two major composers reacted with their music to the horrors of war.

Writing Le tombeau de Couperin, an optimistically upbeat score with a strong bucolic character, was Ravel's way of commemorating the memory of his friends who had died fighting during the horrific carnage of the First World War. Originally a piano suite, a homage to the baroque music of Parisian François Couperin, Ravel's orchestration of four of the six movements of Le tombeau de Couperin is one of his finest achievements. Expertly led by Adi Brett the riveting playing of this neo-baroque masterpiece from the Camerata was as ravishingly seductive and alive as I could imagine so splendidly sympathetic and overflowing with vividly bright colours. A real surprise and a pleasant one at that was the inclusion in the programme at short notice of the chamber score Look me in the eyes lasting around five minutes by Aaron Parker a composer in his early twenties. Although we were given very little information about the score it seems that the composer was inspired by a distant memory of seeing the gaze of an elderly woman on a black and white photograph in the Manchester Art Gallery. In the dimly lit hall, light rumbling percussion could be heard throughout underpinning the attractive solo contributions with a distinct Gallic feel from the flute, clarinet, violin, viola and cello. Fitting nicely into the programme Parker's highly accessible miniature score was attractive and a really fine effort. Mozart's evergreen Piano Concerto No.21 in C major has become widely known by the nickname 'Elvira Madigan' as the Andante was featured in the 1967 Swedish film of that name. Seemingly a fixture in North of England concert programmes this season local girl Kathryn Stott was tonight's soloist in the Mozart concerto. Earlier this winter I had experienced a rather lacklustre and untidy affair at the Guild Hall, Preston with an out-of-sorts Stott playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major with Vasily Petrenko conducting the Liverpool Phil. I was hoping for an improved performance and as Stott began to relax she provided it, playing with sparkle, poise and communicating every note vibrantly. Beautifully shaped by Stott the lovely Andante felt charmingly tender with Takács-Nagy ensuring sympathetic support from the Camerata. As in the Ravel score it is impossible not to single out the outstanding contribution from oboist Rachael Clegg for special praise. Richard Strauss's late masterpiece Metamorphosen subtitled 'In memoriam!' is a study for twenty-three solo strings and is the composer's deeply personal emotional statement in response to the devastation caused to German town and cities and their inhabitants in the Second World War. It seems that Strauss was thinking particularly about the destruction of the Munich, Dresden and Vienna opera houses that were so dear to him. The Camerata's full-bodied sound that combines tonal blend with a unified excellence was heard at its finest throughout the complex counterpoint of the mournful Metamorphosen. In a sea of sound the luxuriant strings brought out the rapt beauty of Strauss's writing yet emphasised its underlying sadness and darkness throughout its extended span. I liked the way that Takács-Nagy resisted any temptation to take Strauss's moving score too slowly. This was another highly satisfying and inspiring concert from the Manchester Camerata who go from strength to strength. Under the stewardship of Gábor Takács-Nagy the Camerata are certainly a force to be reckoned with. Michael Cookson

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The children - from Castlechurch Primary School worked with a composer, dramatist and a Camerata musician to create the piece, inspired by the repertoir to be played in the orchestra's next Stafford event. Manchester Camerata's season theme this year has been Portraits - and the accompanying Learning and Participation work has encouraged children especially to create a portrait of their community as they see it. The Stafford concert - Echoes of War was an ideal opportunity to allow the children to learn about Stafford during the war.
The project team included composer Andy Smith, Dramatist Paul Hine and Camerata French Horn player Dave Tollington. The resulting `mini-opera' will be performed as a pre-concert event on Wednesday 14 March at 6.45pm.
Manchester Camerata's Echoes of War Concert
Find our about Manchester Camerata's Portrait of Stafford project
Manchester Camerata in Stafford
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"If anyone needed prodding towards the idea of music as worship, Manchester Camerata has labelled its Holy Week concert this year "Portrait of Faith". It includes two overtly religious Bach cantatas, an anonymous epitaph for a young woman in Beethoven's 'Elegischer gesang', and two textless orchestral works by John Tavener (Eternal memory) and Arvo Part (Summa)." "The man behind the programming, is its new music director Gábor Takács-Nagy, whom I meet after an exhilerating concert in Manchester's elegant Bridgewater Hall. There is great pride in the 40 year old orchestra's reputation.

The people around the maestro tell me to think of Camerata not as Manchester's third orchestra, but as one of the city's three. the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic are bigger, but, as I discover, Camerata is lithe, versatile and intimate, an expanded quartet rather than a reduced symphony orchestra, just as the founding violinist of the Takács String Quartet would like it." "I am not a religious man", says Takács-Nagy, "but music to me is spiritual". I ask him what he means, and he cites the previous night's fiery, volatile performance of Haydn's last symphony. "In Haydn I notice we have some problems with synchoronicity, but the players are open to it and they adjust. I live dangerously. this is how the Takács Quartet played - improvising the concert." "We had accidents, but there was always this dilemma: on theone hand we want perfection, but, on the other, sponineity. This is what I mean. It's about living the moment. Yesterday it was not totally perfect but it was spiritual." He describes the "Portrait" concerts - there are portraits also of Love, War and "And Englishman" - as basically a marketing concept. He tries to capture the spiritual in all music, clearly not just in those programmes which have a religious provenance. He loves the feeling that he is shaping a living entity in the music. He conducts without the baton, moulding as it were the clay of sound between his fingers. I ask him whether he conducts every orchestra this way. "I never use a baton," he replies, "but this is not from choice. It is because of an injury to my arm and thumb. This is why I had to leave the Quartet. I could no longer hold a bow and I cannot hold a stick." Being struck down at the height of a brilliant career - the Takács Quartet was and still is one of the world's greatest ensembles - was a cruelty that shocked the music work in the early 1990's. Takács-Nagy darkens at the memory. "I tried conducting and could only learn in this way. But there are others. Gergiev and Boulez for instance, who also prefer only hands. A baton is more precide, especially for the wind, who sit further away. They need to see when the downbeat is arriving. But hands are less formal than a stick, and help give this volatile feel. They are not giving every detail, not dividing the bars, but giving players their own power. I'm not conducting every beat the players feel that they have more control. I can leave the pulse to them and be more responsible for the overall effect. Also standing up helps this. This is the first time that an orchestra stands up with me. The players, with the exception of the cellos, had performed the Haydn on their feet, balancing on their toes, so that one had the sense of the music passing through the floor and into the musicians like an electric current. The theory, which seems to work, is that everyone performs with more energy and alertness than they do sitting. Takács-Nagy's dynamic leader Giovanni Guzzo, led the fray, bobbing and weaving with the beat and infecting those behind him with visible enthusiasm. Guzzo too is new, brought in like a disciple by the conductor to lead the otherwise young local players. "We weren't exactly a package but whan I arrived, I let it be known that he is an exceptional player", explains Takács-Nagy. "He is phenomenal, charismatic. He also works for the Budapest Festival Orchestra for ten weeks every year, as do I. We share the same musical language, he makes changes and is doing a lot of talking with the strings about speeds and bowing. Tackács-Nagy is an engaging conductor who creates a rapport with audiences. He comes on with a microphone like an evangelical preacher. "Hungary never won a war." he says of his country introducing works by Bartok and Kodaly, "we are too amiable. But there is fire and passion in our music." He certainly has more wit. Laughter breaks through his Hungarian seriouslness. "Our national anthan begins, 'Oh God, give us a good mood and prosperity,'" he quotes with a sombre churchgoers face. "It must be the only national hymn that starts from a position of gloom!"

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