DJALCHEMI

Theatre of Voices UK tour performing Stockhausen

I was just clearing out my email in-box and found an unsolicited request to plug a tour on this site. Normally such messages would be deleted straight away, but I must have noticed the polite tone and decided to stay its execution until the next clear-out. Then, on re-reading it, and in the spirit of more or less random ways of discovering new music, I thought: why not?

Dear Sir

I manage Paul Hillier's ensemble Theatre of Voices, and I'm writing to tell you of Paul's exciting plans to perform and record Stockhausen's Stimmung in early 2006. Paul has a long history with the piece (having performed it many times with the Singcircle ensemble) and for a long time wanted to direct performances himself. Anyone who knows Theatre of Voices' fantastic recordings of Cage, Reich and Pärt will understand what an exciting prospect this is. Paul has chosen now to revisit the piece as the firts step in a new direction for the ensemble — to explore extensively a repertoire (both new commissions and classics) for vocal ensemble + amplification / electronics.

In January, Paul will undertake a short tour of the UK, in preparation for a new recording of the piece for Harmonia Mundi: the dates of the tour will be
15 January — ICA, London [Update: now cancelled, see below]
16 January — Jaqueline du Pre Concert Hall in Oxford
17 January — Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
18 January — Perth Concert Hall, Perth

I would be grateful if you would list the project on your website — and I would be very happy to send you any further information you might require.

With best wishes,

Svend Brown

You can tell this isn't automated spam. Mr Brown, or someone in his employ, has presumably discovered from searching the web and finding articles like my review of a John Cage festival that I'm the sort of person who sometimes writes about the music that Theatre of Voices perform, and has then inserted his message in my contact form.

Sir, I salute your hard work, and your combination of tech savvy with old school civility, and am happy to do as you ask. What good it will do you is another matter — though I have at least put the London performance in my own diary. (It's not yet on the ICA's web site — I should get onto them about that if I were you.)

Update, 24 December 02005: Noticing that the Theatre of Voices were not included in the ICA's January diary, I contacted Svend Brown again, and he tells me, "Sadly the ICA date has been cancelled at the 11th hour (due to complications with their performance license). The rest of the schedule remains unchanged."