The Closing Credits

Koen Van Landeghem (CUP Regional Director for Latin America), Stephen Bourne (Chief Executive, CUP) and Cecilia Gomez (CUP Sales Manager for Chile and Uruguay)

Britten Sinfonia's visit to South America has been one of its largest projects in almost 15 years of concert giving. Many people contributed to the outstanding success of the tour, and we would like to record our thanks to them all.

The promoters: Sociedade de Cultura Artistica (Gerald Perret and his team in Sao Paulo), Mozarteum Argentino (Gisela Timmermann and her colleagues), and the Centro Cultural de Musica (Vera de Bergengruen and her staff in Montevideo).

The funders and sponsors: Arts Council England, East; Arts & Business; British Council; Cambridge University Press (especially their staff based in Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Cambridge).

Tour management: Kaarina Meyer (representing Van Walsum Management).

John Bickley

Britten Sinfonia's final concert in South America (on this tour!)

Our last concert on the tour, in Sao Paulo, had a (huge) audience of music afficianados, who seemed to delight in every piece. The Bach concerto blazed, the MacMillan puzzled, amused and amazed again, and then encores were demanded, so we heard two of Joanna MacGregor's dazzling Astor Piazzolla arrangements. This concert was a real high for the players - you can tell from their relaxed manner, and the added vigour this seems to bring to their playing.

When we arrived back here on Sunday, it was almost like coming home. Everyone has exactly the same rooms in the hotel as last week and there is an ease bred by the familiarity with the location. Favourite restaurants are re-visited, the hotel barmen seem like old friends, and nothing seems too much trouble for our hosts. Those who are thus in Sao Paulo for the second time are beginning to understand why those in the group who have been here many times know that this is one of the most dynamic cities on the planet: culturally diverse, economically driven, and with an exciting arts scene. It has been both a privilege and a revelation for Britten Sinfonia to have added to that scene.

A few players are going to the coast for a short holiday. The rest of us are off to the airport in half an hour, to fly back to London. Our next project, with Carolyn Sampson, begins immediately we return!

I'll put some more reviews and photos up in a couple of days, so do return for the final chapter of this blog.

John Bickley

Creative Learning in Sao Paulo

Lizzie Ball took a masterclass this morning at the Tom Jobim School of Music, a centre of excellence for young musicians from all over Sao Paulo. She worked with a string quartet and then spent time coaching two violinists.

Buenos Aires and Montevideo

Our second concert in Buenos Aires received an excellent response - we were not sure how James MacMillan’s Piano Concerto no. 2 would go down, but the audience reaction was very, very positive. We always try to include new repertoire for audiences and the MacMillan, along with two pieces by Britten, were all Argentinian premieres. Post-concert steam was let off at a traditional tango bar, in a building of faded grandeur; intense music, intimate, complex dance manouevres, endlessly interesting to watch, and the real thing, not some tourist show.

Another whistle-stop visit to a fascinating city: I did manage to accomplish several of the things I always try to do to get a flavour: a look round a supermarket, a trip on the metro (11p to go anywhere), and a visit to the central station to stare longingly at the names of strange places on the departures board, and a quick copa of vino tinto in the station cafe, which here was a magnificent Belle Epoque room, with a brilliant glass ceiling and chandeliers.

And so, on to Montevideo. Impressions on arrival were mixed. The drive into the city from the airport goes along the coast of the River Plate estuary, and the buildings look just like Saint Tropez or Cannes. But the city itself is then a mix of ramshackle streets, with sudden plazas surrounded by grand buildings, a busy port area, huge statues of 19th century Uruguayan patriots on horsebacks, and then luxury hotels with their own armed guards to separate the guests from the many very poor people living on the streets.

Our concert was in the recently restored Teatro Solis, a magnificent traditional horseshoe shaped opera theatre with five stories of boxes and a not bad acoustic. Joanna MacGregor was in great form, the orchestra probably played the best yet on the tour, and again the very well-heeled audience got excited about the repertoire.

The evening had started with another reception hosted for local English Language Schools by our sponsor, Cambridge University Press. After the concert several of the players and the management team were invited to a dinner hosted by HM Ambassador at the Residence: a chance to meet a diverse range of people from the Uruguayan music scene, and some diplomats with a deep interest in music. I was unaware that there was a Bulgarian Ambassador to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, but I can report that he is now a great fan of James MacMillan’s music. Nor did I know that the Anglican Bishop of Uruguay is also the Bishop of Cuba (someone at Lambeth Palace must have a strange sense of geography). The only way to round off such a day was more tango, this time in a very trendy, stylishly designed bar, with much younger dancers to watch (while trying some local wines).

I'll add a few photos later.

John Bickley

5 star review in La Nacion

Our first concert received an excellent review in La Nacion this morning.

"...una orquesta de cámara sin mácula y a una personalidad de nuestro tiempo, sencillamente incomparable."

You can see the full article and a photo of Joanna MacGregor during the concert at www.lanacion.com.ar/905800.

John Bickley

Photos from our Creative Learning session in Buenos Aires

Lizzie Ball working with her group on composing a piece.



Julia Vohralik discusses ideas with her group of children.

The inspirational director of music at Northlands School, Humberto Lopez.

Creative Learning in Buenos Aires

The British Council has been one of the key financial backers of this tour, and one element it has particularly wanted to support is a programme of Creative Learnng activity. Time is short on such a densely packed tour, but early today Marcus and Lizzie (violins), Clive (viola) and Julia (cello) headed off to Northlands School, far in the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires. The morning-long session had been organised by the inspirational director of music there, Humberto Lopez. He had gathered together 40 children, aged from 8-14, from 6 schools across the city. After a short performance by our players of a medley of Irish and English folksong and shanty arrangements (with dancing demonstrations included), they soon had the children taking part in learning rounds, including ‘London Bridge is falling down’.

Many of the children spoke brilliant English and with their help, and that of a professional interpreter, little time was wasted with language problems. Each of our musicians then worked with a smaller group of children, encouraging them to create a collective piece of music, using the random instruments many of the children had brought along. The results, after under an hour’s work, were amazing - four very different, highly characterful pieces of music. At the end, one wished there had been more time to work with this and other groups of children; how brilliant it would have been if they could have come to hear one of our evening concerts. Above all, what a strong sense there was of the desire and need on the part of the children to make the most of the opportunity offered to them (something which has largely been squeezed out of so many children in the UK by the time they reach this age).

Fortunately, there will be follow-up on this project, as Lizzie is planning to spend several months in Argentina, and has undertaken to help lead more such Creative Learning sessions.

Apologies for the lack of photos; upload speeds are impossibly slow - I hope to add them when we get back to Brazil.

John Bickley