Pictures from the Concert at Brixton Prison
22 November - on the train to York to record the first of 3 outreach projects in unusual Bach-related venues. This one is in a school, where Presenter Catherine Bott and pianist David Owen Norris will be working with a group of sixth-formers on Bach's approach to writing music. This is the first time the production team have been able to get together, so I try to hide behind my book as their planning meeting seems to involve Norris (as he's called by everyone) singing and being loudly enthusiastic, in a very crowded carriage.
23 November - Back to School, where Norris spends the morning explaining all sorts of ways Bach used simple materials to make wonderful music. They write a fugue, a two part invention, perform a swing version of a chorale prelude and lots more. I wish I'd had teachers like him. We record the whole session, and then the concert for fellow pupils. Just as the final school bell rings the Headmaster tells me that we have to clear the room in double quick time, as there's a Parent's Evening beginning in three quarters of an hour. Superquick cable coiling follows.
29 November - to Earls Court , and Troubadour, a coffee house. Bach wrote several pieces for the coffee house and a Cantata in praise of coffee so we're recording it in an 'authentic' setting. The big worry is whether the performers (the Royal Academy Baroque ensemble with 3 solo singers), a harpsichord, a presenter and our microphones will fit. They do - just, although I have to adopt a somewhat unconventional approach to microphone placement. We also have to build ourselves in to the cupboard which is acting as a control room. Things get even more cosy when the musicians ask whether they can leave their bags and cases with us.
The lively audience is shoehorned in, but nevertheless enjoy the experience.
6 December - to Brixton prison, where we are working with a team from the charity Music in Prisons. A group of prisoners is going to learn the final chorale in the Cantata Ein Feste Burg so they can perform it later. The day doesn't start well when the van carrying the equipment is massively delayed, but every snag is accommodated by Projects Officer Kate Quigley. If everyone were like her, the world would be a better place - she gets things done, and even if it's a problem she gets over it.
This is the first time I've ever had to run cables over razor wire. The first one goes well, the second one gets stuck and after that we are very, very careful.
We help to carry the harpsichord upstairs, supervised by a very nervous tuner, and then the somewhat apprehensive members of the Academy Baroque ensemble arrive.
When it comes to it, the 'Brixton Angels' (as Kate Bott has named them) sing the chorale very well.
The prisoners (no jokes please about a captive audience but the banners bearing the strapline Escape to Bach have caused a few laughs) enjoy the experience very much - they are particularly struck by 'the bloke on the keyboard' (harpsichordist Lawrence Cummings playing two of the 48).
We have also enjoyed the experience, although all admit to being far more exhausted by the recording than we would expect, and it has made me think, perhaps for the first time, what it must be like to be in prison. After all, I could go up to the Prison Officer and say 'can you let me out please?'
8 December onwards - 5 lunchtime concerts at the Church of St Bartholomew the Great, and three editing sessions to go. Oh yes, and plenty of Bach organ music to play at church on Sunday 18.
Return to the Bach Blog
