Rising Stars
Three to look out for…
Xiaowen Shang Pianist
Born: Beijing, China Career highlight: April 2024 is set to be the highlight of my career – it sees the release of my debut album Music of Silence and I will also be performing twice at Wigmore Hall, as pianist and harpsichordist. Musical hero: JS Bach, who motivates me to explore the musical world; and Brahms, whose music comforts and calms me down. Dream concert: I would love to perform at the National Gallery – pianist Myra Hess’s performances there during World War II remind me what artists can do.
Laure Chan Violinist
Born: London, UK Career highlight: Recording my latest concerto album at Abbey Road Studios, and making my solo debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York in December 2023.
Musical heros: At nine years old, I heard Maxim Vengerov at the Barbican. I was mesmerised by his virtuosity and charisma – that was when I decided to become a violinist. Among composers, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Brahms have always deeply moved and inspired me.
Dream concert: I’d love to play at Wigmore Hall, in a diverse programme including original compositions and music inspired by my cultural roots and featuring both Western classical and Chinese folk instruments.
Christian Reif Conductor
Born: Rosenheim, Germany
Career highlight: Working with artists and ensembles that I love always results in natural, special musicmaking. One example was Julia Bullock’s Walking In The Dark, for which I conducted and played piano. It was a reflection of the intense times in which we lived during 2020/21, so the Grammy Award was a nice recognition.
Musical heros: Various, but always with the same qualities: living with genuine curiosity, communicating with warmth and bringing out the best in people.
Dream concert: A programme that touches and inspires audience members. And the venue? As long as it has good acoustics, it could be anywhere!
opera productions. The charismatic stage director Carl Ebert (who, like Busch, was an exile from Nazi Germany) saw to that.
That cast featured a German, an Austrian and a Finn alongside other leading British singers such as Heddle Nash and Norman Allin. Christie’s soprano wife, Audrey Mildmay, sang Susanna. As their lengthy rehearsal period progressed, remembered Henderson, ‘we began to see this was going to be a real ensemble of artists, something we hadn’t experienced before. It made such an impression. We knew exactly what to do.’
Christie’s PR dexterity is evidenced in the newspaper coverage across the country as opening night approached. The Birmingham Gazette, for example: ‘The new “pocket opera house” at Glyndebourne, I am told, is receiving even greater attention in German and Austrian musical circles than it is here.’ ‘Crescendo’ in the Daily News remarked that, ‘The stage is Mr Christie’s pet joy. Here every gadget known to the ingenuity of man has been installed, on the stage, above it and underneath it.’
Finally, the cast rehearsed with what was essentially the LSO. Roy Henderson was astounded by their sound under Busch. ‘I’d never heard them play like it. Busch’s rhythm was superb. And things were done at a singable pace. You can’t phrase at the speed they take nowadays.’
And so to that first night. Ticketholders were expected to dress to the nines ‘out of respect for the music’, as Henderson put it, and while demand from the London opera set hadn’t been exceptional – even with an early finish allowing for prompt returns by rail – Christie ensured star quality in the shape of guests such as Austrian diplomat Baron Franckenstein, the Princess of Bismarck and society luminary/actress Lady Diana Cooper.
Figaro was a musical triumph, further haloed by Hamish Wilson’s captivating sets. The Times reckoned the production gave ‘the rare pleasure of a
‘I am certain that Glyndebourne will become famous all over Europe’
performance exquisite in every detail’, while the Illustrated London News critic opined that ‘if [Christie] keeps up to the standard set by his first production, I am certain that Glyndebourne will become famous all over Europe.’
The following night’s Così was also a brilliant success. By the end of the season, houses were full and the seeds of Glyndebourne’s reputation were sown. Roy Henderson returned each season up to the war. ‘That was the happiest period of my career,’ he recalled, ‘by a long, long, long way.’