#Tobias Ringborg

[lesser-known-composers]

Joseph Marx (1882-1964) - Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano (1913): I. Bewegt und frei im Vortrag

Tobias Ringborg, violin

Daniel Blumenthal, piano

[reviewsphere]

Scottish Opera REVIVES MOZART’S Magic Flute

Scottish Opera REVIVES MOZART’S Magic Flute @ScottishOpera @GlasgowKings @EdenCourt @APAWhatsOn @captheatres @HackneyEmpire @gohbelfast @hunterian @BurkhardRichard @singinsofia @DementiaFriends #mozart #themagicflute

Sir Thomas Allen’s five-star production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute returns to Scottish Opera in May, set in a spectacular world inspired by the Victorian futurism of HG Wells and Jules Verne.

Mozart’s most inventive opera, featuring a handsome prince, a damsel in distress, sorcerers, priests and a bumbling bird-catcher, opens at Theatre Royal Glasgow on Saturday 4 May, and tours…

[wbg1991]

‘Isolation Odyssey’ – how an orchestra went digital during lockdown

Leeds-based Opera North perform Richard Strauss’ ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ while adhering to social distancing rules.

The crashing symbols, rumbling drums, and blasting brass on Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra are inherently epic, forever associated with Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Leeds-based orchestra, Opera North, were due to play the piece to packed concert halls but when the Covid-19 lockdown put an end to that – or at least a pause – they had to adapt.

The result – ‘2020: An Isolation Odyssey’ – is both visceral and amusing. It is a video performance by a socially distanced orchestra playing in their living rooms and bedrooms.

In just two weeks after its initial release, the performance amassed over 30,000 views on YouTube and moved some listeners to tears.

“I think Stanley Kubrick is bang on using the piece for exploring interplanetary worlds and space,” says Dan Bull, the company cellist. “We’re now experiencing the opposite, exploring a very shut-in environment. That has quite a resonance, in a strange way.”

Players didn’t get to say bye to colleagues as their tour was cut short on 17 March, when Opera North cancelled or postponed all live activity till the end of June. Though composer Tobias Ringborg continues to perform in Sweden, where lockdown measures are less severe, most of the company have been furloughed.

“We won’t work until September and that’s the good scenario,” says Lourenço Macedo Sampaio, the viola player. Even then he expects performances to be live streams or to reduced capacity audiences.

Social distancing does not come easily to musicians who need to sit and perform with each other. Like so many of us, the orchestra began to feel restless. Bull and Sampaio pitched Ringborg the idea of a video performance and received his contribution on 20 March.

“We got his footage and that provided us with enough information on how Tobias wanted things to sound and the choice of tempos; then we started constructing the score,” says Sampaio.

Three quarters of the orchestra immediately said they would participate and Bull and Sampaio were delighted to hear many of them had professional recording equipment at home.

Nonetheless, police sirens, boiling kettles and a dog’s barking are just about drowned out in the final mix by Bull. Sampaio managed the logistics while Alex Ramseyer-Bache, from Opera North’s marketing department, crafted the visuals.

Sampaio explains, “The organ had to be done first because you have to tune to an organ. Then we asked the trombones to tune, very carefully saying what the pitch of the organ was and we wanted everyone to tune to the same note.”

The performers were asked to dress in concert dress from the waist up, but were given free reign otherwise. A percussionist’s children wincing as he crashes his symbols, a bassoonist in a wolf mask and a variety of domestic backdrops give the video its distinct personality.

The audio was mixed in little over a week, with the video uploaded to YouTube on 9 April – an impressive feat given the complexity of the piece, Ringborg says.

Also Sprach Zarathustra doesn’t have a clear beat or metric for performers to stick to, so they had to hone in on the initial recordings from Ringborg, the organist and then the brass section. The ebb and flow gives the performance a “sense of nuance”, Bull says, with Sampaio saying it allowed them to add “artistic touches.”

Recording at home was also highly pressured for players used to playing in ensembles.

“It’s quite nerve wracking placing a microphone close to your instrument and recording in isolation,” says Bull. “It’s not a very comfortable experience as you don’t have much to respond to.”

Players were exposed, contributing recordings as solo players rather than in sections, leaving them “naked on the spot”, according to Sampaio. Ringborg, who as the first contributor had no one to conduct apart from a pianist and an imagined orchestra, said it was a “weird experience” but says the result more than made up for this.

“To play to a computer screen or microphone was weird and it wasn’t fulfilling for anyone, but the fulfilling thing is the final result,” he said.

The response so far suggests he is correct, with YouTube commenters repeatedly saying “bravo”, calling it “inspiring” and “wonderful” and often commenting on the anguish of the cymbal player’s children. Ringborg said he has heard from old classmates he hadn’t spoken to in 30 years about it while Sampaio says the most common response he’s had was people saying they had cried.

“As artists, if we can get one person to say that, it means everything,” he says.

Bull says the piece allowed people to connect musically, something which the curtailment of live performance has to a great extent halted. He says the video recording gave people new insights into the orchestra, allowing them to see the performers’ personalities. His auntie’s neighbour even said she preferred the video to a live concert performance.

“The personal stories in the video, like Mark’s children being there, Adam’s mask, you see a bit of our humour,” he says. “In that sense, digital has an advantage because the message is delivered more personally to the audience.”

Sampaio believes the industry could learn from this, arguing opera companies don’t do as much as they could digitally. He uses the example of the Metropolitan Opera – one of the world’s largest orchestras –  which only has 366,000 followers on Instagram, which is small compared to leading performers in other genres. Digital performances like these “break down barriers” he says, offering “different windows to the audience to see us.”

Sampario and Bull are brainstorming new projects for lockdown, but they will only produce another piece if it can recreate the authenticity of the Strauss performance. Nonetheless, orchestras like Opera North will long to return to packed-out concert halls, playing together as a group in the same room.

Sampaio hopes people’s demand for live performance will build up during the lockdown, creating a renewed surge of interest, but there will be challenges, as people will need to be able to afford tickets during what is likely to be a deep economic recession. Ringborg says companies like Opera North will need support from the government.

For now, the Opera North orchestra can be content with having explored the possibilities of digital and broken down barriers with their audience, all within the confines of their homes.

This article was originally published on PA Training in May 2020.

[losslessbest]

Aarhus Symphony Orchestra & Tobias Ringborg - Tarp Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (2018) [24bit Hi-Res]

Format : FLAC (tracks) Quality : Hi-Res 24bit stereo Source : Digital download Artist : Aarhus Symphony Orchestra & Tobias Ringborg Title : Tarp Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 Genre : Classical Release Date : 2018 Scans : not included Size .zip : 1.66 gb

https://losslessbestmusic.biz/34163-aarhus-symphony-orchestra-tobias-ringborg-tarp-orchestral-works-vol-1-2018-24bit-hi-res.html

[lesser-known-composers]

Gustaf Bengtsson (1886-1965) - Cello Concerto in A Minor: I. Allegro ma non troppo ·

Mats Rondin · · Malmö Opera Orchestra · Tobias Ringborg

[lesser-known-composers]

Yngve Sköld (1899-1992) - Violinkonsert, Op. 40: II. Andante — ·

Tobias Ringborg (violin) and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Tuomas Ollila

[lesser-known-composers]

Gustaf Bengtsson (1886-1965) - Violin Concerto in B Minor: I. Allegro moderato ·

Tobias Ringborg · violin

Malmö Opera Orchestra · Mats Rondin

[lesser-known-composers]

Franz Berwald (1796-1868) - Duo in D Minor for Violin and Piano: Allegro

Artist: Bengt-Ake Lundin, piano & Artist: Tobias Ringborg, violin

[lesser-known-composers]

Franz Adolf Berwald - Violin Concerto in C sharp minor, Op. 2,

Tobias Ringborg (violin), Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Niklas Willén (conductor)

I. Allegro moderato – 00:00 II. Adagio – 12:15 ---- III. Rondo. Allegretto – 14:40

[lesser-known-composers]

Gustaf Bengtsson - Violin Concerto in B Minor

I. Allegro moderato 00:00 II. Andante con moto 17:40 III. Rondo brillante, Allegro moderato energico 25:29

Performers: Tobias Ringborg, Malmö Opera Orchestra, Mats Rondin.

[lesser-known-composers]

Gustaf Bengtsson (1886 - 1965) was a Swedish composer.

Sections: I. Allegro moderato 00:00 II. Andante con moto 17:40 III. Rondo brillante, Allegro moderato energico 25:29

Performers: Tobias Ringborg, Malmö Opera Orchestra, Mats Rondin.

[lesser-known-composers]

Joseph Joachim Raff - Violin Concerto No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 161:

I. Allegro patetico attacca ·

Tobias Ringborg · · Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands Opera · Andrea Quinn

[lesser-known-composers]

Composer: Franz Berwald - Duo in D Minor for Violin and Piano: Allegro

Artist: Bengt-Ake Lundin Artist: Tobias Ringborg

[lesser-known-composers]

Helena Munktell - Violin Sonata in E-Flat Major Op.21

I. Allegro non tanto, vigoroso II. Scherzo brusco: Moderato energico III. Andante quasi adagio IV. Finale. Allegro con brio - Più lento

Performers: Tobias Ringborg (violinist) Peter Friis Johansson (pianist)

[lesser-known-composers]

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger “Adils och Elisiv” (Elisabeth Meyer & Tobias Ringborg, 2017)

[lesser-known-composers]

Joseph Marx - Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano (1913) : III. Ruhig · Tobias Ringborg · Daniel Blumenthal