London's Burning!

Just over three-hundred-and-fifty years ago a major urban disaster, the Great Fire of London, destroyed more than thirteen thousand houses, eighty-seven parish churches, St Paul's Cathedral and most of the city authorities' buildings. Although it's estimated that seven-eighths of the city's inhabitants' homes were destroyed, the recorded death toll is quite small - probably because the deaths of poor and middle class people were not recorded. Starting in a bakery just after midnight on 2 September 1666, the fire raged across the city for four days. It is difficult to imagine that this happened without many many deaths.

At 7.30pm on Saturday 12 November 2016, the choral ensemble Myriad with conductor David Todd marked the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire. At St Stephen, Walbrook, 39 Walbrook, London EC4N 8BN, UK (close to Bank and Cannon Street stations), music contemporary with the Great Fire from Tomkins, Locke and Blow, plus works by Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Morten Lauridsen were interspersed with readings by John Hocking of contemporary writing from the time, including some of the eye-witness accounts of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.

Consistent themes throughout the concert were David Todd's arrangement of London's Burning, plus madrigals setting texts about fire, also providing opportunities to compare different composers' settings of the same text. In the case of American composer Morten Lauridsen (born 1943), this was especially interesting since he spent much of his working life as a professional fire-fighter.

There was also the chance to hear the beautiful fifteen-minute work The World is Burning for choir and tam-tam by English composer John Tavener (1944-2013), with M&V editor Keith Bramich on tam-tam, replacing an indisposed Paul Blundell.

Myriad is a choral ensemble based in London, exploring a range of themes and musical connections through various artistic projects. Whether exploring genres, events, places or people, Myriad aims through music to bring relevance to the past, while stimulating ideas for the future through its present collaborations.

English conductor, repetiteur and organist David Todd studied Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and prior to this at Oxford University. His work is increasingly taking him abroad: he holds the post of Guest Conductor of the choir of Turku Cathedral, Finland, has worked for the Swiss-Italian Conservatoire in Switzerland, and as Associate Repetiteur for the Lyric Opera Studio in Weimar, Germany.

In September 2016, David moved to be based in Glasgow with the Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, but also continues to work in London with Myriad on a range of project-based concerts.

Information: myriadsingers.co.uk

Posted: 13 November 2016

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