Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

Pretty self-explanatory
sweetest punch
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.lavozdealmeria.com/noticia/ ... -y-brodsky

http://www.ocal.es/evento2.php?id=163

28 MIÉRCOLES JULIO 2021
CONCIERTO CARTAS A JULIETA
22:30, Patio de los Espartales, Rodalquilar

Festival "Clásicos en el Parque"

Juliet Letters (Cartas a Julieta) - Obra de Elvis Costello y Cuarteto Brodsky

Cantante: Thomas Vikström

Cuarteto de Cuerda de la OCAL

Primer violín: José Vélez
Segundo violín: Salvador Esteve
Viola: Clara García
Violonchelo: Paloma García

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Last edited by sweetest punch on Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.teleprensa.com/articulo/alm ... 85686.html

27 DE JULIO - Concierto Cartas a Julieta

Juliet Letters (Cartas a Julieta) E. Costello / Brodsky

Cantante: Thomas Vikström

Cuarteto de Cuerda de la OCAL

Claustro de la Catedral - Almería, 22.00h
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.carpediemstringquartet.com/ ... et-letters

NOTHING SHINES AS BRIGHT - THE JULIET LETTERS

Saturday, March 5, 2022
5:00 PM 7:00 PM
Worthington United Methodist Church
600 High St Worthington, OH 43085 (map)
CARPE DIEM STRING QUARTET
WITH GUEST ARTISTS JAROD OGIER & ANNIKA SOCOLOFSKY

ELVIS COSTELLO Selected Songs from The Juliet Letters
ANNIKA SOCOLOFSKY Like a Diamond
MOZART String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.papercitymag.com/events/roc ... -messages/

ROCO Connections: Mixed Messages
OCTOBER 09, 2021

What
Be one of the first to experience POST as ROCO’s Connections series opens Saturday, October 9th with “Mixed Messages”, a celebration of World Post Day—live from Houston’s newest downtown cultural destination.

See the stunning transformation of the former Barbara Jordan Post Office in an evening honoring the art of the letter, featuring the ROCO String Quartet led by concertmaster Scott St. John in selections from Elvis Costello’s Juliet Letters, sung by baritone Eduardo Tercero—in collaboration with Houston Contemporary Dance Company, led by Founding Artistic Director Marlana Doyle, and Houston Poet Laureate Outspoken Bean, presenting performances inspired by letters among artists.

Doors open at 7pm for Social Hour with bar, and Performances start at 8pm. Tickets start at $45, VIP and General Admission tickets available.
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/cl ... t-16524807

Review: ROCO christens the city’s newest entertainment venue, POST Houston
At first, it's hard to think about anything besides those stairs.Spanning four flights over three generous stories, the double-helix staircase at POST Houston's retail atrium utterly dominates its…

At first, it’s hard to think about anything besides those stairs.

Spanning four flights over three generous stories, the double-helix staircase at POST Houston’s retail atrium utterly dominates its space. Looking up, it resembles one X on top of another. Its gold railings, wide marble steps, and green accents feel like something out of MC Escher's imagination, maybe a vintage Gene Kelly production number.

It’s true, “chamber music” may not immediately spring to mind when considering Lovett Commercial’s mixed-use makeover of the former Barbara Jordan Post Office, slated to officially open in a few weeks. But ROCO has a knack for well-curated concerts in unorthodox locales, and parking a string quartet at the foot of those monumental stairs certainly qualifies.

The atrium’s tenants haven’t quite moved in yet, which Saturday night left the space feeling especially raw for Mixed Messages, the season opener of ROCO’s Connections series. The innovative local chamber orchestra and Houston Contemporary Dance Company, the concert’s co-producers, made this cavernous stretch of concrete, glass walls, and HVAC ducts hum with creative energy. Surprisingly enough, the acoustics carried just fine.

It was also World Post Day, a chance to reflect on the lost art of letter-writing. The centerpiece of the hour-long program was Elvis Costello’s “The Juliet Letters,” his 1993 pop/classical collaboration with the UK-based Brodsky Quartet. That project germinated after the “Watching the Detectives” singer saw Brodsky perform a complete cycle of Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets.

For ROCO, always making connections, that meant Mixed Messages opened with two movements from Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 1. The ROCO String Quartet — concertmaster Scott St. John, violinist Ben Grube, violist Rainel Joubert, and cellist Shino Hayashi — opened with a haunting melody that slowly spread from viola to violins, exuding an almost mystical calm. Darkening harmonies created a brief moment of tension, before a brighter section restored a deep-seated feeling of peace. The second movement found the players exploring a vibrant theme over Hayashi’s sturdy backbone until a dramatic finish.

Next, guest performer Outspoken Bean descended the stairs from the top floor, near the entrance to the five-acre Skylawn rooftop garden. Opening with a good-natured riff on “On the Road Again” by Texas icon Willie Nelson — who christens POST Houston’s 5,000-seat 713 Music Hall on Nov. 17 — Houston’s poet laureate delivered memorable lines (“broken crayons color outside the lines”), rapid-fire retail jargon, and some potent thoughts on identity, love, and the power of “regular people.”

According to Elvis Costello’s liner notes, the vignettes of “The Juliet Letters” were inspired by a man in Verona, Italy, who took it upon himself to answer letters addressed to Shakespeare’s ill-fated romantic heroine. Costello’s febrile imagination did the rest. Saturday, the ROCO strings and tenor Panamanin-born tenor Eduardo Alberto Tercero brought these letters to life with no small amount of brooding and pathos. Although his vocals tended to sweeten Costello’s snider moments, the singer also channeled moments of real anguish.

As choreographed by HCD founder Marlana Doyle, roughly two dozen dancers filled the atrium’s stairs with white-clad bodies, sometimes swaying, sometimes standing stock-still, and sometimes sitting down and tossing crumpled-up papers onto the floor. Often they scanned the area as if searching for something, or someone.

Using the stairs as a sort of vertical stage, they lent a distinctly dreamlike feeling to the performance, amplifying the evening’s themes of communication and miscommunication — by embracing and pulling away, for example — through purposeful movements and rough-hewn grace.
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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sweetest punch wrote:https://phoenixcollective.com.au/2021

THE JULIET LETTERS
Phoenix Collective Quartet & Jacqui Dark, Concert #4
November 26th - 28th

A song cycle for voice and string quartet written by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet.

“So there was this professor in Verona who answered letters addressed to Juliet [Capulet]....

Well, if that sounds like the start of a tall story I suppose it is… Quite how he came by these letters in the first place remains unclear. We can only make a guess as to their content. After all, these people were writing to an imaginary woman, and a dead imaginary woman at that. Perhaps they were simply scholarly enquiries, or letters of sympathy from others disappointed in love, or even a plea from somebody forced into an unhappy arranged marriage. Whatever was contained in those letters and their replies, the idea of this correspondence provided our initial inspiration.” - Elvis Costello

These are those letters, in song form, sung by internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano, multiple Helpmann award and Green Room award winner, principal artist with Opera Australia and cabaret superstar, Jacqueline Dark, together with the Phoenix Collective Quartet.

November:
26th - Canberra 6pm & 7:30pm - Wesley Music Centre
27th - Sydney - 2:30pm - Hunter Baillie, Annandale
28th - Central Coast 2:30pm - Greenway Chapel
Individual tickets on sale closer to date.

Image
https://citynews.com.au/2021/slow-to-st ... e-on-time/

Slow to start, Juliet’s ‘Letters’ arrive on time

Music / “The Juliet Letters”, The Phoenix Collective with Jacqueline Dark. At Wesley Music Centre, November 26. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD

THE idea behind “The Juliet Letters” was a newspaper report about a Veronese academic who supposedly answered letters written to Shakespeare’s character Juliet Capulet.

There are many unanswered questions about how and why this would happen, but it was the stimulation for English singer and songwriter Elvis Costello to work with the Brodsky Quartet to write a set of songs based on imaginary letters to loved ones that was originally performed and recorded by them in the early ’90s with a number of subsequent performances and theatrical productions by other musicians and singers.

For this performance the vocalist was mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Dark, who works variously in opera, musical theatre and cabaret.

This background suited the style of the work, though at times there was a little too much theatricality in her presentation.

The songs themselves are a mix. Some recall 19th century lieder, others could be from a Sondheim musical, a Berlin cabaret of the ’20s or Costello’s pop-song catalogue.

In some ways it sounds like it should not work as a suite, but it does, building in interest over the hour or so the 20 songs and short instrumentals take to perform.

The first 10 minutes or so was a little disjointed. The quartet did not quite gel, and it all seemed a bit stilted, but the fourth song, “I Almost Had a Weakness”, brought the performance together. This is a jaunty pop song built around a repeated riff from the strings and the performance lifted from there. The quartet was tighter, there was more eye contact going on, everyone seemed to relax a bit and they looked like they were enjoying themselves rather more.

The Phoenix Collective specialises in contemporary music that resists easy categorisation, while staying within the broad field of “art music”, which makes them always interesting to see and hear, with a mix of fine musicianship and an enquiring curiosity about musical styles and ways to present the music.

This was a memorable concert.

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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://do214.com/events/2022/3/10/neo- ... rs-tickets

NEO CAMERATA WITH SERGIO CEPEDA: ELVIS COSTELLO’S THE JULIET LETTERS
Thu Mar 10 6:30PM
$28 to $384, All Ages
​The Kessler Theater

Neo Camerata performs the profoundly moving early 1990’s song cycle collaboration between Elvis Costello, one of the era’s greatest pop rock singer-songwriters, and the Brodsky String Quartet, one of Britain’s leading classical string quartets of the time, in a concert presented by Voces Intimae and the Open Classical Artist Series.

(…)
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.lacote.ch/vaud/la-cote/roll ... ur-1160140

Rolle: «Roméo: Les Lettres», un spectacle dédié à l’amour
Spectacle musical dédié à la parole amoureuse, «Roméo: Les Lettres» passe par le Casino-Théâtre de Rolle. Emotion garantie.

Faire résonner à nos oreilles ce qui s’entrechoque dans l’amour (la lumière, le désir, la désillusion), tel est l’espoir porté par «Roméo: Les Lettres» à découvrir au Casino-Théâtre. Ou comment la chanson et l’art épistolaire dessinent les contours de notre carte du Tendre.

Dans ce spectacle musical, les textes d’Odile Cornuz sondent le corps transi et l’esprit tourmenté d’une Juliette aux multiples facettes. Sur scène, ils sont servis par la superbe voix de la mezzo Carine Séchaye entourée du quatuor Sine Nomine.

Une chanteuse et quatre instrumentistes: autant de présences, de porte-voix d’un sentiment bien plus grand qu’elles, dont William Shakespeare a dramatisé l’issue. Le dispositif polyphonique mis en scène par François Renou fait par ailleurs écho à l’album «The Juliet Letters», écrit en 1993 par Elvis Costello, rocker proche du punk, avec le quatuor à cordes Brodsky Quartet.

Trente ans plus tard, le mystère de l’adresse à l’être aimé demeure: entre lamento et allegretto, légèreté et tonalité dramatique, l’état amoureux circule grâce à la musique de Daniel Perrin et Lee Maddeford, effleuré par des mots qui parlent au-delà de tous les amoureux particuliers.

Informations pratiques
«Roméo: Les lettres», Casino Théâtre, Rolle. Ve 04.03 20h; sa 05.03 19h; di 06.03 17h.

Plein tarif 28.-/ Tarif réduit 22.- / Enfants 17.-/Passculture 8.-

Infos et réservations sur www.theatre-rolle.ch

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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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The Juliet Letters with the Flemish Radio Choir and the Helikon Quartet: https://www.bijloke.be/programma/2300/V ... et_Letters

The Juliet Letters
Vlaams Radiokoor & Helikon Quartet
za 6 mei 2023

Elvis Costello
The Juliet Letters (versie voor koor en strijkkwartet)

Muziek van Anna Clyne, Percy Grainger, Augusta Read Thomas, Hakan Parkman, Judith Bingham, Charles Villiers Stanford, Jake Runestad & Gavin Bryars
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://limelightmagazine.com.au/event/ ... t-letters/

Brunswick Ballroom: The Juliet Letters
25 May @ 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm AEST

In 1993, Elvis Costello in conjunction with The Brodsky Quartet penned The Juliet Letters – a song cycle with string quartet and voice. Against all predictions, the live-recorded classically leaning album, comprised of imaginary letters to Juliet Capulet, climbed the charts worldwide. For one show only, The Crossing Machine will breathe new life into the album, in a stage production at The Brunswick Ballroom. For this show, The Crossing Machine will be joined by Adam Starr, versatile and enigmatic singer from the band Frock.

The Crossing Machine is an established, Melbourne-based string quartet, bringing together some of the most in demand string players in the country. Collectively, they have worked with Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Jimmy Barnes, Peter Frampton, Barry Humphries, Billy Thorpe, Guy Sebastian, Kate Ceberano and Circus Oz.
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.toledosymphony.com/22-23-se ... er-series/

Buckeye Broadband & The Blade Chamber: The Juliet Letters
Sunday, January 29, 2023, 7PM
The Toledo Club

Elizabeth Raum: Relationships
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F major (Op. 18, No. 1)
Elvis Costello: Selections from The Juliet Letters

Elizabeth Raum's trio for horn, trombone, and tuba has a sly humor that evokes the style of Elvis Costello's Juliet Letters. The slow movement of Beethoven's first string quartet is rumored to be inspired by the scene at Juliet's tomb.  

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Last edited by sweetest punch on Thu Jul 14, 2022 9:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-franc ... n-20220713

Berkeley Symphony Announces 2022-23 Season

(…)
The Chamber Series continues on Sunday, February 5, 2023 with Winter of Love, featuring Romance for violin and piano by Amy Beach; selections from Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters, for baritone and string quartet, and Johannes Brahms' Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25.
(…)
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Re: Arminio Quartett and Mylène Kroon play The Juliet Letters

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sweetest punch wrote:Arminio Quartett and Mylène Kroon play The Juliet Letters: https://www.wildwechsel.de/wildwechsel- ... aus-99233/
This link is now dead, but from this page and from Mylène Kroon's website we can tell that the Arminio Quartett and Mylène Kroon played a show entitled "The Juliet Letters" at Deelenhaus at Kleine Bühne Paderborn in Germany on June 16, 2018. They played the same show together two days' previously in Schubertplatz, Detmold, Germany.

This is a compilation of extracts from some songs from The Juliet Letters that appear to have been recorded live, although there is no video.



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Vlaams Radiokoor & Helikon Quartet perform The Juliet Letters, May 2023

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sweetest punch wrote:The Juliet Letters with the Flemish Radio Choir and the Helikon Quartet: https://www.bijloke.be/programma/2300/V ... et_Letters

The Juliet Letters
Vlaams Radiokoor & Helikon Quartet
za 6 mei 2023

Vlaams Radiokoor & Helikon Quartet are also performing on 4 May, 2023 at Jezuïetenkerk in Liers and on 5 May, 2023 at Flagey in Brussels with Laetitia Gerards (soprano)

Lierscultuurcentrum.be

Flagey.be

The program for the first concert is interesting in that songs from The Juliet Letters alternate with other pieces. The Juliet Letters pieces are diverse in themselves, so not sure how far that is necessary :

"Ach, de Liefde: die verblindende passie die alles verteert, dat ideaalbeeld van Romeo en Julia - maar ook de ontgoocheling en desillusie, de rauwe pijn van onverschilligheid of verraad. Het Vlaams Radiokoor laat de twee gezichten van de Liefde aan het woord. In The Juliet Letters, een reeks songs geschreven door Elvis Costello en het Brodsky Quartet, zijn dat dramatische en soms cynische reflecties op de liefde. Tegenwerk en geloof in de schoonheid van de liefde komt uit lieflijke koorwerken van zowel mannelijke als vrouwelijke componisten.

“I thought I'd write to Juliet, for she would understand.” Zo begint één van de songs die Elvis Costello en het Brodsky Quartet samen schreven voor het album The Juliet Letters. Een krantenartikel over een professor in Verona die brieven aan Juliet Capulet beantwoordde én een toevallige ontmoeting tussen de Britse songwriter en het strijkkwartet, meer was er niet nodig om deze bijzondere muzikale samenwerking op de rails te zetten. Alle 5 muzikanten schreven mee aan de muziek en de teksten, bedenkend wat de professor te lezen kreeg in de brieven - en vooral: wat het antwoord zou kunnen zijn…

“I once loved someone the way that you do
But I had to let her go
I lived with my regret
Don't despair, my would-be Juliet”

Als tegengif voor de soms droevig sarcastische songs zweven en zalven bitterzoete a capella werken doorheen het programma, en laten het andere gelaat van de liefde naar boven drijven.

Vlaams Radiokoor
Helikon, strijkkwartet
Laetitia Gerards, vocals
Marcus Creed, dirigent
  • Anna Clyne, Pocket Book VIII
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, Deliver Us
    Percy Grainger, Love At First Sight
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, I Thought I'd Write to Juliet
    Augusta Read Thomas, Love Songs: Love is a beautiful dream
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, This Offer Is Unrepeatable
    Hakan Parkman & William Shakespeare, 3 Shakespeare Songs: No. 2. Sonnet 147 (My Love Is As a Fever)
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, Romeo's Seance
    Judith Bingham, The Drowned Lovers
    Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, 8 Part-Songs, Op.119: No. 3, The Blue Bird
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, I Almost Had a Weakness
    Augusta Read Thomas, Love Songs : Alas, the love of woman
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, For Other Eyes
    Jake Runestad, Let My Love Be Heard
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, Who Do You Think You Are?
    Gavin Bryars, Two Love Songs: No. 2, Solo et pensoso
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, Dead Letter
    Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet, The First to Leave
    Anna Clyne, Pocket book LXV
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The Crossing Machine and Doug Kelly perform The Juliet Letters in Melbourne, May 2019

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sweetest punch wrote:
In 1993, Elvis Costello in conjunction with The Brodsky Quartet penned The Juliet Letters – a song cycle with string quartet and voice. Against all predictions, the live-recorded classically leaning album, comprised of imaginary letters to Juliet Capulet, climbed the charts worldwide. For one show only, The Crossing Machine will breathe new life into the album, in a stage production at The Brunswick Ballroom. For this show, The Crossing Machine will be joined by Adam Starr, versatile and enigmatic singer from the band Frock.

The Crossing Machine is an established, Melbourne-based string quartet, bringing together some of the most in demand string players in the country. Collectively, they have worked with Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey, Elton John, Jimmy Barnes, Peter Frampton, Barry Humphries, Billy Thorpe, Guy Sebastian, Kate Ceberano and Circus Oz.
The Crossing Machine's website helpfully lists all their performances of The Juliet Letters since 2018. They continue to perform.

This video recording is from May 2019 when they performed with Doug Kelly at The Butterfly Club in Melbourne. Doug does a pretty good job although his performance is a little "static" because he's holding the score in both hands. Perhaps a lectern or music stand would have been an idea?



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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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sweetest punch wrote: NOTHING SHINES AS BRIGHT - THE JULIET LETTERS

Saturday, March 5, 2022
Worthington United Methodist Church
CARPE DIEM STRING QUARTET
WITH GUEST ARTISTS JAROD OGIER

ELVIS COSTELLO Selected Songs from The Juliet Letters
Recording of The Juliet Letters songs at the link below. Starts about 46 minutes in:



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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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https://www.toledo.com/events/2023/01/2 ... ledo-club/

The Juliet Letters with TSO at the Toledo Club
Category: Concerts & Live Music
Toledo.com › Events › The Juliet Letters with TSO at the Toledo Club
Event Date: Sunday, January 29, 2023

Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Location:
Toledo Club
235 14th Street
Toledo, Oh 43604


Event Details:
Elizabeth Raum: Relationships
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F major (Op. 18, No. 1)
Elvis Costello: Selections from The Juliet Letters

Elizabeth Raum's trio for horn, trombone, and tuba has a sly humor that evokes the style of Elvis Costello's Juliet Letters. The slow movement of Beethoven's first string quartet is rumored to be inspired by the scene at Juliet's tomb.  
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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ROCO’s performance of The Juliet Letters on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CyMpZG2CxgA
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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sweetest punch wrote:https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-franc ... n-20220713

Berkeley Symphony Announces 2022-23 Season

(…)
The Chamber Series continues on Sunday, February 5, 2023 with Winter of Love, featuring Romance for violin and piano by Amy Beach; selections from Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters, for baritone and string quartet, and Johannes Brahms' Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25.
(…)
https://operawire.com/berkeley-symphony ... l-friends/

The Berkeley Symphony is set to present its chamber concert “Winter of Love.”

The symphony’s artistic director René Mandel along with baritone Bruce Rameker, pianist Britt Day, violist Joy Fellows, violinist Stephanie Bibbo, and cellist Evan Kahn will perform works by Amy Beach, Elvis Costello, and Johannes Brahms. Piece include “Romance for Violin and Piano” by Amy Beach, selections from “The Juliet Letters for Baritone and String Quartet” by Elvis Costello, and “Piano Quartet in G Minor,” Op. 25 by Johannes Brahms.

“Winter of Love is inspired by the season of romance and love that February represents,” said Mandel in the official press release. “The program stems from Elvis Costello’s The Juliet Letters, an extraordinary work for baritone and string quartet, that takes the audience on a rich and passionate journey through the human condition. The concert opens with a rediscovered and utterly gorgeous piece for violin and piano by Amy Beach, which was composed over a hundred years ago for Maud Powell, among the most famous solo violinists of her time. We round out Winter of Love with Brahms’ romantically emotive and dazzling G minor Piano Quartet.”

The performance takes place at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Piedmont, CA on Feb. 5. The concert begins at 4 p.m.
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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

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May 13, 2023 was the 30th anniversary of the release of The Juliet Letters.

To mark the occasion, Jan Bidner & Umakvartetten played the album in full, live in Burmans Musik store in Umeå, Sweden. You can watch their performance in two parts here:



and here:


In the first video, the performance starts at 07:25 secs, after some tuning up. The record store had assembled an impressive collection of vinyl, shown in this screen capture:
2023-05-13 Umea Burmans Musik
2023-05-13 Umea Burmans Musik
2023-05-13 Umea Burmans Musik.jpg (104.88 KiB) Viewed 25156 times


Enjoy...

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Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.rockol.it/news-738454/elvis ... tova?amp=1

"The Juliet Letters" di Elvis Costello live con QuartettOCMantova
A Mantova sarà eseguito l'album originariamente inciso da Costello con il quartetto d'archi Brodsky

Il prossimo venerdì 21 luglio, nella cornice di Palazzo Ducale a Mantova e in occasione della rassegna “Risonanze Ducali”, andrà in scena l'esecuzione di "The Juliet Letters" di Elvis Costello. Il disco, originariamente inciso dal musicista britannico con il quartetto d'archi Brodsky Quartete e pubblicato nel 1993, sarà eseguito dalla voce di Blagoj Nackoski e il QuartettOCMantova.

L'album venne descritto da Costello come una sequenza di canzoni in venti quadri ispirati ad altrettante, ipotetiche lettere inviate all'indirizzo "Giulietta Capuleti - Verona". “C’era una volta un professore a Verona che rispondeva alle lettere indirizzate a Giulietta... Beh, se questo suona come l’inizio di una storia incredibile, sappiate che in realtà lo è", ha dichiarato Elvis Costello nella presentazione di “The Juliet Letters”, ripresa da un comunicato stampa.

L’appuntamento con l'esecuzione dal vivo di “The Juliet Letters”, parte della rassegna “Risonanze Ducali” promossa dal Museo di Palazzo Ducale di Mantova con il sostegno del Ministero della Cultura, si terrà presso la Sala dei Fiumi, in una produzione originale presentata dall’Associazione Filarmonica di Rovereto. L’ingresso prevede l’acquisto del biglietto del museo. Per informazioni: https://www.mantovaducale.beniculturali ... nze-ducali

The Juliet Letters
di Elvis Costello
Mantova, Sala dei Fiumi di Palazzo Ducale | venerdì 21 luglio 2023 ore 20.30
Rovereto, Mart | sabato 7 ottobre 2023 ore 20.45
Blagoj Nacoski, tenore
quartettOCMantova
Luca Braga e Pierantonio Cazzulani, violini | Klaus Manfrini, viola | Paolo Perucchetti, violoncello
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
Posts: 5961
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.kpbs.org/events/2023/09/08/ ... et-letters

The 'Juliet Letters'
Friday, September 8, 2023 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM
Art Produce
Free
Quartet Nouveau returns to the garden at Art Produce joined by baritone Jonathan Nussman for a free community concert. This one hour performance features the "Juliet Letters" by Elvis Costello and The Brodsky Quartet. This piece was inspired by a Veronese academic who had taken on the task of replying to letters addressed to "Juliet Capulet." The idea of what was in these letters provided the inspiration for this work and Costello said about the music, "It's not a rock opera. It's a new thing." Quartet Nouveau is a San Diego based string quartet and is happy to collaborate with Jonathan whose varied interests include opera, theater, improvisation and chamber music.

Art Produce

3139 University Ave.
San Diego, California 92104
619-584-4448
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
Posts: 5961
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 5:49 am
Location: Belgium

Re: Cover versions of The Juliet Letters

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... v8tvmBOYh8

How we made

Elvis Costello on writing The Juliet Letters: ‘It initially caused panic’
‘It’s been translated into different languages, there’s a version for a cabaret band – and the songs have been covered many times. Björk’s version of Why? is better than mine!’

Elvis Costello, singer, co-writer/arranger

When I wasn’t on the road I would go five or six days a week to classical concerts. The Brodsky Quartet were playing the complete Shostakovich quartets in London one season and I went to hear them all. After one lunchtime concert, I met the group and we got on immediately. They were down to earth and we discovered a shared love of football and cake. We started talking about doing something together as a quintet – something other than just attaching a string quartet to a pop song like a varnish.

It was my then partner who pointed out the news story to me in the Guardian, about letters sent to “Juliet Capulet” in Verona. It caught my imagination – it seemed magical and fanciful, and that became our starting point, songs that were all different types of letters.

Most of my listening was classical and jazz: music not driven so much by the beat but by harmony and texture. We all contributed ideas, music, lyrics and arrangements. Up to that point I had always composed by ear, so for the first few weeks I would play something on the piano or sing the parts and the quartet would transcribe it. I’m not that reliable a pianist and I would often play things slightly differently each time. They were incredibly patient.

After a while I was shamed into getting to grips with learning how to read and write music – I needed to learn the relationship between the bass and the treble clef, which had always been a mystery. It was like a door opening, and by the end of our writing The Juliet Letters, my final compositions were written in full for each player, directly from my head.

With singable tunes, textures and harmonies from classical music alongside twists of rhythm and tempo there was a kind of panic about the record initially. What is it? What is it about? We had to accept that some people either wanted it to be Oliver’s Army or Bartók. There’s a common assumption that anything you do that isn’t what you did first must be hubris. I really can’t help people with that notion. That’s their own lack of curiosity that they’re speaking to. I don’t do things to say: “How do I look doing this?” That’s too much work! You have to be doing it with your whole heart otherwise why would you bother?

We launched it in a 250-seater church. It was probably the only time they had had to deal with ticket touts

The Juliet Letters has become a repertoire piece. It’s been translated into different languages. There’s a reorchestrated version for a cabaret band. I’ve seen an adaptation in Gothenberg where the songs were wound into a narrative. It’s been made into a piece of contemporary dance, and the songs have been covered many times. Björk’s version of Why? is better than mine!

Jacqueline Thomas, cellist, co-writer/arranger

People were asking us: “Did you see who was in your audience?” We knew and loved Elvis Costello’s music and had been to his concerts too. Like us, he was on Warner and the record company arranged for us to meet. We chatted like old friends and realised we had all kinds of musical interests in common. Our world is of course one where we play other people’s music – an amazing array of repertoire – but you don’t often get to write your own. Composing and collaborating with one of the greatest living songsmiths had certainly not been in our thoughts, but by the end of the afternoon we were all daring to think that maybe we could do something together.

We started thinking about the combination of voice and string quartet. The concept of letters came up quickly. We made lists of different types, from love letters to circulars, pyramid letters to suicide notes.

And we swapped mix tapes. It wasn’t just Elvis sending us pop songs and us sending him chamber music: we had similar tastes and inspirations from across many musical worlds. Within a few days we were scribbling down ideas. One of us might come in with a fragment – just a line – while another might have a complete chorus, or someone else a texture out of which the song would grow. About 50% of the original material was Elvis’s, the other half was us, but people assumed that he wrote everything and we simply made the arrangements and were backing him. He went to great lengths to put people right on that; all interviews and photoshoots were with the whole ensemble, and we performed as a quintet with him among us.

Working with Elvis gave us a new window into performance. From that moment on, we performed standing up.

There are all kinds of secret pearls within the songs – quotes from or references to music we love – and varied musical styles to suit the songs, from Bachian suspensions in Deliver Us, to flamenco riffs in Romeo’s Seance, a hurdy-gurdy effect built from a Bartók chord in Who Do You Think You Are? And the sound of war sirens screeching out in I Thought I’d Write to Juliet was Michael Thomas’s violin. When people heard us perform it live, they would say “Wow, I didn’t think I’d get to hear everything on the album as I couldn’t imagine you were actually producing these sounds!” Working with Elvis gave us a new window into performance and being more communicative with the audience. From that moment on, we performed standing up.

The first performance was at the Amadeus Centre in London. People didn’t believe Elvis Costello was turning up to this 250-seater church in the middle of Maida Vale to perform with us – it was probably the only time the venue had had to deal with ticket touts and queues around the block.

People from both our worlds were shocked by the album. We risked being considered not serious, and Elvis faced similar biases – even his manager was having trouble getting behind it. So the world tour was incredibly short compared to most album promo-tours. It was just one month. At the end of the American leg, the head of the record company came over and said: “Why didn’t you tell us it was going to be so great? Sales have exceeded all expectation. We could have done two more months in the US alone!” We tried to tell you, we said.

A new 30th anniversary edition of the score, edited by Jacqueline Thomas and Paul Cassidy, published exclusively by Hal Leonard is published on 15 September.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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