Peace on earth

Here's the sermon that I shared during Midnight Mass at St Catherine’s Wickford:

One of my favourite rock bands is U2 whose lead singer and lyricist, Bono, is a big fan of the Psalms. He has written that a lot of the psalms feel to him like the blues. Man shouting at God - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?" – and some of the songs he has written do the same.

In ‘Peace on Earth’ he writes:

“Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on Earth …

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So, what's it worth?
This peace on Earth”

It was over 2,000 years ago that that glorious song of old was first sung by angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold: "Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven's all-gracious King." So where is it? Why hasn’t it come? These are good questions to ask. Good questions to shout at God, just as occurs in the Psalms and in the blues.

While the Psalms and the blues pose questions, our carols may provide some answers. The carol I’ve just quoted, ‘It came upon a midnight clear’, acknowledges the lack of peace that we find in the world:

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;”

But the problem is then put firmly back in our own court:

“And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.”

The wars we wage throughout our lives drown out the song of the angels and mean that we pay no attention to the peace that the Christ-child came to bring. That is also what our reading from John’s Gospel said:

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God …”

We have to recognize and receive him in order to access the peace that he brings, as another carol, ‘Joy to the World’, says clearly:

“Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,”

So tonight, on this silent, holy night, the questions turn back to us. Are we hushing the noise of our strife sufficiently to hear the song of peace which the angels sing? Are we preparing room in our hearts for Christ to be born or are we like the innkeepers who said, “No room.” Are we recognizing and receiving him into our lives in order to become children of God?

You’ll probably have heard the slogan of the Dog’s Trust, ‘a dog is for life, not just for Christmas.’ Perhaps we need to adapt that slogan to say, ‘Christ is for life, not just for Christmas’ because it is only when we live as Christ lived that the peace he brings comes in our own lives and also between those we know. It is when we live as Christ lived that we give time and care to those who are housebound or elderly; that we feed those who are hungry, that we provide shelter for those who are homeless, that we open our homes to those who are refugees and asylum seekers. All the kinds of actions that the churches in Wickford and Runwell try to take as we seek to follow in the footsteps of Christ and to live, however imperfectly, as he lived.

It is when we live as Christ lived that he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love. It is when we live as Christ lived that the new heaven and earth shall own the Prince of Peace, their King, and the whole world send back the song which now the angels sing.

If we, like Bono, are sick of all of the hanging around - sick of sorrow, sick of the pain, sick of hearing again and again that there's gonna be peace on Earth – then we need to prepare room for Christ to be born in our hearts so that we will live as Christ lived and bring peace on earth – to our lives, our friends and family, our community and world. May it be so for us this Christmas. Amen.

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U2 - Peace On Earth.

Church Times: Returning Journeys by Andrew Vessey at St Edmundsbury Cathedral

My latest review for Church Times is of Returning Journeys by Andrew Vessey at St Edmundsbury Cathedral:

'Vessey is an artist of integration, with a unitive vision, seeing God and stories interwoven within landscape. Christ and an angel underpin several of these landscapes, while light irradiates and illuminates from deep within. Images within images, paintings within paintings, are all set in a chapel within a chapel: visual and spiritual depth held together.'

Vessey thinks the particular duty of the artist who is a Christian is to develop images and symbols that stretch the meaning of our inherited biblical visual vocabulary.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?

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Rev Simpkins - Plough Sunday.

ArtWay - Sidney Nolan: Angel over Ely

My latest Visual Meditation for ArtWay focuses on 'Angel over Ely' by Sidney Nolan:

'Sidney Nolan was one of Australia's best-known artists from the 20th century, his reputation resting primarily on paintings of Australian landscapes and legends from Australian history, most famously Ned Kelly, the bushranger and outlaw. However, his work is also among the most diverse in modern art, with images in a wide variety of mediums as he worked quickly in series and regularly innovated in his use of materials.

Angel over Ely was painted using ink and enamel on glass and is one of over 130 such paintings Nolan produced between 1948 and 1951. Nolan painted this image after a visit to Ely Cathedral in England during the winter of 1950–51, while staying with his wife Cynthia’s sister in Cambridge. The image represents the moment when religious symbolism returned to his repertoire, inspired by the thought of angels over the cathedral and a subsequent trip to Italy. The subject of floating or flying angels then recurs constantly in his magnificent religious series of 1951/52 set against an Australian outback landscape.

Nolan wrote to fellow artist Albert Tucker in 1951 saying: "Our trip to Europe forced a few vigorous conclusions on me. The outstanding one being that the painters who moved me most (El Greco & Giotto) seemed men primarily of faith."'

For more on Sidney Nolan see my preview for Artlyst of Sidney Nolan: Colour of the Sky – Auschwitz Paintings and Sidney Nolan's Africa, my interview with Andrew Turley.

My visual meditations include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Jake Flood, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Lakwena Maciver, S. Billie Mandle, Giacomo Manzù, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Nicola Ravenscroft, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton, Anna Sikorska, Jan Toorop, Edmund de Waal and Sane Wadu.

My Church of the Month reports include: All Saints Parish Church, Tudeley, Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, St Michael and All Angels Berwick and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Blogs for ArtWay include: Congruity and controversy: exploring issues for contemporary commissions;
Photographing Religious Practice; Spirituality and/in Modern Art; and The Spirituality of the Artist-Clown.

Interviews for ArtWay include: Sophie Hacker and Peter Koenig. I also interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar Rookmaaker for Artlyst.

I have reviewed: Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace, Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe and Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals.

Other of my writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also
Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?

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Love - Orange Skies.

Foyer Display: Alice Bree

The changing monthly display by the artists' and craftspeople's group in the Foyer of the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields for October is by Alice Bree. Each month a different member of the group or artists linked to it will show examples of their work, so do look regularly to see the changing display.

Alice writes:

‘I had always found abstraction in art difficult to understand. “How do people set about it,” I thought? I decided to attend a course in abstract drawing. The course was exciting, the teacher lively and positive. I was unprepared though for the influence it would have on me. I knew at a deep level as I painted the first painting “Jacob’s Ladder of Prayer” that it was a prayer.

A series emerged with a theme of the sea and the way the tide comes on to the beach in ever overlapping frothing arcs. In the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, he sees the sea of faith ebbing to such a degree that it seems as if it will never return. That was then. I see an incoming tide flowing and ever in flux. Is that what is happening now - a revival? In these turbulent times, not just in Britain, but in the world I begin to wonder if, as in Romans 8 v 22 & 23 (translation from ‘The Message’ by Eugene Peterson): “All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply the birth pangs. But it is not only around us, it’s within us, the Spirit of God is arousing us, within.”

At St Martin's we have the contemplative Nazareth Community and the outgoing HeartEdge Movement, and school children all over the world are leading us in protest against disrespect for our beautiful planet and denial of climate change. As I painted these abstracts, titles emerged from my prayer and study, ‘Meditation,’ ‘the Cloud of Unknowing,’ ‘the Psalms,’ ‘the Lord’s prayer.’ I ask myself can abstract art be a metaphor, a way in which we express spiritual experience, a pared down essence of faith?’.’

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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Ghosteen.

New Roots Artist in Residence.- Valerie Dean

commission4mission's Valerie Dean is the first New Roots Artist in Residence. Valerie’s series of pictures as Artist in Residence on the New Roots website will feature angels. “I think it possible that angels really exist, as messengers of God. In any case they represent the moment when we feel touched by the transcendent and perhaps feel called to respond to God.

I have a print of Fra Angelico’s “Paradise” on my wall. It shows happy angels welcoming people into heaven and it was a great comfort to me at a time of sorrow and loss. Jesus tells us of the rejoicing among the angels over the conversion of a sinner so there is hope for us all!”

Valerie’s first picture as Artist in Residence is available from today.

New Roots seeks to meet the needs of those who ‘believe but don’t belong’, nurturing a place of support, resource and encouragement. Find them here.

New Roots is excited that from July 2018 they will feature an ‘Artist in Residence’ each month and have initially teamed up with commission4mission to begin working with a number of artists. The New Roots Artist in Residence will be invited to profile a number of different works for a month with the first artists featured being from commission4mission.

New Roots are keen to work with artists using different visual mediums – so if you are interested in becoming a ‘New Roots Artist in Residence’ get in touch: bob@newroots.online.

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The Band with Bob Dylan - When I Paint My Masterpiece.

Abiding: What we need is here

Here is my Thought for the Week from the Newsletter at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

In the film Wings of Desire, Damiel is an angel seeking to strengthen what is spiritual in the minds of the people he supports. He is, however, outside of time, in eternity, and therefore can only observe but not experience human life itself. He decides to become human in order ‘to be able to say “Now and now” and no longer “forever” and “for eternity” … At last to guess, instead of always knowing. To be able to say “ah” and “oh” and “hey” instead of “yes” and “amen.”’

In ‘Abiding’, the book we are studying together in Lent, Ben Quash uses the example of Damiel leaving the certainty and the knowledge of eternity to live in the flux and flow of life, in order to explore the Biblical sense that ‘to abide we must journey; to have truth and life (to have true life) we must be always underway.’ Damiel’s embrace of a world in which we (unlike angels) exclaim “Ah!”, and “Oh!”, and “Hey!” is ‘a delicious reversal of that human instinct to eradicate all uncertainty and know everything fully, clearly and precisely.’

Quash writes that ‘A life of growth and surprise and relationship and invention … is the nature of the Way which is also Home.’ As a result, ‘Christian people have been called … to exchange changeless abiding into changeable abiding …’ We abide, he suggests, by fully living life in all its flux and flow.

As a result, this Lent we may wish to echo the prayer of the poet Wendell Berry, who, ends his poem ‘The Wild Geese’ with these words: ‘we pray, not / for new earth or heaven, but to be / quiet in heart, and in eye / clear. What we need is here.’

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Van Morrison - Listen To The Lion.

Angels for Peace

Yesterday we celebrated the finissage of The Shadow of Angels by Kim Poor at St. Stephen Walbrook. Our musical programme for the evening featured Syrian concert pianist Riyad Nicolas and up-and-coming singer/songwriter Katya DJ. The concert was in support of those in crisis in Syria - see Christian Aid's Syria Crisis Appeal.

Edward Lucie Smith and I spoke before the concert. I said the following:

Kim Poor’s art consistently plays with veils of light and colour to evoke mystical atmospheres. Dali thought that to look at her paintings was as if to 'look through coloured gauze', which inspired him to coin the term 'Diaphanism' for her style. So there is much in these paintings that seems to depict a beautiful otherness – one of flowing curves and circling flourishes – yet there is also an engagement with the shattered, splintered experiences of tragedy. This comes most notably in Rosa de Hiroshima, an image of resilience drawn from reflection on Vinicius de Moraes’ poem of the same name. Here, the angel representing the Rose of Hiroshima stands with an indomitable spirit.

Themes of healing and guidance abound in these works, however, which implies a world in need of both. I have been particularly struck over the course of this exhibition by Stigmata, as, while, blood flows from one of the angel’s hands, the other holds stalks of grain. That makes this image a Eucharistic image, as, in the Eucharist, blood is re-presented as wine and grain re-presented as bread. The posture of the angel in Stigmata is the exact same posture as that of the angel in The Healer meaning that we can associate, in this image, the Eucharist with healing. We live in a wounded world where roses are torrid and radioactive, yet there is a source of healing which is found in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.

With that thought in mind it is perhaps appropriate that we are gathered around Henry Moore’s altar tonight, although we have not gathered to celebrate the Eucharist, and also that Stigmata has been positioned in this exhibition to overlook the altar.

To celebrate the Finissage of ‘The Shadow of Angels’ exhibition, we’re presenting a very special evening with perfomances by the celebrated Aleppo-born concert pianist Riyad Nicolas and up and coming singer/songwriter Katya DJ. The fact that Riyad comes from Syria has been the prompt to use this evening as an opportunity to express concern at the bloodshed in that country and to raise funds which may in some small way provide a measure of the healing about which this exhibition has led us to reflect.

Five years of conflict has had devastating effects on the people of Syria. The situation is shocking. Half the country is displaced and more than 4.6 million people are now refugees. More than 400,000 people have been killed.

Christian Aid is working with Syrians in Lebanon and Iraq, providing support to some of the most vulnerable refugees, including women who have experienced gender-based violence, and those with disabilities.

Six-year-old Hammoudi was born in Damascus with complex physical and mental disabilities. He was given two life-saving operations by the Syrian health service, but his third operation was cancelled when violence overtook the country.

More than one in five refugees suffer from some form of impairment, whether from birth, illness, accident, or a conflict-related injury. Syrian refugees with disabilities often can't get the care they need.

Now, with the help of donations to Christian Aid and the work of their partner, Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union (LPHU), Hammoudi has learned to walk for the first time.

Layan is a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon. Sadly, like many Syrian women, she's a victim of domestic violence. During times of conflict, women and girls are at greater risk of sexual and domestic violence. Layan now regularly visits Kafa, a Lebanese organisation that supports women who have experienced, or are at risk of violence.

She said: 'Kafa helped me to get out of the awful situation I was in. I feel that there are people who care and worry about me.' Kafa successfully helped to lobby the Lebanese government to pass a law criminalising domestic violence. The law also applies to Syrian refugees.

These are the kind of people and situations that your donations can help to address. We hope that you will enjoy angelic performances tonight from Riyad Nicholas and Katya DJ, but also hope that you can be angels of peace and angels of healing by giving generously to support refugees from Riyad’s mother country.

CONCERT PROGRAMME

KATYA DJ

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

RIYAD NICOLAS – Piano

Sonata K466 in F Minor
Domenico Scarlatti

Sonata K455 in G Major
Domenico Scarlatti

Sonata No 31 Opus 110 in A Flat Major
- Moderato Cantabile Molto Espressivo
- Allegro Molto
- Adagio Ma Non Troppo / Fuga; Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Ludwig von Beethoven

Polonaise Fantasie Opus 61 in A Flat
Frédéric Chopin

‘Scarbo’ from Gaspard de la Nuit
Maurice Ravel

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Katya DJ - Far From Gone.

The Shadow of Angels

In 2010, the Brazilian artist Kim Poor emerged from a period of creative hibernation as a result of reading The Glory of Angels by her friend and mentor, Edward Lucie-Smith.

Angels, such as her Watcher of the Skies, had featured in her work previously but the exquisite classical and contemporary illustrations of the power of angels in art found in The Glory of Angels catapulted Kim back to life again. She wrote that “these powerful bridges to the unknown have been present throughout mankind’s history to help us and guide us” while, in his book, Edward Lucie-Smith explored how angels guide us by protecting and warning us of danger, healing and comforting us, and urging us to follow God′s path.

It is, therefore, appropriate that Edward has curated Kim’s current exhibition at St Stephen Walbrook, the church where I am Priest-in-charge, as the exhibition entitled The Shadow of Angels focuses exclusively on Kim’s angel paintings.

Kim Poor’s art consistently plays with veils of light and colour to evoke mystical atmospheres. This is particularly so with her diaphanist paintings which use ground glass on steel that is fired countless times until the delicate layers of opaque and transparent glass achieve depth and colour. Salvador Dali thought that to look at these paintings was as if to 'look through coloured gauze', which inspired him to coin the term 'Diaphanism' for her style.

The veiled distortions of poetic dreamscapes that she creates are perfectly suited to the depiction of angels; creatures which may or may not be there, the subjects of belief rather than of sight. Among them we find The Angel of The Hour, where time is vanishing from the clock which the angel holds. Is this an indication that the angel wishes to draw us into the timelessness of eternity or is it an indication of the speed with which we feel our days go by? These ambiguous angels represent our need for reassurance, an illusion or reality in a very unstable world, a manifestation of life and death or the true bridge to the Divine. The Good Samaritan, however, shows us unambiguously that the face of compassion is angelic.

The range of different angels depicted – the Angel of the Stigmata, The Healer, The Messenger - explores the universality of angelic mythology; iconography which is a unifying force throughout time and a connection in all religions and cultures. At the same time, these are also very English angels, whimsical and magical, drawing on the Victorian influences in Kim’s work; the Pre-Raphaelites, Ruskin, Richard Dadd and Lewis Carroll.

While there is much in these paintings that seems to depict a beautiful otherness – one of flowing curves and circling flourishes – there is nevertheless also an engagement with the shattered, splintered experiences of tragedy. Rosa de Hiroshima is an image of resilience drawn from reflection on Vinicius de Moraes’ poem of the same name. Here the angel representing the Rose of Hiroshima stands with an indomitable spirit. Themes of healing and guidance abound implying a world in need of both, while Indomitable finds similar strength in adversity to that of Rosa de Hiroshima in an image of a horse’s head.

Tragedy is sensed again in the installation by Sacha Molyneux and Kim Poor which greets visitors at the entrance to this exhibition. Human misunderstandings and envy lead to the Flight of Cupid from Psyche causing her to wander the earth in search of her lost love. Ultimately, as Edward Lucie-Smith notes in The Glory of Angels, angels, and these images, challenge us with ‘a degree of perfection’ that our human nature, ‘chained to the material sphere, can never fully attain.’

The Shadow of Angels, St Stephen Walbrook, 39 Walbrook, London EC4N 8BN, until 29 October, weekdays 10.00am – 4.00pm (Weds, 11.00am – 3.00pm). 

The exhibition has featured as a news item on Brazil’s Globo TV -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r8nxa6gy3rqv3sj/EXPOSICAO%20FINAL%20GNE.mp4?dl=0.

Edward Lucie-Smith's talk can be heard at https://www.instagram.com/p/BLHQ_xNgTxq/. 

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Katya DJ - Speak The Truth.

Opening Night: The Shadow of Angels

The opening night performances and presentations for Kim Poor's exhibition The Shadow of Angels at St Stephen Walbrook began with a speech by the exhibition's curator, the legendary art historian and critic Edward Lucie-Smith. 

He spoke about St Stephen Walbrook as an iconic setting for this exhibition which highlights the universal appeal of angels and their presence and significance in our lives. Their iconography has been a unifying force throughout time and appears in all religions and cultures. Especially in these troubled times, angels represent our need for reassurance in a very unstable world. They are our protectors, guides and spiritual messengers; a bridge between us and the Divine. Edward also spoke about the contemporary connections and ministry of St Stephen Walbrook, in particular its online ministry.

Edward's speech was followed by the musical programme for the evening, which featured an expertly curated collection of classical musicians and dancers:

NIKLAS OLDEMEIER - Piano
Prelude and Fugue in B Flat Minor BWV 867
J.S.Bach
‘Pavane' 2nd Piano Suite Opus 10
George Enescu
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
FERNANDO MONTAÑO - Soloist with The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
YAROSLAVA TROFYMCHUK - Cello
LENA NAPRADEAN - Piano
'The Swan' Carnival des Animaux
Camille Saint-Saens
'Kol Nidrei' Opus 47
Max Bruch
Estampes - 'Pagodes'
Claude Debussy
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SHIR VICTORIA LEVY - Violin
'Grave and Andante’ from Violin Sonata No 2 in A Minor BWV 1003.
J.S. Bach
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
KIRILL BURLOV DANCE COMPANY
'Elements' Carte Blanche
Choreography by Kirill Burlov

The exhibition, which also features an installation by Sacha Molyneux, is at St Stephen Walbrook until 29th October 2016 (weekdays 10.00am - 4.00pm, Wednesdays 11.00am - 3.00pm). Prints of 'The Good Samaritan Angel' are on sale with proceeds going to St Stephen Walbrook.

During The Shadow of Angels, the “amazing, daring and magnetic artist” Claudio Crismani will also perform. Crismani will play Etudes Australes, First Book Nos. 1-8 by John Cage and Suite from The Bluebeard Castle by Béla Bartók at St Stephen Walbrook on Tuesday 25 October at 7:00 pm. Tickets are £15.00 from the Box Office at St Martin-in-the-Fields or on the door.

American critic John Maxim concluded his review on Music Life about Claudio Crismani’s concert dedicated to Scriabin’s music with those words. The music by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin has always been at the centre of Crismani’s artistic interests.

Crismani was born in Trieste and he began studying music with Andrea Giorgi as a young boy. Between Andro and Claudio a solid, lifelong fraternal friendship was built in time.

He continued studying piano with Alessandro Costantinides and composition with Mario Bugamelli, graduating with full marks at the Bolzano Conservatory. He then perfected his technique studying with Marguerite Kazuro in Warsaw for five years. His international career began in Paris in 1979 with a recital at the “Salle Pleyel” and a series of radio and tv recordings for “France Musique”. Since then he has performed all over Europe, Russia, Israel, USA, Japan and Australia and in the most distinguished concert halls. He has worked with directors such as James Lawrence Levine, Cristoph von Dohnányi and Thomas Sanderling and performed with internationally renowned orchestras, among which: The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra, The European Community Chamber Orchestra, Les Solistes de Moscou, The Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1986 Claudio Crismani was invited to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Liszt’s death by performing twelve concerts in England and playing the complete “Années de Pèlerinage” and the transcriptions of Wagner’s operas. In 1987, UNESCO named him “European Artist” and invited him to perform at the “International Music Soiree” at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. That same year he was appointed “Guest Artist” of the Van Leer Foundation in Jerusalem and under this aegis he became co-founder of the Horowitz Festival. In the Nineties, he staged a three-evening performance of the complete Poems and Sonatas for piano by Scriabin, which was repeated several times in different countries. He had an exclusive record contract with RS for twelve years and won two Discographic Awards. This period was marked by an important collaboration and friendship with the great Russian pianist Lazar Berman.

His performance of Scriabin’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra together with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Sanderling and recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, was a true publishing success story.

After a concert tour in 2002/2003 marking his thirtieth year of artistic activity (he was described as one of the major artists of his generation), Claudio Crismani decided to retire from the concert scene and devote himself exclusively to a long period of study. In 2014, he returned on the musical scene – among others – with “The Prometheus Project”, which is a transposition of Alexander Scriabin’s “Promethean” dream, designed to be a literary, artistic and (of course) musical experience. He rewrote it together with his friend Edward Lucie-Smith as a synesthetic blend, suspended between visual art and music, literature and history. Here, Pasternak and Scriabin intersect with contemporary traits, tracing a hitherto undescribed randomness of real-life moments spanning from Russia to Trieste and present and future human relations developing between Trieste and London.

In 2015, Claudio Crismani returned on the international scene at the exhibition on Boris Pasternak: “la Genesi del Sogno” (The Genesis of the Dream). The event highlighted artworks by Oleg Kudryashov, photographs by Moisei Nappelbaum and Crismani’s concert (performed strictly on a Fazioli piano) at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, and repeated in 2016 in Cividale del Friuli with a tribute to Boulez.

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Claudio Crismani - Wehmut.

Zi Ling & Sunday Times Watercolour Competition

Today I was at the Private View for the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition exhibition at the Mall Galleries to see Zi Ling's Anniversary (2016), one of her watercolour series on older couples.

Ling creates portraits or explorations of relationships by working from photographs with which she feels an intuitive connection. Previously Ling has had work in the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours 2016 Exhibition (where she won the Leathersellers First Prize of £1000 to a young artist with her painting 'Rikishi'), Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2016, Columbia Threadneedle Prize exhibition, the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition exhibition 2015, and Society of Women Artists (where she won the Rosemary & Company Art Prize); all at the Mall Galleries. Click here to see examples of Ling's work.

I also liked Adrian Baynes' Falling Angel in the Derwent Prize exhibition.

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Moby - Saints.

Kim Poor, Fernando Montaño, Kirill Burlov & Claudio Crismani at St Stephen Walbrook

Continuing the trend of works of art in churches set by Bill Viola’s Mary in St. Paul’s Cathedral and Ana Maria Pacheco’s installation at Chichester Cathedral, Brazilian artist Kim Poor’s exhibition The Shadow Of Angels opens at Wren’s masterpiece St. Stephen Walbrook on October 3rd with a fanfare of Art, Music and Ballet from 6.30pm. The Royal Ballet’s rising star Fernando Montaño will perform The Swan from Saint-Saens’ Carnival des Animaux to and around Henry Moore’s controversial altar, followed by a troupe led by Ballet Rambert’s Kirill Burlov. Expect to see top names from the worlds of art and music.

Kim Poor is a Brazilian painter based in London and Rio de Janeiro whose unique technique of glass fused on steel plate was baptised ‘Diaphanism’ by Salvador Dali. Her work has featured on record sleeves, in a book illustrating the lyrics of British rock band Genesis and has been exhibited worldwide including successful solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and in São Paulo with her Legends of The Amazon multimedia show.

Her latest exhibition, The Shadow Of Angels, will open on 3rd October 2016 at one of Sir Christopher Wren’s most famous churches, St. Stephen Walbrook. Curated by art historian and critic Edward Lucie-Smith, it explores the mythology of angels, their universal appeal, their spirituality and presence in our lives. Their iconography is a unifying force throughout time and a connection in all religions and cultures. In these troubled times, angels represent our need for reassurance, an illusion or reality in a very unstable world. They can be our protectors, guides, messengers or the dark mirrored side of demons; a manifestation of life and death or the true bridge to the Divine.

Lucie-Smith comments … “The dreamlike quality of Kim Poor’s work aligns it with the Magic Realism which can be found in the work of great contemporary Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Isabel Allende.“

From 3rd to 29th October 2016 at St. Stephen Walbrook, City of London (weekdays 10.00am - 4.00pm, Wednesdays 11.00am - 3.00pm)..

During The Shadow of Angels, the “amazing, daring and magnetic artist” Claudio Crismani will also perform. Crismani will play Etudes Australes, First Book Nos. 1-8 by John Cage and Suite from The Bluebeard Castle by Béla Bartók at St Stephen Walbrook on Tuesday 25 October at 7:00 pm. Tickets are £15.00 from the Box Office at St Martin-in-the-Fields or on the door.

American critic John Maxim concluded his review on Music Life about Claudio Crismani’s concert dedicated to Scriabin’s music with those words. The music by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin has always been at the centre of Crismani’s artistic interests.

Crismani was born in Trieste and he began studying music with Andrea Giorgi as a young boy. Between Andro and Claudio a solid, lifelong fraternal friendship was built in time.

He continued studying piano with Alessandro Costantinides and composition with Mario Bugamelli, graduating with full marks at the Bolzano Conservatory. He then perfected his technique studying with Marguerite Kazuro in Warsaw for five years. His international career began in Paris in 1979 with a recital at the “Salle Pleyel” and a series of radio and tv recordings for “France Musique”. Since then he has performed all over Europe, Russia, Israel, USA, Japan and Australia and in the most distinguished concert halls. He has worked with directors such as James Lawrence Levine, Cristoph von Dohnányi and Thomas Sanderling and performed with internationally renowned orchestras, among which: The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra, The European Community Chamber Orchestra, Les Solistes de Moscou, The Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1986 Claudio Crismani was invited to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Liszt’s death by performing twelve concerts in England and playing the complete “Années de Pèlerinage” and the transcriptions of Wagner’s operas. In 1987, UNESCO named him “European Artist” and invited him to perform at the “International Music Soiree” at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. That same year he was appointed “Guest Artist” of the Van Leer Foundation in Jerusalem and under this aegis he became co-founder of the Horowitz Festival. In the Nineties, he staged a three-evening performance of the complete Poems and Sonatas for piano by Scriabin, which was repeated several times in different countries. He had an exclusive record contract with RS for twelve years and won two Discographic Awards. This period was marked by an important collaboration and friendship with the great Russian pianist Lazar Berman.

His performance of Scriabin’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra together with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Sanderling and recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, was a true publishing success story.

After a concert tour in 2002/2003 marking his thirtieth year of artistic activity (he was described as one of the major artists of his generation), Claudio Crismani decided to retire from the concert scene and devote himself exclusively to a long period of study. In 2014, he returned on the musical scene – among others – with “The Prometheus Project”, which is a transposition of Alexander Scriabin’s “Promethean” dream, designed to be a literary, artistic and (of course) musical experience. He rewrote it together with his friend Edward Lucie-Smith as a synesthetic blend, suspended between visual art and music, literature and history. Here, Pasternak and Scriabin intersect with contemporary traits, tracing a hitherto undescribed randomness of real-life moments spanning from Russia to Trieste and present and future human relations developing between Trieste and London.

In 2015, Claudio Crismani returned on the international scene at the exhibition on Boris Pasternak: “la Genesi del Sogno” (The Genesis of the Dream). The event highlighted artworks by Oleg Kudryashov, photographs by Moisei Nappelbaum and Crismani’s concert (performed strictly on a Fazioli piano) at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, and repeated in 2016 in Cividale del Friuli with a tribute to Boulez.

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Claudio Crismani plays Béla Bartók.

Come, Lord Jesus, come

The Advent Reflections service at St John's Seven Kings this morning focused on perspectives on Christ's coming. Following a reading of Rowan Williams' 'Advent Calendar', we watched a visual meditation which set my most recent reflection with images by commission4mission artists:   

Coming as Word
Coming as Mary’s “Yes” to Gabriel
Coming as forced journey to Bethlehem
Coming as peace on earth
proclaimed by hymning angels singing
“Glory to God in the highest”

Come, Lord Jesus, come

Coming as nothing

Coming as sperm joins egg
Coming as growth
Coming as foetus
Coming as waters break
Coming down the birth canal
head covered with blood
Coming into light and air
Coming into vulnerability
Coming into poverty
A cold coming

Come, Lord Jesus, come

Coming as flesh

Coming in humility
Coming as servant
Coming in love
Coming through birth
Coming into death
Coming as child
 
Come, Lord Jesus, come

'BC:AD' by U.A. Fanthorpe was read as a reflection on the moment of Christ's coming and this time of reflection was completed with an attempt to sense the challenge and shock of his coming by listening to Jackson Browne's 'The Rebel Jesus', which articulates an understanding of the Christ who came as being at odds with much of our current practice in the Church as his people. 

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Enya - O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

Thanks Greenbelt

Greenbelt was once again a very rich experience both personally and in terms of the amazing range of arts and inputs that formed the programme. Planning for and delivering that kind of diversity is always a stunning logistical achievement but to continue to deliver in the face of the torrential rain that fell on Saturday and the resulting quagmire was a huge achievement.

The Greenbelt team have thanked the volunteers who worked extra shifts and helped keep the festival going while other events around the country had to bail, plus the Greenbelt Angels, regular givers, who keep the Festival going through thick and thin. The Greenbelt organisers themselves also need to be acknowledged and thanked as well for the great programme, for working out how to keep it running in the rain, and for the new developments introduced this year each of which, it seemed to me, worked very well.

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The Proclaimers - Met You.

Angels amidst the acetate

Paul Trathen will be leading a workshop on Angels amidst the acetate: Some glimpses of those we have entertained at the cinema as part of Entertaining Angels Unawares, the Exploring Prayer & Spirituality Day to be held on Saturday 29th September at All Saint's Hertford from 10.00am - 3.30pm.

Film is an allusive medium, well able to suggest realities just a little more subtle, mysterious and wonderful than the everyday. It is also a mass medium, telling accessible and powerful stories. This workshop - illustrated with a series of film clips - will explore iconography and narrative strands of a number of films and genres which might just glimpse the angelic …

There are accounts of the work and ministry of Angels throughout Bible and for many in our modern age that is where Angels remain - in history. Having had Angels captured by the

New Age spirituality that pervades society, the Exploring Prayer and Spirituality Day will seek to answer questions such as:

• If God used angels in the past, are they still here now?
• How do we understand and know Angels as part of Christian faith and practice today?
• What can we learn from Angels about the message of faithfulness and hospitality?

With workshops rooted firmly in the Scriptures, in the worshipping life of the church and in the teachings of our forebears in faith, the day has a range of Workshops to encourage exploration and delight in the calling that we should:

not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2)

The Keynote Speaker will be The Reverend Canon Pam Wise MBE, Vicar of All Saint’s South Oxhey.

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John Tavener - Song of the Angel.

John Hutton windows

St Georges Barkingside has an etched glass window of The Good Samaritan by John Hutton plus an modern abstract stained glass window in their baptistry. Hutton, who created the Great West Screen of Coventry Cathedral known as the "Screen of Saints and Angels", also made etched glass windows for St Erkenwalds Barking.

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Jeff Buckley - So Real.