There are no dividing lines: conductor Jakob Lehmann on bringing historically informed Rossini to Cadogan Hall with the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Jakob Lehmann (Photo: Sercan Sevindik)

As the Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique makes its first foray into Rossini, we talk to conductor Jakob Lehmann about his passion for music of the period, how we need to learn to enjoy energy, freedom and rubato in the music, his discoveries about balance in the bass line, working with modern orchestras and much more.

On 2 October 2025, conductor Jakob Lehmann joins the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique at Cadogan Hall for Rossini's Stabat Mater alongside excerpts from his opera Ermione. This will be the orchestra's first foray into Rossini and the inaugural event in a planned major new exploration of Rossini's music. Jakob was Associate Artistic Director of New York-based opera company Teatro Nuovo from 2019 to 2025 and is Artistic Director of Eroica Berlin, a chamber orchestra he founded in 2015.

Jakob's recent experience includes conducting Les Siècles in Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony at the International Bruckner Festival in Linz for the composer’s 200th anniversary celebrations, as well as performances of operas by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. When we spoke, Jakob was in Bloomington, Indiana and about to make his debut with Indiana University Concert Orchestra. The Cadogan Hall concert will be his London debut, whilst his UK debut was last month when he conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Rossini, Spohr and Schubert.

Historically informed performances (HIP) of Rossini's music in London have still been relatively rare, and I was interested in finding out what Jakob thought HIP brought to the composer. His thoughts were two-pronged. First, the added colours and textures of the period instruments allow a different type of storytelling through the new sound qualities. This is especially true of Rossini. Jakob feels that, unlike composers such as Mozart and Beethoven, with Rossini, we have not fully grasped the sound and style of period Rossini; we have not fundamentally absorbed the style change that has happened in other composers.

Jakob Lehmann & Anima Eterna Brugge (Photo: Koen Broos)

The other side effect of HIP is that we come to appreciate the sheer quality of the music in another way. As an example, Jakob mentions the Berlin Philharmonic, which, 30 years ago, would not have dreamed of doing an evening of music by Telemann or Vivaldi, but they do now, thanks to extensive period performances. We have a different view on the value and quality of the music. This is something that has not happened in Rossini, yet. Jakob feels that we still underestimate the composer. He was not just writing for singers, and we should appreciate how he writes for the orchestra.

Style, enthusiasm & scholarship: Ian Page and The Mozartists explore Opera in 1775

Haydn: L'incontro improvviso - Ava Dodd, Stephanie Hershaw, Chelsea Zurflüh, The Mozartists - Opera in 1775 - Cadogan Hall

Opera in 1775: Tozzi, Fischietti, Mozart, Myslivecek, J.C. Bach, Haydn, Sacchini; Ava Dodd, Stephanie Hershaw, Chelsea Zurflüh, Hugo Brady, Sebastian Hill, The Mozartists, Ian Page; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 17 September 2025

Opera by the 19-year-old Mozart alongside works that he heard and works by composers he admired in an engaging evening of young talent and learning worn lightly

It is 1775, and Mozart is turning 19. He is largely marooned in Salzburg where he works as a court musician for the Archbishop. His salary is low and opportunities for composing opera are limited, especially as the court theatre closed that year. But he and his father make one visit, to Munich, where Mozart fails, again, to get any sort of court appointment but his opera La finta giardiniera is premiered, alongside Antonio Tozzi's Orfeo ed Euridice. However, the visit of Archduke Maximilian Franz to Salzburg engenders a flurry of activity, some of it musical, some of it even opera. Mozart's Il re pastore results from this, along with Gli orti esperidi by the Salzburg court kapellmeister, Domenico Fischietti.

This is the background to Ian Page and The Mozartists' Opera in 1775 at Cadogan Hall on 17 September 2025. The latest instalment in their Mozart 250 project. They were joined by sopranos Ava Dodd, Stephanie Hershaw and Chelsea Zurflüh, and tenors Hugo Brady and Sebastian Hill for an evening of operatic excerpts from operas premiered in 1775 including works by Tozzi, Fischietti, Mozart, Mysliveček, J.C. Bach, Haydn and Sacchini.

The same season as Mozart's La finta giardiniera premiered in Munich, Antonio Tozzi's L'Orfeo ed Euridice premiered also. In fact, delays to Mozart's opera meant that Tozzi's went first and Mozart would have heard it. Gluck's L'Orfeo ed Euridice had been performed in Munich in 1772, to conspicuous lack of success. Tozzi who was Hofkapellmeister in Munich, was commissioned to set a revised and 'improved' version of Calzabigi's libretto, which added extra characters and lengthened the work. Tozzi clearly followed Gluck's example in many ways, but the intriguing things is that the overture to L'Orfeo ed Euridice which has many Gluckian aspects also has distinct pre-echoes of the overture of Mozart's Il re pastore giving the impression that the younger composer listened and decided he could do it better!

Opera in 1775 - Sebastian Hill, The Mozartists - Cadogan Hall

Dazzling music by famous Baroque composers in two stunning eighteenth-century Norwich venues

Don’t miss the love:Handel Music Festival from The Brook Street Band this Autumn… 

Photo: Dan Bridge

The award-winning Brook Street Band return to one of their favourite cities, Norwich, for the love:Handel Baroque music festival on September 26-28 and October 3-5. Across two weekends, audiences can enjoy dazzling music by famous Baroque composers including Handel, Bach and Purcell, in two stunning eighteenth-century venues, the Octagon Chapel and Assembly House.

Described by BBC Music Magazine as “an ensemble so pin-sharp it merits a safety warning”, the Band takes its name from the London street where Handel – known worldwide for his famous Hallelujah chorus – once lived. Group founder Tatty Theo said: “Handel’s music is simply the best – whatever you’re feeling, he’s found a way to express it in beautiful music!”

Festival highlights from the first weekend include The Power of Three on September 26, with titans of Baroque music battling it out to see who’s best. On September 27, there’s the rare chance to hear Handel’s mini-opera Apollo e Dafne, with international soloists Ana Beard Fernández and Edward Grint. This dramatic work covers the full sweep of human emotions – love, infatuation, lust, rejection, determination, power, scorn and self-pity – all packed into one unforgettable performance. There’s also an illuminating pre-concert talk given by Handel expert David Vickers exploring how Ovidian transformative tales occurred throughout Handel’s career in Italy, Hanover and London. What better way to set the scene for Apollo e Dafne! 

 There’s new music from composers straddling the pop and classical worlds. Nitin Sawhney and Master of the King’s Music Errollyn Wallen (whose music opened the 2025 Proms) have written for the Brook Street Band. Audiences can catch these innovative works in two atmospheric performances on September 28, fusing music with narrated texts. Kitchen Conversations is full of juicy gossip and deep conversation, while As Steals the Morn Upon the Night invites listeners to suspend reality and journey through the mysteries of night.

love:Handel’s second weekend kicks off with world premiere performances of two pieces of music written especially for the Band as part of the 2025 Young Composers Award, held in conjunction with the National Centre for Early Music and Radio 3. The winning compositions by Avram Harris and Kit McCarthy take Handel’s trio sonatas as their inspiration, pairing them the best of both Op. 2 and Op.5. Prepare to be beguiled, hearing Handel through fresh new ears.

No Handelian event would be complete without a trip to the famous Pleasure Gardens, with music to entertain, delight, and distract from the cares of everyday life. Music by Handel and his contemporaries Arne, Avison and Geminiani is on the playlist in this collaborative orchestral concert with the city’s own renowned Baroque ensemble, Norwich Baroque.

love:Handel 2025 wraps up with some of the most beautiful accompanied vocal music of the Baroque era, sung by special guest, tenor James Gilchrist. James brings a selection of songs, arias and cantatas by Dowland, Purcell and Handel to Norwich’s Assembly House for what promises to be a grand festival finale!

All the concerts and talks are friendly and accessible. Thanks to local funding the Band has been running education programmes in Norfolk schools, and focussing on making concerts accessible within the Norwich community. There’s a totally free family concert on October 4, plus free tickets for any event for those under 23. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to try something new, relax, de-stress and experience world-class music- making right on your doorstep.

Huge thanks to funders and sponsors including Continuo Foundation, the Assembly House Trust, the Garrick Charitable Trust, Norwich Freemen's Charity, Anguish's Educational Foundation whose generous support makes love:Handel 2025 possible.

Full details from the Brook Street Band's website.

And there was dancing: Wild Arts' tour of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin concludes at Charterhouse with an immersive performance full of emotional truth

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Wild Arts (Photo: Allan Titmuss)

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin; Timothy Nelson, Galina Averina, Xavier Hetherington, Hannah Sandison, Emily Hodkinson, Sion Goronwy, Rozanna Madlyus, director: Dominic Dromgoole, conductor: Orlando Jopling; Wild Arts at Charterhouse
Reviewed 18 September 2025

Small scale but lacking nothing in heart or intensity, this was a performance that really drew you into the characters' world led by Timothy Nelson's sexily disdainful Onegin and Galina Averina's serious, intense Tatyana.

Since June, Wild Arts' production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin has been wending its way across venues in Southern England, starting at the company's home base of Layer Marney in Essex and visiting venues in Essex, Dorset, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, and as well as visiting Opera Holland Park, London. I missed this last performance thanks to my attending the Salzburg Festival, so I was pleased to be able to catch Dominic Dromgoole's production in its last incarnation at a fundraising evening for Charterhouse.

Wild Arts performed Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in the Great Hall at Charterhouse on Thursday 18 September 2025. The production was directed by Dominic Dromgoole, designed by Tatiana Dolmatovskaya with movement by Sian Williams. Orlando Jopling conducted the ten-piece Wild Arts Ensemble in his own arrangement of the score. Timothy Nelson was Onegin and Galina Averina was Tatyana with Xavier Hetherington as Lensky, Emily Hodkinson as Olga, Sion Goronwy as Gremin, Hannah Sandison as Madame Larina, Rozanna Madylus as Filipyevna, plus Robert Burt, Alex Pratley and Laura Mekhail.

The production was, I understand, Dominic Dromgoole's first foray into opera. Eugene Onegin appealed to him, an article in the programme book explained, because 'it's very lean, very dramatic, very narrative driven. It felt like there was a way for me to use the tools I know from directing drama to help clarify and elucidate what was already there.' 

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin - Timothy Nelson, Galina Averina - Wild Arts (Photo: Allan Titmuss)

There was no concept and the setting was period, mainly established by Tatiana Dolmatovska's imaginative costumes. Dromgoole's focus was not on grand ideas but on the interaction of character. In terms of operatic staging, Charterhouse's Great Hall is not large and this was a very up close and immersive production, the audience on three sides of the acting area. This gave us the benefit of being able to see the characters' reactions in vivid detail and the performance really repaid this close attention to detail.

The set was simply a set of benches, put to a variety of uses with minimal props. Costumes were similarly simple yet effective with great use made of texture so that, for instance, the women's basic white shifts were made elaborate with collars of machine lace, whilst the use of Russian aprons lent a distinctive atmosphere to the more everyday scenes.

Colour and movement: Clarinet concertos from Peter Cigleris and Györ Symphonic Band.

Frigyes Hidas, Simon Milton, David Maslanka, Satoshi Yagisawa; Peter Cigleris, Györ Symphonic Band, László Marosi, Ferenc Szabó; SOMM
Reviewed 9 September 2025

Four contrasting contemporary works for the intriguing combination of clarinet and wind orchestra played by a British clarinettist with a fine Hungarian ensemble

In 2021, clarinettist Peter Cigleris released Rediscovered, a disc of forgotten British clarinet concertos from the 1930s and 1940s [see my review], and his subsequent recordings on SOMM included a disc of music by Ruth Gipps, and a disc of British chamber music, Eclogue.

He is continuing his quest, but his latest disc Clarinet Concertos on SOMM casts its net rather further afield. Along with the Hungarian ensemble, Győr Symphonic Band, Cigleris has recorded four works for solo clarinet and wind orchestra, including two world-premiere recordings. These are conducted by László Marosi, the world’s foremost authority on Hungarian wind music, and Ferenc Szabó, the founder of the Györ Symphonic Band.

The concertos are Concerto Semplice by Hungarian composer Frigyes Hidas, Concerto for Clarinet and Band by British composer Simon Milton, the Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Orchestra by American composer David Maslanka, and the Clarinet Concerto by one of the leading Japanese composers of music for wind instruments, Satoshi Yagisawa. 

Györ Symphonic Band is quite a substantial ensemble with over 50 players being listed in the booklet. The disc has an excellent booklet note by Robert Matthew-Walker which presents each of the composers and their works, but fails to answer an intriguing question. What came first? Is this a disc aimed at presenting Györ Symphonic Band in a selection of diverse repertoire, or is it aimed at presenting concertos for clarinet and wind band? If this latter, Matthew-Walker's note fails to explain the fascination of this genre, why it is generally so neglected and why focus on it now? Thus, though the disc is remarkably enjoyable, there are questions hanging over it.

A destroyed and partially rebuilt city - Sven Helbig’s 'Requiem A' receives its UK Premiere at Central Hall Westminster

On 4 October, 2025, Central Hall Westminster will host the UK premiere of German composer Sven Helbig’s Requiem A. Performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, four renowned European choirs, and bass René Pape, with live visuals by Icelandic artist Máni M. Sigfusson, the work explores grief, memory, and renewal in one of London’s most historic venues.

Sven Helbig calls the piece “a destroyed and partially rebuilt city,” blending classical and contemporary sound in nine movements that move from collective memory to personal reflection. “Never before has one of my concerts carried such intensity – on a personal, artistic, and political level,” he says. “I began Requiem A in a state of deep disillusionment and, thanks to my daughter, brought it to completion with renewed hope.” Read more in my interview with Sven Helbig.

The performance unites the Dresdner Kreuzchor (Germany), Trinity Boys Choir (UK), Poznań Boys’ Choir (Poland), and La Maîtrise de Garçons de Colmar (France), under the direction of Martin Lehmann, who notes: “Requiem A is the hope that lies on the younger generations. The adults of tomorrow have the opportunity to grow through cooperation and communication.” The choirs echo this spirit of remembrance and exchange. The Poznań Boys’ Choir reflect: “As Poles, mindful of the tragic wartime experiences of our country, the opportunity to participate in a concert commemorating the victims of wars and violence holds a very special meaning.” And the Maîtrise de Garçons de Colmar, celebrating its 40th anniversary, call it “a highlight, reflecting the values of sharing, openness, and remembrance that guide us.”

Released earlier this year on Deutsche Grammophon, Requiem A has been celebrated as one of Sven Helbig’s most ambitious works. Full details from Sven Helbig's website.

Ambrose Seddon is one of the featured composers at the 2025 L'Espace du Son, the international festival of acousmatic music in Brussels

 

The Composers Edition website handily explains the musical term Acousmatic as follows:

A predominately European term Acousmatic simply refers to musical works which exist solely as audio or ‘fixed’ media, now most commonly delivered in high quality digital audio formats such as wav and aiff or on CD or Blu-ray. Created with multiple audio channels they are usually also available in stereo mixes and thus playable in most spaces.

And since 1984 the L'Espace du Son festival has proved to be an unmissable event for acousmatic enthusiasts. This festival returns from 15 to 19 October2025, at the Marni theater in Brussels with a rich and varied programme. This year, seven composers have been invited - Laryssa Kim , Charo Calvo, Theodoros Lotis, François Bayle, Armando Balice, Damian Gorandi, Ambrose Seddon. Each will take a turn at the spatialization desk to present music from their repertoire. 

Ambrose Seddon studied at Goldsmiths College and City University, initially he composed, produced, and performed electronic music, but since 2002 he has focused primarily on acousmatic music composition, although he also creates interactive multichannel sound installations, collaborates on immersive audiovisual projects, and performs improvised live electronic music. He is currently a lecturer in the Media Production Department of Bournemouth University.

In addition there is the "espace du son" competition, where candidates are selected based on their graphical recording of a specified work, this year Inflection Point by Nikos Kanelakis (from the festival's Métamorphoses 2024 competition. This allows a comparison of their playing styles. They will also also play two works drawn at random the day before from the eight works they worked on from a repertoire of around thirty that was proposed to them, as well as a piece of their choice. This competition, now in its thirteenth edition, gives candidates the opportunity to take charge of a repertoire that is rich in 75 years of works.

Entry is free, according to what everyone decides, to immerse oneself in a flow of music and astonishing lights.

Full details from the festival website.

Johann Joseph Abert - A musical portrait

Johann Joseph Abert - Ein musikalisches Portrait; ARS Produktion
Reviewed by Andreas Rey (17 September 2025) 

An ethnic German born in the Sudetenland area of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Johann Joseph Abert studied at the Prague Conservatoire and became court kapellmeister in Stuttgart. Of his many symphonies and operas, little has made it to disc and this enterprising new selection of Abert's works provides a tempting starter.

This new disc from ARS Produktion is a portrait of the German composer Johann Joseph Abert, a kind of bait or, rather, bird call for curious music lovers, which explains why this disc contains only excerpts.

A German composer born in 1832, Johann Josph Albert's fame began in 1860. As a composer of chamber music, organ music, lieder, and operas, as this musical portrait shows, he was as much appreciated professionally as he was personally by his peers. A meeting with the singer and composer Pauline Viardot in 1864 led to a life-long friendship and it was Viardot's support that ultimately led to his appointment as court kapellmeister in Stuttgart where he remained until 1888.

Indeed, he has no reason to be ashamed of Brahms and Schuman, whose works he conducted at Wurttemberg, where he was composer and conductor to the royal court. After discovering him here, fans will want another disc of excerpts from his music for large ensembles, as Abert also composed symphonies, masses, overtures, and concertante music.

Photo essay: Cavalli's Pompeo Magno at the 2025 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Nicolò Balducci (Sesto), Mariana Flores (Issicratea) - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Cavalli's opera Pompeo Magno (Pompey the Great) was premiered in Venice in 1666 at the teatro S. Salvatore. The work was dedicated to Madama Illustriss. D. Maria Mancini Colonna, Prencipessa Romana, Duchessa di Tagliacozzo, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, who had married Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna in 1661.

Whilst at the French court in her youth Maria Mancini had captured the heart (and more) of the young Louis XIV. He was genuinely in love with her, and wanted to marry her. She was willing to marry him, but the marriage was in direct opposition to the plans of both the king's mother and Marie's uncle and guardian, the Cardinal. So, in 1661 she was sent away from court to marry her Italian prince.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Cavaill's opera was performed again, in Bologna in 1692 under the title of Il pompeo. The work was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in 1975 under the musical direction of Denis Stevens, and opera has experienced a limited renaissance in recent years. The 2025 Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival presented the work under Leonardo García Alarcón’s musical direction with his Cappella Mediterranea in a production directed by Max Emanuel Cencic who also sang the title role with a cast including Mariana Flores (Issicratea), Nicolò Balducci (Sesto), Sophie Junker (Giulia), Valer Sabadus (Scipione Servilio), and Dominique Visse (Delfo).

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Max Emanuel Cencic, Marcel Beekman, Alois Mühlbacher, Valer Sabadus, Nicholas Scott - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Pompeo Magnuo is one of Cavalli’s final Venetian operas, coming toward the end of an extraordinarily prolific career during which he composed over 40 stage works at the rate of approximately one per year. The opera takes its historical inspiration from the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BCE), who formed the first triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Crassus. He is the Pompey who appears, only in death, in Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Sophie Junker (Giulia), Valer Sabadus (Servillio) - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

The plot ingeniously combines historical figures with fictional elements, creating a complex narrative of political intrigue, romantic entanglements, and personal vendettas. The opera follows the victorious return of Pompeo to Rome after his third military campaign, where he receives a hero’s welcome from Caesar and other dignitaries. Behind this public display of unity, a “secret war” of love, desire, treachery and jealousy unfolds at the Roman court.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025 (Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

The performances in Bayreuth were filmed and along with other events at the festival, the opera is available in the media libraries of ARTE Concert and BR Klassik. Mezzo TV will air the festival in December 2025, with Medici.tv to follow starting in 2026.

Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
Alois Mühlbacher (Farnace), Valerio Contaldo (Mitridate), Mariana Flores  (Issicratea)
Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2025
(Photo: © Clemens Manser Photography)

Leonardo García-Alarcón:
    Conductor and Harpsichord
Max Emanuel Cencic:
    Director
Helmut Stürmer:
    Stage Design
Corina Gramosteanu:
    Costume Design
Léo Petrequin:
    Light
Max Emanuel Cencic, Fabián Schofrin:
    Dramaturgy
Constantina Psoma:
    Director’s Assistant
Chiara d’Anna:
    Movement Coach

Max Emanuel Cencic: Pompeo Magno
Mariana Flores: Issicratea
Valerio Contaldo: Mitridate
Alois Mühlbacher: Amore / Farnace
Nicolò Balducci: Sesto
Sophie Junker: Giulia
Victor Sicard: Cesare
Nicholas Scott: Claudio
Valer Sabadus: Scipione Servilio
Jorge Navarro Colorado: Crasso
Dominique Visse: Delfo
Kacper Szelążek: Arpalia
Marcel Beekman: Atrea
Pierre Lenoir: Primo Prencipe / Genius
Angelo Kidoniefs: Secondo Prencipe
Ioannis Filias: Terzo Prencipe
Christos Christodoulou: Quarto Prencipe

Cappella Mediterranea

Profound, contemplative & meditative aethereal beauties: Vox Clamantis & Jaan-Eik Tulve's birthday present for Arvo Pärt on ECM Records

Arvo Pärt: Nunc dimittis, O Holy Father Nicholas, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, Fur Jan van Eyck, Kleine Litanei, And I heard a voice; Vox Clamantis, Jaan-Eik Tulve; ECM Records
Reviewed 15 September 2025

Jan-Eik Tulve & his ensemble bring their experience with both Arvo Pärt's music, that of other contemporary composers as well as Gregorian chant and early polyphony alongside to create a musical journey of profound beauty and great musicality

Vox Clamantis, artistic director and conductor Jaan-Eik Tulve, is an Estonian vocal ensemble which specialises in performing Gregorian chant and early polyphony alongside contemporary music. Though they have a strong association with the music of Arvo Pärt, in the eight years since I first heard them in Tallinn (at the 2017 Estonian Music Days, see my review) I have experienced their performances of a wide range of music.

Their latest disc, And I heard a voice on the ECM label was issued in time to be a 90th birthday present for the composer. The music on the disc, spanning over 30 years of Pärt's composing life, features Nunc dimittis, O Holy Father Nicholas, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, Für Jan van Eyck, Kleine Litanei and And I heard a voice. The fifteen singers of Vox Clamantis are conducted by Jaan-Eik Tulve and they are joined by organist Ene Salumae in Fur Jan van Eyck.

The recording was made in 2021/22 in Haapsalu Cathedral in the very west of Estonia. Haapsalu Cathedral, which is first mentioned in 1279, is one of the largest single-nave churches in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The recording was produced by Manfred Eicher and from the very first notes of Nunc Dimittis, it has a very particular sound quality. Eicher has surrounded the ensemble by what might almost be termed an aura. Nunc Dimittis is sung with a gentleness and clarity which belies the sheer accuracy and focus of the performance.

Vox Clamantis & Jaan-Eik Tulve performing in Haapsalu Cathedral

The acoustic is not being used to hide behind nor as an all-purpose device. As might be expected from this ensemble the performances have a beauty and a considered naturalness which makes Pärt's music profoundly appealing. They do not bring the sort of edge or welly to the music that the larger forces of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir does. Instead, we have a tender delicacy allied to pinpoint accuracy and an ability to hammer home where necessary.

Wine, Music & Song in aid of Music in Hospitals & Care

Wine, Music & Song is a fundraising concert in aid of Music in Hospitals & Care which takes place in the glorious 17th century surroundings of St James Garlickhythe Church. 

The varied programme will feature organ, piano and cello music, including a performance by cellist Karen Stephenson and pianist Sophia Rahman of Tales from the 15th Floor by composer Michael Stimpson, reflecting on his own experiences in an NHS intensive care unit. 

The evening will end with a flourish of Liszt on the piano, and a selection of favourite opera arias from Music in Hospitals & Care's Trustee, Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams. Guests can enjoy wine, canapés and an unforgettable night of music in the heart of the City.

Music in Hospitals & Care is a charity dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of children and adults through the healing power of live music. Every year, their professional musicians share live music with people from across the UK who may not otherwise get to experience it. This includes those living with dementia, who have mental health problems, or who are seriously ill.  

Further details of the concert from the Music in Hospitals & Care website.

Huw Montague Rendall & Joseph Middleton launch the 2025/26 Leeds Song concert season with Die schöne Müllerin at Leeds Conservatoire

On 28 September 2025 at Leeds Conservatoire, baritone Huw Montague Rendall and pianist Joseph Middleton open the 2025/26 concert season of Leeds Song, of which Middleton is the artistic director, with a performance of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin. 

The full season features seven events leading up to the Leeds Song Festival from 11 to 18 April 2026.

Before then, the concert season in Leeds includes soprano Miah Persson in Berg's Seven Early Songs and a personal selection of Scandinavian song; soprano Ailish Tynan celebrating the anniversaries of Ravel, Caplet and Satie; baritone James Newby in a recital recreating the programme Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Benjamin Britten performed together at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1972; soprano Hera Hyesang Park, who sings Susanna in Opera North's 2026 production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, making her Leeds Song debut; and counter-tenor Hugh Cutting in recital in Harrogate. The season also includes a masterclass from Dame Felicity Lott, and a chance to hear the new generation of lieder singers and pianists with Royal Academy of Music Song Circle.

Full details from the Leeds Song website.

Sung poetry: soprano Véronique Gens in subtle & supple form with pianist James Baillieu in French song at Wigmore Hall

Véronique Gens

Gounod, Hahn, Saint-Saens, Ravel, Ropartz, Duparc, Debussy, Canteloube, Louiguy, Marguerite Monnot, Weill, Kern, Willson; Véronique Gens, James Baillieu; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 12 September 2025

A masterly exploration of highways and byways of over a century of French chanson in wonderfully subtle and supple performances from Véronique Gens and James Baillieu

Whilst soprano Véronique Gens is best known for her recordings of Baroque music, her repertoire stretches far wider, not just French song but a series of French operas for the Bru Zane label including works by Lecocq, Offenbach, Messager, Hahn, Franck, Gounod, Félicien David and most recently Massenet.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Véronique Gens' recital at Wigmore Hall on Friday 12 September 2025 with pianist James Baillieu should also range widely. The first half explored aspects of love from the carefree to the despairing with songs by Gounod, Hahn, Saint-Saens, Ravel, Joseph Guy Ropartz, Duparc and Debussy whilst the second focused on Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne followed by two Edith Piaf-associated chanson by Louiguy and Marguerite Monnot, and then intriguingly ending with English-texted songs by Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Meredith Willson.

Two of the greatest concertos of the 21st century: clarinettist Julian Bliss on his new recording of Clarinet Concertos by Magnus Lindberg and Kalevi Aho

Julian Bliss (Photo: Rebecca Schelldorff)

Clarinettist Julian Bliss' latest album, which came out earlier this month on the Signum Classics label, features him as soloist in the clarinet concertos by Magnus Lindberg and Kalevi Aho, works Julian describes as two of the greatest concertos of the 21st century. For the disc, Julian was joined by conductor Taavi Oramo and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Helsinki in 1958, Magnus Lindberg studied with Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen in Finland, Vinko Globokar and Gérard Grisey in Paris, while also attending Franco Donatoni’s classes in Siena. He composed his Clarinet Concerto in 2001-2. Kalevi Aho was born in Forssa in the south of Finland. He studied with Einojuhani Rautavaara in Finland and with Boris Blacher in Berlin. He wrote his concerto in 2005for Martin Fröst who premiered it with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Osmo Vänskä.

Julian was very aware of both concertos before he recorded them; in fact, he is asked to play Lindberg's concerto quite a lot. Both concertos represent a challenge, with a lot of new things in them. But Julian points out that works which were regarded as a challenge when he was young, such as Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto, are now part of the mainstream repertoire. The way playing has developed over the years means that there is a lot of pushing of boundaries.

He admits that he has never heard a concerto quite like the Lindberg. Julian loves what he calls the 'big band orchestral sound' that Lindberg uses in the work, pointing out that often in clarinet concertos, composers use smaller forces so that they do not risk covering the instrument. In the Lindberg with its big orchestral sound, sometimes the soloist fights to be heard. Julian has performed the work a lot, and he loves it.

You Are Loved: Music for Change

On 10 October 2025, World Mental Health Day, some of London’s brightest queer artists will perform at St Giles Cripplegate to shine a spotlight on suicide and drug-related death crisis in the LGBTQ+ community in a charity concert You Are Loved - Music for Change.

Mr Gay Great Britain and mental health ambassador Andy Gardiner will present the show. There will be performances by London Gay Men’s Chorus, London Gay Symphony Orchestra, countertenor Andrew Watts, pianist Gavin Roberts (co-founder of Song in the City), baritone Kang Yang, countertenor Eliran Kadussi, mezzo-soprano Isobel Hughes, baritone Owain Gwynfryn (founder of Big Gay Out) and many more, along with live testimonials about mental health from members of the UK’s queer community.

Music for Change creators Big Gay Out and Song in The City will join the founder of You Are Loved on stage. You Are Loved exists to reduce deaths from suicide and drugs in the LGBT+ community. 

For the first time, rates of suicide and self-harm for people who identify as gay or lesbian, bisexual or another sexual orientation has been examined and revealed to be more than twice as high as for their heterosexual peers. Funds raised through Music for Change will enable You Are Loved to carry out their life-saving work across the queer community in the UK.

Full details and tickets from TicketTailor website.

A restless soul: Matthias Goerne & David Fray in late Schubert

Schubert with friends Johann Baptist Jenger & Anselm Huttenbrenner - Chalk drawing, 1827, by Josef Eduard Teltscher

Schubert: Schwanengesang, Piano Sonata in B flat D960; Matthias Goerne, David Fray; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 9 September 2025

Matthias Goerne opens Wigmore Hall's new season with a remarkably intense account of Schubert's last song cycle paired with one of the late piano sonatas

Baritone Matthias Goerne was intended to open Wigmore Hall's 2025/26 season in recital with pianist Maria João Pires in a programme of late Schubert pairing Schwanengesang with the Impromptus. This was not to be, and on Tuesday 9 September Matthias Goerne was joined by pianist David Fray for a programme that paired Schwanengesang with Piano Sonata in B flat D960.

On the concert platform, Matthias Goerne proved to be a remarkably intense performer with a restlessness that seemed to suggest a need to express the music in movement as well as vocal gesture. Throughout his performance his body swung wildly from left to right, never fixing his eye on any one spot. There was little sense of operatic staging here and there were only a few moments when you might describe Goerne's performance as operatic. In fact, he had an admirable tendency to sing legato and emphasise a sense of line, somewhat remarkable in a singer whose operatic output stretches to Wagner. He also used the colours and timbres of his voice significantly to articulate the drama in the songs.

We last saw David Fray in 2024, coincidentally in a duet partnership in Schubert but then it was with pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja in a joyful rendering of the late Allegro in A minor at Lucerne's Le Piano Symphonique [see my review]. At Wigmore Hall, David Fray made a poised, sympathetic accompanist. Never imposing himself, Fray had a deceptively relaxed, fluid approach which hid a nervy attention to detail.

Fantasia: Matilda Lloyd & Richard Gowers launch their new disc with music by Richard Barnard, Roxanna Panufnik, Deborah Pritchard & Owain Park

Richard Barnard, Richard Gowers, Roxanna Panufnik, Matilda Lloyd, Deborah Pritchard, Owain Park at St George's Hanover Square for the launch of Fantasia (Photo: Dominik Zaczek)

In July, I met up with trumpeter Matilda Lloyd for a chat about her new disc with organist Richard Gowers, Fantasia on Chandos Records [see my interview, 'New challenge and new repertoire']. The disc is released next week (19 September) with two singles from the album already available.

On Monday 8 September 2025, there was a launch event for the disc at St George's Hanover Square (where Richard Gowers is the music director). At the event, Matilda Lloyd and Richard Gowers were joined by the four composers whose works are premiered on the disc, Roxanna Panufnik, Richard Barnard, Deborah Pritchard and Owain Park. It was a terrific opportunity to hear these pieces live and hear from the composers.

Lloyd and Gowers began with the intriguing sound world of trumpet and organ in the toccata from Bach's Toccata and Fugue BWV 565, the work which first gave Lloyd the idea for performing Baroque music with trumpet and organ back when she was at Junior Guildhall.

Richard Barnard explained that his piece, At the Borders of Sleep arose because he associated the word fantasia with fantasy which led him to the idea of falling asleep and the mind wandering to exotic places. And he commented that at his age (!) napping was important and the initial tune of the piece came to him like that. The initial melody was surprisingly jazzy, and Barnard then put it through its paces using a variety of different mutes (throughout the concert Matilda Lloyd used a selection of instruments and mutes), leading to a climax and then the music evaporating. 

Deborah Pritchard has been inspired by light recently. Her piece The light thereof was written for Matilda Lloyd and the Gesualdo Six for their 2024 disc Radiant Dawn on Hyperion (which also has a piece by Richard Barnard on it). 

For Matilda Lloyd's Fantasia album, Pritchard wrote Light Enkindled. taking the idea of fantasia towards improvisation. The opening saw the trumpet supported by spare sustained notes in the organ, something that Pritchard described as akin to using a piano sustaining pedal. When the organ did join the trumpet, the two had increasingly florid parts, some dazzling writing leading to a climax before evaporating.

Roxanna Panufnik's Echo uses both trumpet and its big brother, the flugelhorn. Panufnik explained that when writing instrumental music she liked to use a text or an image for inspiration. Here she used Christina Rosetti's poem Echo - 'Come to me in the silence of the night', with the piece written very like a song. The solo line contrasted the mellow flugelhorn with the higher, brighter trumpet, accompanied by an organ part that had a slightly exotic feel to it.

Matilda Lloyd has been collaborating with Owain Park and the Gesualdo Six since 2018, though she and Park go back as far as their university days. For his piece, Warm, hazy rain, Park explained that he wanted to capture an image, what it would feel and sound like - 'a person in transit during the summer months, perhaps gazing out of a train window or reminiscing about a leisurely bicycle ride through warm, misty country lanes'. Using the flugelhorn to create a gently lyrical solo which contrasted with the steady forward motion of the rather neo-Baroque organ writing.

We ended with more Baroque music, the bravura flourishes of Giovanni Battista Martini's Toccata.

Fantasia is available to order from a variety of music services - see http://lnk.to/CHAN20345

An album of intimacy: Palestrina 500 from Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir

Palestrina 500: Palestrina, Pierre de Manchicourt, William Byrd, Lassus, Victoria; Augsburger Domsingknaben, I Fedeli, Stefan Steinemann; ARS Produktion
Reviewed by Andreas Rey (7 September 2025)

A brotherhood in which noise would be replaced by silence, in which the soul would communicate with the soul, without noise, obligations, or outside crowds.

To mark the 500th birthday of Palestrina, this new disc on ARS Produktion from the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir (Augsburger Domsingknaben) centres on the magnificent eight-part Missa Fratres ego enim accepi, which Palestrina created as an elaborate parody mass based on his motet of the same name. The mass was first published posthumously in 1601. Conducted by Stefan Steinemann, the boys and young men of the choir are joined by the period instruments of I Fedeli. 

The Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir is a relatively new choir with a long history. The tradition of a boys choir at Augsburg Cathedral dates back to the 15th century, but by the 1860s the choir was dissolved, to be replaced by a mixed voice choir. In its present form, the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir dates back to 1976. In 2020, Stefan Steinemann became the youngest cathedral choirmaster in Germany, taking over the overall musical direction of Augsburg Cathedral and thus also the artistic direction of the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir.

This is an album of intimacy, an album that is as much internal as it is coming from the inside, an album that is best listened to before dawn disturbs the unfolding of the intimate inner space with its noises, crowds, and obligations. The music of the encounter between the listener's universe and the night that surrounds him or her.

The Great English Anthem: Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea at the Chelsea History Festival

From 24 to 28 September 2025 it is the Chelsea History Festival with a wide range of activities at the National Army Museum, the Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital Chelsea. On the opening evening, 24 September 2025, William Vann and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea will be giving a concert, The Great English Anthem. The evening is a chance to hear some favourite English anthems in two historic venues as the event begins in the Great Hall and moves on to the Wren Chapel.

The programme consists of music by Elgar, Gibbons, Handel, Holst, Parry, Purcell, Stanford and Vaughan Williams, along with Imogen Holst, Charles Wood, Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Janet Wheeler. It will include include Handel's Zadok the Priest and Parry's I was glad accompanied on the Wren Chapel’s organ (organist Mark Zang).

The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea is a professional choir that sings Choral Matins in the Wren Chapel at the Royal Hospital Chelsea every Sunday at 11am and provides the music at carol services, weddings and other events at the Royal Hospital. The regular choir of 12 singers is enlarged for major concerts, such as this occasion.

The image on the flyer displayed here is part of Sebastiano Ricci's fine painting of the Resurrection in the half dome of the apse of the Chapel.

Further details from the Chelsea Pensioners website.

A focus on women composers and poets: London Song Festival returns

Nadia and Lili Boulenger, photographed in 1913.

Nigel Foster's London Song Festival returns next month for a season of 10 concerts exploring the work of women composers. As ever, the concerts are at Hinde Street Methodist Church and things kick off on 17 October with Nigel Foster being joined by mezzo-soprano Katie Bray and tenor Guy Cutting for songs and song cycles by Nadia and Lili Boulanger.

Then soprano Francesca Chiejina and mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw explore African American women composers and the struggle for Civil Rights with music by Florence Price, Brittney Elizabeth Boykin, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Margaret Bonds, Jacqueline Hairston, Betty Jackson King and Nkeiru Okoye, and by the Native American composer Martha Redbone. Music and words from Ethel Smyth and the Suffragettes are the subject of soprano Ella Taylor and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts Dean's recital, 

Subsequent recitals examine the contribution made by women immigrants and refugees to the UK, celebrate of the life and loves of the American poet Sara Teasdale, and give us a taste of the vibrancy and joy of Latin America. Then there are songs from films and shows written by women, including Marguerite Monnot, Mary Rodgers, Amanda McBroom, Kristen Anderson, Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden, Carolyn Leigh, Marilyn Bergmann, Diane Warren, Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton.

The poet Christina Rosetti is the focus for soprano Susan Bullock's recital with Janine Roebuck as speaker.  A performance of all 27 songs Debussy wrote for Marie-Blanche Vasnier, with whom he enjoyed a 7-year-long affair from the age of 18, will be presented by the winners of the 2024 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize. Kitty Whately then joins Nigel Foster for Cross-Channel Currents, an overview of songs written in England and in France with words or music by women.    

Full details from the London Song Festival website. 

Making restitution: Sir Arthur Bliss' The Beatitudes returns to BBC Proms after a gap of 60 years

Bliss: The Beatitudes - Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, 
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo
BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Ruth Gips: Death on the Pale Horse, Grieg: Piano Concerto, Bliss: The Beatitudes; Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Kilsby, Lukas Sternath, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers, Sakari Oramo; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 7 September 2025

Bliss' powerful war-inspired cantata, written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral and Ruth Gips' 1943 tone-poem with Grieg's concerto as a somewhat unlikely make-weight

Some works recover from a disastrous premiere whilst others simply disappear. Sir Arthur Bliss' large-scale choral cantata The Beatitudes was written for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral in 1962 alongside Britten's War Requiem. Logistics (and perhaps a bit of politicking) meant the premiere of Bliss' piece being bumped to the unsatisfactory Belgrave Theatre. The Beatitudes was performed at the BBC Proms two years late in 1964, but it took until 2012 for it to be finally performed in Coventry Cathedral.

On Sunday 7 September 2025, Bliss' The Beatitudes returned to the BBC Proms alongside another British work arising from the Second World War, Ruth Gips' Death on a Pale Horse. Rather curiously, Grieg's Piano Concerto was sandwiched in the middle and at least one couple in the audience, having listened attentively to the Grieg seem to have decided that the Bliss was not worth returning for.

Sakari Oramo conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus with Lukas Sternath as soloist in Grieg's Piano Concerto and soprano Elizabeth Watts and tenor Laurence Kilsby as soloists in Bliss' The Beatitudes.

Grieg: Piano Concerto - Lukas Stenrath, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo - BBC Proms (Photo: Chris Christodoulou/ BBC)

Angel of Peace: The Sixteen's 25th Choral Pilgrimage moves from the 12th century to the present day but it is early Tudor polyphony that stays in the memory

Angel of Peace: Hildegard of Bingen,  Arvo Pärt, Will Todd, Anna Clyne, John Taverner; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers, Sarah Sexton; Church of St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 5 September 2025

The Sixteen's 25th Choral Pilgrimage mixes the contemporary with music from the 12th century, along with two great Marian antiphons that celebrate the florid music of the early Tudor church

The Sixteen's 2025 Choral Pilgrimage, Angel of Peace, has been wending its way around the country since they debuted the programme at Croydon Minster on 17 March. There will be 23 performances in all, ending on 4 October at Chichester Cathedral, along with eight associated choral workshops. Earlier this year I chatted to Harry Christophers about his approach to the Choral Pilgrimage and this year's programme. Read more in my interview, 'Everyone in the group feels strongly it'.

On Friday 5 September 2025 we caught Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in Angel of Peace at St Martin-in-the-Fields. The programme combines Hildegard of Bingen's Ave, Generosa, John Taverner's Gaude plurimum and O splendor gloriae, and Arvo Pärt's Tribute to Caesar, Da pacem Domine and Magnificat, with two contemporary pieces for choir and violin (Sarah Sexton), Will Todd's I shall be an angel of peace (from 2021) and Anna Clyne's Orbits which was a new commission by The Sixteen.

Each half began with verses from Hildegard of Bingen's Ave, Generosa and ended with one of John Taverner's large-scale antiphons. Will Todd and Anna Clyne's pieces formed the centrepiece of each half, paired with Arvo Pärt.