Wednesday 6 November 2013

October on Planet Hugill - Cardiff, Hamburg and Brighton

Welcome to what was a busy October on Planet Hugill.

Hamburg and Cardiff

October saw my visit to Hamburg continuing with a concert from theHamburg Philharmonic, a visit to the spectacular new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie and further visits to the Reeperbahn Festival. Whilst TheCultureTrip.com website carried a further article about theReeperbahn Festival
Then Cardiff beckoned for WNO's striking trilogy of Donizetti operas,Anna BolenaMaria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux.

ETO and Music Theatre Wales

English Touring Opera's Autumn season featured three baroque operas from Venice. Handel's Agrippina, Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea and Cavalli's Jason. And Music Theatre Wales brought Mark Anthony Turnage's Greek to the Royal Opera's Linbury Studio.

Wigmore Hall, Milton Court and more

Endymion Ensemble celebrated the Wagner centenary in style at Temple Church. The BBC Singers launched their new season with theirfirst concert at Milton Court and I was back at Milton Court for the launch of the City Music Foundation.
Viktoria Mullova and the Accademia Bizantina brought their programme of Bach concertos to the Wigmore Hall, and still at the Wigmore Hall we heard Angel Blue's recital in the Rosenblatt Series.
Second Movement's Rough for Opera saw Kate Whitley and Amir Tafreshipour presenting opera fresh off the page. And we helped celebrate Howard Blake's 75th birthday with his recital with cellist Benedict Kloeckner. We helped support Njabulo Madlala's Voices of South Africa Project.

London Song Festival and BREMF

The London Song Festival launched with Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Unseen and continued with Ashley Riches and Elizabeth Watts in Britten and Poulenc. The Brighton Early Music Festival opened withCool Passion, their classical music club night.

From our contributor, Hilary

Hilary heard Rachel Podger playing Bach at Kings Place, and was back at Kings Place for contemporary music group Counterpoise's Out Hear. Hilary also attended the English Poetry and Song Society's 30th birthday concert, where a group of my own songs were performed. She also enjoyed the Sacconi Quartet, performing at Temple Church. Music and science were mixed in the Clerk's Tales from Babel, and she also heard Exaudi's Exposure 13

First Look

In what is something of a new feature on the blog, we took first and second looks at some events. Hilary enjoyed ENO's Die Fledermausimmensely, whilst I was less certain. We took a first look at the Royal Opera's new production of Verdi's Les Vepres Siciliennes, with a second longer look following in November.

Articles and Interviews

Articles included a centenary tribute to Rosalyn Tureck, an interview with film director Ian Russell who was responsible for the recent live film of the Royal Opera's Turandot. And I met up with mezzo-sopranoHelen Sherman to talk about playing Nero for English Touring Opera, and I talked to Alissa Firsova about balancing composing, playing and conducting..

CD's reviewed

CD listened to included Full Circle from Adrian Munsey and Andrew Powell, Widor's Organ Symphonies from the Madeleine in Paris, Handel's Aci, Galatea et Polifemo, Franco Fagioli's astonishing disc of arias written for the castrato Cafarelli, Matthias Goerne singing Eisler, and songs by Richard Strauss's contemporary Ludwig Thuille, cellist Corinne Morris's Macedonian Sessions celebrating her return to cello playing, sacred and secular music from a cappella group The Song Men. John Axelrod's disc explored the relationship between Brahms and Clara Schumann. Donizetti's Belisaro was the latest from Opera Rara. The latest batch of Rosenblatt Recitals discs included AilishTynan in Faure. Mark Padmore's account of Britten's Canticles appeared on the Wigmore Hall Live label. The Academy of Ancient Music launched their own label with The Birth of the Symphony.

Competitions

Our October competition was to win two tickets for Roderick Williams and Julius Drake's recital for Temple Music. This month's competition is to win a copy of Dorling Kindersely's Music the Definitive Visual History.

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