From Mozartian connections in Salzburg & Vienna, to London success: Joseph Wölfl's Duos for Harp and Piano from Duo Praxedis on Toccata Classics

Joseph Wölfl in 1811

Joseph Wölfl (1773–1812) is hardly a name that springs to the lips. Born in Salzburg, the young Wölfl had lessons with Mozart's father and with Michael Haydn, as well as taking piano lessons with Mozart's sister. In 1790, he performed before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna and was received as a refined pianist. He may have taken lessons with Mozart.

Wölfl established himself as a freelance musician and enjoyed marked success in Poland until the third partition of Poland in 1795. Returning to Vienna, his opera Der Höllenberg premiered at the Theater auf der Wieden to a libretto by Emmanuel Schikaneder. Wölfl became known as a pianist and composer of opera, piano and chamber music, making tours to other musical centres of Germany. It was Constanze Mozart's recommendation that led to Breitkopf & Härtel became the main publisher of Wölfl’s works.

Wölfl would write further operas during the 1790s and early part of the following century. He was in Paris by 1801, standing out both as a pianist and as a composer of opera, orchestral and chamber music, then he was in London in 1805.  

He entered into a lifetime contract with Johann Peter Salomon (1745–1815), best remembered through his association with Haydn in the early 1790s, and received prestigious commissions as a composer. Soon Wölfl was known as one of the leading musicians of the city, and the most important part of his work, covering the whole breadth of musical genres, stems from this period. Between 1805 and 1810, one of his pupils was the English composer Cipriani Potter (1792-1871), who was principal of the Royal Academy of Music for 27 years.

Wölfl died in London in 1812, in what was then the well-to-do suburb of Marylebone. After his death, numerous publishers showed continued interest in his works and further editions continued to appear until the end of the nineteenth century.

"Wölfl played a concerto of his own composition with unprecedented clarity and precision, such as, with the tremendous span of his hands, no one else could possibly have done it. […] A pianist who measures six feet in length, whose fingers are incredibly long and can reach the span of a 13th without effort, who is also so thin that everything about him rattles like a scarecrow, who, with the most incredible ease, with a touch that is weak, albeit pleasant, performs all difficulties, impossible for other pianists, without losing his calm posture, who often knows how to bind entire passages in moderately fast tempo with one and the same finger, such as in the long tenor passage that continues in sixteenth notes in the Andante of Mozart’s Fantasia [K.397] – such a pianist is surely unique. What would our journalists say about such a pianist, compared to whom all our pianists, with their baggage of etudes and so-called fantasies, are fools who have never recognized the meaning of true art, who model their bravura after the comical jumping of grasshoppers, and thus develop themselves into true musical Gasconians. Wölfl’s remarkable virtuosity aside, his playing had neither light nor shade; he completely lacked masculine strength, which may have been why his playing didn’t penetrate the innermost being, but rather captivated admiration by its gymnastic qualities. Moreover, despite his good-naturedness, he lacked refined culture; his childishly humorous nature earned him the nickname ‘the foolish Wölfl’."

Václav Jan Tomášek (remembering 1799) quoted in Classical Pianists website. 

There are six piano concertos, written between 1802 and 1809. The piano concertos closely resemble the later piano concertos of Mozart, who had revolutionized the genre; they can be distinguished from Mozart's works by the larger range of the piano, which had been extended shortly after Mozart's death 

Wölfl encountered distinguished harp virtuosi both in Paris and in London, with whom he performed and for whom he composed an important body of works for harp and piano – one unmatched by any other major master of the Viennese Classical period. 

The invention of the pedal harp around 1800 made performance in all keys possible. The double-action pedal system was first patented in London by Sebastien Erard in 1801 and 1802. This invention led to the development of a new chamber-music combination, piano and harp, two instruments that were becoming common in middle-class homes. 

The Toccata Classics label has already issued two discs of Wölfl's piano music performed by Adalberto Maria Riva, and now they are focusing on Wölfl's duos for piano and harp with a new disc performed by Duo Praxedis due out in November. Since 2010 the Duo Praxedis, comprising the harpist Praxedis Hug-Rütti and the pianist Praxedis Geneviève Hug, has been reviving this forgotten tradition of works for harp and piano. 

Wölfl's Grand Duo pour Harpe et Piano in F major, Op. 29 was composed in Paris in 1804, and dedicated to a harpist who had performed as a musician in Queen Marie Antoinette’s concerts. The Grand Duett for the Harp and Piano Forte in B flat major, Op. 37 was composed in London in 1806 and dedicated to François-Joseph Dizi (1780–1840), one of the leading harp virtuosi of the day. The premiere at the King’s Concert Rooms in Hanover Square, was a resounding success, and it was repeated at subsequent concerts, even being issued in a version for two pianos. A Second Duett in E flat major, Op. 44 dates from 1807 and was dedicated to harp-playing sisters, the Miss Gautherots. The premiere took place at a benefit concert where Wölfl played the piano and Miss Gautherot the harp.

In 1807 Joseph Wölfl published a collection dedicated to his pupils under the title Bouquet de Flore, comprising seven compositions for a variety of instrumental combinations. It is noteworthy that Wölfl engraved the music himself on copper plates and issued the volume at his own expense. Two of the works in the collection are scored for harp and piano. 

Wölfl also composed a substantial sonata for solo harp and a sonata for flute and harp. Together, these compositions form a representative body of works that stands as a timeless monument to the development of the harp and the art of harp-playing during this period. 

My thanks to Toccata Classics as much of the information in this article comes from the informative programme booklet by Margit Haider-Dechant and Hermann Dechant.

The recital, below, includes the Second Duo by Wölfl [from 1:26:30] performed by Duo Praxedis at the Wölfl-Haus in Bonn.

 Full details of Joseph Wölfl's Complete Duos for Harp and Piano from Duo Praxedis on Toccata Classics. The disc will be released at the end of November.

 

 

The young German conductor Patrick Lange announced as Opera North's next music director

Patrick Lange

Opera North's forthcoming Autumn season has an interesting element of compare and contrast to it. Patrick Nolan's new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin will be conducted by the company's music director, Garry Walker, whilst the revival of Femi Elufowoju Jr 's production of Verdi's Rigoletto will be conducted by the young German conductor Patrick Lange. Now it has been announced that Garry Walker will be stepping down as music director in 2028, when he will have been in post for nine years, and Patrick Lange will then take over as music director. 

The company's Board of Trustees also has a new chair as Merran McRae takes on the role. Previously Chief Executive of Wakefield Council, she is now Chair of Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Deputy Chair at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. She was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant in the West Yorkshire Lieutenancy in 2024.   

Patrick Lange made his debut with Opera North in 2025 conducting The Magic Flute to both critical and audience acclaim.  As music director, he will conduct opera productions in Leeds and on tour, and symphonic concerts as part of the Kirklees Concert Season, as well as supporting the many other aspects of Opera North’s work, including its community and education initiatives. 

Patrick Lange began his musical career as an eight-year-old in the Regensburger Domspatzen boys’ choir. After graduating from high school, he studied conducting at the conservatoires in Würzburg and Zurich. As assistant conductor of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra he assisted Claudio Abbado, as well as Herbert Blomstedt, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Colin Davis, Philippe Jordan and Ingo Metzmacher. In 2007, Patrick Lange received the European Cultural Award in the Advancement Award for Young Conductors category and, in 2009, was awarded the first-ever Eugen Jochum Scholarship of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.  He began his opera conducting career in Zurich and Lucerne, he has subsequently become a regular guest conductor at leading opera houses worldwide, including the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Opéra National de Paris.

Superbly realised: Elements from saxophonist Huw Wiggin & harpist Oliver Wass

Elements - Charlotte Harding, Yshani Perinpanayagam, David Wallace, Simon Rowland-Jones, Laura Bowler, Andy Scott, Couperin, Purcell, Vivaldi, Bach, Corelli; Huw Wiggin, Oliver Wass, Leander Kippenberg; Orchid Classics
Reviewed 4 September 2026

Using the four classical elements - Earth, Air, Fire, and Water - as inspiration, this vivid and varied recital pairs new works with transcriptions of Baroque works to showcase the unusual but superbly realised duo of saxophone and harp

This recent(ish) disc on Orchid Classics, Elements combines the talents of harpist Oliver Wass and saxophonist Huw Wiggin. Saxophone and harp are not an obvious combination but here the two make it work wonderfully. The disc is themed around the elements, with new pieces by Charlotte Harding, Yshani Perinpanayagam, David Wallace, Simon Rowland-Jones, Laura Bowler, and Andy Scott, paired with adaptations of Couperin, Purcell, Vivaldi, Bach, and Corelli.

You only have to listen to the first track, the duo's transcription of Francois Couperin's Le Rossignol en Amour to get a feel for the rather seductive soundworld of the disc. The two bring enormous clarity and a sense of style to the music, along with a rather spare feel. Wass does not overfill the harp accompaniment and the contrast between the two soundworlds - saxophone and harp - works well.

The groundbreaking collaboration between the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain & learning disability charity Soundabout is now in its fourth year

National Children’s Choir of Great Britain's Blue Choir & Soundabout in workshop (Photo: Milly March)

A collaboration between the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain (NCCGB) and Soundabout is now in its fourth year. The collaboration brings the two organisations together for workshops: the NCCCGB, an auditioned choir for talented young singers aged 9 to 19 from all over Great Britain, and Soundabout, a UK charity that uses music to create meaningful opportunities for Learning Disabled people of all ages, particularly those with complex support needs [see my article on Soundabout].

The workshops have taught valuable lessons to the next generation of young people. Both organisations discovered common ground in their respective missions: feeling strongly that working together in a shared space that is equitable for everyone taking part is key to success.

NCCGB's Blue Choir (those of secondary school age) take part each year in a workshop with Soundabout whilst they are on a week-long residential course in the Easter school holidays. Many children who are in the NCCGB have little or no experience of interacting with Learning Disabled people with complex support needs, and yet the impact of this unique partnership - one of the first of its kind in the UK -  is clear to the young singers in NCCGB.

Soundabout’s person‑centred approach to accessible, interactive, and creative music‑making is easily transferred into a mainstream setting. The workshop begins with Soundabout’s Hello song, and closes with their Goodbye song, which helps create a sense of structure and familiarity to the workshop for everyone involved, and helps everyone connect and feel part of a group. The content of the workshops includes favourite songs from both groups, singing games, hand-held percussion, sensory toys and plenty of interaction between music practitioners and participants. At the end of the workshop, plenty of time is given for socialising afterwards.

Verity, who has been in Blue Choir for two years, said: "We don't have many people with disabilities in and around my community at home, so I was a bit nervous before my first session with Soundabout. But seeing so many amazing people in a room all singing together was so much fun! It is such an enjoyable and inclusive experience, I don't know what I had to worry about. This is my second year with NCCGB and Soundabout is now one of the highlights of my week; it's the first thing I tell my family about when I get home!"

The partnership is set to continue in 2027. It is currently being funded by Soundabout and the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, however in order to grow it in future years, the organisations are actively seeking funding. 

• Support Soundabout [link]
• Support NCCGB [link]

On the 50th anniversary of Britten’s death, Britten Pears Arts is staging a weekend of events honouring his life, music and legacy.

The Red House, Aldeburgh (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Highlights of this very special weekend (Friday-Sunday, 4th-6th December) honouring the 50th anniversary of Britten’s death include performances of the composer’s Lachrymae, Saint Nicolas and the Oboe Quartet together with a special study session by Dr Lucy Walker and an opportunity for a moment of stillness and reflection with a service of remembrance at Aldeburgh Church. 

Two outstanding artists Timothy Ridout (viola) and James Baillieu (piano) offer what promises a spirited start to the weekend with a noonday performance (Friday, 4th December, Britten Studio) of Schubert’s highly popular Arpeggione Sonata and Britten’s Lachrymae, a lovely and inviting piece comprising variations on music by John Dowland. Completing the programme is Schubert’s Sonatina No.1, an attractive piece reflecting the graceful and lyrical influence of Mozart. 

The evening show (Britten Studio, 7pm) features cellist Guy Johnston and pianist Melvyn Tan performing a recital featuring Britten's Cello Sonata (written for Mstislav Rostropovich) heard alongside Mendelssohn's Cello Sonata No.2. The programme also includes Beethoven’s Sonata No.4 and a new work from Matthew Kaner, a composer known for his emotionally direct and poetic music. 

An expert on the life and works of Britten, writer, researcher and speaker, Dr Lucy Walker, chairs what promises to be a fascinating study session (Saturday, 5th December, 11am, Britten Studio). She’ll be joined in conversation by Alice Coote and Timothy Ridout exploring the profound impact and performance that Britten’s music has had upon them. 

And performing Schubert’s great and inspiring song-cycle, Winterreise (Saturday, 5th December, 4pm, Britten Studio) falls to mezzo-soprano, Alice Coote, accompanied by pianist, Christian Blackshaw. The work highlights the composer’s gift of transforming poetry into music combining them into an artform of intense emotional resonance. Written to poems by Wilhelm Müller, the scenario tells the painfully sorrow and emotional story of a rejected lover who wanders alone through a cold, harsh winter landscape.  

Under the baton of Owain Park, the joint forces of Britten Sinfonia, BBC Singers, Britten Pears Chamber Choir and London Youth Choir / LYC Boys (Saturday, 5th December, 7pm, Snape Maltings Concert Hall) combine to perform Britten’s cantata, Saint Nicolas, a tender and uplifting work featuring some of the composer’s brightest and boldest music with the scenario telling the tale of the saint that inspired Santa Claus.  

The programme also includes Britten’s tribute to fellow composer and teacher, Frank Bridge, as well as Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, a mournful, six-minute piece for string orchestra and tolling bell. Written in 1977 after Britten’s death, the piece uses a descending A minor scale and a bell toll to create a profound sense of inevitable, cascading grief. 

The following day (Sunday, 6th December, 12 noon, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh) oboist Nicholas Daniel teams up with Jaqueline Shave (violin), Judith Busbridge (viola) and Caroline Dearnley (cello) for a performance of Britten’s Phantasy Quartet written in 1932 when the composer was just 19 years old studying at the Royal College of Music garnering him early critical attention while stamping his professional reputation. The programme also includes Mozart’s Oboe Quartet plus a couple of relatively new works: Huw Watkins’ Oboe Quartet, which received its première earlier this year and Jacqueline Shave’s haunting and thought-provoking take on traditional tunes. 

Benjamin Britten & Peter Pears at Snape Maltings (Photo courtesy of Britten Pears Arts)

A celebration of East Anglia’s young musicians promises to light up the Snape Maltings stage in an inspiring end-of-term showcase (Sunday, 6th December, 7pm, Snape Maltings Concert Hall) highlighting the region’s upcoming musical talent. Therefore, one can expect vibrant performances by some of the region’s finest young bloods. 

The following weekend (Saturday, 12th December, 7pm, Snape Maltings Concert Hall) Britten’s Canticles, comprising five miniature cantatas modelled on Purcell’s divine hymns, contrasting and blending religious and secular poetry, were written for Peter Pears and close collaborators. 

They’ll be performed by a superb roster of singers and instrumentalists of the likes of Allan Clayton (tenor), Iestyn Davies (countertenor) and Peter Brathwaite (baritone) with James Baillieu (piano), Olivia Jageurs (harp) and Richard Watkins (horn). Intimate and spiritually-charged pieces reflecting Britten’s interests in poetry, religion and the human condition, they chart his musical evolution over an almost thirty-year period. 

As a curtain-raiser to the Britten Weekend (20th-21st November), the Master of The King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen, premières her new work at Orford Church entitled A Christmas Miracle inspired by Britten’s unrealised community opera, A Christmas Sequence. 

A dramatic story of lives that transcend time and generations, the work hosts a plethora of well-loved Christmas carols for audience members to participate in. Described by the composer as an ‘all-embracing musical adventure’, A Christmas Miracle (developed by Mahogany Opera and co-produced by Britten Pears Arts with support coming from Jubilee Opera and Orkney Music and Culture) sees Britten’s plans for an intergenerational performance of the Christmas story come to fruition. 

Director Frederic Wake-Walker collaborates with Errollyn Wallen for the third time following The Lighthouse Wave and Dido’s Ghost and together they have created a piece that combines high levels of community participation with more complex material for professional artists.  

Taking the role of the Angel Gabriel are sopranos Hilary Cronin and Emma Tring while countertenor Andrew Watts is seen as Herod with mezzo-soprano Idunnu Münch (Melchior), baritone Robert Gildon (Balthasar) and actor/singer Nick Mercer (Preco/MC).  

Conducted by John Andrews, A Christmas Miracle, scored for ten instrumentalists, will be performed by musicians from Ensemble X on Friday 20th November 6.30pm with a couple of performances on Saturday 21st at 3pm/6.30pm. 

Further information from the Britten Pears website. See also their Remembering Britten website.

 

  

An artist without the slightest spark of genius? Your chance to judge as Gothic Opera revives Fromental Halévy's rarely performed La Dame de Pique

Fromental Halévy (1799-1862) was one of the mainstays of French opera in the 19th century. A pupil of Cherubini, his opera La Juive (1835) would inaugurate the new Paris Opera at the Palais Garnier in 1875. He wrote more than 30 operas for both the Opéra and Opéra-Comique in a wide variety of genres. Yet apart from La Juive, his works have not made it onto the operatic stage in the present day. I am not sure when La Juive was last performed in the UK, but we travelled to Antwerp to see it in 2019 [see my review].

Berlioz admired his scores, and Richard Wagner held up Halévy as an example for German composers to follow, "His vocation is to write music springing from the most intimate and powerful depths of human nature". But for Heinrich Heine, Halévy was an artist, but "without the slightest spark of genius".

As for his other operas apart from La Juive, well, you will be lucky to even encounter them on CD, though his grand opera La Reine de Chypre (1841) is available from Bru Zane, whilst La Tempesta (1850) was performed in Wexford in 2022 [see my review]. The good news for London-based opera lovers is that at the end of October, coinciding with Halloween, Gothic Opera will be performing Halévy's La Dame de pique (1850).

Based on Pushkin but with a libretto by the doyen of the French operatic stage, Eugène Scribe, La Dame de Pique premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1850 and ran for 47 performances. As might be expected, the plot has little to do with Pushkin, Scribe's libretto getting a mixed response, being described it as a hybrid of drama, comedy, opéra-comique, tragédie lyrique and féerie. Musically, the piece is accessible and seductive, and contains some exquisite vocal and instrumental writing, showcasing Halévy’s gift for melody, and contemporary critics praised the music's scale, vitality, and orchestral brilliance.

Gothic Opera's production will be directed by Jonny Danciger (who directed Strauss's Die Fledermaus for St Paul's Opera in 2024) and by staging the piece in the crumbling architecture of Battersea Arts Centre’s Grand Hall they will transport the audience to a time of decay and dissolution at the end of the Ancien Régime in France. Tussles of power are played out between the ruling and the working classes, like a card game being reshuffled. Leon Haxby, a composer who worked with the company on Donizetti's Maria di Rudenz, has created a new chamber orchestration of the opera for seven instruments. The opera will be conducted by Hannah von Wiehler, with designs by Celeste Langrée, and lighting by Luca Panetta.

Rather intriguingly the opera's settings range from aristocratic settings to subterranean mines, and Act 2 features a duet that erupts into a turbulent miners' chorus which some of Halévy's contemporaries thought to be the most remarkable piece in the score.

Interesting side note: In 1869, Halévy's daughter Geneviève married the composer Georges Bizet, who had been one of Halévy's pupils at the Conservatoire. After Bizet's death and an alliance with Élie-Miriam Delaborde, the son of the composer Charles-Valentin Alkan, Geneviève married a banker and became a leading Parisian salonnière. Amongst the guests at her soirées was the young Marcel Proust, who used her as one of the models for the Duchesse de Guermantes in In Search of Lost Time.

Gothic Opera in the Grand Hall, Battersea Arts Centre. Photo: Craig Fuller

Gothic Opera's production of Halévy's La Dame de Pique will be at Battersea Arts Centre's Grand Hall from 29 October to 1 November.

Full details from the company's website.

Beyond Authenticity: The many voices of Period Performance at the Lammermuir Festival, some thoughts from joint artistic director James Waters

Concerto Copenhagen (Photo: Mathias loevgreen)

One of the pleasures of programming the Lammermuir Festival is the opportunity to place different musical personalities alongside one another and invite audiences to listen for both connections and contrasts. And that is particularly true of the Festival's period performance strand.

Historically informed performance has long ceased to be a niche activity. The movement's pioneers transformed our understanding of everything from Baroque opera to Classical symphonies, changing the way musicians, scholars and audiences hear familiar repertoire. Yet perhaps the most interesting development over the last two decades has been the increasing diversity within the movement itself.

Today there is no single historically informed style. Instead, there are many approaches, shaped by differing views on scholarship, rhetoric, sound, theatre and communication. Lammermuir Festival 2026 brings together a group of artists and ensembles who share a fascination with historical repertoire whilst often taking very different paths through it. Among them are Concerto Copenhagen, Dunedin Consort, The English Concert, The Marian Consort and Ensemble Jupiter.

Taken together, these performances offer not a survey of preserved early music but a snapshot of a living and evolving art form.

A useful place to begin is with Concerto Copenhagen, whose residency centres on Haydn, including the composer's celebrated ‘Morning’, ‘Noon’ and ‘Night’ symphonies.

Reinventing the semi-opera: Vache Baroque collaborates with Out of Chaos to turn The Tempest into an evening of fun, modern theatre

The Tempest (the masque in Part Two) - Vache Baroque (Photo: The Photography Shed)

The Tempest - Shakespeare, Matthew Locke, Henry Purcell & others; Tim Delap, Leah Haile, Hannah Barrie, Tré Medley, Stephanie Hershaw, Isabelle Peters, Camilla Seale, Conor Prendiville, Ross Cumming, director: Paul O'Mahony, Vache Baroque, musical director: Jonathan Darbourne; Vache Baroque at The Vache
Reviewed 6 September 2026

An engaging reinvention of the semi-opera provides a vividly engaging evening in the theatre though without solving all the genre's inherent problems, but with a stunning versatile and engaged cast.

The Tempest - Stephanie Hershaw (Ariel) - Vache Baroque 
(Photo: The Photography Shed)

Fully sung opera never seemed to stick in Restoration England. During the Interregnum, fully sung operas had been produced in lieu of plays to get around government restriction. But after the Restoration, with the vibrant springing to life of the playhouses, opera never flourished. A French opera company under the direction of Robert Cambert, in 1674, though sponsored by the king proved short-lived. What was popular, however, was the semi-opera (what was called dramatick-opera at the time), a strange combination of spoken play and music. The first ones arose in the early 1670s with music often by Matthew Locke, and then Purcell would famously be involved. Semi-operas were produced with some regularity from 1673 (Macbeth) to 1712 (The Tempest). [See my article The Invention of English Opera]

Few modern opera companies essay the semi-opera genre in its entirety, though Glyndebourne did so with The Fairy Queen some years ago, and King Arthur occasionally makes an appearance. For a modern audience, the form is unwieldy with its mix of spoken drama along with music, yet the leading characters do not sing. Allied to this the original semi-operas would have had spectacular (i.e. expensive) sets.

For its Summer opera festival, Vache Baroque at The Vache bravely decided to collaborate with Out of Chaos theatre company to present a semi-opera version of The Tempest inspired by the production of The Tempest performed in 1674 (with libretto by Thomas Shadwell after John Dryden and William Davenant's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest and music by Matthew Locke, Giovanni Battista Draghi and Pelham Humfrey).

Vache Baroque's version was directed by Paul O'Mahony (artistic director of Out of Chaos) with Jonathan Darbourne as musical director. They chose to base their version directly on Shakespeare and to the music by Locke, added pieces by Purcell, Pelham Humphrey, John Weldon, Dowland, Thomas Morley, Robert Johnson, Kapsberger, Couperin and Marais.

The company featured the actors Tim Delap (Prospero), Leah Haile (Miranda), Hannah Barrie (Caliban), Tré Medley (Ferdinand) and Dom Swain (Sebastian), and the singers Stephanie Hershaw, soprano (Ariel), Isabelle Peters, soprano (Alonso), Camilla Seale, mezzo-soprano (Stephano), Conor Prendiville, tenor (Antonio), and Ross Cumming, baritone, (Trinculo).

Jonathan Darbourne directed an ensemble of nine from the harpsichord - Naomi Burrell and Christiane Eidsten Dahl, violins, Charlotte Fairbairn, viola, Gavin Kibble, bass violin/viola da gamba, Carina Cosgrave, bass, Oohagh Lee and Joel Raymond, oboes/recorders, Toby Carr, theorbo/lute/guitar, Louise Anna Duggan, percussion.

Designs were by Caitlin Mawhinney, choreography by Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster, and lighting by Ben Pickersgill. The performers (actors, singers, instrumentalists) all used microphones and the sound included work by sound artist Dan Samsa that used found noises as a backdrop to evoke the isle being full of noises.

Here Comes Everybody: composer Alastair White begins his Finnegans Wake project with an overture at London Irish Centre with Ensemble Exposé & Roger Redgate

A drawing of Joyce (with eyepatch) by Djuna Barnes from 1922,
the year in which Joyce began the 17-year task of writing Finnegans Wake

Alastair White:Here Comes Everybody: an overture to Finnegans Wake; Ensemble Exposé, Roger Redgate; London Irish Centre
5 September 2026

"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs."

How to approach James Joyce's Finnegans Wake in music? This is the question that husband and wife team of composer Alastair White and producer Gemma Williams have been asking as they create a new musical treatment of the novel. They launched the project last year at Irish Design Week [see my article] and the first instalment of White's musical adaptation was presented at the London Irish Centre on Saturday 5 September 2026. White's overture was performed by Ensemble Exposé - Rowland Sutherland, flute, Christopher Redgate, oboe, Heather Roche, clarinet, Chris Brannick, percussion, Caroline Balding, violin, Bridge Carey, viola, Clare O'Connell, cello - conducted by Roger Redgate. (Alastair White studied with Roger Redgate at Goldsmiths.)

The full project is planned to last 13 years and come to completion in 2039, the centenary of Joyce's publication of the complete novel. For the long timescale and fragmentary approach, White and Williams take inspiration from Joyce's work on the novel as he published fragments over a period of 17 years only publishing the complete novel in 1939.

By turns illuminating & compelling: the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on terrific form in Britten & Vaughan Williams at the BBC Proms

Britten: Violin Concerto - Simone Lamsma, Andrew Manze, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Chris Christodoulou)

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis, Britten: Violin Concerto, Carmel Smickersgill: A Brick Thrown with Love, Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 9; Simone Lamsma, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Andrew Manze; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 4 September 2026

From early Britten and Vaughan Williams through to RVW's last symphonic utterance, an evening that was by turns illuminating and compelling, with the RLPO on terrific form and a finely focused yet emotional solo from Simone Lamsma in the Britten

In 1938, Ralph Vaughan Williams (then aged 66) began writing his fifth symphony whilst in the USA, Benjamin Britten (then aged 25) was beginning his Violin Concerto. Britten's concerto would be premiered in 1940, whilst Vaughan Williams's symphony premiered in 1943. But the senior composer showed no sign of slowing down, and his symphonies continued right through to the Symphony No. 9 which he composed during 1956/57, and it premiered in 1958 when he was 86.

It was this fascinating confluence that was at the heart of Andrew Manze and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 4 September 2026. They began with Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia, then came Britten's Violin Concerto with soloist Simone Lamsma, the premiere of Carmel Smickersgill's A Brick Thrown with Love and finally Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 9 in E minor. Another link in the programme is that both the concerto and the symphony conclude with a passacaglia.

When it comes to Vaughan Williams's output, his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis which premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester in 1910 is very much an early work even though the composer was then in his late 30s. Something of a late starter, the piece is his first major work that is unquestionably his. It is hard to regard the work as revolutionary now, but in 1910 after the premiere the young composers Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney were so shaken by the piece they spent the night roaming the streets of Gloucester talking about it.

Andrew Manze, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Chris Christodoulou)

The Royal Albert Hall certainly is not Gloucester Cathedral so we lacked that building's distinctive ambience. But Manze presented the work using the same large body of strings that he used for the Britten and the Vaughan Williams symphony. The result was an opening that was lush yet barely there, leading to a big tune with a fine sense of rubato and orchestral tuttis that were full of rich details. The nine players in Orchestra II (placed behind the main body of strings) seemed to be performing with minimum vibrato, to striking effect, and the solo quartet produced some sweet violin and mellow viola sounds. The ending, when it came, was wonderfully effective and the fine string sound only lacked that extra glow from Gloucester Cathedral's acoustic.

A new way of listening to the harpsichord: Katarzyna Kowalik's Meditations for Harpsichord

With Meditations for Harpsichord, British-Polish harpsichordist Katarzyna Kowalik will gather together nine newly commissioned works by five British and four Polish composers.

The project will receive its world premiere at Colet House in London on 20 October 2026, followed by the Polish premiere on 24 October in Hashtag Lab, Warsaw, as well as performances in the UK and Poland throughout 2026–27, including events for the New College, Oxford, National Centre for Early Music, The Confraternity of Polish Artists in Great Britain & POSK, Warsaw Music Encounters Festival, among others.

Written for harpsichord, Tibetan singing bowls, gongs and electronics, the works explore the instrument from radically different perspectives, incorporating contemporary techniques, resonance, silence, improvisatory elements and immersive sound. The programme will be framed by an unmeasured prelude by Louis Couperin and Froberger’s Méditation sur ma mort future. The nine contemporary composers featured are Rolf Hind, Janet Oates, John Palmer, Kevin Raftery, Nicola LeFanu, Anna Ignatowicz-Glińska, Andrzej Karałow, Dariusz Przybylski and Anna Maria Huszcza.

The October performances coincide with the release of the project’s recording on Prima Facie Records. An accompanying book, co-edited by Katarzyna Kowalik and John Palmer, published by Vision Edition, will feature contributions from all nine composers, offering further perspectives on the music, the commissioning process and the ideas behind the project.

Tickets for 20 October from TicketTailor.

ORA Singers' Graduate Composers: five young composers have their work showcased at Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

ORA Singers' Graduate Composers' scheme forms a core part of their Composers' Pathway - their work to support composers at any stage in their careers. The Graduate scheme champions early-career composers by offering them a professional commission with ORA Singers and regular mentorship with Artistic Director, Suzi Digby. 

The third Graduate Composers' scheme culminates in a Graduate Composers Showcase at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama on 2 October 2026. The five Graduate Composers - Evie Atkin, Eluned Davies, Marcello Palazzo, Sarah Henderson, and Harry Rees -  have been set the task of 'reflecting' a renaissance original, in line with many of ORA Singers other commissions featured in their 100 Commissions Catalogue. The Showcase will see ORA Singers premiere each new work alongside its renaissance counterpart at the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College. 

• Evie Atkin is a composer, musical director, and performer based in London. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Julian Phillips, Laurence Crane and Hollie Harding
• Sarah Henderson is a freelance composer, cellist and soprano based in London. Her formal training in composition began at the Junior Department of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and she later studied with Masahiro Ishijima when she was a student at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo
•  Marcello Palazzo is completing a doctorate at the Royal Academy of Music, and graduated the University of Oxford (MPhil, Composition). He has written music for the London Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, CHROMA Ensemble, Ligeti Quartet, Merton College Choir (Oxford), Britten-Pears Contemporary Ensemble
• Eluned Davies is a Welsh composer currently based in London, with a background in singing as well as a passion for poetry and words. She is currently completing her MA in Opera Making at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama as Jane Ades scholar, under the tutelage of Julian Philips. Davies also studied with Laurence Crane and Paul Newland in her MMus in Guildhall and with Jonathan Cole and Catherine Kontz in her undergraduate studies at the Royal College of Music
•  Harry Rees is an emerging Irish composer from Enniskillen. They graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2025 studying under Ceri Tippetts, Mark Boden, Michael McCartney, Owen Lloyd, and Tic Ashfield. In 2024, Harry was shortlisted by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for Composition: Wales 2025, culminating in March 2025 with a recorded performance by the orchestra of Harry’s original work, Nine Times to Die, conducted by Jac van Steen. 

Full details of the Graduate Showcase from the RWCMD website. 

moon landing: composer Helen Caddick & textile artist Margo Selby's immersive cross-genre piece

Composer Helen Caddick and textile artist Margo Selby collaborated on an immersive cross-genre piece, moon landing, for Collect 2024 at Somerset House. [see my article] 

As part of the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery (which closes on 8 September), The Sun and Moon - Art inspired by the Celestial the work has been on display again.

Margo Selby and Helen Caddick had long been fascinated about the crossovers between music and textiles, mathematics and science which sparked their initial conversations and desire to collaborate. The music of moon landing is inspired by the little known story that it was Navajo women and women at the Raytheon Plant who wove the integrated circuits and memory cores on the Apollo 11 which enabled the moon landing. By creating moon landing Helen Caddick wish to bring their story to greater public consciousness. 

Caddick's moon landing is written for 2 harps, 2 cellos and 2 violins and the music can be downloaded from Bandcamp. But hearing the piece in the context of Selby's astounding piece of weaving is definitely worthwhile. 

Further details from Saatchi Gallery.

Inside the Orchestra: the chance to find out what an orchestra sounds like when you are sitting inside it.

Just as the Philharmonia Orchestra is using VR to enable people find out what it is like to join a live orchestra [see my article]. Another project is doing something similar but with a real live orchestra. With its event Inside the Orchestra, the Pavel Kushnir Scholarship is offering audience members the chance to find out what an orchestra sounds like when you are sitting inside it. 

On Wednesday 16 September 2026 at Annunciation Church, Marble Arch, W1H 7AH, conductor Bogdan Skrypka lead the Willow Orchestra in a live rehearsal of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. For the first part of the evening, audience members will be invited to sit inside the Willow Orchestra, among the musicians. Rather than hearing the orchestra from the conventional distance of a concert hall seat, the audience will experience the rehearsal from within the ensemble to observe at close range how an orchestral performance is created.

The rehearsal is deliberately presented as a working process rather than a polished performance. Then after the interval the audience will return to traditional seating and hear the complete Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, experiencing the finished performance from the outside after having witnessed its creation from within.

The project aims to bring audiences closer to the process of orchestral music-making and to offer an experience that goes beyond the traditional relationship between performer and listener.

The Pavel Kushnir Scholarship was established in London in memory of a brilliant pianist and educator. Arrested for speaking out loud against the Russian invasion of Ukraine on his YouTube channel with only five subscribers, Pavel Kushnir died in a Russian detention centre [see my article]. The scholarship is aiming to help students from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus to begin or continue their music studies across the UK, Europe or the US.

Full details of Inside the Orchestra from EventBrite. 

 

A highly intelligent & rather imaginative recital: Handel's Italians - Italian castrati in the London oratorios from Carlo Vistoli on Harmonia Mundi

Handel's Italians: Italian castrati in the London oratorios - music from Handel's Esther, Deborah, Athalia, Belshazzar, Messiah, Theodora; Carlo Vistoli, Giulia Semenzato, Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm; Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed 1 September 2026

This rather imaginative recital focuses on music from Handel's oratorios sung by Italian castratos, including arias specially Italianised for them, here benefitting from suavely stylish performances from Italian countertenor Carlo Vistoli 

Handel's move from writing Italian opera to English oratorio did not happen immediately, and for some ten years the two genres ran almost simultaneously in Handel's output. So, whilst we might emphasise the role of English singers in oratorio with names like Anastasia Robinson, Susannah Cibber, John Beard and others, Handel's Italian singers also played an interesting role in oratorio's genesis.

This new disc from Carlo Vistoli, Handel's Italians: Italian castrati in the London oratorios on Harmonia Mundi (release 4 September 2026) sees the countertenor join with Le Concert d’Astrée, conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, and soprano Giulia Semenzato, for a programme exploring the music from Handel's oratorios written a range of Italian castratos. Vistoli is no stranger to Handel's English oratorios having recently performed in Semele at Covent Garden. [see my review]

Handel presented a new version of Esther at the King's Theatre in 1732, hurriedly assembled in order to keep Handel's interest in the work after rival performances (following a gap of some 12 years since Esther's previous outing). The cast inevitably included a selection of Italian singers who had given Flavio, re de’ Longobardi just a few weeks earlier including soprano Anna Maria Strada, the castrato Francesco Bernardi, known as ‘Il Senesino’, contralto Francesca Bertolli, and bass Antonio Montagnana. From then on, oratorio would be presented with a mix of nationalities, depending on who was available. When presenting Athalia in 1733, Handel had an all-English cast except for Strada and his later oratorios would also use Italian sopranos Giulia Frasi and Caterina Galli alongside other English singers.

Celebrating the eclectic life of pioneering crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale: Electric Voice Theatre at Conway Hall for Bloomsbury Festival

"For a married woman with children, to become a first class scientist she must first of all choose, the right husband" 
        Dame Kathleen Lonsdale

Crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971) was the first female professor at UCL and the first female Fellow of the Royal Society. Her pioneering science led to breakthroughs in organic chemistry and medical treatments. Beyond science, Lonsdale was a prison reformer, women’s rights activist and pacifist, warning of the dangers of nuclear physics and wealth inequality in her book Is Peace Possible? 

As part of the 20th Bloomsbury Festival, Electric Voice Theatre will be returning to Conway Hall on 15 October 2026 for The Peaceful Crystallographer - and other songs celebrating the life of Dame Kathleen Lonsdale.

Electric Voice Theatre will be joined by UC8 - young acappella singers from University College London, and Clerkenwell Community Choir to perform music which reflects Lonsdale’s eclectic life, ranging through Irish folk song, music-hall, stirring anthems and ethical hymns, including works by Judith Weir and Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Lonsdale’s contemporaries like Elizabeth Maconchy, Shena Fraser and Clara Novello Davies and Conway Hall’s radical thinkers, Eliza Flower and Emily Josephine Troup.

There will be a post-performance discussion featuring science historian Dr Patricia Fara and Zoë Waller, Professor of Drug Discovery, Pharma & Bio Chemistry at University College London, and some of today’s women in science at UCL in the year of its 200th anniversary. 

Full details from Electric Voice Theatre's website. 

 

Manuel de Falla, Bell's telephone, rockets & Winnie the Pooh: The London Song Festival is 'Reaching Out...'

E. H. Shepard - Illustration to page 3 of Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) 

Nigel Foster's London Song Festival is back this autumn with nine concerts from 5 November to 11 December under the banner of "Reaching Out to...." or "Reaching Back to..." a place or time in which imagination and longing flourish.

Anniversaries celebrated include the 150th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone, the centenary of the publication of A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh, the centenary of the launch of the first liquid propelled rocket and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla. Other themes include Ancient Greece, Fantasy & Magic, The Seven Ages of Man, and the Mystic East

Performers at the festival include Ellen Pearson (mezzo-soprano), Laurence Kilsby (tenor), Rachel Munro (soprano), Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano), Harriet Burns (soprano), George Robarts (baritone), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Archie Inns (tenor), Lorena Paz Nieto (soprano), Michel de Souza (baritone), Erika Baikoff (soprano), Jonathan Eyers (baritone), Natalka Pasicznyk (soprano), Sian Sulke (mezzo-soprano), along with winners of the 2025 London Song Festival Schubert Song Prize, Siri Bengtsson Marklund (soprano) and Bohdana Ravliuk (piano), and the winners of the inaugural SWAP’ra Rebecca Clarke Pianist Prize, Jasmin Alpress and Alfred Fardell who curate a programme with the singers with whom they won the prize, Gabriella Noble (mezzo-soprano), Archie Inns (tenor).

Music included moves between the known and the unknown, including Erich Wolff, Arthur Somervell, Florence Price, Harold Fraser-Simpson, Nadia Boulanger, Albert Roussel, Marguerite Canal, Armande de Polignac, Rebecca Clarke, Constant Lambert, Granville Bantock and Charles Griffes, along with contemporary composer Edward Picton-Turberville. 

A particular highlight is the focus on Manuel de Falla on 26 November, when his songs will be paired with songs inspired by Spain, but written by non-Spanish composers including Wolf, Schumann, Adolf Jensen, Ravel, Jacques Ibert, Honegger, Louis Albert, Delibes, William Walton, Frederick Keel, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

Full details from the London Song Festival's website.

The virtual orchestra: the Philharmonia's new VR game allows participants to join the orchestra in a live performance of Rossini's William Tell

Philharmonia Orchestra's Virtual Orchestra: Play Along (Photo: Marc Gascoigne)

The Southbank Centre's Creative Intelligence festival (11 to 13 September 2026) takes its inspiration from the Festival of Britain 75 years ago by exploring how artists, digital innovation and AI are reshaping the world we live in as part of a celebration of art, imagination and technology.

The Philharmonia's contribution to the festival will build on the orchestra's digital innovation to present Virtual Orchestra: Play Along, a virtual game which allows users to pick up a virtual instrument, learn through guided tutorials, and perform as part of the orchestra. Designed with children and young people in mind, participants can choose percussion instruments including cymbals, timpani and triangle, building skills before joining a full orchestral performance in a packed concert hall setting.

Through a series of interactive challenges and tutorials led by Philharmonia musicians, participants wearing VR headsets learn to read their part in the score, rehearse, and then “join the orchestra” in a live concert for the exhilarating finale of Rossini’s William Tell Overture.

The live performance in the experience was filmed at the Royal Festival Hall in April 2025 and conducted by Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, using an array of 3D 360 cameras for ultra-high 12.5k resolution and cinematic quality. Live audio was recorded and mixed using object-based spatial audio techniques and converted to higher-order Ambisonics, to render the full acoustic depth and geometry of the performance space. Every instrument occupies its true position in three-dimensional space, captured at the highest spatial resolution currently possible.

The Philharmonia Orchestra was among 272 recipients to benefit from the Innovate UK/ DCMS Create Growth Programme in 2025. The £99,284 grant enabled research and development and the pilot programme with a Year Seven cohort from 11 schools from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. Alongside the VR experience, the Philharmonia has developed a curriculum-linked programme for Key Stage 3, with resources and CPD support for teachers. The project responds to growing concerns around declining music participation in schools, with GCSE Music entries falling significantly in recent years.

Marta Génova, the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Head of Digital Product and Experience, says, "For over a decade, the Philharmonia Orchestra has pioneered immersive musical experiences, and Virtual Orchestra: Play Along takes that work into a new phase where we ask audiences to participate rather than observe. For the first time in our VR work, users can take up a virtual instrument, develop skills through guided practice, and perform with the orchestra onstage, among the musicians, in concert. Through R&D collaboration with percussionist Tom Edwards, Meta Camera and Schallgeber, we have developed new ways to connect artists and audiences, reducing barriers to engagement and making cultural spaces more welcoming to participants."

By turns ravishing & spine-tingling: period instrument orchestra Les Siècles is the star of the show in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the BBC Proms conducted by Jakob Lehmann

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust - Les Siècles - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust; John Osborn, Véronique Gens, Gerard Finley, Chœur de Radio France and Maîtrise de Radio France, Les Siècles, Jakob Lehmann; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 30 August 2026

A welcome visit from Les Siècles allows us the luxury of a period instrument performance of Berlioz's quirky masterpiece, with Jakob Lehmann and his players holding us spellbound with the orchestral detail

The French period instrument orchestra Les Siècles has gone through some significant changes in the last couple of years. Founded by François-Xavier Roth in 2003, the orchestra found itself in a similar position to the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras when their relations with their founder soured. Allegations of inappropriate behaviour on Roth's part led to his stepping down from Les Siècles last year and the orchestra introducing a new management structure. In June this year (2026), Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda was announced as their new artistic director and conductor. Manacorda won't be working with the orchestra again until December 2026, but in the intervening period a range of conductors have been stepping up to the podium, including Jakob Lehman who directed Beethoven and Dvorak with them last month.

Last autumn, Les Siècles and Jakob Lehmann [see my 2025 interview with him] presented Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in a staging by Silvia Costa. Rather luxuriously, the orchestra brought the whole performance to the BBC Proms on 30 August 2026. At the Royal Albert Hall there was no staging and a new group of soloists: John Osborn as Faust, Véronique Gens as Marguerite and Gerald Finley as Méphistophélès, but we still had the Chœur de Radio France and Maîtrise de Radio France along with a very large orchestra (though 'only' four harps rather than the eight to ten that Berlioz asks for!)

Berlioz never did get the great Parisian theatrical success that his talent and temperament seemed to deserve, probably because Berlioz's distinctive genius led him to run on different lines. None of his theatrical works quite fits the norm and La damnation de Faust is a case in point. Originally written as Eight Scenes from Faust in 1829, Berlioz decided to rework the material and in 1845 created his légende dramatique as he called it. Berlioz did not envisage the work being staged, it was a concert piece which of course meant that his imagination could run free. The first performance at the Opéra-Comique was not a success, and it was only following the first successful complete performance in concert in Paris, in 1877 that the work took off.

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust - John Osborn, Jakob Lehmann, Les Siècles - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

The complete work was only heard at the Proms in 1962, when Colin Davis conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, the work had been reduced to orchestral excerpts - the Hungarian March, the Dance of the Sylphs etc. The performance this year brings the total to eight full Proms performances (including one conducted by Mark Elder in 1985 which featured me in the chorus, and that one did have a ridiculous number of harps!).

Drawn to stories that intersect the political & cultural worlds: Anthony Davis's opera The Central Park Five released on disc by Long Beach Opera

Anthony Davis: The Central Park Five - Long Beach Opera 2022 (Photo: JJ Geiger)

I first came across the case of the Central Park Five when I read Joan Didion's essay Sentimental Journeys first published in the New York Review of Books in 1991 and collected in her book After Henry. In the essay she considers the case of the Central Park jogger from 1989 to examine the way the city's sentimentality for the narratives it tells about itself, whether they are true or not. No-one reading the essay could have doubted that those indicted for the crime, the Central Park Five, were innocent. Though it took time for justice to truly be served.

It might seem a strange subject for an opera, but then operas have been long fascinated with the excesses of human emotion and frailty. The Central Park Five by composer Anthony Davis and librettist Richard Wesley premiered at Long Beach Opera (LBO) in 2019 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2020. And the work was released by LBO this week on Platoon. 

LBO is Southern California's oldest opera company, founded in 1979. Under artistic director James Darrah Black and music director Christopher Rountree, LBO creates immersive work that blends film, dance, new music and more. 

The assault and rape of a woman who was jogging in Central Park took place in 1989 and five teenagers were sentenced. It would only be in 2002 that another perpetrator entirely, a serial rapist, confessed to the assault and said he was the only actor, with DNA evidence confirming his confession.

Composer Anthony Davis explains what drew him to the drama:

"1989. A group of predominantly Black and Hispanic teenagers enter Central Park in New York City. They turnover garbage cans, throw rocks, harass people on bicycles. A young woman is sexually assaulted in the Park and six teenagers are detained and questioned about the assault. Five of the teenagers, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Antron McCray become the center of a criminal case that would polarize New York City. The Exonerated Five were falsely accused and convicted of the crime with no physical evidence. Condemned publicly by the press, the Exonerated Five were victims in a culture war waged against  Black and Hispanic communities.  A politically ambitious real estate mogul condemns the teenagers with a full page add, proclaiming “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” The persecution of the Central Park Five marks the beginning of Donald Trump’s political career, built on racial animus and the exploitation of the deep rooted racial divide in America."

As a composer, Davis seems to be drawn to stories that intersect the political and cultural worlds. His operas explore political moments and movements that are reflected in the dynamic of music. X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, premiered by New York City Opera in 1986, is based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X. A new production starring  Davóne Tines premiered at Detroit Opera in 2022 and was performed at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2023 and Seattle Opera in 2024. Amistad, premiered by Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997, is about a case of an 1839 slave mutiny on a Spanish ship that reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of freeing them. The Chicago performance was released on disc by New World Records. Davis revised the work in 2008 creating a leaner version which was premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA. Wakonda’s Dream premiered by Opera Omaha in 2007. The opera is about a contemporary Native American family, affected by the historical events and court case of 1879 in Nebraska, in which American Indians were recognized as “human beings under the law” for the first time in U.S. history.  

The Central Park Five traces the five protagonists' arrests, coerced confessions and unjust trials against a backdrop of racial prejudice – weaving an intimate, nuanced and deeply human portrait of justice and perseverance. Musically, Davis draws on jazz, contemporary classical, R&B, and hip-hop to underscore the drama and create a portrait of Black American music that stretches across time and genre. 

Davis was born in New Jersey and studied at Yale. He has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader with various ensembles. His music incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, and African, as well as European classical and Indonesian gamelan. He is professor of music at the University of California, San Diego.

Davis's interest in The Central Park Five began with his and Wesley's opera Five, premiered by Trilogy: An Opera Company in New Jersey in 2016 [see YouTube]. In 2019, Long Beach Opera commissions The Central Park Five which develops out of Five and the opera is premiered by LBO, with Davis winning the Pulitzer Prize the following year. In March 2022 Portland Opera presents The Central Park Five, then LBO returned to the work in June 2022 with a new production. Following this, cast and conductor are brought into the studio to create the recording which is issued by Platoon. In March 2025, Detroit Opera presented Davis's expanded orchestration of The Central Park Five.

LBO's recording of The Central Park Five features Cedric Berry (Yusef Salaam), William Powell III (Antron McCray), Bernard Holcomb (Kevin Richardson), Orson Van Gay II (Raymond Santana), Ashley Faatoalia (Korey Wise), Justin Ryan (The Masque), Lacey Jo Benter (District Attorney), Todd Strange (Donald Trump), Joelle Lamarre (Ensemble / “Antron's Mother” / “Kevin's Mother” / Others), Lindsay Patterson Abdou (Sharonne Salaam / Others), Corey Estelle (Ensemble), José Luis Maldonado (Ensemble / Raymond's Father / Matias Reyes), conducted by Anthony Parnther.

Further information about The Central Park Five recording from LBO's website. [streaming links]