Imagine Trump, Leonardo da Vinci, Jane Austen & Alexander the Great went into a room: Handel's Tamerlano reinvented at London Handel Festival

Handel: Tamerlano - James Laing - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Handel: Tamerlano: James Laing, Benjamin Hulett, Nardus Williams, Jake Ingbar, Kitty Whately, director: Orpha Phelan, Academy of Ancient Music, conductor: Laurence Cummings; London Handel Festival at Shoreditch Town Hall
Reviewed 27 March 2027

Superb individual performances and some innovative design cannot quite lift a production that seeks to reinvent opera seria, thankfully we came away having enjoyed an evening of world class Handel singing

The London Handel Festival's staged opera offering this year was one of the composer's great Italian operas, something of a change from the last few years when the festival has more explored the fringes of the Handel's dramatic art. But Orpha Phelan's staging of Tamerlano was anything but traditional, using the great hall at Shoreditch Town Hall as a found space with the audience on three sides of the action and performing the work in English with surtitles. In her article in the programme book, Phelan seemed to express doubts about the opera or at least she did not quite understand the form. This was a production that sought to reinvent a serious opera seria.

We caught the second of three performances on Friday 27 March 2026. Handel's Tamerlano was conducted by Laurence Cummings with the Academy of Ancient Music. Orpha Phelan directed with designs by Madeleine Boyd and lighting by Matt Haskins. James Laing was Tamerlano (a role we heard him sing with Cambridge Handel Opera in 2022, see my review). Benjamin Hulett was Bajazet (having impressed as Vitaliano in Handel's Giustino at Covent Garden last year, see my review). Nardus Williams was Asteria and Jake Ingbar was Andronico (both singers were in Handel's Partenope at ENO this year, see my review). Kitty Whately was Irene, and Jonathan Brown was Leone. The opera was sung in an uncredited English translation.

Handel: Tamerlano - Benjamin Hulett - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Phelan's big idea was to present each character as an archetype so that the audience did not need to worry about the various elements of backstory. But in a sense, backstory does not matter in Tamerlano, it is one of those sealed box types of Baroque plot where a group of characters is brought together and stuff happens! Phelan and Boyd had given each character a distinctive look, and each singer had their own area of the stage, with all performers present for virtually all the action. Boyd's use of the available area was imaginative, though I did not feel the production used this to the best.

A colourful & exciting journey: London-based neoclassical composer Julia Thomsen whose music has achieved over 18 million Spotify streams

Julia Thomsen

London based neoclassical composer Julia Thomsen has achieved over 18 million Spotify streams and her music has been featured on flagship programming across Sky and Channel 4, though you rarely come across her music in the concert hall.

But talking to Julia, you get the clear impression that her music is more than this. She sees that there is such a lot going on in the world and feels that people need mental health breaks. Her music is relaxing and not too serious. She wants it to give people hope. The feedback she receives via messages on Instagram and elsewhere tell her what her music has done for people. And this is across the board - mental and physical health. And for busy parents, the music is something to switch off to, helping them sleep.

Julia is part of a generation whose work reaches audiences via streaming across the globe. Something that she finds amazing. Whilst Julia sees her music as having a sense of calm, people have their own reasons for listening to it. And it pops up a lot on people's Instagram Reels. This ability to tie in with visual images is perhaps also why her music is used in documentaries and television programmes. And when writing, she likes to cross genres, creating different types of music.

From Mozart's Cosi fan tutte to massed voices of the North East in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius to How To Train Your Dragon 2: Royal Northern Sinfonia & The Glasshouse's 2026/27 season

How To Train Your Dragon 2

The Glasshouse in Gateshead and Royal Northern Sinfonia have announced their 2026/27 season and a substantial one it is too. Royal Northern Sinfonia is led by the impressive partnership of music director Dinis Sousa, artistic partner Maria Włoszczowska, principal guest conductor Nil Venditti and associate conductor Ellie Slorach.

They kick of with a rare foray into opera by the orchestra and the launch of a multi-year exploration of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas led by Dinis Sousa. First off, in September 2026 is Cosi fan tutte with Christina Gansch, Alexandra Oomens, Jonas Hacker, Cody Quattlebaum, Rebecca Evans and Neil Davies.  Definitely well worth a trip to Gateshead for!

Dinis Sousa's other concerts with the orchestra include Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1 with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a programme of 20th-century American composer - Cage, Ives, Crumb and Gloria Coates, Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Monteverdi Choir and soloists including Nick Pritchard as the Evangelist.

Hundreds of non-professional singers from across the North East will share the stage with the orchestra and chorus for the third time in the Share the Stage series of major events, when Sousa conducts  Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with a terrific cast, Benjamin Hulett, Sarah Connolly and Roderick Williams.

Beethoven is something of a focus, not only Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Isabelle Faust, but all the piano concertos and the Choral Fantasy spread over three concerts with pianists Paul Lewis, Alice Sarah Ott, Elizabeth Brauss, Stephen Hough, Jonathan Biss and Elizabeth Leonskaja. And the season ends with Sousa conducting Symphony No. 9 with soloists  Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Alice Coote, Laurence Kilsby, Matthew Rose, alongside a new commission from Kristine Tjøgersen.

Besides the Beethoven Piano Concerto weekend, there are two other festival weekends. Reich at 90, on the composer’s birthday weekend in October is curated by Colin Currie and brings together Bryce Dessner, author and broadcaster Tom Service and all-star contemporary ensemble Colin Currie Group to celebrate the composer whose rhythmic imagination reshaped late-20th-century music. And in May, a Sci-Fi weekend marks two major milestones: 50 years since Star Wars: A New Hope and the centenary of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Holst’s The Planets, the full Metropolis score live, and two Star Wars in Concert performances promise to draw audiences far beyond the classical core. 

Nil Venditti conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 3; Britten's Violin Concerto with Maria Włoszczowska as soloist plus Grace Williams and Dvorak; 

Smaller scale events in Sage Two not only include Sousa's American concert, but Maria Włoszczowska leading Kurtag's Kafka Fragments and Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King paired with his Missa super l’homme armé  conducted by James Weeks.

And January brings an international spotlight through the ECHO Rising Stars Festival, a full day celebration presented in partnership with the European Concert Hall Organisation. Four exceptional young artists – violinist Ava Bahari, soprano Camila Mandillo, cellist Petar Pejčić and the Javus Quartett – take over the building with concerts, pop-up performances and artist conversations.  

One of the concerts that appeals to most, however, is Ellie Slorach conducting the orchestra for How to Train Your Dragon 2 in concert! 

Full details from The Glasshouse's website. 

Intoxicating textures to offset the Lenten penitence: Mother of Mercy - Music for Lent from Harry Christophers & The Sixteen at St Martin in the Fields

Domenico Scarlatti wearing the Order of Santiago
by Domingo Antonio Velasco (1738)

Mother of Mercy - Music for Lent: Lotti, Diogo Dias Melgás, João Lourenço Rebelo, Caldara, Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater á 10; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 26 March 2026

A rich feast of Lenten music, comparing and contrasting 17th-century Portuguese intensity with Domenico Scarlatti's dazzling ten-part Stabat Mater in a luxuriant programme full of lesser-known gems

Considering that Lent is a season for penance and reflection, it is somewhat surprising that much of the music associated with the season is rather rich and lush. Some of this is that the intensity of reaction to the events of the Passion seem to have brought out an almost Romantic leaning into the pain, at least in Southern Europe. You suspect that the more northerly Protestant states would be rather more austere.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's programme, Mother of Mercy - Music for Lent at St Martin in the Fields on 26 March 2026 explored exactly this vein. They opened with the best known work in the programme, Lotti's Crucifixus á 8 and ended with a work that is, at least, known but not often performed, Domenico Scarlatti's Stabat Mater á 10 and in between we had music by the Portuguese composers Diogo Dias Melgás (1638-1700) and João Lourenço Rebelo (1610-1661). Thus making a rather rich but varied diet.

We began with Lotti. Despite the fact that Ben Palmer made a terrific disc of Lotti's sacred music for Delphian way back in 2016 [see my review] which put Lotti's Crucifixus movements in context, we persist in hearing the music in isolation. But it is stunning. The Sixteen brought out the long sweep of the phrases, the dissonances smoothly progressing and growing in intensity.

Celebrating Carl Loewe, a day of Spanish Song & composer Emily Hazrati in residence: SongEasel's weekend of Sweet Harmony

SongEasel, pianist Jocelyn Freeman's inestimable song recital series in South East London, is having a festival weekend from 21 to 24 May 2026 under the title of Sweet Harmony which celebrates Carl Loewe (born 230 years ago) as well as featuring a new commission from SongEasel's new composer in residence, Emily Hazrati.

The festival opens with a day devoted to Carl Loewe. There is a masterclass and pre-concert talk from Richard Stokes, with musical examples given by bass-baritone Isaac Tolley, who appeared in the opening concert of SongEasel's 2025 season. The day concludes with a welcome return from baaritone James Newby, joined by pianist Malcolm Martineau for The Shipping Forecast which features Carl Loewe, who lived much of his life in the coastal city of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland), alongside songs from Elgar’s Sea Pictures, and songs by Schubert, Duparc, Rachmaninov and Kurt Weill.

Friday is a day of Spanish song, which pays homage to the festival's host venue, St Matthew’s Church, Elephant & Castle, home to the first bilingual parish in the Church of England. There is a Young Artist masterclass from Roger Vignoles, and an early evening concert featuring former SongEasel Young Artists Cecilia Rodríguez soprano and Esther Vilar-Portillo piano, introducing a fun selection of Spanish songs. Then for the main evening concert, Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto returns to SongEasel with ¡PRESENTES! The Secret Songs of Women Latina Composers including works by Teresa Carreño, Pauline Viardot and Alicia de Larrocha. And the day concludes with a soulful late-evening of popular Latin music for guitar and voice, starring Diana Florez.

Saturday begins with a masterclass from tenor James Gilchrist. The evening culminates in the festival's inaugural Song Exchange, where the haunting melodies of Persian song meet the Lied tradition, woven together with live cello improvisations. The recital features Kian Ravaei’s Gulistan alongside a new commission from composer in residence Emily Hazrati, paired with works by Schubert, Fauré and Alma and Gustav Mahler. Inspired by the 14th-century poet Hafiz and Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan, this thoughtfully interwoven programme invites reflection, dialogue, and the excitement of experiencing new songs in this intimate setting. Performers include Negin Raggazhi (soprano), Filippo Turkheimer (baritone), Joe Zeitlin (cello) and Jocelyn Freeman.

The final day of the weekend festival celebrates the next generation of performers, as the 2026 cohort of Young Artists presents a lunchtime concert in Catford, followed by the festival's much-loved informal Lieder Lounge in the Loft at Rocketvan. 

Further ahead, soprano Nadine Benjamin will be curating a programme devoted to the Great American Songbook on 4 July. 

Further details from the SongEasel     . 

 

 

Letter from Florida: Robert J Carreras experiences Peter Lieberson's 'vehicle through which to reflect a different face in love’s mirror'

Peter Lieberson: Neruda Songs - Kelley O'Connor, New World Symphony, Stephane Deneve (Photo: Alex Markow, courtesy of New World Symphony)

Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe, Lieberson: Neruda Songs; Kelley O'Connor, New World Symphony, Stephane Deneve; Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Miami, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras, 7 March 2026

Robert J Carreras has thoughts about the meaning of home after experiencing Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs and Ravel's complete Daphnis & Chloe from Stephane Deneve and the New World Symphony in Miami 

It is just as well that Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs is almost single-handedly kept playing by Kelley O’Connor. It is just as well that her portraits of this work have remained steady across time. In 2028, it will be twenty years since the composer trained O’Conner in this music at his home in Hawaii.

O’Connor’s performance of Neruda Songs may be more informed by the years that have passed and life experience, but still comes across as quite fresh. By and large, her work in these songs has stayed near to the composer’s home, and he would have it no other way.

Kelley O’Connor’s gently assumed, creamy mezzo and proficiency in Peter Lieberson’s musical idiom – a smoldering mix of melodic mazes and rhythmic lazes – translates into observing the most intimate scenes of a relationship. Lieberson wants to keep every moment alive and vital with his darling Lorraine – every note, every measure, every word is precious.

O’Conner makes native Spanish speakers reevaluate their use of common words (sueno, porque, ojos, lejos), making subliminally seductive even those perfunctory in daily speech. Stephane Deneve aides in accenting words at crucial points by stretching out rhythmic values – knowing O’Connor would not object, and that New World Symphony (NWS) was well-prepared to execute; they doubled these efforts later for Ravel.

Fibonacci Quartet appointed Associate Ensemble at Music at Paxton, the festival based at Paxton House in the Borders

Music at Paxton, the festival based at Paxton House in the Borders, has appointed Fibonacci Quartet as its new Associate Ensemble for 2027-2029. 

Music at Paxton's artist director, Angus Smith, said: "We always have one eye on the future, and are hugely excited to welcome the exceptionally talented young members of Fibonacci Quartet  – Kryštof Kohout, violin; Luna De Mol, violin; Elliot Kempton, viola; Findlay Spence, cello – to be our Associate Ensemble from 2027-29. Watching and listening to these brilliant musicians is a truly thrilling and uplifting experience and they are already looking forward to playing at Music at Paxton, and sharing their music with people of all ages in the Border community."

Formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the quartet were winners at the 2024 Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International auditions and were recently appointed as Grand Résident ensemble at ProQuartet in Paris for seasons 2025-2027. The quartet is also featured at the 2026 St Magnus Festival [see my article] 

Music at Paxton aims to bring high quality music to the Eastern Scottish Borders, an area not currently well served with classical music. The festival is committed to breaking down barriers and encourages young people to attend through generous concessions and free events.

Music at Paxton runs from 17 to 26 July 2026 and the programme will be available from 13 April. See the website for details. 

Icelandic voices, a new orchestra & celebrating the Kirkwall cat: St Magnus Festival in Orkney is in celebratory mood for its 50th birthday

Heiða Árnadóttir in Mörsugur by Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir & Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir

This year the St Magnus Festival in Orkney celebrates its 50th birthday with some 50 events in and around Kirkwall from 19 to 28 June 2026. Things kick off with festival director, Alasdair Nicholson conducting the debut performance of the new Festival Orchestra at a new performance space created in Orkney Auction Mart. The performance, Welcome to Orkney features music by the festival's founder, Peter Maxwell Davies written for an early festival, alongside music by Sally Beamish celebrating her 70th birthday plus Mozart and John Eccles.

Later on in the week, the Festival Orchestra is joined by the Festival Chorus for a performance of Mozart's Requiem alongside Golijov's Tenebrae. And festival director, Alasdair Nicholson's new piece Jasper the Kirkwall Cat is a new large-scale work for the Festival Orchestra and local children that celebrates Kirkwall's celebrity cat, Jasper. Other new work is showcased in the latest of the festival's Johnsmas Foy commissions, Veni Creator Spiritus where three saxophonists join with a singer/movement artist for a performance that builds on ancient plainsong themes and through free improvisation explores new interpretations of old echoes, alongside filmed images.

There is a strong Icelandic presence at this year's festival. There is a rare UK performance from Voces Thules, an all-male group that is one of Iceland's leading ensembles and their programmes celebrate Iceland's vocal heritage. Mörsugur, which receives its UK premiere, is an Icelandic opera by Ásbjörg Jónsdóttir that blends voice, experimental music and visual art, inspired by a poetic tale by Ragnheiður Erla Björnsdóttir and featuring a tour-de-force turn from soprano Heiða Árnadóttir. Icelandic-American cellist Geirþrúður Anna Guðmundsdóttir juxtaposes Bach's Cello Suite No. 2 with the technically demanding Spuni 1 by Gudmundur Hafsteinsson.

Jasper, the Kirkwall cat

Other visitors to the festival include pianistic duo, Samson Tsoy and Pavel Kolesnikov; percussion duo, O Duo who are joined by percussionists from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire for music from George Crumb and more; the Hebrides Ensemble journey to the Isles; the Fibonacci Quartet; the Marian Consort whose programme moves from the Renaissance to contemporary including Daniel Kidane and Emily Hazrati premieres; Armenian-American viola da gamba player, singer Lucine Musaelian fuses music of the 16th and 17th centuries with traditional Armenian folk tunes. Guitarist Chris Amer is joined by pianist Fergus McCreadie and saxophonist Matt Carmichael for music inspired by photos taken by his Orcadian grandfather Danny Nicolson.

The Cooperation Band from Glasgow join forces with the Wallace Collection for a performance of Gabrieli's The Invisible Symphony from the Canzoni et Sonata (1615). This work places five choirs of brass around the space filling the acoustic creating a surround-sound effects. It was transcribed by John Wallace (the late founder of the Wallace Collection), who always wanted this enormous and breathtaking work to be performed in Kirkwall’s Cathedral. The performance is dedicated to John, a frequent attender of the Festival and the Cathedral over many years.

The tradition of placing music in the landscape across the islands continues with an accordion tour across Hoy led by Neil Sutcliffe, who also travels to the island of Rousay with pianist Anna Michels, together they are The Bubblyjock Collective. The Collective also presents Quines- a new programme celebrating female Scottish composers and neglected women from Scottish history, with a newly commissioned song cycle from Highlander Lisa Robertson Quines, based on Gerda Stevenson’s poetry collection.

Full details from the festival's website.

Seductive & expressive: for their disc on SOMM, Time Stands Still, tenor Kieran White & lutenist Cédric Meyer refocus the soundworld of Dowland & Danyel

Time stands still: Dowland & Danyel; Kieran White, Cédric Meyer; SOMM
Reviewed 24 March 2026

Two great lute-song contemporaries given a striking new focus by haute-contre Kieran White and lutenist Cédric Meyer, rethinking instruments and keys to create a seductive and expressive new sound-world

A new disc from tenor Kieran White and lutenist Cédric Meyer on SOMM records, Time Stands Still, pairs the songs of John Dowland (1563 - 1626) with those of his almost exact contemporary, John Danyel with selections from Dowlands three books of airs, and A Musicall Banquet, alongside songs from Danyel's Songs for the Lute, Viol and Voice and Mrs M.E. her funeral tears for the death of her husband.

When it comes to the songs for voice and lute by Dowland and others, our contemporary performance style is very informed by the rediscovery of this music in the 20th century. Countertenor Alfred Deller's performances of Dowland were seen to distil the very essence of the melancholy of the 17th century English song. Performances like Deller's became the epitome of how these songs sounded. The reality is of course that we have no real idea what Dowland's songs sounded like to the composer himself and each modern performer has, to a certain extent, to find their own way.

In A history of singing by John Potter and Neil Sorrell, they go as far as to suggest that if Dowland was performing his songs to his own accompaniment he would probably have sounded far more like Sting than a contemporary classical singer, thanks to the changes in vocal production. A sobering thought!

Kieran White is a British tenor whose voice leads him into the French haut-contre repertoire, and he has performed leading roles in a number of Rameau's operas including Castor in Castor et Pollux, Hippolyte in Hippolyte et Aricie, Valère and Tacmas in Les Indes Galantes. We caught him in Hippolyte et Aricie at Grimeborn back in 2019 [see my review] and more recently he was singing Céphale in Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre's Céphale et Procris also at Grimeborn [see our review]. Of course his repertoire is wider than this. Last year he recorded a disc of 17th century Italian music, Cupid's Ground Bass with soprano Lucine Musaelian and the Bellot Ensemble [see my review].

For this disc of Dowland and Danyel, White and Meyer have chosen to take a distinctive approach to the music. They perform the music a whole tone higher than the original keys, suiting White's specific voice type. Meyer's lute is therefore tuned up from standard pitch so that it transposes from the original tablatures. The instrument is based on an extant Italian lute from 1592. The vibrating string length is slightly shortened in order to function at the new pitch, and the woods were chosen to match White’s voice quality. The intention was to lend a new, personal touch to the sonic relationship between voice and lute.

Celebrating Finzi, Shakespeare & 25 years of the festival itself: Ludlow English Song Weekend

Mitchell's Fold - Mike Ashton

This year's Ludlow English Song Weekend not only celebrates Gerald Finzi, marking 70 years since his death, but celebrates 25 years of the festival itself. The festival is from 10 to 12 April 2026 with events in St Laurence's Church and Ludlow Assembly Rooms. The event is very much a passion project for founder and artistic director, pianist Iain Burnside.

Burnside and baritone Roderick Williams open the festival with Eight Haiku which mixes songs written for Williams by American composer Libby Larsen with music by Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven and Britten. This is the first time the programme has been performed since its premiere in Minnesota last year, and the concert is the first of three appearances Williams makes in Ludlow for the festival. 

The music of Gerald Finzi is celebrated across the Saturday concerts. In the morning, mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, tenor James Way, bass-baritone Ossian Huskinson and Iain Burnside join actor Alex Jennings for an exploration of Thomas Hardy's life including Finzi's settings of the poet, then in the afternoon pianist Ian Tindale curates an exploration of the 1930s, mixing Finzi with contemporaries such as Gershwin and Shostakovich performed by mezzo-sopranos Bethany Horak-Hallett and Lily Mo Browne, and baritone James Atkinson. 

Early evening, tenors Adrian Thompson, Robin Tritschler and Francis Melville perform Finzi's A Young Man’s Exhortation setting poems by Thomas Hardy whilst actress Joanne Scanlan reads poems by women poets which respond, affectionately and acerbically, to Hardy's sometimes uncomfortable opinions. Then the Finzi day concludes with a portrait of the composer and his friends where Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside are joined by soprano Ailish Tynan and bass Matthew Rose.

Sunday is a celebration of Shakespeare. Iain Burnside is joined by actor Richard Goulding and sopranos Jennifer France and Manon Ogwen Parry, mezzo-sopranos Katie Bray, Lily Mo Browne and Anita Monserrat, tenors Adrian Thompson and James Way and bass Matthew Rose, for songs from Haydn to Berlioz, Poulenc to Shostakovich. Then it is the turn of British composers including Finzi Parry, Tippett, Dring and many more, plus, all sixteen of the weekend’s singers come together for a special performance of Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music.

Full details from the festival website. 

The Continuo Foundation announces grants totalling £106,000 awarded to 30 Early Music projects across the UK

The Continuo Foundation round 11 grantees

The Continuo Foundation has announced the recipients of its eleventh round of grants, awarding more than £100,000 to support Early Music projects across the UK. The Foundation received a record number of applications of a very high standard for this round, including some intriguing Purcell project proposals. The grant awards just announced include two projects chosen jointly with the Purcell Society as part of our partnership celebrating their 150th anniversary. 

The first Purcell project is the Monteverdi String Band’s Wandering Prince, Unhappy Queen, created in collaboration with the Roman River Festival. Inspired by Dido and Aeneas, the project combines Purcell’s music with readings from Virgil, songs and ballads to restore the wider dramatic and literary context of the story for modern audiences. Oliver Webber of the Monteverdi String Band says:

‘Since I first performed ‘Dido’ in about 1995, I have had a yearning to expand it to give the audience the cultural and historical background that Purcell’s contemporaries would have had, to appreciate the pathos and drama even more fully. I hope this project will give them a fresh, vivid and poignant experience.’

The second Purcell-focused award will enable Istante Collective to create a new production of King Arthur. The ensemble notes that while the music is regularly performed, the full Restoration masterpiece is rarely presented complete. Their production will restore the spoken word and dance elements that are ‘rarely performed but an essential part of the work’s identity’. 

• Vache Baroque will create a production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero (1625), the oldest known opera written by a woman composer, for the Buxton International Festival
• The English Haydn Orchestra is supported for its Haydn’s Musical World concert series at the eponymous festival in Bridgnorth
• Projects from the Bloomsbury Players, Linarol Consort of Viols, The Morley Consort and Wessex Baroque Collective will take performances to venues across the Lake District, Scotland, Wales, Devon, Southwest England, and London. 
• Ensemble Hesperi will work with the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble in South Africa in what the ensemble describes as ‘an artistic and educational collaboration’ grown from a ‘shared passion… for high-quality, historically informed performance.’
• The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen will make world-premiere recordings of Alessandro Poglietti’s arrangements of motets by Bonifazio Graziani. The ensemble says these recordings will allow audiences to hear ‘these ear-tickling masterpieces’ and compare them with the original monody versions.
• The Royal Sackbut Collective will use its grant to present a launch concert for its debut album. The ensemble comments that the grant, 'allows us to take our debut album project to the next level. Considering the struggles of entering the music industry as a young ensemble, we are beyond grateful to be given this opportunity and we cannot wait to make it happen!’

Further information from the Continuo Foundation's website. 

Norwich Chamber Music, formally Norfolk & Norwich Music Club, one of the oldest music clubs of its kind in the country, finds itself in celebratory mood shouting about its 75th anniversary.

Fitzwilliam Quartet at the Assembly House, Norwich

The inaugural concert of the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club fell on 26th May 1951 given by the London Harpsichord Ensemble in the elegant surroundings of the Music Room of the restored Georgian-built Assembly House, a ‘crowning glory’ of the fine city of Norwich.  

Along with the historic cities of Bath, Exeter, Canterbury and York, Norwich was targeted in two major Baedeker raids during the nights of 27th-28th April and 29th-30th April 1942. The raids formed part of a series of retaliatory attacks by the Luftwaffe on historic English cities following the RAF’s bombing of Lübeck. 

Therefore, following the end of the Second World War, Norwich, like many other English cities and towns, was down at heel, slowly recovering and finding its feet and thankfully cultural activity was high on the agenda. Narrowly, the Theatre Royal survived the bombing but offered very basic fare while the Norfolk & Norwich Triennial Festival was held over a handful of days in 1947, 1951 and 1955 with a variety of small amateur groups holding fort. 

The mainstay of the classical-music scene was the Norwich Philharmonic Society founded in 1839, three years after the founding of the Huddersfield Choral Society, by Frank Noverre, grandson of French dancer, Augustin Noverre, who in 1775 came to England with a corps de ballet at the invitation of David Garrick, one of England’s greatest actors, who at that time was manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where the dancers appeared. 

Noverre - whose uncle, incidentally, was Jean-Georges Noverre and known as the ‘father of modern dance’ - also established a prominent dancing academy in Norwich in 1793 based at the Assembly House and it’s fitting and proper, I feel, that the ballroom of this fine building is named after the Noverre family. 

A well-respected amateur body, the Norwich Philharmonic Society offered a regular series of orchestral and choral concerts in St Andrew’s Hall engaging professional soloists and from time to time promoted the occasional celebrity recital. For instance, I well remember (and attended) the piano recital that Ukrainian-born pianist, Benno Moisewitsch, gave in St Andrew’s Hall in the 1950s. Virtually, though, there were no professional chamber-music recitals.  

Against this rather spartan background and by the initiative of the Norwich Philharmonic Society a meeting of local music representatives was convened with a view of creating an independent body to co-ordinate chamber-music activities. 

Conveniently, the Georgian-built Assembly House (originally used by the Girls’ Public Day School Trust (Norwich High School for Girls) from 1876 to 1939 had just been restored and refurbished to its former glory by the prominent Norwich shoe manufacturer, Henry Jesse Sexton, who presented it to the city for public use. 

Therefore, when the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club formed on 31st March 1951, they found a ready-made home utilizing the elegant Music Room of this delightful ornate property in which, may I add, the famed ‘devil’s violinist’, Niccolò Paganini, thrilled a packed house in August 1831.  

His visit rests alongside other ‘celebrity’ performances at the venue topped by the renowned Hungarian pianist/composer, Franz Liszt, who dazzled yet another full house in his recital of September 1840 as part of his Grand Tour of England, Scotland and Ireland during the height of ‘Lisztomania’. 

A new organ, Gavin Higgins as the Festival's inaugural Associate Composer, & celebrating Elgar: Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester in 2026

Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral (Photo: Michael Whitefoot)

The Three Choirs Festival, this year at Gloucester, takes place from 25 July to 1 August 2026, curated by Adrian Partington who is director of music at Gloucester Cathedral.

2026 is the 75th anniversary of the Elgar Society so that the music of Elgar is a renewed focus for the festival. Adrian Partington conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Elgar's Symphony No. 1, Cockaigne Overture,  Martin Brabbins conducts Roderick Williams (!) and the Philharmonia in Sea Pictures, and the festival concludes with Adrian Partington conducting The Dream of Gerontius with John Findon, Niamh O'Sullivan, David Ireland and the Three Choirs Festival Chorus.

Gloucester Cathedral has a new organ, 54 years after the previous one was installed.  Nicholson & Co. Ltd are renewing and rebuilding the instrument, all within the historic organ case which was originally constructed in 1666 by Thomas Harris. It is the only complete 17th century cathedral organ case surviving in this country. To celebrate, Katelyn Emerson is the soloist in Poulenc's Organ Concerto and Janacek's Glagolitic Mass in a concert conducted by Adrian Partington and featuring soprano Rachel Nicholls, contralto Hilary Summers, tenor Gwyn Hughes and bass Ashley Riches. And there will be an organ recital from Thomas Ospital, organist of St Eustache in Paris .

Gloucester-born Gavin Higgins, is the Festival’s inaugural Associate Composer, and Higgins premieres a new setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, sung by the three cathedral choirs and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.  Other works of his during the Festival include the UK premiere of Fanfare Americana, for orchestra, and Urban Fairy Tales played by pianist Misha Kaploukhii. Other contemporary composers at the festival include Cecilia McDowall, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and Judith Weir.

Large choral works include Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Monteverdi’s Vespers from La Serenissima and the three Cathedral Choirs, and Rachmaninov’s Vespers with Jeffrey Skidmore conducting Ex Cathedral. 

Adrian Partington is also conducting a Come and Sing Mozart Requiem event, along with a come and sing a full cathedral Evensong, while the Gloucestershire Academy of Music collaborates with young musicians and community choirs in a concert exploring music and wellbeing. Free services, open rehearsals, and accessible family events ensure that the Festival continues to welcome audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Full details from the Three Choirs Festival website. 

Planet Hugill featured at no. 3 on FeedSpot 60 Best Opera Blogs to Follow in 2026

I am never really sure about lists of things, the Top 50 Best whatevers. However, finding out that you are in such a list is terribly seductive, even if you wonder how the list has been produced. FeedSpot, the company that produces FeedSpot Reader which allows you to subscribe to all your online media needs in one place, has produced its new edition of 60 Best Opera Blogs to Follow in 2026, and I am pleased to say that we are at number three.

Many thanks to everyone for their support, and please do explore the entries on the list:

https://bloggers.feedspot.com/opera_blogs/

Not so much Verismo: Eleanor Burke's somewhat abstract staging of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci for English Touring Opera provides a fine setting for Ronald Samm's powerful performance as Canio

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci - Harry Grigg, Matthew Siveter, Ronald Samm - English Touring Opera (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci; Ronald Samm, Paula Sides, Matthew Siveter, director: Eleanor Burke, conductor: Gerry Cornelius; English Touring Opera at Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield.
Reviewed 21 March 2026

A modern dress refocussing of Leoncavallo's Verismo classic loses a little in the translation but makes a superb vehicle for Ronald Samm's Canio, powerful study in mental disintegration.

For the second opera of their Spring Season, English Touring Opera presented Leoncavallo's Pagliacci sung in a new English translation by Robin Norton-Hale. We caught the opening performance at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield on Saturday 21 March 2026. Pagliacci was directed by Eleanor Burke, founder of Green Opera, with designs by Michael Pavelka (sets) and Laura Jane Stanfield (costumes). Ronald Samm was Canio with Paula Sides as Nedda, Matthew Siveter as Tonio, Danny Shelvey as Silvio and Harry Grigg as Beppe.

Pagliacci is one of the great operas about performance, combining a view of the players with the stage audience alongside the audience itself, with Tonio breaking the fourth wall in the prologue to address us. For her production, Burke refocused the opera. As Tonio, Matthew Siveter addressed a press conference (remarkably lacking in members of the press) in the prologue, only breaking the fourth wall at the last moment. Act One took place in the rehearsal studio and the excited crowds were off-stage and largely in Canio's (Ronald Samm) head. This continued in Act Two where Canio's mental disturbance was palpable from the beginning.

During Act One, for the moments that did not quite fit her script, Burke took the Regietheater route and had the performers rehearsing a script. This meant that Tonio's declaration that he was ugly and unloved was something Matthew Siveter's Tonio delivered from a script. Similarly, Paula Sides' Nedda sang about the freedom of birds as script read through rather than expressing what the character, Nedda, was feeling.

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci - Danny Shelvey, Paula Sides, Ronald Samm - English Touring Opera (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Burke had provided a new synopsis in the programme book, but thankfully it was not needed, the refocused dramaturgy was presented with great clarity and commitment by the cast.

Wonderful joy, energy, & sheer engagement: Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers from English Touring Opera, directed by Liam Steel

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers - Kelli-Ann Masterson, Phil Wilcox, Matthew Siveter, Lauren Young, George Robarts - English Touring Opera (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers; Phil Wilcox, Lauren Young, Matthew Siveter, Robin Bailey, Samuel Pantcheff, Natasha Agarwal, Beth Moxon, director: Liam Steel, conductor: Jack Ridley, English Touring Opera; Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
Reviewed 20 March 2026

An all-singing, all-dancing performance full of a wonderful joy and sheer engagement from all performances, brings out the verve and energy of the piece without losing the satirical edge

Coming as it did after The Yeomen of the Guard, Gilbert & Sullivan's The Gondoliers might seem a return to their earlier, frothier form. But the piece is deceptive. In The Gondoliers Sullivan was working with a larger orchestra and much more attention is paid to orchestral detail. Not just that, the work's first twenty minutes or so are entirely without dialogue, whilst the number of significant characters is positively operatic. In terms of plot, the devices that Gilbert uses to create his topsy-turvey-dom are her rather less fantastical than usual.

Of course, there are weaknesses. Sullivan has written fewer show-stopping tunes for a start and Gilbert's plot seems to consist of two entirely separate plots, only in mid-Act Two does the Duke of Plaza-Toro interact with the two Gondoliers.

It is perhaps the work's musical richness that makes it popular with opera companies. [Scottish Opera performed it in 2022, see my review, whilst ENO performed it in 2006, see my review]. English Touring Opera opened their Spring 2026 season with a new production directed by Liam Steel. The company is moving its base of operations to Sheffield and for the first time the tour opened there at the city's historic Lyceum Theatre on 20 March 2026.

Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers - Kelli-Ann Masterson, Samuel Pantcheff, Robin Bailey - English Touring Opera (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

The Lyceum was built in 1897, and designed by W.G.R. Sprague, designer of many West End theatres including Wyndham's, Aldwych and Ambassadors. During the post-War period it narrowly avoided demolition and went through vicissitudes until it was handsomely renovated and reopened in 1990.

The Gondoliers was directed by Liam Steel whose 2017 production of Patience was ETO's first ever Gilbert & Sullivan operetta [see my review]. Robin Bailey and Samuel Pantcheff were the Gondoliers with Natasha Agarwal and Beth Moxon as their sweethearts. Phil Wilcox and Lauren Young were the Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro, with Kelli-Ann Masterson as their daughter, Casilda, and George Robarts as Luiz. Matthew Siveter was Don Alhambra del Bolero. Sets were designed by Michael Pavelka with costumes by Laura Jane Stanfield, lighting by Zeynep Kepekli.

He is not here: composer Oliver Tarney introduces his St Mark Passion with its highlighting of voices that we do not normally hear from

Preparing for the premiere of Oliver Tarney's St Mark Passion at St Endellion in 2019

Oliver Tarney's St Mark Passion was commissioned by the St Endellion Easter Festival and given its first performance there in 2019. Using a libretto by Lucia Quinault, the work combines the Passion narrative with many of the parables and miracles from the Gospel. The work is being performed on 28 March 2026 in Pugin’s St Cuthbert's Chapel at Ushaw Historic House in Durham by the Durham Singers and the Durham Singers Camerata with soloists Julian Close, Paul Grant, Darwin Prakash, Sam Utley, Nicholas Morris, Katy Thomson and Beth Moxon, in a semi-staging directed by Donna Stirrup. [Further details]

Oliver chose St Mark's Gospel party because it is the earliest gospel. He was interested in getting closer to the original sources, and did so also by including texts outside the Passion story itself. This was something Oliver did in his Magnificat, his 2014 work for chorus and orchestra, recorded on Convivium Records [see my review] which interleaves the text of the Magnificat, in Latin, from the Gospel of St. Luke with texts from The Book of Mary - Surat Maryam (from the Qur'an), The Infancy Gospel of James and The Song of Hannah (I Samuel: 2). 

There is also the fact that St Mark's Gospel originally ended without the Resurrection, finishing simply with the women fleeing from the tomb and the conclusion of the Gospel that we know was added later. Additionally, St Mark's Gospel is very concise and at one time it was thought to be a later paraphrase of an earlier text. And Oliver was attracted to the depiction of Jesus in the Gospel where he is impatient and a bit irascible, chastising the disciples for not getting what he is on about. There is a real urgency to the narrative which drew Oliver to it. And it has rather been overlooked when it comes to passion settings, with not so many famous ones.

St Cuthberts Chapel, Ushaw where Oliver Tarney's St Mark Passion will be performed on 28 March 2026

In his Magnificat, Oliver used the additional texts to bring in aspects of the story not in the Magnificat text, to round out the story and include different viewpoints. He wanted to do something similar for the St Mark Passion, and the libretto created by Lucia Quinault brings greater context by interpolating settings of the parables. The Passion begins with the Parable of the Sower, which can be read as Christ being the seed. With the Parable of the Vineyard which is included later in the Passion, Oliver sees this as a lens through which to apprehend the crucifixion. The whole of St Mark's Gospel has explicit crucifixion predictions. This is the theme of the Gospel: Christ predicts, but his disciples cannot hear it. By including the Parable of the Vineyard, Oliver and Lucia could point to what was going to happen, signposting for the audience.

Handel's Rinaldo recast as pacey drama by Royal Academy of Music with some star quality in the solo roles

Handel: Rinaldo - Ellie Donald, Agustin Pennino - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Handel: Rinaldo: Agustin Pennino, Caroline Blair, Ellie Donald, Joel Robson, director: Julia Burbach, conductor: David Bates, Royal Academy Opera; Susie Sainsbury Theatre at Royal Academy of Music
Reviewed 18 March 2026

Handel's first Italian opera for London, reshaped as a vivid and pacey two hours with real Handelian star quality from some of the cast and a vibrantly urgent account of the score.

Having set some strong librettos during his four-year stay in Italy, from 1706 to 1710, in works like Agrippina and Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Handel's first opera for London, Rinaldo, which premiered in 1711 at the Queen's Theatre featured a far less impressive libretto. Using a scenario created by impresario Aaron Hill, the work aimed for visual spectacle to help show off the theatre's machinery. Handel's approach to the music was similar and his re-use of existing material from his Italian period has led some to comment that the work is closer to a pasticcio, a 'best of' assemblage. But whatever we think the work's dramatic logic (or lack thereof), it is undoubtedly full of good things.

This seems to have been the approach of director Julia Burbach and musical director David Bates for the new production of Handel's Rinaldo from Royal Academy Opera. Double cast, on Wednesday 18 March 2026 we caught Agustin Pennino as Rinaldo, Caroline Blair as Almirena, Ellie Donald as Armida, Joel Robson as Argante, Yihui Wang as Goffredo and Pavel Basov as Eustazio. Designs were by Bettina John, lighting by Robert Price and choreography by Cameron McMillan. The Royal Academy Sinfonia was in the pit.

Handel: Rinaldo - Agustin Pennino, Caroline Blair - Royal Academy Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Burbach's intention in the production seems to have been to create a viable dramatic framework for the great numbers from the opera, giving the cast opportunities beyond a simple recital. There were significant cuts: the opening scene of Act Two, with the mermaids/sirens, was cut, the recitative was pared down to the bone and many arias shorn of the B sections. The resulting work, as presented, was a pacey and vivid two hours in the theatre (including interval). Burbach's scenario played up the 'boys own' nature of the original (something Robert Carsen's rather Harry Potter-ish school production at Glyndebourne brought out).

All-IN-4Art with Bettina Bermbach of Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (DSM, the German Foundation for Musical Life)

Welcome to our new series, All-IN-4Art where our Florida correspondent, Robert J Carreras interviews musical figures from across the globe. 

Bettina Bermbach, 2026 (Photo: David Ausserhofer)

Bettina Bermbach arrived at Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben (DSM, the German Foundation for Musical Life) from Hamburg State Opera in 2022. With the entrance of Bermbach, DSM entered into a reinventing and restructuring of its managerial operations. 

DSM triangulates its support of young musicians: by awarding scholarships and prizes, by providing instruments, and through performance opportunities. DSM provides long-term and tailor-made support for about 300 young musicians, ranging from 12 to 30 years of age. 

The foundation's secondary wing is the Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfonds (DMIF, the German Musical Instrument Fund). The instrument fund holds in its collection over 280 instruments of historical significance that are gifted, on loan, to select DSM award recipients. "Every year, we award the valuable instruments at a competition in Lübeck. This year, 49 highly talented musicians auditioned and 34 instruments were re-awarded."

Among the priceless artifacts awarded to DSM musicians in 2026 were a Guadagnini violin and a Grancino cello, both from 18th century Milan.

1.) Ms. Bettina Bermbach, thank you grandly for joining Planet Hugill for All-IN-4-Art.
Please choose a word for the kind of day you want today to be.

Joyful

Please tell Planet Hugill where you are, what time of day it is, about the weather, and what you're doing.

It's Monday, the sun is shining from a cloudless morning sky in Hamburg, and I'm sitting at my desk in the foundation's office writing a letter to a potential sponsor for the extension of an important project with young musicians.

2.) Ms. Bermbach, is there a level of musical talent that can only be understood as a gift?

Behind every great musician lie many years of hard work and discipline. Talent is part of the overall skill set, but without discipline it cannot flourish. However, there are always musicians with incredible natural talent who play with great ease and touch the audience. I truly see this talent as a gift.

3.) How can music effect positive change in the world?

Concerts, opera performances, art performances, choir concerts —live music is always a unifying experience for everyone involved. For the musicians and singers who have worked together and then present the results of their efforts, but also for the audience who experience the music together. This shared experience is something incredibly positive and can have a big impact. I don't have the general hope that music can change the world for the better, but for individual musicians and listeners, it can change everything. It doesn't necessarily have to be classical music; this also applies to all other types of music and across all cultures.

4.) Planet Hugill knows you already do a lot for others – young musicians and audiences – through DSM. Now, you've been granted a wish to do anything life-changing you want for others through your managerial skills, as long as you involve whomever you choose. You can make your wish come true musically, of course.

I would love to find the one foolproof method that introduces people to music and gets them completely hooked. Especially in the field of classical music—many people worry that they don't understand classical music or that this music isn't for them. I would love to break down this barrier. But I'm afraid that to do so, I need a magic wand rather than a management tool. But you asked me for a wish that would come true...

5.) Ms. Bermbach, do you believe there is a greater purpose to musical talent?

No, I don't think so. At least not a higher purpose that gives rise to an obligation. People have so many different talents—musical, scientific, literary, communicative...

6.) In one word, please describe a classical music performance that eclipses all others.

Divine.

How does that happen?

When everything comes together during a concert or an opera performance: the musicians play perfectly in sync, the singers are in top form, and their voices complement each other. That's something you can't plan or force, but when it happens, it's divine.

Take us to one experience of this in your life, only on one.

During a performance of “Tristan and Isolde” in Dresden with Christian Thielemann, there were those magical moments when everything just fell into place.

7.) Pick three classical music luminaries from the past to spend the day with.

A conversation with the young George Frideric Handel in Hamburg about his first opera would certainly be interesting - We would have a coffee at Gänsemarkt, where the first Hamburg Opera House used to stand.

Then I would like to spend a day with Antonio Stradivari in his workshop in Cremona and have him explain how he built his unique instruments and what his secret was.

And of course I would like to meet Maria Callas and ask her for a little private concert.

Finally, Ms. Bermbach, tell the Planet Hugill audience anything you'd like about music.

Music is one of the most important things in my life. Experiencing a concert, accompanying our young scholarship holders, immersing myself in an opera— all these things make me grateful. It is a gift that I have been able to work in the music industry for over 25 years, even though I myself have no artistic talent whatsoever, play the piano very poorly, and cannot sing a single note correctly. But I am a grateful audience member, and so I have not only been able to get to know an enormous repertoire, but also many incredibly talented artists. And I am very happy that I can now support young musicians on their way to the concert stage. I go to the office happy every day!

French fireworks & German heroes: David Butt Philip & Friends gala at St Paul's Opera, Clapham

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala - Susanna Stranders, Liam James Karai, Ellie Laugharne - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala; Ellie Laugharne, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, David Butt Philip, Liam James Karai, Susanna Stranders, Eric Melear; St Paul's Opera at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden
Reviewed 13 March 2026

A chance to get up close and personal with some first class voices in a series of stunning performances encompassing Mozart, Wagner, French opera, Handel, musicals and more. A delightful way to support this amazing company

A few days after performing Siegmund in David McVicar's production Wagner's Die Walküre at La Scala, Milan (his role and house debut) as part of the company Ring cycles commemorating the work's 150th anniversary, tenor David Butt Philip was back on home territory in a rather more intimate environment.

On Friday 13 March 2026, he presented the David Butt Philip & Friends Gala at St Paul's Church, Clapham in aid of St Paul's Opera's summer production of Verdi's La traviata. This year, for the fifth such gala, David Butt Philip was joined by soprano Ellie Laugharne, mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons and bass-baritone Liam James Karai with pianists Susanna Stranders and Eric Melear. The evening encompassed music from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, Puccini's Tosca and La Boheme, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Wagner's Das Rheingold and Die Walkure, Massenet's Werther, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, and Handel's Hercules. There were songs by Madeleine Dring, Britten and Stanford, with music theatre pieces by Bernstein, Loewe, Weill and Lehar.

We began with Urbain's opening aria, 'Nobles Seigneurs' from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots with Marta Fontanals-Simmons clearly enjoying the florid moments and displaying a nice wit. David Butt Philip followed this with a thrilling and wonderfully committed rendition of 'Recondita l'armonia' from Puccini's Tosca. The two pieces demonstrating the fun to be had at this sort of gala, that of hearing favourite artists in material you might not hear them singing in the theatre.

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala - Marta Fontanals-Simmons - St Paul's Opera (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Ellie Laugharne and Liam James Karai then gave us a potted selection from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, with Susanna and Figaro's duet from Act One, plus their arias from Act Four. We recently heard Liam James Karai in the role at Opera North and it was delightful to hear him and Ellie Laugharne up close and personal in this music, in performances that balanced seriousness and charm.

Memories of a County Kerry childhood & a travelling Scot: Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman & RVW's Songs of Travel at Wigmore Hall for St Patrick's Day

Stephen McNeff: Ballads of a Bogman - The Sigerson Clifford Song Cycle, Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel; Gavan Ring, Fiachra Garvey; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 17 March 2027

Stephen McNeff's masterly settings of poetry inspired by County Kerry with performers who seemed to identify with the material so that tenor Gavan Ring did not so much perform the songs as embody them

Sigerson Clifford (1913-1985) was an Irish playwright and poet whose most successful work was his 1955 poetry collection, Ballads of a Bogman. Though Clifford worked in Dublin, in the Civil Service, his poetry focuses on the town of Cahersiveen on the Iveragh peninsula of County Kerry on Ireland's southwest coast. The town where Clifford had been born and brought up.

Tenor Gavan Ring was also raised in Cahersiveen,. When in 2021 Ireland's Contemporary Music Centre brought him, pianist Louise Thomas and composer Stephen McNeff together as part of a programme to encourage creative collaboration between musical colleagues, Ring suggested Clifford's poems to McNeff as a source for a song cycle.

The result was Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman - The Sigerson Clifford Song Cycle from 2022. The cycle was the centrepiece of Gavan Ring and pianist Fiachra Garvey's St Patrick's Day recital at Wigmore Hall on 17 March 2026. The recital's theme was Evocations of Home and Exile, and their programme also included Ralph Vaughan Williams's Song of Travel setting Robert Louis Stevenson.

The plaque, designed by Alan Ryan Hall, commemorating Sigerson Clifford in Cahersiveen, Co. Kerry.

Stephen McNeff's Ballads of a Bogman is a substantial piece, consisting of ten songs in all. Many of Clifford's poems are in the strophic ballad form, and you can clearly hear Irish folk-music and poetry in them. Clifford's focus is on Cahersiveen, but it is not an entirely soft-focus view. In The Ballad of the Tinker's Son the poet contrasts the tinker's life with his own, marooned in an office in Dublin, yet as the ballad progresses the Troubles rear their head, and we learn the poet shot the tinker's son. That is another thing about these poems, they often have a sting in the tail, a twist in the last line. So at the end of The County Mayo with its lyrical evocation of youth, the poet makes clear he is old and looking back, whilst in The Fiddler the poet is another figure who is old and looking back.