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| Kieran Rayner as Lord Rokeby with William Thomas & Steven Swindells in British Youth Opera's production of Malcolm Williamson's English Eccentrics Photo: Clive Barda/ArenaPAL |
Welcome to September on Planet Hugill, when the new season really got started and operatic rarities seemed to be something of a theme.
At the Grimeborn Festival we caught Astor Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires in a production which was completely wonderful, but we hadn't the slightest idea what was going on. And at the Peacock Theatre, British Youth Opera rose to the challenge of Benjamin Britten's problem child, Owen Wingrave.
A clutch of rarities
Rossini's mammoth Semiramide
came to the BBC Proms courtesy of Opera Rara, and the minutes simply
sped by. Whilst British Youth Opera gave us the more compact, very rare
and delightfully eccentric English Eccentrics by Malcolm Williamson.
It shouldn't be so, but Bellini's Norma
was making a very rare appearance at Covent Garden in a production full
of religious fervour. And Opera Settecento gave us the chance to
experience Johann Adolph Hasse's Demetrio.
Various Venues
Ilona Domnich appeared at Rhinegold Live, in a recital which explored Persephone, mysteries of her heart. At the BBC Proms, youth certainly had it for Verdi's Requiem performed on the penultimate night with the BBC Youth Chorus. Rachel Podger & Marcin Swiatkiewicz gave us baroque pearls at Kings Place and there were two Don Quixotes from the English Concert, who performed Purcell and Telemann at the Wigmore Hall.
Kings Place Festival
Both Ruth and I attended the Kings Place Festival, I dipped into a lively mix with Artea String Trio, Sansara, and Duo Bayanello. Ruth had a roller-coaster ride with the Brodsky Quartet, and experienced storytelling without consonants from Gwyneth Herbert.
From our correspondent
Ruth also saw the airborne delights of the Gluck and Arne double bill from Bampton Classical Opera, heard some visceral Verdi as Gianandrea Noseda conducted the Requiem at the opening of the London Symphony Orchestra's new season, and heard some luxury voices as Sonoro performed Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil (Vespers).
Features and interviews
From 1420 to the present day, a tour of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
Haydn in Haddington: I chatted to pianist Roman Rabinovich about performing Haydn piano sonatas at the Lammermuir Festival.
The power of two: Pianists Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen talked about their forthcoming London Piano Festival.
A debut in the land of enchantment: I chatted to soprano Rhian Lois about performing Zerlina in Santa Fe, and what its like to sing when you are pregnant!
The Great Silence: Composer Samuel Bordoli talked about his anthem remembering Britain's choristers lost in the First World War.
CDs, a Book and an Exhibition
▪ John Beard, Handel's Tenor: exhibition at Handel & Hendrix in London▪ Wit and wisdom worn lightly: Steven Isserlis's commentary on Schumann's Advice to Young Musicians
▪ Ancient Music of Scandinavia: Ice and Longboats
▪ London Early Opera's Handel in Italy volume 2
▪ Aksel! Thirteen-year-old Aksel Rykkvin in Handel, Bach and Mozart
▪ Mozartian fragment: Zaide from Classical Opera
▪ Youth & experience: Benjamin Appl & Graham Johnson in Schubert
▪ Ethel Smyth's The Boatswain's Mate receives a first recording
▪ Cello music by Rebecca Clarke from Raphael Wallfisch
▪ A tour de force: Gerald Barry's Beethoven
▪ The choral music of Dan Locklair in some fine performances
▪ Passing through: chamber music by Gernot Wolfgang
▪ Impressive scale and ambition: Nicolas Kaviani's Te Deum
▪ Testament to a friendship: Truro Cathedral Choir in Gabriel Jackson
▪ David Bednall's Stabat Mater
▪ James MacMillan: Since it was the day of preparation
▪ Lively charm: Duo Praxedis in operatic arrangements
Further afield
Riveting counterpoint: On 23 September, Kimiko Ishizaka performed Bach's The Art of Fugue, with the UK premiere of her own completion, at St John's Smith Square, preceded by my concert talk.
On December 8, London Concord Singers
celebrates its 50th anniversary with a concert conducted by Jessica
Norton at the Priory Church of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell. The
choir will be giving the premiere of my double motet, Dominus illuminatio mea (from Tempus per Annum),
and giving the premiere of a new piece by Alison Willis which won the
choir's Anniversary Composition Competition this summer.
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