Compare, contrast and combine: Spitalfields Music's 2018 festival is launched

André de Ridder

Spitalfields Music's 2018 Festival will be the second to be curated by conductor André de Ridder. Running from 1 to 9 December 2018 at venues in and around East London, the festival promises a series of experiences which bring early music and contemporary music together. The programme is full of cultural cross-pollination, events which synthesise old and new or which place old and new together in striking contrast.

The festival opens with Unknown Remembered, which fuses Handel's cantata La Lucrezia with a new commission from Shiva Feshareki inspired by the lyrics of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album. These will be combined with a video installation from Haroon Mirza to create an immersive experience in a former warehouse (now nightclub) in Hackney Wick.

If such cultural synthesis does not appeal, then there is the chance to hear Thomas Tallis' Lamentations in a programme from Tom Williams and the Erebus Ensemble which places Tallis alongside contemporary responses from Nico Muhly.  Colm Carey and the Odyssean Ensemble present William Byrd's motets in the historic Chapel Royal of St Peter Ad Vincula at the Tower, a programme which reflects Byrd's support for the struggle of Roman Catholics in Protestant England.

Soprano Mary Bevan joins lutenist Elizabeth Kenny for a recital of Purcell and his contemporaries, and for those brave enough to sample cultural cross pollination, the baroque recital is followed by a set from The Coveryard performing material by The Smiths and Purcell reworked.

The Riot Ensemble with Richard Reed Parry and Aaron Holloway-Nahum is performing a programme of Richard Reed Parry, Nicole Lizee and Christopher Mayo. Festival curator André de Ridder will be conducting the Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra in a concert which mixes Stravinsky's Firebird with music by Anna Meredith and Shiva Feshareki. The Fidelio Trio brings a programme of contemporary music for piano trio by Linda Catlin, Ann Cleare, Luke Styles and Christopher Fox.

Full information from Spitalfields Music