To Lviv with Love: Paul Mann combines conducting in the Ukraine with investigating neglected composers for Toccata Classics, including the Swiss composer Richard Flury

Paul Mann

British conductor Paul Mann is the principal guest conductor of Lviv National Philharmonic (based in Lviv, the largest city in Western Ukraine) and has a significant discography with Toccata Classics recording undeservedly forgotten repertoire. One composer Paul has espoused is the Swiss, Richard Flury (1896-1967) and as well as recording his works for Toccata Classics, Paul will be conducting Flury's opera A Florentine Tragedy in Switzerland during the 2024/25 season.

Paul's relationship with Lviv National Philharmonic began with a recording in 2018. He had no history with the orchestra, didn't know anyone there and had no knowledge of the language. Still, unexpectedly, he made a connection with an orchestra that Paul describes as young, energetic with a desire to work. Since the war, the orchestra finds itself in an impossible situation, they have no money, they cannot bring foreign conductors in and it is impossible to fly there. But Paul felt that he could do something that he would not be able to do anywhere else. So, a few times a year, he flies to Poland and then crosses the border at night, which he describes as John le Carré-ish. Whilst in Lviv, he and the musicians are subject to everything going on including nightly air raids; Paul finds himself becoming part of the life that they are trying to lead.

Lviv National Philharmonic

In such circumstances, you would think that the musicians would not be inclined to put so much of themselves into the music-making, but they do. The repertoire is similarly surprising, as Paul comments that he is finding tragic music reanimates, it brings us back to life. The musicians feel the same thing, and he has made an emotional connection with them. He finds it very inspiring, yet is horrified by the circumstances in which they have to live. He says it would be naive to think that what he does with the orchestra is anything more than a gesture, but it is one of solidarity and he can do little else.

Prom 52: Intelligent, vivid & satisfying account of Bizet's Carmen from Rihab Chaied, Evan LeRoy Johnson & Anja Bihlmaier at Glyndebourne's visit to the BBC Proms

Bizet: Carmen - Rihab Chaieb, Evan LeRoy Johnson, Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier - Glyndebourne Festival at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Bizet: Carmen; Rihab Chaied, Evan LeRoy Johnson, Lukasz Goliński, Janai Brugger, director: Diane Paulus/Adam Torrance, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier; Glyndebourne Festival at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 29 August 2024

Strong cast, a stripped down yet intelligent production and superb conducting lead to a profoundly involving and musically satisfying performance

Glyndebourne Opera has been performing Bizet's Carmen this Summer in a new production by Diane Paulus, with the lead roles double cast and with two conductors. Following the end of the run, the company brought the production to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 29 August 2024. Anja Bihlmaier (the recently announce principal guest conductor with the BBC Philharmonic, who conducted the August performances at Glyndebourne) was the conductor with a cast that mixed the first cast Carmen, Rihab Chaieb [whom we saw as Charlotte in Zurich Opera's production of Massenet's Werther earlier this year, see my review], and the other principals from the second cast with Evan LeRoy Johnson as Don Jose, Lukasz Goliński as Escamillo and Janai Brugger as Micaëla, plus Dingle Yandell as Zuniga, Thomas Mole as Moralès, Elisabeth Boudreault as Frasquita, Kezia Bienek as Mercédès, Loïc Félix as Le Dancaïre, and François Piolino as Le Remendado, with the Glyndebourne Chorus and London Philharmonic Orchestra, Glyndebourne Youth Opera and members of Trinity Boys Choir. Adam Torrance directed, based on Diane Paulus' production for the Glyndebourne Festival.

For all its extreme popularity, Carmen presents a series of challenges, the Spanish-isms and Opéra Comique element cannot be ignored and directorial decisions have to be made. But more than that, too often productions concentrate on what we might call the socialogical elements, creating intense drama at the expense of the whole. For all the difficulty of the work's reception, Carmen is a carefully crafted drama that mixes tragedy with comedy and poignant moments, along with the need to entertain.

Bizet: Carmen - Lukasz Golinski, Dingle Yandell, Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Anja Bihlmaier - Glyndebourne Festival at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Reading reviews of Diane Paulus' original productionn and seeing Adam Torrance's semi-staging based on it, what impressed was the way that we had all the features from the libretto, without any adjustments. Torrance gave us a very straightforward and insightful modern-dress Carmen, stripped down but with all the elements including the lighter scenes in Act Two, and plenty of dancing. It provided a strong showcase for some vivid characters. There was dialogue too, not heaps, but more than in some productions; though no-one was credited for sound design, the dialogue was amplified which was probably sensible given the venue.

Prom 50: Two rarities and a classic from Jakub Hrůša and Czech Philharmonic

Dvorák: Piano Concerto - Mao Fujita, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Vítězslava Kaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Dvořák: Piano Concerto in G minor, Janáček: Glagolitic Mass; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Mao Fujita, Corinne Winters, Bella Adamova, David Butt Philip, Pavel Švingr, Christian Schmitt, City of Prague Philharmonic Choir, Jakub Hrůša; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 28 August 2024

Two rarities and a classic in a prom which showed the Czech orchestra's superb quality, allied to fine performances and soloists

Jakub Hrůša and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra returned to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 28 August 2024 giving us another treat pairing Czech rarities with something familiar. Their second programme featured the first ever performance at the BBC Proms of Vítězslava Kaprálová's Military Sinfonietta, Dvořák's Piano Concerto in G minor with soloist Mao Fujita, and Janáček's Glagolitic Mass with soloists Corinne Winters (soprano), Bella Adamova (mezzo-soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor) and Pavel Švingr (bass, replacing Brindley Sherratt), plus Christian Schmitt (organ) and the City of Prague Philharmonic Choir.

Vítězslava Kaprálová is one of those figures who blazed brilliantly yet briefly. Born in Brno in 1915, she studied in Brno and Prague, but an encounter with Bohuslav Martinů led her to Paris where she had a long and intense relationship with the composer, both professional and personal. She married the son of Czech painter Alphonse Mucha in 1940, but died in June that year. Her Military Sinfonietta was written whilst she was still a student at Prague Conservatory and the work was written against the backdrop of pressure from Nazi Germany for the Czech Republic to cede territory. 

Janácek: Glagolitic Mass - Corinne Winters, City of Prague Philharmonic Choir, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

She conducted the Czech Philharmonic in the premiere at a gala in Prague in 1937, the first woman to conduct the orchestra. She conducted a performance in London in June 1938 for the International Festival of Contemporary Music, when she became the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Rather embarrassingly, given this link, the performance of her Military Sinfonietta is the first time any of her works have been performed at the Proms.

Nothing less than astonishing: Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 from Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

In April this year, Graham Ross directed the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge in a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 at Smith Square Hall (formerly St John's Smith Square). The performance featured the English Cornett & Sackbutt Ensemble, plus Margaret Faultless, violin, Jonathan Manson, bass violin, William Hunt, violone, Elizabeth Kenny, theorbo and Silas Wollston, organ, alongside instrumentalists from Cambridge University. Nicholas Mulroy did the heavy lifting as soloist alongside other soloists from the choir.

The result was filmed, beautifully, by Andrew Staples for Studio 2359, with recorded sound by John Rutter. The film has now been released and is available the Choir of Clare College's YouTube channel. The results are nothing less than astonishing and extremely engaging. Despite using a college choir, this is a relatively intimate performance and I have great admiration for the way a series of soloists step out from the choir and perform all those solos with terrific aplomb. 

I could listen to Nicholas Mulroy for ever in this style of music and his performance remains a treasure. But credit music go to the women who do all those concertos, going way beyond the technical and giving each appearance real character. Then there are the two baritone soloists in the Magnificat going high into the upper reaches with real aplomb. But I think the palm must go to a series of tenors, especially those who duet with Nicholas Mulroy, so that for instance in Duo Seraphim the second and third tenors match Mulroy ornament for ornament. 

The full performances is available on YouTube. As it is free of charge, please do consider making a donation to the college's music if you are enjoying the performance.

Prom 49: A consumate & deeply felt account of Suk's masterful Asrael Symphony crowns the Czech Philharmonic's first appearance at the 2024 BBC Proms

Dvorák: Cello Concerto - Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Dvořák: Cello Concerto, Suk: Asrael Symphony; Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra; Jakub Hrůša; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 27 August 2024

The Czech orchestra impresses with its superb accompaniment to Kobekina's idiomatic approach to the concerto, and then Suk's huge symphony receives a superb performance, completely consumate and deeply felt

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal guest conductor, Jakub Hrůša, have been on a tour of European Summer festivals with stops at Elbphilharmonie Sommer in Hamburg, the Lucerne Festival and Wiesbaden's Rheingau Musik Festival with a final stop at the BBC Proms with two concerts. For their first concert, on Tuedsay 27 August 2024 at the Royal Albert Hall, Jakub Hrůša conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with soloist Anastasia Kobekina, and Josef Suk's Asrael Symphony.

Suk's masterwork was making only its second appearance at the BBC Proms. Czech Philharmonic and Hrůša have recorded Asrael for a Suk cycle they are currently preparing for Pentatone, whilst Hrůša conducted the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (of which he is chief conductor) in Suk's Asrael Symphony at the Edinburgh International Festival earlier this month.

Dvorák: Cello Concerto - Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hruša - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Andy Paradise )

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto was written for his friend cellist Hanuš Wihan in 1894 whilst Dvořák was working in New York at the National Conservatory for Music, and one of the more unlikely impetuses for the work is that whilst in New York, Dvořák heard the premiere Cello Concerto No. 2 by composer and cellist Victor Herbert, one of the teachers at the conservatory. Herbert's use of a cello in a concerto was unusual at the time but the writing convinced Dvořák. Another inspiration is that whilst writing it, he learned that his sister-in-law was dying and she was the woman that Dvořák had originally been in love with!

Far from special interest: discs of brass band music by Arthur Bliss and Malcolm Arnold, two brilliant and highly satisfying portraits

Arthur Bliss: Works for Brass Band; Black Dyke Band, John Wilson; Chandos
Malcolm Arnold: Music for Brass Band; Foden's Band, Choir of Chetham's School of Music, Michael Fowles; Beckus
Reviewed 24 August 2024

Two discs focussing on 20th century composers whose works for brass band are performed alongside arrangements to create two brilliant and highly satisfying portraits

Brass bands emerged in the UK in the mid-19th century as a popular pastime, the result of a combination of circumstances, industrialisation, which produced a large working class population, technological advances in instrument design, and the mass production to manufacture and distribute the instruments. It can be argued that bands were an expression of solidarity by growing communities, but the association of brass bands with industrial concerns often arose because they were seen as a way to keep workers from organising in radical groups. The first British open brass band championships took place in Manchester in 1853, and competition remains a strong feature of brass banding. Moving into the 20th-century, the movement developed sufficient confidence that well-known, non-specialist, composers would be approached for pieces, particularly for competitions. 

Two recent discs illuminate the way 20th century British composers have interacted with brass bands. 

On Chandos, John Wilson conducts the Black Dyke Band in music by Sir Arthur Bliss, his two brass band works, Kenilworth and The Belmont Variations, along with arrangements of music from Adam Zero, Checkmate, and Things to Come. The Black Dyke Band traces its history continuously from 1855 when it formed as the band of the Black Dyke Mills in Queensbury, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, a company owned by John Foster.  

On the Malcolm Arnold Society's Beckus label, Michael Fowles conducts Foden's Band in music by Malcolm Arnold, his brass band works, Fantasy for Brass Band, Song of Freedom, and Litte Suites Nos. 1 & 2, plus arrangements of his Peterloo: Overture, suite from Sweeney Todd, The Roots of Heaven: Overture and March: Overseas. Foden's Band traces its origins back to 1900 when the village of Elworth, near Sandbach in Cheshire, formed its own band, and from that base local industrialist Edwin Foden formed the Fodens Motor Works Band.

Darbar Festival: the world’s largest festival of Indian classical music (outside India) returns to the Barbican Centre

The world’s largest festival of Indian classical music (outside India) returns to the Barbican Centre from 24 to 27 October 2024 when Darbar Festival presents the finest international and UK Indian classical musicians with a mix of emerging  talent, master performers making their UK debut, and a medley of world class legends.

Launched 19 years ago in memory of Gurmit Singh Ji Virdee, an inspirational tabla player, teacher and the father of artistic director Sandeep Virdee, the 2024 programme includes concerts, workshops, talks, free family events and a pop-up market. Sandeep Virdee said: "Indian classical music is often misunderstood as an obscure artform that distances the audience. Far from it. With a vast repertoire of music styles and subgenres depending on your emotional state, it has the power to stir, thrill and inspire the soul. We are delighted to showcase the world’s finest proponents of this magical artform and welcome audiences from richly diverse backgrounds near and far."

Performers include India’s finest tabla legend, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee with his son and fellow tabla player, Anubrata Chatterjee, India’s foremost female vocalist, Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, sitar player Pandit Kushal Das, violinist, composer and conductor, Dr L Subramaniam, makes his Darbar Festival debut with his son Ambi Subramaniam, to champion contemporary Carnatic percussion, sarod instrumentalist Amaan Ali Bangash who makes his UK solo debut  accompanied by Anubrata Chatterjee on tabla, and Carnatic vocalist, Aruna Sairam.

Jayanthi Kumaresh, a virtuoso of the Saraswati veena, hosts Veena Unwrapped a  lecture demonstration that shares her expertise, insights and passion for the veena. Dr L Subramaniam's lecture East West Composition Unwrapped explores his approach to composition.

Full details from the Darbar Festival website.

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire launches a French season with Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale

Eugène Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People - painted to commemorate the 1830, July Revolution

Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale was written in 1840 to be performed by a huge military band as part of commemorations for marking the tenth anniversary of the July Revolution of 1830 which had brought Louis-Philippe I to power. The celebrations involved erecting the July Column in the Place de la Bastille and the symphony's first movement was performed during the march to the Bastille, the central movement during the ceremony and the third on the return march. The work was such a success at the dress rehearsal that it was performed twice more in August and became one of the composer's most popular works during his lifetime.

It was originally written for a military band of around 200 players, but in 1842 Berlioz revised it, adding option string parts and a chorus at the end. Richard Wagner attended a performance of this new version at the Salle Vivienne on 1 February 1842. On 5 February, he told Robert Schumann that he found passages in the last movement of Berlioz's symphony so "magnificent and sublime that they can never be surpassed."

The work only gets very occasional outings. It has been twice at the BBC Proms, in 2009, Thierry Fisher conducted the military band version with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and back in 1983, Sir John Pritchard conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the revised version with strings and choir to open the BBC Proms that year. 

Now, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) is launching a season of French music with a performance of Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale on 25 October 2024. Michael Seal conducts the RBC Symphony Orchestra at the Bradshaw Hall, performing a new orchestration of Berlioz' work.

RBC's focus on French music include a week of salon-style concerts devoted to Fauré and his contemporaries, the first known performance of a work by the black composer, violinist and conductor Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Poulenc’s opera La voix humaine, a 150th anniversary all-Ravel recital on RBC’s 1890 Érard piano, and a centenary tribute to Boulez with his dazzling Sur incises.  

Full details from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's website.

Bohuslav Martinů's The Greek Passion launches Den Jyske Opera's 2024/25 season in Aarhus, Denmark

Bohuslav Martinů: The Greek Passion - Den Jyske Opera

Bohuslav Martinů's opera, The Greek Passion, is one of those complex works that continue to resonate, even though actual performances are still relatively rare. Whilst the work is technically about a village's preparations for Easter, central to the action is how the villagers deal with a group of refugees, subject that remains alarmingly topical.

Jutland Opera (Den Jske Opera), Denmark's touring opera company based in the country's second city, Aarhus, opens a new production of Martinů's The Greek Passion tonight, 23 August 2024. The production is a co-production with Theater Osnabrück where the production debuted in 2022. Directed by Philipp Kochheim and conducted by Andreas Holz, The Greek Passion features Rhys Jenkins, James Edgar Knight, Michael Ha, Amira Elmadfa, Stephanie Hershaw, Norbert Schmittberg, Mikolaj Bonkowski and Sten Byriel.

The work has a somewhat complex history. Written for Covent Garden in 1957, to Martinů's own English libretto (based on Jonathan Griffin's translation of the novel Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis), the opera was rejected by Covent Garden, Zurich Opera and Universal Edition, Martinů radically revised the work and it was premiered in Zurich in 1961. The two versions are very different and the 1957 original was regarded as too radical, it has however been reconstructed and performed. Jutland Opera will be performing the work in the composer's 1961 revision, in English.

Looking ahead, the company has two more operas in the 2024/25 season. This Autumn they are performing Puccini's Madama Butterfly, conducted by Christopher Lichtenstein and directed by Ulrich Peters with Chunxi Stella Hu and Victoria Kaminskaite sharing the title role. 

Perhaps even more interesting, the final production of the season is Fete Galante, the only opera by Danish composer, Poul Schierbeck (1888-1949), which premiered in 1931. A pupil of Carl Nielsen, Schierbeck was known as a teacher in the Conservatory at Copenhagen, and the overture to Fete Galante retained a place in the orchestral repertoire, but his opera remains a relative rarity.

Details from Den Jyske Opera's website.

Into the unknown: soprano Aoife Miskelly makes her debut with Vache Baroque in Pergolesi's rarely performed opera, L'Olimpiade

Vache Baroque in 2021

Vache Baroque's Summer opera production this year will be Pergolesi's L'Olimpiade, his 1735 setting of a libretto by Metastasio that clocked up more than 50 different settings (including one by Vivaldi from 1734 which was performed earlier this year by Irish National Opera, see my review). Vache Baroque's production takes place in the grounds of The Vache, a 17th-century house in Buckinghamshire. The production will be directed by Laura Attridge and conducted by Jonathan Darbourne with a cast including Nazan Fikret, Natasha Page, Bechara Moufarrej, Shafali Jalota, Frances Gregory, Robert Forrest and Aoife Miskelly. I recently met up with Aoife, during a break in their rehearsals, to find out more.

Peergolesi's L'Olimpiade was written for the Carnival season of 1735 at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome, becoming one of the most admired settings of Metastasio's libretto. The work was the composer's penultimate opera, he died of tuberculosis in 1736, leaving his Stabat Mater, composed in the final weeks of his life, as his best-known work. Apart from performances in Italy in 1937 (for Pergolesi's bicentenary), the opera's modern performance history dates from 1990s, since when it has cropped up surprisingly infrequently.

Before being asked to sing in L'Olimpiade, Aoife had no experience with Pergolesi's opera, but she did see Irish National Opera's production of Vivaldi's setting of the libretto. She calls the opera a lovely discovery, a work full of beautiful arias. They are giving it in a mix of Italian and English, the Italian arias will be performed with new English spoken dialogue by Laura Attridge based on the original recitatives. The mix of language does not bother Aoife and she thinks that it makes the opera nicely accessible. Most of the characters have stunning arias and she finds it interesting that the work is so little known. Perhaps the fact that it has four soprano roles has something to do with it. Pergolesi's writing for the soloists is a mix of lyric and coloratura, this latter is a challenge as, like Vivaldi, Pergolesi's vocal music is very instrumental.

Vivaldi: Bajazet - Aoife Miskelly, James Laing - Irish National Opera in 2022 (Photo Kip Carroll)

A festival for and of its local community: Sir James MacMillan's The Cumnock Tryst celebrates its 10th birthday with five days of events in the East Ayrshire town

This year, the Cumnock Tryst is presenting five days of events to celebrate its 10th birthday. 

Founded by composer Sir James MacMillan, the festival runs from 2 to 6 October 2024. MacMillan, who grew up in the East Ayrshire town, remains the festival's artistic director and takes his inspiration from models such as Peter Maxwell Davies’ St Magnus Festival in Orkney and Benjamin Britten’s Aldeburgh initiative. The Cumnock Tryst has established itself as a festival for and of its local community.

Beyond the five day festival in October, The Cumnock Tryst continues its year-round work in the local community, and this year also sees the inaugural International Summer School for Composers – an opportunity for young composers from across the globe to come to East Ayrshire and work alongside Sir James MacMillan and Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

The festival this year features the debut of the newly formed Cumnock Tryst Ensemble. This new chamber group is directed by cellist Christian Elliott and consists Scottish musicians who have had an association with The Tryst over the last 10 years. The ensemble will have a commitment to the local community and a special focus on composers of our own era, with performances, in Cumnock and elsewhere, and will participate in many of the festival's community and education projects spearheaded. The inaugural recital includes music by Olivier Messiaen, Elliot Carter, Rebecca Clarke, James MacMillan and Frank Bridge.

Music of Land Reclamation, on the second day of the festival, will be the culmination of a composition project for Higher and Advanced Higher Music students at Robert Burns Academy. In a project led by Sir James MacMillan and Ayrshire composer Gillian Walker, the composers have responded to photographs of the local area from photographer Simon Butterworth’s series Abstract Excavationism: The Art of Industrial Land Reclamation.

Over the years the festival has developed a number of ground-breaking music projects for children and adults with additional support needs, and this year James MacMillan has been working in Hillside School and the nearby Riverside Centre alongside Drake Music Scotland and the Hebrides Ensemble. With the belief that disability should never be a barrier to a deeply engaging involvement with music, the performance of The Unbroken Thread, follows a series of creative workshops where all involved devised their own music and modes of expression.

The Cumnock Tryst Tenth Birthday Gala Concert, All the Hills and Vales will feature local ensembles with international visitors for a birthday celebration of brass, strings and voices. The main work is All the Hills and Vales Along, an oratorio which James MacMillan composed for the 2018 festival to mark the centenary of the WW1 Armistice. Scottish emerging composers Gillian Walker and Erin Thomson will hear the world premieres of their recent Tryst commissions.

Other performers at this year's festival include pianist Steven Osborne, the Maxwell Quartet, the Gesualdo Six, Joshua Ellicott, guitarist, flautist and singer Seán Gray, the Euan Stevenson Trio, Ayshire fiddler Alastair Savage and the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Full details from the festival's website.

Responses to Thomas Hardy: composer Arthur Keegan's complex web of music new and old, atmospherically performed by Lotte Betts-Dean, James Girling & Ligeti Quartet

The Past & I: 100 years of Thomas Hardy; Arthur Keegan: Elegies for Emma and String Quartet No. 1 'Elegies for Tom', Derek Holman, Muriel Herbert, Britten, Imogen Holst, Gurney, Robin Milford, Finzi, Kerry Andrew; Lotte Betts-Dean, James Girling, Ligeti Quartet; Delphian
Reviewed 21 August 2024

Inspired by a letter from Thomas Hardy to Holst which was preserved by Holst's daughter and gifted to Britten, Arthur Keegan combines two of his own powerful responses to Hardy with 20th century Hardy settings in new arrangements, superbly performed.

In 2019, composer Arthur Keegan had a residency at the Red House in Aldeburgh and was supposed to be writing an orchestral work. But he was shown a letter that poet Thomas Hardy had written to composer Gustav Holst, thanking Holst for setting his poems. Holst kept the letter in a book of Hardy's poems, left it to his daughter Imogen, who in turn presented as a gift to Britten in 1952 who, in 1953 would set Hardy's poetry in the cycle Winter Words. Increasingly drawn to Hardy's poetry, Keegan would write two elegies based on Hardy's words which form the bookends to a fascinating collection of original work and arrangements by Keegan exploring reactions to Thomas Hardy (1840-1928).

The Past & I: 100 years of Thomas Hardy on Delphian features Arthur Keegan's Elegies for Emma and String Quartet No. 1 'Elegies for Tom', Derek Holman's Midnight on the Great Western, Muriel Herbert's Faintheart in a Railway Train, Britten's At the Railway Station, Upway, Imogen Holst's Weathers, Ivor Gurney's In the Black Winter Morning, Robin Milford's If It's Ever Spring Again, Gerald Finzi's The Too Short Time, Kerry Andrew's The Echo Elf Answers, and Finzi's The Shortening Days. Apart from the Keegan and the Andrew, all the remaining songs are arranged for the performers, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, guitarist James Girling and the Ligeti Quartet, by Arthur Keegan.

Celebrating 30 years: Göteborg Opera presents the first performance of Verdi's Otello in Gothenburg for over 50 years, and a very Swedish Peter Grimes

Göteborg Opera is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Founded in 1994, the company, which won the award for Sustainability at the International Opera Awards 2022, strives to be efficient in all its operations when working with finite and renewable resources. Its celebratory 2024/25 season includes new productions of Verdi's Otello and Britten's Peter Grimes, along with performances of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, a double bill of Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor and Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Tosca.

Verdi's Otello, receiving its first staging in Gothenburg for 55 years, will be directed by the Spanish director Rafael R. Villalobos and conducted by Vincenzo Milletarì, but features a very Swedish cast, with Swedish Court singer Michael Weinius making his role debut as Otello, his dream role, which made him want to become an opera singer as a young boy at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Gothenburg-born Julia Sporsén as Desdemona and Jens Søndergaard as Iago.

Perhaps, even more intriguingly, Britten's Peter Grimes is being performed by a largely non-Anglophone cast, a fact that signals not only the international acceptance of the opera but will bring different perspectives to the performance. British director Netia Jones's production is inspired by the Swedish West coast and features Joachim Bäckström in the title role with Matilda Sterby as Ellen and Åke Zetterström as Balstrode. Distinguished mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus features as Auntie. The conductor is Christoph Gedschold, music director of Oper Leipzig.

The revival of Yoshi Oïda's 2016 production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly features the 1904 Brescia version of the opera. This was Puccini's first revision, made after the unsuccessful premiere. This was the first version to divide the opera into three acts, but this version is less revised than the final version and more openly condemnatory of colonialism and exoticism.

Full details of Göteborg Opera's season from the company's website.

Prom 40: Transcending limitations, Bach's St John Passion from Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms

Bach: St John Passion - Benjamin Bruns, Christian Immler, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

Bach: St John Passion; Benjamin Bruns, Christian Immler, Carolyn Sampson, Alexander Chance, Shimon Yoshida, Bach Collegium Japan, Maasaki Suzuki; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 19 August 2024

Ultimately this was Maasaki Suzuki's evening as he forcefully directed the music that he knows and loves, giving us a personal vision that more than filled the hall

The BBC Proms provide the opportunity for a large number of people to hear a remarkably diverse range of music, but with the proviso that not everything is really suited to the wide open spaces of the Royal Albert Hall and visiting ensembles, often on a tour of more conventional venues, can struggle to fit the hall's distinctive acoustics.

Maasaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan are in the middle of a Summer tour and their London stop at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall gave us a chance to hear Suki's masterly approach to Bach's St John Passion with Benjamin Bruns as Evangelist, Christian Immler as Christus and the bass soloist, plus soloists Carolyn Sampson, Alexander Chance and Shimon Yoshida.

Bach: St John Passion - Alexander Chance, Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan at BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Mark Allen)

Suzuki used 17 choristers with the soloists singing in the choir thus bringing the number up to 20/21, and an instrumental ensemble with 13 strings, and in the hall this meant that balance was somewhat off. In the big choruses, the upper strings simply did not carry against the choral sound, though the bass line, reinforced by double bass, bassoon and magnificent contrabassoon, was strong. But this is a compromise we must happily make to enable us to hear this ensemble. On the plus side, the soloists were all well attuned to the hall and there were none of the audibility problems that occurred in Saturday's performance of Britten's War Requiem [see my review]. 

The results were absorbing, at times thrilling and undoubtedly moving, but let us not kid ourselves, what we heard was probably a world away from anything Bach might have expected. But Bach's music is able to transcend the limitations and strictures of any particular performance.

Over 50 concerts across 22 cities: through the noise's Autumn 2024 season

Founded just over three years ago by Jack Bazalgette and Jack Crozier, through the noise presents informal crowdfunded classical gigs to local communities across the UK and beyond. the company's Autumn 2024 season features over 50 concerts in venues across 22 UK and European cities. The Autumn line-up includes six extensive tours and five exclusive solo dates, from 4 September to 7 December 2024.

A tour by Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason will feature two shows at London nightclub KOKO and a performance at Nottingham’s 2000-capacity stadium, Rock City and there will be two tours showcasing the traditional music of West African with acclaimed musicians Sidiki Dembélé and Seckou Keita.  A journey into the UNESCO-protected polyphonic sounds of the mediaeval Mediterranean will feature Idrîsî Ensemble and a spotlight on pianists will include Mariam Batsashvili, Natalie Tenenbaum, and Pavel Kolesnikov. 

Artists making their noisenight debut are Mariam Batsashvili, Natalie Tenenbaum, Anastasia Kobekina, Idrîsî Ensemble, and Tangram Sound. Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason also make their first appearance as a duo.

Full details from the through the noise website.

Prom 37: intense contrasts thundering cannonades to personal intimacy, Antonio Pappano conducts Britten's War Requiem at the BBC Proms

Britten: War Requiem - Allan Clayton, Natalya Romaniw, Antonio Pappano, Will Liverman, London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms with chorus directors Mariana Rosas and Neil Ferris (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Britten: War Requiem; Natalya Romaniw, Allan Clayton, Will Liverman, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus, Tiffin Boys Choir, Antonio Pappano; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 17 August 2024

Antonio Pappano draws an evening of intense contrasts from his performers from thundering cannonades to intense, personal intimacy, yet always with a sense of discipline and clarity

Britten's War Requiem has been a presence at the BBC Proms since 1963, a year after the premiere, and was last at the BBC Proms in 2019 when Peter Oundjian conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (with Allan Clayton as tenor soloist).  This year the work returned on Saturday 17 August 2024, with Antonio Pappano conducting the London Symphony Orchestra with soloists Natalya Romaniw (soprano), Allan Clayton (tenor) and Will Liverman (baritone), plus the London Symphony Chorus and the BBC Symphony Chorus, with a boys choir drawn from the Tiffin Boys Choir (director James Day) with boys from HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace, and Temple Church.

The performers filled the stage and choir stalls, the wide open spaces of the hall seeming ideal for this work. But Britten's score pits the large scale against the intimate, and Antonio Pappano drew a remarkable dynamic range from his performers, from hushed, barely there to sheer terror. However, whatever the dynamic, the approach was always disciplined and even in the noisy cannonades of the Libera me, there was a clarity to the textures. Throughout, Pappano seemed to encourage a crispness of diction from his choral singers so that the very opening of the work was strong and intent, despite the hushed tones. This strength of character and intent wove its way throughout the performance.

Britten: War Requiem - Natalya Romaniw, Allan Clayton, Antonio Pappano, Will Liverman, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

As has become the norm with this work, Pappano conducted both the orchestra and the chamber ensemble (placed stage left). His two male soloists, Allan Clayton and Will Liverman, seemed to both be deliberately holding back, drawing us toward them. Both gave us moments when they easily filled the hall, but a lot of the time the performance made us work to listen hard, the result was some magic moments but a tendency for the Wilfred Owen settings to seem somewhat muted (at least from our seats in the stalls, it may well be different on the radio or on TV).

Music is the best argument for its continued existence: I chat to John Largess of one of the USA's most celebrated quartets, the Miró Quartet

The Miró Quartet at La Jolla Music Society in 2024 [Photo:  Ken Jacques]

The Miró Quartet's album, Home, released in May 2024 is the quartet's second album on Pentatone, following their recording of Beethoven’s Complete String Quartets (2019). With the new album, the quartet explores the many concepts of what the term 'home' can mean. The pieces on the disc, all composed by Americans past and present, include two new commissions by Kevin Puts and Caroline Shaw, as well as known and lesser-known works by George Walker and Samuel Barber. 

Based in Austin, Texas, the Miró Quartet is one of the USA's most celebrated quartets. Founded in 1995, the current line-up is Daniel Ching and William Fedkenheuer, violin, John Largess, viola, and Joshua Gindele, cello. Daniel Ching and Joshua Gindele are founding members of the quartet, whilst John Largess has been a member since 1997. I recently chatted to John, via Zoom, about the new disc and the quartet's approach to performing and commissioning music, how the composers they work with often become friends, and the challenges facing chamber music in the 21st century.

The quartet's previous album featured Beethoven's complete quartets whilst earlier albums focused on the music of Schubert, so this new album represents a significant change. Yet John emphasises that Home represents a big part of who they are as a quartet. They love new music, love commissioning music, and they also love 20th-century North American music. The classic repertoire remains important to them, and their Beethoven disc required a huge commitment from them in terms of concerts and studio time, so it felt natural to do a disc which showed another side to the quartet.

The new disc is partly named for Kevin Puts' Home which appears on the disc alongside Caroline Shaw's Microfictions [volume 1] but the idea of home extends both to the concept of musical home and artistic home. Puts and Shaw are not only commissioned composers but both are friends, part of the quartet's community, another aspect of home.

Alongside these new pieces, the quartet plays String Quartet in B minor by Samuel Barber (1910-1981), which John calls a wonderful work they had long wanted to record, and the slow movement from Quartet No. 1 by George Walker (1922-2018)

Cities of Song: People, Places, Music: the Oxford International Song Festival is back with 70 events in 16 days exploring the cities that have inspired and influenced composers

The Oxford International Song Festival (formerly the Oxford Lieder Festival) is back for its 23rd year with 70 events in 16 days, from 11 to 26 October 2024. Under the title of Cities of Song: People, Places, Music the festival explores the broad theme of cities that have inspired and influenced composers. With over 200 singers, instrumentalists and speakers in hundreds of works including the great song cycles of Schubert and Schumann alongside Baroque lute songs, contemporary works hot off the press, some exceptional chamber music, and choral performances. 

World premieres include Silent Songs of Josefine, a Kafka-inspired work by Can Bilir, performed by soprano Mimi Doulton with pianist Dylan Perez, and a reimagining of the Bhagavad Gita by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail, performed by contralto Jess Dandy and pianist Keval Shah. New songs by the emerging star composer Emily Hazrati will be sung by soprano Ella Taylor with pianist Jocelyn Freeman [see my recent review of their performances of Hazrati's songs at SongEasel in SE London]

Irish composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe performs selections from her album A Late Anthology of Early Music Vol. 1: Ancient to Renaissance, before leading a discussion on the potential uses of AI in the music of the present and future.

New generation performers at the festival include mezzo-soprano Angharad Rowlands, soprano Katy Thomson, bass-baritone James Newby (BBC New Generation Artist 2018 to 2020), and tenor Ted Black.. Eight of the evening recitals begin with a short Emerging Artist slot, giving a vital showcase to outstanding young professionals.

Anne Le Bozec makes a return to the Festival to lead the annual Mastercourse, an opportunity for the eight outstanding duos from the festival’s Young Artist Programme to immerse themselves in song and learn from the very best international tutors and performers. It also gives an insight into the creative process for members of the public. Le Bozec will be joined by four guest tutors.

The middle weekend of the Festival is dedicated to Franz Schubert, part of a build-up to the Schubert bicentenary in 2028. The centrepiece will be a lecture-recital led by Graham Johnson, giving his ongoing survey of Schubert’s life 200 years on. So this year he explores Schubert in 1824, and he will be joined by singers including the English soprano Harriet Burns and German bass-baritone Stephan Loges. Other recitals are given by Christian Immler and Sophie Karthäuser, and the weekend concludes with Christopher Maltman and Audrey Saint-Gil performing Winterreise. 

Late night events include soprano Claire Booth and violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen performing György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments in the atmospheric setting of the candlelit 15th-century chapel of New College , and the Castalian String Quartet performing Schubert’s Rosamunde in the same magical setting. 

Full details from the festival's website.

Youth and Experience: 2024 Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival

Founded in 2009, cellist Natalie Clein's Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival is celebrating Youth and Experience in its 2024 festival which runs from 29 August to 1 September 2024, featuring concerts set in the stunning landscapes of Dorset and the Isle of Purbeck.

Alongside artistic director and cellist, Natalie Clein, performers will include violinists Henning Kraggerud, Priya Mitchell, and Nurit Stark as well as Aoife Ní Bhriain, at home both in the classical repertoire and Irish folk music, plus pianist Einav Yarden who will also be giving a solo recital dedicated to Fathers and Children, composer and viola player Brett Dean, and cellist Tatu Kauppinen, and mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts Dean.

There will be the world premiere of Brett Dean's I Starred Last Night, I Shone, written for his daughter, Lotte Betts Dean who will be joined by a string trio including Natalie Clein. Brett Dean has also arranged Schumann's Mary Stuart Song for mezzo-soprano (Lotte Betts Dean) and string quartet. Violinist Henning Kraggerud will perform alongside his daughter Alma Kraggerud also a violinist making a name for herself, and her brothers Franz and Hector on piano and cello.  All the string players in the festival will be joining together to perform Mendelssohn's Octet/

Full details from the festival website.

More Buffy the Vampire Slayer than German Romanticism: Gothic Opera's Der Vampyr at the Grimeborn Festival

Marschner: Der Vampyr - Milena Knauß - Gothic Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Marschner: Der Vampyr, in a version by Julia Mintzer & Kelly Lovelady; Giuseppe Pellingra, Milena Knauß, Jack Roberts, Amber Reeves, Conall O'Neill, Madeleine Todd, Matthew Scott Clark, Gráinne Gillis, director: Julia Mintzer, conductor: Kelly Lovelady, Gothic Opera; Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre
14 August 2024

A brave revival of the important German Romantic opera, reinvented as a Vampire romp, performed with a gusto that rather lost the subtleties of Marschner's score.

A younger contemporary of Weber, Heinrich Marschner wrote operas in the same vein of German Romanticism, with its fascination with supernatural, exploring heightened emotions and the dramatic possibilities that the orchestra and an increased used of reminiscence motifs offered. Marschner's leading male characters are often flawed individuals, Don Giovanni-like, psychologically complex and his operas had an important influence on Wagner. However, they have their limitations, these composers and their librettists were developing a new German opera and the tradition lacked the depth of experience that Italian librettists could draw on. And from a modern stand-point, heroines tend to be passive and lack any sort of agency.

Marschner's 1827 opera, Der Vampyr remains on the very fringes of the repertoire, partly because its libretto (by Marschner's brother-in-law) is ultimately based on John Polidori's 1819 short story, The Vampyre. But in English-speaking countries, productions of the opera remain rare. I am not sure when it last received a large-scale production in the UK, and its last significant outing was on TV in 1992 as a TV soap-opera! But then, this reflects the general lack of interest in pre-Wagnerian German Romantic opera, as much tends to me made of its dramaturgical limitations.

Gothic Opera was founded with a production of Marschner's Der Vampyr in 2019, and director Julia Mintzer and music director Kelly Lovelady returned to the opera, revisiting that adaptation. The production opened at Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival on Wednesday 14 August 2024. Giuseppe Pellingra as Ruthven, Milena Knauß as Malwina, Jack Roberts as Aubrey, Amber Reeves as Emmy, Conall O’Neill as Davenaut, Madeleine Todd as Janthe, Matthew Scott Clark as Georg and Gráinne Gillis as Vampire Master. Designs were by Charles Ogilvie.

Marschner: Der Vampyr - Giuseppe Pellingra, Amber Reeves - Gothic Opera (Photo: Craig Fuller)

The opera was sung in German, but with new English dialogue by Julia Mintzer and the production was best understood as being after Marschner, as Mintzer and Lovelady created a rather irreverent romp inspired by more modern vampire films, the production leaned into humour rather a lot and the finale veered between schock-horror and Monty Python. Somewhere along the line, Marschner's brand of German romanticism got well and truly lost.

Past, present and future: a diverse range of music and performers to look forward to in the Autumn Season of Conway Hall's Sunday Concerts series

Simon Callaghan and the Piatti Quartet at Conway Hall in December 2022

The 2024/25 season Conway Hall's Sunday Concert series opens on 15 September 2024 when the Zoffany Ensemble returns to the hall with a programme that combines the original nonet version of Brahms' Serenade No. 1 with a chamber version of Richard Strauss' Til Eulenspiegel and the Septet by the 19th century French composer Adolphe Blanc.

The season continues with pianist Patrick Hemmerlé in a programme that moves from Bach and Beethoven, to Albeniz's Iberia, Granados' Goyescas and Spanish-inspired movements from Debussy's Préludes. Then horn player Ben Goldscheider joins the Heath Quartet for a a fascinating programme which includes horn quintets by Mozart and York Bowen, along with Eleanor Alberga's The Shining Gate of Morpheus for horn quintet. The series artistic director, pianist Simon Callaghan, joins the Brompton Quartet for a programme of Haydn, Grażyna Bacewicz and Dvorak, and there is a pre-concert recital from the Tondo Duo (Sophia Elger, saxophone, Declan Hickey, guitar). The Gildas Quartet will be mixing things up with William Alwyn and Jessie Montgomery alongside Haydn  and Debussy.

As part of the Bloomsbury Festival, Darragh Morgan (violin) and Mary Dullea (piano) explore themes of ‘human’ qualities and ‘kindness’ in their programme of Arvo Pärt, Deirdre McKay, Hannah Kendall, Evis Sammoutis, Chick Corea and César Franck. The Autumn series ends on 15 December 2024 when the Primrose Piano Quartet move from a duo by Mozart to a trio by Schubert to a piano quartet by Brahms.

I write the programme notes for the concert series, and give occasional pre-concert talks. My next one is on Sunday 8 December, with Past, present and future, looking at the music of Caroline Shaw, Schumann and Beethoven in advance of the Kyan Quartet's concert.

Full details from the Conway Hall's website.

Substantial and satisfying listening: Stuart Hancock's score for the new film, Kensuke's Kingdom

Michael Morpurgo's 1999 book Kensuke's Kingdom might have very modern concerns with its bringing issues about care for the environment and the natural world into what is a traditional adventure story, but the new animated film based on the book which was released last month has a refreshingly traditional approach to the genre. The film, directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry with Peter Dodd as animation director and Michael Shorten as art director, features traditional hand drawn animation along with a fine symphonic score by British composer Stuart Hancock.

Hancock's score has a strong dramatic sweep to it and the original motion picture soundtrack, on MovieScoreMedia, makes for substantial and satisfying listening. The film was produced by Lupus Films, and the soundtrack was recorded by the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, conductor David Hernando Rico, and the Holst Singers, conductor Michael Waldron, and the score even has a solo for actor Ken Watanabe who plays Kensuke.

I enjoyed listening to the soundtrack immensely, the album has 31 tracks lasting 73 minutes, which is a lot of music for a film, from short cues to longer sequences. Hancock's music has a depth and complexity to it, which is reflected in the fact that the performers include the full Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and the Holst Singers. Even from just listening, there is a strong emotional range, and I can't help but hope Hancock has time, energy and impetus to create a concert suite from the music. 

Hancock says of the writing process, "Kensuke’s Kingdom has very little dialogue – a gift for a composer! The two lead characters cannot speak each other’s language, so the music has space to flourish and help tell their story. I composed initial character themes and sketches, working closely with the directors from the storyboard/animatic stage onwards. I honed the music as the animation gradually fell into place, culminating in fantastic recording sessions with full symphony orchestra, choir and solo musicians in late 2022. Personal highlights included recording Ken Watanabe’s singing (remotely from Tokyo) and having author Michael Morpurgo’s glowing seal of approval at regular intervals!"

Stuart Hancock's score for Kensuke's Kingdom is available via MovieScoreMedia and can be streamed on Spotify or YouTube. Full details of the film from the Kensuke's Kingdom website.