Robert Gromotka & Jonas Hain - The Unspoken

In the middle of the night. Somewhere in Berlin. 

In one of the last great halls of the old AEG turbine factory, a moment of rare musical meditation emerges. The vast industrial architecture lies in darkness, with only a single light falling on a piano.

In this silence, composer/pianist duo Jonas Hain and Robert Gromotka perform The Unspoken from their upcoming album Between Us - two pianists, two voices, a dialogue carried entirely through the piano, revealing a sense of intimacy that words could hardly match.

"Sometimes silence speaks louder than any words. That’s exactly the silence we wanted to make audible", says Jonas Hain.

The album is released on 23 January 2026 on the Neue Meister label. 

Pre-order: https://nm.lnk.to/betweenusID 

From 30 January to 7 February 2026, Hain and Gromotka will be touring Germany, further details. 

Back to the Baroque master: Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival returns to Handel for 2026 with a new production of Handel's Floridante

Handel: Flavio - Rémy Brès-Feuillet (in bath), Yuriy Mynenko - Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival 2023 (Photo: Clemens Manser)

Handel's Floridante is one of those opera more heard of or heard on disc rather than experienced in the theatre. The first modern performance, took place at the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon in 1962 [see my article] and since then revivals have included Cambridge Handel Opera in 1989 and the Handel Festival, Halle in 1984 and then again in 2009.

Handel wrote it in 1721 with the great castrato Senesino in the cast. Winton Dean suggests that Handel was not completely engaged with the libretto. The previous season, Bononcini's Astarto had been a great success. In response, Handel temporarily abandoned his grand heroic style from Radamisto produced the previous year (and resumed in Giulio Cesare in 1723) and concentrated on graceful tunes, light accompaniments and something less learned and more crowd-pleasing. 

A success?

Well, Charles Burney certainly thought so: "I mention the slow songs in this opera [Floridante] particularly, as superior in every respect to those of Bononcini, who has frequently been extolled by his admirers for unrivalled excellence in airs of tenderness."

And audiences clearly agreed. Floridante received fifteen performances that first season, and was revived seven times the following season. It came back again in 1727 for two performances, and then seven in 1733. 24 is a respectable number of performances for an opera in Handel's lifetime, and we can add to this the eleven performances in Hamburg in 1723 (with German recitatives and arias in Italian).

Dramatically, however, the opera has limitations and Winton Dean places responsibility for this squarely in librettist Paolo Rolli's court. Rolli based the work on a late 17th century Venetian libretto, but barely kept anything but the bare bones. The result, in Dean's words, is full of obscurities and inconsistencies. But recent revivals of some of Handel's 'problem' operas have demonstrated that they can work on the modern stage.

Now audiences will get the chance to judge Floridante for themselves as Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival has announced that the centrepiece staging in 2026 will be Handel's Floridante. The festival will run from 4 to 13 September 2026 with performances in the Margravial Opera House, Bayreuth, along with other historic venues in the town. Floridante will be directed by the Festival's artistic director, Max Emanuel Cencic and Markellos Chryssicos conducts Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, the Festival's orchestra in residence for 2026.

This is the festival's second Handel production. In 2023, Cencic directed Handel's Flavio in an extravagantly theatrical production, see my review.

Floridante is being produced as a co-production with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and the International Handel Festival Karlsruhe, where it will be performed in 2027. Max Emanuel Cencic takes on the title role with Eva Zalenga (Rossane), Sonja Runje (Elmira), Bruno de Sá (Timante), Pavel Kudinov (Oronte), and Yannis François (Coralbo).

There are six performances of Floridante alongside a programme of concerts and recitals in the Margravial Opera House and other venues including the newly opened Friedrichsforum and the Palace Church.

Full details from the festival website.

Seele, vergiß sie nicht: poet Friedrich Hebbel, composer Peter Cornelius and his Requiem

Friedrich Hebbel - death mask

The German poet and dramatist Friedrich Hebbel (1813-1863) is not, perhaps, a well-known name today. But Hebbel's friendship with the composer Peter Cornelius (1824-1874) was an important one and on Hebbel's death, Cornelius made a choral setting of one of Hebbel's poems, Seele, vergiß sie nicht creating a work now known as Requiem, and their story creates a thread with links to Liszt, Wagner and the 'New German School'.

Hebbel was the son of a bricklayer, but studied at grammar school in Hamburg and went to university in Heidelberg and Munich. He made his name with his drama Judith, and spent time in Paris thanks to a stipend from King Christian of Denmark. Support from Prussian noblemen enabled him to settle in Vienna and mix with intellectuals. He had a high opinion of his artistic endeavours and something of a horror of the hand-to-mouth existence of the itinerant artist. As a result, he abandoned his friendship with a woman who had helped and supported him during his poverty-stricken period in Munich and married a rich actress. With much self-justification about the duty of the artist. He wrote a series of tragedies as well as comedies and short stories. Perhaps most interestingly, his final work is a trilogy, Der Nibelungen from 1862 which won the Schiller Prize.

Cornelius is not the only composer to have been inspired by his music, Max Reger wrote a Hebbel Requiem whilst Schumann's opera Genoveva is based on Hebbel's tragedy from 1840. The Belgian-Danish composer Eduard Lassen (1830-1904) who was music director at Weimar for most of his career and conducted the first performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde outside of Munich, wrote incidental music to Hebbel's Die Nibelungen in 1873. In 1878/79 Franz Liszt combined music from the Die Nibelungen setting with excerpts from Lassen's incidental music to Goethe's Faust, in a single piano transcription, Aus der Musik zu Hebbels Nibelungen und Goethes Faust (S.496). [Hear Leslie Howard's performance of it on YouTube]

Friendship seems to have been important to Peter Cornelius, and his life is notable for these interactions. The son of actors, he had early contact with the stage and with dramatic literature. His uncle was the painter Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867) and the young Peter lived with his uncle in Berlin and met luminaries such as Alexander von Humboldt, the Brothers Grimm, Friedrich Rückert and Felix Mendelssohn. Five years in Weimar included a period of study with Liszt, who remained a big influence. Whilst in Weimar, Cornelius started writing music criticism for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik whose editor, Franz Brendel coined the term 'New German School'. Brendel had taken over editorship of the journal in 1845, following on from Robert Schumann.

Then in Vienna, Cornelius became friends with Richard Wagner, often defending the man in the press. So much so that Cornelius moved to Munich at Wagner's behest, though the relationship was not entirely straightforward: Cornelius did not attend the premiere of Tristan und Isolde, using the premiere of his own opera Der Cid as an excuse.

Peter Cornelius

Cornelius' major work is, perhaps, his comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad which premiered in Weimer in 1858 under Liszt's direction. Though, intrigue surrounding the premiere robbed the piece of initial success and led to Liszt's resignation in Weimar. Cornelius' second opera Der Cid, for which he wrote his own libretto, also premiered in Weimar

However, in the UK his best-known piece is Ivor Atkins' choral adaptation, The Three Kings, which is based on one of Cornelius's Weihnachtslieder setting his own texts. These were written in 1858 but revised at least twice: Cornelius's insecurities led him to be a great reviser of his music. It was Liszt's suggestion that Cornelius add the Lutheran chorale in the bass, ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’.

Cornelius's Hebbel setting, Requiem ('Seele, vergiß sie nicht') seems to have remained in manuscript, and Cornelius revised it at least once, in 1872. It is known thanks to its inclusion in the 1904 published anthology of Cornelius’s music, which was edited by Max Hasse (1859-1935). Ben Byram-Wigfield, in his excellent modern edition of the work, suggests that Hasse may have completed the piece.

It is one of the composer’s most personal, profound and intense musical expressions, its music reflecting Cornelius's period of study with Liszt and particularly the influence of Liszt's religious music. Commenting in 1867 on this, Cornelius wrote, "Liszt trod … the path of the thorough reform of church music, which had declined through secularism and unbelief". For those who know Cornelius only through The Three Kings or perhaps his operatic comedy, Requiem is a window into a very different, very intensely late-romantic world.

Wagner too remains a thread that runs through this narrative. Cornelius's final, uncomplete work was an operatic project, Gunlöd, based on the Norse eddas, notably the story Hávamál. The opera's story and psychology has similarities to both Wagner's Ring Cycle and Lohengrin. It was completed by composer Karl Hoffbauer for its 1879 publication. But it was not performed until 1891, when it was presented at the Hoftheater, Weimar with new orchestrations by our old friend Eduard Lassen.

London Concord Singers, conductor Gerard Lim, perform Peter Cornelius' Requiem as part of their concert Seele, vergiß sie nicht at St Saviour's Church, Pimlico on Friday 12 December 2025, further details from TicketSource.

Virtuosic, full of drama and contrasts and, I hope - good tunes: Richard Blackford's first piece for brass band, Orbital

Whilst composers of new music for brass band have often got brass band experience, there are also intriguing examples of composers from outside the brass banding world taking the plunge with remarkable results. A collaboration between five British championship brass bands and BBC Radio 3 is aiming to extend this by commissioning new music from establish composers who have not yet written for brass band, inviting them to write a new work which fits the precise format required for national and international championship competitions and thus ensuring a minimum of five performances.

This innovative project is spearheaded by the Cooperation Band, Cory, Flowers, Foden’s and Tredegar Town Band alongside conductor Martyn Brabbins who learned to play the euphonium during his youth at Towcester Brass Band. The first composer is Richard Blackford, whose new work for brass band Orbital is premiered at the International Brass Band Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music by the Cory Band, conductor Philip Harper on 25 January 2026 with a broadcast in February and further performances throughout the UK during 2026. 

The Festival runs from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 January 2026 and is definitely worth exploring: there are premieres of works by Claire Cope, Phil Lawrence, Bruce Broughton, Jacob Vilhelm Larsen, Simon Dobson, Helena Zyskowska, and Dorothy Gates along with works by established composers such as Paul Mealor, Per Nørgård, Derek Bourgeois, Thea Musgrave, Errollyn Wallen, George Lloyd.

Orbital is based on Samantha Harvey’s 2024 Booker Prize winning novel which follows six astronauts aboard the International Space Station as they orbit Earth, reflecting on subjects including the existence or nature of God, the meaning of life, and existential threats such as climate change. Blackford describes his new piece as "virtuosic, full of drama and contrasts and, I hope - good tunes."

Philip Harper, speaking on behalf of the five championship bands commented: "We’re delighted to be working on this project together. At several moments across brass band repertoire history, new voices have emerged which injected energy, innovation and new ways of thinking into our music. Composers such as Gilbert Vinter, John McCabe and Philip Wilby were all well-established before they wrote for brass band later in their careers, with such huge and long-lasting impact".  

Full details from the RNCM's website.

 

Sixteen premieres, celebrating Britten, Feldman, Henze & Kurtág and Ryan Wigglesworth as featured artist: 77th Aldeburgh Festival

Ryan Wigglesworth & BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at BBC Proms in July 2025 (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

The 77th Aldeburgh Festival, which will run from 12 to 28 June 2026, marks the 50th anniversary of Britten's death. The Festival celebrates both Britten's music and the legacy he and Peter Pears established here, particularly their commitment to developing outstanding young artists. Conductor, composer and pianist Ryan Wigglesworth is this year’s featured artist. He and pianist James Baillieu also begin a three-year tenure as associate directors of the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme.

Headlining the Festival are semi-staged performances of Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande, where Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (of which he is chief conductor). The production is directed by the actor Rory Kinnear who made his directing debut in 2017 with the premiere of Wigglesworth's opera The Winter's Tale at English National Opera [see my review]. The production features Sophie Bevan and Jacques Imbrailo as the lovers.

Wigglesworth and the BBC SSO will also be in concert, joined by pianist Steven Osborne for Ravel's Piano Concerto in G and Wigglesworth's own Piano Concerto, plus music by American composer Elizabeth Ogonek. For the final weekend of the Festival, Wigglesworth joins the Knussen Chamber Orchestra for the world premiere of his Viola Concerto with violist Laurence Power, Britten's early Double Concerto, more Wigglesworth and Brahms. The BBC SSO will be welcoming young people and school-aged children, alongside grown-up audiences for two of Britten's most approachable works, the Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra with a new narration from Rory Kinnear, and Welcome Ode, written for the Queen's visit to Aldeburgh in 1977, and sung by the Aldeburgh Festival Chorus which brings together local amateur singers

Wigglesworth turns to the piano, joined by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, soprano Anna-Lena Elbert, and violinist Benjamin Marquise Gilmore for Birtwistle's Nine settings of Lorine Niedecker, Britten's Cello Sonata (written for Rostropovich) and Shostakovich's Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Bloch (written for Rostropovich and his wife Galina Vishnevskaya), plus the UK premiere of Tom Coult’s Craftsmen and Clowns. Wigglesworth is joined by his wife, soprano Sophie Bevan, for Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, Britten's The Poet's Echo and Wigglesworth's George Herbert settings, Till Dawning.

The Festival features six world premieres in total, of which three are Britten Pears Arts commissions, plus five co-commissions and five UK premieres, including new works by Eleanor Alberga [see my 2022 interview with her], Lera Auerbach, Tansy Davies, Brett Dean, Lisa Illean, Nathalie Joachim, Cassie Kinoshi, Freya Waley-Cohen [see my 2024 interview with her], and others.

The Festival is also marking three other important anniversaries, the centenaries of Morton Feldman, Hans Werner Henze and György Kurtág. London Sinfonietta performs Henze's Voices, which it commissioned in 1973. Christian Karlsen conducts with mezzo-soprano Carina Vinke and tenor Benjamin Hulett. Pianist Steven Osborne performs a recital of Feldman and Crumb, whilst Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to Snape Maltings to perform a piano recital featuring a number of miniatures from Kurtág’s Játékok. The Carducci Quartet performs Kurtág’s 12 Microludes for String Quartet Op.13, alongside Webern and Bach. Cellist Guy Johnston will be performing Kurtág’s Signs, Games and Messages as part of Vilde Frang's recital of Hungarian and German chamber music.

Britten Sinfonia's visit to the Festival features Gemma New conducting music by Lisa Illean, Brett Dean and Steve Stelios alongside Britten's Cello Symphony with Laura van der Heijden, and then they are joined by mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston for a programme inspired by the classical world including Haydn's Ariana a Naxos, Britten's Phaedra, John Woolrich's Ulysses Awakes, Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète and Britten’s early Young Apollo.

Other visitors include the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the world premiere of Tansy Davies' Percussion Concerto with Colin Currie, the premiere of Freya Waley-Cohen's Violin Concerto with the composer's sister Tamsin, plus John Adams, Shostakovich, more Elizabeth Ogonek and Rachmaninoff.

Alex Ho and Rockey Sun Keting's collective Tangram [see my 2024 interview with them] have created a new choral theatre piece for the choir Sansara, conductor Tom Herring. David Bates and La Nuova Musica perform Handel's early Italian oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo. Dunedin Consort joins forces with Mahogany Opera for a theatrical staging of cantatas by neglected Baroque composer Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. 

Full details from the festival website. 

Dog days: Opera Rara & The Hallé to collaborate on the UK premiere of Offenbach's political satire, Barkouf

Offenbach by André Gill, 1866, with Barkouf in the bottom right

By 1860, Offenbach had written countless one-act operas for the Bouffes-Parisiens along with longer works such as Orphée aux enfers and Geneviève de Brabant, but his three-act opéra bouffe, Barkouf was his first work for the Opéra-Comique. 

In Barkouf Offenbach wrote in a more complex vein, with modern harmonies and complicated part-writing while remaining with the spirit of opéra-bouffe. The reactions of the critics were violently opposed to the work, and after its first run it was not revived. However, the work's modern editor Jean-Christophe Keck has suggested that Offenbach had never pushed his musical language so far, and would not go further – until Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

Most of Barkouf survived in manuscript in the hands of Offenbach's descendants, and editor Jean-Christophe Keck has tracked down the missing pages. The work received its first performance since 1861 in 2018 at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg.

Now Opera Rara is giving us a chance to hear it as in collaboration with The Hallé they will be presenting the work's UK premiere on 4 October 2026 at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester in association with a recording of the work using Jean-Christophe Keck’s critical edition. The Hallé will be conducted by Paul Daniel who led the award-winning revival of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde (ORC63) [see my review], with the chorus of English National Opera. The cast includes Anne-Catherine Gillet, Antoinette Dennefeld and Katia Ledoux, who all appeared in La Princesse de Trébizonde, and they are joined by Opera Rara newcomers Mathias Vidal, François Piolino, Philippe Talbot and Thibault de Damas.

The opera is a political satire which seems alarmingly prescient today. A dog, Barkouf, is appointed governor of a fictitious place called “Lahore”, whose population has reached its wits’ end with the corruption and incompetence of successive leaders. This wasn't the first time that Offenbach had featured a dog as a character, Orphée aux enfers features Cerbère (Cerberus), three-headed guardian of the underworld who barks though the scene may have been cut

Full details from the Opera Rara website. 

The Seal Man: Rebecca Clarke's song reinvented with shadow-puppet animation by Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood,

The Seal Man is Rebecca Clarke's best-known song. This new animated film from Daniel Norman's Positive Note features shadow-puppet animation created by Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood, to music performed by mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately, violist Max Baillie and pianist Anna Tilbrook. The project was created as part of The Everyday Listeners, a research initiative led by Dr Kate Guthrie (University of Bristol), supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The film will be distributed to schools across the UK, inspiring children to create their own creative responses to Clarke’s powerful story and music.

Composed in 1922 to a text by John Masefield, The Seal Man tells a dark, otherworldly tale of a selkie — a mysterious half-man, half-seal creature — who lures a young woman away from her world to the depths of the sea. Clarke’s music is both lyrical and unsettling, filled with longing, danger, and irresistible beauty. 

The Seal Man also appears on The Complete Vocal Works of Rebecca Clarke, a new album by Kitty Whately, Nicholas Phan and Anna Tilbrook, released 7 November 2025 on Signum Records  

From Eisenach to Venice to London to Scotland: Rachel Podger & Friends in an engagingly eclectic programme at Highgate International Chamber Music Festival

Rachel Podger, Charlotte Spruit - Highgate International Chamber Music Festival, St Anne's Church, Highgate (Photo: Hannah Lovell)

Rachel Podger & Friends: Johann Bernhard Bach, Vivaldi, Bach, Nicola Matteis, Marcello, Purcell, arrangements of Scots airs; Rachel Podger, Charlotte Spruit, Jane Rogers, Jonathan Byers, Edward Mead, Ashok Klouda, Tom Foster, Sergio Bucheli; Highgate International Chamber Music Festival at St Anne's Church
Reviewed 6 December 2025

Rachel Podger and Friends in an engaging and eclectic Baroque programme that moved from Eisenach to Venice to London to Scotland, all bookended by music from Bach's older cousin Johann Bernhard Bach

Under artistic directors Natalie Klouda (composer and violin), Irina Botan (cello) and Ashok Klouda (cello) the 13th Highgate International Chamber Music Festival, which ran from 3 to 7 December 2025 at St Anne's Church, Highgate, explored everything from folklore, silent films, Schubert in song and chamber music and the art of the cello, ending with a finale featuring Shostakovich, Beethoven, Dvorak and Brahms. The festival's basis is a group of performers coming together with guest artists for each concert.

On Saturday 6 December 2025 focus shifted to the Baroque as violinist Rachel Podger made a welcome return visit to the Festival along with a group of friends, Charlotte Spruit (violin), Jane Rogers (viola), Jonathan Byers (cello), Edward Mead (cello), Tom Foster (harpsichord) and Sergio Bucheli (lute), and they were joined by Festival co-director Ashok Klouda, playing a Baroque cello borrowed from the Royal Academy of Music. The programme was an eclectic mix of both the known and the relatively unknown with works by Johann Bernhard Bach, Vivaldi, Bach, Nicola Matteis, Marcello, and Purcell plus arrangements of Scots airs.

Ashok Klouda, Sergio Bucheli - Highgate International Chamber Music Festival, St Anne's Church, Highgate (Photo: Hannah Lovell)

Christina Rossetti: Nigel Foster's London Song Festival turns its focus on the poet with soprano Susan Bullock and speaker Janine Roebuck

Christina Rossetti, drawn in 1866 by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Life and Loves of Christina Rossetti: Parry, Arthur Somervell, Juliana Hall, James Scott Irvine, Michael Head, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Frederic Cowen, Charles Wood, Maude Valerie White, Martin Shaw, Thomas Dunhill, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Margaret Wegener, Ned Rorem, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Liza Lehmann; Susan Bullock, Janine Roebuck, Nigel Foster; London Song Festival at Hinde Street Methodist Church
Reviewed 5 December 2025

In a rare recital appearance, Susan Bullock really brought out the sense of sung poetry in a programme dedicated to poet Christina Rossetti with settings of her poetry that focused largely on early 20th century British composers

Having celebrated the life and loves of American poet Sarah Teasdale as part of its current season [see my review], Nigel Foster's London Song Festival focused its attention on another poet, English this time. On Friday 5 December 2025 Foster was joined by soprano Susan Bullock and speaker Janine Roebuck for The Life and Loves of Christina Rossetti on what would have been the poet's 195th birthday. There were songs by Parry, Arthur Somervell, Juliana Hall, James Scott Irvine, Michael Head, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Frederic Cowen, Charles Wood, Maude Valerie White, Martin Shaw, Thomas Dunhill, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Margaret Wegener, Ned Rorem, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives and Liza Lehmann.

Born in 1830, the youngest of four siblings with poet/painter Dante Gabriel as one of her brothers and the sister of Lord Byron's friend and doctor, John William Polidori, as her mother, Christina Rossetti had a life full of just three things, illness, religion and poetry. A long teenage illness seemed to turn Rossetti towards an intense, austere type of religion, where she would come close to marriage twice, yet both times reject the suitor for religious purposes.

Much of her later work is devotional, but composers seem to have chosen widely from her output, and the evening wove together song and spoken text to narrate Rossetti's life. Janine Roebuck read from Rossetti's poetry and letters, whilst Nigel Foster filled in more practical gaps. The songs were chosen to link to this narrative, creating a sense of exploration. Parry's My heart is like a singing bird coming after she fell in love with Charles Cayley, Charles Wood's Boats sail on the rivers coming after Rossetti's description of Hastings where she went for her health, Martin Shaw's Over the sea and Thomas Dunhill's If hope grew on a bush after she rejected Cayley as he was an agnostic. The recital ended with a setting of one of Rossetti's best known poems, When I am dead, my dearest by Liza Lehmann.

Il pomo d'oro: the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik celebrates its 50th anniversary with Cesti's extravagant opera

Stage set for the underworld scene in Antonio Cesti's opera Il pomo d'oro, performed in Vienna in 1668

In 1652 the composer Antonio Cesti became a member of the court of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria in Innsbruck and Cesti's opera, La Dori premiered in Innsbruck in 1657. Cesti is, however, best known by reputation for his opera Il pomo d'oro (The Golden Apple) which was written for the wedding in Vienna of Emperor Leopold I in 1666, and first performed in 1668, in a famously lavish production, with a large orchestra, numerous choruses, and various mechanical devices used to stage things like gods descending from heaven (deus ex machina), naval battles, and storms. 

Rather appropriately the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik is celebrating its 50th anniversary by staging Il pomor d'oro complete - five acts and a prologue, roles performed by 20 singers, with dance and choral sections. The surviving manuscript in Vienna is famously incomplete, so the festival's musical director, Ottavio Dantone, has also composed the missing music for Acts III and V. The production is directed by Fabio Ceresa, with costumes designed by Giuseppe Palella, and sets by Nikolaus Webern, with dancers from Street Motion Studio and the NovoCanto choir.

A new production of Handel's Atalanta will feature young performers from the 2025 Cesti competition. The production is directed by François de Carpentries and Karine Van Hercke under the musical direction of Andrea Buccarella. Making their debuts in the opera will be, among others, Cesti winner Salvador Simão and third-place winner Pierre Gennaï. 

The Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik runs from 24 July to 30 August 2026, full details from the festival's website. 

Fatto per la Notte di Natale: the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in festive Baroque mood

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

Biber, Vivaldi, Locatelli, Corelli, Telemann, Dall'Abaco, Bach; Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 3 December 2025

A programme that was seasonally Baroque, played with a lovely sense of collective engagement. But whilst we might have come for the Corelli, it was Locatelli's ravishing concerto gross that stayed in the memory

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin with concertmasters Georg Kallweit and Mayumi Hirasaki brought Christmas to Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 3 December 2025 with a programme of Baroque works evoking the season, centred on Corelli's Christmas concerto. 

The programme opened with the 'Ciacona' from Biber's Mystery Sonata IV in D minor 'The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple', and continued with Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in E RV270 'Il Riposo per il Santo Natale', Locatelli's Concerto grosso in F minor Op. 1 No. 8, Corelli's Concerto grosso in G minor Op. 6 No. 8 'Fatto per la Notte di Natale', Telemann's Overture in F 'à la Pastorelle' TWV55:F7, Evaristo Felico Dall'Abaco's Concerto a più istrumenti in B minor Op. 6 No. 4, and Bach's Double Concerto for 2 violins in D minor BWV1043.

A journey through music shaped by migration: Roman Mints' Another Music Festival at St John's Waterloo

Roman Mints' Another Music Festival

Stefania Turkewich (Turkevycz) was the first Ukrainian woman composer. Born in Lemburg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) in 1898, she fled Lviv in 1944 and moved to the UK in 1946 where she died in 1977. In the late 1940s, Turkewich returned to composing and created a significant body of work. From time to time she acted again as a pianist, in particular in 1957 in a series of concerts in Ukrainian communities in Britain, and in 1959 at a concert of piano music in Bristol. She was a member of the British Society of Women-Composers and Musicians (which existed until 1972).

Stefania Turkewich in 1920

Yet, amazingly, her music is hardly heard. Like a host of other émigré composers, Turkewich found a refuge in the UK, but did not really find a musical home. Some composers like Andrzej Panufnik seemed to integrate into British musical life, but others like Berthold Goldschmidt did not. 

On 18 January 2026, young Ukrainian musicians Ira Marchuk and Maksym Artemenko will perform Turkewich’s violin sonata in the UK for the first time. They will perform from a photocopy of the manuscript, as the work has still not been published. The performance takes place at St John's Waterloo as part of Roman Mints' Another Music Festival which over three days explores the rich legacy of composers who have lived or continue to live in exile.

There will be music from historical giants – Chopin, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Enescu, Bartók to neglected composers, including Ukrainian composer Theodore Akimenko (1876-1945), who was Stravinsky's first composition teacher. 

The programme features works composed both before and after emigration, highlighting the continuity and evolution of the composer’s artistic voice, including premieres of Alexey Kurbatov’s Quartet, Boris Filanovsky’s Supremus 3, and two UK premieres: Stephania Turkevych’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and Leonid Desyatnikov’s Leaden Echo.  

Such artistic enterprise does not come cheap, and the festival has a fund-raiser to help defray expenses. Do contribute at their GoFundMe page. 

Another Music Festival is at St John's Waterloo on 18, 21, 23 January 2026, full details from the festival website. 

Electric Voice Theatre's Winter Carols by Candlelight

If you are looking for something seasonal but that bit different, then Electric Voice Theatre's Winter Carols by Candlelight might be for you. At Conway Hall on Thursday 11 December 2025, Electric Voice Theatre - Laurence Panter (tenor & piano), Amy Kearsley (mezzo), Gwion Thomas (baritone), Frances M Lynch (soprano) - will be joined by Union Chapel Community Singers, the Dragon Cafe Singers and Christopher Hatton Primary School Choir.

From the beautiful Peace on Earth by Emily Josephine Troup (1853-1913) who was an active member of South Place Ethical Society, to a rousing Merry Christmas from singer and composer Harriet Kendall (1857-1933). Come "a-rambling" with Imogen Holst, celebrate the angels with Judith Weir and listen to some lovely Starlight rounds for children by Nicola Lefanu, sung by the choir of Christopher Hatton Primary School. Expect the unexpected, and of course some beautiful music by Conway Hall’s cherished composer Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846) echoing her own celebrated concerts at South Place Unitarian Chapel. 

Full details from the Electric Voice Theatre's website.

Stories of incredible women from Iranian history and literature: Daughters of Persia created by Margaret Fingerhut and Farhad Poupel

Daughters of Persia is a new evening of music and words, created by British pianist Margaret Fingerhut and rising Iranian composer Farhad Poupel, at Kings Place on 26 January 2025 performed by Margaret Fingerhut (piano), Bradley Creswick (violin) and Guy Johnston (cello), and a narrator to be announced. [see my 2022 interview with Farhad Poupel].

The evening uses a script by screenwriter William Nicholson which weaves together the stories of incredible women from Iranian history and literature with music by a mix of composers from Iran and elsewhere, featuring a new commission from Farhad Poupel The Laughter of Gordafarid for narrator and piano, long with music by fellow Iranians Reza Vali, Aftab Darvishi and Golnoush Khaleghi (1941-2021), one of the first female conductors in Iran.  There will also be much-loved music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Ravel and Pablo Casals.

The concert aims to not only entertain but inspire, deepen understanding and knowledge.  All proceeds from the show will help create scholarships for exceptional young women artists from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. In partnership with British-Iranian Jaleh Esfahani Cultural Foundation, the Daughters of Persia Scholarship Fund will give these women living in the UK access to opportunities in the arts they might not otherwise be given. 

Full details from the Kings Place website. 

The internationally-renowned German-Colombian conductor Anna Handler to become new Chief Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra

Anna Handler (Photo: Peter Rigaud)

The Ulster Orchestra has announced that German-Colombian conductor and pianist Anna Handler will be its new chief conductor. Handler will join the Orchestra from September 2026, initially on a three-year contract, in time for the Orchestra's 60th anniversary season.

In 2019/20 the Ulster Orchestra appointed Daniele Rustioni as its chief conductor and in 2022/23, marking the strength of the relationship, he was appointed the Orchestra’s music director. Rustioni held that position until May 2024, when he became music director Laureate, and Anna Handler will succeed him, taking up the position of chief conductor in September 2026.  

Last month, Handler her Boston Symphony Orchestra subscription series debut at short notice, with violinist Joshua Bell. Handler was Gustavo Dudamel Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the 23/24 season and is currently Assistant Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She also began her tenure as Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper Berlin in September 2025 and she is scheduled to conduct eleven operas during her first season.  

Handler grew up in Munich and initially studied piano and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich before continuing her studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar, the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale di Imola and the Folkwang University of the Arts. She completed her master's degree in conducting at the Juilliard School in New York in May 2023. At Juilliard, she was the first conductor ever to receive the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.  

Anna Handler’s first concert as chief conductor of the Ulster Orchestra will be the opening concert of the Orchestra’s 60th anniversary Season, in the Ulster Hall on Friday 25 September 2026. 

Full details from the Orchestra's website. 

A thrilling Lady, compelling Macbeth & powerful last-minute stand-in: Chelsea Opera Group celebrates its 75th anniversary with Verdi's Macbeth in the full Paris version

Verdi: Macbeth - Alexey Gusev, Mari Wyn Williams - Chelsea Opera Group (Photo: Matthew Johnson)

Verdi: Macbeth (1865); Alexey Gusev, Mari Wyn Williams, Simon Wilding, José de Eça, Jay Broadhurst, Grant Llewellyn, Chelsea Opera Group; Cadogan Hall
Reviewed 30 November 2025

Verdi's revised Macbeth given in all completeness by a finely theatrical group of soloists, ably supported by chorus and orchestra, celebrating COG's 75th anniversary. 

Having first performed Verdi's Macbeth in 1984 (in the revised version), and then given Verdi's original 1847 version in 2008, Chelsea Opera Group celebrated their 75th anniversary on Sunday 30 November 2025 with a performance of the Verdi's revised 1865 version of Macbeth, for once complete with the ballet music. Grant Llewellyn conducted with Alexey Gusev as Macbeth, Mari Wyn Williams as Lady Macbeth, Simon Wilding as Banquo, José de Eça as MacDuff and Jay Broadhurst as Malcolm. Or at least, that was the planned casting but on the night José de Eça was somewhat unwell and though he sang the part of MacDuff, the big Act Four aria was sung by Jay Broadhurst (who was otherwise singing Malcolm).

Despite the work's popularity, Macbeth retains hints of being one of Verdi's 'problem' operas. For a start, the jaunty music for the Witches does not sit with our current view of Shakespeare's play. Yet when I spoke to director Elijah Moshinsky in advance of his production of the 1847 version of the opera at the Buxton Festival in 2017, he had strong words to say about understanding the cultural background to the original [see my interview]. Add to this, Verdi's reworking of the piece for Paris in 1865 has provided it with some superb later Verdi, yet left the opera as something of a hybrid. 

Verdi: Macbeth - Chelsea Opera Group (Photo: Matthew Johnson)

I certainly retain a strong fondness for the 1847, but choosing the 1865 revision certainly provided a showcase for Chelsea Opera Group's orchestra and chorus, along with a fine group of soloists. Russian-British baritone Alexey Gusev sang the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto with IF Opera this summer, having sung Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with them last year. Welsh soprano Mari Wyn Williams sang Lady Macbeth this summer with West Green House Opera, having sung the role also with Mid Wales Opera. And we last caught Simon Wilding as Hunding in the London Opera Company's performance of Wagner's Die Walküre at St John's Smith Square (as it was called then).

A new Elixir & first-time Bohemians: John Savournin announces his first season at Waterperry Opera Festival

Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore -  Oskar McCarthy as Dulcamara in 2021 - Waterperry Opera Festival

For John Savournin's first season as artistic director of Waterperry Opera Festival, the company will be performing Puccini's La Bohème and Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore as its main stage productions. Both works will be sung in English. La Bohème is receiving its first production at the Festival whilst they performed L'elisir d'amore in 2021 in a production by Dan Ayling [see my review].

The company aims to build on the success of its record-breaking 2025 season which saw unprecedented audience turnout and the Festival’s highest-ever selling main stage production.

La Bohème will be directed by Ruth Knight whose production of Handel's Rodelinda opened at Garsington Opera this summer [see my review]. Bertie Baigent, the Festival's co-founder and musical director, conducts with designs by Jennifer Gregory, who designed the 2025 production of Handel's Semele [see my review].

L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) see director John Wilkie returning to Waterperry for the third year, having directed Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2025 and Rossini's The Barber of Seville before that. L'elisir d'amore will reunite Wilkie with the creative team responsible for Don Giovanni, designer Ceci Calf and lighting designer Jake Wilshire. The conductor is Charlotte Politi.

The full 2026 programme, including family performances and further site-specific productions, will be announced in January. Priority booking will open in early March.

Further details from the Festival's website. 

Faster, higher, stronger: composer Andrea Farri on Orchestrating Harmony for the Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026

Andrea Farri at Abbey Road Studios

The Italian classical music and film composer Andrea Farri, has been announced as the Musical Director for the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina. In this guest posting, we talk to Andrea Farri and find out a little bit more.

Andrea Farri, born in 1982 in Rome, has established himself as one of Italy’s most versatile and original composers. Known for a distinctive compositional style that fuses classical orchestration with electronic textures, Farri often employs vintage analogue synthesisers to create a sound that is both rooted in tradition and strikingly contemporary. Over a career spanning cinema, television, and theatre, he has earned acclaim for his emotive, atmospheric scores, including the 2015 Globo d’Oro for Best Film Score and the 2023 Soundtrack Stars Award at the Venice Film Festival for his work on Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano. Growing up immersed in Italy’s cinematic and theatrical world – his mother is the celebrated actress Lucia Poli, his father the director Pier Farri, and his uncle the legendary actor Paolo Poli – Farri developed an early understanding of storytelling through performance and music.

Now, Andrea Farri takes his storytelling expertise to a global stage as the Music Director of the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony. Scheduled for February 6th at Milan’s iconic San Siro Stadium, the ceremony, titled Armonia ("Harmony"), will combine live performances, cinematic staging, and immersive music to celebrate the Olympic spirit. Farri oversees the entire musical direction, creating original compositions that unify the show’s narrative, highlight Italy’s cultural heritage, and connect millions of spectators worldwide. In this exclusive interview, Farri discusses his artistic journey, the translation of cinematic sensibilities to an Olympic spectacle, and the universal language of music that will connect millions of spectators worldwide.

Your career has spanned cinema, television, and theatre. Which moments or turning points do you feel most directly led you to becoming Music Director for the Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony?

Andrea Farri: I imagine there were two in particular: the soundtrack of “Io Capitano” by Matteo Garrone (Silver Lion and Soundtrack Stars Award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival and Oscar and Golden Globe nominated) and the collaboration with Roland Emmerich on the action series “Those About to Die” (starring Anthony Hopkins and Iwan Reon), one of the most-watched TV shows in the world in 2024. Two memorable experiences with two great directors, on two completely different projects!

The Advent Carol Service at St John's College, Cambridge

Christopher Gray and the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

The Advent Carol Service: Judith Weir, Laura Sheils, Paul Manz, Mendelssohn, Edward Picton-Turbervill, Orlando Gibbons, John Rutter, Herbert Howells, Britten, Errollyn Wallen; Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Christopher Gray, Pascal Bachmann, Tingshuo Yang; Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge
Reviewed 29 November 2025

The Advent Carol Service at St John's has become a musical highlight of the season. This year with music Judith Weir and Errollyn Wallen, along with works by younger composers, with several pieces having links to the college.

The Advent Carol Service at St John's College Chapel, Cambridge was developed in the mid-twentieth century for the College community and is led by the College Choir. Since the 1980s the service has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and has become one of the musical highlights of the season. This year the service took place in St John's College Chapel on 29 November and 30 November, the latter broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, led by the Dean, The Rev'd Canon Dr Victoria Johnson and the Chaplain, The Rev' Graham Dunn. Christopher Gray, Director of Music, conducted the Choir of St John’s College which consists of around 20 boy and girl treble Choristers from St John’s College School, alongside 18 mixed-gender Choral Scholars and Choral Graduates. Earlier this year, I chatted to Christopher Gray about his first disc with the choir [see my interview, 'A carefully curated programme rather than a disc to dip into']

I was lucky enough to attend the service on Saturday 29 November. This featured music by Judith Weir, Laura Sheils, Paul Manz, Mendelssohn, Edward Picton-Turbervill, Orlando Gibbons, John Rutter, Herbert Howells, Britten, and a new carol by Errollyn Wallen. Several pieces had links to the college, including arrangements by former Directors of Music, George Guest and Christopher Robinson, whilst Laura Sheils has already written for the Choir, John Rutter's There is a flower was composed for the Choir in 1985, the Magnificat came from Howells' Collegium Sancti Johannis Cantabrigiense written for the Choir in 1957, there was a carol by one of the College's graduates, Edward Picton-Turbervill and Errollyn Wallen's new carol, Nolo mortem peccatoris was not only commissioned by the Master and Fellows but sets an anonymous 15th century text from one of St John's College's manuscripts.

Chapel of St John's College, Cambridge
which was built in the 1860s by George Gilbert Scott

Putting choral music at the centre of contemporary culture: conductor George Parris on the Carice Singers' An Ode to Our Planet collaborating with cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, celebrating Arvo Pärt & their debut at hcmf

George Parris & the Carice Singers (Photo: Lidia Crisafulli)

Conductor George Parris and the Carice Singers have been exploring Arvo Pärt's music alongside that of other Estonian composers, most recently (8 November) at St Giles Cripplegate where they performed music by Arvo Pärt, Evelin Seppar and Galina Grigorjeva [see the review on TheArtsDesk website]. The choir was founded in 2011 by George Parris and named for Elgar's daughter. Their repertoire spreads widely, and whilst the music of Nordic region and the Baltic looms large, George enjoys exploring further.

On 13 December 2025, they will be joining cellist Nicolas Altstaedt at Kings Place for An Ode to Our Planet as part of the Earth Unwrapped season. The concert features Bach's unaccompanied cello suites, two new pieces for cello and choir by French-British composer Josephine Stephenson, and Spanish composer Raquel García-Tomás, and two unaccompanied works by Ben Nobuto and Dobrinka Tabakova.

After the pandemic, George wanted the group to become more collaborative so the idea to perform with cellist Nicolas Altstaedt was most welcome. The idea for the concert originally came from Helen Wallace, the previous artistic director at King's Place, who was herself a cellist. The concert features new music for choir and cello, which is something they were looking to do. Josephine Stephenson’s work, Fire, river, garden, which has been commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society, will be a world premiere. Raquel Garcia-Tomas’s work, Vols brisés , which has been commissioned by Palau de la Musica Catalana and Kings Place, will be the UK premiere. Vols brisés was premiered in May this year by Nicolas Altstaedt with Cor de Cambra del Palau and Júlia Sesé at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.

George Parris and the Carice Singers at the Cheltenham Music Festival, 2021

Ben Nobuto's work Sol, for eight unaccompanied solo voices and written in 2022 for the National Youth Choir Fellowship, is a playful ode to the sun and the energy that sustains life, while Dobrinka Tabakova’s Turn our Captivity, O Lord, which was written for The Sixteen, offers a serene plea for renewal and hope.

Style, engagement & joy: Handel's Partenope returns to ENO with a terrific young cast

Handel: Partenope - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Handel: Partenope; Nardus Williams, Hugh Cutting, Ru Charlesworth, Jake Ingbar, Katie Bray, William Thomas, director: Christopher Alden, conductor: William Cole, English National Opera; London Coliseum
Reviewed 26 November 2025

1920s Paris-set production returns with director Christopher Alden back at the helm and a team of superb young soloists who sing stylishly and enter into the concept with a will

Part of the fun of Handel's Partenope is the games it plays with gender and perceived roles. Arsace is the notional hero, Handel wrote the role for a distinguished castrato, but rather than being a moral example the character is weak having ditched one woman for another. The secondary male lead, Armindo was played by a woman en travestie and the character is timid, taking nearly half the opera to admit his love to Partenope. But the woman that Arsace ditched, Rosmira, appears dressed as a man and the big reveal in Act Three is when Arsace insists that he and Rosmira's male incarnation perform their duel bare-chested. The work's comedy thus comes from this play with the original audience's expectations.

English National Opera's production of Partenope directed by Christopher Alden has played extra games with the audience since its debut in 2008. At the 2017 revival [see my review] Arsace was himself played by a woman (Patricia Bardon) and the production has never, I think, used a woman for Armindo as Handel did.

For ENO's latest revival which we saw on 26 November 2025, casting is firmly based on the characters' gender with a cast of young singers bringing new energy to the production. For this revival Christopher Alden returned to direct and Christian Curnyn, the original conductor, was due to be in the pit though his illness meant that William Cole was in charge. Nardus Williams was Partenope, with Hugh Cutting as Arsace, Ru Charlesworth as Emilio, Jake Ingbar as Armindo, Katie Bray as Rosmira and William Thomas as Ormonte.

Handel: Partenope - Nardus Williams, Jake Ingbar, Ru Charlesworth - English National Opera (Photo: Lloyd Winters)

Alden and designers Andrew Lieberman (sets) and Jon Morrell (costumes) set the opera at a salon in Paris in the 1920s with all the men flitting around Nardus Williams' stylish hostess, Partenope. Whilst I have enjoyed the production over the years, the setting and Alden's approach still does not quite convince. The 'battle' at the opening of Act Two remains unconvincing, but then HGO's 2019 beachside Victorian production had a similar problem [see my review]. From the middle of Act Two to the end of the opera, Alden seems to progressively abandon his own dramatic logic and by the middle of Act Three, when Jake Ingbar's Armindo did a tap dance during his aria and William Thomas's Ormonte oversaw the duet in extravagant 18th century drag, you felt that Alden was simply throwing everything at the piece to keep the audience entertained.

Delizie, contente: The Bellot Ensemble explore love in all its forms in 17th century Italy for Cupid's Ground Bass on FHR

Cupid's Ground Bass: Strozzi, uccelini, Farina, Cavalli, Kapsberger, Biber, Monteverdi; Lucine Musaelian, Kieran White, The Bellot Ensemble; FHR Records
Reviewed 26 November 2025

A young ensemble in one of those intelligently put together programmes where the engaging performances draw you in and with many of the items on the disc I thought 'I'd like to hear more of that!'

The Bellot Ensemble is a young period instrument ensemble that in October 2025 began a two-year term s the New Generation Baroque Ensemble with BBC Radio 3. For their debut disc on FHR (First Hand Records), Cupid's Ground Bass the group explores the sound world of 17th-century Italy through the twin mirrors of love and the ground bass. Both popular subjects for 17th-century Italian music, the disc casts its net widely with arias by Barbara Strozzi, Francesco Cavalli and Claudio Monteverdi along with instrumental music by Marco Uccellini, Carlo Farina, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. 

For the disc, the ensemble features Lucine Musaelian (soprano, viola da gamba), Kieran White (tenor), Olivia Petryszak (recorder), Edmund Taylor and Maxim Del Mar (violin), Jacob Garside (cello), Nathan Giorgetti (viola da gamba), Daniel Murphy (theorbo, baroque guitar), and Matthew Brown (harpsichord, organ). We caught Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti, as Intesa Duo at the Handel Hendrix House back in 2023 [see my review]

What the disc is really exploring is the way that 17th-century Italian music expanded its range and freedom, yet the forms often remained. Dances and ground basses were very much the norm, yet focusing on the ground bass can be something of a challenge with a danger of everything seeming to come out of the same mould. The Bellot Ensemble's selection is both ingratiating and canny.