An enormously intense, personal experience: composer Michael Zev Gordon on writing A Kind of Haunting, his new piece inspired by his family's experience of the Holocaust

Michael Zev Gordon at site of his grandfather's murder in Summer 1941 (image from DW video).

Any human calamity raises thoughts about how such events might be referred to in music, and how an essentially abstract art might relate to such acts. And when we are talking about something like the Holocaust then the rational mind rather quails. The subject is difficult for those of us for whom the event is history but is rendered all the more complex when family ties link directly. On 25 March 2025, the Britten Sinfonia will premiere Michael Zev Gordon's A Kind of Haunting, a work which arose directly out of Michael's family's experience of the Holocaust.

The work is a large-scale piece for two narrators, baritone and string orchestra which uses words both by leading Holocaust memory scholar Marianne Hirsch and poet Jacqueline Saphra. Michael describes it as a somewhat hybrid piece for the relatively unusual combination of spoken word, sung word and music and he comments that the work's predecessors are rare. Prime amongst these must be Schoenberg's 1948 work, A Survivor from Warsaw and Copland's Lincoln Portrait (from 1942), along with such works as Walton's Facade and Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale. However, Michael adds that the combination of spoken and sung texts is relatively unusual. Michael chose the form because he wanted to come at the subject in a layered way.

He admits that he has thought of addressing the Holocaust in music in the past but has each time put the work to one side, finding it difficult if not impossible. He was drawn to it again thanks to his family's own story. His Grandmother's memoir, written in Yiddish, opened the door to his present approach to the Holocaust. His grandfather, Zalman, was killed in a forest north-east of Warsaw, one of the approximately 1.5 million Jews killed during the operation often called the 'Holocaust by Bullets'. This provided a way to think about the Holocaust more directly, allowing Michael to trace more of what happened to his Grandfather.

Image of Michael Zev Gordon's Grandfather, Zalman & memorial to those killed in the forest

Music in the Museum: London Transport Museum's Transported by Culture: Music presents a weekly programme of music in the museum's gallery

Starting today (14 February 2025) and running until 24 October 2025, the London Transport Museum's Transported by Culture: Music presents a weekly programme of music in the museum's gallery at 2pm every Friday, apart from holidays. The young musicians are from four London conservatoires: Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, or Trinity Laban and the programme has been developed to equip young classical and jazz musicians at the start of their careers with real-world performance experience.

The performers are as follows:

• Uruguayan countertenor Agustín Pennino 
• Harpist Aisha Palmer who has performed with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
• Mezzo-soprano Angelina Dorlin-Barlow who studies at the Royal College of Music was awarded Best Undergraduate Vocal Performance at the Brooks Van Der Pump English Song Competition 2021 and the Poppy Holden Prize for Vocal 2023
• Caribbean-British oboist Anton Brown who is studying at the Royal Academy of Music and is the principal oboist of the Chineke! Junior Orchestra
• London-based cellist Jayden Lamcellari who has earned top prizes in an array of international competitions
• Violinist Jordan Brooks from South Africa who is studying at the Royal College of Music
• The Juno Duo, a British-Ukrainian voice and guitar chamber ensemble formed by Isabella Hulbert and Maryna Vosmirova, selected as Young Artists of the ‘International Guitar Foundation’ for 2023-2024
• Polish flautist Justyna Szynkarczyk, studying at the Guildhall School. She made her debut at BBC Radio 3 performing Maderna's works as part of The BBC SO Total Immersion "Italian Radicals" concert
• Oskar Jones, a London-based musician who both jazz saxophone and classical piano from a young age
• Azerbaijani pianist, Vusala Babayeva studying at the Guildhall School with Alexandra Dariescu

Full details from the Museum's website.

Make some noise to save the School of Music: Musicians gather in mass demonstration to protest proposed axing of Cardiff University’s School of Music on Saturday 22 February

Last month (28 January), Cardiff University confirmed plans to close Cardiff University School of Music, a facility that has produced outstanding musicians, boasting a wealth of alumni, including lWelsh composers Karl Jenkins, Grace Williams and Alun Hoddinott, as well as contemporary composer David John Roche and current Head of Composition at Royal Academy of Music, Philip Cashian. 

The School also hosts a number of well-known academics, including the composer Arlene Sierra, researcher and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres awardee Caroline Rae, and concert pianist Kenneth Hamilton. The School of Music consistently ranks as one of the highest performing schools in the university with particularly high student satisfaction.

On Saturday 22 February, musicians from across the country, including past and current staff and students from Cardiff University’s School of Music as well as concerned musicians from across the sector, will gather in a musical protest against proposed course closures, job losses and cuts. Musicians will play in solidarity for the staff and students at the institution, who face the loss of a secure place for work, study and education. 

The demonstration will see concerned musicians, students and alumni gather from 12pm outside the University of Cardiff Chemistry Building before marching up Museum Avenue to Gorsedd Gardens where the performance will continue to the public. There will be performances by the specially formed, Cardiff University Salvation Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, conducted by a talented line-up of conductors, as well as Cardiff University Brass Band and other ensembles who will gather for the occasion with repertoire championing Welsh music making, featuring Cardiff University alumnus Karl Jenkins’ Adiemus and Palladio, as well as alumna Morfydd Owen’s Threnody, plus Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, the ‘Hallelujah chorus’ from Handel’s Messiah, and the Welsh national anthem   

Any musicians wishing to attend are requested to register their interest on the Google form provided https://forms.gle/YdY5TwA9ubGRj74e7 to allow sheet music and information about the performances to be circulated.

We also encourage readers to sign the original change.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/save-cardiff-university-school-of-music

And recent petition to the Senedd: https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/246499

Letter from Florida: It is hard to imagine any orchestra getting closer to playing as one, though, than The Cleveland Orchestra

Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole - Stephane Deneve, Maria Duenas, The Cleveland Orchestra - Arsht Center, Miami

Dvorak: Symphony No.8, Bizet: Suite from L’Arlesienne (compiled by Stephane Deneve), Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole; Maria Duenas, Cleveland Orchestra, Stephane Deneve; Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras (1 February 2025)

In our latest Letter from Florida, Robert J Carreras enjoys The Cleveland Orchestra as part of its Miami Residency in Dvorak and Bizet, and joined by Spanish violinist Maria Duenas in Lalo.

One violin. One contrabass. One oboe. One trombone. One harp…well, there is only one harp...I beg your indulgence. Is it possible for a full orchestra to play as one? No, not absolutely. Such a thing does not exist in nature. The possible is in the perfecting, not the perfection. It is hard to imagine any orchestra getting closer to playing as one, though, than The Cleveland Orchestra. 

Sokoloff, Leinsdorf, Szell, Boulez, Maazel, Dohnányi – the storied list of past Cleveland Orchestra musical leaders and achievements parallel those of the modern history of classical music worldwide. Most recently, Franz Welser-Möst has been added to that list, the top job at Cleveland. Most has been entrusted to maintain and expand on the musical fruits of the orchestra’s heritage.  

For this performance, however, at the helm of The Cleveland Orchestra is Stephane Deneve, himself entrusted to maintain and expand on the heritage of New World Symphony (NWS) based in Miami. NWS Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas passed the baton to Deneve in 2022. In Deneve, both groups – and one baton – is in hands and mind with notably more nuanced notions, a wider scope, and a deliciously elegant musical approach, more perhaps than even the most celebrated of those on Cleveland’s list, and a longer one worldwide. 

[For the performance members of the New World Symphony Orchestra joined the Cleveland Orchestra in the Bizet and Dvorak].

Stephane Deneve, The Cleveland Orchestra - Arsht Center, Miami

Sounds of Blossom: Spring celebrations at Kew fuse blossom and new music

The Sounds of Blossom festival of music and nature is returning to Kew Gardens once again in collaboration with the Royal College of Music (RCM). From 15 March to 6 April 2025, visitors to Kew will be able to appreciate the vibrant colours of blossom complemented by gentle soundscapes which open up the spaces and draw listening back into the sounds of nature. 

Seven composers all students on the RCM Bachelor of Music programme have created original pieces inspired by specific garden locations, creating an immersive experience for visitors as they explore the gardens in bloom. Drawing inspiration from the character and atmosphere of their selected locations, their pieces reflect the natural beauty of these spaces.

Professor Jonathan Cole, Head of Composition at the Royal College of Music, commented: "Working to a specific brief, engaging with the public and connecting to different industries teaches our students important skills, invaluable as they make the change from education to the professional life of a working composer, and we're deeply grateful to Kew for supporting such a collaboration."

Full details from Kew Gardens website.

JAM@25 - celebrating 25 years of JAM's remarkable contemporary music commissioning

It seems to be a day for reporting on anniversaries. JAM (the John Armitage Memorial) is celebrating its 25th birthday with a concert at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street on 26 March 2025. The programme includes the very first JAM commission, Timothy Jackson's No Answer from 2002 and the most recent, Joseph Phibbs' Seven Songs of Nature, along with one of their best-known commissions Paul Mealor's Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal from 2010.

The list of commissions (available on the JAM website) makes for fascinating reading including Thea Musgrave's The Voices of Our Ancestors from 2015, Steve Martland's Darwin from 2009, John McCab e's Songs of the Garden, Jonathan Dove's The Far Theatricals of the Day, music by Julian Philips, Philip Cashian, Tarik O'Regan, Paul Patterson, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Judith Bingham (including her 2022 Clarinet Concerto) and of course Paul Mealor (including his 2020 Piano Concerto).

The 26 March concert will be performed by the Chapel Choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge  Onyx Brass,  Simon Hogan (organ),  Claire Seaton (soprano), Philippe Durrant (tenor) & James Emerson (bass) with conductor Sarah MacDonald. The programme will also include new works from JAM’s recent Call for Music

Full details from the JAM website.

Celebrating 250 years of Mozart's early comedy: The Mozartists perform La finta giardiniera

Aged 18, Mozart wrote his comedy La finta giardiniera for Munich in 1775. After the premiere of La finta giardiniera, Mozart wrote home to his mother: "My opera turned out so well that it is impossible for me to describe… After every aria there was the most frightening clamour, with clapping and shouts of Viva Maestro!".

He was not really able to capitalise on this success. This was the period when Mozart's wish to write operas was stymied by the fact that his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, wanted Mozart on hand, in his employ, whilst the court theatre in Salzburg had closed. Mozart would return to Munich, but not until 1781 for Idomeneo, his first mature opera. 

The author of the work's libretto is still uncertain, and in 1790 Mozart would return to the piece and convert it into a German singspiel as Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe, adding some new music. 

Despite being a sparking comedy, it remains one of Mozart's lesser-known gems. Perhaps because until a copy of the complete Italian version was found in the 1970s, the German translation was the only known complete score. 

Ian Page and the Mozartists have never performed the opera and so they are giving a concert performance on Tuesday 25 March 2025 at Cadogan Hall, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its premiere.

The cast is headed by the two most recent additions to The Mozartists’ impressive rostrum of Associate Artists – soprano Ava Dodd [whom we recently saw as Barbarina in ENO's The Marriage of Figaro, see my review] and tenor Hugo Brady; this concert will mark The Mozartists first designated Young Artist opera since before the pandemic. The remaining cast members, all making their debuts with The Mozartists, are Camilla Harris, Milly Forrest, Laura Fleur, Michael Bell and Jerome Knox.

Full details from The Mozartists' website.

Fifth Birthday: the Benedetti Foundation celebrates five years of delivering transformative experiences through mass music events

Founder Nicola Benedetti at one of the Benedetti Foundation's live Benedetti Sessions

This year the Benedetti Foundation celebrates its fifth birthday; five years of delivering transformative experiences through mass music events, aiming to ensure equal access to music participation and appreciation for all. 

The foundation was created by Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti (now, artistic director of the Edinburgh International Festival). She commented, "Now as we look ahead, we carry forward our mission with renewed purpose: to empower and inspire people through music; to reach even more communities and individuals; to continue celebrating the diversity and richness of musical expression and to deepen the impact of music on people's lives."

The Benedetti Foundation's first five years in numbers:

• 100,000 participants of all ages and levels in 137 countries
• 15 live Benedetti Sessions in locations across the UK working with 17,000 young people
• Annual week-long Residency Sessions each reach around 18,000 young people
• 450 participants on the Ambassador Programme nurturing the next generation of music educators
• Worked with over 900 adult learners.
• Online free educational video resources have had over 6.6 million views 

This year's activities include two live Benedetti Sessions, 13 Residency Sessions and 6 adult learner days, along with Virtual Sessions including 20 short, focused online workshops, whilst the Ambassador Programme welcomes over 100 students and recent graduates to its annual free training programme for 19 to 35-year-olds and the Young Ambassador Programme offers an insight into what a career in music could look like to 15 to 18 year olds.

Full details from the Foundation's website.

A woman on the edge: Cherubini's Médée in the original French version yet given a powerful modern twist with Joyce El-Khoury in the title role

Cherubini: Médée - Lila Dufy, Joyce El-Khoury in Act One - Opéra Comique (Photo: Stefan Brion)

Cherubini: Médée; Joyce El-Khoury, Julien Behr, Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Lila Dufy, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, director: Marie-Ève Signeyrole, Insula Orchestra, conductor: Laurence Equilbey; Opéra Comique
Reviewed 8 February 2025

A powerful performance in the title role from Joyce El-Khoury in a production that adhered to Cherubini's original vision, including sung French and spoken dialogue, yet gave a nuanced, modern take on the story.

Medea is the ultimate bad girl of opera, causing havoc, completely unrepentant and, in Lully, Handel and Mayr at least, escaping in a chariot drawn by dragons. The general view of Cherubini's Médée is no different, she appears in Act One crying for vengeance and by Act Three, well, tragedy on a large scale.

Giving the original French version of the opera a rare outing, complete with spoken dialogue, at the Opéra Comique on Saturday 8 February 2025, conductor Laurence Equilbey and her ensembles Accentus and Insula Orchestra, and director Marie-Ève Signeyrole refocused the opera somewhat, giving Médée's actions a more nuanced context. Médée was played by Joyce El-Khoury with Julien Behr as Jason, Edwin Crossley-Mercer as Créon, Lila Dufy as Dircé and Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur as Néris. Stage design was by Fabien Teigné with costumes by Yashi, lighting by Philippe Berthomé and video from Céline Baril and Artis Dzērve. The dramaturg was Louis Geisler.

Before we consider the production we should think about what we were hearing and why. Cherubini was long-lived, as the programme book pointed out, he was born four years after Mozart and died four years before Mendelssohn. His major operas were all relatively early works, Médée dates from 1797. It was was written as opera comique, though the combination of form and content was not uncontroversial at the time and the work was premiered not at the Opéra Comique but by another company at the Theatre Feydeau. Cherubini seems not to have been fond of the fully sung French opera, rarely writing them.

Cherubini: Médée - Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Caroline Frossard, Joyce El-Khoury in Act Two - Opéra Comique (Photo: Stefan Brion)

For him, Médée always had dialogue, even when performing it in Berlin and Vienna in German. In 1809 he produced a shortened version, in German, for Vienna (losing some 500 bars of music but keeping the spoken dialogue). Then in 1855, Franz Lachner produced this version in Frankfurt, replacing the spoken dialogue with his own recitatives. In 1909, this version was translated into Italian for the work's Italian premiere at La Scala, Milan and it was this version that Callas sang.

We tend to favour this mongrel Italian version because, well, Callas. But consider that Médée was written just six years after Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; would anyone nowadays consider performing Il flauto magico in Italian complete with sung recitatives?

The New Voices Singing Competition returns to the Northern Aldborough Festival in North Yorkshire for its third edition this year

2024 New Voices Singing Competition: judging panel - Sir Andrew Lawson-Tancred, Robert Ogden, Edward Gardner OBE, Sholto Kynoch, Judith le Breuilly, George Ireland, Sir John Tomlinson; winners -  Clara Orif and Jack Redman

The New Voices Singing Competition returns to the Northern Aldborough Festival in North Yorkshire for its third edition this year. The New Voices Competition was launched in 2023 in response to the funding cuts the classical music sector faced, to provide a platform for emerging talent. Winners get the chance to perform at next year’s Northern Aldborough Festival alongside paid recitals, funded by the Yorkshire Music Future Fund, at Leeds Lieder and Harrogate International Festivals.

This year's judging panel features baritone Thomas Allen, conductor Jane Glover, and pianist (and artistic director of Oxford International Song Festival) Sholto Kynoch along with the Northern Aldborough Festival's artistic director Robert Ogden, himself a former professional countertenor.

The competition is open to soloists, duos, and ensembles of up to eight participants with a focus on singing. Participants must be aged from 18 to 32 to enter and be UK or Irish residents or nationals. Deadline for entries is Friday 18 April, 2025.

Full details from the festival website.

To create modern culture through the thoughts of the past: George Petrou artistic director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival introduces this year's festival

Atsushi Sakai (viola da gamba) and Bruno Helstroffer (theorbo) at PS.Halle, Einbeck for the 2024 Internationale Händel Festspiele Göttingen

This year's Göttingen International Handel Festival takes place from 16 to 25 May 2025, once more under the artistic directorship of George Petrou, who has extended his contract as director until 2031. This year's theme is fame and honour, power and glory, and the main events at the festival are a new production of Handel's Tamerlano, Handel's oratorio Solomon which will be performed in Göttingen and at the Elbphiharmonie in Hamburg, and a gala concert with the mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg. Tamerlano features Lawrence Zazzo in the title role with Louise Kemény as Asteria, Juan Sancho as Bajazet, and Yuriy Mynenko as Andronico, whilst Solomon features Lena Sutor-Wernich in the title role and Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli in the three soprano roles plus James Way as Zadok.

George Petrou (Photo: FreddieF)

But there is lots more Handel in the festival as well, and concerts showcasing what George Petrou refers to as their wonderful orchestra, the FestspielOrchester Göttingen. There is ensemble freymut in Couperin's Les Nations, the Calmus Ensemble exploring both Byrd and birds, Mayumi Hirasaki, Christoph Dangel and Kristian Bezuidenhout in a chamber music tour of Italy, viol virtuoso Hille Perl and her period instrument ensemble Los Otros take us to the French court, Tra Noi give us music from those in the circle of Cardinal Ottoboni including of course George Frideric, but also Domenico Scarlatti, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Caldara and Antonio Vivaldi. The festival's former artistic director, Nicholas McGegan returns to celebrate his 75th birthday and amongst the lunchtime concerts there is the chance to heard George Petrou displaying his keyboard skills. There is also the excitement of the eighth annual Göttingen Handel Competition which invites young ensembles from around the world to compete.

In addition to various venues in Göttingen, a number of events will also take place in the region of southern Lower Saxony, in Duderstadt, Friedland, Scheden, Einbeck, Herzberg am Harz and Hann. Münden, and we know from our experiences last year that many of these places are visually and historically engaging too.

The choice of works is partly the way things worked out and partly deliberate choice. Last year, the festival presented a modern pasticcio, Sarasine, as the main operatic work. The idea was to create a drama our of the various arias rejected by Handel which were never revised or recycled. This was something of a novelty, an experiment and this year George Petrou felt it would be good to go back to one of Handel's major operas. For George, Tamerlano stands above everything that Handel did and its dramatic approach goes beyond the 18th century, looking forward to operatic developments in the 19th century. The big dramatic scene at the end of Act Three, when Bajazet dies on stage in front of the other protagonists, does not recur in Handel's later operas, and both the dramatic approach and sound-world look forward to Romantic opera. For George, this is genius at its best, eternal and not restricted to one era. And for this years opera, not only are they returning to Handelian basics but presenting one of his crowning achievements.

Another crazy day: Joe Hill-Gibbins' production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro returns to ENO reinvigorated, full of engaging performances

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - English National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Zoe Martin)

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro; Mary Bevan, David Ireland, Nardus Williams, Cody Quattlebaum, Hanna Hipp, director: Joe Hill-Gibbins/Jenny Ogilvie, conductor: Ainārs Rubiķis; English National Opera at London Coliseum
Reviewed 5 February 2025

Barely seen first time around, Joe Hill-Gibbins production makes a welcome return, telling the story with humour, yet not missing the essential serious elements and with a strong ensemble of vivid performances

Director Joe Hill-Gibbins production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro debuted in Wuppertal in 2019 and then English National Opera presented it at the London Coliseum for a single performance in March 2020 [see my review] then COVID closed theatres down; the activities of La folle giornata, the crazy day at the Almaviva's palace perhaps an apt metaphor for our crazy times. Now the production is back, with a largely new cast.

We caught the opening performance on 5 February 2025 of English National Opera's revival of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins with Jenny Ogilvie as associate director/movement director, conducted by Ainārs Rubiķis. Mary Bevan was Susanna, David Ireland [whom we recently saw in the role at Garsington, see my review] was Figaro, with Nardus Williams as the Countess, Cody Quattlebaum as the Count, Hanna Hipp as Cherubino, Neal Davies as Dr Bartolo, Rebecca Evans as Marcellina, Hubert Francis as Don Curzio/Don Basilio, Ava Dodd as Barbarina and Trevor Eliot-Bowes as Antonio. Sets were by Johannes Schütz with costumes by Astrid Klein. The English translation was by Jeremy Sams.

Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - David Ireland, Mary Bevan - English National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Zoe Martin)

Schütz' set is a basic white box which has the advantage of providing the right sort of aural support for the singers. That it has an array of doors is an indication that Hill-Gibbins takes the farce elements of the opera seriously, this is a production with a lot of opening and closing of doors, as well as hiding behind them. The advantage is that in the Act One and Act Two finales, the action can be fast, furious and funny whilst being just on the right side of unbelievable. These scenes are tricky to make work if you aim at pure realism.

My Heart's in the Highlands: the debut recital from tenor Glen Cunningham mixes Stuart MacRae's new songs with other composers with 'Scotland in Mind'

My Heart's in the Highlands: traditional, Schumann, Stuart MacRae, Liza Lehmann, Hahn; Glen Cunningham, Anna Tilbrook; DELPHIAN
Reviewed 5 February 2025

For his debut recital, the young Scottish tenor takes us back to the Highlands of the imagination with music that moves from Stuart MacRae's new songs to Schumann setting Burns, Lehmann and Hahn setting Stevenson in an engaging and imaginative recital.

The recent disc from tenor Glen Cunningham and pianist Anna Tilbrook, My Heart's in the Highlands on Delphian explores not so much Scottish music as the idea Scotland, what Roger Fiske in his book Scotland in Music refers to as 'Scotland in Mind'. So we have the premiere of Five Stevenson Song by Scottish composer Stuart MacRae (also from the Highlands, evidently), alongside art-song arrangements of Scottish songs, Robert Schumann's Robert Burns settings from Myrthen and songs by Liza Lehmann and Reynaldo Hahn. Lehmann, Hahn and MacRae all set words by Robert Louis Stevenson which adds another thread running through the disc.

The Scottish songs are spread throughout the disc so we start with Ca' the yowes to the knowes arranged by Claire Liddell who also provides the arrangements of Ye banks and braes and Wee Willie Gray, with Ae fond kiss arranged by Alfred Moffatt and My heart's in the Highlands in a version transcribed a 1962 Kenneth McKellar recording! Cunningham and Tilbrook make these art song, not folk song, but Cunningham (who was born in the Highlands) does not shy away from the language, thankfully.

Cunningham studied at the Royal College of Music's Opera Studio and at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He was a member of the Opera Studio of Opera national du Rhin and was a Scottish opera Emerging Artist and performed the title role in Britten's Albert Herring with Scottish Opera earlier this season.

Anna Tilbrook & Glen Cunningham recording Delphian's My Heart's in the Highlands in St Mary's Church, Haddington

It comes as something of a surprise to find that Robert Schumann wrote some 20 settings of Robert Burns, in translation of course but something in Burns' directness must have appealed to him. Here we hear the eight Burns settings from Myrthen which form an interesting group, all about love and loss (including love lost), and lamenting in tone. As Lucy Walker points out in her fine booklet article, the political overtones of Burns' writing will have passed over Schumann's head, but we can enjoy his engagement with the subject.

Side by Side: Figure return to Stone Nest with Baroque masterpieces contrasted with contemporary works

Our Mother - Rowan Pierce, Emma Kirkby, Alexandra Achillea Pouta - Figure at Stone Nest in 2024 (Photo: Kristina Allen)

Following their performances of Our Mother, the staging of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater alongside music by Alex Mills, [see my review], Frederick Waxman's ensemble Figure is returning to Stone Nest on 15 February 2025 for Side by Side an up-close performance of baroque masterpieces by Corelli, Handel and van Wassenaer, contrasted by contemporary compositions by Caroline Shaw, Edmund Finnis, Freya Waley-Cohen and a specially commissioned world premiere by rising star Joanna Ward.

The evening will feature concerto grossos by Corelli and Handel, Vivaldi's Concerto in D 'Madrigalesco' and the Concerto Armonico No. 4 by the Dutch 18th-century composer Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer. Alongside these will be Finnis' The Centre is Everywhere, Shaw's Punctum and Waley-Cohen's Talisman along with the new piece from Joanna Ward.

Joanna Ward studied at the university of Cambridge and then at Guildhall School with Amber Priestly and she was a Britten Pears Young Artist in 2021-22. Her recent work has included a new piece for the Marian Consort and Playing frisbee May 2022 for the trombone quartet, Slide-Action, included on their recent disc [see my interview with Slide-Action].

Full details from the Stone Nest website.

Vanessa Reed, ground breaking former chief executive of PRS Foundation returns to UK as CEO of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society

Vanessa Reed

For 11 years, Vanessa Williams had significant impact on the British classical music scene as chief executive of the PRS Foundation. But since 2019, she has been President and CEO of New Music USA, a New York based national resource which supports music creation and performance across the US. The good news is that she is now bringing her expertise back to the UK and taking over as chief executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society, taking up the position in June this year. As such, she will lead an organisation that includes Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company, and an extensive learning and community programme.

During her time at the PRS Foundation, Williams tripled its resources for organisations, composers, songwriters and artists by introducing a suite of national and international programmes including the Momentum Music Fund, created in partnership with Arts Council England (2013), New Music Biennial, which began as a programme of commissions for the UK’s Cultural Olympiad (2012), and Women Make Music, which was set up in response to the gender gap in music.

In 2017, she initiated Keychange in collaboration with Musikcentrum Öst in Sweden and Reeperbahn Festival in Germany, a programme that sets out to challenge gender imbalances in the music industry and create a global movement for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Williams already has significant links to Liverpool. She was a board member of Royal Liverpool Philharmonic between 2016 and 2019, was an Ambassador for the University of Liverpool and collaborated with Liverpool City Council to support emerging musicians. Her love for Liverpool stems from her father who studied law at Liverpool University in the 60s, loved the Philharmonic Hall, and inspired her and her family to support one of the city’s football teams. 

She is married to a Liverpudlian, Eddie Berg who founded the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), a Liverpool-based agency for the exhibition, support, and development of artists’ film, video, and new media projects. 

Full details from the Liverpool Philharmonic's website.

The cello concerto by Austrian composer & contrabass virtuoso Johann Matthias Sperger gets its first modern performance

Schloss Ludwigslust where Johann Matthias Sperger was based from 1789 until his death
(Photo: Matthias Süßen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Johann Matthias Sperger (1750-1812) was a name that was new to me. He was a distinguished Austrian contrabass virtuoso and composer with a significant body of work to his name. Born in Feldsburg in what was then Austria but is now Valtice in the Czech Republic, his name may well originally have been Jan Matyáš Sperger.

He studied in Vienna and may have been a pupil of Albrechtsberger. From 1777 he worked for the Archbishop of Pressburg (now Bratislava). He then went on extended concert tours that made him famous as a contrabass virtuoso and composer, both at home and abroad. In 1789 the court of Archduke Friedrich Franz I in Ludwigslust (a Baroque palace some 40km south of Schwerin) appointed Sperger to the position of principal contrabass in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Court orchestra, where he remained the rest of his life.

Sperger produced some forty symphonies and numerous instrumental concertos, including eighteen for double bass. There is a chance to hear one on 23 February at Kings Place when Leon Bosch directs The Hanover Band in the first modern performance of Sperger's Cello Concerto in C with soloist Sebastian Comberti in a programme that also includes Cimarosa's Oboe Concerto (with soloist Geoff Coates) and symphonies by Haydn and Mozart.

Full details from Kings Place website.

Night through dreams tells the myths forgotten by the day: Le Sommeil's new EP, Semele reflects a new project

Le Sommeil, collective of musicians originally from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, has released a new EP and two videos to herald their upcoming debut album, featuring works by George Frideric Handel, Marin Marais, and John Eccles, drawn from operas inspired by the myth of Semele,

Building on their previous programme, which delved into the relationships between dreams, myths, and archetypes inspired by Carl Jung's philosophy, Le Sommeil continues to bring a distinctive perspective to Baroque music. Their motto, "Night through dreams tells the myths forgotten by the day" (C. G. Jung), encapsulates their mission: to revive stories and emotions that resonate universally yet remain hidden beneath the surface.

The performances feature Margarita Slepakova - mezzo-soprano, Elena Abbati and Soko Yoshida - violins, Giulio Padoin - cello, Pablo FitzGerald - archlute, Cristiano Gaudio - harpsichord. The videos were filmed by award-winning cinematographer Wawrzyniec Skoczylas and produced by Slepakova, in an abandoned Alsatian synagogue, now a vibrant art centre called le ventre. Founded by artists Mimi von Moos and Willem Mes, this historic venue bridges tradition and contemporary art.

The video above, O Sleep is available on YouTube,  and you can also catch their video, No, no I'll take no less on YouTube. The Semele EP is available from BandCamp.

Photo Essay: Annabel Arden's new production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at Opera North connects with those who have lived experience of seeking refuge

Wagner: The Flying Dutchman - Robert Hayward as The Dutchman and Edgaras Montvidas as Erik/ Steersman - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop)

As Opera North's new production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman opened at the Grand Theatre, Leeds on Saturday 1 February 2025, we present a series of images from the production. The conductor is Garry Walker and the director is Annabel Arden with set, costume and video design by Joanna Parker, and lighting designer by Kevin Treacy. Robert Hayward is The Dutchman with Layla Claire as Senta, Clive Bayley as Daland and Edgaras Montvidas as Erik/ Steersman. (At the first night, Layla Claire walked the role and Mari Wyn Williams sang from the side of the stage, though Claire will be back in harness for the remainder of the performances).

Wagner: The Flying Dutchman - Robert Hayward as The Dutchman with the Chorus of Opera North - Opera North (Photo: James Glossop)

Described by The Guardian as 'thought provoking and moving', director Annabel Arden and designer Joanna Parker's production reimagines the action to take place on our ‘ship of state’: the Home Office.

January on Planet Hugill: Our newsletter is out on Mailchimp

The Dead - Niamh Cusack, The Fourth Choir, Jamie Powe - Wilton's Music Hall (Photo: Kathleen Holman)

January on Planet Hugill
Handel in 1749, Mozart in 1775 and Schubert's 228th birthday

Our newsletter January on Planet Hugill, is out, looking back at a month when we took time to recharge batteries, but also managed to hear both of Handel's oratorios from 1749, eavesdrop on Mozart's sound-world from 1775 as well as celebrating Schubert's birthday at Wigmore Hall. Interviews this month included a feature on Vaughan William's Riders to the Sea, getting a rare outing in February, and a deep dive into the world of composer Steven Daverson's mix of orchestra and live electronics.

Our record reviews this month include rarities such as sonatas by JS Bach's 'other' composer son, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, Ethel Smyth's earliest orchestral work, one of the other concertos for Left Hand commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, Walton's complete songs (there aren't many but they are terrific) and the final symphony by Canadian composer Jacques Hétu.

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Unbearable intensity: a musically strong revival of Janáček's Jenůfa at the Royal Opera with incoming music director Jakub Hrůša on searing form in the pit

Janáček: Jenůfa - Corinne Winters, Karita Mattila - Royal Opera (Photo: Camilla Greenwell/RBO)

Janáček: Jenůfa; Corinne Winters, Karita Mattila, Nicky Spence, Thomas Atkins, Hanna Schwarz, director: Claus Guth/Oliver Platt, conductor: Jakub Hrůša; Royal Opera House
Reviewed 1 February 2025

With the company's incoming music director in the pit and a strong ensemble cast, this was an evening to remember with powerful performances from both soloists and orchestra, despite Claus Guth's somewhat disappointing production

Claus Guth's production of Janáček's Jenůfa returned to the Royal Opera House for the first time since it was new [see my review from 2021] with many of the same cast. We caught the final performance in the run on 1 February 2025. Oliver Platt was the revival director, with Jakub Hrůša, the company's incoming music director, in the pit. Corinne Winters sang Jenůfa, with Karita Mattila and Nicky Spence returning as the Kostelnička and Laca, plus Thomas Atkins as Števa, Hanna Schwarz as grandmother, James Cleverton as the foreman, Jonathan Lemalu as the Mayor and Marie McLaughlin as the mayor's wife.

One noticeable, and welcome thing about the casting was its use of distinguished older female singers encompassing Karita Mattila, Hanna Schwarz and Marie McLaughlin with birth dates varying from 1960 through to 1943.

Seen second time around, Guth's production remains somewhat disappointing. In the first act there is little sense of who these people are, of community. If one reads the play on which the opera is based, set in an isolated Moravian community, then Jenůfa would face death by stoning if her pregnancy was discovered, not simply social embarrassment. 

Guth, however, relies not on character but on symbols. Do we really need the blood-covered young boy walking across the stage at the beginning of Act Two, and as for the large crow which appears during Števa's scene in that act, what is that for. And whilst first time around, I found it imaginative the way the Kostelnička's house was made from the iron bedsteads from Act One, this time I simply grew frustrated that we watched the singers' faces through a gauze of metal mesh.

Janáček: Jenůfa - Thomas Atkins, Corinne Winters - Royal Opera (Photo: Camilla Greenwell/RBO)

What made this revival special were the performances. Key amongst these was that of Jakub Hrůša and the orchestra. Because Hrůša is Czech we cannot simply assume that he has the music in his DNA but certainly that applies here. Always in Janáček's operas the orchestral contribution is key, but here Hrůša turned them into another character, one that brought every scene to life. There was a particular intensity about the playing, not excessively loud, yet wonderfully alive and powerful. The moments of lyrical tenderness, the few that there are, were finely done, the final melody when Jenůfa and Laca were alone at last was achingly beautiful yet not sweet. Superb stuff, and I cannot wait to hear what Hrůša does next with the company.

Konstantin Krimmel in overwhelming form for Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall, with a welcome group of Carl Loewe too

Schubert Birthday Concert - Ammiel Bushakevitz, Konstantin Krimmel - Wigmore Hall (Image from Live Stream)

Schubert Birthday Concert: Schubert, Loewe; Konstantin Krimmel, Ammiel Bushakevitz; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 31 January 2025

Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall with the young German baritone Konstantin Krimmel on overwhelming form in some of Schubert's most powerful and knottiest pieces, including Prometheus, Totengräbers Heimweh, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus and Erlkönig from Schubert and Loewe

Friday 31 January 2025 was Schubert's 228th birthday, and the celebrations at Wigmore Hall featured baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz in a programme of songs by Schubert and Carl Loewe. First we heard Schubert's Der Wanderer D489, An den Mond D193, Hoffnung D637, Der Jüngling an der Quelle D300 and Auf der Donau D553, then Carl Loewe's Herr Oluf Op. 2 No. 2, Der du von dem Himmel bist (Wandrers Nachtlied II) Op. 9, Erlkönig Op. 1 No. 3, Geisterleben Op. 9, and Der Totentanz Op. 44 No. 3, then finally Schubert's Prometheus D674, Am Bach im Frühling D361, Der König in Thule D367, Totengräbers Heimweh D842, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus D583, Nachtstück D672, and Erlkönig D328.

It was a meaty programme with some substantial and powerful pieces, including a compare and contrast between Schubert and Loewe's Erlkönig settings alongside other large-scale works that showcased Schubert far from the simply lyrical. And it was welcome to hear a substantial group of Loewe's songs, including the first performance of Der Totentanz at Wigmore Hall.

Throughout the concert, it was impressive the way Krimmel brought so much character and intensity to the songs without ever distorting or breaking the vocal line. His darkly focused tone was finely fluid with intensity to it throughout, a great lower register and admirably easy top whilst the range of colours and timbres he brought to the music was enviable.

Bruckner's obsession with death, Scottish Gaelic folk poetry & a grumpy gaboon: I chat to Scottish composer Jay Capperauld, currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's associate composer

Jay Capperauld (Photo: Euan Robertson)

The Scottish composer Jay Capperauld is currently the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's (SCO) Associate Composer and this month he has two sets of performances of his works. On 19 February SCO premieres Jay's new piece, Bruckner's Skull in Dumfries with performances in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Written as a death-mask homage to composer Anton Bruckner in the 200th Anniversary year of his birth, Bruckner’s Skull is inspired by Bruckner’s obsession with death, and in particular the two alleged occasions when Bruckner cradled the skulls of both Beethoven and Schubert when their bodies were exhumed and moved to Vienna’s Central Cemetery in 1888.

Before then, SCO revives Jay's work for children, The Great Grumpy Gaboon, and later in the season, they will premiere Jay's Carmina Gadelica for wind dectet, inspired by the Gaelic incantations, hymns, and songs collected by Alexander Carmichael in his work of the same name.

Bruckner's Totenmaske (Death Mask), 1896

Jay admits that he is rather drawn to strange stories and is interested in story-telling in music, the challenge of how to create a musical narrative with a story in wordless form. Bruckner's Skull is inspired by the great composer's deathly fixations. Some of the stories are anecdotal, but Bruckner did spend time in a sanatorium for what we would now call OCD. The symptoms of OCD manifest in a way in which a person experiences uncontrollable, intrusive, distressing and recurring thoughts (obsessions) which are alleviated by engaging in repetitive behaviours and actions (compulsions) that are attributed to a specific fear of dire consequences (to themselves, loved ones or others) if those behaviours and actions are not completed to a perceived satisfactory degree.

Bruckner's reported fixations included giving specific instructions on his own burial under the organ that he played at St Florian Monastery and the keeping of lists of his female students to whom he would continually propose well into his old age. The duality in his hyper-religious grandiose sense of divine musical purpose coupled with his extreme shyness and debilitating low self-esteem. Jay is interested in these fixations, not only how to convey the story in music but also what does it say about Bruckner himself. Who was the man and how do we deal nowadays with the more problematic elements of his fixations?

Jay intends his piece to humanise Bruckner and get to the crux of the man from a more empathetic perspective. Musically, Jay is interested not so much in what is happening but in why, for instance, the oboe interacts in the way it does. For Bruckner's Skull, Jay uses snippets of Bruckner's music which he treats in a hyper-fixated way, making the music feel as if we are hearing it through Bruckner's obsessive qualities. Through the compositional process, Jay tries to reflect Bruckner's mind.

Letter from Florida: a study in contrasts, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Palm Beach Opera

Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette - Long Long, Kathryn Lewek - Palm Beach Opera, 2025

Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette Kathryn Lewek, Long Long, Bernardo Medeiros, director: Tara Faircloth, conductor: David Stern, Palm Beach Opera; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Palm Beach, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras (24 January 2025)

Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette maintains a solid place in the operatic repertoire, brought consistently back by an audience who judges it on its merits. At Palm Beach Opera (PBO), Robert J Carreras in his latest Letter from Florida, finds strong performances from Kathryn Lewek's deeply affecting Juliette and Long Long's ardent Roméo make the production well worth a visit.

For all the success of Charles Francois Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, the work has always been considered inferior to his first great music drama, Faust. Therein lies the rub in a wider sense; for all its success, Roméo et Juliette suffers from a reputation of being dramatically deficient, and not wholly accepted as music drama. 

This is especially so in contrast to the direction opera took in the late 19th century, in the German works, and those of the verismo period. Combined with the fact that acting performance standards hadn’t veered much from overblown on the one hand and remaining static throughout the first part of the 20th century on the other, and Roméo et Juliette is hardly among the works contemporary artist’s look at to put on display and stretch their acting prowess.

Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette - Kathryn Lewek - Palm Beach Opera, 2025

No one seems to have told this to Kathryn Lewek. She made the most of what Gounod, Barrier, and Carre (composer and librettists) give Juliette; Lewek kept up the synergy of her significant artistic resources, from her note one to her note fin, three hours later. Her stage manner is as affecting as it is natural. It appears Ms. Lewek has not performed Juliette much out there, and it is a rare thing to exhibit such depth of knowledge of a role in such few attempts. Finally, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who truly looks the part of a love-struck teenager more.