Up close & personal: Sir Willard White in folksongs, cabaret songs, Gerswhin & Sinatra in aid of Music in Action

If you enjoyed Sir Willard White's performance in Monday night's Prom [see my review] or perhaps you are regretting not seeing him, then later this month there is a chance to hear him up close and personal. On Saturday 27 September 2025, Sir Willard White is joining the Celoniatus Ensemble, artistic director Harriet Mackenzie, for a concert in aid of Music in Action at Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford.

The performance will mix popular folksongs, showtunes, Frank Sinatra and cabaret songs alongside a celebrated string orchestra and a sprinkling of surprises! Alongside a couple of English folksongs there will be Aaron Copland arrangements and Spirituals, plus music from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, along with Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and other Frank Sinatra standards!

The concert is in aid of the charity Music in Action which is at the forefront of outreach projects in Jersey. In 2024 over 5000 children and care home residents have taken part in the Music in Action outreach programme.

Full details from the Music in Action website.

BBC Proms: Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth from massed BBC & ENO forces but Amanda Majeski's Katerina triumphs

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk - John Findon, Amanda Majeski, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, ENO, John Storgårds - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Andy Paradise)

Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk; Amanda Majeski, Brindley Sherratt, John Findon, Nicky Spence, director: Ruth Knight, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, Chorus & Orchestra of ENO, conductor: John Storgårds; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 1 September 2025

Massed forces bring out the power and savagery of Shostakovich's score but it was Amanda Majeski in a masterly account of the title role who really triumphed

One of the strands in this year's BBC Proms has been the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich and Monday 1 September at the Royal Albert Hall saw what must be the large-scale centre piece of these, a collaboration between the BBC Philharmonic and English National Opera to present Shostakovich's 1936 opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in all its messy magnificence. 

John Storgårds conducted the BBC Philharmonic and the brass section of the Orchestra of English National Opera with the BBC Singers, and Chorus of English National Opera. Amanda Majeski was Katerina with Brindley Sherratt as Boris, John Findon as Zinovy, Nicky Spence as Sergey plus Thomas Mole, Ronald Samm, Alaric Green, Chuma Sijeqa, William Morgan, Willard White and Niamh O'Sullivan. The semi-staging was directed by Ruth Knight.

For all the operatic talent on stage, it was very much the orchestra which was the focus here. The huge forces of the BBC Philharmonic and brass of the ENO Orchestra - 60 strings, triple woodwind, five horns, eight brass, eight percussionists plus 15 players from ENO in the choir stalls - almost filled the stage. There was a narrow acting area at the front of the stage but Ruth Knight's production made the most of what was available so the the theatrical performance took place in front and behind of the orchestra. Dramatically this was highly imaginative, make the best use of the stage and present the opera with great clarity. Unfortunately, the Royal Albert Hall is not the most sympathetic of venues and placing much of the action at the back of the stage, behind the orchestra rather compromised the balance. And even when singers were at the front of the stage, Shostakovich's exuberant orchestration overbalanced things.

Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mstsensk - Amanda Majeski, Nicky Spence, BBC Philharmonic - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Andy Paradise)

It was the orchestral performance that dominated. The opera, with its five orchestral interludes and strongly satirical writing (Shostakovich uses popular-style tunes to undercut some of the dramatic action) lent the whole a particularly savage feel. During the murder of Zinovy, Shostakovich writes jauntily for the orchestra but as rendered here by the massed forces on stage, the results were terrifying and causing Nicky Spence's (Sergey) dramatic efforts to strangle John Findon (Zinovy) to very much take second place in the drama. And there were moments when the grimly comic stage action seemed very much at odds with the savagely satirical writing in the orchestra.

Shifting Patterns: Scottish Ensemble opens 2025/26 fusing music by Anna Meredith and Henryk Górecki with animations by Ewan Jones Morris

Scottish Ensemble at Celtic Connections in January 2025 with Donald Grant and Friends (Photo: Tom Lovatt)

The Scottish Ensemble opens its 2025/2026 season with Shifting Patterns, a programme of music by Anna Meredith and Henryk Górecki which promises to be a striking fusion of sound and visuals. Touring to Eden Court in Inverness, Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and Perth Concert Hall during October, the programme will explore the emotive power of sonic patterns being transformed through kaleidoscopic repetitions using bespoke projections by animator Ewan Jones Morris as a stunning visual backdrop to Anna Meredith’s works.

The programme features Henryk Górecki's Quasi una Fantasia. This work is the second of Górecki's three quartets, all of which were premiered by the Kronos Quartet. Quasi una Fantasia was written in 1991 and the work invokes Beethovenian parallels not just from the title but the composer acknowledged that Beethoven’s piano sonatas and string quartets had provided the impetus for his first two quartets.

The programme will also feature eight works by Anna Meredith including works for string quartet which have been newly arranged for the thirteen musicians of Scottish Ensemble, offering a chance to hear these surprising and enlightening works for expanded forces.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking, Ewan Jones Morris combines live action, collage, stop motion and CG to transform the ordinary and explore imagined inner worlds, you can explore his work on Vimeo (including a sample below)

Full details from the Scottish Ensemble's website.

Refuge: An Evening of Opera Exploring Women’s Experiences and Resilience

On 23 September 2025, soprano Lizzie Ryder is curating and performing in Refuge: An Evening of Opera Exploring Women’s Experiences and Resilience at the Brunel Museum's Thames Tunnel Shaft. 

The evening will feature sopranos Lizzie Ryder, Roberta Philip and Georgie Malcolm, mezzos Hannah Morley and Naomi Lidiard, tenor Matthew Curtis, actor Rachel Fletcher and pianist Panaretos Kyriatzidis in a concert in aid of Refuge, the UK charity supporting women and children experiencing domestic abuse.

The evening will features music from Puccini's Suor Angelica, Britten's Peter Grimes, Donizetti's Anna Bolena, Verdi's Otello, Mascagni's Cavallerie Rusticana, Bizet's Carmen, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and Missy Mazzoli's Breaking the Waves.

Set in this extraordinary underground space, the programme brings together scenes and arias that centre women’s voices-care, crisis and defiance, alongside brief spoken interludes. All profits will be donated to Refuge.

Further information and tickets from EventBrite.