Deidamia: a welcome opportunity to catch Handel's final Italian opera in Wexford, though George Petrou's production feels a little self-indulgent

Handel: Deidamia - Nicolò Balducci - Wexford Festival Opera (Photo: Pádraig Grant)

Handel: Deidamia; Sophie Junker, Nicolò Balducci, Sarah Gilford, Bruno de Sá, Rory Musgrave, Petros Magoulas, George Petrou, Wexford Festival Opera; National Opera House, Wexford
Reviewed 30 October 2025

Handel's final opera in a stylish production that combines playful elements with some powerful singing but which lingers a bit too lovely over details leading to an over-long evening

It is likely that Handel did not write his opera Deidamia in 1741 with a view to it being his final Italian opera. But Handel's tussles with the rival Opera of the Nobility, even though his company had ultimately come out on top, had perhaps not only left him feeling somewhat jaded by Italian opera but left the opera going public in London jaded too. Add to this that Handel had started to discover the possibilities of oratorio and you have a situation where everything could change. Oratorio did not require expensive sets, and its focus on English singers led Handel to work with a group of soloists many of whom he had trained himself. Somehow the complexities and costliness of staging Italian opera got left behind.

And if we focus on those final Italian operas it becomes clear that Handel was experimenting with the form itself. Whilst Ariodante and Alcina from 1735 both seem to hark back to Handel's glory days, his later operas included Arminio (1737) which is so compressed as to be almost telegraphic, Giustino (1737) and Serse (1738) where the plots incorporate rather more of the early Venetian plot than was usual in 18th century London. Serse's semi-comic elements also bring forth a Handel we are not used to. This sense of the sly satirical continues in Imeneo (1740) where the heroine ends up with the 'wrong' man - she chooses the robust baritone whilst the noble (castrato) hero does not get the girl. Something similar is happening in Deidamia (1741) where the hero spends most of the opera pretending to be a women, except in Handel's performance the singer was a woman. Structurally these operas also reveal a Handel who is experimenting with form, no longer reliant solely on the large scale da capo aria.

Handel: Deidamia - Bruno de Sá, Sophie Junker - Wexford Festival Opera (Photo: Pádraig Grant)

Deidamia was not a success and Handel did not even raid the opera as a source for later works. Instead it languished until more recent 20th century performances, but even then it remains a real rarity. Wexford Festival Opera included it in their Myths & Legends season in a co-production with the Göttingen Handel Festival whose artistic director, George Petrou conducted and directed. We caught the final performance on Thursday 30 October 2025, with Sophie Junker as Deidamia, Nicolò Balducci as Ulisse (Odysseus), Sarah Gilford as Nerea, Bruno de Sá [last seen as Cleofide in Vinci's Alessandro nell'Indie at Bayreuth, see my review] as Achille (Achilles), Rory Musgrave as Fenice (Phoenix) and Petros Magoulas as Licomede. Designs were by Giorgina Germanou with video by Arnim Friess.

Different musical accents: Le Trouvère, Verdi's French revision of Il trovatore receives a rare outing in Wexford

Verdi: Le Trouvère - Wexford Festival Opera (Photo: Pádraig Grant)

Verdi: Le Trouvère; Lydia Grindatto, Eduardo Niave, Giorgi Lomiseli, Kseniia Nikolaieva, Luca Gallo, director: Ben Barnes, conductor: Manuel  Hartinger, Wexford Festival Opera; National Opera House, Wexford
Reviewed 29 October 2025

Very much festival fare, Verdi's French revision to Il Trovatore receives a strong performance from Wexford's international, non-Francophone cast in a staging which catches fire at the end

Verdi in French is an interesting and somewhat underappreciated thread running through his operas. The Paris Opera was important to him, his aim with operas such as Jérusalem, Les vêpres siciliennes, and Don Carlos was to rival Meyerbeer and for whatever reason the Paris Opera thought it important to have a major Italian composer writing operas for them, just as Donizetti had done.

The company had put on Luisa Miller (in French) without Verdi's permission, and Les vêpres siciliennes would fall out of the repertoire for the lack of the right voices, whilst the success of Don Carlos came at a time when Meyerbeerian French Grand Opera was falling out of favour. Yet, Verdi's interactions with La grande boutique, as he called it, are important and his later operas such as Aida and Un ballo un maschera are inconceivable without his experience of and appreciation of French Grand Opera.

But times were a-changing. By the time the Paris Opera wanted to perform Verdi's Otello they planned give it in Italian, something Verdi found incomprehensible. And gradually Meyerbeer's popularity in Paris waned, replaced by the operas of Wagner.

Verdi: Le Trouvère - Lydia Grindatto - Wexford Festival Opera (Photo: Pádraig Grant)

Verdi's Le Trouvère is an interesting way-station in this journey. Il trovatore was translated into French and performed in Brussels, but for Paris Verdi decided to do a new version. This wasn't a thorough-going rewrite like he would do with Macbeth, but a reorientation of the work. Recitative was made to work in French, the orchestrations were adjusted and made more sophisticated, a substantial ballet was added to Act Three and adjustments made to the ending. This version gained currency in French speaking countries, but it never became the prime version, probably because a principal focus of Verdi's adjustments was making the recitatives work in French prosody.

It was this fascinating piece of musical history that the Wexford Festival chose to include in this year's festival. We caught the performance of Verdi's Le Trouvère at the National Opera House on Wednesday 29 October 2025. Manuel Hartinger (replacing Marcus Bosch for the final two performances) conducted the Wexford Festival Orchestra. The production was directed by Ben Barnes with sets by Liam Doona, costumes by Mattie Ulrich, movement by Libby Seward and projections by Arnim Friess. Eduardo Niave was Manrique, Giorgi Lomiseli was Le Comte de Luna, Luca Gallo was Fernand, Lydia Grindatto was Leonore and Kseniia Nikolaieva was Azucena.

The City Music Foundation has announced the new cohort of artists joining the CMF Artist Programme as 2025 CMF Artists.

City Music Foundation Artists 2025 (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega)

The City Music Foundation has announced the new cohort of artists joining the CMF Artist Programme as ‘2025 CMF Artists. Becoming a 2025 CMF Artist will mean they each receive financial and advisory support for their project alongside the coaching, performance opportunities and other numerous short and long-term benefits and help that CMF continues to offer.

CEO of CMF, Clare Taylor says: "These eight soloists and ensembles were selected from a large number of exciting, talented performers because of their unique and innovative approach and their exceptional accomplishment. CMF will help them reach new audiences through very individual projects - including film making in Armenia, a baroque tour with electronics, recording previously unheard female composers, a new commission for wind quintet, and new work by a singer-songwriter and by a pianist- composer, as well as other CD and video recording."

• Basil Alter, violin - Originally from Tennessee, before moving to London he studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. In the 2025–26 season, he divides his time between the United States and Europe.
• Ensemble Renard, wind quintet - Founded in 2018 at the RAM and GSMD, Ensemble Renard were Chamber Music Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021.
• Immy Churchill, Jazz Singer & Singer/Songwriter - She graduated from The Royal Academy of Music in 2024 and was a finalist in the Tina May Young Jazz Musician Award
• Intesa Duo, Gamba Duo & Voice - Intesa was formed in 2023 at the Royal Academy of Music by Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgetti, with the goal of celebrating the viol’s combination with the voice. Intesa is an Italian word meaning “understanding”, or a meeting of minds.
• Jong Sun Woo, Piano (with Associate Artist Felix Gygli, baritone) - Jong Sun Woo recently won the Pianist Prize at Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition 2024 and with baritone Giacomo Schmidt, the 1st prize at Wolf International Art Song Competition 2024 in Stuttgart
• Londinium Consort, Baroque Ensemble - An emerging ensemble based in London. Exploring spaces where old and new meet, the ensemble takes its name from the ancient name of the City of London, highlighting the city’s long and richly varied cultural landscape
• Violetta Suvini, Violin - Irish-Italian violinist Violetta Suvini enjoys a varied concert diary across the UK and Europe. She is the 2024 recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society's Emily Anderson Prize
• Will Harmer, Piano and composer (with Associate Artists Sebastian Hill, tenor & Gabriel Francis-Dehqani, cello) - Will Harmer is a London-based composer and pianist. He is an Oxford Song Young Artist 2024-25. He has been commissioned by the BBC Singers, Oxford Song and Ludlow English Song festivals and was a National Youth Choirs Young Composer 2024

Full details from the CMF website.

'A forceful and naturally musical work with very defined themes' - composer Asadbek Turgunov from Uzbekistan wins the 2025 Brusa Foundation Award

Asadbek Turgunov 

Last year composer and teacher Elisabetta Brusa introduced her Brusa Foundation Award in an article for us [see Elisabetta's article]. The award is to give opportunities to composers who recreate new, free and personal symphonic thought with a tonal basis. The winner of the second edition of the Award has now just been announced.

The Foundation Committee received 48 scores from 18 countries. From these they chose Maqom Simfoniya by Asabdek Turgunov from Tashkent, Uzbekistan to be the winner. The Committee said of the chosen work:

"We found Maqom Simfoniya a forceful and naturally musical work with very defined themes, fluidity and instrumentally colourful. The themes were rhythmically and harmonically full of forceful fantasy and included traits of a vivid cultural tradition and identity...We would also like to highlight how much we were impressed by the composer’s freedom of thought."

Asadbek Turgunov is an Uzbek composer, pianist, and arranger, born in 2000, in Andijan, Uzbekistan. He received his professional education at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, where he studied composition under Professor Mirkhalil Mahmudov. He later completed his master’s degree at the Botir Zokirov Institute of National Pop Art, deepening his exploration of musical synthesis between academic and popular idioms. His winning work can be heard on YouTube.

Full details from the Brusa Foundation's website.

There was no closure here: four Irish women composers give voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries in remarkable performances from Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner in Oxford

The Magdalene Songs - Deirdre Brenner, Lotte Betts-Dean - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

The Magdalene Songs: Elaine Agnew, Elaine Brennan, Rhona Clarke, Deirdre McKay; Lotte Betts-Dean, Deirdre Brenner; Oxford International Song Festival at the Holywell Music Room
Reviewed 23 October 2025

Deirdre Brenner's remarkable project to honour the women from the Magdalene Laundries in music, her given outstanding and devastating voice by Lotte Betts-Dean

The early evening concert at Oxford International Song Festival on 23 October 2025 continued the day's Irish theme yet with a very different tenor to the subject matter from the lunchtime focus on Thomas Moore [see my review]. 

From 1922 to 1996 more than 10,1000 women and girls were incarcerated in Ireland's Magdalene Laundries. Pianist Deirdre Brenner's The Magdalene Songs is an ongoing project to honour these women by giving voice to their experiences. I interviewed Deirdre Brenner earlier this year when she introduced the project, see my interview.

On 23 October 2025 at the Holywell Music Room, pianist Deirdre Brenner was joined by mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean for The Magdalene Songs presenting a sequence of ten songs by Elaine Agnew, Elaine Brennan, Rhona Clarke and Deirdre McKay, with six of the songs being world premieres. Nine of the songs were settings of extracts from interviews with survivors preserved by Justice For Magdalene Research, with each song named after the woman whose testimony it presented. The final song, Litany to the Magdalene Dead by Deirdre McKay was intended to honour the life of each woman who died in a Magdalene Laundry.

Lyric beauty & great storytelling: Young Artists tenor Hugo Brady & pianist Mark Rogers in Moore's Melodies at Oxford International Song Festival

Mark Rogers, Hugo Brady - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

Moore's Melodies: traditional, Stanford, Ina Boyle, Schumann, Duparc, Barber, Britten, Johnny Patterson; Hugo Brady, Mark Rogers; Oxford International Song Festival at the Holywell Music Room
Reviewed 23 October 2025

One of the festival's Young Artist duos gives an imaginative exploration of song inspired by Thomas Moore from folksong to Ina Boyle to Samuel Barber, along with a delightful tribute to John McCormack

The lunchtime recital at the Holywell Music Room on 23 October 2025 as part of the Oxford International Song Festival showcased one of the duos from the festival's Young Artist Programme. Under the title Moore's Melodies, tenor Hugo Brady and pianist Mark Rogers presented a programme that leveraged Brady's Irish heritage by focusing on an Ireland experience partly through the ears of Thomas Moore (1779-1852) the Irish poet whose Irish Melodies (with the first of ten volumes appearing in 1808) set his poems to old Irish tunes.

We heard traditional songs, plus music by Stanford, Ina Boyle, Robert Schumann, Henri Duparc, Samuel Barber, Helen Blackwood, Britten and Johnny Patterson.

I had been impressed when I heard Hugo Brady with The Mozartists in their Opera in 1775 concert at Cadogan Hall recently [see my review], so it was great to get the chance to hear him in recital in a more intimate venue.

Baba Yaga: Songs and Dances of Death: mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier pushes boundaries with a music theatre piece exploring the figure from Slavic folklore

Baba Yaga: Songs & Dances of Death - Sholto Kynoch, Ana Dordevic, Carola Schwab, Rowan Hellier - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

Baba Yaga: Songs and Dances of Death - Elena Langer, Mussorgsky, Dvorak, Janacek, Purcell, Britten, Heggie; Rowan Hellier, Sholto Kynoch, Ana Dordevic, Carola Schwab, Andreas Heise; Oxford International Song Festival at the Olivier Hall, St Edward's School
Reviewed 22 October 2025

Something between a danced song-recital and music theatre, this remarkable evening explored the fascinating character of Baba Yaga from Slavic myth, embodied by three women including the astounding performance from Rowan Hellier both singing and dancing

Having focused on Shostakovich for the lunchtime and afternoon concerts at the Oxford International Song Festival on 22 October 2025 [see my review], the evening event kept the Slavic theme by turning its attention to Baba Yaga. In the Olivier Hall of St Edward's School, the festival presented Baba Yaga: Songs & Dances of Death, a music theatre piece that featured mezzo-soprano Rowan Hellier and pianist Sholto Kynoch along with dancers Ana Dordevic and Carola Schwab. The evening was co-directed by Hellier and choreographer Andreas Heise [see my recent interview with Rowan Hellier for more background on the project].

This was something between a dance piece and a song recital, with Hellier moving alongside the two dances, with costumes and lighting by Sascha Thomsen and Helene Rindtorff. The piece flowed continuously for an hour and a quarter and explored various themes around Baba Yaga, a figure from Slavic folk lore who is by turns maiden, mother and crone. Our image of the witch Baba Yaga from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (which was included in the evening) is only part of the story.

Baba Yaga: Songs & Dances of Death - Rowan Hellier, Ana Dordevic - Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media)

The performance centred on two main works: songs from Mussorgsky's Songs & Dances of Death were scattered throughout the evening whilst at the centre was the premiere of Elena Langer's song-cycle Lovely Weather for Witches.

Focus on Shostakovich: tenor Oliver Johnston's fearlessness & challenge, plus speaker Philip Ross Bullock in engaging form at the Oxford International Song Festival

Oliver Johnston

Britten: Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Shostakovich: Six romances on texts by Japanese poets, Elena Langer: Two Mandelstam Songs, Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn; Oliver Johnston, Natalie Burch
Shostakovich: A life in Song: Philip Ross Bullock, Katy Thomson, Rustam Khanmurzin
Holywell Music Room, Oxford International Song Festival
Reviewed 22 October 2025

Shostakovich was very much the focus with a lecture-recital alongside a recital from Oliver Johnston whose fearless performances with his relish for the text brought Shostakovich and Britten's work alive

Wednesday 22 October at the Oxford International Song Festival had something of a Slavic flavour to it, with a focus on Shostakovich whose anniversary is being celebrated. At lunchtime tenor Oliver Johnston and pianist Natalie Burch gave a recital which paired Britten with Shostakovich alongside a new work by Elena Langer whose work also featured in the evening programme. The afternoon was devoted to Shostakovich with a lecture recital by Philip Ross Bullock.

My experience of Oliver Johnston's singing has largely been through opera, he was Don Jose in Opera Holland Park's Carmen, Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at Blackheath Halls Opera and Bob Boles in Britten's Peter Grimes at Welsh National Opera. When opera singers go into the concert hall, the results can sometimes lack the edge that they bring to their opera performances, but Johnston's lunchtime recital with pianist Natalie Burch on 22 October 2025 at the Holywell Music Room as part of the Oxford International Song Recital had a wonderful fearlessness about it and a sense of challenge, both to him and us. 

He began with Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940), then moved on to Britten's friend and contemporary Shostakovich with Six romances on texts by Japanese poets (1932), then the premiere of Elena Langer's Two Mandelstam Songs and finally a group of Mahler's songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Throughout the recital, whether singing in Italian, Russian or German, Johnston displayed a remarkable relish for the words, not only projecting them but absorbing them into the musicality of his performance, and also the physicality of his presentation. I have no idea of his familiarity with Renaissance Italian, Russian or German folk-poetry, but his manner convinced us and let us know that every syllable set by the composers really mattered.

A series of high-profile concerts in Paris marked the centenary of the celebrated and distinguished Russian-born cellist, Valentin Berlinsky, founder and cellist of the Borodin String Quartet.

Schubert: Trout Quintet - Mikhail Kopelman, Loïc Rio, Laurent Marfaing, François Kieffer, Grigory Kovalevsky, Elisabeth Leonskaja (Photo © Nathanael Charpentier / © Association La Clé des Portes)

First concert (presented by Clément Rochefort)
JS Bach: Cello Suite No.3 in C major, Schubert: String Quartet in C minor (Quartettsatz’) D.703, Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras, No.5 (first aria), Alexander Raskatov: Ode for St Valentine’s Day for eight violoncellos and a bottle of champagne, Dvořák: Piano Quintet No.2 in A major, Op.81.
Boris Andrianov (cello), Quatuor Van Kuijk, Serafima Liberman (soprano), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano)
Thursday 16 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Second concert (presented by Arthur Ancelle and Maria Matalaev)
Beethoven: String Quartet No.1 in F major, Op.18, Shostakovich: Piano Trio No.2 in E minor, Op.67, String Quartet No.9 in E flat major, Op.117, Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, Op.11
Quatuor Danel, Kazakh State String Quartet, Mikhail Kopelman (violin), Boris Andrianov (cello), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano)
Friday 17 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Third concert (presented by Maria Matalaev and Arthur Ancelle)
Haydn: String Quartet No.29 in G major, Op.33, Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op.114, Gaziza Zhubanova: String Quartet No.1, Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op.34
Kazakh State String Quartet, Anastasia Ushakova (cello), Nicolas Baldeyrou (clarinet), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano).
Saturday 18 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Fourth concert (presented by Clément Rochefort and Maria Matalaev)
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D.667 (The Trout), Rodion Shchedrin: Diptych for Violin Solo; Glinka: Grand Sextet for Piano and Strings in E flat major - Gran Sestetto originale
Mikhail Kopelman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Loïc Rio (violins), Laurent Marfaing (viola), François Kieffer (cello), Grigory Kovalevsky (double-bass), Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Ludmila Berlinskaia (piano)
Sunday 19 October: Salle Cortot, Paris

Reviewed by Tony Cooper

An initiative of Valentin Berlinsky’s daughter, Ludmila Berlinskaia, together with her French-born husband, Arthur Ancelle, a couple of prominent international pianists based in Paris, they curated a brilliant and fitting programme in which to honour the memory of Valentin Berlinsky (known to many as ‘Mr Berlinsky’) in the year of his centenary.

Valentin Berlinsky in concert with his daughter Ludmila Berlinskaia

One hundred years after his birth, the musical world rightly celebrates the centenary of Valentin Berlinsky (1925-2008), an exceptional and gifted cellist, influential pedagogue, founded the Moscow Conservatoire Quartet whilst a student there in 1944. A decade later it was renamed the Borodin String Quartet in honour of Alexander Borodin, one of the founders of Russian chamber music. 

The Borodin Quartet’s cohesion and vision has survived many personnel changes over the years mainly due to the common ground shared by its players from their training at the Moscow Conservatoire while their style is characterised by an almost symphonic volume and a highly developed ability of phrasing thereby creating a unified, connected and consistent sound of tonal beauty and technical excellence largely due to the efforts, wisdom and stewardship, I feel, of Valentin Berlinsky, their cellist for six glorious, adventurous and thrilling decades. 

His father, a violinist and pupil of Leopold Auer, was his first teacher: Berlinsky began on the violin before turning to the cello, a transition that came to him with remarkable ease and natural affinity. He then entered the Central Music School in Moscow, studying with E. M. Gendli and went on to the Moscow Conservatoire, from which he graduated in 1947 after studying with S. M. Kozolupov. 

Alongside his performing career, Berlinsky taught chamber music first at the Ippolitov-Ivanov Institute (from 1947) and later at the Gnessin School of Music (from 1970) where he trained several generations of musicians and ensembles. He also founded major institutions such as the Dmitri Shostakovich International String Quartet Competition (1987-2004) and the Sakharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod, a pioneering event combining classical music and human-rights advocacy. He contributed as well to the creation of ProQuartet in France alongside Georges Zeisel.

Becoming one of the Soviet Union's best-known and revered ensembles in the West during the Communist era (they performed at the funerals of both Stalin and Prokofiev who died on the same day - 5 March 1953) through multiple recordings as well as concert performances in the USA and continental Europe, members of the Borodin Quartet enjoyed a close and flourishing relationship with Shostakovich who personally consulted them on each of his 15 string quartets which they recorded as well as all of Beethoven’s quartets thus becoming widely known throughout the world for the quality and interpretations of both composers’ quartets.  

Borodin Quartet with Sviatoslav Richter & Grigory Kovalevsky

Fantasia Orchestra launch residency at Smith Square Hall with Birdsong-themed concert

Jess Gillam, Tom Fetherstonhaugh & Fantasia Orchestra in rehearsal  (Photo: Fantasia Orchestra)

In May last year I chatted conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh [see my interview] about Fantasia Orchestra which he founded way back in 2016 (when he was still at school). During 2024 the orchestra had debuts at the BBC Proms, Northern Aldborough Festival and Ryedale Festival, and it continues to go from strength to strength. Fantasia Orchestra and Fetherstonhaugh launch their 2025/26 season with a concert at Smith Square Hall on 23 November which also marks the start of a four-concert residency at the hall. On 23 November, Fetherstonhaugh and the orchestra will be joined by soprano Lucy Crowe for Birdsong, a specially-curated programme inspired by the beauty of nature and of avian song. The programme includes Spring from Strauss' Four Last Songs, 'Dove Sono' from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Berg's The Nightingale from his Seven Early Songs, music from Messiaen's Harawi plus Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn, Gerswhin and a lot more.

In February the orchestra is in Nottingham with saxophonist Jess Gillam for a programme that includes James MacMillan's Saxophone Concerto, and music by Steve Reich, Kate Bush, Bartok, Joni Mitchell and much more. 

In April they return to Smith Square with guest sitar player and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun for a programme that includes Degun's music alongside Rameau and Philip Glass including a movement from Degun's sitar concerto Arya. Still at Smith Square Hall, in may they are joined by pianist Steven Osborne for Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 (with trumpeter Aaron Akugbo) alongside music by Bartok, Cole Porter, Gershwin and some of Shostakovich's lighter pieces. Their final concert of the residency features mezzo-soprano Niamh O'Sullivan (who has been singing the title role in Bizet's Carmen at ENO) in songs by Alma Mahler, Richard Strauss alongside instrumental music by Strauss and Elgar, plus songs by Ellington, Kern, Sondheim and Cole Porter.

Full details from the Fantasia Orchestra website.

Thinking about sound: Grieg's Lyric Pieces on a modern piano from Alexander Ullmann & on historic pianos with unequal temperament from Ziad Kreidy

Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Op. 71, Moods, Op. 73, Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46, transcriptions of Songs, Op. 41 - Alexander Ullmann - Rubicon Classics RCD 1129

Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Op. 65, Op. 68, Op. 73 - Ziad Kreidy (historic piano) - Bandcamp

Two different approaches to Grieg's piano music - on a modern piano, played with intense poetic sensibility and on a selection of historic pianos with unequal temperament tuning that brings its own magic

Two recent discs have rather set me thinking about what sound we want for a particular composer when it comes to piano pieces. Do we always want the super-charged modern grand, or is something more period appropriate. 

And then there is a question of temperament.

Edvard Grieg's own Steinway grand piano from 1892 still exists at his former home, Troldhaugen and is still use, though the museum's website does not give much in the way of detail about the instrument and its tuning. However, Leif Ove Andsnes recorded a selection of Grieg's Lyric Pieces on it in 2002 for Warner Classics. 

The Lyric Pieces are central to two new recordings of Grieg's piano music. Grieg wrote 66 Lyric Pieces in total, publishing them in ten volumes from 1867 (Op. 12) to 1901 (Op. 71). 

This is music in which Leipzig-trained Grieg managed to encapsulate the music of his native land, mixing folk idioms with compositional techniques learned in Germany, yet with a freshness that is disarming. 

Into my inbox recently came two very different recordings of Grieg's piano music, focusing on the Lyric Pieces. Alexander Ullmann takes a modern, poetic approach  on Rubicon that will appeal to many, whilst musicologist Ziad Kreidy turns to historic pianos with unequal temperament tuning to very different effect on Bandcamp. This is not Kreidy's first venture into this territory, and last year he issued a recording of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Opp. 12, 38, 43 & 47 on an Érard Upright Piano from 1867, also on Bandcamp.

Heavenly Harmony: for 2026, the London Handel Festival ranges from oratorio & opera seria to the more intimate, including the composer's living room

The Foundling Hospital chapel where Handel presented Messiah annually

Cities change and cities develop. Which means that a festival that seeks to celebrate Handel in the city of his adoption constantly needs to reinvent itself. There are few venues left associated with Handel's original performances. Apart from Athalia in Oxford, it is no longer possible to present Handel's major operas and oratorios in the venues where they were premiered.

And back in 1978, when Denys Darlow presented the first London Handel Festival the composer's music was, itself, only known patchily and the festival has done sterling work presenting rarities, unconsidered versions and generally encouraging people to explore the composer's music.

The 2026 London Handel Festival takes place from 18 Feburary to 28 March. Under the title, Heavenly Harmony, the festival's artistic director Gregory Batsleer is presenting a celebration of the composer that ranges widely across the composers output and visits many venues that he would have known. We might not be able to stage Handel opera in one of his theatres, but the festival is drawing St George's Hanover Square, Smith Square Hall, the Charterhouse, the Foundling Museum and Handel's own living room into the fold.

In recent years, the festival has been approaching Handelian opera by staging some of his smaller works, creating its Handel Opera Studio in 2023. Last year it was an intriguing double bill of The Choice of Hercules and Apollo e Dafne. This year, for the first time in a number of years the festival is dipping its toe back into staging opera seria. An expensive business for any small festival, but opera was a large part of Handel's life and it is terrific that the festival has the confidence again to stage a major work. This year it is Tamerlano with the festival's Handel Opera Studio presenting staged performances directed by Orpha Phelan at Shoreditch Town Hall. Laurence Cummings is music director with the Academy of Ancient Music, and a cast including James Laing as Tamerlano, Benjamin Hulett as Bajazet, Nardus Williams as Asteria, Jake Ingbar as Andronico and Kitty Whately as Irene.

Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo return as ensemble in residence and they open the festival in fine style with Handel's Saul in Smith Square Hall. Handel would at least have known the building, as St John's Smith Square it was built in 1728. A strong cast includes Christopher Purves in the title role, Hugh Cutting as David, Linard Vrielink as Jonathan, Jessica Cale as Michal and Emoke Barath as Merab. Also at Smith Square, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli, amazingly making their festival debut, will be performing Handel's Ode to St Cecilia's Day and pairing it with Acis and Galatea with a cast including Carolyn Sampson and Laurence Kilsby, plus Will Thomas as Polyphemus.

On a smaller scale, the festival returns to Handel's parish church, St George's Hanover Square as Jonathan Cohen joins violinist Rachel Podger, soprano Hilary Cronin and friends for Handel's Neun Deutschen Arien alongside music by Handel's friend Telemann and great contemporary JS Bach. Still at St George's, Hilary Cronin joins Kristian Bezuidenhout and the English Concert for a programme that mixes Handel's Chandos Anthems with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

Leo Duarte and Opera Settecento have been exploring Handel's lesser known dramatic works, notably his pasticcios. This year they give the a modern-day London premiere of Handel's abandoned opera Titus L'Empéreur, creating a pasticcio with Handel's arias from the period and newly composed recitatives. They are joined by an outstanding line-up of soloists, including two recent winners of the International Handel Singing Competition, with Steffen Jespersen in the title role and Rachel Redmond as Berenice.

The Foundling Hospital no longer exists, it was demolished in the 1930s but the Foundling Museum preserves its memory and its Fine Rooms. These are the atmospheric venue for a concert from Arcangelo's young artists scheme, its awkwardly named Young Ensemblists. Directed from the harpsichord by Tom Foster they are exploring music composer by Handel and his contemporaries, Vastrucci, J.C. Smith, Corbett, Sammartini and Haym for Handel's orchestra. Another old venue that Handel would have known is Charterhouse, and there is a series of lunchtime concerts there with finalists from the Singing Competition, Ensemble Augelletti, and Ensemble Théodora.

At Handel's House in Brook Street, the Portrait Players will be presenting a pair of family concerts in Handel's own living room. At Shoreditch Town Hall, Apollo's Cabinet will be presenting a relaxed performance showcasing remarkable music from the Baroque era - deconstructing it, reinterpreting it, and reassembling it with other works to create something new

Less a concert and more a chance to hear Handel singers of the next generation, the London Handel Singing Competition runs across the festival with the gala finale on 11 March and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenement as accompanying ensemble, conducted by Steven Devine. At a totally different level, Richard Gowers will be directing a Come and Sing event which offers enthusiastic singers a rare opportunity to experience the exhilaration of performing Handel’s music with a live professional baroque orchestra. For the Handel Big Sing, children from schools across Westminster will be welcomed to St George’s Church, Hanover Square to perform with the London Handel Orchestra.

Full details from the festival website.

Favourite songs & last words: Schubert weekend in Oxford with Nikola Hillebrand, Julius Drake, Thomas Oliemans & Paolo Giacometti

Schwanengesang - Thomas Oliemans at Oxford International Song Festival

Schubert Weekend: Nikola Hillebrand, Julius Drake, Thomas Oliemans, Paolo Giacometti; Oxford International Song Festival at Holywell Music Room
Reviewed 19 October 2025

A young German soprano making her festival debut with a profoundly beautiful and expressive afternoon of favourite songs. Then in the evening, a festival favourite returned with an intense account of Schubert's final song cycle. Last words indeed.

Sunday 19 October was the second day of this year's Oxford International Song Festival's Schubert weekend with concerts including an afternoon event with soprano Nikola Hillebrand and pianist Julius Drake in favourite Schubert songs, and then in the evening baritone Thomas Oliemans and pianist Paolo Giacometti in Schubert's Schwanengesang plus two late-works for piano duet.

Nikola Hillebrand is a young German soprano making a name for herself in opera and song, bringing a lovely fresh approach to her afternoon recital. By contrast THomas Oliemans is a festival favourite. A born story teller in 2023 we heard him in Wolf's Mörike-Lieder [see my review] and in 2019 in a Day of the Dead themed programme [see my review] though we missed his astonishing self-accompanied Winterreise in 2022.

At the Holywell Music Room, Nikola Hillebrand and Julius Drake presented an afternoon programme called Im Abentrot, named for the Schubert song that opened a programme which then explored links both familiar and unfamiliar. This was Hillebrand's debut at the festival; she won the prestigious ‘Das Lied’ competition in Heidelberg in 2019. She was a member of the Semperoper Dresden ensemble from 2020 to 2024, along with appearances at Bavarian State Opera, Opera House Zürich, Hamburg State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. She appeared as Barbarina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne in 2016.

Gluck Arias: Ann Hallenberg's latest disc with The Mozartists is the result of her long and fruitful relationship with conductor Ian Page

Ann Hallenberg, The Mozartists, Ian Page recording Gluck Arias (Photo: Ben Ealovega)

Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg has a new album out. For Gluck Arias on Signum Classics, she joined forces with conductor Ian Page, with whom she has had a long and fruitful relationship, and The Mozartists for a programme of arias from Gluck's operas, both known - Orfeo ed Euridice, Paride ed Elena - and unknown - Il trionfo di Clelia, Ipermestra, Ezio, Il Parnaso confuso, Semiramide riconosciuta, and Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe. The operas stretch right across Gluck's career from his first complete surviving opera, Ipermestra (1744), to Paride ed Elena (1770). Their selection takes in both the original 1762 version of Orfeo ed Euridice and the rarely performed revised version Gluck produced for Parma in 1769. The disc has already received plaudits in the press with the Gramophone referring to it as "this skilfully curated exposition of Gluck’s humane genius". 

Ann Hallenberg, The Mozartists, Ian Page at Wigmore Hall in 2016

Ann explains that the idea of the disc has been bubbling away for around ten years. Back in 2016, she performed at Wigmore Hall with Ian Page and the Mozartists, when they included a couple of Gluck arias. These went down well, and both Ann and Ian thought this might be a disc. Their relationship developed subsequently; not only has she performed with The Mozartists again (including at Wigmore Hall in 2023), but when she was artist in residence at Drottningholm, she invited Ian to conduct the production of Handel's Ariodante with Ann in the title role. She comments that it is nice to meet a conductor where you both think the same way, so you do not have to discuss everything. Things flow very easily with him.

They started with far more material than would be needed for a disc, sifting through the arias, checking that not only was the music suitable for Ann's voice but that she liked the aria. Often with recital discs, she explains that the selection must take account of the instruments available, but this time there were no such restrictions. She had the luxury of singing with a full orchestra. The result, she feels, is a good programme with a good mix of different sounds and colours.

Handel in Music and Art: Bridget Cunningham & London Early Opera at Handel & Hendrix in London

Handel's restored house in Brook Street

Handel's collection of art is known to have included works by Canaletto, Watteau and Poussin which he owned in his home at Brook Street. In a forthcoming concert at his house, Handel & Hendrix in London is presenting Handel in Music and Art on 8 November 2025, a recital from Bridget Cunningham (harpsichord), Danni O'Neil (soprano) and Richard Dowling (tenor) reflecting the pastoral themes in Handel's art collection including arias from L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Semele and the Foundling Hospital Anthem.

Two days, later on Monday, 10 November, Bridget Cunningham and London Early Opera will present a lunchtime concert titled Handel at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens with countertenor Iestyn Morris of glorious music once performed at Vauxhall Gardens. The music reflects a visit to the London Pleasure Gardens which was decorated with artwork, walkways, grottos, statues and illuminated by lanterns where some of the finest music and entertainment for all the family could be heard. 

Full details from Handel & Hendrix in London's website.

Not so slight & surprisingly experimental: the Royal Opera & La Nuova Musica bring a touch of 1930s glamour to Handel's ugly duckling opera, Giustino

Handel: Giustino - Esme Bronwen-Smith, Polly Leech, Kelly Fuge, Mireille Asselin, Benjamin Hulett (with bag over his head) - La Nuova Musica at Royal Opera House (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Handel: Giustino; Polly Leech, Mireille Asselin, Keri Fuge, Esme Bronwen Smith, Jake Arditti, Benjamin Hulett, Jonathan Lemalu, director: Joe Hill-Gibbins, La Nuova Musica, conductor: David Bates; Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House
Reviewed 15 October 2025

The Royal Opera returns to late Handel with a production of his problematic Giustino that brings out the musical riches along with a surprising emotional depth, along with a touch of glamour

Handel's late operas have generally been regarded as problematic, with their recitative and plot cut to the bone. The Royal Opera's production of Arminio (from 1737) proved that in the right hands these fascinating if flawed pieces can work on the modern stage [see my review]. Now, in collaboration with La Nuova Musica, the Royal Opera has returned to 1737 with a production of Handel's Giustino.

The libretto was originally written for a 1683 opera by Legrenzi which received a spectacular production in Venice featuring an elephant, elaborate naval and land battles and a welter of smaller roles. By the time the libretto reached Vivaldi in 1724 the characters had been reduced to nine. This was the source of Handel's libretto, though Handel's unknown literary collaborator made radical changes.

1175 lines of recitative are reduced to just 350 and the character of Andronico is removed (Winton Dean speculates that Handel may simply not have had a singer for it). He is a third brother (to Giustino and Vitaliano) and spends a lot of the early part of the opera courting Leocasta. Not only are aspects of the plot positively telegraphic - Arianna goes to join Anastasio's army but after three lines of recitative and a short aria he has lost a battle, Arianna has been captured and Giustino needs to go to the rescue. But without Andronico, Leocasta is left with nothing to do for large stretches of the opera.

Handel: Giustino - Polly Leech, Mireille Asselin (as La Fortuna) - La Nuova Musica at Royal Opera House (Photo: Marc Brenner)

Not surprisingly, the opera has not had that many outings. It was presented by Alan Kitching in the UK in 1960s, and there is a recording from Göttingen in 1995 based on a production that Winton Dean describes as grossly distorting the opera. The London Handel Society presented it at Sadler's Wells in the early 1980s. If memory serves me right, James Bowman sang the title role and it was a remarkably imaginative production.

We caught Covent Garden's production at the Linbury Theatre on 15 October. Handel's Giustino was directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins with designs by Rosanna Vize. David Bates conducted La Nuova Musica with Polly Leech as Giustino, Keri Fuge as Anastasio, Mireille Asselin as Arianna, Esme Bronwen Smith as Leocasta, Jake Arditti as Amanzio, Benjamin Hulett as Vitaliano and Jonathan Lemalu as Polidarte.

A summer night of queer narratives in Renaissance Florence: Die Florenzer – L'amore masculino

Johannes Worms in the Gemäldegalerie - State Museums of Berlin (Photo: Jana Kiesser)

The young German baritone Johannes Worms has been exploring the wider shores of song, presenting programmes that focus on playful explorations of queerness and social narratives. He and his duo partner, Nasti presented their programme Speak Low - Songs about masculinities and queer utopias in the recital hall of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg last season.

Now Worms is returning with another intriguing programme, Die Florenzer – L'amore masculino created by the Argentinian-German stage director duo Vöcks de Schwindt. Billed as a music theatre monologue for voice and lute the evening will feature Johannes Worms and lutenist Neo Gunderman in an imaginative monologue about homosexual desire in Renaissance Florence, a summer night of queer narratives, accompanied by delicately playful Renaissance music/ 

"In imagined stories and chants accompanied by lute play, we immerse ourselves in a seductive world of l’amore masculino, friendship+ and early modern daddies and twinks. While the verb florenzen historically meant mainly gay sex, the evening explores the affective connections behind it with speculative imagination. So revelling in stories of connectedness and friendship unfolds a picture of what the everyday life of the Florence could have looked like."

The programme will be at the Monolog Festival at TD in Berlin in 8 and 9 November 2025. 

Further details from the Monolog Festival website.

A Requiem for Mozart

A new collaboration between Orpheus Sinfonia and the Scherzo Ensemble invites the audience to be part of Mozart’s memorial service, taking part by singing a hymn and surrounded on all sides by the musical and dramatic action in this immersive production. 

Relying on eyewitness accounts from the composer's family and friends to reconstruct his last year, the dramatised performance, which includes an actor (playing the role of Mozart’s brother in law), dance, movement and professional lighting, includes music from many of Mozart’s most famous works, including the Clarinet Concerto, The Magic Flute, Contradances, La Clemenza di Tito and Masonic Cantata. The event culminates with Mozart’s Requiem, uncompleted on the composers death, it is performed here without later completions, leaving a tantalising ‘what if?’ at the end of the evening.

A Requiem for Mozart takes place at Holy Trinity, Winchester (5 November) and St George's Hanover Square, London (6 November). Matthew O'Keeffe conducts Scherzo Ensemble and Orpheus Sinfonia. The project is the second such collaboration between Orpheus Sinfonia and Scherzo Ensemble following on from 2024’s production of Haydn's Creation, which was staged with dance and theatrical lighting.

Orpheus Sinfonia is a London-based chamber orchestra that aims to make world-class music accessible to all, bringing together some of the UK’s most talented emerging and established musicians to give exceptional performances across concert halls, festivals, and bespoke events. Scherzo Ensemble is a professional development platform for emerging artists, primarily classical singers, offering performance and development projects for early-career artists to develop their understanding, experience, and professional networks, including a fully staged production at Longhope Opera. 

Further details from the Scherzo Ensemble website and the Orpheus Sinfonia website.

In between performances of Wagner’s Ring cycle at Staatsoper Berlin, Tony Cooper finds time to fit in a thrilling concert by the Berlin Philharmonic.

Daniele Gatti, Berlin Philharmonic - Philharmonie, Berlin

Webern: Langsamer Satz, Stravinsky: Symphony in C, Brahms: Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, cond: Daniele Gatti; Philharmonie, Berlin
Reviewed by Tony Cooper on 9 October 2025

Hearing the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, under Daniele Gatti, in the confines of the swishy Philharmonie Berlin proved a big treat 

Never really wanting a day off, especially in Berlin, I thoroughly enjoyed a marvellous concert by the Berlin Philharmonic under Daniele Gatti at the Philharmonie Berlin offering a programme right up my street. They performed a trio of handsome and entertaining works comprising Webern’s Langsamer Satz - Slow Movement for String Quartet in E flat major, Stravinsky’s Symphony in C and Brahms’ Symphony No.3 in F major, Op.90. 

Completing Langsamer Satz in June 1905, Webern was inspired to write it by the innermost feelings for his future wife, Wilhelmine Mörtl, whom he enjoyed a mountain holiday prior to marriage. An emotionally charged work, for sure, it conveys themes of yearning, turmoil and tranquillity and is notable for its post-Brahmsian tonal idiom.  

Born in 1883 into a wealthy aristocratic Viennese family, Webern was close to Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg, a trio of progressive composers dubbed the ‘Second Viennese School’. Schoenberg, of course, invented the twelve-tone technique therefore Webern was well acquainted with this musical style and kept up to date with the latest developments in music.  

Spanish Sketches: percussionist James Larter, Sinfonia Smith Square and Frederick Waxman explore a wide variety of Spanish inspirations

James Larter

In July this year, percussionist James Larter joined Frederick Waxman and his ensemble Figure to reimagine Vivaldi's The Four Seasons for an array of pitched and unpitched percussion instruments alongside the strings. Now Larter and Waxman are taking this collaboration further as Larter has written a percussion concerto, Toros, to be premiered by Sinfonia Smith Square on 6 November with Waxman conducting at Smith Square Hall. The concert is called, with a hint of Miles Davis, Spanish Sketches and also features music by Victoria, Boccherini, Arriaga, and Victor Jarra. 

James Larter's Toros is inspired by Picasso's art and Neruda's poetry. The two men were friends. In 1949, Neruda appeared at the First World Congress of Partisans for Peace, in Paris having spent the preceding months in hiding in Chile. Picasso had secured the poet’s legal right to appear in public in France despite an arrest warrant in Chile. In his poem 'Picasso' from Grapes and the Wind, Neruda describes the painter’s studio in the south of France and celebrates his art.

The programme includes Boccherini's Symphony No. 6 in D minor, ’The House of the Devil' written just before he left Vienna for Spain. The work's subtitle, which may not be authentic, could derive from the inspiration Boccherini drew from Gluck's Don Juan ballet. Also in the programme will be the Symphony in D major by Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, accomplished Basque composer who died at only 19. Finally there will be a jazz fusion arrangement of a song by Victor Jarra, the Chilean John Lennon, Manifesto which Frederick Waxman has written for orchestra, in which Larter and he will improvise.

Full details from the Sinfonia Smith Square website. 

There was nothing semi- about the performances, we were certainly drawn into this quirky world: ENO's first ever production of Britten's Albert Herring

Britten: Albert Herring - Dan D'Souza, Caspar Singh - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Britten: Albert Herring; Caspar Singh, Emma Bell, Carolyn Dobbin, Aoife Miskelly, Eddie Wade, Mark Le Brocq, Andri Björn Róbertsson, Dan D'Souza, Caspar Singh, Anna Elizabeth Cooper, Leah-Marian Jones, director Anthony McDonald, conductor Daniel Cohen, English National Opera; London Coliseum
Reviewed 13 October 2025

A stripped back production that loses little of the sense of place, with an ensemble of strong character singers supporting an engaging account a central character who repaid all our attention

English National Opera has never before performed Britten's Albert Herring. A new production directed and designed by Antony McDonald rectified this lack as well as helping launch the company's season in Greater Manchester. Billed as a semi-staging, McDonald's production opened at the London Coliseum on Monday 13 October with a further performance on 16 October before travelling to the Lowry in Salford for two performances.

Daniel Cohen conducted with Emma Bell as Lady Billows, Carolyn Dobbin as Florence Pike, Aoife Miskelly as Miss Wordsworth, Eddie Wade as Mr Gedge, Mark Le Brocq as Mr Upfold, Andri Björn Róbertsson as Superintendent Budd, Dan D'Souza as Sid, Caspar Singh as Albert, Anna Elizabeth Cooper as Nancy, Leah-Marian Jones as Mrs Herring, Abigail Sinclair as Emmie, Natasha Oldbury as Cis and with Henry Karp as Harry (sharing with Lucien Flutter).

Britten: Albert Herring - Carolyn Dobbin, Eddie Wade, Emma Bell - ENO 2025 (Photo: Genevieve Girling)

Anthony McDonald's production was not so much a semi-staging as a stripped down one. The concept seemed to be that we were at some sort of recording, radio presumably. The basic set had a Brechtian quality to it with labels hung from the flats indicating the locations. The setting was 1940s, the era when the opera was written and the cast were all in period apposite costumes. Some fussy details relating to the omnipresent stage manager (actor Ashton Hall) apart, it worked remarkably well. Mainly thanks to the sense of detail that the cast brought to their roles. There was nothing semi- about the performances, we were certainly drawn into this quirky world.