Drama & presence: Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Barbican with Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen, Nick Pritchard & Alex Rosen

Bach: St Matthew Passion - Alex Rosen (Jesus), Nick Pritchard (Evangelist), Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen at Barbican Hall (Photo: Ed Maitland Smith)

Bach: St Matthew Passion; Nick Pritchard, Alex Rosen, Carolyn Sampson, Hugh Cutting, Hugo Hymas, Thomas Bauer, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen; Barbican Centre
1 April 2026

Great presence and a sense of drama, this was Bach's great passion as communal expressive enterprise with intent performances from all crowned by fine solo singing and choral contributions, with Nick Pritchard's profoundly moving Evangelist at the centre.

Much ink has been spilt over the forces that Bach used to perform his St Matthew Passion. Undoubtedly it was a stretch, his family did not call it the great passion for nothing. Yet it was given four or five times at Leipzig. We will probably never know exactly what forces were used, we lack the sort of detailed evidence we have for Messiah performances that Handel gave at the Foundling Hospital.

The St Matthew Passion works very well when using just eight singers, covering all the solo roles and the choruses. This creates a sense of intimacy, and the various arias with chorale are transformed into fascinating ensembles. Yet, this approach is taxing and does not represent the entirety of the work. Also, it is worth bearing in mind that Bach was aware of the musical world around him, of the courts in Dresden and in Berlin. Even when struggling to perform the St Matthew Passion with minimal forces in Leipzig he might have imagined how the work would sound in the unlikely setting of the (Roman Catholic) court chapel in Dresden, for instance.

Bach: St Matthew Passion - Hugh Cutting, Carolyn Sampson, Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen at Barbican Hall (Photo: Ed Maitland Smith)

Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo are performing Bach's St Matthew Passion on a short tour (London, Netherlands, Germany) and presented the work at the Barbican on 1 April 2026, with Nick Pritchard as the Evangelist, Alex Rosen as Jesus, plus soloists Carolyn Sampson, Hugh Cutting, Hugo Hymas and Thomas Bauer. The forces used included two choirs of 17 singers each (mixed men and women altos), and two orchestras of around 18 each, with all the smaller solos being drawn from the choir.

It was very much a 'traditional' version, in the sense of the tradition that has developed in the 20th century, yet Cohen has a fine ear and even in the opening chorus, the choir did not over-dominate. This was never a choral society version, and throughout it was clear that Cohen had thought everything through rather than following tradition blindly. One final detail that I enjoyed, after the last recitative sung by all four soloists they remained on stage and sang in the final chorus, making it truly a communal summation.

A sonic extravaganza: Alex Paxton's Candyfolk Spacedrum demonstrates his gift for carefully crafted music that has the energy & engagement of a communal jam session.

Alex Paxton: Candyfolk Spacedrum: Alex Paxton, Jennifer Walshe, Riot Ensemble, Dreammusics Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Belham Primary School, David Ingamells, Jennifer Walshe; Jonah Records
Reviewed 25 March 2026

A sonic extravaganza where Paxton demonstrates not only his remarkable ear for creating richly layered textures where sophisticated hyperactivity dominates, but also a gift for carefully crafted music that has all the energy and engagement of a communal jam session.

Candyfolk Spacedrum is the latest aural extravaganza from composer Alex Paxton. The album, on Jonah Records, features performances from Riot Ensemble, Dreammusics Ensemble, and London Sinfonietta with pieces originally commissioned by the London Sinfonietta, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Riot Ensemble and Zubin Kanga.

First comes Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece, eight hyperactive movements performed by Riot Ensemble. Things begin in bright, light, 1950s, hyperactive fashion. Paxton continues this vein, varying the material but always multi-layering wildly different lines, including lurching changes of direction. Inspired by sample culture, cartoons and the fragmented listening experience of the internet and 90’s pirate radio adverts, the music channels dance music energy. Something that Paxton does brilliantly well. Despite sounding sampled, the music is fully written out as Paxton likes to keep the decision-making to himself. But there are pause points in the hyperactivity, so that YOUR MOM Still Laughing features moments that are slowed down, dreamy and almost spaced out.

Pullback Hat Biome Dunk features vocalist Jennifer Walshe and Paxton's trombone improvising with Dreammusics Orchestra. Here, the orchestral part is entirely notated and just the solo parts are improvised. There is something orgasmic about the textures that Paxton conjures with his vibrant trombone over an already rich mix of layers, and only gradually does Walshe appear and begin to dominate in a disturbing fashion.

Alex Paxton: Candyfolk Space Drum - children of Belham Primary School (Photo: Orlando Gili)

Act Four: Young Artists from the National Opera Studio on terrific form in scenes directed by Ruth Knight

Donizetti: La fille du regiment - Young Artists of the National Opera Studio (Photo: Kirsten McTernan )

Act Four: Rossini, Lortzing, Stravinsky, Britten, Berlioz, Cilea, Donizetti; Young Artists of the National Opera Studio, director: Ruth Knight, conductor: Andrew Griffiths; Bishopsgate Institute
Reviewed 31 March 2026

Director Ruth Knight and the Young Artists weave together a selection of scenes, well-known and lesser known, into an engaging tale of love and relationships, forming a terrific showcase

For the past year the current intake at the National Opera Studio have been working with the various national opera companies. The final of these collaborative events took place on Sunday at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff after a week of work with Welsh National Opera under director Ruth Knight. The resulting show, aptly named Act Four, was brought to London on Tuesday 31 March 2026 at the Bishopsgate Institute. Directed by Ruth Knight, the ten Young Artists of the National Opera Studio - sopranos Elisabeth Eunsoo Lee, Rachel McLean, Biqing Zhang, mezzo-sopranos Mathilda Goike, Lil Mo Browne, Clover Kayne, tenor Tomos Owen Jones, baritone Ambrose Connolly, bass-baritone Jack Sandison, bass Peter Lidbetter - performed a range of operatic excerpts by Rossini, Lortzing, Stravinsky, Britten, Berlioz, Cilea, and Donizetti, accompanied by répétiteurs André Bertoncini, Henry Reavey and Alfonso Sanchez Pérez and conducted by Andrew Griffiths.

Ruth Knight's production took place in and around a Tudor wedding (the men in modern suits but with ruffs), the long table forming a backdrop for various scenes between the wedding guests where love and relationships were put under the spotlight. This meant that guests overheard and eavesdropped, even participated in the scenes as the drama flowed freely, losing a sense of operatic scenes and weaving into a drama. One point about the selection of music, the cast included only one (hard-working) tenor, Tomos Owen Jones, so not every scene featured a conventional operatic hero and some were at an interesting tangent.

Rossini: Il barbiere di Sivigla - Tomos Owen Jones, Ambrose Connolly - Young Artists of the National Opera Studio (Photo: Kirsten McTernan )

Shakespeare in Music? “Give me excess of it”. There is no sickening and the appetite never dies.

Devon Glover

"If music be the food of love" then take me to the Shakespeare in Music Festival (SIM) in Stratford-upon-Avon from 20 to 23 April. The SIM Festival is rapidly becoming the "go to" Festival for those who love music and love Shakespeare.

SIM’s first Festival - in May last year - was greeted by a local critic in the Stratford Herald as the best thing that had happened to classical music in the town during the sixteen years that he had been living there. Audiences were treated to a feast of song by artists at the height of their profession, among them David Padmore and Elizabeth Kenny, and others straight from training at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, all delighted at the opportunity of singing and playing at the inaugural session of the Festival. 

This year the Festival offers a rich selection of fifteen events over the four days – from 20 to 23 April (Shakespeare’s Birthday).  Each morning and each afternoon there is a musical recital. There are songs Ancient and Modern from the harp and viola duo the Painted Fall, madrigals from the Arcadian Singers, songs by Castelnuovo Tedesco, Kenneth Leighton and Erich Korngold sung baritone William Drakett accompanied on piano by Simon Carrey, and Elizabethan and Jacobean music by the Bloomsbury Baroque Ensemble.  The Festival also features the young countertenor Benjamin Irvine-Capel accompanied on the lute by Kristiina Watt, and Sami Brown and Daniel Thomson of Dowland’s Foundry with an Elizabethan meditation on Facets of Time.

Each lunchtime an illustrated lecture fills in the background of Shakespeare’s music in his plays, of his time, and from four hundred years of musical legacy that lead from his age to the present day. One concentrates this year on Shakespeare’s drinking songs, another on the Walton score for Laurence Olivier’s patriotic 1940 take on Henry V, and another, by Devon Glover, the Sonnet Man from New York, will open the audience’s ears and minds to Shakespeare and Rap.

Dowland's Foundry

Evening performances take place in the atmospheric setting of Holy Trinity, Shakespeare’s memorial Church. A double bill on the first night offers a concert performance of George Bernard Shaw’s 1910 one-act play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets followed by Philip Hagemann’s 2008 short opera of the same name, inspired by the play but with a twist in the tail. The talented Stratford Chamber Choir then offer Vaughan Williams’ four unaccompanied songs as well as George Shearing’s settings of Shakespeare songs, alongside soloists from Rose Opera with enchanting interpretations of folk and courtly verses of Shakespeare’s time. And the Rose Opera singers will enchant the audience on the final night with their selection of favourite arias from Shakespeare’s operatic legacy, from Berlioz and Bellini, Gounod and Thomas, Britten and Tippett, Verdi and Wagner – yes, from his very first opera which was based on Love’s Labour’s Lost! 

In addition to all that, the Festival has been chosen for the first award of the Fischer Fund Prize for the best Shakespeare song composed in 2025. It is shared this year between a sonnet and a speech, interpreted by Mathilda Goika (mezzo) and Archie Inns (tenor) with Nigel Foster, the founder of the London Song Festival, at the piano,  for a musical celebration of Shakespeare’s Birthday.  

Performances in this Festival of Shakespeare and his musical legacy take place in Holy Trinity Church, the 13th century Guild Chapel, and the United Reformed Church, all central locations in Stratford-on-Avon.  Just check out the programme on the website and book on-line.

 Shakespeare in Music? "Give me excess of it". There is no sickening and the appetite never dies.