We are the lucky ones: Philip Venables new opera at Dutch National Opera, his first large-scale orchestral opera

Philip Venables (Photo: ® Charl Marais)

Philip Venables' opera We are the lucky ones is being premiered by Dutch National Opera on 14 March 2025 in Amsterdam.

The opera features a libretto by Nina Segal and Ted Huffmann, and Huffmann also directs and designs. This will be Venables and Huffmann's fourth music theatre collaboration and their previous work included 4.48 Psychosis [see my review of the 2018 revival], Denis & Katya [which debuted in Philadelphia in 2019 then travelled to Wales in 2020, see my article] and The Faggots and their Friends between Revolutions, an adaptation of Larry Mitchell’s queer fairy tale which debuted at the Manchester International Festival in 2023. We are the lucky ones is their first collaboration with playwright Nina Segal, and also their first full-scale orchestral opera.

We Are The Lucky Ones tells the story of a generation. It is based on interviews with more than seventy people in Western Europe who were born between 1940 and 1949. The musical director is Bassem Akiki and the cast includes Claron McFadden and Jacquelyn Stucker. Full details from Dutch National Opera's website.

Philip Venables also recently announced the launch of his own publishing imprint, Opera Edition Ltd. Venables, previously published by G. Ricordi & Co. (Berlin) for the past seven years, will now publish all future works and many older pieces exclusively through Opera Edition Ltd, while Ricordi will continue to manage their catalogue of his works. Additionally, he will now be represented by OWL Artist Management.

Philip Venables said: "I’m thrilled to start a new adventure by setting up Opera Edition and collaborating with Oliver Clarke at OWL Artist Management. As I transition from chamber work to large-scale opera, and having decided to move away from a traditional publishing arrangement, I am hugely excited by the possibility of a new publishing and promotion model to facilitate the bespoke music theatre projects that I want to make. I know that Oliver shares that vision and is eager to help make it a reality; I’m absolutely delighted to be working with him."

Further details from Philip Venables' website.

BREMF celebrates late artistic director Deborah Roberts & creates fund as a way of continuing her inspirational legacy

Deborah Roberts

BREMF (Brighton Early Music Festival) is celebrating the life of its late artistic director (and co-founder) Deborah Roberts with a concert at St Martin's Church, Brighton on 9 February 2025. 

Performers taking part including BREMF Live alumni and BREMF performing groups including Apollo's Cabinet, Voice, Ensemble Tempus, Rune, Musica Secreta and Celestial Sirens, plus BREMF Consort of Voices, BREMF 415 Workshop Orchestra, and BREMF Community Choir.

The music has been selected to feature repertoire that Deborah loved and performed, including music by Josquin, Monteverdi, Byrd, and William Boyce plus scenes from Francesca Caccini's Ruggiero and Blow's Venus & Adonis, Cozzolani's Magnificat a 8 and Striggio's Mass in 40 parts.

The event is almost full, though there will be a limited number of places available on the door, see website for details, but do consider donating to BREMF in Deborah's memory (details on the website).All donations will be added to the Deborah Roberts Memorial Fund, which will be used to support the projects that Deborah championed and loved as a way of continuing her inspirational legacy.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach is somewhat undeservedly squashed between his brothers, but this disc shows his music well worth exploring

Johann Christoph Friedrich: Six Sonatas "für das Clavier mit Begleitung einer Flöte oder Violine"; Ashley Solomon, Jochewed Schwarz; Meridian Records
Reviewed 20 January 2025

With a poised fluidity and an imagination hovering between Baroque and Classical, JCF Bach's music proves well worth exploring on this disc of his sonatas for keyboard and flute, add to this the seductive timbre of the period square piano

Born in Leipzig in 1732, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was JS Bach's fifth son (coming between CPE Bach and JC Bach). He was described by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach as the strongest harpsichordist amongst the brothers and at the age of 17 became harpsichordist to Count Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst zu Schaumberg Lippe and for the next 45 years, until his death, JCF Bach was resident in Bückeburg in Lower Saxony, the capital of the tiny principality of Schaumburg-Lippe. Count Friedrich Wilhelm was eight years older than his new employee and the grandson of King George I of England (via one of the king's illegitimate daughters).

Schaumburg-Lippe was the smallest state in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Count was educated and musically literate, playing the clavier and probably the flute. Whilst his father's court had employed just one musician (!), Count Friedrich Wilhelm employed fifteen (including JCF Bach), including recruiting Italian musicians. JCF Bach took over as concertmaster in 1756 when the Italian musicians returned home. 

The majority of JCF Bach's music remained in manuscript, and was the property of the Count, probably written for the Count's musical circle. Unfortunately the majority of this was lost in the Second World War. Thankfully, JCF Bach did publish a small selection of his music, and flute is a regular feature of his published music, and in 1777 he published Six Sonatas intended for keyboard with flute or violin. There are six of these and they have been recorded by flautist Ashley Solomon and keyboard player Jochewed Schwarz for Meridian.

This new recording does not just give us a chance to hear JCF Bach's six sonatas, but to do so on instruments that he might have recognised. Ashley Solomon plays a flute made in 2005 and modelled on on by Carlo Palanca from around 1750. Jochewed Schwarz plays not on a harpsichord but on a square piano by Johannes Zumpe and Gabriel Buntebart made in London in 1769 and currently in the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands Park where the recording was made.

Song, the Secret of Eternity: Leeds Lieder Festival returns with its boldest & most colourful programme yet, celebrating its 20th anniversary

With the theme of Song, the Secret of Eternity, Leeds Lieder Festival returns from 5 to 12 April 2025 with a celebration of its 20th anniversary. Festival director Joseph Middleton describes it as "Our boldest and most colourful programme to date reflects the enduring appeal of song and its power to connect us across time and culture. With a line-up of  performers who really have something to say, and innovative programmes, this Festival celebrates life, song, and its ability to explain some of the most profound aspects of the human condition."

Two Schubert song cycles open and close the Festival, performed by two of the greatest exponents of the art form accompanied by festival director Joseph Middleton. Baritone Florian Boesch opens the week with Winterreise, while tenor Christoph Prégardien concludes with Die schöne Müllerin. Throughout the Festival, audiences will be treated to recitals by the finest British vocalists such as Alice Coote who is joined by pianist Julius Drake for their 'Rebellious Recital' which aims to challenge the very notion of the traditional song recital programme, Kitty Whately who is joined by pianist Natalie Burch for a relaxed lunchtime recital, Louise Alder who performs Mahler, and Strauss alongside Helen Grime including her Bright Travellers and the premiere of a festival commission, and Roderick Williams who with Andrew West brings 'A touch of the exotic'.

The Erda Ensemble, Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), Chloe Vincent (flute), Olivia Jageurs (harp), present an homage to women in music and brewing at North Brewing with music from Chaminade, Ina Boyle, Harriet Adie, Amy Beach, Rosy Wertheim, Grace Williams, Anne Boyd, and Roxana Panufnik. In Our People, tenor Freddie Ballantyne and pianist Kunal Lahiry present a recital which is a passion produce born out of the strife of the Black Lives Matter movement, which moves from Schubert and Purcell, through Copland, Bolcom, and Margaret Bonds to John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon and Nina Simone.

The much-acclaimed Leeds Songbook Project offering a living portrait of the city’s artistic landscape. The project marries stories about the people of Leeds, told in poems by the people of Leeds, set to music by composers invited to Leeds, and finally, performed by Leeds Lieder Young Artists. The showcase event connects Leeds communities and creates a lasting snapshot of song writing for future generations to enjoy. 

There are masterclasses led by artists, including Festival President Elly Ameling, Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Felicity Lott, Amanda Roocroft, Julius Drake and Anna Tilbrook. A series of specially curated concerts will also highlight the next generation of musicians, including a Young Artist Showcase, Study Event based on Goethe, and a Late Night Lieder event, presenting the future of song in a relaxed and intimate setting.   

The festival's title this year comes from final song Egyptian soprano Fatma Said will sing in her eclectic programme - words by Khalil Gibran and music by Lebanese polymath Najib Hankash. The opening stanza reads: 

“Give me a flute and sing,
For song is the secret of eternity,
And the sound of the flute remains
Beyond the end of existence.” 

Full details from the festival website.

A channel to facilitate communication between the professional music world and the society more in general: Fidelio Orchestra's 2025 season

Fidelio Orchestra

Founded in 2019 with the aim of creating opportunities for young musicians to get high standard orchestral experience and to collaborate with outstanding soloists, the the Fidelio Orchestra aims to bring together people with a commitment to making good music in a fun and unsophisticated environment. 

Their 2025 season begins on 20 February at St Andrew's Holborn, with Raffaello Morales conducting and the orchestra performing in the round with a programme, Meditations that features Marcello's Oboe Concerto from 1717, and two works from the 1940s, Bacewicz's Concerto for String Orchestra and Strauss' Oboe Concerto with soloist Laura Wallace. A practicing solicitor with a top law firm, Laura is a vivid example of how the passion and the interest for music can go along a profession strictly outside of the music industry.

In April, Raffaello Morales conducts a far larger ensemble at Milton Court Concert Hall for Strauss' Ein Heldenleben and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.2 with violinist Kristine Balanas. Then in June the orchestra is joined by pianist (and barrister) Paul Wee at St John's Waterloo for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10. 

Finally the season concludes in July at St John's Waterloo with Mozart's Serenade for Winds in C minor K. 388 and Alban Berg's Kammerkonzert für Klavier und Geige mit 13 Bläser. The conductor is Leonard Elschenbroich with soloists, pianist Julia Hamoś and Fidelio Orchestra's concertmaster Jaga Klimaszewska. 

The orchestra is effectively a springboard for young musicians to launch into a career as professional players. The involvement of non-professional musicians in the orchestra is a testimony to the idea that orchestral music is not only a discipline to be celebrated as a professional practice, but it can be a channel to facilitate communication between the professional music world and the society more in general.

Full details from the orchestra's website.

'They are all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me.' - Riders to the Sea

J.M.Synge's Riders to the Sea at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin

Ralph Vaughan Williams' operatic masterpiece, Riders to the Sea, his 1927 one-act opera remains something of a neglected gem, to a certain extent because no-one has quite worked out what to programme with the opera. 

On 30 January 2025, OperaUpClose (OUC) launch a UK tour of Riders to the Sea in a new chamber orchestration by Michael Betteridge and the opera is paired with a new prologue by Betteridge, The Last Bit of the Moon, with a text by ArtfulScribe's Community Sirens Collective led by Antosh Wojcik. The director is Flora McIntosh and performances feature Lauren Young as Maurya. The tour opens in 30 January at MAST Mayflower Studios, Southampton and continues to Exeter, Plymouth, Chichester, the artsdepot (London), Hull, Oxford, and Blackpool. 

 

'I'll have no call now to be crying and praying when the wind breaks from the south and you can hear the surf is in the east and the surf is in the west making a great stir with the two noises and they hitting one another.' - Maurya (Riders to the Sea)

The show will bring together music, projections and theatre as there will be choral recordings layered over the live music and the musicians will be on stage with the singers, building on this element of OUC’s approach to their shows which was a big part of their version of The Flying Dutchman from last year.

The composer Edmund Rubbra characterised Riders to the Sea as less an opera than a "spoken drama raised in emotional power and expressiveness to the nth degree" The story concerns Maurya, an elderly Irishwoman, who has lost her husband, father-in-law, and four of her six sons at sea. In the opera her fifth son, Michael, is feared lost and the sixth and last son, Bartley, is planning to go to Galway fair to sell horses. Maurya sees a vision of the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley, and Bartley's corpse is brought on. The opera ends with a long lament from Maurya where she comes to terms with her loss.

Full details from the OperaUpClose website.

Here, director Flora McIntosh and composer Michael Betteridge discuss the opera.

In my end is my beginning: Dmitri Tcherniakov directs Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto & Ulrich Rasch directs Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the 2025 Salzburg Festival

Salzburg - Hofstallgasse at Night (Photo: TSG Breitegger)

For Markus Hinterhäuser, artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, the main theme of the 2025 Festival (18 July to 31 August 2025) can be summed up in Mary, Queen of Scot's motto 'in my end is my beginning'. But for all Hinterhäuser's admirably coherent programming, 2025 is likely to be the year that Dmitri Tcherniakov directed Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Ulrich Rasch directed Donizetti's Maria Stuarda. The opera selection is admirably catholic, there are also a new productions of Péter Eötvös' Three Sisters and Schoenberg's Erwartung along with a revival of Verdi's Macbeth in Krzysztof Warlikowski's production.

This will be Dmitri Tcherniakov's debut at the Salzburg Festival but he will be teaming up again with conductor Emmanuelle Haim (conducting her own period-instrument ensemble), the two of them having worked on Tcherniakov's Gluck Iphigenia project at Aix-en-Provence this Summer. In Giulio Cesare, the title role will be sung by Christophe Dumaux with Olga Kulchynska as Cleopatra, Lucile Richardot as Cornelia, countertenor Federico Fiori as Sesto and countertenor Yuriy Mynenko as Tolomeo. It will be interesting to see what version of the opera Tcherniakov and Haim come up with (ie what cuts they implement) as well as finding out how Tcherniakov deals with the dramaturgy of opera seria. One thing, however, is certain, it won't be boring and Dumaux has long experience in the role of Cesare, we saw him way back in 2011 at Royal Theatre at Versailles [see my review].

A glorious, yet sophisticated noise: Handel's Solomon from Paul McCreesh & Gabrieli with Tim Mead as Solomon in Inner Temple Hall

Inner Temple Hall in its modern incarnation built in the 1950s

Handel: Solomon; Tim Mead, Rowan Pierce, Hilary Cronin, Frances Gregory, Anna Dennis, James Way, Morgan Pearse, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Paul McCreesh; Temple Music Foundation at Inner Temple Hall
Reviewed 16 January 2025

One of Handel's finest oratorios in almost perfect circumstances, glorious choral singing, fine orchestral playing, superb dramatic pacing and seven soloists who drew you into the drama. Pure magic.

Written in 1749, Handel's Solomon is a lavish work, large in scale, using a double chorus and with the one of the largest orchestras Handel would write for (strings, flutes, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani), yet Susanna which premiered the same season uses relatively compact forces. Clearly, in Solomon Handel wished the conception to match his eulogy of Georgian England.

After having written a whole sequence of martial oratorios in the years after the 1745 rebellion, Handel turned to a greater variety of sources for his oratorios, Susanna and Solomon are both Biblical, but the one has elements of a lighter operatic style, whilst the other has that large scale grandeur. Then in 1750 he would turn to a sentimental novel for Theodora, which though religious in nature is not Biblical at all, before the final towering masterpiece of Jephtha with its story combining the Bible with Euripides and the daring use of a dramatic tenor as the hero.

For Solomon, Handel seemed to be looking back. There is the use of Da Capo arias, but also the casting of the title role. This was written for a female alto, Caterina Galli, as if Handel was looking back towards the castratos of his Italian opera. Countertenors in Handel's day rarely had the dramatic range needed for the role, though nowadays Solomon is rarely played by a woman. Having also sung Joachim in Susanna, Caterina Galli would create a sequence of remarkable roles for Handel including Irene in Theodora and Storgé in Jephtha. In Handel's performances of Solomon the three soprano roles, Solomon's Queen, First Harlot and Queen of Sheba, were sung by the same singer though modern practice tends to have them sung by different singers.

On Thursday 16 January 2025, Temple Music opened their 2025 season with one of their largest events yet, Handel's Solomon performed in Inner Temple Hall by Gabrieli Consort & Players, conductor Paul McCreesh, with Tim Mead as Solomon, Rowan Pierce as Solomon's Queen, Hilary Cronin and Frances Gregory as the Harlots and Anna Dennis as the Queen of Sheba, plus James Way as Zadok and Morgan Pearse as a Levite.

The concert took place in Inner Temple Hall, this is a traditional classical style building dating from the 1950s, and the third incarnation of the hall. The original 17th century hall was replace in the later 19th century by a Gothic one, this in turn was destroyed during the war and replaced by the present one.

A highly effective synthesis: James Joyce's The Dead in a dramatised reading from Niamh Cusack with music from The Fourth Choir that underscored the emotional drama

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

The Dead: James Joyce, Sarah MacDonald, Rhona Clarke, Robert Parsons, Bellini, Aine Mallon, Joanna Marsh, Samuel Barber, Healey Willan, Bo Holten; Niamh Cusack, The Fourth Choir, Jamie Powe, Seamus Rea; Wilton's Music Hall
Reviewed 14 January 2025

The slightly unlikely combination of Joyce's masterly long short-story and music from Robert Parsons to Healey Willan and Samuel Barber to Joanna Marsh and Bo Holten proved a surprisingly effective synthesis, creating an engaging theatrical experience, not quite dramatic reading and not quite musical treatment.

James Joyce's The Dead, the final short story in his 1914 collection Dubliners might seem a somewhat unlikely inspiration for musical treatment, but it has inspired more than one dramatic adaptation including a Broadway musical. Music does, in fact, play an important part in the story. The first half depicts a Dublin party which seems an amusing examination of Irish identity, but a folksong The Lass of Aughrim raises such powerful memories and emotions in the hero, Gabriel Conroy's wife, Gretta, that the second half of the story where Gabriel and Gretta Conroy retire to a hotel, goes in an entirely surprising direction. The story ends with Gabriel watching the snow and considering the role of the dead in people's lives - "His soul swooned slowly, as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead".

On Tuesday 14 January 2025, The Fourth Choir, musical director Jamie Powe, presented a dramatised reading of James Joyce's The Dead at Wilton's Music Hall, with actor Niamh Cusack. The work was adapted and directed by Séamus Rea, and developed in collaboration with Jamie Powe, with lighting by Guy Hoare.

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

The result was surprisingly engaging and thought-provoking, a dramatised reading of The Dead interspersed with music that sometimes referenced the story and sometimes simply heightened the atmosphere. 

Calling aspiring composers: ORA Singers 2025 Graduate and Young Composers schemes open

Suzi Digby at ORA Singers' Graduate Composer scheme

ORA Singers is looking for young composers as their 2025 Graduate Composers scheme and their 2025 Young Composers scheme are both open for applications.

The 2025 Graduate Composers scheme is designed to kick-start the careers of young professionals, offering the chance for five Graduate Composers to become professionally commissioned by ORA Singers. Each Graduate Composer will receive a commission fee of £1,000.00 to write a new short piece which ORA Singers will perform and record in concert in front of industry guests at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in October 2025. 

Graduate Composers will also receive a professional video recording of their piece to help build their portfolios.   During the composing period, Graduates will have opportunities to meet with Director, Suzi Digby , and the ORA Singers team over consultation sessions, where they can receive guidance on their queries.

Full details from the ORA Singers website.

The 2025 Young Composers will be welcoming 50 students from non fee-paying schools to receive free, first-class coaching in composition with professional composers. Students are enrolled as either Young Composers or Apprentices. Young Composers receive one-to-one composition coaching with professional composers, chances to attend a workshop and are invited to write a new piece which ORA Singers perform and record in concert. 

"Nothing else I’ve done this year - including school! - has taught me, inspired me and moulded me as much as this programme. Thank you so much to everyone at ORA, it’s been incredible.” - Emily Pedersen, 2019 Winner

Apprentices receive mentoring through a course of online Zoom workshops with composer, Rory Wainwright Johnston as well as opportunities to meet with professional composers and undergraduates to learn about the music industry, and gain tips on applying to University/Conservatoire.

Full details from the ORA Singers website.

Creating a personal world: Ethel Smyth's earliest orchestral work alongside contemporary pieces by inti figgis-vizueta and Ying Wang

Lauter! Ethel Smyth, inti figgis-vizueta;Ying Wang; ensemble reflektor, Holly Hyun Choe; Solaire Records
Reviewed 14 January 2025

Ethel Smyth's earliest orchestral work alongside contemporary pieces by inti figgis-vizueta and Ying Wang in an intriguing programme that brings a sense of contrast, of creating worlds.

 Lauter! from ensemble reflektor on Solaire records combines two contemporary female composers with an early work by a female composer in the historical canon. Conducted by Holly Hyun Choe, the ensemble performs inti figgis-vizueta's devour, Ying Wang's Freiheit is der Atem der  Kunst and Ethel Smyth's Serenade in D major. The two contemporary works were commissioned by PODIUM Esslingen and premiered at PODIUM Festival 2023.

Based in North Germany but with strong links to PODIUM Esslingen near Stuttgart, ensemble reflektor is a lively chamber orchestra and Lauter! is their fourth disc, each one encompassing a mix of the old and the new, the classic and the cutting edge.

The Serenade in D major was Ethel Smyth's first major orchestra work, written in late 1889 and premiered at a Crystal Palace concert in 1890 with the composer conducting. Apart from an overture dating from the same period, Smyth wrote little further orchestral music that was not connected to her operas until the late Concerto for violin and horn in 1926. After 1890 her attention would turn towards her Mass in D and her first opera, Fantasio.

An alternative Valentine, a Welsh songbook and celebrating 10 years of Creative Minds in Song: Song in the City's 2025 season begins

Song in the City's Creative Minds in Song

Song in the City is an artist-led charity directed by Gavin Roberts and Rebecca Cohen that aims to take classical music out of its comfort zone, using the talents of professional classical musicians to respond to the world around us, whilst challenging our artists and audiences in creative ways.

Their 2025 season gets off to a lively start with a trio of concerts at St Giles Cripplegate. First off is Reclaiming Love: An Alternative Valentines on 14 February when Sam Cobb (soprano), Charlie Morris (alto), Jonathan Henley (tenor), Thomas Litchiev (baritone), Gavin Roberts and Anna Reiley (piano), as part of LGBT+ History Month celebrate love of all kinds with music including Brahms' Love Song Waltzes, and songs chosen specially by the performers that share what 'love' means to them!

For Wales Week London 2025, Elinor Rolf Johnson (soprano) and Gavin Roberts are presenting A Welsh Songbook on 7 March, with music and poetry by Morfydd Owen, Meirion Williams, Nicholas Olsen, Alun Hoddinot, Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, RS Hughes, and E T Davies. 

Then on 11 April, they celebrate 10 years of Creative Minds in Song. Lynda Shariff (mezzo-soprano), Gavin Roberts and artists from Creative Minds in Song will present the premiere of My Child by poet Isobel Lane and composer Michal Kawecki, alongside previous compositions and poetry readings from former Creative Minds in Song participants.

Creative Minds in Song was begun by Song in the City in 2015, and has produced 30 co-created songs with in collaboration with writers who have lived experience of mental illness using the talents of Guildhall School composers, singers and instrumentalists. Isobel Lane and Michal Kawecki first met on Song in the City’s Creative Minds in Song project.

Further information from the Song in the City website and tickets from TicketTailor.

The complete Walton songs: there aren't that many but Siân Dicker, Kyrstal Tunnicliffe, Saki Kato certainly make us understand why they are all worthy of attention

William Walton: Complete Song Collection;  Siân Dicker, Krystal Tunnicliffe, Saki Kato; DELPHIAN
Reviewed 12 January 2025

Shedding a light on Walton's small but valuable song output from remarkable early songs to the late masterpieces, all performed with love, attention and often lyrical exuberance

William Walton wrote music in a wide variety of genres and whilst his orchestral and film music might stand top dead centre in his output, the voice is a constant throughout his career with choral music, opera and of course the reciters in Facade, whose medium of reciter and ensemble seemed to offer the composer such a fertile ground that the original Facade spawned further material.

But what does not crop up that often is song. Walton does not seem to have had a habit of songs, and most of his song-writing seems to have relied on others to choose the texts, he wasn't a composer to read poetry to select his songs. His two major song cycles, A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table and Anon in Love both date from late in his career, and both have intriguing links back to Walton's only full-scale opera, Troilus and Cressida. Whilst for all the fertility of his ideas for Facade, he wrote just three songs based on it. 

So it is all the more valuable to have Walton's Complete Song Collection on this disc from Delphian, performed by soprano Siân Dicker, pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe and guitarist Saki Kato. Alongside the three Facade settings, A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table and Anon in Love we have Four Early Songs, Tritons, Under the greenwood tree and Beatriz's Song (from Christopher Columbus).

The idea of Greece: Robin Tritschler and Jonathan Ware in a wide-ranging recital from Schubert, Loewe & Wolf to Shostakovich, Dvorak, Berkeley & Ravel

Photo: Antonio Beato, 19th century
Brooklyn Museum

Greek Songs: Schubert, Loewe, Wolf, Conradin Kreutzer, Ludwig Berger, Shostakovich, Dvorak, Lennox Berkeley, Ravel: Robin Tritschler, Jonathan Ware; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 8 January 2025

Composers different ideas of Greece from Schubert's experimental, architectural songs, to Shostakovich's workers songs and Ravel's French-influenced folk songs, along with some rather rare Dvorak and Berkeley.

In their programme, Greek Songs, at Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 8 January 2025, tenor Robin Tritschler and pianist Jonathan Ware explored the idea of Greece in composers' minds. None of the songs set any Greek, though some used translations of the original, and as far as I can tell, none of the composers visited Greece. This was an exploration of the idea of Greece in the Western mind. We began with Schubert, seven of his settings of Mayrhofer's mythological-based texts, followed by similarly Greek-inspired work from Carl Loewe and Hugo Wolf. As a sort of palate cleanser in the middle of the recital, there were songs by two of Schubert's older contemporaries, Conradin Kreutzer and Ludwig Berger, and then we moved to the 20th century for Greek-inspired songs by Shostakovich, Dvorak, Lennox Berkeley and Ravel.

In 1818 Schubert spent the Summer as a music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Esterházy at their château in Zselíz. When he returned to Vienna, he moved into a one-room apartment with his friend Johann Mayrhofer, a poet who was ten years older than Schubert and the two would live together until 1821. Mayrhofer was almost certainly homosexual and the relationship with Schubert is one that continues to tantalise as critics theorise without much concrete evidence, one way or the other.

Mayrhofer had a fascinating with Greek mythology and used it, sometimes to autobiographical effect, in his poems (such as Memnon). We heard a group of seven of Schubert's settings, dating from 1817 and 1820. The songs are all serious and full of sober intensity, there is almost something architectural about Schubert's writing. In many ways, these Mayrhofer settings feel as if Schubert is experimenting with arioso and dramatic recitative rather than lyrical song.

Continuo Foundation opens applications for funding for round 9!

Handel: Messiah - Manchester Baroque at Manchester Cathedral in December 2024 (Photo: Tom Bowles)

Continuo Foundation is inviting applications for funding early music concerts, tours and other projects taking place between May and October 2025, anywhere in the UK. As in previous rounds, the funding available in this ninth grant round amounts to £100,000.

Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded £850,000 to 100 UK period-instrument ensembles, including 29 emerging groups, formed since 2020. The 200 projects supported so far have benefited over 1,000 freelance musicians and more than 260,000 audience members in 200 locations across the country and online.

Professional UK-based period instrument ensembles are eligible to apply, with a separate category for emerging ensembles. Project proposals will be evaluated by the Foundation’s Advisory Panel and Trustees based on artistic quality, audience reach and long-term impact. At least 20% of the funds will be directed to support recently formed groups, underlining the Foundation’s commitment to nurturing emerging talent and new creative partnerships.  

The photo (above) shows Manchester Baroque, one of the emerging ensembles the Foundation helped to get off the ground with their grants, and the ensemble has had enormous success in developing new audiences for early music in Manchester.

In addition to grants, the Foundation supports all UK-based professional early music artists, including vocal ensembles, through the Continuo Connect digital platform for early music. The Foundation invests in growing the community of musicians, festivals and audiences using this online hub to raise the profile of the sector and to open access to the world of early music.

Full details from the Continuo Foundation's website.

precept.concept.percept XII - open call for composers and performers for residency run by Slovenian .abeceda [new music ensemble]

There is an open call for composers and performers for a residency programme for 2025. The precept.concept.percept residency focuses on a collaborative creative process where performers and composers work closely together to prepare for a performance at the fifth .abeceda Contemporary Music Festival (Bled, Slovenia, EU). Composers present, optimize, theorize, and develop new works, while performers form an ensemble to refine their practice and premiere these compositions.

This represents a year-long collaboration with monthly online workshops from February to May 2025, a week's workshop in Bled, Slovenia in June 2025 with a performance at the fifth .abeceda Contemporary Music Festival in Bled. Then monthly online workshops from September to November 2025 with presentations by participant composers and performers focused on in-depth analysis and reflection.

The video shows Claudia Sofía Alvarez Cuba's Gritos silentes performed by .abeceda [new music ensemble]. The residency is run .abeceda [new music ensemble], which composer Alastair White has worked with over the past few years as composer-in-residence

Applications need to take place before 25 January 2025, further information at the website.

Uprising! Director Sinéad O’Neill on Glyndebourne's new community opera written by Jonathan Dove and April De Angelis

Can one person make a difference? Horrified by the climate crisis, teenager Lola decides that she must fight for the future. Composer Jonathan Dove and writer April De Angelis' new opera looks at the state of the world through the eyes of the young. 

The work is premiered at Glyndebourne opening on 28 February, featuring a cast of professionals including Ffion Edwards (who recently sang the title role in Rimsky Korsakov's The Snow Maiden with English Touring Opera, see my interview with Ffion), Madeleine Shawe, Julieth Lozano Rolong, and Ross Ramgobin, and the Glyndebourne Sinfonia alongside Glyndebourne Youth Opera, a community chorus and young instrumentalists from Brighton & East Sussex Youth Orchestra and Brighton & Hove Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Gourlay.

Here, the work's director, Sinéad O’Neill introduces the project. Sinéad founded Cambridge City Opera to create original music theatre for new audiences. She co-created Pay the Piper with composers Ailie Robertson, Cecilia Livingston, Ninfea Crutwell-Reade and Anna Appleby and writer Hazel Gould for Glyndebourne Youth Opera (2022), and with long-time collaborator, composer Matt Rogers, she  has created Amor Mundi (conceived and written by Zsuzsanna Ardó), The Raven, On the Axis of this World and And London Burned.

Uprising is set to premiere at Glyndebourne in 2025. Could you share some insights into the inspiration behind this production and how the storyline developed?

In 2020, a man called Jim Potter received a terminal diagnosis. He lay awake at night thinking about the world and his place in it, and he was inspired to commission a new opera. He wanted it to be about young people, and about the climate crisis. The seeds Jim planted in those dark days grew into Uprising. Jim and his wife Hilary worked closely with composer Jonathan Dove and writer April De Angelis to combine a rigorous understanding of climate change and a direct, emotional engagement with one girl's drive to change the world.

Our December newsletter has arrived: songs by Robert Kahn and Thomas Pitfield, new youth opera and Pieces that Disappear

 

The Cast of ENO’s The Pirates of Penzance 2024 © Craig Fuller

In case you missed it online, our December newsletter has arrived, a handy digest of the month's reviews. December was a month when we moved from Gilbert & Sullivan to Christmas celebrations both well-known and lesser known. Interviews this month include baritone Benjamin Appl on his three new discs from Christmas in Regensburg to György Kurtág, composer Nathan Williamson on his new opera for London Youth Opera, and composer Stephen Goss on his latest triple album which is a celebration of collaboration.

Read the newsletter at Mailchimp.

Idomeneo in Amsterdam: Lawrence Cummings joins forces with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for a new production of Mozart's first mature opera

Mozart's Idomeneo is regarded as his first mature opera, written for Munich in 1781. The subject may not have been Mozart's choice but it represents the composers continuing engagement with Italian opera seria, a style that had dominated his operatic output in his teenage years. Mozart continued his engagement with this style, though his three mature operas with Lorenzo da Ponte represent a new direction, yet in 1791 he would return to opera seria for his late masterpiece, La clemenza di Tito.

Idomeneo was written to a libretto by Giambattista Varesco, the court chaplain, based on a libretto written for  André Campra's Idoménée (1712). It has been suggested that Varesco was familiar with the work of Calzabigi, Gluck's librettist, and much of the opera represents a mediation between the French and the Italian serious styles. The opera is something of a musicological minefield, before the first performance Mozart was making large cuts and changes, then in 1786 he was contemplating wholesale revisions to make it more Gluckian, with Idomeneo as a bass and Idamante as a tenor (rather than a castrato). In the event, all he did was give a concert performance in Vienna in 1786, writing some new music, making more cuts and changing Idamante to tenor, a half-way house towards a version that he never created.

Idomeneo's dependence on the Italian 18th-century opera seria style can mean dramatic challenges for directors, yet you need to set beside this that Mozart wrote a full-scale dance divertissement for the opera too! Idomeneo remains one of those operas that fascinates and tantalises on the stage, whilst few productions manage to distil its essence.

If you fancy a trip to Amsterdam then on 7 February 2025, the Nationale Opera & Ballet opens a new production of Mozart's Idomeneo. Lawrence Cummings conducts, making his debut with the company and the production is directed by choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui who will also be working with members of his dance troupe, Eastman, and sets are designed by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. Daniel Behle is Idomeneo with a cast including Cecilia Molinari, Anna El-Khashem, and Jacquelyn Wagner.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, former artistic director of Royal Ballet of Flanders, has directed a number of operas including Rameau's Les Indes Galantes (2016, Bavarian State Opera), Philip Glass' Satyagraha (2017, Theater Basel), Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (2018, Opera Vlanderen) and Gluck's French version of Alceste (2019, Bavarian State Opera, see YouTube)

This is a co-production with Grand Théâtre de Genève and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, so if it appeals then there are other wonderful operatic trips to be made.

Interesting note: In 1964, Luciano Pavarotti made his UK debut as Idamante in Idomeneo at Glyndebourne in a production directed by Carl Ebert, conducted by John Pritchard with a cast including Gundula Janowitz as Ilia and Richard Lewis as Idomeneo. Now doesn't that make the mouth water! [full details at the Glyndebourne website]

Full details from the company's website.

Drawing us in: baritone James Atkinson makes his Wigmore Hall debut with pianist Iain Burnside in a programme moving from Robert to Clara Schumann to Brahms' late tombeau for Clara

Robert and Clara Schumann

Schumann: Eichendorff Liederkreis, Clara Schumann: Gedichte aus Rückerts Liebesfrühling, Brahms: Four Serious Songs; James Atkinson, Iain Burnside; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 6 January 2025

Young baritone James Atkinson used his rich, dark hued voice in a manner that really drew us in, not over-demonstrative yet rich in subtlety, in a programme that moved from Robert to Clara Schumann to Brahms' late tombeau for Clara

Baritone James Atkinson has been a BBC New Generation Artist since 2023 and we have caught him in a variety of roles from London Song Festival appearances celebrating the friendship of Hector Berlioz & Théophile Gautier [see my review] and the bi-centenary of the invention of the Mackintosh at the [see my review] to performing Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with Wild Arts [see my review], as well as premiering Out of the Shadows, the programme of my songs and cantatas that we premiered in 2023.

On Monday 6 January 2025, James Atkinson made his Wigmore Hall debut at a BBC Lunchtime Concert with pianist Iain Burnside in a programme that moved from Schumann's Eichendorff Liederkreis, Op. 39 to Clara Schumann's Gedichte aus Rückerts Liebesfrühling, Op. 12 and Johannes Brahms' Four Serious Songs, Op. 121

We began with Schumann's Eichendorff Liederkreis setting twelve poems by Joseph von Eichendorff to create one of the great explorations of the Romantic experience of landscape.

A significant link between Gounod's Faust & Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, Saint-Saens's Le timbre d'argent gets a rare UK outing revived by New Sussex Opera

Offenbach: La princesse de Trébizonde - Anthony Flaum, Meriel Cunningham - New Sussex Opera in 2021 (Photo Colin Chapman)

Under Léon Carvalho, the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris had something of a miracle period in the 1860s. In 1859 it produced the original version of Gounod's Faust (with spoken dialogue), going on to then produce Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Mireille, Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles and La jolie fille de Perth and Berlioz's Les Troyens à Carthage as well as the Paris premiere of Wagner's Rienzi. So it was perhaps not surprising that Saint-Saens was intended to be on the list too.

He began Le timbre d'argent in 1864 and finished it a year later, but first the theatre's financial difficulties and then the Franco-Prussian war rather delayed things and the opera was not premiered until 1877, by an entirely different theatre. 

Described as an opéra fantastique, the libretto is by by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, who penned the librettos for Gounod's Faust and Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Saint-Saëns's opera serves as a significant link between these two. 

In May 2025, UK audiences will get a chance to appreciate the work as New Sussex Opera will be presenting a production directed by Paul Higgins and conducted by Toby Purser (the same team as was in charge of their 2024 production, Lampe's The Dragon of Wantley, see my review). Anthony Flaum will feature as Conrad with the remaining casting to be announced. The New Sussex Opera Chorus will be joined by St Paul's Sinfonia, and the work requires a much larger orchestra than their recent productions.

New Sussex Opera will be presenting it in a newly commissioned English translation.

The first performance is in Lewes on 5 May, with subsequent performances in London, Eastbourne, Worthing, and Winchester.

Full details from New Sussex Opera's website.

Don Giovanni, Dido and two Handel operas: Ensemble OrQuesta's new season

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - Rosemary Carlton-Willis, Marcio da Silva, Joshua Furtado-Mendes - Ensemble OrQesta at Arcola Theatre's Grimeborn Festival, 2024

Ensemble OrQuesta, artistic director Marcio da Silva, whom we last heard at the Grimeborn Festival in 2024 in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, with Marcio da Silva both directing and playing Figaro [see my review], has announced its 2025 season.

In March, Marcio da Silva will be directing 'a provocative and thought-provoking' version of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Cockpit Theatre with Oshri Segev in the title role plus Flavio Lauria, Helen May, Rosemary Carlton-Willis, Anna-Luise Wagner, and Joshua Furtado-Mendes. And they will be back at Grimeborn in 2025 with a production yet to be announced.

The Ensemble OrQuesta Opera Academy, dedicated to the training of the new generation of opera singers, is presenting three production, Mozart's Don Giovanni at Christ Church, Hastings in March, a double bill of Handel's Acis and Galatea ;and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Cockpit Theatre in May, and Handel's Teseo at the Cockpit Theatre in June.

Full details from the Ensemble OrQuesta website.

We Are! In support of Ukraine

Violinist Roman Mints is the artistic director of WE ARE! Concert in Support of Ukraine, a night of music and solidarity to support Ukraine on Sunday 26 January 2025 at St John's Church, Waterloo. The event will feature oboist Nicholas Daniel OBE, violinist Dmytro Udovychenko, conductor Natalia Ponomarchuk, pianist Sasha Grynyuk, flautist Karen Wong, and Roman Mints along with Another Chamber Orchestra.

The programme features Malcom Arnold's Variations on a Ukrainian Theme and his Concerto for two violins and string orchestra, alongside music by Ukrainian composers including Yevhen Stankovych, Valentin Silvestrov, Victoria Poleva, Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020), Vitaliy Hubarenko (1934-2000) and Yuri Shevchenko who died of pneumonia a month after Russia launched the invasion; he was trapped in a cellar in Kiev.

Moscow-born Roman Mints is a violin professor at both Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Following the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has been involved in several fundraising campaigns to raise money for charities helping Ukraine. He has founded Another Music Festival Ltd to promote these and other concerts, to bring together young and experienced musicians, and to create musical programmes with unexpected twists.

Ticket proceeds will go towards supporting Medical Life Line Ukraine which buys ambulances and power generators. 

Join us as we stand with Ukraine!

Full details from Eventbrite.

New Year in Berlin: Tony Cooper's cultural break takes in a new Torsten Rasch piece, Beethoven's Choral Symphony, Mendelssohn's Paulus & artists of Circus Roncalli

Silvesterkonzert - Artists of Circus Roncalli, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Paul Daniel - Tempodrom, Berlin (Photo: Peter Adamik)

Torsten Rasch: Pataphor; Beethoven: Symphony no.9 in D minor; Mirjam Mesak, Emily D’Angelo, Christopher Sokolowski, Christof Fischesser, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Jurowski; Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin.
New Year’s Eve concert (Silvesterkonzert): Artists of Circus Roncalli, Stephan Mörth, Thomas Holzmann, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Paul Daniel; Tempodrom, Berlin.
New Year’s Day concert (Neujahrskonzert): Mendelssohn: Paulus; Johanna Winkel, Anke Vondung, Patrick Grahl, Samuel Hasselhorn; RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Florian Helgath; Philharmonie Berlin.
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (30 & 31 December 2024, 1 January 2025)

Our roving European correspondent, Tony Cooper, travels to Berlin, a European capital he greatly favours, to see the Old Year out and ring in the New taking in a trio of concerts heard over consecutive days

My New Year’s cultural break in Berlin started in the historic Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt offering a delightful concert from Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin comprising Beethoven’s Choral Symphony heard against an illuminating new work by Torsten Rasch entitled Pataphor. And to punctuate New Year’s Eve, artists of Circus Roncalli joined forces with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin to produce a dazzling, fun and entertaining concert at the Tempodrom while New Year’s Day witnessed a powerful and rewarding performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Paulus, at the Philharmonie, Berlin.

To ease me out of the Old Year and launch me into the New, a trio of concerts in Berlin proved just the ticket with the first call falling to a New Year’s Eve pre-concert held at the magnificent and historic Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, featuring Torsten Rasch’s Pataphor and Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 in D minor ‘Choral’ featuring soprano Mirjam Mesak, mezzo-soprano, Emily D’Angelo, tenor Christopher Sokolowski and bass Christof Fischesser with the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

The New Year’s Eve concert (Silvesterkonzert) at the Tempodrom, Berlin, witnessed artists of Circus Roncalli joining forces with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Paul Daniel.

And on New Year’s Day, Mendelssohn’s Paulus, a work I’ve longed to hear for years and years, unexpectedly fell into my lap. A refreshing and beautiful oratorio, the performance featured soprano Johanna Winkel, mezzo-soprano Anke Vondung, tenor Patrick Grahl and baritone Samuel Hasselhorn with RIAS Kammerchor Berlin and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin conducted by Florian Helgath.

Beethoven: Symphony No.9 - Mirjam Mesak, Emily D’Angelo, Christopher Sokolowski, Christof Fischesser, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Jurowski - Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin.

As we wish everyone a Happy New Year, it is a time to look back at 2024 and celebrate

Ben Goldscheider & Gavin Higgins at the London premiere of Gavin Higgins' Horn Concerto
with London Chamber Orchestra (Photo: Jerome Weatherald)

2024 saw us writing 545 articles, from William Christie and Les Arts Florissants celebrating New Year's Eve 2023 in style to my review of two discs of retellings of the Christmas story from Gabriel Jackson and Edward Nesbitt.

There were just on 80 concert reviews and 53 opera reviews with everything from Lampe's The Dragon of Wantley to Bizet's Carmen at the BBC Proms. There was new opera by Stephen McNeff and revivals of Poul Ruders' The Handmaid's Tale, Judith Weir's Blond Eckbert, and Jonathan Dove's community opera, The Monster in the Maze, as well as Baroque rarities by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Gazzaniga and Jommelli. And we heard horn player Ben Goldscheider in two terrific new horn concertos, by Gavin Higgins and Huw Watkins, and Gavin Higgins was back with a revival of his terrific Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra.

Out of the UK, our new correspondent, Robert, started his Letter from Florida, including visits to Palm Beach Opera and Sarasota Opera. We made a return visit to Le piano symphonique in Lucerne, the Dresden Music Festival and the Göttingen Festival, whilst Tony caught the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. We received a warm welcome at the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Tartu, Estonia where a programme of my music was performed.

• 2024 in record reviews: white-hot prophets, sensitive souls, a German in Venice, Holst's organ and the 20th century brass band - article
• 2024 - A year in concert reviews: astonishing youth, late-romantic rarities, riveting symphonic theatre - article
• 2024 - A year in opera reviews: strong individual performances, reinventing classics and historically informed Wagner - article

We heard a fine account of Massenet's Werther in Zurich and a revelatory historically informed performance of Wagner's Die Walküre at the Dresden Music Festival and Tony Cooper revisited Dmitri Tcherniakov's Ring Cycle at the Staatsoper, Berlin.

Still with Wagner's Ring Cycle, Florence caught the next instalment of Regent Opera's powerful new chamber version of the cycle, Siegfried and transgender tenor Holden Madagame wrote about singing Mime in the production, whilst Tony heard the London Opera Company's full-scale concert performance of Siegfried.

Around the UK we made three visits to Opera North, and two to WNO, plus helping Leeds Lieder celebrate its 20th anniversary, as well as catching some of the Summer festivals at Glyndebourne, Garsington, and the Grange Festival, whilst in London there was Opera Holland Park, Grimeborn and of course the BBC Proms.

It was a year of rarities galore, but particular highlights must include a first chance to explore the songs of Robert Kahn, and a rare outing for Ethel Smyth's The Prison, whilst Nigel Foster's London Song Festival gave us the chance to explore the song output of Gustav Holst.

These remain worrying and challenging times for the arts in the UK, whilst the outlook can sometimes look bleak it is heartening to find so many artists and companies finding ways to demonstrate the value of the arts in so many ways.

As ever, you can explore further in our recently updated archives of live reviews, record reviews, and interviews.