Bridging Worlds: Grazyna Bacewicz, Florence Price, Carolyn Shaw, Eleanor Alberga; Elena Urioste, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Tomo Keller; Church of St Martin in the Fields Reviewed 9 April 2026
The premiere of Eleanor Alberga's vividly inventive second symphony alongside works by three other women composers spanning two continents and two centuries in compelling performances
Back in 2020, a wind ensemble from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields gave the first performance since its premiere in 1993 of Eleanor Alberga's Nightscape, then in Autumn 2021 the Academy launched The Beacon Project, a digital offering of educational resources and performance films that shine a light on three beacons of contemporary music: Eleanor Alberga, Sally Beamish, and Errollyn Wallen, with the first film to be issued being Alberga's Nightscape. In 2022, I chatted to Eleanor Alberga about Nightscape and also about her first symphony, which she had just completed [see my interview].
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields were so taken with Alberga's music that the idea of a commission developed and finally, last night (9 April 2026), the Academy of St Martin in the Fields directed from the violin by Tomo Keller premiered Eleanor Alberga's Symphony No. 2 at the Church of St Martin in the Fields as part of a concert entitled Bridging Worlds which featured Grazyna Bacewicz's Concerto for String Orchestra, Florence Price's Violin Concerto No. 1 (with soloist Elena Urioste) and Carolyn Shaw's Entr'acte.
It was a fascinating programme of 20th and 21st century music by women composers moving between Europe and America. The first half focused on the mid-Century period as Price's Violin Concerto No. 1 dates from 1939 whilst Bacewicz's piece dates from 1948. Then in the second half we had Shaw's 2011 work and Alberga's immediately contemporary one.
The Portrait Players (Emilia Agajew, Kristiina Watt, Claire Ward, Mirim Nohl) with Dame Emma Kirkby
I Voci Segreti: Monteverdi, Luzzaschi, Quagliati, Piccinini, Ortiz, Malvezzi, Coma, Settimia Caccini, Marenzio, Francesca Caccini; The Portrait Players, Dame Emma Kirkby; City Music Foundation at Bart's Great Hall Reviewed 8 April 2025
The seductive sweetness of three voices weaving in and around each other: Dame Emma Kirkby joins the young ensemble, The Portrait Players, for a programme celebrating the concerto delle donne and the fondness for all-female vocal ensembles in 16th century Italy
The court of the d'Este family, the Dukes of Ferrara in the 16th century is in many ways tantalising. Some of this is caused by distance, how can we know anything about life over 500 years ago. But in the case of the Dukes of Ferrara, when Alfonso II d'Este died without a direct heir in 1597 the d'Este family's hold on the dukedom withered and in 1598 it became papal fief and archives from the period were catastrophically lost.
Ferrara in 16th century matters, because it was a musical hothouse. Alfonso II created the concerto delle donne, a consort of professional female singers that existed from 1580 to 1597, famed for the singers' technical and artistic virtuosity. The women were upper class but not necessarily noble and the music performed was highly private, part of Alfonso's musica secreta concerts.
A highly trained ensemble, one of their innovations was to move from a single voice singing diminutions over accompaniment to two or three highly ornamented voices singing varying diminutions at once, with the ornaments notated in detail by the composers. The concerto delle donne was directed by court composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi and his surviving music for the group is precious.
This idea of a private ensemble of female singers was influential in Italy at the period and a recent concert by The Portrait Players, as part of the City Music Foundation's (CMF) lunchtime recital series in the Great Hall at St Bart's Hospital, explored this repertoire by focusing on the concerto delle donne in Ferrara and the music created for and by the Caccini sisters in Florence.
On Wednesday 8 April 2026, The Portrait Players (Claire Ward, soprano, Kristiina Watt, theorbo/voice, Miriam Nohl, cello and Emilia Agajew, harp) were joined by soprano Dame Emma Kirkby whose familiarity with this repertoire goes back many decades. Alongside madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Annibale Come, Settimia Caccini, Francesca Caccini and Luca Marenzio we heard instrumental music by Paolo Quagliati, Alessandro Piccinini, Diego Ortiz and Cristofano Malvezzi. Claire Ward was a CMF Artist from 2022 to 2024 and founded The Portrait Players in 2023.
Ferrara and its castle, home of the concerto delle donne
In fact, the members of the concerto delle donne in Ferrara all played instruments too, including the lute and harp. For this concert Kristiina Watt both sang and played theorbo, sometimes simultaneously, with Miriam Nohl and Emilia Agajew providing the other instrumental support.
The 2026 edition of the Spitalfields Music Festival begins the celebrations of the Festival's 50th anniversary. Established in 1976 by conductor Richard Hickox, this year marks the beginning of Spitalfields Music’s 50th anniversary celebrations which will culminate in 2027 with the anniversary of the first Festival. The 2026 festival takes place from 26 June to 8 July in venues across East London, featuring cutting edge contemporary music, classical repertoire and cross-artform collaborations including 20 premieres.
In line with the festival's cross-artform themes, spoken word takes a prominent role. The opening concert features four newly commissioned poems on theme of what does peace look like, alongside a new work by Philip Herbert inspired by a quote from UN Secretary António Guterres: “Peace is the missing piece” performed by the City of London Sinfonia with music by George Walker, Reena Esmail, Arvo Pärt, and Sibelius. Then writer Ali Smith joins forces with the New European Ensemble to present the UK premieres of four new musical works based on her Seasonal Quartet novels - Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, interspersed with readings from the books that inspired them.
Broadcaster and writer Gillian Moore CBE is joined by Stephen Colegrave and Dennis Bovell MBE to delve into what made 1976, the year that Spitalfields Music was founded, such a defining year - The Great Heatwave; an economic crisis; the death of Benjamin Britten; the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK.
Still on the theme of political engagement, for No man is an island soprano Mimi Doulton and Jonathan Higgins, electronics perform three new commissions by composers Elaine Mitchener, Linda Buckley and Krõõt-Kärt Kaev which reflect on what it means to be European today, ten years on from the referendum that sparked the UK’s decision to depart from the European Union. Whilst performer-composers Emily Levy and Matthew Bourne present a powerful reimagining of British folk music inspired by Julia Varley - a pioneering British activist, trade unionist, suffragette, and social reformer.
Standard Issue make their festival debut with a programme of contemporary music from female-identifying music creators, featuring the world premiere of a new piece by Australian composer and ecologist Kate Milligan which blends music and field recordings to explore the hidden world of London’s wildlife along the Islington canal. [I recently chatted to Standard Issue, see my article]. Trombone quartet Slide Action presents a concert that places the trombone in a completely new light featuring world premieres from Rockey Sun Keting, Ben Nobuto, Omri Kochavi, and the winner of the inaugural Henfrey-Spitalfields Prize. [I chatted to Slide Action in 2024 about their mission to create a new voice for the trombone, see my interview]
Carolyn Sampson stars in In the Belly of the Beast, a theatrical reimagining of three works from 18th century French composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s Cantates Bibliques (Biblical cantatas) placing a contemporary feminist slant on the biblical tales of Adam, Jonah, and Jephthah, sung in translations by Toria Banks. For The Song Sung True, the Carice Singers and George Parris bring together seminal choral works from the 20th and 21st centuries, including a rarely performed masterpiece by Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur and choral music by Luigi Dallapiccola. Along with the London premieres of four new works by fresh talent from the Composers Academy at Cheltenham Music Festival. [I chatted to George Parris at the end of last year, see my interview]
To close this year's edition, the festival returns to the Tower of
London for a concert in collaboration with the Choir of the Chapels
Royal, HM Tower of London that explores the historic legacy of music
dating back to the 16th Century featuring Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli.
Returning to that 1976 founding of the festival, singer, songwriter and composer Tom Hickox, the son of founder Richard Hickox, returns to Spitalfields Music Festival with a concert featuring New YVC that combines new material with songs and compositions from his previous albums.
And Spitalfields Music isn't just about the festival. Their RAM Schools Tour is a long-standing collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music which brings musicians into classrooms around East London. An ensemble of musicians from the RAM delivers interactive performances during school assemblies, connecting music to PSHE topics, and bringing it to life in an engaging way for our young audiences. Whilst during the festival, 200 children from the Neighbourhood Schools come together to connect and celebrate through song in the Primary Big Sing, including a specially commissioned piece written for the young people by composer Anna Pool.
French pianist and composer Sofiane Pamart is redefining modern classical music for a new generation.
Known for blending high fashion,
street culture, and virtuosic piano mastery, Pamart has amassed over a
billion streams worldwide, earning him the distinction of Chevalier of
the Order of Arts and Letters in France.
He studied piano and classical music at the Conservatoire de Lille for sixteen years and the Conservatory Gold Medal at the age of 23. He also has a degree in musicology, a master's degree in law, economics, and management, and in business administration. He is known for contributing to the French rap scene, collaborating with seveeral French and Belgian rappers.
With his latest album, MOVIE, he fuses cinematic grandeur with intimate emotional depth, bringing together seventy orchestral musicians and twenty-four choristers from the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.
In MOVIE, the human voice emerges as a compositional instrument alongside the piano, with Latin lyrics penned by his long-time manager and collaborator Guillaume Heritier, creating a universal, timeless language. From recording in the historic Rudolfinum in Prague to premiering at Paris’s iconic Opéra Garnier, this album represents a convergence of elegance, intensity, and ambition in Pamart’s ongoing mission to bring classical music to younger audiences without compromise.
We spoke with Sofiane Pamart about the making of MOVIE, the challenges and joys of working with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and his vision for a modern classical music that resonates across generations.
Your new album features a collaboration with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. How did this partnership come about, and what drew you to work with them?
Prague is part of my story. A few years ago, I performed there for the royal Lobkowicz family in the Royal Castle. The city has a sense of both history and cinema –it carries the weight I was looking for with MOVIE. We recorded the final sessions at the Rudolfinum: seventy orchestral musicians, twenty-four choristers. Watching my music come to life in that space was overwhelming. As a composer, I had always dreamed of experiencing that exact moment.
How was the process of recording with the choir? What was your approach to integrating them into your compositions?
The voices of the Prague Philharmonic Choir are crystalline, pure, and full of character. I didn’t want to direct them conventionally. I wanted the choir to be an instrument in its own right, not an ornament. Each voice had to carry its own weight while contributing to something larger. I approach all collaborations this way: I don’t ask the voice to serve the piano; I ask it to exist alongside it, fully, completely.
The lyrics were written by your manager, Guillaume Heritier, and are sung in Latin. Why Latin?
Guillaume and I have been building a creative universe together for years. Latin imposed itself naturally because it belongs to no contemporary territory—it predates borders and styles. It is universal. The piece is a tribute to a friend who is gone, conceived as a requiem.
Working with vocals is relatively new for you. How do you use the human voice as a compositional tool?
Every voice carries a soul. I don’t use the piano merely to support it. The piano and voice stand on equal footing, in dialogue. The voice brings fragility, presence, and character; the piano brings elevation, space, and emotion. Together, they tell a story that neither could tell alone.
You are widely recognized for redefining modern classical music. How do you define it, and does your music fit into that category?
For me, modern classical is alive. It retains the rigor and emotional depth of classical music while embracing contemporary textures and codes. My music belongs in that world, but I never start with a category. I start with a feeling, a vision, a desire to create something strong and lasting. I aim to give classical intensity a new shape, one that belongs to my time and story.
Reaching younger audiences is part of your mission. How do you achieve that?
It’s not about teaching classical music as a lesson. It’s about giving younger listeners access to emotion, depth, and intensity through the piano. If they discover a wider classical world afterward, that’s beautiful. I aim to make classical music feel alive, direct, and powerful. Albums and performances alike should speak immediately, without simplifying the emotion, showing that the piano can be magnetic, physical – even spectacular.
Your album premiere took place at Opéra Garnier. Why this venue?
MOVIE lives in a dialogue between elegance, intensity, and ambition. Garnier naturally represents that. It gave the premiere a ceremonial dimension, almost like an official entry into the world the project was meant for.
Your performances often blur classical and contemporary lines. How do you balance traditional orchestral elements with your cinematic style?
I focus on emotions rather than balance. What does the moment need to feel true? Sometimes that’s a full orchestra, sometimes a solo piano. Cinematic and classical aren’t opposites – they both aim to make you feel what words cannot. I follow that feeling wherever it leads.
Reflecting on this album and your artistic journey, what does MOVIE represent?
MOVIE is where everything converged: piano, voices, orchestra, choir, and cinema – all in the same room. If someone listens and feels less alone, or experiences music as sacred in a fast-moving world, then it has done everything I hoped for.
Sofiane Pamart - MOVIE - 88 Touches Production. Released 17 April 2026, further details
Thomas Elwin as Nemorino in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love with Wild Arts in 2023 (Photo: Bonnie Britain)
Tenor Thomas Elwin is hosting a concert in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support. For Thomas Elwin & Friends at the Voces8 Centre, Gresham Street, London EC2V 7BX on Sunday 12 April, Thomas Elwin will be joined by baritone Ross Ramgobin, mezzo sopranos Rachael Lloyd, Victoria Simmonds and Cassandra Manning, bass baritone Rob Byford, soprano Lillian Noble and flautist Cynthia Millinger. Two pianists will accompany, Erika Gundesen and Caroline Tyler who will also perform some of her compositions.
The event is hosted by Thomas Elwin and chef Millie Charrington, who will prepare delectable nibbles to enjoy alongside drinks and the wonderful music. Both Thomas Elwin and Millie Charrington are running the London Marathon on 26 April in aid of MacMillan Cancer support, ALL proceeds from this concert will also go to MacMillan.
We last saw Thomas Elwin as Arturo in Bellini's La Straniera with Chelsea Opera Group [see my review] and his disc le vase brisé was issued on Voces8 Records last year [see my review], whilst back in 2024 we chatted to him about West Green Opera's new season [see my interview]. Millie Charrington is Sous Chef at Chantelle Nicholson's Apricity Restaurant in Mayfair.
Edmund Finnis, Allegri, Barber, Victoria, James MacMillan; Tenebrae, Britten Sinfonia, cond: Nigel Short; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 2 April 2026
The Maundy Thursday concert at Snape Maltings comprised a reflective Passiontide programme featuring Allegri’s Miserere, Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories, Barber’s Adagio for Strings and most fittingly James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross
Acting as a curtain-raiser to Tenebrae and Britten Sinfonia's well-conceived Passiontide concert held on Maundy Thursday, the first day of the Holy Triduum of Easter commemorating the institution of the Eucharist, Edmund Finnis' Hymn (an arrangement of the penultimate movement of the composer's String Quartet No.1Aloysius of 2018) co-commissioned by Alois Lageder and the Aldeburgh Festival in 2023, was so pleasurable to hear in the confines of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
Dedicated to the Lageder family, this delightful six-minute work based on Byrd’s setting of the fifth-century hymn Christe, qui lux es et dies (sung at Compline during Lent) found the strings of the Britten Sinfonia bright and alert to Finnis' clear and distinctive writing in a work that offered a prayer for light over darkness which I found inspiring and contemplative to the core.
In fact, the contemplative nature of the concert was greatly enhanced by the continuity of the programme being delivered without applause between items thereby creating a sense of reverence and shared reflection in which the silence seemed as meaningful as the music itself.
Wagner: Tannhäuser - designs by Darko Petrovic, courtesy of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon
Later this month, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon will be presenting a new production of Wagner's Tannhäuser, opening on 23 April 2026. The theatre's first staging of the work in nearly thirty years. And the production will feature role debuts for Jonathan Stoughton (Tannhäuser) and Annemarie Kremer (Venus), plus Allison Oakes as Elisabeth. Graham Jenkins conducts and Max Hoehn directs with set designs by Darko Petrovic, costumes by Nuno Velez, choreography by Isabel Galriça and animations by Amber Cooper-Davies. I recently chatted to Max Hoehn and Darko Petrovic to find out more about their plans for the production.
Darko has worked on Tannhäuser before, for a production in Cologne. He was pleased to be returning to the work, finding it fascinating and very romantic. For him, it is still a kind of mystery, and he thinks of Wagner as intending to keep a path of mystery in his work. Darko sees their role as one of trying to solve the hidden meanings that add weight to the narrative. Cologne used the first (Dresden) version of the opera and performances were not it in the theatre so they were able to put the extra musicians all around the auditorium.
Whilst Max has not worked on Tannhäuser before, in 2023 he directed Der fliegende Holländer at the São Carlos in Lisbon also with Graham Jenkins conducting. Max comments on the visceral impact of Wagner's sound world, as if you are entering a cathedral of sound with all those layers. The question for him and Darko is how do you create space and images that let the music breathe. An inherently taxing challenge.
Wagner: Tannhäuser - designs by Darko Petrovic, courtesy of Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon
Like many of Wagner's heros, Tannhäuser is very damaged but approachable. With Darko, Max wanted to create a psychological space for the piece focused around Tannhäuser's divided personality. Max is very drawn to the end of the Fin de siècle period and the German Weimar Republic. He and Darko have used the graphic art of the period as the aesthetic for the designs, so the opera becomes part erotic dream and part nightmare. Much of the art of the Weimar Republic, particularly that which the Nazis labelled as Entartete Kunst, has a very nightmarish, surreal quality and Max feels that Wagner's music fits. He and Darko made these decisions early on in the process, before deciding a particular interpretative path.
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 tour (Spain, 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.
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)
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 )
"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.
Mozart: Don Giovanni - Ensemble OrQuesta at 2025 Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre (Photo: Julian Guidera)
The Grimeborn Festival is back at the Arcola Theatre this summer from 15 July to 5 September with its usual daring mix of new work and classics reinvented. Three double bills and the UK premiere of a new opera by Tuluğ Tırpan ensure that 20th century and contemporary repertoire is well represented, and then there are stripped-down interpretations of classics by Purcell, Handel and Mozart.
A double bill opens the festival with two chamber operas focusing on the climate crisis. Eden 2.0 from librettist Alexia Peniguel and composer William Gardner takes the Garden of Eden as the starting point to ask what if creation could be rebooted, but this time the tree of knowledge was sanctioned and freely accessible? Then Lisa Logan's After my Breath is a chamber opera for solo soprano, drawn from moments in the life of climate activist Greta Thunberg.
There are two further double bills. That from The Opera Makers features farcical murder mysteries by twentieth century composers Madeleine Dring and Ned Rorem. Dring's The Cupboard is a whodunnit for three voices, whilst Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters is a surreal philosophical musing on childhood innocence based on Gertrude Stein. Tearworks Productions pair Schoenberg's intense monodrama Erwartung with Kevin Rodgers’ The Murderous Delusions of Gavrilo K, first premiered in 2025, which explores violence and sanity in a two-act electroacoustic chamber work for four singers.
Turkish composer Tuluğ Tırpan's docu-opera Lowest of the Low is based on the undercover experience of German investigative journalist Günter Wallraf who was disguised as a Turkish migrant worker in West Germany during the 1980. Arcola Theatre and Yeni Opera's production is the work's UK premiere, directed by Mehmet Ergen.
Ololyga presents a new work by Florence Carruthers Andrews based on Hildegard of Bingen's morality play Ordo Virtutum. Bitter Visions: By Order of Hildegard is a reimagining of Hildegard's work that offers an immersive, meditative experience that fuses medieval plainchant with ambient electronic soundscapes.
Having explored Mozart at previous festivals, Ensemble OrQuesta turns to Purcell with Dido and Aeneas directed
by Marcio da Silva (who also sings Aeneas) and with Helen May and
Rosemary Carlton Willis alternating Dido and the Sorceress. The company also continues its Mozart journey with a new production of The Magic Flute directed by Marcio da Silva (who also sings Monostatos) blending inventive physical theatre and starkly poetic imagery. Mozart features in Barefoot Opera's stripped-down production of Cosi fan tutte, directed by Jenny Miller,
Handel's first opera for London, Rinaldo features in a new staging by Ralph Bridle that 'looks beyond the myth to the darker realities beneath the fantasy: captivity, enslavement and the human cost of war.'. Then one of Handel's greatest hits, Giulo Cesare, with New Trinity Baroque conducted by Pedrag Gosta featuring Sandro Rossi as Giulio Cesare and Radoslava Vorgić as Cleopatra.
Joseph Gibbs: 8 Sonatas for Violin and Basso Continuo, Op. 1; The Brook Street Band; First Hand Records
Warm and characterful music that deserves to be better known. Provincial in fact but not in reputation, the music of Joseph Gibbs endears itself in these lovely performances.
Until the mid-20th century, Ipswich-based composer Joseph Gibbs's biggest claim to fame was probably that in 1755 Thomas Gainsborough painted his portrait. And arguably, it is the existence of this portrait which raised interest in Gibbs's music. The Brook Street Band has been playing, enjoying and loving Joseph Gibbs's violin sonatas for almost as long as the ensemble has been in existence, approaching 30 years now. They have finally brought them to the recording studio in what is clearly a passion project.
The Brook Street Band (Rachel Harris, Tatty Theo, Carolyn Gibley) perform Joseph Gibbs's 8 Sonatas for Violin and Basso Continuo, Op. 1 on First Hand Records. The first complete recording of the works.
So, who was Joseph Gibbs? Well, simply, not a lot is known about him. Aside from a few organ pieces, we know of only two sets of music, the c. 1746 Eight Solos for a Violin with a Thorough Bass, Op. 1 and a set of Six Quartettos for Two Violins, Tenor and Violoncello or Harpsichord, Op. 2 from 1777. Both were published by subscription, and included notable musical names of the times indicating Gibbs’s recognition and popularity extended far beyond East Anglia, even though we have no evidence for Gibbs leaving the area once established in his adult life.
The Institut français in South Kensington continues its occasional series of concerts presenting artists making a welcome appearing in London. This time there is the opportunity to hear the period instrument ensemble Près de votre oreille, founded by gamba player Robin Pharo, and soprano Marie-Laure Garnier, recipient of the Médaille d’honneur de l’engagement ultramarin in 2024
In Blessed Echoes on 9 April 2026, eight musicians from Robin Pharo's ensemble Près de votre oreille will be presenting an evening of English lute song featuring music by Alfonso Ferrabosco II, Robert Jones, Thomas Ford, Michael Cavendish, John Dowland, Philipp Rosseter and Thomas Campion. Pharo and Près de votre oreille released a disc of William Lawes' music on Harmonia Mundi last year [see my review]
Then on 11 June there is the chance to hear soprano Marie-Laure Garnier in recital. Her programme, L'Invitation au Voyage will take the listener on an expressive journey featuring beloved songs and arias, Guyanese songs and Afro-American melodies.
Mozart the Travelling Whirlwind - Mozart: Sonatas Nos. 7, 8, 9; Michael Wessel; ARS Produktion Reviewed by Rey Andreas 27 March 2026
German pianist Michael Wessel recorded a new album of Mozart’s piano sonatas for the ARS label in 2025. Titled Mozart The Travelling Whirlwind, the album features Sonatas Nos. 7, 8, and 9 (K 309, 311, and 310, respectively), as well as a Siciliana and sonata movements (Sonatensätze in German).
While his first sonata is marked as much by pianistic virtuosity as by an almost exuberant joy, some of its eighth notes—particularly in its final movement, Rondeau, Allegretto grazioso—suggest a more anxious and desperate mood. Could this exaggerated joy, intense in its expression, be nothing more than a headlong rush?
This gap between the greatest joy and the deepest sorrow, this tension between these two opposing emotions—which constantly narrows without ever closing—reaches its peak in Sonata No. 9, composed in Paris. It would undoubtedly be too easy to attribute this sonata to the death of his mother, which occurred shortly before its composition. Perhaps this death merely provided an opportunity for this anxiety within Mozart to reveal itself more openly….
In any case, the pianist succeeds here in interpreting these works as the little sisters of Mozart’s most tragic operas—obviously the three operas with Da Ponte, but also, earlier, Mitridate and Lucio Silla. The quality of this recording lies in the interplay—one might even say the interplay—between lightness and gravity, which prevents the former from becoming frivolous and the latter from becoming too sombre.
All of Mozart is right there…
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791) Piano Sonata number 7 in C major KV 309 (Mannheim 1777) Piano Sonata number 8 in D major KV 311 (Mannheim 1777/78) Piano Sonata number 9 in A minor KV 310 (Paris 1778) Taken from the notebook of the 8 years old Mozart: Sonata movement in G major, KV 15p Siciliana in D major KV 15u Sonata movement in B-flat major KV 400 / 372a (1781) Michael Wessel (piano)
ARS Produktion ARS 38 378 1CD [74:53]
Michael Wessel is professor of piano, song interpretation and methodology at the University of Church Music in Bayreuth. He studied piano, composition, music theory and school music at the music universities of Detmold and Stuttgart, and his teachers included Elisabeth Leonskaja and the composer Helmut Lachenmann. In the years leading up to his death, Wessel often sought artistic advice from the Paul Badura-Skoda, who wrote: "Michael Wessel is not only an excellent, sensitive pianist, but also one of the most intelligent musicians I have ever met."
This disc is the fourth of Michael Wessel's Mozart discs for ARS, each with a particular theme. Previous discs being Mozart The Poet, Mozart the Double-Faced and Mozart the Progressive
Sailm nan Daoine (Psalms of the People) is a new documentary which explores one of the most emotionally resonant and culturally significant musical traditions: Gaelic psalm singing. Directed by Jack Archer, the film will be released in cinemas across the UK from 15 May 2026. Taking the form of a road trip, the film approaches psalm singing not as an artefact or historical curiosity, but as something communal and fiercely alive.
Spoken part in English, part in Gaelic, Sailm nan Daoine sees musician and sound designer Rob MacNeacail embark on a personal and communal road trip as both documentary participant and narrator across Scotland and Ireland. The journey brings up many questions in Rob’s mind about identity, culture and community as he immerses the audience in a new perspective through his music and portable sound recorder. Rob also composes the soundtrack to the film, incorporating melodies, field recordings and musical encounters he makes along the way.
The film’s release comes at a time that sees a surge of interest in Gaelic vocal traditions. In November, Radiohead played a recording of Psalm 9 sung in Gaelic during the interval of their sold‑out show at London’s O2 Arena, introducing tens of thousands of fans to the sound. Sailm nan Daoine is an entertaining and heart-warming film about the power of community, family and the resilience needed to keep a language alive.
Gaelic psalm singing, Salmadaireachd, is a tradition of psalmody in the (Scottish) Gaelic language found in Presbyterian churches in the Western Isles of Scotland. The psalms are sung unaccompanied, in a style known as "lining out" in which the leader of the performance sings a line, after which the rest of the congregation follows, with each member allowed to embellish the melody as they wish, in a free heterophonic fashion. The style is influenced by piobaireachd (pibroch) music native to the Scottish Highlands.
The practice of lining out psalms was common in England and lowland Scotland in the 17th century. In 1659, the book of psalms was translated into Gaelic for the first time, and it is believed that the Highlanders began to sing the psalms at this point.
Sailm Nan Daoine had its World Premiere at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. The film will be released in UK cinemas on 15 May 2026.
Handel: Tamerlano - James Laing - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)
Handel: Tamerlano: James Laing, Benjamin Hulett, Nardus Williams, Jake Ingbar, Kitty Whately, director: Orpha Phelan, Academy of Ancient Music, conductor: Laurence Cummings; London Handel Festival at Shoreditch Town Hall Reviewed 27 March 2027
Superb individual performances and some innovative design cannot quite lift a production that seeks to reinvent opera seria, thankfully we came away having enjoyed an evening of world class Handel singing
The London Handel Festival's staged opera offering this year was one of the composer's great Italian operas, something of a change from the last few years when the festival has more explored the fringes of the Handel's dramatic art. But Orpha Phelan's staging of Tamerlano was anything but traditional, using the great hall at Shoreditch Town Hall as a found space with the audience on three sides of the action and performing the work in English with surtitles. In her article in the programme book, Phelan seemed to express doubts about the opera or at least she did not quite understand the form. This was a production that sought to reinvent a serious opera seria.
Handel: Tamerlano - Benjamin Hulett - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)
Phelan's big idea was to present each character as an archetype so that the audience did not need to worry about the various elements of backstory. But in a sense, backstory does not matter in Tamerlano, it is one of those sealed box types of Baroque plot where a group of characters is brought together and stuff happens! Phelan and Boyd had given each character a distinctive look, and each singer had their own area of the stage, with all performers present for virtually all the action. Boyd's use of the available area was imaginative, though I did not feel the production used this to the best.
London based neoclassical composer Julia Thomsen has achieved over 18 million Spotify streams and her music has been featured on flagship programming across Sky and Channel 4, though you rarely come across her music in the concert hall.
But talking to Julia, you get the clear impression that her music is more than this. She sees that there is such a lot going on in the world and feels that people need mental health breaks. Her music is relaxing and not too serious. She wants it to give people hope. The feedback she receives via messages on Instagram and elsewhere tell her what her music has done for people. And this is across the board - mental and physical health. And for busy parents, the music is something to switch off to, helping them sleep.
Julia is part of a generation whose work reaches audiences via streaming across the globe. Something that she finds amazing. Whilst Julia sees her music as having a sense of calm, people have their own reasons for listening to it. And it pops up a lot on people's Instagram Reels. This ability to tie in with visual images is perhaps also why her music is used in documentaries and television programmes. And when writing, she likes to cross genres, creating different types of music.
The Glasshouse in Gateshead and Royal Northern Sinfonia have announced their 2026/27 season and a substantial one it is too. Royal Northern Sinfonia is led by the impressive partnership of music director Dinis Sousa, artistic partner Maria Włoszczowska, principal guest conductor Nil Venditti and associate conductor Ellie Slorach.
They kick of with a rare foray into opera by the orchestra and the launch of a multi-year exploration of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas led by Dinis Sousa. First off, in September 2026 is Cosi fan tutte with Christina Gansch, Alexandra Oomens, Jonas Hacker, Cody Quattlebaum, Rebecca Evans and Neil Davies. Definitely well worth a trip to Gateshead for!
Dinis Sousa's other concerts with the orchestra include Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1 with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a programme of 20th-century American composer - Cage, Ives, Crumb and Gloria Coates, Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Monteverdi Choir and soloists including Nick Pritchard as the Evangelist.
Hundreds of non-professional singers from across the North East will share the stage with the orchestra and chorus for the third time in the Share the Stage series of major events, when Sousa conducts Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with a terrific cast, Benjamin Hulett, Sarah Connolly and Roderick Williams.
Beethoven is something of a focus, not only Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Isabelle Faust, but all the piano concertos and the Choral Fantasy spread over three concerts with pianists Paul Lewis, Alice Sarah Ott, Elizabeth Brauss, Stephen Hough, Jonathan Biss and Elizabeth Leonskaja. And the season ends with Sousa conducting Symphony No. 9 with soloists Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Alice Coote, Laurence Kilsby, Matthew Rose, alongside a new commission from Kristine Tjøgersen.
Besides the Beethoven Piano Concerto weekend, there are two other festival weekends. Reich at 90, on the composer’s birthday weekend in October is curated by Colin Currie and brings together Bryce Dessner, author and broadcaster Tom Service and all-star contemporary ensemble Colin Currie Group to celebrate the composer whose rhythmic imagination reshaped late-20th-century music. And in May, a Sci-Fi weekend marks two major milestones: 50 years since Star Wars: A New Hope and the centenary of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Holst’s The Planets, the full Metropolis score live, and two Star Wars in Concert performances promise to draw audiences far beyond the classical core.
Nil Venditti conducts Beethoven's Symphony No. 3; Britten's Violin Concerto with Maria Włoszczowska as soloist plus Grace Williams and Dvorak;
Smaller scale events in Sage Two not only include Sousa's American concert, but Maria Włoszczowska leading Kurtag's Kafka Fragments and Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King paired with his Missa super l’homme arméconducted by James Weeks.
And January brings an international spotlight through the ECHO Rising Stars Festival, a full day celebration presented in partnership with the European Concert Hall Organisation. Four exceptional young artists – violinist Ava Bahari, soprano Camila Mandillo, cellist Petar Pejčić and the Javus Quartett – take over the building with concerts, pop-up performances and artist conversations.
One of the concerts that appeals to most, however, is Ellie Slorach conducting the orchestra for How to Train Your Dragon 2 in concert!
Domenico Scarlatti wearing the Order of Santiago by Domingo Antonio Velasco (1738)
Mother of Mercy - Music for Lent: Lotti, Diogo Dias Melgás, João Lourenço Rebelo, Caldara, Domenico Scarlatti: Stabat Mater á 10; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 26 March 2026
A rich feast of Lenten music, comparing and contrasting 17th-century Portuguese intensity with Domenico Scarlatti's dazzling ten-part Stabat Mater in a luxuriant programme full of lesser-known gems
Considering that Lent is a season for penance and reflection, it is somewhat surprising that much of the music associated with the season is rather rich and lush. Some of this is that the intensity of reaction to the events of the Passion seem to have brought out an almost Romantic leaning into the pain, at least in Southern Europe. You suspect that the more northerly Protestant states would be rather more austere.
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen's programme, Mother of Mercy - Music for Lent at St Martin in the Fields on 26 March 2026 explored exactly this vein. They opened with the best known work in the programme, Lotti's Crucifixus á 8 and ended with a work that is, at least, known but not often performed, Domenico Scarlatti's Stabat Mater á 10 and in between we had music by the Portuguese composers Diogo Dias Melgás (1638-1700) and João Lourenço Rebelo (1610-1661). Thus making a rather rich but varied diet.
We began with Lotti. Despite the fact that Ben Palmer made a terrific disc of Lotti's sacred music for Delphian way back in 2016 [see my review] which put Lotti's Crucifixus movements in context, we persist in hearing the music in isolation. But it is stunning. The Sixteen brought out the long sweep of the phrases, the dissonances smoothly progressing and growing in intensity.
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