Maxim Emelyanychev celebrates 7 seasons with Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a year that includes new music by Jay Capperauld, Helen Grime, Jörg Widmann and Magnus Lindberg

Maxim Emelyanychev and Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Amazingly, 2025/26 will be Maxim Emelyanychev's seventh season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and he will be presenting ten programme with the orchestra during the season, along with Andrew Manze as principal guest conductor. Emelyanychev's programmes include Strauss' Metamorphosen, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, contrasting Glorias from Vivaldi and Poulenc, Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ , Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and Mozart's final three symphonies. The orchestra's principal cellist, Philip Higham joins him for Schumann's Cello Concerto, and violinist Nicola Benedetti joins Emelyanychev and the orchestra for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

Earlier this year, I had an enjoyable chat to the orchestra's associate composer Jay Capperauld [see my interview]  and the season will feature three of Capperauld's works. Andrew Manze conducts The Language of Eden, a choral work that reimagines the birth of language itself, and a second work will also feature the chorus, The Winter's Brightening, whilst Stylus Scarlatti reimagines Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas for the bright colours of the orchestra. Whilst Capperauld's The Great Grumpy Gaboon will be returning too.

Other new music includes the UK premiere of Scottish composer Helen Grime’s River, performed by the orchestra and director/percussionist Colin Currie, the UK premiere of Jörg Widmann’s affectionate homage to Schumann, Albumblätter, and Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto, dedicated to its performer here, Lawrence Power. The SCO Chorus will be performing on of Roderick Williams' works, O Adonai, as part of their seasonal concerts, whilst the baritone himself will be performing Berlioz and Butterworth with the orchestra.

Violinist Alina Ibragimova will be the soloists in Hartmann’s Concerto funèbre, a work she has long championed. Andrew Manze and the orchestra's clarinettist Maximiliano Martín present three iconic works by John Adams, Shaker Loops, Gnarly Buttons, and Fearful Symmetries as part of the New Dimensions series which also includes Colin Currie in Steve Reich and Joe Duddell along with Helen Grime's River, and saxophonist Jess Gillam in Anna Clyne, George Walker and Caroline Shaw, as well as two works written especially for her, by John Harle and Dani Howard.

SCO Tea Dance Concerts

The orchestra’s Creative Learning activities reach over 10,000 people across Scotland every year, and this year the season includes multisensory family concerts, Immerse concerts for secondary schools, tea dance concerts and a continuation of their Craigmillar Residency. They will be celebrating five years of the Craigmillar Residency with Tapestry - a showcase featuring performances by the SCO Seen and Heard Ensemble and SCO Craigmillar Voices choir, including a 25-minute work curated by Jay Capperauld.  

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Up close and personal: David Butt Philip & Friends Gala at St Paul's Opera, Clapham

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala - David Butt Philip - St Paul's Opera, Clapham
'Falke, falke, du wiedergefundener' from Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala: Bizet, Gounod, Leoncavallo, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Strauss, Mozart, Rossini; Alison Langer, Clare Presland, David Butt Philip, William Thomas, Edward Batting, Nicholas Ansdell-Evans; St Paul's Church, Clapham

St Paul's Opera's annual gala saw David Butt Philip joined by three operatic friends for an evening that allowed us to get up close and personal to a range of opera from Carmen through to Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten.

David Butt Philip & Friends Gala
Clare Presland, David Butt Philip - St Paul's Opera
Seguidilla from Bizet's Carmen

 

Tenor David Butt Philip is the patron of St Paul's Opera, Clapham's local opera company. And this year is the third time he has presented a David Butt Philip & Friends Gala at St Paul's Church in Clapham. This year's gala was raising funds towards St Paul's Opera's Summer opera, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.

So, on 28 March 2025, David Butt Philip was joined by soprano Alison Langer, mezzo-soprano Clare Presland and bass William Thomas (hot foot from jumping in for the Verdi Requiem conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Royal Festival Hall the previous evening), with pianists Edward Batting and Nicholas Ansdell-Evans sharing piano duties.

The programme included items from Bizet's Carmen, Gounod's Faust, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Verdi's Ernani, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Puccini's La Boheme, Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, Mozart's The Magic Flute, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Sivigla, plus songs by Mary Rodgers, and Rodgers & Hammerstein.

We began with Carmen, four numbers in all, the Habanera, Don Jose's Act Two aria 'La fleur que tu m'avais jetée', Micaela's Act Three aria and the Seguidilla, with Clare Presland as an elegant, stylish Carmen, the sort who you know has a stiletto concealed in her garter. She was joined by David Butt Philip's powerful Don Jose, and evidently his first performance of Carmen featured Presland in the title role. Micaela is a role that we have caught Alison Langer in a couple of times [at Opera Holland Park, see my review, and Opera North, see my review] and here she did not disappoint.

Premieres from Gavin Higgins' and Arthur Bliss, rare Michael Tippett, Eric Whitacre in residence: Ryedale Festival 2025

Ryedale Festival at Lastingham Church

The Ryedale Festival is in its 44th year and under the guidance of pianist Christopher Glynn, returns from 11 to 27 July 2025 for 57 performances in 33 spectacular locations right across the county, from the seaside charm of Scarborough to the historic market town of Skipton. 

This year's artists in residence are saxophonist Jess Gillam, composer and conductor Eric Whitacre, soprano Claire Booth and viola player Timothy Ridout, with ensembles in residence string quartet Quatuor Mosaïques and vocal ensemble VOCES8. Other visitors include pianists Stephen Hough and Imogen Cooper, and organist Thomas Trotter. Chamber music highlights include a musical journey through the final string quartets of Haydn and Schubert. Orchestral concerts include Royal Northern Sinfonia in Norton, Orchestra of Opera North in Ripon, Arcangelo in Selby, and a Festival debut for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the festival's closing concert when Chloe Rooke directs them in Poulenc's Sinfonietta and music by Mozart and Mendelssohn.

New venues for the festival this year include Ripon Cathedral, Skipton Town Hall, Malton’s Wesley Centre and All Saints Church in Northallerton, as well as a return to Selby Abbey and a ‘Troubadour Trail’ by mandolinist Alon Sariel that brings music to tiny and remote country churches across the county.

The festival features the premiere of Gavin Higgins' major new song cycle, Speak of the North, performed by soprano Claire Booth and Christopher Glynn. Inspired by Grieg and setting texts from the Bronte sisters to the present day, Higgins comments that the cycle is about place and what it truly means to be Northern, described by the composer as 'a sprawling journey through physical and imagined landscapes of the North. It includes songs about the Peak District, Manchester as seen from above, Northumbrian folk heritage and coal mining landscapes - plus an argument between Hadrian’s Wall and the Sycamore Gap tree'. 

Another premiere at the festival is a newly orchestrated work by Arthur Bliss. Fifty years after his death, composer Philip Wilby has honoured Bliss’s original vision for his passionate post-war Viola Sonata, transforming it into a concerto to be performed by Timothy Ridout with the Orchestra of Opera North, conducted by Tom Featherstonhaugh, alongside Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

Eric Whitacre conducts the National Youth Choir of Scotland in a programme focusing on his own works including Lux Aurumque and Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine alongside Bach and Moses Hogan. Whitacre will also be leading an open entry choral workshop, and conducting VOCES8 in his moving collaboration with poet Charles Silvestri, The Sacred Veil.

There is also a rare performance of Michael Tippett's cantata Crown of the Year settings texts by Christopher Fry, written in 1958 and premiered by the composer with Badminton School Choir. At the festival Oliver Soden conducts Ryedale Festival Ensemble with Claire Booth and Rowan Pierce (sopranos) and Alexander Chance (countertenor) in a programme that brings together more of Tippett's less-known works.  

The festival’s  Young Artist Platform, relaunched this year in association with the Waverley Fund, offers performance, mentoring and career-shaping opportunities for exceptionally talented performers at the beginning of their careers. This year’s Young Artists are guitarist Jack Hancher, pianist Firoze Madon, recorder player Hassan Marzban, pianist Ethan Loch and the Fibonacci Quartet. 

Over 2,000 heavily discounted tickets will be made available through the Ryedale Rush scheme, while anyone under the age of 25 can attend nearly all events for £5 or less.

Ebberston Church

Further ahead, the festival's Winter Weekend, 21-23 November 2025, will feature a recital by pianist Ethan Loch, and baritone Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn in Schubert's Winterreise, plus a new Community Song Cycle inspired by Katherine May's book Wintering co-created with participants by composer John Barber and writer Hazel Gould.

Full details from the festival website.

Pure enjoyment: Peter Moore & Tredegar Band give the first recording of Simon Dobson's concerto for Moore alongside works paying tribute to trombonists like Arthur Pryor, Don Lusher & Tommy Dorsey

Arthur Pryor, Gordon Langford, Phoebe Palmer Knapp, Erik William Gustav Leidzén, George Bassman, Simon Dobson, Philip Sparke; Peter Moore, Tredegar Band, Ian Porthouse; Chandos Records
Reviewed 28 March 2025

Trombonist Peter Moore joins forces with Tredegar Band for a disc showcasing works for trombone and brass band in a programme that mixes a diverse range of music with a sense of sheer enjoyment.

Trombonist Peter Moore gained international attention at the age of twelve when, in 2008, he became the youngest winner of the competition BBC Young Musician. His early involvement in the brass band culture in Northern England was crucial to his rapid development. His new album Shift on Chandos celebrates that life-long association with the Brass Band movement as he joins Ian Porthouse and Tredegar Band for a diverse programme that includes Gordon Langford’s Rhapsody (written for Don Lusher) and the world premier recording of Simon Dobson’s Shift- a trombone concerto written for Peter Moore, along with music paying tribute to other great trombonists including Arthur Pryor, who was a soloist with the Souza band, and Tommy Dorsey for whom George Bassman's I’m Getting’ Sentimental Over You was a huge hit.

We begin with Arthur Pryor's 1895 arrangement of Annie Laurie, here heard as a trombone solo arranged by Keith M Wilkinson. It is typical of its period, subjecting the melody to a variety of ornamental techniques. Moore plays with stylish aplomb, and perhaps a slight tongue in cheek, along with wonderfully enviable legato phrasing for the main melody. Whilst the band give fine support in a part I assume to have been written for piano. The later ornamental passages really made me smile, a perfect concert opener.

Bespoke Songs: soprano Fotina Naumenko on commissioning four composers for works for soprano and diverse ensembles

Fotina Naumenko and the performers on Bespoke Songs

Fotina Naumenko is an American soprano of Russian heritage. Her album Bespoke Songs on New Focus Recordings was nominated for a 2025 Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. The disc features four works for soprano and diverse ensembles that Fotina commissioned from composers Jonathan Newman, Benedict Sheehan, Carrie Magin and Jennifer Jolley setting texts by female authors. The disc features Jonathan Newman's song cycle, Bespoke Songs for soprano, clarinet, saxophone, violin, cello, guitar, percussion and piano, Jennifer Jolley's song cycle 'Hope' is a Thing with Feathers for soprano, flute and guitar, Carrie Magin's How to See an Angel for soprano, bassoon and piano, and Benedict Sheehan's song cycle, Let Evening Come for soprano, cello and harp.

Fotina studied at the Eastman School of Music, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, and is a Fulbright scholar, having completed a post-graduate diploma specializing in Russian vocal music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. The culmination of this work was the creation of www.RussianAriaResource.com, a lyric diction resource for Russian operatic arias. 

She sings and records with ensembles such as Skylark, Clarion, the Saint Tikhon Choir, and PaTRAM, and is Associate Professor of Voice at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.

Fotina has always loved chamber music, so when the pandemic came and contracts were cancelled, she had time to think, to plant some seeds that would grow into something that she would want to do. The result was her commissioning music, though the process of commissioning the pieces, and then developing, performing and recording them took time. The intention was to make new music, but by using diverse instrumental ensembles she could involve as many friends as possible, and the disc involves around a dozen instrumentalists.

Myths like this are there for us to see ourselves in, and we are all different: director Tom Guthrie on Tales of Apollo and Hercules

Tales of Apollo and Hercules - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craid Fuller Photography)

With the 2025 London Handel Festival in full swing, it is presenting a new staged double bill, Tales of Apollo and Hercules.

Directed by Tom Guthrie, with David Bates conducting La Nuova Musica, plus New English Ballet Theatre with choreography by Valentino Zucchetti, the evening features dramatisations of two Handel works from opposite ends of his long composing career.

Tales of Apollo and Hercules pairs Handel's Italian secular cantata Apollo e Dafne HWV 122 (1709/10) with the English oratorio The Choice of Hercules HWV 69 (1750) featuring a cast including Dan D’Souza, Lauren Lodge-Campbell, James Hall, Madison Nonoa and Bethany Horak-Hallett.

Here, Tom Guthrie, introduces the programme and considers myths in the modern day.

Tales of Apollo and Hercules - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craid Fuller Photography)

"The lover of myth is in a sense a philosopher; for myth is composed of wonders"

Aristotle

"Myth is much more than a story. It is a way of understanding the universe"
Joseph Campbell

"Myth is the most basic way of organizing the world"
Northrop Frye

“The mythologems of the world arise from within us, and hence take on different meanings for every culture and individual”
Carl Jung

 "Myth is a healthy and allegorical way one tells the truth to a child"
Carl Kerenyi  

Tales of Apollo and Hercules - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craid Fuller Photography)

I'm walking to a site visit at Shoreditch Town Hall ahead of a new production for the London Handel Festival. I take a train and on the opposite platform is a dancer. It’s 11am. She’s not dancing. She’s pushing a buggy. I can tell she’s a dancer because of the way she moves, the way she holds herself, her feet. We’re working with fabulous dancers in one of the shows we’re doing in Shoreditch: Apollo e Dafne, Handel’s early Italian cantata exploring the wonderful transformation myth in which Daphne is pursued and is rescued from capture – and falling into the clutches of her pursuer – by being turned into a tree. As I stand on the platform, I realise I’m looking at a modern day Daphne. A mover, turned static. A body and life transformed, if only temporarily. 

Myths are rich, imaginative stories that help us understand how things are. Their meaning changes through life. They're not instruction manuals. They help us, not by explaining, but by presenting and exploring in multi-faceted ways the mysteries of our existence, our relationship with others, ourselves and the world around us. They articulate mysteries about who we are.

As such they’re open to interpretation. They cannot be locked down to one possible meaning. And neither should they be taken as judgements. Apollo and Daphne is a wonderfully clear but at the same time mysterious transformation myth. On many levels Daphne becoming a tree is a terrible punishment. This huntress, this liver of life, chaser of dreams, busy in her days, becomes static, voiceless. There are clear feminist readings of the story. She is robbed of the life that she could have had by the presuming attention of an arrogant man. Sylvia Plath’s extraordinarily moving poem Virgin in a Tree captures this idea with virile passion.

But in many versions of the myth, and certainly in Handel’s, Daphne is not the only one to be transformed. Apollo’s love is, increasingly perhaps, sincere, deep and vulnerable. His final aria, high, demanding, is a universe away from the first two he sings. 

And what if we take a more non-literal allegorical view? What is a tree? Daphne is not turned into a stone. She is not snatched down to the underworld, or turned into a bird. Trees are extraordinary. Rooted, giving nutrients, oxygen, shelter, nesting space. Long-living. The placenta is often called the tree of life. It looks like a tree. In some cultures, Mayan for one, placentas are buried under trees. What if this is a myth about the transformation necessary for birth, the huge and unknowable biological and psychological changes that happen in pregnancy, whether with or, in the worst cases, without consent?

The question of consent is central to the myth. So it is also a story about the mystery of agency and choice. What can ever prepare the first-time mother for what happens to her so completely in body and mind. How far are we really in control? What role does genetic biology, chance, and even the universe, have in what control we have over our lives? 

Beyond any interpretation that can be discussed here is an overriding point. The important question. What does it mean to you? And, in our work in Shoreditch, what did it mean to Handel? Myths like this are there for us to see ourselves in, and we are all different. 

The Choice of Hercules meanwhile, (some might call it at least useful, at best a stroke of programming genius), is about a boy. A special boy. Every child is special. Every child has the potential to affect the world. How do we bring up our children to make the best choices to face the challenges and the tasks that life throws at them in a way which will have a good effect for them and for those they love and those around them?

The ideas of virtue and pleasure are, on the face of it, simple. Should you live for your own pleasure or do you live for the good of the world? In ancient Greek times, as now, there are nuances and subtleties, as there were clearly for Handel too. Pleasure's first aria, with arching melody and longing suspensions, portrays pleasure, rightly, as a deep human emotion. In the 5th century BC, Epicurus gave his name to a philosophy of living that nowadays we associate with words like gluttony, indulgence, selfishness. Epicurus actually espoused a more serious philosophy. Deep pleasure can cost. Quality of life as a philosophical position that is not all about ease.

Meanwhile, virtue does not exclude pleasure. This oratorio written towards the end of Handel's life honours these nuances, these shadows, in profound ways. It makes for a deep and meditative piece of theatre. As with Apollo e Dafne, it embodies and personifies a mystery in a way that allows us to see ourselves, to project, to think, to imagine, perhaps to celebrate.

Tales of Apollo and Hercules - London Handel Festival (Photo: Craid Fuller Photography)

If you’re interested in reading more, try:

• Myths for a Post Truth World, Iannis Gabriel
• Soul Mates, Thomas Moore
• Goddesses in Everywoman, Jean Shinoda Bolen
• Gods in Everyman, Jean Shinoda Bolen
• Like A Tree: How Trees, Women and Tree People Can Save The Planet, Jean Shinoda Bolen
• The Choice of Hercules: Pleasure, Duty and the Good Life in the 21st Century, A. C. Grayling
• Exit the Supersensorium, Erik Hoel

Tom Guthrie

Tales of Apollo and Hercules
Shoreditch Town Hall
London Handel Festival
Performances 28 and 29 March - full details from the festival website.

Dresden: Historically informed Wagner at the Dresden Music Festival and Sir James MacMillan as composer in residence with the Dresden Philharmonie

Wagner: Die Walküre - Sarah Wegener, Maximilian Schmitt, Åsa Jäger - Dresdner Musikfestspiele (Photo: Oliver Killig)

The prospect of varied events to treasure in Dresden as the Dresdner Musikfestspiele's (Dresden Music Festival) historically informed Ring Cycle reaches Siegfried at this years festival  (which runs from 17 May to 14 June 2025), and the for the 2025/26 season, Sir James MacMillan has been announced as composer in residence with Dresden Philharmonie.

The Dresden Music Festival's The Wagner Cycles project began in 2023 and it brings together musical practitioners and academic research in Dresden, where Wagner spent many years of his life, performing on historical instruments and in the vocal and declamatory style of the Wagner era, these performances. Conducted by Kent Nagano the performances feature the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln. Das Rheingold was presented in 2023 [see my review] and Die Walküre in 2024 [see my review]. 

This year they move on to Siegfried with performances at Prague State Opera (1 April), the Philharmonie de Paris (4 April) and Cologne Philharmonie (10 April) before closing the festival in Dresden in 14 June 2025 with Thomas Blondelle as Siegfried, Åsa Jäger as Brünnhilde, Simon Bailey as Der Wanderer and Thomas Ebenstein as Mime.

Of course, there is plenty else to enjoy at the festival with around 60 events covering a wide spectrum of music. Full details from the festival website.

The Dresden Philharmonie makes two appearances at the festival, performing music by Japanese composer Akira Ifukube, plus fire-inspired works by Tan Dun and Stravinsky with Kahchun Wong, and Michael Sanderling conducts them in Britten's Violin Concerto with Augustin Haderlich and Shostakovich's Symphony no. 8

For their main 2025/26 season, the Dresden Philharmonic welcome Sir James MacMillan as composer in residence. This will be Sir Donald Runnicles' first season as chief conductor and on 22 November, Runnicles conduct's MacMillan's Symphony No. 4 which is dedicated to Runnicles. Other events include MacMillan’s Why is this Night Different? (String Quartet No. 2), is performed by the Collenbusch Quartett, the Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Strings with saxophonist Jess Gillam and and the wind players of the Dresden Philharmonie perform Untold for wind quintet. Then MacMillan will be conducting massed choirs of Dresden in a selection of his most powerful choral works, including Cantos Sagrados, alongside music by Arvo Pärt, Britten, and J.S. Bach.

Sir James MacMillan commented : “It’s an honour to be named Composer in Residence of the Dresden Philharmonie. I’ve been a friend and colleague of Sir Donald Runnicles for many years and he’s given some wonderful performances of my music, both in Scotland and elsewhere. I’m looking forward to hearing what he does with my music in his new role, and to working with the Orchestra and choirs myself.”

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Richard Strauss in Berlin - Elektra & Intermezzo at the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Richard Strauss: Elektra - Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2015
(Photo: Bettina Stöß)

Richard Strauss: Elektra, Intermezzo; Doris Soffel, Elena Pankratova, Camilla Nylund, Philipp Jekal, Maria Bengtsson, Deutsche Oper Berlin, conductors: Thomas Søndergard, Donald Runnicles, directors: Tobias Kratzer, Kirsten Harms
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (22, 23 March 2025) 

For this second instalment of European travelling music man, Tony Cooper's Richard Strauss odyssey in Berlin he takes in  Elektra and Intermezzo at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

ELEKTRA 

A thrilling and adventurous piece of writing, Strauss’ one-act tragedy, Elektra, premièred on 25 January 1909 at the Schauspielhaus, Dresden, became the first of the composer’s collaborations with the librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal.  

Known for its abrasive music and flights into atonality, the opera’s an immensely difficult and musically complex piece to master and the role of Elektra (Agamemnon’s avenging daughter) requires a singer with grit, determination and stamina to pull it off.  

An emotionally-demanding role, it’s also an emotionally-charged one as well therefore I felt that Elena Pankratova delivered a fine, fiery and gutsy performance of power, substance and strength. On stage for the opera’s duration of about 145 minutes, she surely stamped her credentials on one of the great female operatic roles.  

More or less kept a prisoner in the courtyard of Agamemnon’s palace in Mycenae, looking in a rather poor and dilapidated state echoing, perhaps, the state of flux following her father’s killing, Ms Pankratova slowly and assuredly developed and moulded the strong-minded and determined character of Elektra tightly controlling her emotions and expressions while at the same time playing the waiting and psychological game for her moment - revenge. How sweet it is! 

Something of a hidden gem: Sunday Concerts at historic Conway Hall launch their Summer Season

Conway Hall

Conway Hall's Sunday Concerts, a concert series established in 1887 and still going strong, remains something of a hidden gem dating from 1929. Weekly classical chamber music at affordable prices in a remarkable period venue provide platform for established chamber groups and give a springboard for young artists to be supported and make their mark on the classical music stage.

The Summer season runs from 6 April to 29 June 2025 with a wide variety on offer. There is a a special immersive weekend which will provide a rare opportunity to hear all of Beethoven's major chamber works with piano – including violin sonatas, cello sonatas and piano trios – performed by three of Britain’s finest chamber musicians: Sara Trickey, Robin Michael and Daniel Tong.

The season is opened by the Maggini Quartet in Haydn, Bridge and Beethoven, and other major names appearing include cellist Raphael Wallfisch who is joined by pianist Simon Callaghan, artistic director of the Sunday Concerts for a programme of Schumann, Beethoven, Schubert and Rebecca Clarke. The Sacconi Quartet who are joined by Simon Callaghan for Bliss' Piano Quartet and Franck's Piano Quintet.

Young artists include the Astatine Trio, formed in 2021 and one of the UK’s most exciting young ensembles, with first prizes at major international competitions. They will be performing trios by Beethoven and Brahms plus a new work by Timothy Salter. The Halcyon Quartet, formed in 2012 at the Royal Academy of Music, close the season with Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet, plus works by Mozart and Beethoven.

More unusual repertoire comes from the Zoffany Ensemble who will be playing nonets by Louise Farrenc and George Onslow, plus music by Michael Haydn. I will be giving the pre-concert talk that evening, introducing the music and talking about the importance of amateur music making in the 18th and early 19th centuries. And clarinettist Peter Cigleris will join the Amaia Quartet for a programme that puts the Mozart Clarinet Quintet alongside a quintet by contemporary British composer David Gow, and I will be giving a talk to introduce this fascinating programme, too.

Full details of the concert programme from the Conway Hall website.

Richard Strauss in Berlin: Arabella at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Jennifer Davis & Heidi Stober

Richard Strauss: Arabella - Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2023 (Photo: Thomas Aurin)

Richard Strauss: Arabella; Jennifer Davis, Heidi Stober, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Hye-Young Moon, Doris Soffel, Deutsche Oper Berlin, conductor: Donald Runnicles, director: Tobias Kratzer
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (20 March 2025) 

European travelling music man, Tony Cooper was in Berlin for three wonderful operas by Richard Strauss, in this first instalment he takes in Arabella at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. 

Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, a lyrical comedy in three acts set to a text by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, was produced in 1911 when the composer was 47. Premièred at the Schauspielhaus, Dresden on 1 July 1933, the opera’s renowned for being his greatest achievement - popular the world over. In stark contrast, Arabella, composed 21 years later, is not nearly so popular but, nonetheless, I put it on a par with Der Rosenkavalier. Both operas are comedies set in Vienna; both are equally famous for including the waltz. 

When the show begins members of the audience find themselves sitting comfortably in an elegant and well-furnished suite of a luxury boutique hotel. Two compartmentalize sets, designed by Rainer Sellmaier, dominate the entire width of Deutsche Oper’s vast stage. 

Comprising a lounge and boudoir, adjacent to the hotel’s lobby, the occupant’s Graf Waldner and his impoverished family forced from their own home due to reduced circumstances mainly caused by Waldner’s gambling debts. At the hotel, he and his wife hope to find a man of stature, means and wealth to marry off his eldest daughter, Arabella, in hope of changing the family’s fortunes. 

Richard Strauss: Arabella - Jennifer Davis (Arabella), Heidi Stober (Zdenka) - Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2025 (Photo: Bettina Stöß)

Music and health: success for Wellness with WNO and expansion for ENO Breathe

WNO Producer April Heade who helped develop Wellness with WNO

The link between music, performance and health is one that performers (both amateur and professional) have largely understood implicitly, but bringing this concept to the wider world remains something of a challenge. As long ago as 2019, the WHO was reporting on arts and health [see Making Music website]

English National Opera launched ENO Breathe in 2020 in response to COVID-19 and now the programme is being rolled out further. Whilst Welsh National Opera has recently announced that a report into its its pilot Wellness with WNO: Managing Persistent Pain Programme shows that the programme has success managing Persistent Pain.

WNO's six-week online singing and breathing pilot programme, running from March 2024 to March 2025, was designed to support people living with persistent pain. Building on the success of WNO’s Wellness with WNO Long COVID Programme, which launched in 2021, the programme includes weekly one-hour sessions and optional fortnightly drop-in sessions. A report, conducted by Milestone Tweed, highlights substantial improvements in pain management, mental and emotional health, and overall quality of life for participants. The five principal findings from the report are:

• Reduced Pain and Improved Functionality
• Emotional and Mental Health Benefits
• High Participant Engagement
• Cost Efficiency
• Additional Benefits

I think that an interesting take-away is the fourth point -  sessions are estimated to cost of £12 per person per hour, compared to £34.30 for an NHS Band 7 Physiotherapist from Chronic Pain Services.

Centralised delivery eliminates the need for individual health boards to establish costly programmes, aligning with NICE guidance and generating savings.

"This programme is a ray of sunshine in this bleak and lonely illness"

    Wellness with WNO participant

Further information from the WNO website.

ENO Breathe is an online programme, developed by ENO in collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, was developed in 2020 to support people recovering from COVID-19 who continue to suffer from breathlessness and associated anxiety. 

Now, ENO Breathe is exploring whether its approach can benefit those living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, and other respiratory conditions. By combining breathing techniques with singing, ENO Breathe – described by participants as a 'pocketful of hope' – has already helped over 4,500 people across England regain control of their breathing, reduce anxiety, and improve their quality of life.

Again, the programme has multiple benefits:

• Support respiratory health by empowering individuals to self-manage their symptoms
• Enhance mental wellbeing, reducing anxiety and emotional distress
• Build a supportive community for those living with respiratory conditions
• Address health inequalities by reaching underserved communities

Further information from the ENO website.

Traces of trauma: Britten Sinfonia premiere Michael Zev Gordon's A Kind of Haunting marking 80th anniversary of the end of World War II

Image of Michael Zev Gordon's Grandfather, Zalman & memorial to those killed in the forest in Poland

Martinu: Double Concerto, Strauss: Metamorphosen, Michael Zev Gordon: A Kind of Haunting; James Newby, Louisa Clein, Allan Corduner, Britten Sinfonia, Jonathan Berman; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed 25 March 2025

Two composers' direct experience of the traumas of the Second World War alongside Michael Zev Gordon's powerful and remarkable new piece about his family's experience of the Holocaust and the traces of trauma that come in its wake

Britten Sinfonia are in the middle of a short series of concerts marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. To come, is a performance of Messiaen's mighty Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum with the orchestra joining forces with Sinfonia Smith Square at St George's Cathedral, Southwark on 30 April [see website].

But on Tuesday 25 March 2025, Jonathan Berman conducted Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican's Milton Court concert hall in a programme that moved from the beginning of the war to the end, with Martinu's Concerto for Double String Orchestra, piano & Timpani from 1938, Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen from 1945, and the premiere of Michael Zev Gordon's A Kind of Haunting with narrators Louisa Clein and Allan Corduner, and baritone James Newby.

Martinu wrote the Double Concerto in France and on holiday in Switzerland with Paul Sacher and his wife, and it would be Sacher who premiered the work in 1940 with his Basel Chamber Orchestra. The work's rhythmic energy, driving momentum and sheer fierceness all help contribute to the feeling that Martinu was writing about the situation in Europe and the threat of war. But the music also has something of the clipped rhythm and neo-Baroque spikiness of Stravinsky's writing at the period (e.g. Dumbarton Oaks which dates from 1937-38). 

Youth Opera, black spiders, contemporary Christmas capers, dancing Handel - Opera North's 2025/26 season

Phyllida Lloyd's 2006 production of Peter Grimes returns to Opera North in 2026 marking the 50th anniversary of Britten's death (Photo: Bill Cooper)

Opera North's 2025/26 season opens at the Grand Theatre Leeds with something of a stake in the ground, a declaration of intent. The work being performed is Judith Weir's The Secret of the Black Spider. This will be the UK premiere of the revised, 'Hamburg' version of Weir's opera, and will be the first time an opera by a female composer has been performed on the main stage and the Opera North Youth Company has opened the season.

The season includes two main stage new productions, Handel's Susanna and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, alongside revivals of Puccini's La Boheme and Britten's Peter Grimes, with David Fennessy's comic extravaganza Pass the Spoon in the Howard Assembly Room, and The Big Opera Mystery for family audiences.

Premiered in 1985 at Canterbury Cathedral and written for young people, Judith Weir's The Secret of the Black Spider blends a folk story from Switzerland with a contemporary news story from Poland, and Weir describes the opera's tone as "somewhere between a video nasty and an Ealing comedy". Conductor and composer Benjamin Gordon revised the work for Hamburg State Opera in 2008/2009, expanding the orchestra, transposing the vocal parts to allow singers to use more of their range and adding new material based on existing motifs. It is this version which will be receiving its UK premiere, conducted by Nicholas Shaw and directed by Rosie Kat.

For all the pastoral and comic delights of Handel's Susanna, the work presents challenges for staging. Whilst there are arias which would not go amiss in ballad opera and the scenes for the Elders are a comic delight, Handel frames the narrative with large-scale dramatic choruses. I have seen stage productions that solve this perceived problem by simply removing many of the choruses! 

For their new production Opera North is collaborating with Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre, their fourth such collaboration. A powerful contemporary reimagining of the biblical story will be directed by Olivia Fuchs, so we can expect something interesting and imaginative, and conducted by Johanna Soller, artistic director of the Munich Bach Choir and Bach Orchestra and the Munich-based baroque ensemble capella sollertia  The choreographer is Phoenix Dance Theatre's artistic director Marcus Jarrell Willis. Anna Dennis is Susannah with Matthew Brook as Chelsias and Claire Lees as Daniel. We recently caught Anna Dennis in the role in the Dunedin Consort's concert performance [see my review].

The other main stage new production is Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, the first time Opera North has performed it in its original Italian. The director is Louisa Muller, a finalist for the 2024 International Opera Awards and her recent productions included Rameau's Platée and Britten's The Turn of the Screw at Garsington Opera. The conducting is shared between Valentina Peleggi and Oliver Rundell, with Hera Hyesang Park as Susanna, Liam James Karai as Figaro, Gabriella Reyes as Countess Almaviva, Hongni Wu as Cherubino, James Newby as Count Almaviva [we caught him at Opera North last October in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, see my review] and dramatic soprano Katherine Broderick will be letter her hair down as Marcellina.

Described as a 'sort of opera', Pass the Spoon, created by composer David Fennessy, artist David Shrigley and director Nicholas Bone, is a darkly comic feast of words (spoken and sung), music and puppetry, made with decidedly adult ingredients. This will be the first major revival since its premiere at Glasgow’s Tramway in 2011 in a production specially conceived for the Howard Assembly Room. Nicholas Bone directs and Garry Walker conducts. 

A major revival this season is Phyllida Lloyd's production of Britten's Peter Grimes, which updates the action to the 1970s. First seen in 2006, with major revivals in 2008 and 2013 [see review in The Guardian], the production this time is in the hands of Karolina Sofulak, who directed Puccini's Manon Lescaut at Opera Holland Park in 2019 [see my review]. Garry Walker conducts with the title role sung by John Findon [last seen as Bothwell in Thea Musgrave's Mary Queen of Scots at ENO, see my review]. Philippa Boyle and Blaise Malaba make their company debuts as Ellen Orford and Hobson. Philippa Boyle was most recently in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Festen at Covent Garden, and we caught her as Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre, alongside the late Ben Thapa, with London Opera Company in 2023 [see my review], and we caught Blaise Malaba as Zuniga in Bizet's Carmen at Covent Garden last year [see my review]

For all its historical setting and romantic gloss, much of the vivid detail in Puccini's La Boheme owes a lot to Puccini's own student days, and the story remains one that can be constantly reinvented. Phyllida Lloyd's production of Puccini's La Boheme successfully captures the contemporary, student feel of the action, setting the work in Paris of the 1960s and using a cast of young singers. For this revival, the director is James Hurley [who was responsible for Opera North's 2023 production of Puccini's La Rondine, see my review] and the conducting is shared between Opera North's music director Garry Walker and Catriona Beveridge. Two casts feature many young singers making their Opera North debuts. 

Sharing the role of Mimì are Chilean soprano Isabela Díaz and American Olivia Boen. Italian tenor Anthony Ciaramitaro and British-American Joshua Blue take on the role of Rodolfo, while the Armenian baritone Grisha Martirosyan and Korean Josef Jeongmeen Ahn sing Marcello. Seán Boylan is Schaunard, Elin Pritchard and Katie Bird sing Musetta.

For young opera-goers there is The Big Opera Mystery, building on the success of the company's The Big Opera Adventure last year. Written and directed by Jonathan Ainscough, this new musical extravaganza features live music from the Orchestra of Opera North as mini sleuths are invited to put their crime-solving skills to the test as they try to catch an expert thief, all to the accompaniment of some amazing operatic arias.

Before the 2025/26 season starts, Opera North's new five-year partnership with Nevill Holt Festival begins with a new production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. This new partnership has been set up with the shared ambition to maximise opportunities for performers and creatives, particularly those at the start of their careers in opera. A new Opera North production for the 2026 Festival will be announced later this year. Opera North will also be running a project with Streetwise Opera in Nottingham as part of the initiative Reimagining the Classics. Working with their weekly opera group which comprises homeless people and those recently out of homelessness, Streetwise Opera will be creating a short performance taking The Marriage of Figaro as their inspiration. This will be performed on stage at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham with the Orchestra of Opera North and members of the Chorus.

The Orchestra of Opera North will be contributing to the Kirklees Concert Season in Huddersfield and Dewsbury, performing in outdoor concerts in Leeds’ Millennium Square, and making regular appearances at festivals such as Buxton, Ryedale and Ripon. And the company's popular programme of films with live scores continues with Amadeus, Miloš Forman’s 1984 film exploring the possible rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The following day, a scare is in the air with Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960s film Psycho – the perfect way to mark Halloween. 

Full details from Opera North's website.

Innovative narratives, the importance of local venues, inspirational outreach & unearthing manuscripts - The Continuo Foundation awards its ninth round of grants

The 31 Continuo Foundation round nine grantees

The Continuo Foundation awarded its first round of grants in Spring 2021, and their lates round, the ninth, takes the total awarded up to an impressive £950,000. The awards support concerts and recording projects, spanning 800 years of music - performed on period instruments - and shine a spotlight on the vibrant creativity of the UK’s early music scene.

The ninth round of grants will support seven emerging groups – formed since 2020 – and 24 established ensembles to undertake a total of 80 performances in 50 locations across the UK. From Bodwin in Cornwall to Melrose in the Scottish Borders, and from Conwy and Llanwit Major in Wales to Brighton, Buxton and Bradford, the funded projects span across a wide array of venues, ranging from purpose-built concert halls to art galleries, churches, and community spaces.

Beyond these headline figures, the individual stories of the award recipients paint a fuller picture of the positive impact of Continuo’s grants. For example, the London-based Serpentine Trio, formed in 2022, is among the emerging awardees. Featuring works by Marais, Forqueray, Couperin, and d'Hervelois, and inspired by ‘Le Grotto de Versailles’, their audiovisual project will have a narrative structure influenced by Homer’s Odyssey, echoing Louis XIV’s love of Greek antiquity, and will aim to reach a wide audience through strategic digital promotion efforts.

Another recently formed ensemble becoming a first-time grantee is Rune, specialising in medieval repertoire. Featuring music by Landini, Ciconia, and Machaut, as well as rarely heard English medieval pieces, their project, Decameron Musicale, is a mosaic of musical stories inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, exploring themes of fortune, virtue, love, trickery and intelligence. 

Tenor Daniel Scott views Continuo’s support as vital to keeping the group’s artistic ambitions intact. He explains: “For Rune, this funding is vital as we plan our first concert tour, educational workshops and recordings – allowing us to share the magic of under-represented medieval repertoire with wider audiences. Many aspects of this project simply would not happen without the generous funding of Continuo Foundation.” 

The Telling will tour their concert-play, Into the Melting Pot, to six new locations thanks to their Continuo grant. Set in 1492 Spain, and tuning into the voices of a community of Christian, Muslim and Jewish women, their story is told through plaintive songs and lively Spanish medieval music.

The grant will also help The Telling to take their award-winning Songs and Stories outreach project to refugee and migrant communities in Cardiff and Birmingham, helping them to create music and tell their own stories, inspired by Into the Melting Pot. Clare Norburn, Artistic Director, is deeply concerned that in a climate where many promoters and venues are shutting their doors, "if we don't make this kind of performance happen, there will be places in the UK which always miss out on live music performances. This is where Continuo Foundation's grant is so vital."

The ever-present financial sensitivity around new projects is a shared concern for longstanding ensembles such as The Mozartists, established in 1997. As part of their MOZART 250 project, their Opera 1775 concert at London’s Cadogan Hall, now receiving a Continuo grant, will feature works by several composers who are unknown to modern audiences. 

Founding Artistic Director Ian Page has been busy unearthing the manuscripts of these works, and comments: "It is increasingly hard in the current financial climate to take box-office risks and to present repertoire that will be mostly unfamiliar to most of the audience. We are therefore particularly grateful for Continuo Foundation’s grant, which gives us the confidence and encouragement to programme this fascinating and high-quality repertoire."

Full details from the Continuo Foundation website.

David Butt Philip and Friends

David Butt Philip, Alison Langer, St Paul's Opera chorus at the David Butt Philip & Friends gala in 2024
St Paul's Church (Photo: Craig Fuller Photography)

My local opera company, St Paul's Opera will be welcoming tenor David Butt Philip back for the third year running for a fundraising gala, David Butt Philip and Friends at St Paul’s Church, Rectory Grove, SW4 0DZ on Friday 28 March 2025.

This year's gala will featured soprano Alison Langer, mezzo-soprano Clare Presland and bass William Thomas alongside David Butt Philip, accompanied by Ed Batting and Nicholas Ansdell-Evans.

The programme will include a selection of four items from Bizet's Carmen and two items from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, plus music from Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten (certainly not your normal gala repertoire!) and Der Rosenkavalier, Verdi's Ernani, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Puccini's La Boheme, Mozart's The Magic Flute, and Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Plus, Clare Presland in The Boy From... and Alison Langer and David Butt Philip in 'People will say we're in love' from Rogers & Hamerstein's Oklahoma.

This year David Butt Philip's performances include Beethoven's Fidelio at the Met in New York, and Wagner's Lohengrin in Vienna, but he will be performing in the UK on 5 April for Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in Huddersfield with Huddersfield Choral Society and the Orchestra of Opera North, conductor Martyn Brabbins [further details]. On 23 May he joins Mark Elder, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Alice Coote for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde at the Barbican [further details]. And on 15 June there is a chance to get up close and personal as he and pianist James Baillieu are in recital at Wigmore Hall [further details].

Alison Langer returns as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at Opera Holland Park this Summer have made such a memorable stir in the 2018 Young Artists Production [see my review] and she is also singing in the Royal Opera's revival of its recent production of Bizet's Carmen. Clare Presland was recently singing in the premiere performances of Mark Antony Turnage's Festen at the Royal Opera. She too is getting up close and personal, joining tenor Nicky Spence and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen at Wigmore Hall on 20 June [further details] and in August she will be in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in Japan. William Thomas has been singing Colline in Puccini's La Boheme at the Bavarian State Opera and will be in Bach's St John Passion at Carnegie Hall, New York next month.

Last year, the gala featured arias and duets from operas by Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Verdi, Beethoven, Korngold and Puccini, and from music theatre works by Bernstein and Rogers & Hamerstein, [see my article] so we are going to be for a treat this year.

St Paul's Opera's Summer performance this year will be Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore from 3 to 5 July 2025

Full detail from the St Paul's Opera website.

The "Lavender Scare" on the operatic stage: Gregory Spears' 2016 Fellow Travellers to get its European semi-professional premiere from University College Opera

Say Fellow Travellers to anyone and they will probably think of the TV mini-series featuring Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer that debuted in 2023. But the TV series was based on the 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon and before the TV series, Mallon's book was adapted into an opera.

Composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pearce's Fellow Travellers debuted in 2016 at Cincinnati Opera. The opera was developed by Opera Fusion: New Works, a collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music which focuses on the creation of new American operas. Since then, the work has had several American performances but the work's European semi-professional premiere will be presented by University College Opera on 28 and 29 March 2025.

The story is set in 1950s Washington D.C. during the "Lavender Scare," a period of intense persecution of homosexuals in the U.S. government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign which is known as McCarthyism. 

The opera follows the complex relationship between a recent college graduate and devout Catholic eager to join the crusade against communism, and a handsome State Department official. Their encounter is placed against the intensification of Senator McCarthy's investigations into "sexual subversives". 

The opera beautifully captures the emotional turmoil and societal pressures faced by gay men in this era, highlighting the personal and political consequences of their forbidden love. It has been praised for its evocative music and compelling storytelling. 

The persecution of homosexuals as part of the "Lavender Scare" is certain is a chapter of American history that is not as well-known as it should be, and in the present climate the story is alarmingly prescient.

The conductor is Matt Scott Rogers (music director at University College London), and the director is Eleanor Strutt, with producer Max Guida and designer Sasha Owen. The cast includes Stephen Whitford alongside cast and orchestra drawn from UCL’s student body.

University College Opera presents Gregory Spears' Fellow Travellers at the Bloomsbury Theatre, 28 & 29 March 2025. Full details from the University College Opera website.

Letter from Florida: Stéphane Denève & New World Symphony on impressive form in Britten's War Requiem

Britten: War Requiem - Stéphane Denève, Ian Bostridge, Roderick Williams, New World Symphony - Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami

Britten: War Requiem; Christine Goerke, Ian Bostridge, Roderick Williams, New World Symphony, Stéphane Denève, Florida Singing Sons, Girl Choir of South Florida, Master Chorale of South Florida; Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras. 15 March 2025

A matter of reconciliation: Robert J Carreras in Miami is impressed with Stéphane Denève and New World Symphony in Britten's War Requiem

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is not meant to be enjoyed; it is meant to be suffered through. After all, it was in this spirit that Britten left the relative safety of his new home in the states and returned to England, in all its fractured remains, after the Blitz. He must have known the trying times that awaited. His contribution to the catalogue of the musical mass for the dead recreates the darkest of conditions in World War II. We return with Britten to the British Isles for madness and mayhem.

On a cloudless and sunny September 7, 1940, and for 57 straight nights, a German aerial assault tormented Great Britain. Throughout the eight months that followed, Hitler menaced overhead, as the only remaining hope seemed far away across the Atlantic, and as yet noncommittal towards the war effort.

In those long, dreadful 267 days, it is estimated that 40,000 long tons of bombs hit the Isles. More than 43,000 civilians were killed. Every night, as many as 150,000 souls sought shelter in London’s underground tube system. Electricity and gas, food and water were in short supply and rationed. By the time Britten returned in 1942, the prevalence of American servicemen on the streets of London must have been a very welcome sight to the British.

Britten: War Requiem - Christine Goerke, New World Symphony - Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami

Drawing you in: the young Uruguayan counter-tenor Agustin Pennino in an admirably ballsy programme as part of London Transport Museum's Transported by Culture

Music in the Museum - Agustin Pennino - London Transport Museum

Music in the Museum: Handel, Mendelssohn, Michael Head, Rossini; Agustin Pennino; London Transport Museum
Reviewed 21 March 2025

A young Uruguayan counter-tenor braves the hubbub caused by lively young Museum visitors to give an engaging recital, by turns bravura and intimate, as part of the London Transport Museum's Transported by Culture programme

The central atrium of the London Transport Museum, with its veteran buses and trams, and an early Tube train along with the attendant families with young children, does not seem the most obvious place for a concert but the Museum's Transported by Culture programme is dedicated this type of cross-fertilisation and there is now a regular Friday lunchtime slot Music in the Museum, when classical and jazz musicians perform for an hour. 

On Friday 21 March it was the turn of Uruguayan countertenor Agustín Pennino and a pianist (whose name I embarrassingly failed to catch) in the first of what are three planned appearances in the series Pennino will be back on 13 June and 26 September. Their approach to programming was admirably ballsy, giving us a selection of what Pennino does best, opera arias by Handel and Rossini, along with songs by Mendelssohn, Michael Head and Elgar. The whole had a nice emotional arc, and before each number Pennino introduced things, explaining the emotional impact of the song.

Given the lively hubbub, the sound and sight of lively young boys exploring the Museum, the performers used amplification which is not idea but was understandable. Pennino's voice, whilst not large, has a sweetness and focus to it that, I imagine, would give it carrying power and under normal recital conditions he would not need a microphone in this venue. His performance was not a showy one, but it was strong and contained, drawing us in.