Pianist Stephen Osborne launches JW3's 2024/25 classical season

Steven Osborne (Photo: Ben Ealovega)

JW3, the Jewish Community Centre London, is celebrating ten years and its classical season is returning for 2024/25 with six concerts beginning with pianist Steven Osborne in evocations of childhood from Debussy and Schumann plus Schubert's Piano Sonata in A major, D.959.

Tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen join forces for Schubert's Schwanengesang, divided into two groups, with the poems by Rellstab and Heine, interleaved with songs by Fauré. Momen returns with Anthony Marwood (violin), Garfield Jackson (viola), David Waterman (cello) for a chamber music recital featuring Fauré's Piano Quartet No. 2 and Brahms' Piano Quartet no.3 in C minor.

In the New Year, the Doric String Quartet performs Haydn, Britten and Beethoven, then Sini Simonen (violin), Alasdair Beatson (piano). We return to piano chamber music as Garfield Jackson (viola), David Waterman (cello) perform Schubert, Schumann and Dvorak's Piano Quartet no.2 in E flat major, and there are piano quartets by Fauré and Brahms in the final concert of the series, featuring Irène Duval (violin), Asbjørn Nørgaard (viola), David Waterman (cello) and Connie Shih (piano).

Full details from the JW3 website.

Igor Levit, Joyce DiDonato, Thomas Adès: Southbank Centre's Opening Weekend launches its 2024/25 season

Igor Levit (Photo: Felix Broede)

The Southbank Centre's 2024/25 season [see my preview] starts with a bang featuring a five-day Opening Weekend (25 to 29 September 2024) when Resident Orchestras and Resident Artists join with other guests for a dozen events across the site. Highlights include Joyce DiDonato in Berlioz, a recital from Igor Levit, Rachmaninoff's The Bells and Lawrence Power and Thomas Adès exploring fairy tales.

Things kick off with Edward Gardner conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlioz' La mort de Cléopâtre, plus music by Barber and Beethoven, then the following day Santtu-Matias Rouvali launches the Philharmonia Orchestra's Nordic Soundscapes [see my preview] with Sibelius, Grieg and María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir. Both orchestras and conductors return further into the weekend, with Gardner and the LPO in Rachmaninoff including The Bells, and Santtu and the Philharmonia in Sibelius and Nielsen.

Igor Levit's recital puts together Bach's Chromatic fantasia and fugue in D minor, BWV.903, Brahms' Ballades, Op. 10 and Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Symphony No.7. There is chamber music with a difference in ;Fairytale Dances when violist Lawrence Power joins composer/pianist Thomas Adès, a percussionist and a dancer for fairytale music that moves from Purcell and Dowland to Britten, Tippett, Berio and Stravinsky, plus of course Adès himself. Cellist Matthew Barley's Light Stories is altogether more personal as he uses music and image to tell the story of his teenage journey from trauma and recovery into the light.

The Multi-Storey Orchestra's Verified is about search for authenticity and acceptance among the growing pressures of social media and living in a digital age, whilst Charles Hazlewood conducts the ParaOrchestra in Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, his an astonishing meditation on loss and transcendence.

Scottish Ensemble (Photo: Hugh Carswell)

Things end with the Scottish Ensemble in a programme culminating in Philip Glass' Symphony No. 3. Except, of course, that is not the end and there is an action packed season ahead.

Full details from the Southbank Centre's website.

Taking elements of Western culture and seeing it through the lens of other classical traditions: four new music theatre works at the Barbican this Autumn

Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling) and Mark Stone (René Gallimard) in rehearsal for the premiere of Huang Ruo's M. Butterfly at the Santa Fe Opera in 2022
(Photo: Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera)

Four music theatre works at the Barbican this Autumn show an intriguing interest in the cross-fertilisation between cultures, each taking elements of Western culture and seeing it through the lens of other classical traditions, variously combining Sufi, Ghanaian, Chinese, Indian, Korean and Western classical traditions with Rolf Hind's Sky in a Small Cage, Lear, Gorges Ocloo’s The Golden Stool, or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, and Huang Ruo's M. Butterfly.

Mahogany Opera is presenting the UK premiere of composer Rolf Hind and librettist Dante Micheaux's Sky in a Small Cage, directed by Frederic Wake-Walker. The work reflects on the extraordinary life and works of the 13th-century Sufi poet, Rumi and Hind's score draws on his life-long fascination with musical instruments and tonalities from central Europe, Java and India as well as influences from Arabic and Turkish music.

Sky in a Small Cage is in the Barbican Hall on 8 September, with Elaine Mitchener as the Narrator, Loré Lixenberg (Shaman of the Birds and Kerra, Rumi’s wife), countertenor James Hall and baritone/dancer Yannis François, with six ensemble singers and onstage musicians from Riot Ensemble conducted by Aaron Holloway-Nahum

National Changgeuk Company of Korea have restaged Shakespeare's King Lear as a traditional Korean opera. The production debuted at Korea's National Theatre in 2022 to some acclaim. Lear retells a familiar story in the form of Changgeuk, the culturally significant and artistically rich theatrical form in Korea that blends music, dance, and drama to create immersive storytelling experiences rooted in Korean tradition and heritage combined with creative contemporary influences. 

Lear is at the Barbican Theatre from 3 to 6 October, with Pai Sam-shik (Trojan Women), direction and choreography by Jung Young-doo, Pansori (traditional Korean folk opera) score by Han Seung-seok, with additional music by K-Pop producer Jung Jae-il (Parasite, Squid Game), set design by Lee Tae-sup.

 LOD muziektheater & Toneelhuis is presenting the UK premiere of Belgian/Ghanaian composer and director Gorges Ocloo’s Ghanaian ‘Afropera’ project, The Golden Stool, or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa, which pays homage to the heroic woman who confronted colonial injustice in Ghana. To celebrate Asantewaa’s legacy through music, Ocloo deconstructs and reconstructs pieces from the all-white canon of Western classical music. Works by Handel, Bizet, Shostakovich, Verdi, Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Orff are reimagined through a Ghanaian lens with additional voices, drums and percussion, and performed by a cast of women designed to echo the heroic brigade.

The Golden Stool, or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa is at the Barbican Hall on 14 October, with Nobulumko Mngxekeza-Nziramasanga (soprano), Nonkululeko Nkwinti (mezzo-soprano), Doris Bokongo Nkumu, Nathalie Bokongo Nkumu, Abena Biney Gloria, Titilayo Oliha, Saar-Niragire De Groof, Briana Stuart, Maïmouna Badjie and Somalia Williamson, 

The BBC Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with the Barbican is presenting the UK premiere of Huang Ruo’s opera of David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. Based on a true story of a French diplomat in China, the roles of Madame Butterfly and Pinkerton in Puccini's opera are here inverted. A diplomat at the French embassy in Beijing, falls in love with a beautiful Chinese opera singer who two shocking secrets - the singer is, of course a man (all female role in Chinese opera are played by men), and is spying for the Chinese government. In the opera the role is taken by a countertenor.

M. Butterfly premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in 2022 with Kangmin Justin Kim and Mark Stone, conducted by Carolyn Kuan, see the contrasting reviews in the Dallas Morning News and Opera Today.

Huan Ruo's M. Butterfly is at the Barbican Hall on 25 October. Carolyn Kuan conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Kangmin Justin Kim (Song Liling), Mark Stone (René Gallimard), Fleur Barron (Comrade Chin/Shu Fung), Kevin Burdette Manuel (Toulon/Judge) and the BBC Singers.

Full details from the Barbican website.

A world away from the Bibilical oratorio: Stanford's Walt Whitman setting is the focus for this disc from Wales of two of his large-scale choral works

Charles Villiers Stanford: Te Deum, Elegiac Ode; Rhian Lois, Samantha Price, Alessandro Fisher, Morgan Pearse, BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, Adrian Partington; LYRITA
Reviewed 23 July 2024

Written 35 years before his pupil Holst's Ode to Death, Stanford's Whitman setting of the same text shows a young composer willing and eager to explore different avenues

The list of British composers who set the verse of Walt Whitman is fairly well known, Delius, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Hamilton Harty and Bliss. The poetry's combination of transcendentalism, realism, a religious mysticism unconstrained by the western focus of Christianity, and its free prose offered composers an alternative to the standard canon of English verse. This list covers the years 1899 (for Holst's earlier essay) to the 1930s (for Bliss' Morning Heros and RVW's Dona Nobis Pacem) but there were others too. Charles Wood set Whitman in songs during the 1890s and even more fascinatingly, Charles Villiers Stanford set a whole chunk of Whitman in his Elegiac Ode of 1884.

This new disc from Lyrita features Stanford's Elegiac Ode, Op. 21 and Te Deum, Op. 66 performed by the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, conductor Adrian Partington with soloists Rhian Lois, Samantha Price, Alessandro Fisher and Morgan Pearse.

Seeking professional Global Majority musicians and composers based in the North of England and the Midlands: Opera North's Resonance residency programme 2024/25

Jasdeep Singh Degun performing Arya: concerto for sitar and orchestra with Orchestra of Opera North (Photo Justin Slee)

Opera North's Resonance residency programme was launched in 2017 to offer funding, space, time and technical support to professional Global Majority musicians and composers based in the North of England and the Midlands. Now the company is seeking applications from music creators from the Global Majority working in any genre for the next iteration of the programme. In 2024-25, six successful artists will be invited into Opera North’s home in Leeds to develop new ideas, collaborate with performers from other disciplines, and take their work in new directions. Each artist will receive up to a week of free rehearsal space in central Leeds between November 2024 and March 2025, a grant of up to £4,000 to cover fees for those involved and other costs, and support and advice from technicians, producers and other specialists. There are also options for a work in progress performance and a short film to document the project.

Many Resonance alumni have continued to work with Opera North. Music Director on the inaugural Resonance residency, Jasdeep Singh Degun, became the company’s first Artist-in Residence in 2022. His work with Opera North has included composing Arya, a sitar concerto for the Orchestra of Opera North, and being the composer and co-Music Director on the award-winning opera Orpheus. [see my 2023 interview with Jasdeep]. 2019 Resonance artist Nishla Smith is now the Programmer for the Howard Assembly Room and, earlier this year, Ladies of Midnight Blue performed A Love Revolution, the family-friendly show they had devised during their 2022 residency, on the Howard Assembly Room stage.

To apply, see the form on the Opera North website.

Flower of Cities: a new festival celebrates the City of London with a distinctly Italian flavour

A new festival will be enlivening the City of London in October. The rather awkwardly named City Festival of Music, Invention & Knowledge runs from 10 to 24 October 2024 with a series of evening events from classical and jazz musicians plus free, Before They Are Famous lunchtime recitals. Taking its inspiration from the current Lord Mayor of London, Michael Mainelli's Ligurian heritage, the festival has an Italian theme with a link-up with the Municipality of Genoa (Comune di Genoa) to bring the music of Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) into the City.

The festival's opening concert, at the Mansion House, features British jazz pianist Julian Joseph and band in a programme mixing new pieces with improvised versions of scores by Bach and Paganini. There is another take on Paganini at Milton Court when Elisa Tomellini and Alberto Casadei – AKA Eklectric Duo – present Electric Paganini with versions of Paganini's music alongside Vivaldi, Daft Punk and Coldplay.

Guitarist Josè Spanu will play an historic 19th Century instrument at St James Garlickhythe with sonatas by Paganini plus arrangements of Verdi and Rossini. Still with the guitar, but moving to the 21st century, Max Baillie (violin), Francisco Correa (guitar) and friends will present a programme focusing on the music of Stephen Goss including The Flower of Cities inspired by London landmarks.

The final day of the festival includes Nigel Short conducting Vivaldi's Gloria with a collective of workplace choirs at St Lawrence Jewry, and in the evening there is music performed by Tenebrae, conductor Nigel Short, and violinist Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (leader of the London Symphony Orchestra) in Bach, Paganini and Dufay.

Alongside these events there complementary talks and workshops exploring music and the City itself. 

The festival is curated by Ian Ritchie, who was director of the City of London Festival from 2005 until its demise in 2013, and  produced by Tessa Marchington of Music in Offices. Full details from the festival website.

A vividly realised recording which does full justice to the complexity and vivid imagination of this music: rediscovering music by Latvian-American composer Gundaris Pone

Gundaris Pone: La Serenissima, seven Venetian portraits for orchestra, American Portraits, Avanti!; Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, Guntis Kuzma, Normunds Šnē; SKANI
Reviewed 22 July 2024

The first studio recordings of three of Gundaris Pone's large-scale orchestral works reveal a mid-20th century composer of great imagination writing European music yet with his roots in Latvia

Latvian-American composer Gundaris Pone wrote music that transcended his country of birth. Born in Riga, his family emigrated to America in 1950, fleeing the advancing Soviet troops, and it was here that Pone trained and lived. Latvian music up until the second half of the 20th century largely reflected a mood of national romanticism, so Pone’s music seemed to many like the avantgarde of its time, yet Pone himself believed that Latvia was the true place for his scores. 

Of his style, Pone would say in an interview that though he was labelled an avantgardist, he had never considered himself so, that he thought "music should be written for the broadest masses of people, including those who haven’t been specially educated in music."

This album from the Latvian Music Information Centre's SKANI label features world premiere studio recordings of works for large orchestra La Serenissima, American Portraits and Avanti! All written between 1971 and 1984. The performers are the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, conductors Guntis Kuzma and Normunds Šnē.

We begin with La Serenissima, seven Venetian portraits for orchestra, a work that won competitions in Trieste in 1981 and in Louisville in 1983 as well as the Witney prize. Venice held a special place in the composer's heart and in later life he divided his time between the city and the USA. The work's material revolves around five notes, A – E flat – E – D – B, evidently spelling out LA S(es)-E-RE-nisSIma. The language is richly evocative and lush, even though the style is definitely modernism. But I kept getting hints of Britten's intelligent use of 20th century modernism too, here is a composer viewing European music through distinctly individualistic glasses. The work is in seven parts, each with an Italian title though for convenience I refer to the English translations.

New work, young artists, established favourites: University of Birmingham's Barber Concerts

The University of Birmingham's Elgar Concert Hall

The University of Birmingham has announced its programme of lunchtime and evening concerts for 2024/24, the Barber Concerts taking place in the Elgar Concert Hall in the university's in the Bramall Music Building, and the Dome studio space.

The evening concert series includes the BBC Singers joining forces with Britten Sinfonia, conductor Bob Chilcott, for the premiere of Michael Zev Gordon’s A Kind of Haunting . There are concerts from the brass ensemble, Septura, a recital from soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and pianist Joseph Middleton, the James Ehnes Piano Quartet in Fauré and the Brautigam/Hoppe/ Poltéra Trio.

The free lunchtime concert series includes Ariel Lanyi, piano, Timothy Ridout, viola and Jonathan Ware, piano, Marie-Christine Zupancic, flute and Daniel Browell, piano, BBC New Generation Artist, James Atkinson, baritone and Hamish Brown, piano. Kenneth Hamilton, piano, gives a lecture recital, Songs of Love and Dances of Death, whilst Caroline Ritchie and Henrik Persson perform on two spectacular and historically important viols, and there is a special concert in celebration of the exhibition Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites at the Barber Institute, with settings of poetry by Dante Gabriel Rossetti .

Other highlights for Autumn include Groove onto the Moon, a concert experience especially created for children aged 3 to 7 and their adventurous grown-ups; Rosie Tee, a Birmingham-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer in her brand of technicolour, retro-futuristic pop; BEAST and turntablist Mariam Rezaei; Odd Priest, a multi-disciplined artist from Birmingham.

Full details from the university website.

Forty Years of Inspiring Musicians: Carol Main MBE FRC will step back from her role as Director of Live Music Now Scotland – a post she has held since the founding of this organisation in 1984

Twogether Duo and Carol Main

Live Music Now was the brainchild of Lord Menuhin, and has provided talented musicians at the outset of their careers with professional performance and training opportunities, making live music accessible to all members of society, regardless of their circumstances. 

In March 2025, Carol Main MBE FRC will step back from her role as Director of Live Music Now Scotland (LMNS) – a post she has held since the founding of this organisation in 1984. In Carol Main's first year at , working half a day a week, LMNS put on 60 concerts, with a handful of classical ensembles; today, that figure has increased more than tenfold, with at least 750 performances being delivered by a current pool of around 145 musicians.

The LMNS Board has requested that Carol remain in a part-time consultancy role after March 2025, with a specific focus on fundraising and to continue her work with Live Music Now International. 

Amanda Forsyth, Chair of LMNS, said "The debt of gratitude that the whole Live Music Now family owes to Carol is impossible to quantify. Over the forty years of her Directorship, LMNS has grown and thrived, despite many challenges along the way – a living tribute to Carol’s energy, skill and dedication to sharing the joy of music as widely as possible. Our task now, as a Board of Trustees, is to find the very special person who is going to be able to pick up the baton, and conduct LMNS through the years to come."

The role of Chief Executive has been advertised, with applications to be received by 31st July 2024. 

Full details from the LMNS website.

Returning to Northern Ireland Opera for his third role, British-Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk talks about his continuing exploration of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin

Yuriy Yurchuk

Baritone Yuriy Yurchuk sings the title role in Northern Ireland Opera's new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin which opens on 14 September 2024 at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, directed by Cameron Menzies and conducted by Dominic Limburg, with a cast including Mary McCabe, Carolyn Dobbin, Sarah Richmond, Jenny Bourke and Norman Reinhardt. Yuri performed in the company’s productions of La Boheme in 2021 and La Traviata in 2022, whilst his performances of Eugene Onegin have included the New National Theatre in Tokyo earlier this year, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen and La Monnaie, Brussels in 2023

Yuriy Yurchuk at Royal Danish Opera

When Yuri and I spoke, he was in Savolinna in Finland, where he was about to make his role debut in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni. He comments that with the performances taking place in the Medieval castle, entrances and exits involve a lot of running about and negotiating old staircases and uneven dark places. He adds that the quality of the productions at Savolinna is astonishing, and he had nothing but admiration for this year's new production of Verdi's Nabucco, directed by Rodula Gaitanou. Don Giovanni is a revival, and Yuriy comments on the way productions can take on lives of their own, within what is a beautiful set the cast can play with the drama, and they have a lot of freedom. This year, Don Giovanni has two casts and the original intention was for them to do the same thing, but each cast has migrated towards doing what the singers feel. He was finding the process exciting, with the Don being a very interesting role.

Yuriy has a far longer acquaintance with Eugene Onegin, having first sung the role in Kyiv in 2016, with subsequent appearances including Tokyo, Copenhagen and Brussels, alongside a Royal Opera House Covent Garden young artists performance. Inevitably, his first performance of the role was very exciting, and he had to work a lot on forming the character and he talks about bridging the gap between you and the character, layering on the acting makeup. With performances in different productions, he finds his work becoming more nuanced. In each new production, he can try different things and feels that his interpretation gets better. He describes opera as an onion, peeling back layers, and adding more detail in the language and the acting.

Relentlessly entertaining: Louise Bakker's new production of Handel's Acis and Galatea at Opera Holland Park rather over-eggs things but features finely engaging soloists

Handel: Acis and Galatea - chorus - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Handel: Acis and Galatea; Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory, Chuma Sijeqa, Ruari Bowen, director: Louise Bakker, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Michael Papadopoulos; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 19 July 2024

For the company's first Handel work, a group of stylishly appealing soloists feature in a production which does not quite understand that less is more and which tends to over-egg things

For such a simple-seeming work, Handel's Acis and Galatea has a somewhat complex history. Written in 1718 whilst Handel was under the patronage of the Duke of Chandos, the work was premiered at the Duke's mansion Cannons with a tradition that it took place in the gardens (which were in the process of being 'improved'), then going on to have a strange after-life as Handel expanded it to suit his Italian opera company. 

We don't know much about that first performance and the surviving music is from slightly later and was published in 1722. It would have been a tiny performance, just five singers providing soloists and chorus, and a similar number of instrumentalists. Whether it was staged is anybody's guess, but Handel's complex writing for the chorus suggests that they, at least, would have been stationary.

For Opera Holland Park's first production of a Handel work, the choice fell rather aptly on Acis and Galatea in the 1718 version (albeit without the character of Coridon who was in the very first performance but dropped subsequently). We caught the opening night on 19 July 2024, directed by Louise Bakker with Michael Papadopoulos conducting the City of London Sinfonia. Elizabeth Karani was Galatea and Anthony Gregory was Acis, with Chuma Sijeqa as Polyphemus and Ruari Bowen as Damon, plus a chorus of eight.

Handel: Acis and Galatea - Elizabeth Karani, Anthony Gregory - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Alyson Cummins' set spread across the whole of the Opera Holland Park stage, creating a series of pastoral-inspired areas - a temple, a swing in a bower, a mound - with neo-classical architecture and verdant greenery and flowers. And yet, the effect had a deliberate artificiality to it, there was no attempt at realism. This was not an evocation of pastoral Ancient Greece, but a highly theatrical Arcadia. This was emphasised when, during the overture, the chorus arrived. They were dressed in what suggested a group of 18th century aristocrats playing at being English nature spirits. One of the men was Herne the Hunter, another something like the Green Man.

The Waves: Louis Mander and Tamsin Treverton Jones' operatic adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel to premiere in Oslo

Virginia Woolf: The Waves
cover of the first edition, designed by Vanessa Bell

Virginia Woolf's 1931 novel, The Waves, is regarded as her most experimental, consisting of ambiguous and cryptic soliloquies spoken mainly by six characters. It is her attempt to evoke the unconscious aspect of being and the innate essence of existence, and so far the work does not seem to have been adapted as an opera, though director Katie Mitchell adapted the work for the stage, at the National Theatre, in 2006 [see Mitchell's article in The Guardian].

Now librettist Tamsin Treverton Jones and composer Louis Mander have taken the plunge. Treverton Jones is a writer and poet, and has worked on opera librettos before including Thea for composer Amanda Johnson. Mander is an experience stage composer, having written more than a dozen music theatre works (opera, operetta and musicals) plus two ballets.

Their new operatic version of The Waves will premiere at the Oslo Opera Festival in September 2024 in a production directed by Einar Bjørge and conducted by Mander. The production will feature six young singers, William Stevens, William Diggle, Daniel Gray Bell, Hannah Edmunds, Mae Heydorn and Pauline Aase.

Before then, there will be the chance for UK audiences to get a taste of the work as on 24 July, these singers and repetiteur Stefan Ibsen Zlatanos will be sharing the music from the opera at an event at Hawkwood College in Stroud.

From familiar works to brand-new pieces: Autumn at Snape Maltings

Barbara Hepworth: Family of Man - Snape Maltings, winter 2021 (Photo: Shoel Stadlen, courtesy Britten Pears Arts)

The Autumn season at Snape Maltings Concert Hall sees Britten Pears Arts presenting a wide and varied range of activity from familiar works to brand-new pieces with leading performers, orchestras and ensembles beating a path to coastal Suffolk.

Undoubtedly, a major event in the Snape Maltings Concert Hall calendar is the Britten Weekend (2nd/3rd November) which this year features brother-and-sister duo, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason, seen as both soloists and chamber musicians. Their programme comprises Britten's Cello Sonata in C major paired with the Sonata in D minor by Shostakovich, a composer very close to Britten while the Britten Pears Chamber Choir (formerly Aldeburgh Voices) will sing three lovely contrasting choral mass settings by Britten, Kodály and Tavener from across five centuries in Orford Church thereby reimagining a choral concert from the Aldeburgh Festival’s early days.

Each year, too, the Viola Tunnard Artist award supports a talented collaborative pianist to develop their craft and skills and this year the accolade falls to French-born pianist, Juliette Journaux, who is addicted to Schubert, Beethoven, Mahler and the like. She will be joined by French-born mezzo-soprano, Mathilde Ortscheidt, performing a delectable programme of Mahler, Britten and Elgar while the Britten Weekend moves over to the Red House for a tour of the archive strongrooms (3rd November) while there will also be a celebration across the site of the people who had deep connections to the Red House, namely Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, who founded the Aldeburgh Festival in partnership with librettist/producer Eric Crozier in 1948.

Contemporary contrasts: Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci make highly satisfying double bill at Opera Holland Park

Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna - John Savournin - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: Il segreto di Susanna; Clare Presland, Richard Burkhard, John Savournin, director: John Wilkie, conductor: John Andrews
Ruggiero Leoncavallo: Pagliacci; David Butt Philip, Alison Langer, Robert Hayward, Zwakele Tshabalala, Harry Thatcher, director: Martin Lloyd-Evans, conductor: Francesco Cilluffo
Opera Holland Park, reviewed 17 July 2024

Two Italian operas, both dealing with jeopardy make a contrasting double bill in performances that bring both comedy and tragedy to life

Planning operatic double bills is always something of a challenge, but having paired early Puccini with Delius in 2022 [see my review], Opera Holland Park has returned with another intriguing pairing. Taking the imaginative decision to consider Leoncavallo's Pagliacci on its own rather than in tandem with Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, the company paired it with a revival of their 2019 production of Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna, putting together two operas both by Italians, composed within less than 20 years of each other and both dealing with matrimonial jealousy, the one comic and the other tragic. 

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci - David Butt Philip, Alison Langer - Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

We began with Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna, written in 1909 and one of the composer's few operas to retain anything like its place in the repertoire. Wolf-Ferrari applies a light yet imaginative touch to the music, the style is full of sly references yet sparkles along. John Wilkie directed, with John Andrews conducting the City of London Sinfonia with Richard Burkhard as the Count, Clare Presland as the Countess, and John Savournin in the silent role of Sante. Designs were by takis.

Belgian ensemble, Ayres Extemporae, winners of the 2024 York International Young Artists Competition at the National Centre for Early Music

Ayres Extemporae, winners of the 2024 York International Young Artists Competition

The 2024 York International Young Artists Competition took place on Saturday 13 July 2024 at the National Centre for Early Music in York, as the climax to this year's York Early Music Festival. Eight ensembles took place in the final, during the two days before the final each ensemble gave an informal recital at the National Centre for Early Music in York with the aim of giving the musicians the opportunity to adapt to the performance space and to get to know the festival audience members in advance of the final.

Ayres Extemporae, based in Belgium, were awarded the first prize, receiving a professional recording contract from Linn Records, a £1,000 cash prize, a future paid engagement with the York Early Music Festival, and recording opportunities with BBC Radio 3. 

UK based Apollo’s Cabinet took the Friends of York Early Music Festival award, a cash prize of £1,000, Ensemble Bastion won a cash prize of £1,000 endowed by the EUBO Development Trust, for the Most Promising Young Artist(s) specialising in the Baroque repertoire and  [hanse] Pfeyfferey (from Germany) took the Cambridge Early Music Prize, which includes a paid performance in Cambridge.

Ayres Extemporae are Moldovan-Spanish violinist Xenia Gogu, Spanish cellist Víctor García García, playing on a five-string cello piccolo. and Portuguese cellist Teresa Madeira and their programme consisted of Biber's Sonata for violin and continuo in E Minor, C. 142, Bach's Erbarme dich from Ich armer Mensch ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55 for tenor, flute and continuo (arr. for violoncello piccolo, violin and continuo)  and Bach's Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord in G major, BWV1027  (arr. for violoncello piccolo, violin and continuo).

The final is available to watch on the NCEM website.

Full details from the NCEM website.

A sound world that is at once distinctive, appealing and engaging: Maria Faust's Mass of Mary on Estonian Record Productions

Maria Faust: Mass of Mary; Collegium Musicale, Helina Kuljus, Lili Kirikal, Oliver Povel, Maria Faust, Kirstjan Kungla, Indrek Vau, Andres Kontus, conductor: Endrik Üksvärav; Estonian Record Productions
Reviewed 16 July 2024

Jazz, chant and polyphony side-by-side in a remarkable Estonian mass dedicated to all victims of domestic violence

Maria Faust is an Estonian jazz artist and composer, and her work as a jazz saxophonist alongside that of conducting ensembles such as the Copenhagen Estonian Choir, and teaching composition and improvisation has all fed into her Mass of Mary. Written in 20202 the work is for chamber choir, vocal soloists and instrumental quartet, with choral music inspired by chant and polyphony alongside more jazz-influenced instrumental contributions.

On this recording from Estonian Record Productions (ERP), Maria Faust's Mass of Mary is performed by the Estonian chamber choir Collegium Musicale with soloists Helina Kuljus (soprano), Lili Kirikal (soprano) and Oliver Povel (tenor), with Maria Faust (alto saxophone), Kirstjan Kungla (bassoon), Indrek Vau (trumpet) and Andres Kontus (trombone) conducted by Endrik Üksvärav.

The work uses the liturgical mass text - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei - interspersed with poetic texts compiled by Estonian playwright Eero Epner (born 1978) from works by Karl Ristikivi (1912-1977) and other poets. These movements - Mother, Child, Holy Spirit - explore the fragility of familial relationships in cases of victims of domestic violence, and the work is dedicated to all victims of domestic violence. Maria Faust says of her intentions for the piece, 'This work does not blame or teach and does not propose solutions. Rather, it is a consolation, and is the least that I, as a composer and a human being, can do and give to society'.

An intergenerational community: Garsington Opera brings its Youth and Adult community companies together for Andrew Norman's A Trip to the Moon

Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Youth Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

American composer Andrew Norman is perhaps best known for his orchestral works from Sacred Geometry (2003) to Play (2013) to Sustain (2018), which have won various awards including the 2017 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Music, whilst the Los Angeles Philharmonic won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for their 2019 recording of Sustain.

Norman has, so far, only written one opera, A Trip to the Moon from 2017 which is subtitled 'a melodrama for children'. The work was commissioned by Simon Rattle and premiered in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic, 200 volunteer singers and an orchestra made up of school children alongside members of the Philharmonic. Norman says of the piece that it was 'conceived as an experience as much for the wide variety of people making it as for the audience watching it.' But that it is 'first and foremost a children’s opera, to be performed by and for children'. Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra gave the work its first UK performance in a semi-staging at the Barbican Hall. 

Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Adult Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Andrew Norman's A Trip to the Moon is now receiving a full staging at Garsington Opera on 30 and 31 July 2024, directed by Karen Gillingham, (Gasington's Creative Director of Learning & Participation), and conducted by Douglas Boyd with the Philharmonia Orchestra, professional soloists including Robert Murray and Jennifer France, and the Garsington Opera Youth and Adult community companies, plus children from two local primary schools making some 150 local people in all. 

This is a community performance, and as with Garsington's other community ventures, the event is inter-generational, with local people of different generations working shoulder-to-shoulder with professional singers and creative teams.

For many members of the Youth and Adult companies, the performance brings the experience of working alongside professionals as well as the chance to make friends with other company members. As one members of the Adult company put it, 'I have been involved in Garsington Opera Adult Company for over 13 years and I love it. Singing brings me joy and I relish the challenge of pushing myself outside my comfort zone. Learning about the intricate tapestry of an opera’s creation alongside top-tier professionals is something truly wonderful.' 

As Karen Gillingham explains, 'the infant group (5-7yr olds) came up with moon games - crater hop scotch and meteoroid football. They are bursting with ideas and super cute. One of the children is suffering from severe trauma and is selective mute. He loves the rehearsals and sings during them. It is an act of bravery for him to do this.' 

Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon - Adult Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

The opera takes its theme from Georges Méliès' seminal 1902 silent film [see it on YouTube], and the fantastical opera explores how linguistic barriers must be broken down so that Earth people can communicate with Moon people, who have their own lyrical lunar language, and eventually they all learn to rise above their mutual mistrust and come together to overcome a mysterious threat.

The images in this article were taken at recent rehearsals for A Trip to the Moon with the Garsington Opera Youth and Adult community companies at the new Garsington Studios.

Full details from Garsington Opera's website.

A rich sophistication of thought running through this programme that seems worlds away from the typical debut recital: Awakenings from Laurence Kilsby & Ella O'Neill

Awakenings: Brahms, Saint-Saens, Wolf, Schoenberg, Stenhamer, Rebecca Clarke, Prokofiev, Hugh Wood, Jake Heggie, Weill, Britten: Laurence Kilsby, Ella O'Neill; AVI Music
Reviewed 15 July 2024

An intriguing & eclectic programme full of disturbing elements complemented by performances of remarkable maturity enlightened with the dark, burnished tones of Kilsby's voice

On this disc from tenor Laurence Kilsby and pianist Ella O'Neill on AVI Music (in co-production with SWR Kultur), under the title Awakenings we are presented with a programme that moves from Brahms to Saint-Saens, to Wolf, to Schoenberg, to Stenhamer, to Rebecca Clarke, to Wolf, to Prokofiev, to Hugh Wood, to Jake Heggie, to Weill, to Schoenberg, to Britten, to Clarke to Heggie. It is quite an eclectic mix, yet the songs are drawn together under quite a sophisticated theme. As Kilsby explains, "There is an idea that the darkest, most lustful and impulsive versions of ourselves stem from our innocence being corrupted. This idea forms the basis of this programme through its sub-themes of inexperience, naivety and corruption."

There is a rich sophistication of thought running through this programme that seems worlds away from the typical debut recital. For a start, few of the songs are well-known and few pop up in the recitals of young singers. Also, having chosen such a surprising and questioning subject for the recital, Kilsby and O'Neill bring it off with poise, sophistication and real depth. There is a burnished darkness to Kilsby's tone, that really suits the music, and his performances have a questing thoughtfulness that real impresses. 

Appealing to an opera audience with song repertoire: Opera in Song returns to Opera Holland Park

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022

Opera in Song, curated by baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and pianist Dylan Perez, has returned to Opera Holland Park for the fourth season. Last month there was a masterclass for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and a gala concert to celebrate her 80th birthday. This week there are three recitals on 18, 20 and 21 July. An exciting programme features a mix of new faces and returning figures. New are mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, baritone Benjamin Appl, soprano Harriet Burns and pianist Ian Burnside, returning are Julien Van Mellaerts, Dylan Perez and tenor Nicky Spence, along with this years crop of Opera Holland Park Young Artists. The result does exactly what Julien Van Mellaerts and Dylan Perez intended from the beginning, pairing established artists with up and coming talent.

Thursday's recital (18 July 2024) has the title Ballads and Legends and Julien Van Mellaerts sees it very much as an exploration of opera as song. Helen Charlston and Julien Van Mellaerts with Dylan Perez will be performing music by Charles Stanford, Rebecca Clarke, Carl Loewe, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Paolo Tosti, along with Haydn's dramatic scena, Arianna a Naxos. 

The evening will feature the premiere of Oded Zehavi’s Songs of the Sea, a sequence of songs commissioned by Julien Van Mellaerts, with lyrics by the poets Bill Manhire, Laura Attridge, and Claire Simon, respectively from New Zealand, Britain and France, referencing Julien Van Mellaerts three countries of origin. Composer Oded Zehavi is from Tel Aviv, and the sea is something that runs through Julien Van Mellaerts family. The cycle tells three different stories of the seas, presenting three very different versions of the sea.

Saturday's recital (20 July 2024) is an exploration of Frauenliebe und -Leben, with Benjamin Appl, Harriet Burns and Ian Tindale. The performance of Schumann's song-cycle exploring a woman's life and love (albeit written by a male poet and a male composer) will be expanded and interleaved with songs by Franz Schubert, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Liza Lehmann, Rebecca Clarke, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Nico Muhly and others that use the narrative to explore things from a more 21st century point of view. 

On Sunday (21 July 2024) the final recital features Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez hosting a Comedy and Cabaret recital with the Opera Holland Park Young Artists featuring music by Stephen Sondheim, Tom Lehrer, Kurt Weill, Jonathan Dove, William Bolcom, Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward, Victoria Wood and more.

With the introduction of a piano into the auditorium, bringing the singers and pianist closer to the audience, Julien Van Mellaerts finds this closeness to the audience brings a surprising immediacy and intimacy to the performances.

The Opera in Song recitals at Opera Holland Park have proved popular in the past, with their mix of established artists and young talent. Julien Van Mellaerts and Dylan Perez hope that this year's fascinating mix will continue that, appealing to an opera audience with song repertoire.

Full details from the Opera Holland Park website.

London Mozart Players in 2024/25: Resident at Fairfield Halls, performing at Smith Square Hall & on the South coast, plus a new season at St Martin-in-the-Fields

London Mozart Players is resident at Fairfield Halls, Croydon and performs at Smith Square Hall and on the South coast, but in addition the orchestra launches its 2024/25 season with six concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields. In September, violinist Ruth Rogers directs Four World Season which fuses Vivaldi and Roxanna Panufnik’s interpretation of the world’s seasons, complete with live immersive digital projections which will transform St Martin’s into a visual spectacle. In October, Jonathan Bloxham conducts the orchestra in Mendelssohn and the Schumanns with Louis Schwizgebel in Schumann's Piano Concerto, Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony and Clara Schumann's Three Romances (an orchestration of her late masterpiece for violin and piano). November sees Jonathan Bloxham returning for The Ages of Mozart with pianist Angela Hewitt in programme which moves from Mozart's Symphony No. 1 to Symphony No. 6 'Linz' plus Piano Concerto No. 9 'Jeunehomme'.

The new year sees French Connections: Music from the Parisian Stage with pianist Zee Zee in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, Flights of Fancy with programmatic music from RVW to Coleridge Taylor, and A Place in Time when the orchestra's Education Ambassador, saxophonist Jess Gillam, joins the orchestra as soloist and presenter for this folk-inspired programme.

Other events include Christmas with London Mozart Players at Smith Square Hall with the LMP Brass ensemble, Croydon SDA Gospel Choir and Trinity Boys Choir and Trinity Girls Choir. The brass ensemble will also travel to Henry Ward Hall, Hastings and St John’s, Upper Norwood for Christmas Crackers. In Croydon, Changing Seasons ;at Fairfield Halls responds to the climate emergency by interspersing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with new seasonal-themed commissions from four community groups; Queer Croydon, Club Soda, Subrang Arts and Croydon Music & Arts. The event will be preceded by a free afternoon showcase in the open spaces of Fairfield Halls, featuring local talent from over 30 music and dance groups.

The orchestra's LMP on the Move initiative will be popping up in local community venues and public places around the Borough of Croydon, bringing accessible performance formats to the local residents throughout the year. The orchestra will also take LMP on the Move to Hastings, building on their residency on the South coast. The orchestra's community residencies in Upper Norwood and on the South coast continue with Marvellous Maestros (St John’s, Upper Norwood) and Now That’s What I Call (Classical) Music: Baroque to Rock (De La Warr Pavilion), both focusing on the GCSE music set-work syllabus, helping local students to prepare for their exams.      

Full details from LMP's website.

Dynamic duo: director Adele Thomas and creative producer Sarah Crabtree to take over as WNO's General Director and CEO

Adele Thomas

Welsh National Opera has announced that opera and theatre director Adele Thomas and creative producer Sarah Crabtree will jointly take up the role of WNO's General Director and CEO in January 2025, following on from Aidan Lang who stepped down at the end of 2023.

Welsh-born Adele Thomas is directing WNO's new production of Verdi's Rigoletto (for which plans were already in place) which premieres at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff this September before touring to Llandudno, Plymouth, Oxford and Southampton. 

Thomas' opera directing has included Handel's Semele at Glyndebourne, Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Royal Opera House, a vividly theatrical production Vivaldi's Bajazet for Irish National Opera in 2022 [see my review] and a brilliant re-invention of Handel's Berenice for London Handel Festival and the Royal Opera in 2019 [see my review].

Sarah Crabtree is Creative Producer and head of Linbury Theatre (opera) at The Royal Opera House, where highlights include overseeing the world premieres of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Coraline [see our review] at the Barbican, Philip Venable’s 4.48 Psychosis [see my review], Laura Bowler's The Blue Woman and Oliver Leith’s Last Days. 

Sarah Crabtree (© 2023 ROH. Photographed by Charlie Clift)

Many will remember Sarah Crabtree from her time at Opera Holland Park where she worked from 2006 to 2015, becoming Associate Producer to James Clutton there in 2012; she commissioned Opera Holland Park’s first ever new work, Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 2012.

Full details from the WNO website.

Fine singing and vivid character in this revival of John Cox's vintage production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Garsington

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - David Ireland, Claire Lees - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro; David Ireland, Claire Lees, Rafael Fingerlos, Samantha Clarke, Bethany Horak-Hallett, director: John Cox/Bruno Ravella, Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor: Tabita Berglund; Garsington Opera
Reviewed 14 July 2024

A solidly sung revival of a production that is becoming a classic, telling the story with clarity and vivid detail, with classy singing that lifted this from an ordinary revival

John Cox's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro was created back in 2005 for a very different Garsington, when the company was in its original home. It is a classic production, one that tells the story with elegance, clarity and humour. This year, the production was revived by director Bruno Ravella. We caught the performance on 14 July 2024, when Tabita Berglund conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra with David Ireland as Figaro, Claire Lees as Susanna, Rafael Fingerlos as the Count, Samantha Clarke as the Countess, Bethany Horak-Hallett as Cherubino, Neal Davies as Dr. Bartolo, Susan Bickley as Marcellina, Stephanie Hershaw as Barbarina and Paul Nilon as Don Basilio. Designs were by Robert Perdziola, with lighting by Malcolm Rippeth.

Perdziola's set started out as an assemblage of architectural fragments, providing the corner of Figaro and Susanna's room along with necessary corridors. For the scene change to Act Two, the set was simplified and altered, and then for Act Three it was simplified again, whilst the entire set was re-dressed for the garden scene. It might have not been the most luxurious of sets, but Perdziola succeeded in capturing the right atmosphere (I loved the forbidding neo-Velázquez portrait gallery) and for the complexities of the more farcical moments in Acts One and Two, the set provided just the right engine. Even here, there were imaginative touches, so that in Act Two we could see inside the closet with first Cherubino (Bethany Horak-Hallett) and then Susanna (Claire Lees) patiently waiting.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - Claire Lees, Samantha Clarke - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

An intuitive abstract Sudoku working with sound parameters and with no single solution: Chilean composer Aníbal Vidal on writing music

The Brompton Quartet, Aníbal Vidal & Ignacio LusardiMonteverde at recording session for Cuerdas y Rugidos

Chilean composer Aníbal Vidal released his album, Cuerdas y Rugidos (Strings and Roars), on the Sello Modular label last month. Aníbal is currently on the Britten Sinfonia's Magnum Opus scheme, they premiered a work by him at Milton Court in April and will be premiering another of his works in the Autumn. 

Aníbal Vidal

The new disc features three of Aníbal's chamber works, Camanchaca - String Quartet No.1 performed by the Brompton Quartet, Unboxing a Music Box - String Quartet No.2 performed by the Alkyona Quartet and Three Chants for assembling an Oboe for oboe and string quartet performed by José Luis Urquieta and ensemble f(r)actura. Aníbal has been writing chamber music for the past three years, he finds you have a more developed exchange with the performer, whereas with orchestral music there is not such a close collaboration. So, exploring a soundscape or musical landscape is far more exciting with a chamber group, though he admits that the recording also makes economic sense.

Camanchaca, his String Quartet No.1, is based on an idea he has had for years. Chile is a seismic country, most people have experienced at least three earthquakes. He has a distinct sound memory of earthquakes, how the houses sound when shaking, and the roars beneath the ground. He experienced the tsunami of 2010 when he was living in a small coastal village and all the fishermen's boats smashed against the breakwater creating a truly memorable sound that he likened to a Titan playing with the boats. In Camanchaca he imagines a peaceful landscape alongside the sound memories of the earthquakes.