Dramatic engagement: Francesco Corti directs Bach's St John Passion with the English Concert at Wigmore Hall on Good Friday

Autograph of the first page of the Johannespassion by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach: St John Passion (1739 version); Patrick Grahl, Rachel Redmond, Jess Dandy, Ashley Riches, Morgan Pearse, the English Concert, Francesco Corti; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 18 April 2025, Good Friday

A profoundly satisfying account with dramatic urgency complemented by intimacy and tenderness in a performance of the Passion that brought a sense of drama and sophisticated music making

Having given us Bach's early alternative thoughts, with Solomon's Knot's performance of Bach's 1725 revision of the St John Passion in February [see my review], for Good Friday (18 April 2025), Wigmore Hall presented the familiar 1739 version of the work with Francesco Corti directing the English Concert with German tenor Patrick Grahl (an alumnus of the Leipzig Thomanerchor) as the Evangelist, bass Ashley Riches as Christus, baritone Morgan Pearse as Pilatus and Petrus, and soprano Rachel Redmond and alto Jess Dandy. There were, in fact, nine singers in all, as the above were joined by Amy Wood, Judy Louie Brown, Peter di Toro and Tom Perkins. All except Patrick Grahl sang in the choruses, Redmond, Dandy and Grahl sang the soprano, alto and tenor solos, respectively, whilst Pearse and Riches shared the bass solos between them. 

The 13 instrumentalists were led by Nadja Zwiener with Corti directing from the harpsichord and Tom Foster playing the organ. Corti seemed to favour admirably strong harpsichord tone and the instrument contributed significantly to the instrumental timbres (something that does not always happen), though Foster's organ was, at times, frustratingly discreet. It is worth digging out Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli Consort & Players' 2000 recording of Bach's Easter Oratorio and Magnificat in D recorded in the Saxon church of Brand-Erbisdorf (just South of Freiberg) which has a fine baroque organ by a pupil of Silbermann (the organ builder who was a friend of Bach), thus giving us the sort of sound world that Bach would have anticipated; one that is rarely reproduced on the modern concert platform. One intensely practical point I noted was that viola da gamba player Samuel Ng (soloist in 'Es is vollbracht') played throughout the evening.

As Andrew Parrott's ground-breaking 2000 book The Essential Bach Choir [available from Boydell & Brewer] explained, the Lutheran tradition in which Bach wrote often supplemented single singers on each voice line with an extra quartet (or quintet). This was Corti's approach, one that worked admirably in a space the size of Wigmore Hall and which preserved the vocal ensemble feel of a performance with just solo voices. Parrott's book includes one intriguing comment that I have never seen or heard implemented, if using an additional quartet of voices then they stand separate from the solo quartet, each group of SATB together and the result must have been an interesting acoustic effect.

We caught Francesco Corti directing the English Concert in Bach in 2023 [see my review] and it was very rewarding to see him back again. His St John Passion began with a long moment of silence, but the work that arose out of this was anything but contemplative and despite the restrictions of having 24 people crammed onto the Wigmore Hall platform, the performance had a vibrant energy and sense of drama, and yes contemplation too.

Searching for possibilities: composer Noah Max on his four string quartets recently recorded by the Tippett Quartet on Toccata Classics

Noah Max (Photo: Richard Ecclestone)

Last month, Toccata Classics released a disc of the four string quartets by the young British composer Noah Max [see details] recorded by the Tippett Quartet (John Mills, Jeremy Isaac, Lydia Lowndes-Northcott, Bozidar Vukotic). This group premiered Noah's String Quartet No. 2 at the Thaxted Festival in 2023, where Noah was composer in residence [see my review]. This is the second disc of Noah's music on Toccata, the first Songs of Loneliness being a disc of varied solos and chamber music [see my review].

The four quartets were all written over quite a short period, yet are remarkably diverse. The first quartet from 2020 is linked to the fable The Man Who Planted Trees written in 1953 by French writer Jean Giono (1895-1970), narrated on the disc by Sir Michael Morpurgo. In three movements, the music is tonal and atmospheric, supplementing the narrative and the work interweaves text and music, sometimes keeping them independent and sometimes as melodrama. The result slows down the narrative somewhat but creates a striking synthesis. The work is ultimately positive, Morpurgo's last words are 'in spite of everything, humanity is admirable', and it forms a strong contrast with Noah's fourth quartet.

Youthful impulse and power: Mozart's Requiem from National Youth Choir, Sinfonia Smith Square and Nicholas Chalmers

The first page of Mozart's autograph score of the Requiem

Mozart: Symphony No. 35, Requiem, Bruckner, Rheinberger; Hannah Dienes-Williams, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Hugo Brady, Peter Edge, National Youth Choir (18-25 Years), Sinfonia Smith Square, Nicholas Chalmers; Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 17 April 2025

Vigour, flexibility and power with a lovely sense of impulse as the young singers of the National Youth Choir come together with the young emerging musicians of Sinfonia Smith Square in Mozart's late masterpiece

As part of its Easter Festival at Smith Square Hall, Sinfonia Smith Square came together with the National Youth Choir (18-25 Years) under the choir's principal conductor Nicholas Chalmers on Thursday 17 April 2025 for a programme centred on Mozart's Requiem with soloists Hannah Dienes-Williams, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Hugo Brady and Peter Edge. The first half of the concert featured Mozart's Symphony No. 35 'Haffner' and motets by Mozart, Bruckner and Rheinberger, with the choral items intriguingly interleaved between the symphony's movements.

This was a programme about youth, the choral singers were all in the 18 to 25 age bracket, the orchestral players are all emerging musicians hardly older than that whilst the four soloists are all rising stars. Sinfonia Smith Square brings together annually 34 young musicians in a programme aimed at bridging the gap between college and full time professional career. The programme aims to give the players real life problems, and the evening's programme was not just a musical challenge, but had been put together in a remarkably short time (a skill that orchestral musicians must learn). Whilst Chalmers and the youth choir had, until a couple of days ago, been on tour in South Africa.

Looking at these modern classics anew: Britten's Canticles at the Barbican with James Way, Natalie Burch & friends

Natalie Burch, James Way and Annemarie Federle at St Mary's Parish Church, Haddington where their recording of Britten's Canticles was made (Photo: Will Coates-Gibson/Foxbrush)

Britten: Five Canticles; Errollyn Wallen; My Lazy Goodheart, Schubert: Auf dem Strom, Des Fischers Liebesgluck; Lotte Betts-Dean, James Way, Ross Ramgobin, Natalie Burch, Alis Huws, Annemarie Federle; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed 16 April 2025

Britten's complete canticles alongside Schubert and Errollyn Wallen in a profoundly satisfying programme that combined musicality and sympathy with a sense of young performers looking at these modern classics anew

Tenor James Way and his duo partner (and wife), pianist Natalie Burch have recorded Britten's five Canticles for Delphian on a very tempting disc [see details] that pairs the canticles with Priaulx Rainier's Cycle for Declamation written for Peter Pears in 1955.

On Wednesday 16 April 2025, James Way and Natalie Burch were joined by other performers from the disc, mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, baritone Ross Ramgobin, horn player Annemarie Federle and harpist Alis Huws at the Barbican Centre's Milton Court concert hall for an evening the mixed Britten's canticles with two songs by Britten's beloved Schubert, Auf dem Strom (for voice, horn and piano) and Des Fischers Liebesglück , plus Errollyn Wallen's My Lazy Goodheart. The programme represented an intriguing solution to the problem of presenting Britten's canticles in concert, pairing them with Schubert and with Ross Ramgobin (and Annemarie Federle) performing the Schubert and Lotte Betts-Dean not only performing the Errollyn Wallen but taking the alto part in Britten's Journey of the Magi, they ensured a balance of stage time for everyone.

Britten's canticles form an intriguing thread running through his composing career from 1947 to 1974, and as Alexandra Coghlan's article in the programme book points out, each canticle can be linked to Britten's concerns from his then current opera. Strictly, of course, they are not canticles at all, at least not in the Christian liturgical sense, but despite the varied nature of the pieces there is a commonality running through them, perhaps thanks to the focus of having just voice and instruments in a work that is not strictly song with texts that take a somewhat sidelong glance at religious matters.

Cheltenham Music Festival's highly regarded Composer Academy is returning for 2025, the festival's 80th birthday year.

Daniel Kidane

After being placed on hiatus in 2023 owing to funding issues, Cheltenham Music Festival's highly regarded Composer Academy is returning for 2025, the festival's 80th birthday year. 

The talent development programme for early-career composers will take place over an intensive five-day course at Syde Manor in Gloucestershire, alongside the Festival itself. Under the supervision of award-winning alumnus of the Academy, Daniel Kidane, composers will participate in workshops, performances,  sessions and talks. The programme offers key showcase and development opportunities for its participants. 

As well as attending premieres and world-class recitals at the Festival itself, Composer Academy participants will have the opportunity to write a short work for performance before a live audience by the Carice Singers and conductor,  George Parris. This showcase concert will also feature Q&A sessions, offering composers the chance to receive first-hand thoughts and feedback on their music.  

Jack Bazalgette, the festival's artistic director comments, "It’s a really unique opportunity for new composers to meet like-minded people, experience remarkable music and learn an amazing amount – all in the space of a week and in the context of one of the world’s most respected festivals."

The Composer Academy will take place from 7-11 July 2025. Applications open online on 25 April and close at 5pm on 12 May. Early-career composers interested in applying should visit the Cheltenham Festivals website for more information. 

This production, will undoubtedly be remembered for years to come: Massenet's Werther in Paris with Marina Viotti, Benjamin Bernheim & Marc Leroy-Calatayud conducting Les Siècles

Massenet: Werther - Marina Viotti, Benjamin Bernheim - Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Photo: Vincent Pontet)

Massenet: Werther; Marina Viotti, Benjamin Bernheim, Sandra Hamaoui, Jean-Sébastien, director: Christof Loy/Silvia Aurea De Stefano, Les Siècles, conductor: Marc Leroy-Calatayud; Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris
Reviewed by Andreas Rey

From Paris, our correspondent Andreas Rey feels that it is a long time since Massenet's Werther has been staged to such a high standard in the city.

From March 22 to April 6, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées presented a new production of Jules Massenet's Werther, directed by Christof Loy and revival director Silvia Aurea De Stefano (a co-production with Teatro alla Scala), with Marina Viotti as Charlotte and Benjamin Bernheim as Werther [Robert saw Bernheim in the role in Zurich in 2024, see review], and Marc Leroy-Calatayud conducting Les Siècles.

It's probably no exaggeration to consider it one of the best of the first quarter of 2025, at least. In fact, it's been a long time since a Werther has been staged to such a high standard in Paris. The few comments that follow should not distract readers. First of all, we must salute the German director's fine work, in terms of set design, costumes and acting.

Massenet: Werther - Act 1 - Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Photo: Vincent Pontet)

A new bandoneon concerto amidst the musical delights of Christian Blackshaw's festival, Hellensmusic in an historic Herefordshire village

Hellens Manor, Much Marcle, Herefordshire

Hellensmusic is a music festival that takes place every May at Hellens Manor, St Bartholomew’s Church, and The Walwyn Arms in the historic Herefordshire village of Much Marcle (the name comes from the Anglo Saxon word for field). 

Founded by pianist Christian Blackshaw and Adam Munthe (chair of the family trust that runs Hellens Manor), the festival returns this year for its 12th edition from 8 to 13 May 2025 featuring a world premiere for bandoneon and strings by Omar Massa and music by Lera Auerbach, Bartók, Beethoven, Rebecca Clarke and Dohnányi.

For 2025, Blackshaw is joined as artistic director by violinist Maya Iwabuchi (leader of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) and Matthew Hunt (Principal clarinetist of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen) and they have invited colleagues from round the world to join them to present a four day programme of concerts.

The Festival opens in St. Bartholomew’s Church on Thursday 8 May with a folk music inspired programme showcasing music by JS Bach, Biber, Bartók and Rebecca Clarke. Early evening on Saturday 10 May in The Great Barn at Hellens Manor will feature world premiere by Argentinian composer and bandoneon player Omar Massa in a programme that includes music by Dohnányi, Mozart and Haydn. The Saturday evening concert sees the festival performers joined by Hellensmusic Masterclass Students for Mozart's Serenade in E flat and Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence, and in the Walwyn Arms pub in Much Marcle, Julien Quentin, Omar Massa and Matthew Hunt perform 300 years of the Greatest Hits.

Full details from the festival website.

 

 

Pegasus True Masters: masterclass with Roderick Williams as fundraiser for Pegasus Opera Mentoring Programme

Pegasus Opera's mentoring programme with Danielle de Niese in 2024

Pegasus Opera is being joined by baritone Roderick Williams for True Masters, the first of its public masterclass series and a fundraiser for Pegasus Opera Mentoring Programme which empowers the next generation of opera singers from global majority heritage backgrounds.

On Wednesday 4 June 2025 at Smith Square Hall, Roderick Williams will be joined by six emerging classical artists from global majority heritage, Tia Radix-Callixte (soprano), Julian Chou-Lambert (baritone), Neeharika Gollapalli (soprano), Joshua Elmore (countertenor), Masimba Ushe (bass), and Aivale Cole (soprano), and collaborative pianist Avishka Edirisinghe, for an evening focusing on interpretation and performance of arias and songs, including Mendelssohn's Hexenlied, Strauss' Morgen and arias from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Wagner's Tannhäuser and Handel's Rinaldo and Semele.

Pegasus Opera launched its opera mentoring programme in 2020 in response to the continued under-representation of classical artists of global majority heritage on the UK opera stages. Now run annually, the programme pairs each mentee with established global majority mentors who are seasoned opera professionals delivering one to one coaching on repertoire, vocal technique and career advice. This year's programme, whose successful applicants have just been selected, is being run in partnership with Glyndebourne Opera House.

All proceeds of the event will directly support the ongoing work of Pegasus Opera Mentoring Programme. Full details from the Sinfonia Smith Square website.

Henning Kraggerud announced as the Irish Chamber Orchestra's new artistic partner

Norwegian violinist and composer Henning Kraggerud is joining the Irish Chamber Orchestra as its new artistic partner from August 2025. Kraggerud joined the orchestra this month for concerts in Ireland presenting Between the Seasons, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons alongside three of Kraggerud's own works. This will be Kraggerud's third tour with the orchestra, in 2022 he joined them for a programme highlighting music from Kraggerud's native Norway and then last year they performed Kraggerud's orchestration of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Henning Kraggerud is artistic director of the Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra in Tromsø. His recording with them, Between the Seasons featuring Vivaldi and his own compositions came out on Simax in 2018 [see my review]. He is a Professor of Violin and Viola at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he also teaches improvisation. 

He is also the Chair of Violin and a Fellow at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester. I caught him and the RNCM Chamber Orchestra at RNCM's Original Voices Festival in 2023 including movements from his version of the Goldberg Variations. [see my review]

Further details from the Irish Chamber Orchestra's website.

Celebrating Creativity in Hospitals: Michael Stimpson's work inspired by his stay in ICU at hear of this concert for Horatio's Gardens

A concert to thank the NHS and to raise money for Horatio's Gardens, who produce beautiful gardens at NHS spinal injury centres to aid patients with their recovery, at Sinfonia Smith Square on 2 May 2025 will not only feature the Woburn Piano Trio (Emily Davis, Karen Stephenson and Sophia Rahman) in Beethoven's Piano Trio No.1 in E-flat major, and Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No.1 in D minor, but also features composer Michael Stimpson's Tales from the 15th floor inspired by his own time in ICU at Charing Cross Hospital after a life-changing illness.

Composer Michael Stimpson was 29 when he contracted Guillain-Barré Syndrome, the rare neurological condition that left him unconscious and paralysed in intensive care for four and a half months. His Tales from the 15th floor for cello and piano reflects this time in his life.

As a thank you to NHS workers and volunteers, they able to buy tickets at the discounted price of £5. All money raised at the concert will go towards Horatio’s Garden. Because of their link with spinal injury, wheelchair users and their carers can attend the concert for free.

Horatio’s Garden builds and looks after extraordinary gardens in in the heart of NHS spinal

injury centres. They lead gardening sessions to grow and cultivate plants, arts workshops to discover new skills and a programme of live music and events. Designed to be enjoyed all-year-round, the gardens offer a warm, welcoming place for family and friends who may have travelled hours for a visit. They have now opened gardens in seven of the 11 NHS spinal injury centres in the UK and their vision is for everyone with a spinal injury to have a Horatio’s Garden as part of their rehabilitation care. 

Full details of the concert from Sinfonia Smith Square website.

Yorkshire Calling: Ben Crick & the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra open Bradford Live for Yorkshire Day as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture

The ballroom at Bradford Live

A restored 1930s Art Deco building in Bradford will be reopening in August after being saved from demolition and restored as a cultural hub for the city. As part of events for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, Bradford Live will host the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra, conductor Ben Crick on Yorkshire Day, 1 August 2025.

For the event, called Yorkshire Calling, Crick and the orchestra will be joined by poet Ian McMillan, the BBC’s Bantam of the Opera Choir and Leeds-based pianist Yuanfan Yang.

Crick will conduct his own music in A Northern Score featuring featuring poems written and narrated by Ian McMillan, celebrating influential northerners through the ages. The Bantam of the Opera choir features fans of Bradford City AFC, known as ‘the Bantams’ who have been taught to sing opera to celebrate Bradford’s UK City of Culture year, as part of a BBC Radio Leeds programme. Pianist Yuanfan Yang is an alumnus of the 2015 and 2018 Leeds International Piano competition (known as The Leeds). He is the Piano Ambassador for the Wharfedale Festival of Piano which includes the annual Waterman Piano Recital Series in memory of The Leeds co-founder Dame Fanny Waterman. 

Established in 1975 by the Yorkshire Ridings Society, Yorkshire Day commemorates Yorkshire’s historic contributions; for the last 40 years, Yorkshire Day, has been managed by the Yorkshire Society.  This year the Yorkshire Society is working in partnership with Bradford 2025.  

Further information about Yorkshire Calling from the Trafalgar Tickets website.

Compelling and magisterial: Sunwook Kim directs Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the piano in Beethoven's third and fourth piano concertos

Sunwook Kim & Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Barbican Centre (Photo: Ed Maitland-Smith/Barbican Centre)

Anna Clyne: Stride, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3, Rondino in E flat, Piano Concerto  N. 4; Sunwook Kim, Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the Barbican Hall
Reviewed 12 April 2025

Orchestra and soloist both on terrific form in a pair of concerto performances remarkably unified in intention and surmounted by the responsive yet definite piano playing of Sunwook Kim

Pianist Sunwook Kim won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18, the competition's youngest winner for 40 years and its first Asian winner. This means that he is still remarkably youthful despite his 20 year career in the spotlight. As part of a tour of Europe and South Korea, Sunwook Kim joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, directing Beethoven piano concertos from the keyboard. Kim and the orchestra's tour concluded with two UK performances, at Saffron Hall and the Barbican, the orchestra's first UK appearances since they performed at the 2017 BBC Proms.

On Saturday 12 April 2025, at the Barbican Hall, Sunwook Kim directed the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the piano in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Piano Concerto No. 4, the strings of the orchestra played Anna Clyne's Beethoven-inspired Stride, and eight wind players performed Beethoven's  early Rondino in E flat major.

Sunwook Kim & Chamber Orchestra of Europe - Barbican Centre (Photo: Ed Maitland-Smith/Barbican Centre)

We began with Anna Clyne's Stride, written as part of the Beethoven 250th anniversary celebrations in 2020. Premiered by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Clyne drew inspiration for the work from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 'Pathétique' with the name Stride arising because Clyne felt the left-hand octaves in the sonata were reminiscent of stride piano.

Letter from Florida: Sarasota Opera's Winter Festival

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro - Sarasota Opera, 2025 - (Photo: Robert Millington for Sarasota Opera)

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro, Verdi: Stiffelio, Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia, Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana, Leoncavallo: Pagliacci: Sarasota Opera; Sarasota Opera House, Sarasota, Florida
Reviewed by Robert J Carreras, 25-29 March 2025

In our latest Letter from Florida, Robert J Carreras enjoys Sarasota Opera's 2025 Winter Festival and considers what next for this enterprising company and its quirkily diminutive performance space

What’s next for Sarasota Opera? In recent years, this company seems to have covered all the proverbial operatic bases, advancing from a specialized regional outfit to something like a full-throated and fully invested international opera theatre. Sarasota Opera defies the typical classification of regional company as it has come to be known in the United States, existing more like a top-tier company homed in a quirkily diminutive performance space.

Of late, Sarasota's performers are more well-rounded, with exciting voices the rule. The stage direction is more concentrated, more diffusely assumed across even supers, and more topically informed. The music-making has kept pace, with visiting conductors adding spicy stylistic touches to already stellar orchestra playing. What’s next?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the answer to that question for many opera companies. Three of Mozart’s operas take up spots in the top ten most performed operas in the world since the millennium according to OPERABASE. Le nozze di Figaro, sixth on that count, is in repertory for Sarasota’s 2025 Winter Festival.

An incredible feeling when you get it right; horn-player Martin Owen on performing Mozart's complete horn concertos with Manchester Camerata

Martin Owen, Manchester Camerata, Gábor Takács-Nagy at the Stoller Hall (Photo; Rob Everett)

When horn player Martin Owen and I met to chat about his performances of Mozart's Horn Concertos with Manchester Camerata, our conversation began with the slightly unlikely topic of a health scare that Martin had a few years ago. The context being that he feels that to do full justice to Mozart's concertos you need life experience, nothing helps more than love and loss, pain and heartache in your life. In fact, Martin played and recorded the fourth concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra around 20 years ago but his current concerts with Manchester Camerata, and Gábor Takács-Nagy at The Stoller Hall in Manchester (Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, plus Concert Rondo on 2 April, Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 on 23 May) represent the first time he has performed all the concertos and after the second concert, they will be going into the studio to record them for Chandos, a logical extension to the orchestra's Mozart Made in Manchester series.

His approach to Mozart is very different now from what it was 20 years ago, you have different expectations and a different approach as you get older so the way a performer copes is inevitably different. When he was younger, he would have gone hell for leather at the concerto's opening, aiming for excitement and adrenalin, but his approach is now more considered. Martin is performing on a modern instrument but whilst he feels that modern values in Mozart veer towards the ideal of smooth tone, he is interested in getting a real variety of dynamics in the performance. He comments that he no longer thinks that aiming for perfection is the only idea. He points out that when Mozart wrote his concertos, the invention of the valve was 35 years away; Mozart's friend, Joseph Leutgeb for whom the concertos were written, played a natural horn. That is a horn with no valves, whereas Martin's modern instrument features valves of titanium and it also has a larger bore than older historical instruments.

Martin Owen (Photo: Davide Cerati)

Yet Martin's performances also include nods to historical information, not just the notes as Mozaart's scores for Joseph Leutgeb are littered with jokes and swear words. In some concertos, Mozart used different coloured pens, and Martin feels that the scores demonstrate quite how much fun Mozart and Leutgeb were having, and this personal link seems to separate the horn concertos from Mozart's other major concertos. In the slow movements of the horn concertos, Mozart has written some of his most beautiful music, music which is so difficult to bring off. You need to be able to turn a phrase so beautifully and so perfectly, and Martin finds it an incredible feeling when you get it right.

A somewhat eclectic yet satisfying journey: Swiss baritone Äneas Humm explores ideas of freedom in songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Amy Beach, and Joseph Marx

Libertas: Beethoven, Schubert, Beach, Marx; Äneas Humm, Doriana Tchakarova; Rondeau Production
Reviewed 19 April 2025

The young Swiss baritone explores ideas of personal freedom in an intriguing recital that moves from Beethoven and Schubert to Amy Beach (in German) and Joseph Marx

On their new disc, Libertas on the Rondeau Production label, baritone Äneas Humm and pianist Doriana Tchakarova use the idea of the search for inner freedom to go on a musical journey encountering composers who, in different ways, strove to attain individual independence. The result is a somewhat eclectic yet satisfying journey beginning with Beethoven, then moving to Schubert, then four of Amy Beach's German language songs and finally a selection from Joseph Marx.

We begin, of course with Beethoven, and whilst Mephistopheles' 'Song of the Flea' from Goethe's Faust resonates from all sorts of other musical contexts, we must remember that the song is met in the play with the words 'Long live freedom'. Here Humm's finely characterful, focused baritone is complemented by Tchakarova's delightfully perky almost sarcastic piano.

A lonely death leaves a legacy of courage and resolve: the Pavel Kushnir Scholarship Fund

Pavel Kushnir (1984-2024)

Pavel Kushnir (1984-2024) was a Russian pianist, author, and activist who became the first political prisoner in modern Russia to die during a hunger strike in 2024 [see the 25 August 2024 article on BBC News website, 'The lonely death of a jailed Russian pianist who opposed war'].

The Pavel Kushnir Scholarship Fund was founded in his memory to help students from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus pursue their studies at the world’s leading music institutions. In memory of the musician, benefit concerts are being held in Amsterdam, Bari, Belgrade, Berlin, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv [further details]. 

The London concert is on 10 May at Holy Sepulchre Church, Holborn Viaduct when Rachmaninoff’s Preludes will be performed by Maya Irgalina, Elena Toponogova, Mikhail Shilyaev and Sasha Grynyuk, alongside music by Nirvana, interspersed with excerpts from Pavel Kushnir’s book Russian Cut-up and fragments of his interviews. This eclectic format reflects one of Pavel Kushnir’s signature artistic methods — the fusion of seemingly incompatible elements. Further details of the concert from EventBrite.

Later this month, the Pavel Kushnir Scholarship Fund will be releasing a restored recording of Rachmaninoff’s Preludes performed by Pavel Kushnir, most likely made at the 29th Sergei Rachmaninoff International Festival. Fortunately, the video recording of Pavel Kushnir’s performance allowed for sound restoration, which was carried out by sound engineer Ilya Lukashev.

Pavel Kushnir leaves behind a legacy of courage and resolve, and the scholarship hopes to carry forward his vision by helping aspiring musicians achieve their dreams.

Pavel Kushnir can be seen and heard playing Rachmaninoff on YouTube.

Utopian ideals & cross-cultural dialogue: Jocelyn Freeman's SongEasel takes song to South-East London with a focus on Robert & Clara Schumann

Jocelyn Freeman and Francesca Chiejina at SongEasel's 2024 series A Vast Obscurity

Pianist Jocelyn Freeman's South-East London-based song series, SongEasel goes from strength to strength and their seventh concert series, DREAMS: A Place, runs from 10 May to 13 July 2025. The series explores embracing utopian ideals and cross-cultural dialogue, and celebrates the much-anticipated marital union of Clara and Robert Schumann 185 years ago. As ever with SongEasel, concert locations  are outside the usual and this year includes churches in Borough, Catford, and Elephant & Castle, Dulwich College, and fringe events in a coffee shop in Walworth and a pub in Catford.

Jocelyn Freeman 

Jocelyn describes the series as having an umbrella of themes. One of the inspirations was Goethe's West-Eastern Divan (West–östlicher Divan), his collection of poems written in response to the reading the Persian national poet, Hafez, and Jocelyn wanted to shine a light on such an open exchange between West and East. An openness to cultural exchange is important in this day and age and society is not as tolerant as it could be. It is important to dream, to use art to demonstrate how society can be.

SongEasel's schools project has just taken place. Under the theme of My Place, the project brought together four schools from Lewisham to explore Mary Stuart's life and poetry, her journeys between France and Scotland, focusing on Schumann's Maria Stuart Lieder. The children came up with their own songs about the places where they were comfortable, and they were fully on board with it, taking ownership with confidence. 

Under the title of Belonging the young Zambian baritone Themba Mvula will be giving a recital exploring his South African and Zambian heritage with songs touching on subjects such as the riots and students being shot, yet full of hope, bringing the full range of life to the music. Song duos who have been coached as part of SongEasel's Young Artist Programme will be presenting Lebendige Lieder (Living Song), examining lieder's place in society today. So there will be songs by Robert and Clara Schumann (including Goethe and Hafez settings), along with more fringe material including cabaret to create a programme relevant in today's age. Soprano Nadine Benjamin will be curating a programme My Journey highlighting her own journey, with song sung by a selection of her mentees from her Everybody Can!

The concert series will be highlighting the songs of Robert and Clara Schumann, focusing on the year 1840 when they finally were able to marry. This was the year that Robert produced a stupendous number of songs. SongEasel will be programming all of Clara Schumann's songs along with Robert's song cycles from 1840. The series opens with Myrthen, Robert's wedding give to Clara, performed by soprano Francesca Chiejina, Artist-in-Residence bass-baritone Stephan Loges, emerging baritone Isaac Tolley, with Jocelyn at the piano. They will also be including songs by Clara on themes related to Myrthen as well as Brahms' settings of Hafez in translation. There is also a Listening Club in Catford which will focus on Robert and Clara's music, with Stephan Loges joining former SongEasel Young Artist Catherine Hooper, and Jocelyn, to shed a light on some of the music in the series.

Jocelyn will be joined by tenor James Gilchrist in a programme that pairs Schumann's Dichterliebe with settings of Dylan Thomas by William Mathias, Rhian Samuel and a new commission from Isabella Gellis. Then, for the first time, SongEasel will be devoting an entire weekend to song. Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and pianist Sholto Kynoch will be performing Dichterliebe in the original version for mezzo-soprano, along with songs by Héloïse Werner and Fanny Hensel. Stephan Loges and Jocelyn will present Clara & Robert, a selection of Clara’s songs alongside Robert’s Liederkreis  Op 39 and selections from Kernerlieder Op 35. German soprano Juliane Banse partners Finnish pianist Pauliina Tukiainen for a programme centred on Frauenliebe und -leben. This recital will be at St Matthew’s Church, Meadow Row, Elephant & Castle, a church that has a significant Spanish population, and there is a Spanish thread through the concert too, with Spanish songs by Obradors, works by Viardot, and selections from Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch.

There are also a selection of fringe events, at a pub in Catford and a bar in Walworth, bringing a wide variety of repertoire including mezzo-soprano Nafissatou Batu Daramy in a programme ranging from English song to French mélodie and Korean folksongs, and including some of Nafissatou’s own compositions. 

Full details from the SongEasel website.

A choral equivalent of John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine? Bernard Hughes' Hear My Heart Sing to be performed by the National Youth Choir

The National Youth Choir (15-18 years), conductor Neil Ferris, is presenting Heart and Soul, a programme exploring themes of life, friendship, courage and love through the voices of different composers from a mix of cultures, places and eras on Good Friday (18 April 2025) at Albert Hall Conference Centre in Nottingham. As part of a diverse programme that includes Laura Mvula, Brahms, Parry and Stevie Wonder, the choir will be performing Bernard Hughes' Hear My Heart Sing about the the biology and imagery of the heart.

For a new piece of unaccompanied choral music, Hughes' piece has something of a history. He wrote it in 2024 for the Bath choir Lucis who workshopped the piece and then premiered in July 2024 conducted by Francis Faux. In a nice piece of circularity the commission was supported by a grant from the Francis Routh Trust and Bernard Hughes studied composition with Francis Routh as a teenager.

Last week, Hear My Heart Sing had its London premiere at a concert given by the choir Londinium, conductor Andrew Griffiths. The good news is that Hughes has made a recording of the piece with the Epiphoni Consort and you can hear the recording on YouTube, and there are plans for a sampler of Hughes' music.

Hear My Heart Sing sets words by writer Helen Eastman with whom Bernard Hughes has collaborated a lot. The piece combines ideas of the joy of singing with the rhythms and imagery of the human heart. It is part of Hughes project to write more fast music! Hughes' fast music includes Birdchant which was written for the BBC Singers at the BBC Proms in 2021 [see YouTube]

He explains, "I think there is a dearth of really good fast choral music these days, amid all the Whitacre and Lauridsen meditative stuff - which I like, which has its place, but I think dominates a bit." These thoughts were generated by a passing comment by the conductor Robert Hollingworth on the excellent podcast Choral Chihuahua, in an episode about fast choral music, when he asked rhetorically why there had never been a choral equivalent of John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

The result was Hear My Heart Sing, a piece that is fast, punchy, rhythmic, a bravura showpiece that could begin or end concerts. The work is available from Wild Woods Music, full details of the National Youth Choir's concert from their website.

Violin fireworks and orchestral premieres: Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

Niccolò Paganini by Ingres (1818)

The Oxford Philharmonic's Bach Mendelssohn Festival might be over [see my review] but the orchestra's season in Oxford continues apace.

There is a focus on 19th century violin virtuosi during the orchestra's April and May concerts as violinist Bomsori Kim, making her UK debut with the orchestra, joins the orchestra for the Fantaisie brilliante on themes from Gounod's 'Faust' by Polish composer and violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) [fun fact, his daughter, Regine, wrote songs under the name Poldowski], and the Carmen Fantasy by German composer Franz Waxman (1906-1967) [best known for his film scores including Sunset Boulevard]. 

The orchestra's leader takes centre stage as the soloist in Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 6 by violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), a work premiered in Naples in 1819 (the year after Ingres' portrait of the composer). Though commonly performed in D major, Paganini wrote the orchestral parts in E flat major but wrote the solo part in D major, intending the violinist to tune the violin up a semitone, thus not only making the solo line brighter but enabling violin writing that would be difficult in the tricky key of E flat!

Marcello Palazzo, an alumnus of the orchestra's Composers' Workshop will be conducting the world premiere of his tone-poem Sisyphus and in the same concert, Marios Papadopoulos conducts the Piano Concerto No. 1 by the orchestra's composer in residence, Ukrainian-born, USA-based composer Alexey Shor with soloist Behzod Abduraimov.

Other treats include John Rutter conducting Mozart's Mass in C minor, and symphonies by Beethoven, Dvorak and Mahler. Full details from the orchestra's website.

Fathers & daughters, a lovers' tiff, lieder in translation and a portrait of A.E. Housman: Ludlow English Song Weekend

Ludlow English Song Weekend has been guided by its artistic director Iain Burnside since he founded it in 2002. They return for three days of song in the historic market town in Shropshire from 11 to 14 April 2025. 

The weekend opens with Heart's Haven from baritone Andrew Hamilton and pianist Iain Burnside, an intriguing programme that pairs Vaughan Williams with Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn on the theme of Venice in Jeremy Sams' English translations , and the Venice theme continues with song from Reynaldo Hahn and Michael Head. Later on the Friday evening, soprano Mhairi Lawson and lutenist Paula Chateauneuf present Songs of Auld Lang Syne, exploring the musical repertoire of the courts of King James VI & I, including Italian song brought to England by Nicholas Lanier and Scottish courtly songs.

Saturday morning sees real life couple, baritone Dan D'Souza and mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett, with Ian Tindale piano, exploring relationships in A Lover's Tiff with songs from Wolf to Weill depicting a couple falling in and out of love. Saturday afternoon there will be a chance to see John Bridcut's acclaimed 2019 film portrait of Janet Baker and then hear him live in conversation with her. The Saturday evening recital sees mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean join her father, composer and viola player Brett Dean, and Iain Burnside for a programme that includes Frank Bridge' wonderful songs for voice, viola and piano, music by Sally Beamish, Britten's Lachrymae and a work written by Dean for his daughter. 

There is a chance to hear more from Brett Dean as he is in conversation with Katy Hamilton on Sunday morning, and Sunday also features a Young Artists Masterclass with Ann Murray. The festival ends with a focus on A.E. Housman. His collection A Shropshire Lad inspired generations of composers and though the poems were written in the context of the Boer War their popularity reached its zenith during the First World War. Housman himself was a complex and difficult man, and in One that kept his word, Iain Burnside has devised a programme interweaving settings of Housman's poems with his letters, performed by tenor Liam Bonthorne, baritone Jolyon Loy and actor Alex Jennings.

Full details from the festival website.

Be transported to the 1920s in a violin & piano recital by Katharine Gowers & Simon Crawford-Philips in aid of Central London Samaritans

Central London Samaritans have recently moved into new premises in Marylebone, and to celebrate they are hosting a special recital to introduce themselves to the local community, raise awareness of their work, and generate essential funds to sustain their services. The recital features violinist Katherine Gowers and pianist Simon Crawford Philips in a programme of music from the 1920s at St Marylebone Parish Church on Monday 28 April 2025. The evening will feature Prokfiev's Five Melodies, Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3, Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2 and Copland's Two Pieces.

Prokofiev's Five Melodies began life as five vocalises, written for the soprano Nina Koshetz who created the role of Fata Morgana in his opera The Love for Three Oranges but the vocalises proved impractical for regular performance and Prokofiev recast them for violin and piano. Dating from a few years after the Prokofiev, George Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3 was written whilst he was working on his opera Oedipe. The work has the subtitle dans le caractère populaire roumain" (in Romanian Folk Style) though Enescu does not quote any actual folk tunes, instead he evokes them, and the work became one of his most popular works. Written around the same time, Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2 was the only violin sonata published during Ravel's lifetime, his first sonata being published 38 years after his death. Violin Sonata No. 2 is notable for taking its inspiration from American jazz and blues with a slow movement that is marked 'Blues'. Copland's Two Pieces also date from Paris in the later 1920s, as Copland wrote them for an all-American programme planned by Nadia Boulanger (with whom he had studied earlier in the decade).

Central London Samaritans is the founding and largest branch of Samaritans, offering free, 24/7 emotional support to anyone struggling to cope. Beyond the helpline, they are active in the community—supporting those experiencing homelessness, people in police custody, ambulance call handlers, and individuals in London’s prisons.

Full details of the Samaritans' work from their website, tickets for the recital from TicketTailor.

Remarkable intensity: powerful new 1980s-set Peter Grimes from Melly Still at Welsh National Opera with Nicky Spence

Britten: Peter Grimes - Nicky Spence - Welsh National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Dafydd Owen)

Britten: Peter Grimes; Nicky Spence, Sally Matthews, David Kempster, director: Melly Still, conductor:Tomáš Hanus, Welsh National Opera; Wales Millennium Centre
Reviewed: 5 April 2025

Nicky Spence's powerful Peter Grimes at the centre of an intense yet theatrical 1980s-set production in a performance remarkable intensity and sheer communal power

Having caused a stir in 2024 with Olivia Fuchs' production of Britten's final opera, Death in Venice, combining opera with circus arts, Welsh National Opera returned to Britten for its major new production of Britten's first operatic success, Peter Grimes. The opera was something of a marvel when premiered in 1946, and this production had a touch of the miraculous too given the parlous state of WNO's finances, and the final curtain included chorus members in Save WNO t-shirts, as well as including orchestra and technical staff on stage. Whilst the company's new general directors, Sarah Crabtree and Adele Thomas, made a stirring speech [catch it WNO's Twitter feed] though one could net help thinking that with the enthusiastic first night audience they were preaching to the converted and that perhaps the performance should have taken place in the Senedd building next door.

Welsh National Opera's new production of Britten's Peter Grimes opened on Saturday 5 April 2025 at Wales Millennium Centre. Melly Still directed and the company's music director, Tomáš Hanus conducted. Nicky Spence was Peter Grimes with Sally Matthews as Ellen Orford, David Kempster as Balstrode, Dominic Sedgwick as Ned Keene, Oliver Johnston as Bob Boles, Sarah Connolly as Auntie, Fflur Wyn and Eiry Price as the Nieces, Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Mrs Sedley, Sion Goronwy as Swallow, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts as Reverend Horace Adams, Callum Thorpe as Hobson and Maya Marsh as John. Joseph Alford was associate director, Chiara Stephenson was set designer, Ilona Karas was costume designer and lighting designer was Malcolm Rippeth.

Britten: Peter Grimes - Catherine Wyn-Rogers, David Kempster, Oliver Johnston, Dominic Sedgwick - Welsh National Opera, 2025 (Photo: Dafydd Owen)

Musically this was of a very high order. Tomáš Hanus drew a marvellous performance from the orchestra, full of vivid colours and with a sense of fierce drama that continued with the chorus too.

Telling a musical story: violinist James Ehnes on the challenges and rewards of his new recording of Bach's violin concertos with Canada's NAC Orchestra

James Ehnes & NAC Orchestra - National Arts Centre, Canada
(Photo: Curtis Perry courtesy of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra )

Violinist James Ehnes has a long relationship with Canada's National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra having made his debut with them in 1993, and he was artist in residence from 2021 to 2024. James also has a long relationship with the music of Bach, recording the complete Partitas and Sonatas in 2000 (re-recording them in 2020/21 on Onyx), and the Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord in 2006 on Analekta. Now these two strands have come together with the release last month of his recording of Bach's complete violin concertos with the NAC Orchestra on Analekta. The disc includes not only Bach's well-known concertos in A minor and E minor, the Double Concerto and the Concerto for Violin, Flute, and Harpsichord in A minor, but also four concertos reconstructed from Bach's harpsichord concertos.

I recently chatted to James, whilst he was in Adelaide, about his new disc, styles of Bach performance and how getting older has given him perspective, reconstructing Bach's lost violin concertos, differences between live and studio recording and finding the ideal recording process, and much more.

James explains that he always hoped to have a chance to record Bach's violin concertos, but for him, most successful recordings are those where everything peaks at the right moment (and he points out that this is true of live performance also). He has had a long relationship with both the NAC and the NAC Orchestra, having been artist in residence and toured with them. The last decade has been particularly special, so this seemed like the perfect time to capture something of that relationship. James knows the players well and the concertmaster, Yosuke Kawasaki (who joins James for the Double Concerto) is a friend from school. With the orchestra, James feels that he has as close, open and transparent relationship as possible which allows all to be active participants in the music. And they are supported by a great team at the NAC too, whilst the recording's producer worked on James' first Bach recordings.

Regarding the style of playing Bach, James feels that getting older has given him perspective; the way you are told that something should be, changes over the years. He has found this liberating, he no longer feels that he has to play in a particular way but that he can concentrate on telling a musical story. This is even more complicated with Baroque music, and whilst historical performance practice is important, he also feels that musicians can learn from performances of all ages. He mentions that we tend to have a recency bias, feeling that what we have just been told is best. This has probably always been true, and Mendelssohn probably felt this about the way he performed Bach. We can imagine Mendelssohn's performances of Bach being different to those of Bach himself but no less compelling. This is timeless music that always speaks through a prism of our own time.

Living Voices: ten new choral works by Russell Hepplewhite setting contemporary poetic responses to our world today

 

I first came across Russell Hepplewhite's work in 2013 when English Touring Opera (ETO) performed the award-winning Laika the Spacedog. He went on to write more for ETO and for companies such as London Youth Opera, whilst Laika the Spacedog went on to have productions in Switzerland and at the Opera Comique in Paris. More recently, in February 2024 his first opera for adults, The Crash premiered in Oldenburg, Germany.

Now Hepplewhite has a new choral project, Living Voices; ten choral pieces each setting a contemporary poet commissioned to create poetic responses to our world today. The idea for Living Voices originated with Hepplewhite, who invited the poets to offer their diverse reflections on the nuances of modern life. The resulting poems explore a wide spectrum of human experience - birth and death, youth and age, sickness and health, landscape and memory. The emotional scope of the collection is equally varied, encompassing pieces that are light-hearted and comic alongside those that are profound and moving.

The choruses are being premiered around the country by selected choirs, beginning tomorrow in Devon when Exeter Festival Chorus performs Hepplewhite's setting of Wendy Cope's I Wake.

Full details of all performances from the Stainer & Bell website.

To the Beat: The National Youth Orchestra's Spring tour, featuring Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto with Jordan Ashman

The National Youth Orchestra's Spring tour, To the Beat

The National Youth Orchestra's Spring tour, To the Beat, kicks off at Birmingham Town Hall on 14 April 1014. Taking in Birmingham, the Roundhouse in London (15 April), Sheffield City Hall (16 April) and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (18 April), the orchestra will be conducted by Paolo Bortolameolli and Joana Carneiro.

The programme features the Percussion Concerto written by American composer Jennifer Higdon with soloist Jordan Ashman. Ashman is an alumnus of NYO Inspire and won the 2022 BBC Young Musician Grand Final with his performance of Higdon's Percussion Concerto.

Higdon's concerto was written in 2005 for percussionist Colin Currie and dedicated to him. The work features a large battery of instruments, from vibraphone and marimba (a favourite instrument of dedicatee Colin Currie), to non-pitched smaller instruments (brake drum, wood blocks, Peking Opera gong), and to the drums themselves.

Alongside this work the orchestra plays the 1947 version of Stravinsky's ballet, Petrushka, and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein's 1960 suite from the 1957 musical. The original musical was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, and it was they who prepared the expanded orchestration of the suite, under Bernstein's supervision.

Tickets for all performances are free for teenages. Full details of To the Beat from the National Youth Orchestra's website.