The Christmas Estates Tour is back! Brixton Chamber Orchestra takes an eclectic, inclusive free programme across housing estates in Lambeth

On Friday 8 December 2023, Brixton Chamber Orchestra (BCO) under artistic director Matthew O'Keeffe will be embarking on its sixth annual Christmas Estates Tour bringing free concerts to 13 housing estates across Lambeth. The tour runs until 21 December 2023 and features the 25-piece orchestra with its young and diverse players performing alongside emerging local singers, and rappers. The hour long set comprising classical to grime, disco, pop, jazz and classic Christmas tunes, redefines the idea of something for everyone.

BCO's Christmas Estates Tour is more than a series of concerts; it's a celebration of community spirit, offering Lambeth's housing estate communities the chance to experience the uplifting power of live music free of charge. BCO actively encourages inclusivity; audience participation is welcomed, with an orchestral open-mic at the end of each show where anyone can take the stage and perform alongside the orchestra.

In a cost-of-living crisis, where community connections are more vital than ever, the Christmas Estates Tour aims to bring people together and provide a free shared cultural experience. According to feedback from their recent Summer Estates Tour in July, an estimated 20% of the audience (1394 attendees over 12 performances) had never attended a live orchestral performance before. 

As part of the initiative, BCO has conducted workshops at local schools, including Christ Church Streatham Primary School and Evelyn Grace Academy. In a harmonious collaboration, the budding musicians from these schools will share the stage with BCO in special performances at their respective schools on the 8th and 15th of December. This unique opportunity allows them to showcase their talents, bringing the magic of the Christmas Estates Tour directly to the heart of their school communities.

Full details from BCO's website.

A lifetime's experience: John Nelson finally records Messiah in a finely engaged performance, with a fantastic quartet of soloists

Handel: Messiah; Lucy Crowe, Alex Potter, Michael Spyres, Matthew Brook, the English Concert & Choir, John Nelson; Erato
Reviewed 4 December 2023

Superb musicality and a life-time's experience from John Nelson make this a finely engaged performance, with a fantastic quartet of soloists and an appendix with eight alternative readings

Handel wrote Messiah in 1741 for performances in Dublin in 1742. Unusually for Handel, the work was written without knowing quite who the soloists would be. The enthusiastic reception in Dublin was not repeated when Handel presented the work in London in 1743 and the work was only intermittently revived until Handel's charity performances for the Foundling Hospital began in 1750. From then on, Foundling Hospital performances of Messiah were a part of the London scene, and it is to these later performances that we owe the version of Messiah generally performed today.

Handel constantly adjusted the work, revising and tweaking. For the 1749 revival the castrato Gaetano Guadagni (best known for creating the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice), Handel created showy arias for the singer, he was added as a fifth soloist, rather than as replacement for the alto soloist. Handel's alto soloist was always a woman, during his lifetime a man never sang 'He was despised', and similarly with one exception when boys were used, the soprano soloist was always a woman.

The 1754 Foundling Hospital performance of Messiah is the first for which detailed of the orchestral and vocal forces survive; we not only have the original parts, we have the accounts with payments for the individual singers and musicians, something we lack for Handel's own performances. It is this performance that Christopher Hogwood based his iconic recording [originally on L'Oiseau Lyre] of Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music, and subsequent period instrument performances have often investigated particular years of Messiah from the 1741 original [receiving its first recording], the 1742 Dublin version [recorded by John Butt & the Dunedin Consort on Linn Records] right through to Guadagni's 1749 performances [recorded by Rene Jacobs on harmonia mundi].

This new recording from conductor John Nelson and The English Concert and Choir on Erato features the soloists soprano Lucy Crowe, countertenor Alex Potter, tenor Michael Spyres and bass baritone Matthew Brook. 

Birdsong, audience participation and a new Composer in Residence: the London Philharmonic Orchestra's new chamber music series at St John's Waterloo

St John's Waterloo

Following two sold-out performances of Gavin Bryars’s Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet earlier in the year at St John's Waterloo, the London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO is continuing its partnership with the venue with a short season of chamber music concerts showcasing members of the LPO. The repertoire will include contemporary works by living composers, as well as arrangements of the likes of Duke Ellington and Stevie Wonder for surprising instrument combinations. The partnership between the LPO and St John's Waterloo also includes joint Education and Community projects, including accessible participatory musical experiences with the local communities that both serve.

The series opens on 17 January 2024 with John Luther Adams' songbirdsongs, a work based on Adams' own observations and studies of bird songs, scoring them for various ensembles of piccolos and ocarinas, and rather than having a fixed score, each musician performs their part from the composer’s instructions.

On 7 February the programme focuses on Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and George Gershwin with songs by Duke Ellington arranged by David Schiff for clarinet and string quartet, Simon Bainbridge’s tribute to Miles Davis, For Miles, and Carl Davis' arrangements of Gershwin for clarinet and strings. There will also be two funk soul songs, by Chaka Khan and Stevie Wonder, arranged for four bassoons.

12 March sees the audience invited to participate, with Alex Ho's Breathe and Draw for sinfonietta, two conductors and audience participation, and Ryan Carter's Concerto Molto Grosso for audience and orchestra, and Ligeti's Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes. Alex Ho is an alumnus of the LPO Young Composers scheme, whilst the concert will be conducted by two LPO Fellow Conductors, Luis Castillo-Briceño and Charlotte Politi. The concert is part of the LPO's The Music in You festival, which celebrates the creativity in everyone, no matter their musical ability or background. 

The final concert in the season, on 22 May, is Streetwise Opera’s Re:Discover festival, celebrating the works of composers of African and Caribbean heritage, and features two works by the LPO’s new Composer-in-Residence, Tania León, plus further works yet to be announced.

Full details from the LPO website.

The Goldberg Variations Reimagined: Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque at Kings Place

The Goldberg Variations Reimagined: Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque; Kings Place

Bach/Chad Kelly: The Goldberg Variations Reimagined: Rachel Podger, Brecon Baroque; Kings Place
Reviewed 3 December 2023

A new orchestration of Bach for nine instruments brings out a sense of colour and style in a series of vivid reinventions, superbly played

Bach was an inveterate re-worker and re-user of material, most Baroque composers were. After all, the potential audience for any piece of music was usually relatively small, unless you were one of the lucky few with a wide published circulation, so composers could reuse without constantly worrying in the way modern composers might. 

And when Bach reused he could be quite creative in his reworking. After all, the Christmas Oratorio, which we heard on Saturday from Masaaki Suzuki and the OAE [see my review] is almost entirely based on pre-existing material.

So what might Bach have done to the Goldberg Variations? This thought kept popping into my head as I listened to The Goldberg Variations Reimagined, Chad Kelly's new version of Bach's Goldberg Variations created for violinist Rachel Podger and performed (in its London premiere) by her and Brecon Baroque at Kings Place on Sunday 3 December 2023.

Bach wrote the Goldberg Variations specifically for harpsichord, though it is common practice to perform it on the piano as well and there have been any number of transcriptions including that by Dmitry Sitkovetsky for string trio. Chad Kelly's avowed intention with his version was to ensure that the arrangement was idiomatic both to the historical instruments and to the styles and genres referenced in the work. What Kelly was trying to avoid was the sort of tricksy orchestration that remained true to Bach's keyboard notes, producing something stylistically anachronistic.

So we had an instrumental ensemble of Rachel Podger and Sabine Stoffer, violins, Jane Rogers, viola, Alex Rolton, cello and five-string cello, Carina Cosgrave, violone, Leo Durante, oboe and oboe da caccia, Katy Bircher, flute, Inga Kaucke, bassoon, and Marcin Swiatkiewicz, harpsichord. 

“If we consider again just how much money the music sector brings into the economy each year, it’s remarkable our government would not want to invest generously in its future.”

Gavin Higgins delivers the 2023 Brass Bands England conference keynote speech (Photo: Gavin Joynt)

The 2023 Brass Bands England (BBE) Conference took place in Huddersfield in October, a gathering together of over 150 delegates from over 80 organisations. The most recent BBE annual report testifies to increased financial resilience and membership increases, well defined commitments to inclusivity and diversity, the appointment of two new Youth Trustees and the funding of a ‘brass and drag’ musical project led by Freckleton Band and artist Jamie Fletcher.

The keynote speech at the conference was given by composer Gavin Higgins, who delivered an impassioned plea for arts funding and who testified to the importance of the brass band movement in his own background.

"I owe a debt of gratitude to the brass band movement for my training, without which I may never have become a musician."

Higgins' speech focused on the urgent need for advocacy and financial support for artistic subjects both in and outside our education system, and he called upon specific MPs who have benefited from a musical education or showed enjoyment of the arts, including Sir Keir Starmer, Thangam Debbonaire, Barbara Keeley, Chris Bryant and Kevin Brennan, to share concrete plans for supporting arts opportunities.

“For the first time in decades, we have a loud and supportive group of MPs who are passionate about the arts.”

Members of Tewit Band and Tewit Youth Band (Photo: Lorne Campbell)

When arts subjects are being subjected to more and more Government cuts, brass bands continue to offer both training and inspiration for performers of all ages and social backgrounds and act as a vital conduit for our professional music sector.

Higgins comes from a long lineage of working-class brass band musicians dating back to 1895 and his passion for this heritage has resulted in a number of vigorous, daring works for brass. His biggest and most ambitious piece to date, the Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra premiered at the 2022 BBC Proms and has led to him winning a Sky Arts Award as well as a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Large-Scale Composition category for the work. The work was premiered by the Tredegar Band, with whom Higgins has a long association, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with whom he is currently Composer in Association.

“You cannot begin to understand the wider world of British music without first understanding brass bands. They are still the biggest mass movement of working-class people making music in history and, I believe, Britain’s most alluring form of folk music.”

Horn player Ben Goldscheider will be premiering Gavin Higgins' Horn Concerto with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductor Jaime Martin in Cardiff on 14 January 2024 [see BBC website for details], and the work's London premiere will be on 7 February 2024 when Goldscheider joins the London Chamber Orchestra, conductor Christopher Warren-Green at Cadogan Hall [see Cadogan Hall website for details]

“The brass band to orchestra pipeline goes back a long way here in the UK ...
But I worry where the next generation will come from."

Read Gavin Higgins' full speech at the BBE website.

Total immersion: the Glasshouse's Big Bruckner Weekend features his final three symphonies, a mass, motets & more

Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia (Photo: Mark Savage)

Next year is the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, so expect plenty of celebrations of the composer's music, though the sheer scale of his symphonies makes anything like completeness difficult. The Glasshouse in Gateshead is having a Big Bruckner Weekend from 1 to 3 March 2024 offering audiences the opportunity to immerse themselves in final three symphonies, his motets, one of his masses and even his String Quintet.

Across the weekend, Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Bruckner’s Symphony No.7, Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé perform Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 and Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's unfinished Symphony No. 9. 

Thomas Zehetmair conducts the Royal Northern Sinfonia & chorus in Bruckner's Mass No. 3 with soloists Elizabeth Watts, Hannah Hipp, Thomas Atkins and Mark Stone, whilst throughout the weekend the chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia will be performing Bruckner's motets, conducted by Timothy Burke, and string principals of Royal Northern Sinfonia perform Bruckner’s String Quintet.

Full details from the Glasshouse website.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio from Masaaki Suzuki and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Masaaki Suzuki (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

Bach: Christmas Oratorio (Parts 1, 2 & 3), Singet dem Herrn; Jessica Cale, Hugh Cutting, Guy Cutting, Florian Störtz, Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Masaaki Suzuki; Queen Elizabeth Hall
Reviewed 2 December 2023

The first of two concerts encompassing the whole of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in music making of the highest order, vividly bringing Bach's colourful music to life but also concentrating on the essential narrative

Written for performance across six occasions from Christmas to Epiphany, Bach's Christmas Oratorio was never designed for concert use and gives performers something of a challenge. Somewhat too long for the average concert, ensembles usually choose to perform a selection of the work's six parts, but for his performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conductor Masaaki Suzuki chose a different approach, spreading the entire work across two days and adding extra music by Bach.

On Saturday 2 December 2023, Masaaki Suzuki conducted the Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Parts One to Three of Bach's Christmas Oratorio along with the motet Singet dem Herrn. Then on the Sunday, he conducted Parts Four to Six along with the Sanctus from the Mass in B Minor. We caught the first of the concerts, with soloists Jessica Cale, Hugh Cutting, Guy Cutting and Florian Störtz.

The soloists sang in the choir, making 16 vocalists in all, stepping out for their solo moments which made sense both of what we know of Bach's own performance practise and of the way the allocation of solos is somewhat uneven. Though it did mean that the performance was counterpointed by rather a lot of walking about from the soloists.

Merry & Bright - An Evening of Songs and Arias

Soprano Susie Gibbons and pianist Joanna Kacperek are presenting an evening of classic Christmas songs, operatic arias and more at St George's Church, Campden Hill on 13 December 2023. 

Both performers are graduates of the Royal College of Music and they have performed around London and Ireland together as a duo.

Dublin-born soprano Susie Gibbons graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music with a Master of Performance as a Sussex Scholar, studying with Amanda Roocroft and Andrew Robinson. She has recently been busy in Wexford where she made her debut with Wexford Festival Opera as Suor Osmina and Le Suore Cercatrici in Suor Angelica and joined the Wexford Festival Opera Chorus to sing Marco Tutino's La Ciociara [see my interview with the opera's conductor Francesco Cilluffo]

Joanna Kacperek is currently an Oxford Song Young Artist with her Lied-duo partner Clara Barbier Serrano, and she was a finalist at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in London (2022).

Further details from EventBrite.

Norwich-based music writer, Tony Cooper, offers an account of Organ Re-born! a mini-concert series mounted in celebration of the return and rebirth of Norwich Cathedral’s organ.

The recently rebuilt Norwich Cathedral organ (Photo: Bill Smith / Norwich Cathedral)

Organ Re-born! Norwich Cathedral
11-26 November 2023, reviewed by Tony Cooper

After undergoing a major refit, every stop of Norwich Cathedral’s fine organ (one of the largest pipe organs in the country) can be gloriously heard to maximum effect.

Norwich Cathedral has been in celebratory mood of late with its Organ Re-born! mini-concert series featuring a couple of concerts together with a celebrity organ recital with the series culminating with Festal Evensong. The first concert featured Norwich Cathedral Chamber Choir and Onyx Brass conducted by Ashley Grote accompanied by organist, David Dunnett. A visit by the BBC Singers conducted by Nicholas Chalmers featured special guest conductor/presenter, Ed Balls, accompanied by organist Ashley Grote. Organ Re-born! continued with the internationally-renowned organist Thomas Trotter giving the inaugural recital while the grand festivities concluded with Festal Evensong sung by Norwich Cathedral Choir under Ashley Grote with David Dunnett in the organ loft. The service culminated in grand style with the Blessing of the Organ by the Rt-Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich.

Over the past 18 months or so, the organ of Norwich Cathedral (one of the largest pipe organs in the country) has been under major restoration, a mammoth undertaking in every sense of the word. For a start, every one of the 5,767 pipes and 102 speaking stops had to be reset and individually fine-tuned in a process known as ‘voicing’ - a painstaking and delicate task.

The work was carried out by world-renowned organ specialists, Harrison & Harrison, after a sum of £1.8 million was raised by way of generous donations through an organ appeal under the patronage of Prince Edward, HRH The Earl of Wessex, now, of course, the Duke of Edinburgh. A big chunk, however, came from the £2.5 million They Shall Laugh and Sing Music Appeal.

The Hidden Light: composer Joanna Marsh on her triptych of pieces for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge

Joanna Marsh

Composer Joanna Marsh has been commissioned for a triptych of pieces for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge, the first commission under its new director of music Christopher Gray. Joanna's first piece, The Hidden Light was premiered at the recent Service for Advent with Carols at St John's College, and the service is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 3 December 2023. Joanna's other pieces for the commission will be performed at Epiphany and during Lent, and all three use texts by the priest/poet Malcolm Guite.

I spoke to Joanna whilst she was in Cambridge for rehearsals before the Advent Carol Service on 25 November, though problems with Wi-Fi meant that we had to make do with a rather indifferent connection in a café that she had found! When I asked how rehearsals were going she was most complimentary; the music is complex, using eight parts, and she found the choir stunning, though she has just tweaked a few things in the music.

Tair Llythyren | La mamma morta | Three Letters

To mark World AIDS Day 2023, Welsh National Opera has released a special new version of La mamma morta, featuring WNO Orchestra, soprano Camilla Roberts and Nathaniel Hall from Channel 4's It’s a Sin. 

A famous scene from the Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington movie Philadelphia (1993) has been readdressed in La mamma morta.A brand-new recording of the aria plays over recreated scenes that better encapsulate the perspectives of people living with HIV today and reflect on the remarkable developments around HIV that have occurred over the last three decades since Philadelphia was first released.

Nathanial J Hall said: 'Philadelphia exists in a canon of work about HIV and AIDS - along with Angels in America and Rent – and whilst these are all incredible pieces of work, they focus on HIV as life-limiting because of the time-period they cover. It's important now to use storytelling and music to celebrate how far we've come and raise awareness of the modern-day realities of living with HIV. Sadly, people still face stigma, discrimination and rejection from others because of this virus and there's absolutely no reason why they should.’

Released as part of the last rendition in our Three Letters project, this film aims to tackle societal stigma around HIV. See on YouTube.

Monteverdi's first opera, the historically informed Ring Cycle continues, Bruckner's 200th birthday, composer Sven Helbig live - Dresden's 47th music festival

Wagner: Das Rheingold - Derek Welton, Kent Nagano, Mauro Peter, Daniel Schmutzhard, Concerto Köln & Dresdner Festspielorchester - Dresden Music Festival 2023

The 47th Dresden Music Festival runs from 9 May to 9 June 2024 under the title Horizons, presenting 60 events in 21 venues in and around Dresden. 

Things kick off in fine style with a concert performance of Wagner's Die Walküre with Kent Nagano conducting the combined forces of two period instrument ensembles, the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln, a continuation of the festival's exploration of an historically informed Ring Cycle that began last year with Des Rheingold [see my review]. 

Further historically informed performances include soprano Janine de Bique and Concerto Köln in arias by Handel, Graun, Broschi, Telemann and Vinci, Haydn's The Seasons with Jordi Savall and La Capella Nacional de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations, Mark Minkowski and the Dresdner Festspielorchester in Wagner, Mendelssohn and excerpts from Offenbach's rare grand opera Die Rheinnixen. The ensemble lautten compagney BERLIN directed by Nikolaus Habjan, with the conductor and lute player Wolfgang Katschner stage Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with Rolando Villazón in the title role. Philippe Herreweghe directs Collegium Vocale Gent in Bach's Mass in B Minor.

For the festival's official opening night, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and chief conductor designate, Klaus Mäkelä, celebrate Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 5, and for the final concert Jakub Hrůša directs the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in an all-Smetana programme.

Dresden’s Staatsschauspiel presents Brecht & Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper with the action transposed to today’s Germany. Thomas Quasthoff joins the Amatis Trio for a programme that combines readings from World War I letters and diaries by soldiers and their families with music by Rebecca Clarke, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Fritz Kreisler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Anton Webern. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja will be playing the violin and reciting in a performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. 

Other visitors include Abel Selaocoe and the Bantu Ensemble, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing in Grieg Szymanowski, Faure and Ravel,  pianist Hélène Grimaud and the Camerata Salzburg in Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn, pianist Lang Lang, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann in Ravel and Debussy, violinist Daniel Lozakovich, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Manfred Honeck in Andrea Tarrodi, Sibelius and Dvorak, violinist Daniel Hope, cellist Jan Vogler (intendant of the festival), Deutsches Symphonie-orchester Berlin and Anna Rakitina in Florence Price, Tchaikovsky and Miklós Rózsa's Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Cello and Orchestra Op. 29, violinist Elen Urioste joins Chineke! for Fela Sowándé, Cassie Kinoshi and Max Richter. Jan Vogler joins the Philharmonia Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali for Anna Clyne's Cello Concerto. Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the Dresden Philharmonic are performing a group of concerts including music by Stravinsky, Prokofiev 

Countertenor Xavier Sabata will be joining the saxophone quartet Kebyart for everything from Handel to Gershwin and behond, soprano Simone Kermes joins with Amici Veneziani,  baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Markus Hinterhäuser in Schumann. Pianist recitals include Francesco Piemontesi in Beethoven & Debussy, Igor Levitt in Mahler arranged Ronald Stevenson, Hindemith and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony arranged Liszt, Anton Meijas, and Seong-Jin Cho.

Composer Sven Helbig will be presenting his radio show, Schöne Töne, live on stage.

Full details from the festival's website.

To support newly graduated northern based musicians and composers at the very start of their musical careers: first Camerata 360° Ruth Sutton Fellows announced

The inaugural Camerata 360° Ruth Sutton Fellowship - James Weatherley-Buss,
Marcus Silva, Georgina MacDonell Finlayson, Sean Morrison, Ben Norris
(Photo: Manchester Camerata /Jay Cipriani)

The Manchester Camerata has announced the five recipients of its inaugural Camerata 360° Ruth Sutton Fellowship. Created with the support of The Ruth Sutton Trust for Music, five northern based fellows each receive a paid, year long bespoke training programme - commencing now - in which they will gain vital experience of all aspects of a musical career working with the Manchester Camerata. 

The Camerata 360° Ruth Sutton Fellowship was launched specifically to support newly graduated northern based musicians and composers at the very start of their musical careers

Each Fellow will spend the next 12 months immersed in the working life of Manchester Camerata  - from vital performance opportunities, community work engagement with schools, care home and music cafes, to marketing, finance, management, and leadership experience. They will each work closely with a Manchester Camerata musician who will act as both mentor and guide throughout their year. 

The five Fellows are:

• Georgina MacDonell Finlayson, a Scottish violinist, fiddle player, composer and community arts practitioner with a graduate of University of Edinburgh with a Masters in Music from the Royal Northern College of Music
• Sean Morrison, a Scottish violin player and traditional fiddle player, a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and currently studying for Masters at the RNCM
• Marcus Silva, a Brazilian-born double-bass player moved to Manchester in 2018 to study at the RNCM where he graduated
• Ben Norris, a British-born viola player, he is now a Junior Fellow at the RNCM having previously studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. 
• James Weatherley-Buss, a British composer, multi-instrumentalist and experimental electronic artist living in Manchester. He has recently completed a postgraduate degree in composition at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Further information from the Manchester Camerata's website.

Early Beethoven & Verdi's only string quartet in London's oldest surviving Livery Hall

Apothecaries' Hall

Verdi: String Quartet in E minor, Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D major; Kleio String Quartet; City Music Foundation at the Apothecaries' Hall
29 November 2023

Beethoven's first string quartet paired with Verdi's only essay in the genre in engagingly characterful performances from CMF Artists, the Kleio String Quartet

The Great Hall at St Bartholomew's Hospital is currently closed for restoration, which means that for its 10th anniversary season the City Music Foundation (CMF) is presenting its lunchtime concerts at a selection of the City's Livery Halls. On Wednesday 29 November 2023, it was the turn of the Apothecaries' Hall, the oldest surviving Livery Hall in use in London. The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries rebuilt their hall in the years following the Fire of London from 1669 to 1672 and three main rooms, including the hall itself, remain unchanged since the late 17th-century.

At the Apothecaries' Hall on 29 November 2023, CMF Artists the Kleio String Quartet (Yume Fujise, Katherine Yoon, Jenny Lewisohn and Eliza Millett) performed Verdi's String Quartet in E minor and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 3 in D major.

A distinctive voice & a richly rewarding sound-world: songs by Franco Alfano from Anna Pirozzi & Emma Abbate

Franco Alfano: Songs; Anna Pirozzi, Emma Abbate, Bozidar Vukotic; Resonus Classics
Reviewed 28 November 2023

Alfano's rather dim reputation as a 20th century opera composer does not prepare you for the surprisingly rich and rewarding sound-world of his songs

You cannot help but feel that the Italian composer Franco Alfano (1876-1954) has received a poor deal from musical history. Despite his 1904 opera, Risurrezione, retaining a toe-hold in the repertoire, Alfano remains best known as the man who completed Puccini's Turandot, yet the completion of the opera that we commonly hear today was heavily revised by the conductor Arturo Toscanini, and Alfano's original rarely gets an outing.

This disc from soprano Anna Pirozzi and pianist Emma Abbate with cellist Bozidar Vukotic on Resonus Classics takes a different look at Alfano, featuring a programme of his songs, from his Cinq mélodies, written when he was a 21-year-old student at the Leipzig Conservatoire right through to Due liriche per canto, violoncello e pianoforte from 1949.

Emma Abbate seems to be making something of a project of reviving unjustly neglected 20th century Italian song and previous on Resonus she has released discs of Ildebrando Pizzetti's songs with Hanna Hipp [see my review] and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's settings of Shakespeare's sonnets with Ashley Riches [see my review]. This disc reveals another, rather striking Italian 20th-century voice.

There's still time to apply for The Benedetti Foundation’s Ambassador cohort for 2024

The Benedetti Foundation's Ambassador Programme (Photo: Chris J Parker)

The Benedetti Foundation's Ambassador Programme runs annually from February to December and is a training scheme for young professionals (age around 19 to 35) dedicated to developing their practical, instrumental teaching and workshop leading skills, as well as growing their love for performance. The programme is open to instrumentalists, singers, creatives and workshop leaders. 

Peer learning and support is a crucial part of the programme. All Ambassadors join a small mentor group, led by a Tutor Mentor and more experienced Lead Ambassador, which provides the opportunity to work together and to prepare and practice teaching activities, expand their knowledge and understanding of instruments other than their own, explore the use of social media in music education and performance, discuss, debate and reflect on questions surrounding music education and their role as advocates, and form a close, supportive network with their fellow ambassadors

The aim of this programme is to create a legacy of world leading and innovative musicians and educators. The time the Ambassadors spend with the Foundation is transformational in shaping their careers and in turn the experiences of the next generation of learners. 

Approximately 100 students and graduates are offered places on the Ambassador Programme each year, with the programme open to participants both in the UK and studying abroad. There are two concurrent cohorts each year, dividing the musicians into their best-suited category - Instrumental Ambassadors or Creative Learning Ambassadors,

Applications close at 9am tomorrow (30 November 2023), details from the foundation website.

Handel by candle-light & a gig on Jimi Hendrix's bed: Handel Hendrix After Dark

Intesa Duo at Handel Hendrix House

Handel Hendrix House After Dark; Intesa Duo, Maya Delilah
25 November 2023

Two contrasting gigs in Handel's dining room and Jimi Hendrix's bedroom as Handel Hendrix House welcomes visitors to its evocative, candle-lit historic interiors

Handel lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until his death in 1759, whilst Jimi Hendrix moved into a flat next door at 23 Brook Street in 1968, and his time there would be the longest period that he spent in one place. Since 2000, when the Handel House Trust took over, the presentation of the buildings has expanded. Initially, only the first and second floors of 25 Brook Street were restored and open to the public, then Jimi Hendrix's flat at 23 Brook Street was restored, helped by the fact that no. 23 had had no major structural work since then, and the most recent expansion has seen the ground floor of Handel's house restored to something like the state that Handel would have known. 

Both no. 23 and no. 25 have display spaces alongside the restored interiors so that both Handel's house and Hendrix flat are displayed in as close a state to what would have existed. This means that Handel's rooms now feature a significant selection of paintings that emulate the collection as known in Handel's day. Rather than functioning as a museum about Handel, it is a house intended to evoke the period of Handel's occupancy and introduce the work the he created there.

During November 2023, Handel Hendrix House started a series of Handel Hendrix After Dark where the house was open in the evening, with the 18th century house lit only by candles (electric, but very effective) and with live music both in Handel's dining room, where he rehearsed with singers, and in Hendrix's bedroom. We went along on Friday 24 November 2023 for an evening that celebrated Jimi Hendrix' birthday (he would have been 81 on 27 November 2023). 

In Handel's dining room we heard the Intesa Duo, which consists of Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgietti, both playing bass viols and Musaelian singing, then in Hendrix' bedroom there was a set from the young singer/songwriter Maya Delilah.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with a musical twist from Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is ubiquitous at Christmas, indeed it could be argued that with this book and his other writings Dickens effectively invented the modern Christmas. This year, the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) is bringing a musical twist to the tale. 

The BPO Brass Quintet is joining forces with actor Pip Torrens for a version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol narrated by Torrens with music from the BPO Brass Quintet featuring brass arrangements of Ding Dong Merrily on High, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In, Coventry Carol, O Come O Come Emmanuel and more, with BPO's artistic director at the piano, and the who show directed by Richard Williams.

There are two performances in Brighton at St George's Kemptown on 15 December 2023 [further details] and a performance at the World Heartbeat Academy in London on 14 December [further details]. And seasonal refreshments will be available.

If that isn't your thing, then this Sunday (3 December 2023), the full Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra has a Winter Solstice programme conducted by Sian Edwards at Brighton Dome, with Arvo Pärt's Lamentate, his dramatic ritual for piano (Joanna McGregor) and orchestra written for a collaboration with Anish Kapoor at the opening of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2002, and Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 [further details]

What is existence all about? London Youth Opera relaunches with ambitious new opera, Pandora's Box from Stuart Hancock and Donald Sturrock

W11 Opera has relaunched as London Youth Opera, the name change reflecting on the way the company's remit has expanded well beyond the W11 postcode. For their first production under the new name, LYO is presenting Pandora's Box by composer Stuart Hancock and librettist Donald Sturrock at the Royal Academy of Music's Susie Sainsbury Theatre on 16 and 17 December 2023.

The opera is a comic fusion of blues, pop, and classical opera that uses ancient Greek mythology as a starting point. This contemporary satire on 21st century family life asks the big question:

What is existence all about? 

In Hancock and Sturrock's version of the myth, when Pandora Woakes receives the gift from Prometheus, salesman at Olympus Enterprises, on the eve of her 18thbirthday, she is unaware of the mayhem that will befall her well-meaning family.  Opening it, she unwittingly releases Greed, Vanity, and Envy into the mortal world. Friendships break, selfishness rules, and chaos ensues over the course of one turbulent day in the quaint English village of Middle Demos. 

There is resolution, but there are no easy answers.

This will be Stuart Hancock's third opera collaboration with Donald Sturrock for W11 Opera, following the successes of Rain Dance (2010) and the pirate romp Cutlass Crew (2017), which is received its US premiere in Boston in spring 2023. Stuart Hancock is a composer of film, TV and concert music, and his latest film music includes Hiroshima: 75 Years Later (a feature documentary for the History Channel) and the British animated feature film Kensuke’s Kingdom, adapted from the popular Michael Morpurgo book of the same name, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2024. [Read my 2020 interview with Stuart]

Full details of Pandora's Box from London Youth Opera's website.

Captivating & fascinating: Goldberg from Syriab Trio and Trio d'Iroise, bringing together Western classical, Arabic music and Bach

Goldberg: Syriab Trio, Trio d'Iroise; SOLAIRE RECORDS
Reviewed 27 November 2023

A fascinating disc as two ensembles, one Western classical and one Arabic, journey through Bach's Goldberg Variations exploring what it means to play together, to base music on Bach yet synthesise with Arabic music. 

Some years ago, the Syriab Trio (Abdalhade Deb, oud/singing, Ibrahim Bajo, kanun, Amjad Sukar, percussion) did a project with Ensemble Reflektor, a North German chamber orchestra that included the cellist Johann Caspar Wedell. Wedell and the men of the Syriab Trio had lots of discussions, about music and about the mens' personal stories of war and displacement. The result was a wish to work together after that project ended.

The end result is this disc, Goldberg from Solaire Records, where the combined forces of the Syriab Trio and Trio d'Iroise (Sophie Pantzier, violin, Francois Lefevre, viola, Johann Caspar Wedell, cello) explore Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Goldberg - Syriab Trio and Trio d'Iroise

Sophia Lambton introduces her new book, The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography

Novelist and music critic Sophia Lambton's new book, The Callas Imprint: A Centennial Biography, will be published by The Crepuscular Press on 2 December  2023, the singer's 100th birthday. Lambton has mined extensive sources, some 3395 spanning 80 years and 21 countries, to present an in-depth picture of the singer. Here, Sophie Lambton introduces the book, the project and herself.

What made you want to write the book?

I was thirteen when my father introduced me to Maria Callas through her Carmen. Infatuation with the voice soon followed but I had no interest in her as a person – even as I grew intrigued by other greats that had defined her era: Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Herbert von Karajan. Back then a Google search or mere glimpse at her Wikipedia page suggested she was one of those erratic divas capable of coming off the spool.

For this reason I was stunned to stumble upon somebody entirely unknown to me at eighteen. When YouTube searches led me down a rabbit hole of interviews I found that I identified with her – especially in all discussions on the need for consummate perfectionism in the opera world. She very much appeared both a consistent and coherent personality: nothing to do with this bête noire that figures in the Callas literature and fictionalised versions of her life.

I was aghast and at a loss to think that millions of adorers of her art did not know such a person. I was also horrified at how dismissively a portion of them wrote her off: I remember being at La Scala’s museum in 2012 and witnessing a group of German tourists eye a portrait of her on the wall. My German’s pretty limited and was quite non-existent then, but I distinctly heard one of them say something along the lines of: “What was his name…? Oh, yes – Onassis.” The moment you begin to research her you find too many scribes and filmmakers want to know nothing more than information about him. Sometimes it’s as if that giant Callas art never existed.

The Callas Imprint is the first biography to guide the reader through her life through her eyes. My mission is to let her fans (and, for that matter, her detractors) live through her experiences onstage and off- through her perceptions; let them share her soul.

How are you qualified to write about Callas?

I became an opera critic aged seventeen. The first reason I fell in love with Callas as a person was a shared sensibility on the criteria for operatic gold: a strong technique sustained by never-faltering legato; manipulation of the voice to mould a character; engagement of the body; a well-crafted set design. Most biographers who’ve written about Callas either shove aside her contribution to the world of opera altogether, or extend fusty analyses of roles that lack in empathy.

As a fellow artist – I’m primarily a novelist – I wanted to convey this woman as a single entity. I don’t divide the artist from the person: that’s not life. I juxtapose her glorious – and sometimes, short-of-glorious – achievements on the stage and in the studio and the rehearsal hall with banal moments like her play with poodles, marital disputes, shopping excursions. I seek to prove that genius is not a lightbulb moment: Callas’ great apexes were worked toward obsessively and furiously and not always attained. As every other life, it is a journey weaving in and out of shoddy days and hazy headiness; euphoria and uproar.

My discovery of crucial documents – primarily Callas’ correspondence with her manager Sander Gorlinsky, as well as letters to her legal separation lawyer, Augusto Caldi-Scalcini, directors Luchino Visconti and Alexis Minotis and many others – offered me insight into Callas’ dizzying rollercoaster of a life. That and a heap of 3395 sources spanning twenty-one countries made over eighty years add up to make a narrative rich in real dialogues and vivid exhibitions of the episodes in her career and in her private life. It feels like a novel but nothing is made up.

What is different about this biography?

I would say that most Callas biographies up to the present day have been obsessed with pushing authors’ concepts about her. Of course, like other scribes I have my thoughts – nobody can be neutral about Callas – but The Callas Imprint is so saturated with her quotes combined with others', with her renditions beside miscellaneous ones; with Callas’ own contradictions that I leave the reader space to make up their own mind.

She is a complex personality who puzzles many. I could set forth an agenda implore the reader to believe my version, but I won’t. The mix of excerpts I’ve derived from letters and interviews both by her and her peers; from quotations from books that had a single print run maybe fifty, sixty years ago and since then haven’t seen the light of day; from my own interviews with those who knew her and a horde of other sources will permit the reader to know Callas very well. After that they can determine who she was.

What do you want a music lover to get out of it?

This sounds hard to believe but I still think most fans don’t understand the sheer enormity that is the Callas art. I want music lovers to detect that Callas was not just a strong performer, but a true creator: that she sculpted characters through an extraordinary (and sometimes dangerous) manipulation of the voice; that her vast impact on the opera stage was not confined to her soprano role alone. She helped construct her colleagues’ craftmanship – including that of Franco Corelli, Alexis Minotis and Tito Gobbi. She had a hand in choosing costumes, wigs and set design and choreography. She argued about tempi and encores with maestri. Her art was not just the supreme extension of her Violetta, Gilda, Norma, Tosca. It was the ultimate rendition any given opera could become. It’s Apollonian idealism. There hasn’t been another artist of this calibre on stage or film. There likely won’t be for at least a century to come.

What does Callas mean to you?

A rare artist who was able to examine the whole picture of an art of which she only formed a part. We don’t like to admit this, but most actors know when they play in a bad movie. A lot of opera singers contribute to paltry stagings knowing full well they’re in scenic dregs. But compromise is understandable: artists go hungry and they need to pay their rents and feed their kids.

Callas was born not like that. From her teenage years she had a vision that she craved to execute. I can’t think of any other textual or musical interpreter who cared so much about the output as a whole, not just their incarnation. She made me look at art from an entirely panoramic standpoint – thus inspiring me to learn about aesthetics not just from my fellow writers but the theatre, film and music. She made me realise art’s creation is the finding of a new world. I feel as though the world she found is very much alive. But people, maybe just subconsciously, don’t realise she’s behind it. 

Further details of The Callas Imprint from the The Crepuscular Press.
The Callas Imprint on Amazon.

There's music in all things: Bath Festival Orchestra marks the Berlioz 220 and Poulenc 125 anniversaries with a début performance at Southbank's Queen Elizabeth Hall

Bath Festival Orchestra

Peter Manning, principal conductor/artistic director of Bath Festival Orchestra (BFO), had this to say about their forthcoming concert marking the Berlioz 220 and Poulenc 125 anniversaries. 'Our January programme considers a vast timeline spanning the troubadour influences of Poulenc’s neo-classical works. The three works we shall perform are distinct but each paints a vivid narrative through live music and each is crafted to evoke emotion. Therefore, by incorporating Byron’s influence on Berlioz, the programme will embrace the twin joys of literature and music thereby echoing Byron's words: "There's music in all things".'  

The concert (Sunday, 14 January 2024, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall) opens with Louise Farrenc’s Overture in E minor, Op. 23. An extraordinary pianist, teacher and composer of the Romantic period - three symphonies, a few choral works, numerous chamber pieces and a wide variety of piano music - her ‘magical musical palette’ was much admired by Berlioz while the sensational young violist, Dana Zemtsov, makes her South Bank début fresh from the release of her stunning new album, Fathers & Daughters (Channel Classics Records) joining forces with BFO in bringing a new focus to the music of Berlioz in his masterpiece, Harold in Italy, inspired by the composer's Italian travels and Lord Byron's famous autobiographical poem, Childe Harold, written in four parts and published between 1812 and 1818. The dedicatee was ‘Ianthe’ (Lady Charlotte Harley) a young beautiful girl that Byron knew well. 

The narrative describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who’s disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry and looks for distraction in foreign lands. In a wider sense, it’s an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term ‘childe’, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood. 

Bringing the concert to a close, Poulenc's Sinfonietta, offers the audience a neoclassical palette cleanser! The composer’s only symphonic work, it’s light and full of dance rhythms while witty and satirical at the same time. The first movement begins expressively, the second is scherzo-like in character reminiscent of the last movement of Les biches, the third’s gentle with an expansive melodic theme while the finale recalls Haydn with folksy themes that scurry along to a breathless and excited conclusion. 

A pre-concert talk will be given by Royal Society of Literature Fellow, Fiona Sampson, MBE, and BFO's artistic director, Peter Manning, hosted by BBC Radio 3’s Donald Macleod. The trio will explore the 'romantic' hero in the work of Berlioz and Lord Byron while examining the female voice in 19th-century music and literature.  

An ensemble of brilliant, early career orchestral players, Bath Festival Orchestra is united by the desire to create joyful, entertaining, enriching and relevant experiences for and with people whether in concert halls, churches, community spaces, educational settings or any other location where there are people who want to engage with music. 

Under the leadership of Peter Manning, BFO aspires to be an orchestra for the 21st century: inclusive, collaborative, accessible and responsible for its impact on the world. As such, the orchestra - who extends its reach beyond Bath and London offering performances across the UK particularly in under-served communities while through its ‘orchestrate’ programme supports the next generation of music enthusiasts - welcomes players of diverse nationalities and performs a broad repertoire by composers of all backgrounds.  

As a soloist, Dana Zemtsov (who has released to critical acclaim five albums on Channel Classics Records with the latest just released) has performed with orchestras the world over working under the baton of Leif Segerstam, Otto Tausk and Daniel Raiskin.  

Interestingly, too, pianists Anna Fedorova/Borys Fedorov and violists Dana Zemtsov/Mikhail Zemtsov are embarking on a journey through generations of their respected families. And throughout years of their friendship Dana Zemtsov and Anna Fedorova have discovered many similarities in their upbringing. For instance, both of their parents met in Moscow's conservatory. Dana’s parents (Julia Dinerstein and Mikhail Zemtsov) are renowned violists and professors while Anna’s parents (Tatiana Abayeva and Borys Fedorov) are renowned pianists and professors.  

With their album Fathers & Daughters they journey through the generations performing works with daughter and father respectively, fathers together, daughters together and, finally, daughters and their fathers.  

Therefore, the Fedorova dynasty of pianists joins forces with the Zemtsov dynasty of violists performing music on Fathers & Daughters by Yevgeni Zemtsov, Frédéric Chopin, Nikolay Roslavets, Alexander Glazunov, Alexander Scriabin, Michael Kugel and Mikhail Zemtsov while Borys Fedorov has written a piece especially for the album - a perfect nostalgic portrayal of the atmosphere Dana and Anna’s ancestors grew up in. A nice story! 

Tony Cooper

Further information from the orchestra's website.

Pegasus Opera pays tribute to Keel Watson

Keel Watson as Falstaff with Regents Opera in 2015

Pegasus Opera will be paying tribute to Keel Watson as part of the Pegasus Caribbean Christmas Concert on 21 December 2023 at St John the Divine Church, SW9 6JA. The company is inviting any singers who knew him and are available to come and join them in a rousing chorus of Oh Lawd I'm on my way from Gerswhin's Porgy and Bess. (contact  admin@pegopera.org for details).

Keel Watson was a friend of Pegasus Opera from the beginning. He was instrumental in the company's inaugural concerts and operas, including performing a stellar Falstaff in 1997. He also served as a mentor in every year of Pegasus' Mentorship Programme, including this year.

Masimba Ushe, bass, and Keel Watson's most recent mentee said of him, "I first met Keel on a train late one evening. He was on his way home after a performance. We were sitting in the same carriage, I recognised him and went to speak to him. A general chat about singing and performance turned into an impromptu lesson when Keel asked me to sing part of an aria for him outside the station. His willingness to help me and to make the most out of every teaching opportunity was truly inspirational. His advice and encouragement really helped me on my journey as a singer. 

I had more lessons with him through the Pegasus Mentoring Programme. He was a straight to the point, no nonsense teacher and his confidence helped me to find the confidence within myself. He inspired me to really put my all into my work and helped me to understand what it really means to be a performer. His enthusiasm for singing and teaching was infectious and made me want to dive deeper and understand more. The warmth and passion exhibited by Keel, was a privilege to experience. His honesty and passion in his teaching was truly something amazing to have experienced, and for that I am truly grateful."

Further information about Pegasus Caribbean Christmas Concert from EventBrite.

A remarkable sense of energy & engagement: Wagner's Die Walküre from the London Opera Company at St John's Smith Square

Wagner's Die Walküre - The London Opera Company

Wagner's Die Walküre; Ben Thapa, Philippa Boyle, Simon Wilding, Simon Thorpe, Harriet Williams, Cara McHardy, conductor Peter Selwyn; the London Opera Company at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed 25 November 2023

A full scale performance of Wagner's opera projected with remarkable energy, commitment and engagement by a strong cast with an orchestra mixing professionals, students and amateurs. A remarkable achievement

The London Opera Company was formed in 2020 by singers to give opportunities to performers who had lost work in the pandemic. Starting from relatively small beginnings, with chamber versions of Wagner's operas, the company founded its own orchestra last year and presented a full version of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at St John's Smith Square. The company returned to St John's for Wagner's Die Walküre this year and plans to perform Wagner's Siegfried next year.

The London Opera Company performed Wagner's Die Walküre at St John's Smith Square on Saturday 25 November 2023. Peter Selwyn conducted the London Opera Company Orchestra with Ben Thapa as Siegmund, Philippa Boyle as Sieglinde, Simon Wilding as Hunding, Simon Thorpe as Wotan, Harriet Williams as Fricka and Cara McHardy as Brünnhilde.

This was a concert performance, scores and music stands were in use, but a lot of thought had gone into the presentation and all the singers were very responsive, reacting to others and making it far more than stand and sing. As Brünnhilde, Cara McHardy was off the book for long stretches of the performance, and many of the other soloists similarly managed to make their performances go far beyond singing to their score. The result had a sense of dramatic engagement which carried the performance along.

Dependent Arising: American violinist Rachel Barton Pine on combining classical and Heavy Metal on her latest concerto album

Rachel Barton Pine (Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco)

American violinist Rachel Barton Pine's most recent disc, on the Cedille Records label, Dependent Arising, pairs Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 with a new concerto, Dependent Arising, written especially for Rachel, by Earl Maneein, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conductor Tito Muñoz. The pairing very much encapsulates Rachel's freewheeling and eclectic approach to violin playing. In parallel to her career as a classical violin virtuoso she spent some years, from 2009 to 2014, playing electric violin in the Doom/Thrash Metal band Earthen Grave and has enthusiastically embraced a variety of styles and genres. With Dependent Arising she really leans into her enduring love of Heavy Metal. Earl Maneein is a trained classical violinist but also played electric violin in the Metalcore band, Resolution15, and his music embraces both camps.

There are only around half a dozen players of the electric violin in Metal bands in the USA, Earl Maneein is one and Rachel is another. She knew of Earl and his music, and that he was conservatory-trained so in 2014 she asked him to write a piece for her. It was to be unaccompanied, as this was the most useful thing to tour and she felt that it would be cool to perform Earl Maneein's music in an acoustic event. The result was Metal Organic Framework, which Rachel premiered in 2014. At a later performance of the work in New York, Tito Muñoz, the music director of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, heard Rachel playing Metal Organic Framework. Now Tito Muñoz is not a Metalhead, but he found Earl Maneein to be a unique and compelling voice. Tito Muñoz commissioned a concerto from Maneein for Rachel, which became Dependent Arising which Rachel premiered with Tito Muñoz and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra in April 2017 [see article on the orchestra's website].

Dependent Arising recording sessions - Tito Muñoz, Rachel Barton Pine, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Photo: Sally Jubb Photography)

Rachel feels that people who like Heavy Metal will hear the work's links to the style, but contemporary music lovers simply hear an intriguing new classical work. For Heavy Metal lovers, Maneein has incorporated references to different bands' styles. Certainly, the concerto has been a success and she wanted to record it. For Rachel, the only possible composer for a pairing was Shostakovich, whose music is popular with Heavy Metal fans. Rachel finds his music very dark and loves the way it fearlessly explores the human condition.