Light & shade: Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music & a terrific cast make Handel's Serse into a captivating & engaging evening in the theatre

Handel: Serse - Paula Murrihy, Louise Alder - Academy of Ancient Music, the Barbican (Photo: Mark Allan)

Handel: Serse; Paula Murrihy, Louise Alder, Rachel Redmond, Rebecca Leggett, Claudia Huckle, Luca Tittoto, Thomas Chenhall, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican Hall
Reviewed 19 June 2026

A lightly staged concert performance which wore scholarship and technical prowess lightly, bringing out the light and shade in Handel's opera and making a captivating and engaging evening

Perhaps because Nicholas Hytner's 1985 production at English National Opera cast such a long shadow (it was last revived in 2014 with Alice Coote and Sarah Tynan, see my review) stagings of Handel's Serse are not particularly common and recent London outings have been in concert. 

In concert, the performance can avoid taking too much of a stand on how funny the opera is. During Handel's lifetime performances would have been notable for the way the work wrong-footed audiences. Presented as an opera seria, it avoids many of the standard tropes: arias are often short, less than half the arias are da capo and the exit aria is rare. The whole opening scene has a fluidity that we now know looks forward to Handel's methods in oratorio, creating large structures from smaller segments. But after the hero's opening cavatina (here Serse's 'Ombra mai fui') audiences would have expected him to get a big aria and leave. Not a bit. And then the heroine's opening aria is variously done off-stage and interrupted! The result is a naturalism that modern audiences enjoy but which would have wrong-footed contemporary listeners and which means we can never really recapture the opera's original effect.

On Friday 19 June 2026, Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music chose to present Handel's Serse at the Barbican Centre with a very light dramatic touch in a concert staging blessedly free from concept and featuring a strong cast. Paula Murrihy was Serse with Louise Alder as Romilda, Rachel Redmond as Atalanta, Rebecca Leggett as Arsamene, Claudia Huckle as Amastre, Luca Tittoto as Ariodate and Thomas Chenhall as Elviro.

Handel: Serse - Rebecca Leggett, Rachel Redmond - Academy of Ancient Music, the Barbican (Photo: Mark Allan)

Handel's original cast featured a rather intriguing mix of gender bending. The title role was sung by a soprano castrato (Caffarelli) with Arsamene played 'en travestie' by a woman, then the (female) contralto playing Amastre actually spends most of the opera disguised as a man! Nowadays Serse is sung by female mezzo-sopranos though I have heard it sung by a countertenor (Jake Arditti sang it at Longborough in 2015, see my review) and the gender-fluid aspect of the piece does not seem to have been much explored. At the Barbican, Murrihy, Leggett and Huckle all presented as women dressed as men and the audience accepted it admirably with none of the titters that marred the recent performance of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito at The Grange Festival where some audience members seemed to find a female singer referring to herself as a male character as something innately funny. As Frankie Howerd might have said, 'titter ye not'.

Sheer joy & plenty of welly: the marimbas of The Wave Quartet join the Academy of Ancient Music for Bach concertos & more

Rhythm Across Time  - Bach: Concerto in A minor for four harpsichords, BWV1065, Concerto in C major for two harpsichords, BWV1061, Bertali, Geminiani, Handel, Festa, Piazzolla; The Wave Quartet, Academy of Ancient Music; Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican
Reviewed 14 May 2026

Marimba quartet and period strings join together for a sympathetic exploration of Baroque music with a focus on Bach's multi-harpsichord concertos, creating a magical sound world that remained sympathetic to the original yet transported us elsewhere 

The word marimba is of Bantu origin and instruments like the marimba are present throughout the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa. The instrument became popular in Mexico, Central and South America from the 16th century, and it was here that it developed into the modern chromatic instrument. The first chromatic marimba was produced in Mexico in the 1890s. 

The idea of a marimba playing with a period instrument ensemble seems counter-intuitive but marimba player Bogdan Bácanu formed the Wave Quartet in 2008 specifically to explore marimba adaptations of Bach's concertos for two harpsichords and the Quartet has gone on to collaborate with ensembles such as the Mozarteum orchestra in Salzburg and L'Orfeo Barockorchester. In 2019 as part of Sound Unbound: The Barbican Classical Weekender, The Wave Quartet played with the Academy of Ancient Music. Since then, they have performed together in Vienna and Cologne, but the partnership only returned to London last night.

The Wave Quartet (Bogdan Bácanu, Nico Gerstmayer, Christoph Sietzen, Emiko Uchiyama) joined the strings of the Academy of Ancient Music (directed from the violin by Bojan Čičić) for a pair of concerts at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge (13 May) and Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican (14 May). We caught the Barbican concert where the ensemble played music by Antonio Bertali, Francesco Geminiani, Handel, and Costanzo Festa plus Bach's Concerto for Four Harpsichords in A minor and Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C major, along with movements from Piazzolla's Concerto 'Aconcagua'. 

Elegance, exuberance and one remarkable woman: the Academy of Ancient Music travels to Georgian London to discover the lost world of musical innovator, Elisabetta da Gambarini

Elisabetta da Gamberini

Handel, Elisabetta de Gambarini, Geminiani, Carlo Tessarini; Mhairi Lawson, Academy of Ancient Music led by Bojan Čičić; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 12 March 2026

The Academy of Ancient Music plunges deep into the colourful world of Elisabetta da Gambarini - composer, virtuoso and entrepreneur as well as the first woman ever to publish music in England

The Academy of Ancient Music’s tribute to Elisabetta da Gambarini and her contemporaries proved an enjoyable and unforgettable show with an excellent programme exploring the vibrant musical landscape of Georgian London showcasing the influence of immigrant musicians and the pioneering role of women engaged in 18th-century music-making.  

Relating mostly to the late baroque and classical music period, Gambarini (who lived for only 33 years from 1731 to 1765) achieved distinction by being an all-round musician performing on and composing for a variety of instruments as well as voice. Her compositions were known to reflect that of vocal work instead of instrumental patterns.  

Born on 7th September 1731 in Holles Street, Marylebone, Elisabetta Gambarini’s father, Charles Gambarini, acted as Counsellor to the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel. He died in 1754 while his wife Joanna (Giovanna Paula) Stradiotti died in 1774. A nobleman from Lucca, Italy, her father published A Description of the Earl of Pembroke’s Pictures 1731 while her mother, of similar status from Dalmatia, is thought to have been a tutor to the nobility. 

The third of four children, Elisabetta (who on 20th March 1764 married Etienne Chazal at St Martin-in-the-Fields) was the only sibling surviving to maturity. She died at her home in Castle Court, Strand, in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, on 9th February 1765 and was interred at St James’ Church, Piccadilly, five days later - 14th February. 

Although there’s no specific information regarding her formal musical education there is speculation that Gambarini may have studied with Francesco Geminiani, composer of The Enchanted Forest, a baroque orchestral work inspired by Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata often performed with dance thereby depicting a mystical perilous forest. 

'The Lord gave the word': communicability to the fore in Handel's Messiah from Academy of Ancient Music & Laurence Cummings

The chapel of the Foundling Hospital where Handel performed Messiah annually

Handel: Messiah; Nardus Williams, Reginald Mobley, Thomas Walker, Ashley Riches, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican Hall
15 December 2025

A traditional version of the score and fleet speeds, but communicability was to the fore here with soloists and choir projecting both word and meaning, supported by instrumental virtuosity that was understated but definitive

Handel's Messiah is one of those perennials that in one sense always remains the same yet is always different. During Handel's lifetime this was literally the case as the composer adjusted the work for each new batch of soloists, which means that conductors have a whole host of choices. Few people go for some of the more obscure versions, except for those occasional performances that aim to recreate a particular version. The Academy of Ancient Music's performance of Messiah at the Barbican has become something of a regular (if not annual) event, with Laurence Cummings opting for a fairly traditional version of the score.

On Monday 15 December 2025, Laurence Cummings conducted the chorus and orchestra of the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican Hall with soloists soprano Nardus Williams, countertenor Reginald Mobley, tenor Thomas Walker, and bass Ashley Riches. We saw their performance of the work last year [see my review] but a new set of soloists bring a different feel to the work.

With a choir of 18 and an orchestra based on 14 strings, Cummings opted for speeds that were often on the fleet side, but nothing ever felt rushed. The faster choruses were simply that, and there was plenty of space for expressivity. One bonus was that the gaps between movements were kept to a minimum so that this was a performance that really flowed. 

One feature of previous performances from Cummings at the AAM has been the emphasis on words and communication. The same was true at this performance. Granted, many of us could probably quote Messiah almost word for word, but soloists and choir were all highly attuned to projecting word and meaning.

Satisfying, yet thought-provoking: Handel's Messiah from Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music

The chapel of the Foundling Hospital where Handel performed Messiah annually

Handel: Messiah; Anna Devin, Tim Mead, Nick Pritchard, Cody Quattlebaum, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican Hall
Reviewed 16 December 2024

Sometimes avoiding traditional readings and emphasising contrasts, this was a Messiah where the word was of primary importance, delivered with remarkable directness at times.

I would imagine that neither Handel nor Charles Jennens (who created the libretto) thought of Messiah as a Christmas piece. In fact, for Jennens the work had a purely didactic purpose bringing the Word of God to those in the concert hall, and Messiah narrates the entire arc from Christ's coming, through his Passion to the Resurrection. Returning to Handel's Messiah at the Barbican for the first time since 2022 [see my review of that performance]. Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music seemed to relish this didactic element, the telling of a narrative as serious and intense as the Passion. The soloists this year were Anna Devin (replacing Louise Alder), Tim Mead, Nick Pritchard and Cody Quattlebaum.

This wasn't a large-scale performance, an orchestra based on an ensemble of some 14 strings, with a continuo based around two harpsichords (one played by Cummings), organ and theorbo, plus a choir of 18. Not a huge group for the Barbican Hall, but entirely sufficient.

The pairing of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Actéon with Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pygmalion proved a perfect double-bill for baroque aficionados offering a delightful, entertaining and pleasant evening

Page from the edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses published by Lucantonio Giunti in Venice, 1497

Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Actéon, Jean-Philippe Rameau:Pygmalion; Anna Dennis, Rachel Redmond, Katie Bray, Thomas Walker , Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 9 October 2024

Rarities on the British stage such dramas of human emotion and divine power contained in Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Actéon and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pygmalion were penned by two of the most imaginative and well-respected composers of the French baroque era. 

The Academy of Ancient Music’s two mythological masterpieces of baroque opera, Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Actéon, and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pygmalion, sung in French at London’s Milton Court Concert Hall was blessed by an extremely fine and stellar quartet of soloists comprising Anna Dennis and Rachel Redmond (sopranos), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Thomas Walker (tenor) and Laurence Cummings (director/harpsichord). 

Based upon the third book of Metamorphoses, written by the celebrated Roman poet Ovid between 1683 and 1685, the original title of Charpentier’s one-act opera is Actéon - Pastorale en musique; it received a private performance at the Hôtel de Guise, the house of the composer’s appreciative and wealthy patron, the Duchesse de Guise affectionately known as Mlle de Guise. The author of the libretto, however, is not known but is often thought as being Thomas Corneille. An associate of Jean-Baptiste Lully his adaptations of stories from the Metamorphoses bear a likeness to the libretto of Actéon. 

The Academy of Ancient Music celebrates its 50th anniversary with a short film. Tony Cooper reports.

The very first meeting of the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) took place on 17th September 1973 at All Saints’ Church, Petersham, in the London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames with founder/director, Christopher Hogwood, recording overtures by Thomas Arne, well known, of course, for his patriotic song Rule, Britannia! Therefore, to mark such an auspicious occasion as their Golden Jubilee, Dame Emma Kirkby, John McMunn and Laurence Cummings (AAM’s current music director) share their memories of the orchestra in a brand-new short film. 

'We are thrilled to celebrate 50 years of the Academy of Ancient Music' says Laurence Cummings. 'Our anniversary is an opportunity to look back at AAM’s impressive history and celebrate our continued commitment in using period-specific instruments and original sources thus enabling AAM to bring the music we love so dearly vividly to life in committed and vibrant performances.'

The season launches with a performance of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks at the Barbican (18 October 2023) with AAM - a pioneering orchestra who simply redefined period-instrument performance - offering a fresh perspective and vigour to this iconic work which has been a mainstay of the orchestra’s repertoire since its inception.  

The celebrations continue off stage with the release of a new book by acclaimed journalist and former Hogwood Fellow, Richard Bratby (19 October 2023, Elliott & Thompson). The book charts AAM’s journey since its trailblazing first decades through the digital boom of the 1980s right up to the present day.  

The 50th anniversary season also sees AAM complete a landmark recording project with scholar-pianist, Robert Levin, 30 years after it first began. Levin and AAM will release the final recordings in their Mozart cycle this season. Upon completion (the last disc is due out in June 2024) the cycle becomes the first recording of Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra on either modern or historical instruments. 

Enjoying a worldwide reputation for excellence in baroque and classical music, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date while collecting countless accolades over the course of their musical journey including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards. Now recording on their own label, AAM is immensely proud to be one of the most period-instrument orchestras to be heard online with over one million monthly listeners on streaming platforms.  

Beyond the concert hall, AAM is committed to nurturing the audiences, artists and arts managers of the future through their innovative education initiative AAMplify. Working with music colleges and universities across the UK, AAM engages with the next generation of period instrumentalists with side-by-side sessions, masterclasses and other opportunities designed to bridge the gap between the conservatoire and the profession, safeguarding the future of historical performance. 

Proudly holding positions of associate ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and at Venice’s Teatro San Cassiano, AAM is also orchestra-in-residence at the University of Cambridge, The Apex, Bury St Edmunds and at Milton Abbey International Summer Music Festival in Dorset. 

Full details from the AAM website.

Prom 50: large-scale drama from Allan Clayton, Philharmonia Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings in Handel's Samson

Handel: Samson - Philharmonia Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Sisi Burn)

George Frideric Handel: Samson; Allan Clayton, Jacquelyn Stucker, Joélle Harvey, Jess Dandy, Brindley Sherratt, Jonathan Lemalu, Philharmonic Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Allan Clayton is towering in the title role, in a large-scale performance from soloists, chorus and orchestra that fills the Royal Albert Hall magnificently

Handel's 1743 oratorio Samson was always huge. The uncut original version has significantly over three hours of music, [John Butt's recording lasts 3 hours 24 minutes, see my review] with a towering title role unusually given to a tenor (testament to Handel's confidence in his original tenor, John Beard), and a dramatic arc that reflects the scale Milton's original drama. It was one of his most successful oratorios during his lifetime and Handel tinkered with it from the word go, in order to reduce the length. Perhaps significantly, he cut little of import after Samson's scene with Dalila.

As such, the work has suffered when being revived in modern concert conditions. For the BBC Proms performance at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 August 2023, there was still the need to fill the evening slot and the economics of presenting the work in a performance running well over four hours. Directing the Academy of Ancient Music and Philharmonia Chorus, Laurence Cummings opted for a version true to Handel's revisions in 1743, trimming the work down to around 130 minutes of music. Allan Clayton was Samson with Jacquelyn Stucker as Dalila, Joélle Harvey as the Israelite Woman and Philistine Woman, Jess Dandy was Micah, Brindley Sherratt was Harapha and Jonathan Lemalu was Manoa, with Will Pate (from the choir) as the Messenger.

Handel: Samson - Allan Clayton - Philharmonia Chorus, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Sisi Burn)

Cummings had opted to 'give it large' in other ways. There was a choir of over 100 singers with an orchestra to match including six oboes, three bassoons and three horns plus a body of some 40 strings. There were two harpsichords (Cummings directed from one and Alastair Ross played the other) with Stephen Farr on organ. The balance, thus, favoured the non-keyboard instruments but this was a compromise worth making, I think, for the chance to hear such a fine performance on a large-scale.

A lovely way to begin the Christmas season: Handel's Messiah from Laurence Cummings & Academy of Ancient Music at Barbican Centre

The chapel of the Foundling Hospital where Handel performed Messiah annually

Handel: Messiah; Amanda Forsythe, Jess Dandy, Thomas Walker, Ashley Riches, Academy of Ancient Music, Laurence Cummings; Barbican Hall
Reviewed 16 December 2022, (★★★★½)

A richly rewarding account of Messiah were words and character were to the fore, yet there were plenty of dazzling rhythms and fabulous passagework

Handel's Messiah is one of those works which has developed its own performance traditions, almost independent of the composer's original intentions. Handel's performances were all relatively small-scale, but before the end of the 18th century the tradition of large-scale festival performances had grown up with led to the huge explosion in big choral Messiah performances which still have echoes in the modern choral society Messiahs. But more recently new traditions have grown up, as chamber choirs and chamber orchestras rediscovered the idea of Messiah with smaller forces, and then in 1979, Christopher Hogwood recorded Messiah complete on period instruments with the Academy of Ancient Music, and another tradition was born. That recording focused on a particular date and time, as Hogwood used the material from Handel's Foundling Hospital performances of Messiah, where we not only have the original parts but the accounts survive, thus telling us exactly how many musicians we used. 

But, frankly, we still know so little about the exact nitty-gritty of most of Handel's oratorio performances that there is plenty of room for ensembles to be creative. The Academy of Ancient Music was back performing Messiah on Friday 16 December 2022 at the Barbican. Their music director Laurence Cummings directed the performance with soloists Amanda Forsythe [last seen in Handel's Amadigi di Gaula from Boston Baroque, see my review], Jess Dandy [whom we caught at Wigmore Hall in August, see my review], Thomas Walker [last seen in Bach's Ascension Oratorio with Gabrieli, my review] and Ashley Riches [who was in Handel's Solomon at this year's BBC Proms, my review]. The latter two soloists replaced Stuart Thomas and William Thomas. 

The version used was very much the traditional one (which is probably a good thing given the last-minute change in soloists). But in terms of performing forces, this was Messiah very much in the style that Handel might have recognised. A chorus of 18 singers (women sopranos and altos), an orchestra based around an ensemble of 14 strings (led by Bojan Cicic) plus two oboes, bassoon, trumpets and timpani. For the continuo we had Cummings on harpsichord plus Stephen Farr doubling harpsichord and organ, and William Carter on theorbo.

Laurence Cummings to become next music director of the Academy of Ancient Music

Laurence Cummings

The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) has announced that Laurence Cummings [see my 2018 interview with him] will become its music director from the start of the 2021/22 season. Cummings is currently music director of the London Handel Festival, artistic director of the Internationale Händel-Festpiele Göttingen and music director of Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música in Porto. 

The Academy of Ancient Music was founded in 1973 by Christopher Hogwood (1941-2014), who remained music director until 2006 when Richard Egarr (previously associate director) was named music director and Hogwood named Emeritus Director. Richard Egarr's recent projects with the ensemble included the sponsoring of a new edition of Handel's Brockes Passion, along with a live performance and a recording [see my review].

The news of Cummings' appointment comes as AAM returns to live music, with a performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Barbican on 19 December 2020, as part of the Live from the Barbican concert series; Richard Egarr directs, with soloists Rowan Pierce, Iestyn Davies, Ben Johnson and Ashley Riches  The performance will take place in front of a socially distanced audience, and will be streamed online for digital ticket holders.

Further details from AAM's website.

Academy of Ancient Music's digital concert series

Handel's Heroines - Mary Bevan, Jennifer France, Laurence Cummings, Academy of Ancient Music

For the duration of the current crisis, the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) has launched its new digital offering Streaming Sunday Series, with HD videos of recent concerts available free on-line. The concerts are streamed at 3pm on Sundays and are available on AAM's YouTube channel. 

Released so far has been Handel's Heroines with sopranos Mary Bevan and Jennifer France, and the AAM directed by Laurence Cummings in Handel, recorded live at Cambridge's West Road Concert Hall on 12 March 2020 (particularly for those who had hoped to see the programme at this year's London Handel Festival), and Sound the Trumpet with trumpeter David Blackadder and soprano Soraya Mafi, with the AAM directed by Chad Kelly in Purcell, Handel, Bach and Torelli, recorded live at Leeds Town Hall on 16 March 2020.

To come, we have the following to look forward to:

5 April 2020 - The Art of the Lute – with Thomas Dunford
The virtuosic Thomas Dunford joins the Academy of Ancient Music to showcase the lute, performing and directing works by Vivaldi, Bach and Buxtehude [see my review]
Recorded live at London’s Milton Court Concert Hall, 20 February 2020.

12 April 2020 - Handel’s Messiah – with soloists from VOCES8
The Academy of Ancient Music presents Handel's Messiah, joined by VOCES8, Apollo5 and the choir of the VOCES8 Foundation under the direction of Barnaby Smith.
Recorded live at the Chapel of Trinity College Cambridge, 3 December 2019.

19 April 2020 - Bach & Haydn – with Viktoria Mullova and James Hall
Violinist Viktoria Mullova and countertenor James Hall join Richard Egarr the Academy of Ancient Music for a concert of Bach, Haydn and Grimani.
Recorded live at London’s Milton Court Concert Hall, 20 November 2019.

26 April 2020 - The Marriage of Figaro
Mozart's terrific comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro in a concert performance by Richard Egarr, the Academy of Ancient Music and cast including Roberto Lorenzi as Figaro, Ellie Laugharne as Susanna, Toby Girling as Count Almaviva, Simona Mihai as the Countess, Wallis Giunta as Cherubino, and Rowan Pierce as Barbarina [see my review of the stage performance at The Grange Festival]
Recorded live at London’s Barbican Hall, 4 July 2019, in partnership with The Grange Festival.

3 May 2020 - Beethoven and Witt – with Chen Reiss
Chen Reiss and the Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Christoph Altstaedt present Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus overture, Symphony No. 4, and stunning concert arias for soprano, in a programme which also includes a symphony by Beethoven’s contemporary, Frederich Witt.
Recorded live at the Germanisches National Museum in Nuremberg, 4 March 2020.

Full details from AAM's YouTube channel.

The art of the lute: Thomas Dunford and the Academy of Ancient Music put the Baroque lute in the spotlight from concertos to trio sonatas and a solo suite

Thomas Dunford (Photo © Julien Benhamou)

Bach, Vivaldi, Buxtehude; Thomas Dunford, Rachel Brown, Academy of Ancient Music; Milton Court Concert Hall, the Barbican
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 20 February 2020 Star rating: 4.0 (★★★★)
Thomas Dunford joined the Academy of Ancient Music in a programme which put the spotlight on the Baroque lute, from Vivaldi's concerto to Bach's solo suite, plus trio sonatas and a mystery item

The Academy of Ancient Music continued its concert series at the Barbican's Milton Court Concert Hall last night (20 February 2020) with a concert showcasing the lute. Lutenist Thomas Dunford joined the orchestra to perform Vivaldi's Trio Sonata in C major RV82, Vivaldi's Concerto for Lute in D RV93, and Buxtehude's Trio Sonata, BuxWV 255, and Dunford also played J. S. Bach Suite for solo lute in g minor BWV 995, and joined the continuo for J. S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 BWV 1067 which featured flautist Rachel Brown.

In fact, as originally planned the concert should have been harpsichordist Jean Rondeau playing Bach, but Rondeau had to pull out as his wife was expecting their first baby (a daughter, delivered last week), and whether by accident or design Thomas Dunford is Rondeau's brother-in-law.

The concert was fortuitous because we don't really get to hear enough of the lute's later Baroque existence. Rather an old-fashioned instrument by the early18th century, the lute continued on in a few places. But the instrument requires the right circumstances to be heard to its best. Milton Court Concert Hall was perhaps a little too big at times, there were moments in Bach's suite for solo lute that sounded a little too distant, but by and large Dunford's unshowy virtuosity and deft control of the instrument's colours really drew you in.

Far more than choral virtuosity: Handel's Israel in Egypt from the BBC Singers & Academy of Ancient Music

BBC Singers, Academy of Ancient Music, Gergely Madaras; Milton Court Concert Hall (Photo BBC Singers)

Handel Israel in Egypt (1756); BBC Singers, Academy of Ancient Music, Gergely Madaras; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 5 February 2019 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½)
Though we only got the torso of the work, this was a tour de force from both singers and instrumentalists, technique, drama and engagements

The BBC Singers has such a reputation in 20th century and contemporary music that it can be something of a surprise to find them in more standard repertoire, though in fact the ensemble's concert season takes in music from 17th century to the present day.

For the BBC Singers concert at Milton Court Concert Hall on Friday 10 May 2019, the choir was joined by the Academy of Ancient Music and conductor Gergely Madaras for a performance of one of the great 18th century choral showpieces, Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt. Whilst the work is all about the chorus, there are solos and at this performance the soloists all came from the choir, soprano Emma Tring, altos Nancy Cole and Jessica Gillingwater, tenor Tom Raskin, and basses Jamie W. Hall and Andrew Rupp.

Israel in Egypt has a rather complex history, and the work has never quite found a finished form. Handel's first version used a re-write of the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline as part one, this failed to gain popularity and he quickly dropped the funeral anthem and added additional solos to the work, later revivals created a variety of different first parts for the piece, with the result that the work survives in the repertoire in a version which Handel never performed, parts two and three of the original three-part work forming a new two-part work. By way of preparation, Gergely Madaras chose the sinfonia to the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, a logical choice. And once the oratorio proper started there was much to enjoy indeed.

Remarkable revival: the Academy of Ancient Music presents Handel's Brockes Passion in a new critical edition

Handel: Brockes Passion - Cody Quattlebaum,
Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr
Barbican (Photo Robert Workman)

Handel Brockes Passion; Robert Murray, Cody Quattlebaum, Elizabeth Watts, Ruby Hughes, Tim Mead, Gwilym Bowen, Nicky Spence, Morgan Pearse, Rachael Lloyd, Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egar; Barbican Hall   
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 19 April 2019 
Star rating: 5.0 (★★★★★)
A Handel rarity rediscovered in a richly evocative performance

Handel's Brockes Passion remains relatively unknown in his output despite being a large scale work dating from his prime. The Academy of Ancient Music dusted the piece off at the Barbican Hall on Good Friday (19 April 2019) in a strong performance directed by Richard Egarr, with soloists Robert Murray (Evangelist), Cody Quattlebaum (Jesus), Elizabeth Watts (Daughter of Zion), Ruby Hughes (Faithful Soul), Rachael Lloyd, Tim Mead (Judas), Gwilym Bowen (Peter), Nicky Spence (Faithful Soul) and Morgan Pearse. And there wasn't just a performance, the ensemble has sponsored a new critical edition of the work by Leo Duarte, who was playing first oboe in the performance [see my interview with Leo talking about his love of libraries and old manuscripts].

Handel: Brockes Passion - Elizabeth Watts, Academy of Ancient Music
Barbican (Photo Robert Workman)

Handel wrote his setting of the passion by Barthold Heinrich Brockes in 1716 and it was performed in Hamburg in 1719, under the direction of Handel's friend and erstwhile colleague at Hamburg Opera, Johannes Matheson. It proved popular and would have a number of performances in Hamburg, but Handel never kept a copy of the autograph manuscript (this has disappeared) and never performed the work in London. In fact, he included music from a number of London and Italian period works in the piece and in turn would mine the Brockes Passion for music for his early oratorios. The surviving manuscripts of the work include one which was partially copied by J.S.Bach and this version was performed in Leipzig under Bach's direction, Handel's setting seems to have influenced Bach's St John Passion.

Duarte's new edition makes significant changes to the version of the work known (via the last critical edition in the mid-1960s) including adding 63 extra bars! The Academy of Ancient Music used quite a large ensemble for the piece, and the programme included a fascinating article about the logistical differences between the Hamburg performances and the sort of ensembles Handel was writing for in London at the period, and the one-to-a-part type ethos of Bach in Leipzig. So we have four oboes (lovely) and two bassoons in addition to a significant body of strings (17) and a choir of 20.

Handel: Brockes Passion - Robert Murray,
Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr - Barbican (Photo Robert Workman)

The work is the genre known as a Passion Oratorio, and was designed explicitly for concert use whereas Bach's Passions were designed for church use. The difference is that Bach's Passions use the Biblical narrative for the recitative with added arias whereas Brockes' text resets the entire story in his own, very clotted and emotional, verse. There is still an Evangelist (Robert Murray) and Jesus (Cody Quattlebaum), plus sundry disciples, Peter (Gwilym Bowen), Judas (Tim Mead), James (Cathy Bell) and John (Kate Symonds-Joy), but the largest single role (with a whopping 14 arias plus duets) was the Daughter of Zion (Elizabeth Watts), with another large role being the Faithful Soul (Ruby Hughes, with certain arias given to Nicky Spence and Morgan Pearse).

The role of the Daughter of Zion and the Faithful Soul was to comment, to apply the story to our situation and the express feelings about the Crucifixion narrative. It is from these arias that Bach selected his Brockes settings which he used for the arias in his own Passions, but Bach's balance between aria comment and Biblical narrative is completely different to Brockes's own (rather surprisingly Handel set Brockes text in full, without making any changes). In part two, the solo roles drop away and even Jesus falls silent (his last words being delivered as reported speech by the Evangelist!), and instead we have a long meditation from the Daughter of Zion and the Faithful Souls.  It turns the work from one of pure narrative into being about our reaction to it.

Listening to Handel's Brockes Passion is a strange experience, because a lot of the music is familiar or half familiar from other contexts. There is a lot of strong and imaginative music in the piece, but it is also very long and frankly, despite Elizabeth Watts considerable talents there were moments when I looked at the libretto and thought, Oh no! another aria for the Daughter of Zion. It is important that performances like this one be given uncut, so that we can experience the work in full but I imagine that if the work is to become a more regular visitor to the concert hall then it will need trimming and re-shaping.

Barbican Classical Music season 2018-17

Ethel Smyth

The Barbican's classical music programme for the 2018-19 season has just been announced. The season is a partnership between the Barbican, its resident and associate ensembles - the London Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music and the BBC Symphony Orchestra - and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. For me, one of the big highlights must be the performance of Ethel Smyth's Mass in D with the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Sakari Oramo in a concert which celebrates both the chorus's 90th birthday and the 100 years since the successful Parliamentary appeal for universal suffrage, with soloists Lucy Crowe, Catriona Morison, Ben Johnson and Duncan Rock. And the concert is completed by the original version of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Pavel Kolesnikov.

Another commemoration during the season is the end of World War One. The London Symphony Orchestra will premiere James MacMillan's All the Hills and Vales along which sets poetry by Charles Sorley who was killed in action in 1915. The Britten Sinfonia will be giving the premiere of Nico Muhly's The Last Letter which sets last letters sent by soldiers on both sides of the conflict. And there will be a BBC Total Immersion Day on music arising out of the First World War including a performance of Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera The Silver Tassie with Ryan Wigglesworth conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ashley Riches as Harry, and the BBC Singers under their new chief conductor Sofi Jeanin will be performing two new works inspired by the event, from Roderick Williams and from Bob Chilcott.

Other operas in the season include Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen in a semi-staged performance directed by Peter Sellars with Simon Rattle conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and soloists Lucy Crowe, Gerard Finley, Willard White, Sophie Burgos and Peter Hoare. Purcell's Dido and Aeneas forms the conclusion of the Academy of Ancient Music's trilogy of Purcell stagings, and Christine Rice will be taking the title role, and Richard Egarr will also be including Purcell's music for Dioclesian in the concert. At the end of the season the Academy of Ancient Music returns to opera, in collaboration with the Grange Festival when they present Mozart' The Marriage of Figaro

As part of the continuing Bernstein Centenary celebrations, Marin Alsop conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of Candide with Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter and Thomas Allen. Contemporary Irish opera also makes an appearance with the UK premiere of Enda Walsh and Donnacha Dennehy's The Second Violinist produced by Landmark Productions and National Irish Opera. The Britten Sinfonia is conducted by Mark Elder in Donizetti's Il Paria with Albina Shagimuratova, the latest in Opera Rara's projects.

Joyce DiDonato takes the title role in Handel's Agrippina with Il Pomo d'Oro, and the group will present Handel's Serse with Franco Fagioli and Vivica Genaux, Handel's Semele from Harry Bicket and the English Concert, Handel's Brockes Passion from the Academy of Ancient Music, the BBC Singers will join the Academy of Ancient Music for Handel's Israel in Egypt, Thomas Ades completes his Beethoven cycle with the Britten Sinfonia with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9,

Other new music includes the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's Fanfare as part of the London Symphony Orchestra's opening concert of the season, and another new work from Birtwistle to be premiered by the LSO in May 2019, the LSO will also be premiering pieces by two composers from the orchestra's new music development programme, Liam Mattison and Donghoon Shin. The BBC Symphony Orchestra will be premiering new pieces by Richard Causton, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gavin Higgins and Pawel Szymanski, plus giving the UK premieres of a number of pieces by Thomas Larcher. Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani will be giving the premiere of Sunleif Rasmussen's Quadroforone, and the UK premiere of a new piece by Anahita Abbasi. Olga Neuwirth's new score for the 1924 film Die Stadt ohne Juden, directed by H K Breslauer, will receive its UK premiere at a screening of the restored silent film. Roderick Williams is the Milton Court Artist-in-Residence and he will be giving the premiere of a new song cycle by Ryan Wigglesworth, and there will the UK premiere of a work by Williams.

Another mini-residency is that of Diana Damrau who will be singing Richard Strauss in three concerts, including a recital with Helmut Deutsch, the Four Last Songs and the final scene from Capriccio. Other gleanings include Nigel Kennedy joining the Academy of Ancient Music to play Bach, an intriguing pairing indeed, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Bach's Mass in B minor conducted by John Butt, Bernard Haitink celebrating his 90th birthday with Dvorak and Mahler with the LSO,

Visiting ensembles to the Barbican include Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, who are Barbican International Associate Ensemble at Milton Court, Adam Fischer and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell'Accademie Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (in Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in the same concert), Maxim Emelyanychev and Il Pomo d'Oro (in Handel's Serse and Agrippina), Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Ghent, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants (in Bach's St John Passion), and Herve Nique and Le Concert Spirituel.

Full details from the Barbican website.

Handel's Messiah from Academy of Ancient Music

Hannah Conway - A Young Known Voice - Academy of Ancient Music,
La Retraite RC School, St Paul's Way Trust School, Tri-Borough Music Hub
 and Westminster City School at the Barbican
(Photo Academy of Ancient Music)

Hannah Conway A young known voice, Handel Messiah; Mary Bevan, Reginald Mobley, Thomas Hobbs, Christopher Purves, Academy of Ancient Music and choir, Richard Egarr; Barbican
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 20 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Messiah and more; a fine narrative based account of Handel's masterpiece, alongside a brand new work

There was something of a surprise at the beginning of the Academy of Ancient Music's performance of Handel's Messiah at the Barbican on Wednesday 20 December 2017, a new piece. The evening began with Hannah Conway's A Young Known Voice, a piece arising out of workshops with schools and performed by 50 school children alongside the Academy of Ancient Music and its choir, conducted by Richard Egarr. For Messiah, the Academy of Ancient Music and choir were joined by Mary Bevan (soprano), Reginald Mobley (counter-tenor), Thomas Hobbs (tenor) and Christopher Purves (baritone), with Richard Egarr directing from the harpsichord.

Hannah Conway's 15 minute piece was the result of the children's reaction to and examination of Messiah. The young people, from La Retraite RC School, St Paul's Way Trust School, Tri-Borough Music Hub and Westminster City School were from diverse ethnic backgrounds and religious backgrounds so the particular Christian resonances of Messiah could not be expected to always be that familiar. In fact, the text Conway developed with them included some powerful passages about alienation, and diversity, but conveyed in a remarkably direct, buzz-word-free way. 'Everyone needs to feel safe. But shouts of: Faggot and Queer Only fed my fear', 'You're not my child anymore'.

An evening of vital music making: Reversal of Fortunes

Georg Philipp Telemann

Bach, Telemann; Academy of Ancient Music, Bojan Cicic, Rachel Brown, Rachel Beckett, Alastair Ross; Milton Court Concert Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 07 2017 Star rating: 5.0
Contrasting works from the two rivals and friends, in an engaging evening of concertos

In 1722, Georg Philipp Telemann applied for the post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig; he was approved and offered the job but declined because his existing employer, the City of Hamburg, gave him a raise (a very modern situation). The post of Thomaskantor eventually went to Leipzig's third choice, one J.S Bach. This story reflects the relative situations of the two composers (who were friends) during their lifetimes; it was Telemann, with his more approachable, graceful style, who was the more famous in complete contrast to nowadays when much of his large surviving output is unknown.

It was this situation which formed the basis for the Academy of Ancient Music's concert at Milton Court Concert Hall on Thursday 7 December 2017, Reversal of Fortune. Directed from the violin by Bojan Cicic, AAM was joined by Rachel Brown (flute and recorder), Rachel Beckett (recorder) and Alastair Ross (harpsichord) to perform Bach's Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 4 & 5, Telemann's Concerto for Flute and Recorder in E minor and Ouverture-suite, 'Burlesque de Don Quixote'.

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos were presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, but probably originally written far earlier. Unfortunately the gift does not seem to have elicited the sort of official recognition which Bach would have liked. The concertos themselves represent Bach's response to the Italian concerto genre as publicised by Vivaldi, and it was a very distinctive and personal response, witness the huge harpsichord solo in Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 and the sheer length of the opening movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4.

Bach probably envisioned the pieces as large scale chamber music, rather than orchestral works, so AAM's performance of Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with just single strings was completely apposite.

Daring and original: Purcell's King Arthur re-thought

Purcell: King Arthur - Louise Alder, Ray Fearon, Mhairi Lawson - Academy of Ancient Music (photo Robert Workman)

Purcell King Arthur; Ray Fearon, Louise Alder, Mhairi Lawson, Reginald Mobley, Charles Daniels, Ivan Ludlow, Ashley Riches, Academy of Ancient Music, dir: Daisy Evans, cond: Richard Egarr; Barbican Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 3 2017 Star rating: 5.0
An engaging and thought provoking re-working of Purcell's problem semi-opera

What to do with Purcell and Dryden's King Arthur? The full version involves a team of actors and a team of singers and instrumentalists, not to mention the fact that the spoken text is hardly John Dryden's greatest work. Shorn of spoken text, the music falls in danger of presenting a beautiful but too polite series of lovely fragments. The solution offered by the Academy of Ancient Music and director Daisy Evans (with dramaturg Thomas Larners and lighting director Jake Wiltshire) at the Barbican Hall on Tuesday 3 October 2017 was radical yet engaging. 

Ivan Ludlow & chorus - Academy of Ancient Music (photo Robert Workman)

The music was re-ordered, the original spoken text and the plot were gone, in their place was actor Ray Fearon speaking a series of texts from contemporary poetry to TS Eliot and Shakespeare, and a company including Louise Alder, Mhairi Lawson, Reginald Mobley, Charles Daniels, Ivan Ludlow, Ashley Riches, and the Academy of Ancient Music and AAM Choir, directed by Richard Egarr, performed King Arthur as a new dramatic piece with contemporary relevance.

The staging, billed as a semi-staging, had a Brechtian directness. Singers and instrumentalists in casual clothes, a pair of boards to announce the location and subject of each scene, and all the singers (soloists and choir) combining into one ensemble which explored themes of identity and the way people tend to identify themselves into tribes. The starting point, of course, was Brexit and we began with Ali Smith's poem 'All across the country' (from Autumn) which gave us a striking starting point after the engaging account of the overture drew us in.

Evans had explained that when she had first looked at King Arthur it had shouted Brexit at her, as the original piece examined ideas of British identity, with wars against foreigners and a triumphant British mask at the end. What was remarkable, was how well the music fitted our modern situations. Evans gave us a series of contemporary scenes with people dividing up and identifying themselves and it was fascinating how the rumbustious of 'Saint George' and 'Harvest Home' fitted a group of men in the pub, whilst 'Woden, first to thee ' became an election hustings. No violence was done to the music or the sung text, it was presented exactly as it has come down to us (the work's survival is partial and not all the music we have may be by Purcell), yet Evans created something very thoughtful. Some scenes were ingenious, the battle music was used for a scene of fighting commuters, and we had scenes of love in a night-club. Because the production used no sets, just a couple of display boards, we had to do a lot of the work ourselves, and this applied to the way the music and spoken text functioned. The result was multi-levelled and startlingly non didactic for such a dialectically organised piece. Daring and original.

Handel's Jephtha at London Festival of Baroque Music

Jephtha's Rash Vow (1807),
by James Gundee & M. Jones, London

Handel Jephtha; Nick Pritchard, Helen Charlston, Matthew Brook, Mary Bevan, James Hall, Rowan Pierce, Holst Singers, Academy of Ancient Music, Stephen Layton; London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on May 20 2017
Star rating: 4.0
A predominantly young cast in a thoughtful and moving account of Handel's last oratorio

The London Festival of Baroque Music concluded at St John's Smith Square on Saturday 20 May 2017 with a performance of Handel's oratorio Jephtha. Stephen Layton conducted the Holst Singers and the Academy of Ancient Music with Nick Pritchard as Jephtha, Helen Charlston as Storgè, Matthew Brook as Zebul, James Hall as Hamor, Mary Bevan as Iphis and Rowan Pierce as the Angel.

Jephtha is regarded as Handel's final oratorio. It was written whilst he was suffering badly with his eyesight and premiered in 1752, after which Handel only managed to produce The Triumph of Truth and Time which was effectively an English re-write of his early Italian oratorio, produced with the aid of Joseph Smith as amanuensis. Jephtha has almost become main-stream now, there have been staged performances at the Buxton Festival, at English National Opera and at Welsh National Opera, and it was performed a few years ago at the London Handel Festival, with tenors such as James Gilchrist, Mark Padmore, John Mark Ainsley and Robert Murray essaying the title role.

So it is easy to forget quite how 'at the edge' the piece was when first written. The title role was written for the great tenor John Beard, the final celebration of a talent which had inspired Handel to create a series of striking tenor roles, elevating the tenor voice in a way that was practically unheard of in the earlier Baroque period. The libretto explores some dark places, librettist Thomas Morrell incorporated elements of Greek drama into his re-working of the biblical story. Whilst Morrell was concerned to point a moral, Handel's music re-focuses the drama making it more human and it is hard not to identify the intensity of Jephtha's predicament with Handel's own struggles with his sight.

John Beard clearly had quite a robust, yet flexible voice, his roles for Handel stretch from the lyrical in L'Allegro right through do the dramatic tour-de-force of the title role in Samson. The young tenor Nick Pritchard is very much a lyric tenor and his voice does not (yet) have either the dramatic heft or the spinto blade to either dominate or cut through the orchestra and he sensibly offered a lyric account of the role.

Monteverdi, Purcell and more from the Academy of Ancient Music in 2016/17

Highlights of the Academy of Ancient Music's (AAM) 2016-2017 season include Richard Egarr directing Purcell's The Fairy Queen, the first in a cycle of Purcell's (semi) operas. The ensemble's cycle of Monteverdi operas finished last season, but 2016-2017 sees them adding a coda to this with Monteverdi's Vespers celebrating the 450th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Jordi Savall will make his much anticipated debut directing the orchestra, whilst tenor James Gilchrist will also direct AAM for the first time.

Richard Egarr, who is celebrating his 10th anniversary as AAM's music director, will be conducting Purcell's The Fairy Queen in a semi-staged performance at the Barbican which opens the season. This will be directed by Daisy Evans with soloists Mhairi Lawson, Iestyn Davies, Samuel Boden and Charles Daniels. Actor Timothy West will be the narrator.

Monteverdi is the focus for two concerts directed by Richard Egarr, reflecting the composer's 450th birthday. The orchestra is joined by sopranos Carolyn Sampson and Rowan Pierce for a programme of Monteverdi's motets and instrumental music by his contemporary Dario Castello. The season will close with Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with soloists Rowan Pierce, Charles Daniels, Thomas Hobbs and Richard Latham.

Jordi Savall will be directing the orchestra in a programme of music by Rameau and Lully, plus Handel's Water Music. Tenor James Gilchrist will be co-directing a concert with the orchestra's leader Pavlo Beznosiuk exploring the music of Purcell and Bach. Whilst principal second violin Bojan Cicic and principal oboe Frank de Bruine will be directing a programme of music by Bach, Vivaldi and Albinoni, which will also include Bach's Italian Concerto played by Alastair Ross.

Robert Howarth will be directing a Bach Reconstructed programme, which explores Bach's original versions of pieces he subsequently revised and reconstructed. The orchestra is joined by soloists Mary Bevan, Reginald Mobley, John Mark Ainsley and Matthew Brook for Bach's Mass no. 3 in G minor, the sinfonia to Cantata No. 49, and the original version of Orchestra Suite No. 3.

The concerts all take place at the Barbican, where the orchestra is an associate ensemble, either in the Barbican Hall or Milton Court Concert Hall. A number of the concerts are repeated at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge as part of the orchestra's residency there.

Full information from the Academy of Ancient Music website.