A restless soul: Matthias Goerne & David Fray in late Schubert

Schubert with friends Johann Baptist Jenger & Anselm Huttenbrenner - Chalk drawing, 1827, by Josef Eduard Teltscher

Schubert: Schwanengesang, Piano Sonata in B flat D960; Matthias Goerne, David Fray; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 9 September 2025

Matthias Goerne opens Wigmore Hall's new season with a remarkably intense account of Schubert's last song cycle paired with one of the late piano sonatas

Baritone Matthias Goerne was intended to open Wigmore Hall's 2025/26 season in recital with pianist Maria João Pires in a programme of late Schubert pairing Schwanengesang with the Impromptus. This was not to be, and on Tuesday 9 September Matthias Goerne was joined by pianist David Fray for a programme that paired Schwanengesang with Piano Sonata in B flat D960.

On the concert platform, Matthias Goerne proved to be a remarkably intense performer with a restlessness that seemed to suggest a need to express the music in movement as well as vocal gesture. Throughout his performance his body swung wildly from left to right, never fixing his eye on any one spot. There was little sense of operatic staging here and there were only a few moments when you might describe Goerne's performance as operatic. In fact, he had an admirable tendency to sing legato and emphasise a sense of line, somewhat remarkable in a singer whose operatic output stretches to Wagner. He also used the colours and timbres of his voice significantly to articulate the drama in the songs.

We last saw David Fray in 2024, coincidentally in a duet partnership in Schubert but then it was with pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja in a joyful rendering of the late Allegro in A minor at Lucerne's Le Piano Symphonique [see my review]. At Wigmore Hall, David Fray made a poised, sympathetic accompanist. Never imposing himself, Fray had a deceptively relaxed, fluid approach which hid a nervy attention to detail.

Will definitely stay in the memory: Gweneth Ann Rand & Simon Lepper in Judith Weir's woman.life.song at Wigmore Hall

Gweneth Ann Rand

Florence Price: Some o'These Days, Bewilderment, Laura Bowler: Glue, Gravity, call it what you like..., Roxanna Panufnik: If I Don't Know, Judith Weir: woman.life.song; Gweneth Ann Rand, Simon Lepper
22 July 2025

Judith Weir's 2000 song cycle for Jessye Norman gets a compelling and direct performance as part of Gweneth Ann Rand's typically fearless programme reflecting of women's music and women's lives from the comic to the tragic

Judith Weir's woman.life.song is an iconic work, huge in scale and aims. As Weir herself commented in a recent posting on her website:

"Without doubt the composition of my own that has brought the most complications in its wake is woman.life.song written in 1999 for the great American soprano Jessye Norman. For a start, the enormous libretto (by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Clarissa Estes) resulted in a 45-minute continuous musical setting, daunting for all but the most powerful of singers. And its 19-piece band (the original idea was to team it up with Schoenberg's Erwartung) is hard to come by."

On Tuesday 22 July 2025, soprano Gweneth Ann Rand presented a typically fearless programme at Wigmore Hall with pianist Simon Lepper. The centrepiece was Judith Weir's woman.life.song in Weir's more recent version for voice and piano in what Weir believes might have been the first performance of the complete work in this form. The accompanying works were all by women composers, setting texts that reflected in various ways on women's lives, with music by Florence Price, Laura Bowler and Roxanna Panufnik.

Lieder, songs and sonnets: David Butt Philip in Vaughan Williams, Alma Mahler, Wagner & Britten at Wigmore Hall

David Butt Philip (Photo: Andrew Staples)

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alma Mahler, Wagner, Britten: David Butt Philip, James Baillieu; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 15 June 2025

In a rare song recital, the dramatic tenor explores a remarkably diverse yet imaginative programme that moved away from his opera repertory

Thanks to the vagaries of programming and that fact the much of his chosen operatic repertoire of Wagner and Richard Strauss is relatively rare on these shores at the moment, tenor David Butt Philip is only something of an occasional visitor to UK opera houses and concert halls. Even more so, the chance to catch him in recital in the relative intimacy of Wigmore Hall was something indeed.

On Sunday 15 June 2025, David Butt Philip was joined by pianist James Baillieu for a programme bookended by British song cycles setting sequences of sonnets. They began with Ralph Vaughan Williams' early The House of Life, setting sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and ended with Benjamin Britten's The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. In between the repertoire moved to dramatic settings of German with three songs by Alma Mahler and Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder.

RVW wrote The House of Life in 1903, roughly around the time he wrote his better known Songs of Travel. This is RVW before he went to study with Ravel and before English folksong began to make such a profound impression on him. This is the RVW whom Sir Charles Villiers Stanford thought was 'too Germanic' and who studied with Max Bruch as well. The House of Life is notable for the fact that the sequence includes Silent Noon, in fact the song was written before the rest and somehow RVW never quite achieves the same magic in the rest of the cycle. 

I have to confess that I have always found Rossetti's poems a bit too wordy for my taste, which means that RVW's settings require a very particular singer to bring off the cycle of six substantial songs. [Kitty Whately has recorded a notable version, see my review]. Here David Butt Philip made it clear that words were very important to him and significantly his diction was such that we never needed the printed words. Each song was a piece of convincing drama, and despite the rather conventional harmonies RVW's relatively free approach to the vocal line was in many ways rather forward looking. These songs are the antithesis of the conventional early 20th century lyrical English song.

Something memorable: Jacqueline Stucker, David Bates & La Nuova Musica in Handel's Alcina & Rodelinda, plus Telemann at Wigmore Hall

Jacqueline Stucker

History's Lovers: Telemann: Overture-Suite: Burlesque de Quixotte, Handel: arias from Alcina, & Rodelinda, Concerto Grosso in F op. 6 No. 9, Telemann: aria from Orpheus; Jacqueline Stucker, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 28 May 2025

Love, from the comic to the obsessive to the devoted to real vengeance. Handel and Telemann brought vividly alive in an evening that rose far above a greatest hits concert and gave us something memorable

Under the title History's Lovers, David Bates and La Nuova Musica were joined by soprano Jacqueline Stucker at Wigmore Hall on 28 May 2025 for an evening of music by Handel and Telemann, friends as well as contemporaries, which moved from the comic in Telemann's Don Quixote to the obsessive with Handel's Alcina and then the devotedly marital with Handel's Rodelinda with an aria from Telemann's Orpheus bringing things to a virtuoso close.

We began with Telemann's late Overture-Suite: Burlesque de Quixotte which was probably written around 1761 when the composer was 80. In eight French-style movements, the suite began with an overture that really did channel Lully, with Bates and his ensemble giving us vivid rhythms and exciting passagework. The story then unfolded with Quixote's restless, fevered sleep, his fast and furious attack on the windmills, a gentle flute (Leo Duarte who was doubling flute and oboe) over sighing strings for Quixote mooning after Dulcinea, tossing Sancho Panza in a blanket with some great scene painting, and then the two trying to gallop away in what was a pure romp before finally a vividly urgent finish.

Fierce virtuosity and sheer delight: oboist Olivier Stankiewicz, soprano Lucy Crowe, violinist Maria Włoszczowska & friends in a captivating evening of Bach, Zelenka, Handel, Vivaldi

Bach: Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen - Olivier Stankiewicz, Lucy Crowe, ensemble led by Maria Włoszczowska - Wigmore Hall (taken from live stream)

Bach: arias from Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen and Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, Concerto in G minor, Double Concerto in C minor, Zelenka: Sonata No. 3, Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in F, Handel: arias from Amadigi di Gaula, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Agrippina; Olivier Stankiewicz, Lucy Crowe, ensemble led by Maria Włoszczowska; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 22 April 2024

An evening of Baroque music for voice and oboe; a completely captivating evening of virtuosity and bravura combining with real delight at performing together

Olivier Stankiewicz, principal oboe with the London Symphony Orchestra, and soprano Lucy Crowe joined forces at Wigmore Hall last night (22 April 2025) for a completely entrancing evening of Baroque music focusing on oboe and soprano. Joined by an ensemble led by violinist Maria Włoszczowska, leader of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, they performed arias from Bach's cantatas Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen BWV32 and Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten BWV202, plus the reconstructed Oboe Concerto in G minor BWV1056R and Double Concerto in C minor BWV1060R, Zelenka's Sonata No. 3 in B flat for violin, oboe, bassoon and basso continuo ZWV181, Vivaldi's Oboe Concerto in F RV457 and arias from Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Agrippina.

We began with the aria 'Liebster Jesu' from Bach's cantata Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen, written for the First Sunday after Epiphany in 1726. Stankiewicz' oboe unwound a long, elegant chromatic line over crisp strings before being joined by Crowe, the two trading phrases, her clear plangent tone contrasting with his darker yet elegant sound, creating something magical. The oboe got the last word with a lovely postlude.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stylistic irreverence & eclecticism: Zygmund de Somogyi & Temporal Harmonies at Wigmore Hall

Zygmund de Somogyi

Composer, interdisciplinary artist and writer Zygmund de Somogyi (Zyggy) is one of eight composers on the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) Composers programme. Each composer on the programme gets a paid commission and premiere with a noted ensemble, venue or festival, along with dedicated mentoring, and professional support.

Zyggy's time at on the programme culminates in a concert co-created with the trio, Temporal Harmonies Inc (Lydia Walquist, flute, Xiaowen Shang, piano, Mikolaj Piszczorowicz, cello) at Wigmore Hall on 19 April 2025.  Music for the Quarter-Life Crisis feature's the premiere of Zyggy's music for the quarter-life crisis (synth étude), and IN THE EVENT THAT YOU STAY: Trio for flute, cello, and piano, no. 1 (RPS commission), along with music by Caroline Shaw, Kaija Saariaho, Lowell Liebermann, and London Sinfonietta 'Writing the Future' composer Ashkan Layegh.

They describe the programme thus, "We’re aiming to capture a musical distillation of 21st-Century repertoire reflective of today's cultural zeitgeist as experienced by many of our peers: a playful-sincere exploration of satire and resistance, and attempt to find groundedness in the precarious feeling that maybe, just maybe, there’s hope at the end of it all."

Full details from the Wigmore Hall website.

Taking us on an emotional journey: Solomon's Knot in Bach's 1725 version of the St John Passion at Wigmore Hall

St Nicholas Church, Leipzig
Where Bach's St John Passion first performed

Bach: St John Passion (1725); Solomon's Knot; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 26 February 2025

Sung from memory with remarkable emotional directness, at times this was close to a concert staging and very much a powerful communal experience

We know frustratingly little about the details of Bach's actual performance practice in Leipzig. For instance, when Bach revived the St John Passion in 1725, having first performed it in 1724, how many of the performers were the same? We can make assumptions, but we don't know. This has relevance because for 1725, Bach made significant changes to the work, replacing the opening and closing choruses, adding and replacing arias. Given his musicians' workload, you might have assumed he would want to rely on their remembering the music.

We also don't know why he made the changes. The 1725 version, whilst not wildly different, has a couple of 'new' arias that make the reaction to Christ's Passion journey seem rather angrier. And for a modern listener the start of the piece is disorientating as the new opening chorus eventually found a permanent home in the St Matthew Passion.

Easter seems to be starting early this year, and on Wednesday 26 February 2025, Solomon's Knot gave us our first Passion of the year, Bach's St John Passion in its 1725 version at Wigmore Hall. Whilst the hall's acoustic is nothing like that of the churches in Bach's Leipzig. The very full platform, with eight singers and 13 instrumentalists, must surely have echoed the organ loft in Bach's performances. One quibble, an eternal one with Passion (and oratorio) performances in concert halls, we missed the characteristic depth sound of Bach's organ and had to live with a chamber one.

Konstantin Krimmel in overwhelming form for Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall, with a welcome group of Carl Loewe too

Schubert Birthday Concert - Ammiel Bushakevitz, Konstantin Krimmel - Wigmore Hall (Image from Live Stream)

Schubert Birthday Concert: Schubert, Loewe; Konstantin Krimmel, Ammiel Bushakevitz; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 31 January 2025

Schubert's Birthday at Wigmore Hall with the young German baritone Konstantin Krimmel on overwhelming form in some of Schubert's most powerful and knottiest pieces, including Prometheus, Totengräbers Heimweh, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus and Erlkönig from Schubert and Loewe

Friday 31 January 2025 was Schubert's 228th birthday, and the celebrations at Wigmore Hall featured baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz in a programme of songs by Schubert and Carl Loewe. First we heard Schubert's Der Wanderer D489, An den Mond D193, Hoffnung D637, Der Jüngling an der Quelle D300 and Auf der Donau D553, then Carl Loewe's Herr Oluf Op. 2 No. 2, Der du von dem Himmel bist (Wandrers Nachtlied II) Op. 9, Erlkönig Op. 1 No. 3, Geisterleben Op. 9, and Der Totentanz Op. 44 No. 3, then finally Schubert's Prometheus D674, Am Bach im Frühling D361, Der König in Thule D367, Totengräbers Heimweh D842, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus D583, Nachtstück D672, and Erlkönig D328.

It was a meaty programme with some substantial and powerful pieces, including a compare and contrast between Schubert and Loewe's Erlkönig settings alongside other large-scale works that showcased Schubert far from the simply lyrical. And it was welcome to hear a substantial group of Loewe's songs, including the first performance of Der Totentanz at Wigmore Hall.

Throughout the concert, it was impressive the way Krimmel brought so much character and intensity to the songs without ever distorting or breaking the vocal line. His darkly focused tone was finely fluid with intensity to it throughout, a great lower register and admirably easy top whilst the range of colours and timbres he brought to the music was enviable.

Reynaldo Hahn looks back: real Belle Époque in the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective's programme centred on Hahn's Piano Quintet from the 1920s

Reynaldo Hahn in 1906

Ravel, Fauré, Lili Boulanger, Saint-Saens, Hahn: Piano Quartet; Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 26 January 2025

Reynaldo Hahn's Piano Quartet undoubtedly looks back, so this programme took that as its cue to transport us to Belle Époque Paris in a recital full of engaging elegance, charm and real passion

Personally charming and possessed of an engaging voice, Reynaldo Hahn fitted ideally into the salons of Belle Époque Paris. He wrote music with a fluency and style which makes it easy to not take his talent entirely seriously. He fought bravely in the First World War and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Afterwards it was as if he continued to carry the perfume of the Belle Époque in his music and the works he wrote in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s remain a world away from the Paris of Les Six, the jazz age and Modernism.

We know the songs and perhaps one or two of the operas, but the rest of his large output remains substantially unexplored. the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective has recorded a disc of Reynaldo Hahn's music for Chandos, bringing together his Piano Quintet (of 1922) and the later Piano Quartet with arrangements of a selection of songs.

In part, as a celebration of the imminent release of the disc, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective (Tom Poster, piano, Elena Urioste, violin, Savitri Grier, violin, Rosalind Ventris, viola, Laura van der Heijden, cello) placed Reynaldo Hahn's Piano Quintet at the centre of their morning concert at Wigmore Hall on Sunday 26 January 2025. With the deliberate intention of evoking those Belle Époque salons, the rest of the programme consisted of music by Ravel, Fauré, Lili Boulanger and Saint-Saens.

The beautifully conceived programme expanded towards Hahn's quintet. With began with pianist Tom Poster, alone on stage, playing Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and then the number of players gradually increased, a duo, a trio, a quartet and finally the quintet.

The idea of Greece: Robin Tritschler and Jonathan Ware in a wide-ranging recital from Schubert, Loewe & Wolf to Shostakovich, Dvorak, Berkeley & Ravel

Photo: Antonio Beato, 19th century
Brooklyn Museum

Greek Songs: Schubert, Loewe, Wolf, Conradin Kreutzer, Ludwig Berger, Shostakovich, Dvorak, Lennox Berkeley, Ravel: Robin Tritschler, Jonathan Ware; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 8 January 2025

Composers different ideas of Greece from Schubert's experimental, architectural songs, to Shostakovich's workers songs and Ravel's French-influenced folk songs, along with some rather rare Dvorak and Berkeley.

In their programme, Greek Songs, at Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 8 January 2025, tenor Robin Tritschler and pianist Jonathan Ware explored the idea of Greece in composers' minds. None of the songs set any Greek, though some used translations of the original, and as far as I can tell, none of the composers visited Greece. This was an exploration of the idea of Greece in the Western mind. We began with Schubert, seven of his settings of Mayrhofer's mythological-based texts, followed by similarly Greek-inspired work from Carl Loewe and Hugo Wolf. As a sort of palate cleanser in the middle of the recital, there were songs by two of Schubert's older contemporaries, Conradin Kreutzer and Ludwig Berger, and then we moved to the 20th century for Greek-inspired songs by Shostakovich, Dvorak, Lennox Berkeley and Ravel.

In 1818 Schubert spent the Summer as a music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Esterházy at their château in Zselíz. When he returned to Vienna, he moved into a one-room apartment with his friend Johann Mayrhofer, a poet who was ten years older than Schubert and the two would live together until 1821. Mayrhofer was almost certainly homosexual and the relationship with Schubert is one that continues to tantalise as critics theorise without much concrete evidence, one way or the other.

Mayrhofer had a fascinating with Greek mythology and used it, sometimes to autobiographical effect, in his poems (such as Memnon). We heard a group of seven of Schubert's settings, dating from 1817 and 1820. The songs are all serious and full of sober intensity, there is almost something architectural about Schubert's writing. In many ways, these Mayrhofer settings feel as if Schubert is experimenting with arioso and dramatic recitative rather than lyrical song.

Drawing us in: baritone James Atkinson makes his Wigmore Hall debut with pianist Iain Burnside in a programme moving from Robert to Clara Schumann to Brahms' late tombeau for Clara

Robert and Clara Schumann

Schumann: Eichendorff Liederkreis, Clara Schumann: Gedichte aus Rückerts Liebesfrühling, Brahms: Four Serious Songs; James Atkinson, Iain Burnside; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 6 January 2025

Young baritone James Atkinson used his rich, dark hued voice in a manner that really drew us in, not over-demonstrative yet rich in subtlety, in a programme that moved from Robert to Clara Schumann to Brahms' late tombeau for Clara

Baritone James Atkinson has been a BBC New Generation Artist since 2023 and we have caught him in a variety of roles from London Song Festival appearances celebrating the friendship of Hector Berlioz & Théophile Gautier [see my review] and the bi-centenary of the invention of the Mackintosh at the [see my review] to performing Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with Wild Arts [see my review], as well as premiering Out of the Shadows, the programme of my songs and cantatas that we premiered in 2023.

On Monday 6 January 2025, James Atkinson made his Wigmore Hall debut at a BBC Lunchtime Concert with pianist Iain Burnside in a programme that moved from Schumann's Eichendorff Liederkreis, Op. 39 to Clara Schumann's Gedichte aus Rückerts Liebesfrühling, Op. 12 and Johannes Brahms' Four Serious Songs, Op. 121

We began with Schumann's Eichendorff Liederkreis setting twelve poems by Joseph von Eichendorff to create one of the great explorations of the Romantic experience of landscape.

The Dunedin Consort at Wigmore Hall: Caroline Shaw premiered alongside rare Stradella and Christmas Corelli

Signed handwritten draft of Thomas Hardy's The Darkling Thrush with original title

Pietro Antonio Locatelli: Concerto grosso in F minor Op.1 No.8; Alessandro Stradella: Ah! troppo e ver, Sonata di viole 'Concerto-concerto grosso', Caroline Shaw: The Holdfast, Arcangelo Corelli: Concerto Grosso in G minor Op.6 No. 8 'Fatto per las Nottle di Natale'; Rachel Redmond, Joanna Songi, Helen Charlston, Samuel Boden, Ashley Riches, Dunedin Consort, John Butt; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 23 December 2024

The premiere of a fascinating new Caroline Shaw piece that explodes Thomas Hardy's Darkling Thrush at the centre of a concert that placed the Shepherds and Winter at the centre of a wonderfully engaging and imaginative programme. 

The Dunedin Consort's concert at Wigmore Hall on 23 December 2024 drew together various fascinating threads. Directed by John Butt and joined by sopranos Rachel Redmond and Joanna Songi, alto Helen Charlston, tenor Samuel Boden and bass-baritone Ashley Riches (Matthew Brook had been previously scheduled, but no announcement was made) the Dunedin Consort gave us a nod to the season with Corelli's Concerto Grosso in G minor Op.6 No. 8 'Fatto per las Nottle di Natale', Pietro Antonio Locatelli's Corelli-inspired, Concerto grosso in F minor Op.1 No.8, Alessandro Stradella's Christmas cantata, Ah! troppo e ver alongside his Sonata di viole 'Concerto-concerto grosso' plus the premiere of Caroline Shaw's The Holdfast.

Stradella seems to be having something of a moment, and we caught another of his Christmas cantatas, Si apra al riso ogni labro at Wigmore Hall on Saturday performed by the English Concert [see my review]. The Dunedin Consort's concert featured a cantata which uses concerto grosso-like forces in the accompaniment, solo trio of two violins and cello against ripieno ensemble, but more fascinatingly they also included Stradella's Sonata di viole 'Concerto-concerto grosso' which uses these same forces without the vocal accompaniment to create what is regarded as the first concerto grosso. This form would go on to have enormous influence, and Corelli's Opus 6 would cast a long shadow, on Locatelli and beyond. 

Caroline Shaw's work also crossed our path recently as the Kyan Quartet played her Valencia and Entr'acte at Conway Hall earlier this month [see my review]. Her new piece, The Holdfast was written for the Dunedin Consort (a co-commission with Wigmore Hall) and Shaw uses the same instrumental forces as the Stradella cantata plus the same soloists. It is not a Christmas piece, but it is most definitely a Winter piece, centred around text taken from Hardy's The Darkling Thrush, edited, adjusted and amplified by Shaw. 

Vivid engagement, vigorous articulation & imaginative programming: The English Concert at Wigmore Hall

Vom Himmel hoch - Luther's hymn in a 1541 songbook
Used by Bach in his Magnificat in E Flat

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Alessandro Stradella, Purcell, Bach: Magnificat in E Flat; Ciara Skerath, Katie Bray, Jess Dandy, James Way, Morgan Pearse, the English Concert, Harry Bicket; Wigmore Hall
21 December 2024

An early Baroque Christmas with a variety of Christmas cantatas, French, Italian and English, alongside Bach's Christmas version of his Magnificat in a vividly articulated, brilliant account 

A packed Wigmore Hall on Saturday 21 December 2024 enjoyed a Christmas programme with a touch of the unusual when Harry Bicket and the English Concert presented their selection of 17th and early 18th century Christmas-themed sacred works, with Marc-Antonine Charpentier's In nativitatem Domini nostri Jesu Christi canticum H414, Alessandro Stradella's Si apra al riso ogni labro, Purcell's Behold, I bring you glad tidings Z 2 and Bach's Magnificat in E Flat BWV 243.1 (the one with the Christmas interpolations). The performers included the soloists Chiara Skerath (soprano), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Jess Dandy (contralto), James Way (tenor) and Morgan Pearse (bass). [Incidentally, the last time we saw Morgan Pearse he was Scarpia in Opera Holland Park's production of Puccini's Tosca this Summer, see my review].

The first half centred around the works by Charpentier, Stradella and Purcell for soloists, five ripieno singers and a small string ensemble plus continuo, with the stage filling for the Bach in the second half. 

Daniel Kidane day at Wigmore Hall, from a new piano trio to music written for Manchester Camerata and a harpsichord concerto for Mahan Esfahani

Daniel Kidane (Photo: Kaupo Kikkas)

Wigmore Hall is devoting Saturday 30 November 2024 to composer Daniel Kidane. Born in Britain of Russian and Eritrean parentage, Kidane was talented young and sang in the children's chorus of the English National Opera. He studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, going on to continue his studies the St. Petersburg Conservatoire under Sergei Slonimsky.

Wigmore Hall's day begins with a morning concert from Leonore Piano Trio in a programme which includes Kidane's Flux and Stasis along with a new work for piano trio, alongside music by Shostakovich and Frank Bridge, plus a work by Gary Carpenter with whom Kidane studied at the RNCM.

In the afternoon concert, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group are joined by conductor Gabriella Teychenné, tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas and guitarist Pétur Jónasson for a programme that includes Kidane's Winged for electric guitar and string quartet, Pulsing, based on a poem by Zodwa Nyoni, plus Cradle Song and Primitive Blaze along with music by Rebecca Saunders.

In the evening, Manchester Camerata celebrate Kidane's music having been associated with the composer since 2009 when they commissioned Towards Resolution, which was inspired by the opening of Henry Purcell’s first three-part Fantazia. Ten years later another commission resulted in Be Still, a piece written in direct response to the passing of time during the months in which the nation was under lockdown. Alongside these they are performing Sublime Light and Veiled Light which form parts of Pieces of Light, written in 2020 during the COVID-19 period, Breathe for string orchestra and Movements, for harpsichord and strings, which Mahan Esfahani premiered in Miami in 2021. Also in the programme is music by Bach including two violin concertos with soloist Jonian Ilias Kadesha. Details from the Wigmore Hall website.

Au cimetièrère de Montmartre: baritone Julien Van Mellaerts & pianist Alphonse Cemin in an imaginative trawl through the denizens of a Paris cemetery

 Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris (Photo: Wikipedia)

Au cimetièrère de Montmartre: Schumann, Berlioz, Lili Boulanger, Poulenc, Yvette Guibert, Charles Trenet; Julien Van Mellaerts, Alphonse Cemin; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 17 November 2024

An imaginative trawl through the denizens of a Paris cemetery links together Heine, Berlioz, Boulanger and Poulenc in an engaging recital

Baritone Julien Van Mellaerts now lives in Paris, and not far from his home is Montmartre cemetery, and its denizens formed the theme of his recital at Wigmore Hall on Sunday 17 November 2024 with pianist Alphonse Cemin. Their programme linked an intriguingly diverse group of composers and poets, Schumann's Dichterliebe, songs from Berlioz' Les nuits d'été a song by Lili Boulanger, Poulenc's Banalités and cabaret songs by Yvette Guibert and Charles Trenet.

We began with Schumann's Dichterliebe, which sets poetry by Heinrich Heine who was buried in Montmartre in 1856. Heine lived in Paris from 1831, moving there partly because of the July Revolution of 1830 but also to escape German censorship, though Dichterliebe uses poetry from Heine's Lyrisches Intermezzo published in 1823. It is worth pointing out that Schumann softened Heine's edges and the poems are full of self-hatred and mockery.

Alphonse Cemin's gentle, intimate piano eased us into the song cycle and throughout I enjoyed his way with Schumann, combining fluidity, clarity and intimacy. This complemented Van Mellaerts way with the songs, prioritising the text and allowing an element of the histrionic into his presentation without every feeling operatic.

Intimate & communicative: Solomon's Knot brings its distinctive approach to Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 at Wigmore Hall

Title page of the "Bassus Generalis" for one of the partbooks in which the Vespers were published in 1610

Monteverdi: Vespers of 1610; Solomon's Knot; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 12 October 2024

A chance to hear Monteverdi's vespers in an acoustic bringing out the more intimate qualities, with the highly communicative singers enjoying the more madrigalian elements of the music

After hearing The Sixteen in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 in the acoustic splendour of Temple Church [see my review] earlier in the week, on Saturday it was the turn of a rather different approach.

Solomon's Knot, artistic director Jonathan Sells, returned to Wigmore Hall on Saturday 12 October 2024 with their own distinctive take on Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, performed by ten singers and 14 instrumentalists, all on a very full Wigmore Hall stage.

The singers sang from memory, and stood in a circle with the instrumentalists behind. The result was quite a feat, both the sense of the singers performing directly do us without intervening music or music stands, but also giving such a complex piece without conductor and there were some passages that seemed to hover on the edge of the possible. It also brought out that, for all the grandness of the writing in some places, much of the work has an intimate quality. 

In the Magnificat, singers only stood up when performing so that many movements were performed by just three or four, so that solo blended into duet or trio into ensemble. There was also a chamber feel to everyone's approach, the sound was very much vocal ensemble, a group of individuals responding to each other (and we could clearly see them doing just that), with individual voices clear rather than a perfect blend. There was also a feeling of spontaneity to it, with each shaping lines accordingly.

This approach is probably closer to what Monteverdi might have imagined. What I missed, however, was a bit of space in the acoustic. In the clarity of the Wigmore Hall, everything came over admirably yet the slightly dry warmth did not compensate for the air that a more generous, church acoustic might bring. That said, it was glorious being able to hear the detail in such clarity.

Secret Kiss: English-language premiere of one of Peter Eötvös' last compositions

In 19th century Japan, a young Frenchman travels to Japan to learn about the secrets of silk production. While visiting a rich man, he observes a young girl with her eyes closed. She suddenly opens her eyes, looks at the Frenchman and points silently to a tea cup in front of her. Out of this single glance, the two protagonists become entangled in a moving and wonderful story.

Inspired by the 1997 novel Silk, by Italian author Alessandro Baricco, Secret Kiss is one of Peter Eötvös' last compositions and it is receiving its English-language premiere in November when BCMG (Birmingham Contemporary Music Group) perform it at the CBSO Centre and Wigmore Hall. Geoffrey Patterson conducts, with soprano Alice Rossi and Meg Kubota as the Reciter. The programme also features music by Rebecca Saunders, Julian Anderson, Lisa Illean and Sir Harrison Birtwistle including his final ensemble work, ...when falling asleep.

The melodrama Secret Kiss was composed for the Japanese singer and performer, Ryoko Aoki and the work was first performed in 2019, in a Japanese translation, by Aoki conducted by the composer 

The same week as the performances of Secret Kiss, BCMG returns to Wigmore Hall as part of the hall's Daniel Kidane focus day when, conducted by Gabriella Teychenné, BCMG perform a programme of Kidane's music with tenor Elgan Llŷr Thomas and guitarist Pétur Jónasson including Cradle Song, a setting of the poem by William Blake for tenor and ensemble, commissioned through BCMG's Sound Investment Scheme and premiered in 2023, plus Winged for electric guitar and string quartet, and Pulsing based on a poem by Zodwa Nyoni

Full details from the BCMG website.

A focus on the flute: London Handel Players in a group of cantatas Bach wrote in 1724 with virtuoso flute parts

Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin
Principal flautist in the Hofkappelle in Dresden

Bach: Cantatas BWV94, BWV114, BWV8, Buffardin: Flute Concerto in E minor; Hilary Cronin, Clint van der Linde, Charles Daniels, Edward Grint, Rachel Brown, London Handel Players, Adrian Butterfield; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 1 October 2024

Focusing on a group of cantatas Bach wrote with virtuoso flute parts, London Handel Players craft an esoteric but fascinating programme

When Bach arrived in Leipzig in 1723 he embarked on an ambitious cycle of weekly cantatas for the church's year, each geared to that day's readings. Whilst he did use flutes, he did not make significant use of the transverse flute but from mid-August to mid-November 1724 he produced a weekly cantata that included a significant, challenging flute part. We don't know who the flautist was, but clearly Bach had access to a player of some considerable talent and commentators speculate that one of the flautists from the Dresden court must have travelled to Leipzig and the most likely candidate is the French flautist, Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin.

This is the background to London Handel Players' slightly esoteric but fascinating programme at Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 1 October 2024. Directed from the violin by Adrian Butterfield and featuring flautist Rachel Brown, the ensemble performed three of Bach's cantatas from this period, Was frag ich nach der Welt BWV94, Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost BWV114 and Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben BWV8 plus Buffardin's Flute Concerto in E minor, one of his few surviving works. The soloists were soprano Hilary Cronin, alto Clint van der Linde, tenor Charles Daniels and bass Edward Grint.

The result was a programme that shed an intriguing light on a particular period of Bach's life, though the focus on a particular part of the church's year meant that we had three rather intense cantatas on weighty subjects. And these are substantial pieces, the first half of the concert, which included BWV94 and BWV114 lasted around an hour. 

Celebrating Jommelli in style: Ian Page & The Mozartists with Fflur Wyn, Ambroisine Bré, Hugo Brady make a compelling case for this neglected music

Jommelli: a celebration - Fflur Wyn, Ambroisine Bré, Ian Page, The Mozartists at Wigmore Hall (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega)

Jommelli - a celebration: Fflur Wyn, Ambroisine Bré, Hugo Brady, The Mozartists, Ian Page; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 18 September 2024

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jommelli's death with an evening of his fascinating and unjustly neglected music in killer performances from a trio of soloists that combined virtuoso dazzle with emotional commitment and great style

Opera composer Niccolò Jommelli died 250 years ago this year, not that you would know it looking at opera companies schedules. In a world where pre-Mozartian 18th century opera seems to start at Handel and stop at Gluck, with a brief stop at Vivaldi, exploring further is rare. Jommelli was enormously popular in his day, wrote some 80 operas and was something of a revolutionary. But since his death in 1774 he has been substantially ignored.

In 2016, Ian Page and The Mozartists revived Jommelli's opera Il Vologeso and now they followed that up with a concert exploring the composer's whole operatic output, 12 arias and duets spanning a 34 year period. At Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 18 September 2024, Ian Page conducted the Mozartists in Jommelli - a celebration, with soloists Fflur Wyn, Ambroisine Bré and Hugo Brady. 

Jommelli: a celebration - Fflur Wyn, Ian Page, The Mozartists at Wigmore Hall (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega)

Shortly before the concert, a conductor's worst nightmare happened; faced with a programme of rare and unperformed virtuoso vocal music, soprano Emily Pogorelc became ill and was unable to sing. Enter soprano Fflur Wyn who with remarkable virtuosity, killer sight-reading skills (presumably), superb aplomb, and a fabulous frock, sang the soprano solos. And don't forget that at that period, the soprano was the diva, so Wyn got to be Dido dying and Armida vowing her revenge on Rinaldo, along with much else besides.