A meaty, not to say tough programme: Sakari Oramo, Guy Johnston & BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten's Cello Symphony, Turnage premiere & Sibelius at the BBC Proms

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite - Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Festen Suite, Britten: Cello Symphony, Sibelius: Symphony No. 2; Guy Johnston, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 28 July 2026

Britten's gnarly Cello Symphony gets a rare Proms outing with a poetic solo from Guy Johnston alongside Turnage's engaging (if self indulgent) suite from his recent opera, and Oramo in fine form in Sibelius

For the second of his five BBC Proms this year on Tuesday 28 July 2026 at the Royal Albert Hall, Sakari Oramo conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the UK premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Festen Suite (a BBC co-commission), Britten's Cello Symphony (with soloist Guy Johnston) and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2. It was a meaty, not to say tough programme with each work being, in its way, substantial and challenging. And in true Proms tradition, the links between the works seemed tenuous, perhaps the thread was simply Oramo himself.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's 2024 opera Festen (with a libretto by Lee Hall) premiered at Covent Garden (winning a 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Award) and was also seen at Finnish National Opera. Turnage's suite from the opera premiered in Copenhagen earlier this year with Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alondra de la Parra. Turnage has constructed an eight movement suite from the second and third acts of the opera, with some movements transferring arias onto the orchestra (solo lines played variously by saxophone and cello). The work is scored for a huge orchestra, triple woodwind, saxophones, brass and considerable percussion.

As with any suite taken from a dramatic work, the question remains do I need to know the original piece. Works like the suites from Bizet's Carmen or Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker work because the composers created such terrific tunes. Turnage's opera doesn't quite have that, but there are underlying popular elements to his music that make it engaging and the suite's movements demonstrate a satisfying variety. His writing demonstrates a fondness for dense, opaque harmonies but also a vivid variety of colour and timbre.

Britten: Cello Symphony - Guy Johnston, Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra - BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/Mark Allan)

Virtuosity & discipline: John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London in Respighi's Roman trilogy & Walton's Cello Concerto

Walton: Cello Concerto - Jonathan Aasgaard, John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Verdi: Overture to La forza del destino, Walton: Cello Concerto, Respighi: Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome; Jonathan Aasgaard, Sinfonia of London, John Wilson; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Reviewed 24 July 2026

Italian warmth and vivid orchestral detail in a concert that gloried in technical virtuosity allied with real control and style, giving us a sense of magic, plus a more intimate view of Walton's concerto

Having seen John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London recently at the Cheltenham Music Festival in an all-English programme [see my review], it was a pleasure to catch their first BBC Prom (they return in September) at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday 24 July 2026 for a programme redolent of Italy. They began with Verdi's overture to La forza del destino and ended with Respighi, all three of his Roman tone poems - Roman Festivals, Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. In the middle was Walton's Cello Concerto with soloist Jonathan Aasgaard (principal cellist of Sinfonia of London), a work that Walton wrote whilst living at La Mortella in Ischia.

This was a big band concert, the Walton apart. The stage was full for the Verdi and by the time we came to 'The Pines of the Via Appia' from Pines of Rome things were full to bursting with around 120 orchestral players and sixteen extra brass.

Respighi: Pines of Rome - John Wilson, Sinfonia of London - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC / Chris Christodoulou)

Verdi's overture opened with vivid brass and tight, urgent string sound. What was notable was the clarity of detail that Wilson brought to the music along with a sense of control with singing lines allied to a disturbing undertow, leading to urgent, incisive drama. An insouciant clarinet melody was overwhelmed by urgent brass and strings, the music driven to climax, then crisp excitement to the end. I know that this overture is very much complete in itself, but Wilson's account made you wonder what he'd be like conducting the whole opera.

Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates's rarity Cinderella

John Wilson & Sinfonia of London at Cheltenham Town Hall, Cheltenham Music Festival
(Photo: Still Moving Media for Cheltenham Festivals)

Sullivan, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Richard Rodney Bennett, Walton, Eric Coates, Elgar, Haydn Wood, Robert Farnon, Vivian Ellis; Sinfonia of London, John Wilson; Cheltenham Music Festival at Cheltenham Town Hall
Reviewed 11 July 2026

Eric Coates rarely performed Cinderella Phantasy was the climax of a delightful summer programme benefitting from the way John Wilson and the orchestra combined technique with style and enjoyment

Last year, Cheltenham Music Festival celebrated its 80th anniversary, bringing the festival to a close with a concert where Gergely Madaras and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales explored music performed at the first festival and music commissioned by the festival, with Elgar, Arnold and Britten [see my review]. For the final concert of this year's festival on Saturday 11 July 2026 at Cheltenham Town Hall, John Wilson conducted his Sinfonia of London. If the 2025 concert was an exploration of British music in the 20th century, the John Wilson and his orchestra seemed to offer an alternative view, taking us from Sullivan and Elgar, through Delius's The walk to the Paradise Garden, Vaughan Williams's Lark Ascending (with Charlie Lovell-Jones), and Walton, to Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Farnon, Haydn Wood, Vivian Ellis and Eric Coates ending with a rare performance of Coates's tone poem Cinderella.

We began with Sir Arthur Sullivan's overture to The Yeoman of the Guard, one of the few Savoy Opera overtures that Sullivan actually wrote. This is music that benefits from being played by a fine orchestra. Here Sullivan's orchestration sparkled, everything crisp and clear: light strings, classy wind, fine-toned brass and vivid excitement.

In his spoken introduction to the concert John Wilson said for him the best definition of light music was that 'the tune is more important than what you do with it'. What followed in the first half was less light music than composers in more approachable mode. 

Concertos for friends: Colin Currie in Tansy Davies, Tamsin Waley-Cohen in Freya Waley-Cohen with BBC National Orchestra of Wales & Kevin John Edusei at Aldeburgh Festival

Tansy Davies: Earthworks - Colin Currie, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Tansy Davies: Earthworks, Shostakovich: Symphony No.10; Colin Currie percussion, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Kevin John Edusei; Snape Maltings Concert Hall (Friday 19 June 7.30pm)

Rachmaninov: Romance (andante expressivo) from String Quartet No.1 in G minor, Freya Waley-Cohen: Dances, Songs and Hymns for Friendship, Ravel: String Quartet in F; Sacconi Quartet; Orford Church (Saturday 20th June 11am)

Elizabeth Ogonek: Sleep & Unremembrance, Freya Waley-Cohen: Violin Concerto for Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances; Tamsin Waley-Cohen, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, cond. Kevin John Edusei; Snape Maltings Concert Hall (Saturday 20 June 7.30pm)
Reviewed by Tony Cooper

A pair of high emotive concerts from BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the first high octane featuring Colin Currie in Tansy Davies' concerto, and the second more contemplative with Tamsin Waley-Cohen in concerto by her sister Freya, complemented by more Freya Waley-Cohen from the Sacconi Quartet

Opening a ‘noisy’ and high-octane Friday night concert at Snape Maltings as part of the 77th Aldeburgh Festival fell to the well-known minimalist work Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams. Although only lasting a mere four minutes, this bright and driving orchestral fanfare packs a punch like no other and is always exciting and refreshing to hear especially when played by the likes of an orchestra of the calibre as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Kevin John Edusei.

Specifically designed to capture the exhilarating and sometimes terrifying sensation of a high-speed ride in a sports car, I liken the piece to an F1 racing car on the starting grid. Comprising a relentless beat played by a woodblock imitating a metronomic engine, the orchestra weaves complex, overlapping rhythms round a constant percussive pulse with the rush of brass fanfares simulating the fast-paced shifting of gears and the building of speed. This frenzied pace continues without pause thereby creating an energetic and hypnotic wall of sound that Stan Kenton (the innovator of the ‘Wall of Sound’) would have been truly proud of.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kevin John Edusei (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

The percussive beat of this brilliant concert continued with Tansy Davies’ Earthworks, a 25-minute percussion concerto specifically written for the internationally renowned virtuoso percussionist, Colin Currie, the work drew heavily from vast geoglyphs and ancient monuments such as the Uffington White Horse in which Davies imagines these colossal shapes carved into the earth as a form of ancient language, a primal communication, say, between our ancestors and the future.

From Young Apollo to the Cello Symphony to the Poet's Echo to Phaedra: the range of Britten's composing career explored by Britten Sinfonia at Aldeburgh Festival alongside new works

Genevieve Lacey, Gemma New, Britten Sinfonia, Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Steve (Stelios) Adam: et døgn (one day), Lisa Illean/Binchois: Chansons, Lisa Illean: New works for recorder, strings and pre-recorded sounds, Brett Dean: Carlo, Britten: Cello Symphony; Genevieve Lacey recorder, Laura van der Heijden cello, Britten Sinfonia, cond. Gemma New; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Britten: The Poet’s Echo, Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death, Ryan Wigglesworth: Till Dawning, Britten: Folksong arrangements on Moore’s Irish Melodies; Sophie Bevan soprano, Ryan Wigglesworth piano; Britten Studio, Snape Maltings.

Britten: Young Apollo, Haydn: Arianna a Naxos, Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, John Woolrich: Ulysses Awakes, Charpentier: 'Quel prix de mon amour' (from Médée), Britten: Phaedra; Britten Sinfonia, Zoë Beyers violin/director, Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Reviewed by Tony Cooper (17 & 18 June 2026)

Two programmes curated by Britten Sinfonia featured grand performances of Brett Dean’s Carlo and Britten’s Cello Symphony, and the fresh and youthful mezzo voice of Helen Charlston in an illuminating and uplifting programme

Curated by the Britten Sinfonia, the concert on Wednesday 17 June at the Aldeburgh Festival featured an eclectic and inquisitive programme which opened with a relatively short seven-minute piece conceived by Australian futuristic composer, Steve (Stelios) Adam, who harbours a long-term fascination with music, sound and its associated technologies therefore electroacoustic composition and computer-generated music lies at the very heart of his creative output.

Scored for recorder and electroacoustic engineering, et døgn (one day), a delicately constructed work, created a hauntingly beautiful exploration and fusion of ‘live’ music and computer-generated sound witnessing virtuoso Australian recorderist, Genevieve Lacey, impeccable in her playing, employing the use of four recorders - bass, tenor, descant and treble, handmade by Joanne Saunders and Fred Morgan - which was captivating throughout the performance.

An Australian takeover, this enviable concert also projected a couple of works by Australian composer (now based in UK) Lisa Illean whose arrangement of Gilles Binchois, Chansons featured the fine strings of the Britten Sinfonia who, standing and gathered in a semicircle round their New Zealand conductor, Gemma New, created an intimate environment for what was an intimate and refreshing work originated by this well-loved composer of the 15th century renowned for his settings of secular chansons.

Lisa Illean’s second offering to this well-curated programme Swellsong received its UK première in the presence of the composer. Scored for recorder, strings and pre-recorded orchestral sounds, the mixing engineer on stage finely balanced the delicate acoustic output of the strings which were tenderly heard against a breathy subtle projection of the recorder.

A lovely, inspiring and thoughtful work, however, it incorporated the plainsong melody ‘Fulcite me floribus’ (Strengthen me with flowers), a liturgical text recollecting love and grief transfigured through faith who in Illean’s thought processes reimagines the text in relation to light, water and time thereby crafting a phantasy soundscape occupying another world!

American themes at Aldeburgh: Tony Cooper enjoys a quartet by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & an absorbing orchestral programme highlighting Elizabeth Ogonek.

Sphinx Piano Quintet: Nathan Amaral, Elena Urioste, Celia Hatton, Sterling Elliott, Amiri Harewood - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: BPA)

Perkinson: String Quartet No.1 ‘Calvary’, Vaughan Williams: Rondo for Piano, Still: Suite for Cello and Piano, arr. Randall Goosby, Cassie Kinoshi: Songs of Kinship, Bridge: Phantasie Piano Quartet, Price: Piano Quintet No.1; Sphinx Piano Quintet (Nathan Amaral, Elena Urioste, Celia Hatton, Sterling Elliott, Amiri Harewood); Britten Studio, Snape Maltings

Elizabeth Ogonek: All These Lighted Things, Ravel: Piano Concerto in G, Ryan Wigglesworth: Piano Concerto, Ravel: La Valse; Steven Osborne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 14 June 2026 

In the afternoon at the Aldeburgh Festival, the first quartet by black American composer, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, proved a revelation particularly with its fusion of classical-based music tinged with the genre of jazz and blues.  An absorbing and exciting evening programme came from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra highlighting the music of American contemporary composer, Elizabeth Ogonek. 

I was more than interested to learn more about 1932-born black American composer, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, who was on the bill for the Sphinx Piano Quintet’s concert at the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings. Specifically named in honour of the celebrated Afro-British composer, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) reflected his parents’ admiration for black excellence in classical music. 

He wrote a couple of string quartets in quick succession and his first quartet entitled ‘Calvary’ was the first item on an excellent programme curated by the Sphinx Piano Quintet, a dynamic artist-driven chamber ensemble formed under the acclaimed Sphinx Organization established in Detroit by Aaron P. Dworkin in 1996. A social justice and educational enterprise, Sphinx is dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts with a specific mission to champion exceptionally talented black and Latinx classical musicians. 

Both men were trailblazers of their day bridging classical music with their respective black heritage. Samuel was a renowned composer in late 19th-century London while Perkinson was a highly-versatile American composer whose work, although based on the classical idiom, also employed the genre of jazz and blues. Therefore, Perkinson’s first quartet, a three-movement work written in 1956, blends a traditional classical-based format with elements of jazz, blues and spirituals.  

Truly captivating: bass baritone Nicola Alaimo & pianist Carlo Rizzi celebrate Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project with songs by Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini & Mercadante

Carlo Rizzi & Nicola Alaimo at Wigmore Hall (Photo: Russell Duncan)

Donizetti & Friends: Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Mercadante; Nicola Alaimo, Carlo Rizzi, Hetty Snell; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 16 June 2026

Superb bel canto technique & brilliant comic timing make Nicola Alaimo's contribution to this concert of early 19th century Italian song something rather special, delightful & captivating.

Opera Rara is celebrating the completion of its Donizetti Song Project, eight discs of songs covering the whole of Donizetti's song output allied to a new edition of the solo songs created by Roger Parker and Ian Schofield. The eighth and final volume of songs, from bass baritone Nicola Alaimo and pianist Carlo Rizzi, has just been released [see Opera Rara website]. To celebrate Nicola Alaimo joined Carlo Rizzi and cellist Hetty Snell at Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 16 June 2026 for a lunchtime recital pairing Donizetti's songs with those of Rossini, Bellini and Mercadante.

I remember talking to a singer about Italian songs from later in the 19th century, particularly those of Tosti. The singer said that the songs were a challenge because they took for granted the singer's technique! This thought came back to me during Nicola Alaimo's recital as I realised that to make these songs work you needed a firm bel canto technique.

Most of the songs in the recital were based around an expressive melody over some sort of flowing piano accompaniment. They were all about the voice, and the way you used the melody for expressive purposes. Whether they were serious and intense or simply comic, Alaimo projected each song with maximum expressivity whilst always ensuring the primacy of expressive line. Yet his diction was admirable throughout, his lyric technique was no barrier to making the words count too. Unlike some opera singers, Alaimo seemed comfortable on the concert platform and proved a delightful companion and guide through the songs.

A day at Aldeburgh: Lise Davidsen's Aldeburgh Festival début in Schubert and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande semi-staged

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande - Myrna Tennant, Camilla Seale, Phoebe Rayner - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade; Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister; Der Tod und das Mädchen; Erlkönig; Lise Davidsen soprano, James Baillieu piano; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande; Jacques Imbrailo (Pelléas), Sophie Bevan (Mélisande), Gordon Bintner (Golaud), Sarah Connolly (Geneviève), Nicolas Testé (Arkël), Beth Stirling (Yniold); dir: Rory Kinnear, set/costume designer Vicki Mortimer, lighting designers Paule Constable/Imogen Clark; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, cond. Ryan Wigglesworth; Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 13 June 2026

Making her Aldeburgh Festival début, Lise Davidsen delivered a memorable afternoon recital of Schubert Lieder brilliantly accompanied by the pianist, James Baillieu. In the evening, the semi-staged performance of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande highlighted the brilliance of the orchestral playing from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Wigglesworth and the conversational clarity of the singers with Sophie Bevan and Jacques Imbrailo in the title roles. 

[Elsewhere on Planet Hugill, Robert chats to James Baillieu about his new role on the Britten Pears Arts Young Artist Programme and to Ryan Wigglesworth about being Featured Artist at this year's festival]

I was more than proud being a member of the audience when Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen made her Bayreuth Festival début in 2019 as Elisabeth in Tobias Kratzer’s outstanding but unconventional modern staging of Tannhäuser. [see Tony's review] The show featured an odd assortment of characters up to no good either riding a battered old Citroën Type-H van (Venusberg on wheels), nicking burgers from Burger King or siphoning off petrol - and the rest! Get the picture?

Her Bayreuth performance was immaculate, catapulting her into the upper echelons of the opera world while cementing her status as one of the world’s leading Wagnerians. Her Aldeburgh début follows suit. I found it satisfying being in the cosy, comfortable and spartan space of the Snape Maltings Concert Hall harbouring acoustics, I feel, perfect for voice and piano and so ideal for Davidsen singing Schubert Lieder.

James Baillieu, Lise Davidsen - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts)

Admirably accompanied by James Baillieu on piano, Davidsen opened with such glowing and accurate accounts of Gretchen am Spinnrade and Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister, a couple of acclaimed art-songs that Schubert set to texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Vocal fireworks & extreme emotions: Franco Fagioli & the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles in music written for the castrato Velluti

Franco Fagioli with the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles & Stefan Plewniak in Divonne-les-Bains in April 2026 (Photo: Jean-Christophe Cassagnes.)

The Last Castrato: Arias for Velluti - Rossini, Nicolini, Bonfichi, Rode, Zingarelli, Mercadante; Franco Fagioli, Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles, Stefan Plewniak; St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 13 June 2026

Making its UK debut, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles is joined by countertenor Franco Fagioli for an evening of early 19th century Italian vocal fireworks exploring repertoire originally written for the castrato Velluti

The castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780-1861) is known for what he was rather than what he sang. Velluti is renowned as the last great operatic castrato, for whom Rossini and Meyerbeer wrote roles. Velluti came at a time when opera itself was changing: many of the composers whose work he sang wrote in a style which still looked back, Rossini and his operatic revolutions would ensure that opera changed and indeed left castrati behind. The title of The Last Castrato realistically goes to Alessandro Moreschi and those castrati who survived in the Papal choir and were recorded in early years of the 20th century. But in terms of operatic castrati, Velluti is definitely the last.

Under the title The Last Castrato: arias for Velluti, countertenor Franco Fagioli has been exploring this repertoire for a while with the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles and conductor Stefan Plewniak. They issued a disc on the Château de Versailles Spectacles label early last year and have been touring the programme. On Saturday 13 June 2026, Franco Fagioli, the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles and Stefan Plewniak presented The Last Castrato: arias for Velluti at St Martin-in-the Fields. Fagioli sang arias from Giuseppe Nicolini's Traiano in Dacia and Carlo Magno, Paolo Bonfichi's Attila, Rossini's Aureliano in Palmira and Mercadante's Andronico, and there was orchestral music by Rossini, Pierre Rode and Niccolo Antonio Zingarelli.

Strauss & Korngold: little known works by well-known composers in passionate performances from Francesca Dego & Alessandro Taverna at Conway Hall

Alessandro Taverna & Francesca Dego

Korngold: Violin Sonata, Schoenberg: Phantasy, Richard Strauss: Violin Sonata; Francesca Dego, Alessandro Taverna; Conway Hall
Reviewed 31 May 206

Youthful Korngold and Strauss before he was Strauss in a remarkable pair of big late-romantic sonatas that remain surprisingly little known, in passionate and committed performances 

On Sunday 31 May 2026, violinist Francesca Dego and pianist Alessandro Taverna brought a pair of big violin sonatas to Conway Hall, both works by well-known composers yet neither work known. This remarkable pairing featured the violin sonatas by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Richard Strauss alongside Arnold Schoenberg's late Phantasy. Beforehand, I gave the pre-concert talk exploring the background to both the Korngold and the Strauss.

A remarkable combination of headlong energy with care & attention: Igor Levit & Leonkoro Quartet in Schumann's Piano Quintet at Wigmore Hall's 125 Anniversary Festival

Schumann: Piano Quintet - Igor Levit, Leonkoro Quartet - Wigmore Hall (Photo: Tom Wright/Wigmore Hall)

Henriëtte Bosmans: String Quartet, Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet; Igor Levit, Leonkoro Quartet; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 31 May 2026

A completely absorbing performance of the Schumann bringing a real sense of urgency to the music and refreshingly lacking romantic self-indulgence. The Quartet's performance of Bosmans' piece made you wonder why it was not better known 

Wigmore Hall's 125th Anniversary Festival continues apace. On Sunday 31 May 2026, pianist Igor Levit joined the Leonkoro Quartet - Jonathan Schwarz and Emiri Kakiuchi (violin), Mayu Konoe (viola), Lukas Schwarz (cello) - for the second of two collaborations. Having performed Brahms's Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34 together on Saturday evening, Sunday morning saw them performing Schumann's Piano Quintet. The quartet began the concert with Henriëtte Bosmans' String Quartet.

A couple of memorable concerts in this year’s Norfolk & Norwich Festival were delivered by the Britten Sinfonia and Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.

Britten: Les Illuminations - Elizabeth Watts & Britten Sinfonia at Kings Place, London (Photo: Shoël Stadlen)

Britten: Young Apollo, Bowles: Six Piano Preludes, Copland: Clarinet Concerto, Britten: Les Illuminations, Copland: Appalachian Spring; Oleg Shebeta-Dragan (clarinet), Elizabeth Watts (soprano); Britten Sinfonia, led from the violin by Zoë Beyers; St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich.
Walton: Henry V: A Shakespeare’s Scenario, Belshazzar’s Feast; Norwich Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, cond: Matthew Andrews, Ashley Grote; Roderick Williams (baritone), Alex Jennings (voice); St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich
Kaija Saariaho: Terra Memoria, Vaughan Williams, Barber, Webern, Mahler; Kleio String Quartet, Berniya Hamie, Andrew Hamilton; Octagon Chapel
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (11, 12, 20 & 23 May 2026)

At this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival, the Britten Sinfonia concert focused on Britten in America while the Norwich Philharmonic saluted William Walton in all his glory, whilst the young Kleio String Quartet made a big impression in their concerts

Feeling disillusioned with Europe, Benjamin Britten spent a formative and productive period in North America from 1939 to 1942 with Peter Pears where he composed such major works as the song-cycle Les Illuminations, his first opera Paul Bunyan and Sinfonia da Requiem.

Thankfully, Britten’s time in America proved personally and professionally worthwhile paving the way for such grand and exciting works as his Suffolk-based opera, Peter Grimes. And when Britten made the dangerous sea journey back to England in the spring of 1942, he was officially registered as a ‘conscientious objector’.

One of the first works he wrote on arriving in America was Young Apollo based on the final lines of John Keats’ poem Hyperion showing the image of Apollo as a ‘new, dazzling Sun-god, quivering with radiant vitality’. A delightful ten-minute piece and one of the few works Britten wrote for piano and orchestra, the commission came from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Receiving its first performance in August 1939 on CBC Radio with Britten as the solo pianist, the work’s characterized by a scintillating opening fanfare followed by a host of rapid and cascading glissando passages cutting through the sweeping, heroic textures of the strings comfortably played with flourish, flair and everything else by the renowned pianist, Huw Watkins, who often collaborates with the Britten Sinfonia.

Ashley Grote rehearsing the Norwich Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra in Walton's Belshazzar's Feast at St Andrew's Hall, Norwich for Norfolk & Norwich Festival

I felt it appropriate, too, that Copland shared the stage with Britten in this remarkable and well-curated programme as both men enjoyed a close personal and professional relationship. Copland acted as a mentor and friend to Britten assisting him in navigating the American musical scene while introducing him to influential people.

Each song a story to be told: James Newby & Malcolm Martineau's Shipping Forecast at SongEasel in Elephant & Castle

SongEasel at St Matthew's Church, Elephant & Castle
Jocelyn Freeman

The Shipping Forecast - Elgar: Sea Pictures, Chabrier, Duparc, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Bantock, Ireland, Tippett, Eric Coates, Ives, Kurt Weill, Charles Trenet; James Newby, Malcolm Martineau; SongEasel at St Matthew's Church, Elephant and Castle
Reviewed 21 May 2026

A sea theme gives us a feast of story-telling in music from James Newby and Malcolm Martineau with Elgar's Sea Pictures alongside Loewe ballads and a wide-ranging selection of songs

The Shipping Forecast continues to provide a remarkable source of musical inspiration for recitalists. In 2024, Nigel Foster's London Song Festival celebrated the centenary of the first Shipping Forecast to be broadcast on British radio [see my review], and now baritone James Newby and pianist Malcolm Martineau are celebrating with their own take on the subject.

They brought their Shipping Forecast programme to Jocelyn Freeman's Song Easel on Thursday 21 May at St Matthew's Church, Elephant and Castle. The programme featured three of Carl Loewe's ballads (this year is his 230th birthday) along with songs from Elgar's Sea Pictures, and songs by Chabrier, Duparc, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Bantock, Ireland, Eric Coates, Tippett, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Ives, Kurt Weill and Charles Trenet.

The programme was divided into four parts, each one beginning with one of Elgar's Sea Pictures - Mysteries of the Deep, Invitation to Voyage, Exotic Isles and Desert Island Discs.

Every detail mattered: Basel Chamber Orchestra & Vilde Frang in Bach, Mendelssohn & Grieg at Wigmore Hall

Kammerorchester Basel (Photo: Matthias Mueller)

Mendelssohn: String Symphonies Nos. 4 & 10, Bach; Violin concerto in A minor, Violin concerto in E major, Grieg: Holberg Suite; Basel Chamber Orchestra, Vilde Frang; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 20 May 2026

In a varied programme the Basel players brought real vitality the music, making Mendelssohn's early symphonies invigorating and Grieg's Holberg Suite anything but hackneyed. But the centrepiece was a pair of Bach concertos with Vilde Frang in elegant, expressive and plangent form

The name Basel Chamber Orchestra has resonance, it is associated with the patron and conductor Paul Sacher, who founded the Basler Kammerorchester in 1926 and commissioned works from Stravinsky, Bartók, Martinů, Frank Martin, Hindemith, Henze, Lutosławski, Birtwistle and more. The orchestra disbanded in 1987 and Sacher died in 1999 though The Paul Sacher Foundation continues.

The present Basel Chamber Orchestra (Kammerorchester Basel) began life in 1984 as Serenata Basel founded by graduates of Swiss music academies. Since 1999 it has operated without a chief conductor and also that year the name changed to the present one. And listening to the orchestra today, one can safely forget any Sacher resonances, the orchestra is simply one of the best chamber orchestras around.

On Wednesday 20 May 2026 they paid a visit to Wigmore Hall. Directed from the violin by Baptiste Lopez their programme centred on Bach's two violin concertos (in A minor and E major) with violinist Vilde Frang, alongside Mendelssohn's ;String Symphonies Nos. 4 & 10 and Grieg's Holberg Suite.

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'. 

Richness & austerity: music by Morales & Vivanco alongside Kerensa Briggs & James MacMillan's settings of John Henry Newman in The Sixteen's 2026 Choral Pilgrimage

Kerensa Briggs & Harry Christophers at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich 
(Photo: The Sixteen)

Lead Kindly Light: Christobal de Morales, Sebastian de Vivanco, James MacMillan, Kerensa Briggs; The Sixteen, Harry Christophers; 2026 Choral Pilgrimage at Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich
Reviewed 12 May 2026 

Luxuriant richness and lush textures of music from the Spanish Golden Age alongside two contemporary responses to the writings of theologian John Henry Newman as The Sixteen stop off in Greenwich as part of their Choral Pilgrimage 

I have no idea what the theologian John Henry Newman might have thought about the luxuriance of Spanish religious music of the Golden Age. Newman was certainly musical, yet he also thought that music ought to be subservient to religion.

For their 2026 Choral Pilgrimage, Lead Kindly Light, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen have had the intriguing idea of combining two contemporary settings of John Henry Newman by Kerensa Briggs and James MacMillan with music from the Spanish Golden Age by Christobal de Morales and Sebastian de Vivanco. The focal point was Kerensa Brigg's Lead Kindly Light which was commissioned for this tour and paired with James MacMillan's Nothing in Vain which was commissioned in 2021 by the Genesis Foundation.

The Choral Pilgrimage began at Southwell Minster on 16 April and continues until 17 October with the final performance at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. We caught the performance on 12 May at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel, Greenwich.

Siren songs & serenades: Ben Goldscheider, Laurence Kilsby & London Mozart Players in Anna Clyne premiere, Britten & Mendelssohn

Britten: Serenade - Ben Goldscheider, Laurence Kilsby, Jonathan Bloxham, London Mozart Players 
(Photo: Charles Lewis)

Anna Clyne: Sirens, Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings, Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor; Ben Goldscheider, Laurence Kilsby, London Mozart Players, Jonathan Bloxham; Church of St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 8 May 2026

Anna Clyne's new piece for Ben Goldscheider successfully seduce with its siren-like lyrical horn writing, whilst Goldscheider and Kilsby proved superb partnership in Britten's serenade. The programme completed with Bloxham bringing out the youthful exuberance in Mendelssohn's symphony

For London Mozart Players' (LMP) final concert in its 2025/26 season at the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Friday 8 May 2026, Jonathan Bloxham conducted LMP in the premiere of Anna Clyne's Sirens (co-commissioned by LMP) for horn and strings with soloist Ben Goldscheider, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Laurence Kilsby and Goldscheider, and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1.

Whilst Anna Clyne's music has never been unknown in the UK (she based in the USA), she does seem to be having something of a moment here. Announced as the CBSO's first composer-in-residence for the 2026/27 season with a new Viola Concerto and other works planned including a recording with saxophonist Jess Gilham, the National Youth Orchestra launched their 2026 season with Clyne's Shimmer, she received an Ivor for Best Choral Composition last year, the Sixteen's 2025 Choral Pilgrimage featured the premiere of Clyne's Orbits, and her The Years was at the BBC Proms. 

LMP's concert was part of a short tour. The previous evening, Goldscheider, Kilsby and LMP had performed Britten's Serenada in Farnham, then Goldscheider and LMP return to Clyne's Sirens tonight (9 May 2026) at Newbury Spring Festival.

Youthful promise: four young artists in the Musicians' Company concerts at Wigmore Hall

Jay Broadhurst (Photo: Julian Guidera)

The Musicians' Company Concerts: Dani Howard, Francis Poulenc, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann; Danushka Edirisinghe, George Herbert, Jay Broadhurst, Zany Denyer; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 5 May 2026

Recipients of the Concordia Foundation awards in a concert full of strong performances, and vivid character culminating in a finely poetic account of Schumann's Dichterliebe by a young tenor who has impressed before.

On Tuesday 5 May 2026, the Musicians' Company presented a concert by prize winners from the Concordia Foundation Artists Fund at Wigmore Hall. We heard cellist Danushka Edirisinghe and pianist George Herbert in Dani Howard's Add Oil, Poulenc's Sonata for cello and piano and Clara Schumann's Romance in D flat from her Three Romances, Op. 22 (originally for violin and piano). Then tenor Jay Broadhurst and pianist Zany Denyer performed Schumann's Dichterliebe.

We first came across Broadhurst last December in Chelsea Opera Group's 75th anniversary performance of Verdi's Macbeth when Broadhurst (singing Malcolm) stepped in for an ailing José de Eça (singing Macduff) to give a thrilling performance of Macduff's Act Four aria [see my review].

The fires of passion, immediacy & intimacy: Hugo Ticciati & O/Modernt in Lera Auerbach, Golijov, Janacek & Mahler at Wigmore Hall

Hugo Ticciati & O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra

The Fires of Love: Lera Auerbach, Janacek, Osvaldo Golijov, Mahler; Hugo Ticciati & O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 28 April 2026

One of O/Modernt's usual freewheeling programmes juxtaposing Golijov's klezmer inspired clarinet with Mahler giving with speaking intensity, Lera Auerbach remarkable dialogue with Pergolesi and Janacek's intimate confessions writ large

Hugo Ticciati and O/Modernt's concert at Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 28 April 2026 was the final one of their residency. Entitled The Fires of Love the programme was supposed to feature the performance of a new commission featuring Iranian vocalist Haleh Seyfizadeh, but she has been unable to travel from Iran. The war thus spreading its tentacles to even the hallowed halls of Wigmore Street. Rather oddly, given the political circumstances, Hugo Ticciati replaced the planned work with Osvaldo Golijov's 1994 work, The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind where Jewish klezmer clarinet is the focus. Around this, the other works in the programme considered different types of love with Lera Auerbach's Sogno di Stabat Mater (2005), Janacek's String Quartet No. 2 'Intimate Letters' (1928) and Mahler's Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 (1901-2).

A delightful jeu d'esprit: a strong cast has great fun with Peter Tranchell's 1950s operetta Twice a Kiss

Peter Tranchell (Courtesy: Independent Society of Musicians)

Peter Tranchell: Tu es Petrus in fuga, Seven Pieces in Alphabetical Order, The Dog That Sat, No more of THEE and ME, Twice a Kiss, Maho Ishizaka: Tickle the Keys; Daniel Gilchrist, Sophie Bevan, Hilary Summers, Jennifer France, Henry Waddington, James Gilchrist, Christopher Purves, Tom Winpenny, Piers Lane, David Doidge, Michael Papadopoulos, Imperial College Chamber Choir, Jonathan Wikeley
Reviewed 18 April 2025

A comic operetta by 20th-century Cambridge composer Peter Tranchell proves to be a delightful jeu d'esprit with a strong cast demonstrating their enjoyment of the music, alongside a selection of pieces giving us an idea of the wide range of Tranchell's musical world

Peter Tranchell was a Cambridge-trained composer and conductor who lectured in music at the university and was Praecentor of Gonville and Caius College until his retirement in 1989. His musical output, often linked to his various musical activities at the university, was many and varied with a chameleon-like assumption of style along with an interest in serialism, his music moving between writing for the Footlights, the chapel choir along with larger-scale works like his opera The Mayor of Casterbridge (1951).  

About this latter, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote to Tranchell after hearing a performance in Cambridge, 'I was very much interested in your opera.  Of course to my old-fashioned ears there were rather too many “wrong notes” in the music, but that is my misfortune.  It seemed to me, if I may say so, that your music definitely understood the stage and was very effective dramatic music, which is after all what opera should be.' The 'wrong notes' being RVW's references to Tranchell's fondness for twelve-tone writing.

The Peter Tranchell Foundation was created to promote his music and from 2022 (the year of his centenary) has run a composition prize. On Saturday 18 April 2026 at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge the Foundation presented an evening of Tranchell's music alongside a performance of the winning entry in the 2025 competition, Maho Ishizaka's Tickle the Keys. The centrepiece of the evening was a performance of Tranchell's comic one-act operetta Twice a Kiss with Daniel Gilchrist, Sophie Bevan, Hilary Summers, Jennifer France, Henry Waddington, James Gilchrist, and Christopher Purves, along with Piers Lane (piano), David Doidge (piano) and Tom Winpenny (organ), conducted by Michael Papadopoulos.

The evening began with Tom Winpenny playing the third and final movement of Tranchell's organ sonata Tu es Petrus in Fuga on the organ of St Paul's Church. This work was written for Peter Le Huray in 1958, the letters from whose name are used to create the pitches of the main themes. Though notated in quadruple time, the music plays with irregular rhythms and the result was a surprisingly perky, rhythmically intriguing theme that Tranchell developed into music that mixed opaque harmony with constant, dramatic movement.