Time and its passing - Rodolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood

John Tavener, Thomas Tallis, Gabriel Jackson, Arvo Pärt, Gerald Finzi, Zoltan Kodaly, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Recknell, Adrian Cruft, Henry Ley, Herbert Howells, Benjamin Rowarth, Thomas Tallis, C. Hubert Parry, Thomas Luis de Victoria and Johann Sebastian Bach; Rodolfus Choir, Ralph Allwood; Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 15 2016
Star rating: 4.0
An intriguing programme and a numinous beauty of tone in a this programme from the young choir arising out of the Eton Choral Courses.

This disc from Ralph Allwood and the Rodolfus Choir explores the fascinating concept of time and its passing in a programme which mixes old and new in an exploration of different concepts of time represented in music. Issued on the Signum Classics label, the composers represented are a diverse group including John Tavener, Thomas Tallis, Gabriel Jackson, Arvo Pärt, Gerald Finzi, Zoltan Kodaly, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Recknell, Adrian Cruft, Henry Ley, Herbert Howells, Benjamin Rowarth, Thomas Tallis, C. Hubert Parry, Thomas Luis de Victoria and Johann Sebastian Bach.

The young singers of the Rodolfus Choir are alumni of the Eton Choral Courses run by their conductor Ralph Allwood and the choir has lovely clear bright sound with a fine sense of legato, nicely even tone and some notably clear, pure sopranos, along with fine technical control.

All this is showcased in the opening work, John Tavener's O Do not move which is tiny but perfect, sung with a lovely even radiant tone. The second item is Thomas Tallis's third mode melody from Archbishop Parker's Psalter sung to words by the 17th century priest and hymn writer, John Mason. Here the piece is sung with such a lovely smooth sense of legato that the words to a certain extent seem to be sacrificed.

Dreams, Wisdom, Innocence - Emma Kirkby in Purcell and Stockhausen

At a concert on 21 January 2016 entitled Dreams, Wisdom, Innocence, the distinguished soprano Emma Kirkby will be joined by harpsichordist Chau-Yee Lo in a programme which mixes Purcell and Couperin with contemporary repertoire from Stockhausen and Andrew Wilson-Dickson. The concert takes place at the church of St Bartholomew the Great in West Smithfield and all proceeds are going to Maytree a UK charity which runs a suicide respite centre.

The centrepiece of the programme is Karlheinz Stockhausen's Tierkreis based on the signs of the Zodiac and arising originally out of play with his daughter. Stockhausen wrote the 12 pieces originally for music boxes, but produced them in a variety of versions for voice and accompaniment.  Tierkreis remains one of Stockhausen's most popular compositions. Also in the programme will be The Elephant by Andrew Wilson-Dickson from his oratorio Karuna which was premiered in 2014.

Completing the programme will be songs and keyboard music by Henry Purcell and Francois Couperin. Full information from the Dreams, Wisdom, Innocence website.

And the winner is...

Gold Medal winner with the adjudicators
Dr Claire Mera-Nelson, Tasmin Little, Harry Palmer, Gillian Moore

The recent Trinity Laban Gold Medal competition (11 January 2015) at Kings Place showcased the conservatoire's top students and the winner was announced as Harry Palmer, currently a third year composition student. The audience at the competition heard three of Palmer's compositions (conducted by the young conductor George Jackson), and they were popular with audience and adjudicators alike. The adjudicators were Dr Claire Mera-Nelson (Trinity Laban’s Director of Music), Gillian Moore MBE (Director of Music at the Southbank Centre) and violinist Tasmin Little OBE.  Tasmin Little commented that the evening has been a 'feast of music for all', praising Palmer for his 'gripping and mesmeric' compositions.

Previous winners of the Gold Medal competition have gone on to great things, with Elliot Galvin (Jazz Pianist, 2014) going on onto to be crowned European Young Jazz Musician of The Year, while last year’s winner Nardus Williams (Voice) is already forging a successful career as a Samling Scholar and Park Lane Group Young Artist.

Russian impressionism: Mussorgsky - Songs and Romances

Mussorgsky Songs and Romances; Katherine Broderick, Sergey Rybin; Stone Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 13 2016
Star rating: 5.0
Two major cycles and a group of songs in a programme which links Mussorgsky's style to the later French impressionist composers

Most people, I suspect, first encounter Modest Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death in the orchestral version with the solo part sung by a man. On this new disc from Stone Records, Mussorgsky Songs and Romances, the solo is sung by soprano Katherine Broderick and she is accompanied by Sergey Rybin on the piano.They perform not only Songs and Dances of Death but Mussorgsky's cycle Sunless as well as a group of Mussorgsky's songs. And the recital deliberately sets out to intrigue us with the at times almost Debussy-esque musical impressionism of the music, particularly the piano writing. Except of course Mussorgsky got there first.

The links between Debussy and Russian music are intriguing. The young Frenchman spent the summers of 1880, 1881 and 1882 touring Europe with Tchaikovsky's patron Nadezhda von Meck, acting as teacher and pianist for her daughters. Mussorgsky's cycle Sunless was finished in 1874 and published that year, whilst Songs and Dances of Death was finished in 1875 but not published until 1882, though a number of Mussorgsky's songs were published in the 1870. And the Paris Conservatoire bought a copy of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunuv in 1874. So listening to these songs with new ears, it makes you wonder. I remember hearing a story about someone taking an Ivor Novello song and playing it slowly and making people think it was Brahms. If Katherine Broderick sang some of these songs in French, who would we think they were by?

Elizabeth, Piatigorsky, Heifetz & rare repertoire - an encounter with cellist Raphael Wallfisch

Raphael Wallfisch - photo Ben. Ealovega

The Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House isn't the most obvious place to expect to find the distinguished cellist Raphael Wallfisch, and certainly not sharing a dressing room with ballet dancer Carlos Acosta, and baritone David Kempster, but all three are appearing in Will Tuckett's Elizabeth a full-length work combining dance, music and theatre exploring the life and loves of Queen Elizabeth I. I met up with Raphael to talk about Elizabeth, how it feels to accompany dance with a solo cello, the Bach cello suites, his interest in recovering lost and neglected music and much else.

Elizabeth tells the story of the loves in Queen Elizabeth I's life, compressing a huge historical timeline into flashbacks which start and end with the dying queen. Alasdair Middleton's text uses Queen Elizabeth's letters and writings from the period tell the story, covering a huge timespan in a way which Raphael describes as 'cleverly done'. An actor plays the older Elizabeth whilst the dancer Zenaida Yanowsky plays the younger one, with Carlos Acosta as a sequence of her lovers.

The music is written by Martin Yates and uses just Raphael's cello and David Kempster's baritone, taking themes from Elizabethan music but seeing them through a contemporary lense. The tune Greensleeves features quite heavily, not just the full tune but individual cells are used throughout and even the double-dotted opening figures of the piece are based on the tune. Raphael explains to me how the music uses the cello's flexibility; at times sounding like a lute, at times like a drum, at times singing as well as accompanying the singer and providing music for dance.

Elizabeth. Zenaida Yanowsky, Carlos Acosta
©ROH, 2016. Photographed by Andrej Uspenski

Which brings us to one of the most fascinating points of the work, that without a conductor Raphael must co-ordinate his playing with the dancers. He shows me his score, and the not uncomplex music is littered with extra-musical markings as phrases must be timed to the movement of a foot. And Raphael talks about fitting of the music to the drama being rather like film music.

I was curious whether he had done anything like it before, and whether he enjoyed the experience. He response was a definitive yes, he had loved every minute of it and it had been rather different from anything he done before. Raphael's involved started two years ago when the piece was put together rather fast for a 2013 gala performance in the Painted Hall at Old Royal Naval College. For this revival the piece has been tightened, and Raphael talks about there being more interaction between the characters and even his page turner gets involved at one point.

Raphael got involved with the project because he is a friend of composer Martin Yates. Martin is a conductor and composer and has worked extensively at the Royal Opera House (he arranged the music for Carlos Acosta's production of Don Quixote).  And he is also a friend of choreographer and director Will Tuckett and librettist Alasdair Middleton.

As something of a one-off piece I as curious as to whether it might be done again. Raphael said that he hoped so, that he had loved doing it and the roles could be learned by other dancers but that for someone else to learn the cello part he would need to write out a new part, interpreting all his scribbles which cover the music. Then he smiles and says that he ought to do so.

Nutty bassoon, trumpet like violin and Manchester's seasons - Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima at the Wigmore Hall

Peter Whelan - photo Martin Usborne

Vivaldi concertos for bassoon and for violin 'in tromba marina', I Quattro Stagioni; Peter Whelan, Adrian Chandler, La Serenissima; the Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 16 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Contrasts in textures with concertos for bassoon and for a reconstructed violin 'in tromba marina' alongside the Manchester Four Seasons

A significant figure in Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima's concert at the Wigmore Hall on Friday 15 January 2016 was someone of whom most people have probably never heard. Count Wenzel von Morzin (Václav hrabě z Morzinu) was a Bohemian nobleman (chamberlain to Emperor Charles VI), who had a notable orchestra. Vivaldi was Morzin's maestro di musica in Italia, commissioned to send Morzin new compositions. We knew all this from the dedication of the Opus 8 concertos which Vivaldi had published in Amsterdam in 1725 (the set which included Le Quattro Stagioni) and from the fact that the bassoon concerto RV496 is inscribed 'per Ma. de Morzin' and seems to have been written for the bassoonist in Morzin's orchestra, Johann Anton Reichenauer. Vivaldi wrote 39 bassoon concertos, many or most of which are assumed to be written for Reichenauer because the Ospedale della Pieta (where Vivaldi worked) does not seem to have owned any bassoons.

Adrian Chandler
photo Eric Richmond

So Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima, performed two of Vivaldi's bassoon concertos written for Morzin, Concerto in G minor 'per Maestro de Morzin'  RV496 and Concerto in B flat RV501 'La notte' with soloist Peter Whelan, alongside Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni with Chandler playing the solo part. Le Quattro Stagioni were played in the Manchester version, using the contemporary manuscript in the Henry Watson Music Library as a source rather than the published Amsterdam version. Also in the programme were Vivaldi's Concerto in G for violin 'in tromba marina' RV311 and Concerto in D for violin 'in tromba marina' RV221.

The tromba marina was a single stringed instrument which was supposed to sound like a trumpet. Vivaldi's violino in tromba marina seems to have been an instrument which he invented (the only references to it are in sources related to the Pieta). Based on surviving evidence Michael Talbot and Adrian Chandler have come up with a modern reconstruction of the instrument, which was specially made by luthier David Rattray. So for the violino in tromba marina concertos Adrian Chandler played a violin which had three brass wound strings on a specially designed bridge which resonated in a raspy manner. The resulting sound was coarser than a regular violin and quite a lot louder. Adrian Chandler in his spoken introduction described it as having a sound that was not particularly refined and thought Vivaldi was having a bit of fun. Certainly the two concertos for the instrument that Chandler and La Serenissima played seemed to reflect the composer spending rather too long at a country hoedown.

We started with the Concerto in G for violin 'in tromba marina' RV311, and the opening Allegro proved crisp and bouncy with Chandler's solo recalling very much country fiddle playing with lots of double stopping. The Andante was a lovely, typically Vivaldian slow movement and the relative loudness of the solo instrument meant that Vivaldi's accompaniment could be stronger than usual. The Allegro finale returned us to the mood of the country dance.

Beyond the Sorcerers Apprentice - music by Paul Dukas for the Prix de Rome de musique

Paul Dukas Cantatas, choral and symphonic music; Flemish Radio Choir, Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet; Palazzetto Bru Zane, Ediciones Singulares
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 08 2016
Star rating: 3.5
Valuable insight into Paul Dukas with a set exploring his music for the Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome competition in 19th century France has left French musical history littered with cantatas setting worthy academical texts as composers competed to create something which the distinguished jury would appreciate and thus the composer would get the coveted three years staying in Rome. Only rarely did any of the great composers win, and the history of the 19th century competition is littered with major composers being denied the prize (though between 1880 and 1890 winners included Gabriel Pierné, Claude Debussy and Gustave Charpentier), sometimes, one suspects, for displaying too much originality.

This new set from Ediciones Singulares, in the Palazzetto Bru Zane series exploring the works of composers who submitted pieces to the Prix de Rome de musique, explores the work of Paul Dukas (1865-1935). Herve Niquet and the Flemish Radio Choir and the Brussels Philharmonic with soloists Marianne Fiset, Catherine Hunold, Chantal Santon-Jeffery, Kate Aldrich, Marie Kalinine, Frédéric Antoun, Cyrille Dubois, Andrew Foster-Williams and Tassis Christoyannis presents us with Dukas' pair of large scale cantatas Sémélé and Velléda which were submitted to the Prix de Rome, along with a series of smaller works submitted for the preliminary rounds.

Dancing in the aisles - Monteverdi: The Other Vespers at Kings Place

St. Mark's Basilica, Venice - interior looking diagonally.
Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection

Monteverdi: The Other Vespers, Monteverdi, Grandi, Cavalli; The Choir of the Enlightenment, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Robert Howarth; Kings Place
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 15 2016
Star rating: 5.0
Vivid and enlivening performances of sacred music from Monteverdi's 1641 and 1650 publications

Having given us Minimalism Unwrapped during 2015, last night (14 January 2016) Kings Place launched the latest of its year-long themed seasons with the opening concert of 2016's Baroque Unwrapped. Robert Howarth directed the Choir of the Enlightenment and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Monteverdi: The Other Vespers, a vespers sequence taken from Monteverdi's 1641 publication Selva morale e spirituale and the 1650 posthumous publication Messa e Salmi, along with music by Monteverdi's younger contemporaries Alessandro Grandi and Francesco Cavalli. We started with Grandi's Deus and Response and then followed with five vespers psalms by Monteverdi along with a Salve Reginai and concluding with Magnificat No 1 from Selva morale e spirituale. These were interspersed with motets and instrumental pieces by Grandi and Cavalli.

The music was performed by a relatively small and flexible group of performers, with eight singers (Miriam Allan, Zoe Brookshaw, Eleanor Minney, Nancy Cole, Jeremy Budd, John Bowen, Jonathan Brown, William Gaunt) who moved flexibly from solo moments to choral ensembles, and an instrumental ensemble of two violins, viola, bass violin, two sackbuts, dulcian, two theorbos and organ, led by violinist Alison Bury.

Whereas the grand vespers of 1610 were written very much as a job application (Monteverdi wanted to leave Mantua and had his eyes set on a bigger post elsewhere like Rome or Venice), Selva morale e spirituale is very much a summation of Monteverdi's work at St Mark's Basilica in Venice and this combined with the 1650 posthumous collection give us a real idea of the music Monteverdi's performers gave during services at St Mark's Basilica in Venice. And it was the vespers service which typically attracted the most elaborate and most modern of Monteverdi's music.

Double entendre - two harpsichords, four hands and a flamenco dancer

On Sunday 17 January 2016 at St. Michael's Church, Battersea, there is the chance to experience the intriguing combination of two harpsichords and flamenco dancer. Polish harpsichordists Pawel Siwczak and Katarzyna Kowalik will be performing a programme for two harpsichords and four hands, including music from Handel's Water Music, fragments from Purcell's King Arthur and Dido & Aeneas, dance movements by Couperin & Le Roux, Buxethude's Ciaccona, Mozart's Sonata for four hands and Boccherini's Fandango. As if its not enough to be given the chance to see whether two harpsichords are double the noise" or "twice as much harmony", the two will be joined by flamenco dancer Paola Santa Cruz.

Katarzyna Kowalik was a member of Handel House Talent during the 2014-15 season. Pawel Siwczak is director of music at St Michael's Church, Battersea, and responsible for the monthly concerts there.

The concert is part of the series Music at St Michael's and tickets are available on-line.

From Monteverdi to Verdi - Gianluca Buratto at Rosenblatt Recitals

Gianluca Buratto at Rosenblatt Recitals - photo Jonathan Rose

Monteverdi, Cazzati, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Verdi; Gianluca Buratto, James Baillieu; Rosenblatt Recitals at the Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 12 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Some dazzling moments and a stupendous voice in this recital from the young Italian bass

The Italian bass Gianluca Buratto has sung in London before (he was in the cast of John Eliot Gardiner's performance of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the 2015 Proms), but Buratto's Rosenblatt Recital at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 12 January 2016 was his first recital in London. Accompanied by pianist James Baillieu, Buratto sang a programme of mainly operatic arias from Monteverdi's L'Incoronatione di Poppea, Handel's Orlando, Vivaldi's Tito Manlio, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflote, Rossini's Il barbiere di Sivigla, Bellini's I Puritani and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, plus Maurizio Cazzati's cantata In Calvaria rupe moribundus.

Gianluca Buratto at Rosenblatt Recitals
photo Jonathan Rose

It was, perhaps, a mistake to begin with Seneca's long death scene from Monteverdi's L'Incoronatione di Poppea. Not that Buratto didn't have the voice for it, he certainly did. From his first notes he revealed a wonderfully sonorous and rich bass voice with a lovely sense of line and legato and an enviable ease at both ends of his range. But his stage presence was so discreet, so unassuming that the scene just did not make the impact that it should have. You felt that at times Buratto was using the music stand to shield himself from the audience, rather than bringing Monteverdi's flexible recitative to dramatic life. Add to this the omission of the chorus parts for Seneca's followers (played on the piano), and you had a piece where the drama did not quite happen. This was a shame because Buratto's voice seemed perfect for the role; he captured the sombre dignity of the part and really brought out the words. Perhaps he simply needs a good director.

Next came the cantata In Calvaria rupe moribundus by the 17th century Italian composer Maurizio Cazzati. This was a long fluid recitative followed by a quite discreet aria.

For Zoroastro's aria Sorge infausta una procella from Handel's Orlando, Buratto started to reveal a bit of bravura temperament, and projected a bit more emotion from the stage. He had an enviable control of the virtuoso elements of the aria, with firmly resonant tone, good passagework and a fine sense of drama. If we don't hear him in a Handel role in London soon then we are seriously missing out.  The final item in the first half was in a similar vein, Tito Manlio's aria Se il cor guerriero from Vivaldi's opera Tito Manlio. This was Vivaldi in instrumental mode, with the voice being given long instrumental-like passagework which Buratto despatched with facility and vivid energy.

Scandinavian summers all too brief - Gemma Lois Summerfield and Simon Lepper

Gemma Lois Summerfield
photo Sebastian Wybrew

Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, Debussy, Jonathan Dove, Sibelius, Richard Strauss; Gemma Lois Summerfield, Simon Lepper; St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Jan 10 2016
Star rating: 3.5
Darkly dramatic Sibelius forms a welcome high-point in a recital by 2015 Ferrier Competition winner

The soprano Gemma Lois Summerfield was the winner of the First Prize and Loveday Song Prize in the 2015 Kathleen Ferrier Competition and has since joined the Opera School at the Royal College of Music. She gave a full-length Sunday afternoon recital on Sunday 10 January 2016 at St John’s Smith Square with her coach Simon Lepper as her duo partner, in a programme of Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, Debussy, Jonathan Dove, Sibelius and Richard Strauss.

They began with Mendelssohn: four songs by Felix and one by Fanny. The last of this set, ‘Hexenlied’ (Witches’ song) was the most successful, with Hölty’s vivid, treacherous text put across very convincingly, sparks flying everywhere. However, for the previous songs Lepper had played gorgeous, delicate Mendelssohn on the piano while Summerfield seemed to be using this as her audition for Donna Elvira; a permanent fierce look on her face and a fixed stare into the middle distance. She seemed to forget she was among friends. The German language suits her well; the vowels are forward and the diction clear. It was curious that she didn’t choose more songs that showed the voice, and the fire, to better advantage.

New appointments at the London Youth Choir.

London Youth Choir performing at the Royal Albert Hall

The London Youth Choir (LYC) has announced some changes and expansions in their team. Co-founder Suzi Digby will become Founding President, whilst co-founder Rachel Staunton takes the role of Director, responsible for all five ensembles. Staunton is also Assistant Musical Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. Eamonn Dougan, Associate Conductor of the Sixteen, is joining LYC as Associate Conductor working with the chamber choir. Whilst Robbie Jacobs, musical director of Reverie, becomes Assistant Conductor with special responsibilities for the main choir and chamber choir.

Eamonn Dougan said that "With music education increasingly under threat in our schools, LYC provides essential opportunities for young singers in London. Rachel Staunton and her team are creating a hugely exciting and varied programme for their choirs and I’m very much looking forward to working with them."

Founded in autumn 2012 by Suzi Digby and Rachel Staunton, London Youth Choir launched with 150 singers, representing 30 of London’s boroughs. The choir's now membership has expanded to over 200 singers with representatives from all 33 boroughs, and numbers are growing all the time.

New viola concerto showcases young talent

Timothy Ridout

Oliver Zeffman and the Melos Sinfonia return on 15 January 2016 with a concert at the Guildhall School's Milton Court Concert Hall featuring the young viola player Timothy Ridout in the premiere of Desmond Clarke's Void Song for viola and orchestra. Also in the programme is Haydn's Symphony No. 88, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture alongside Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1.

Desmond Clarke, who is the recipient of the 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society composition prize, is a young composer currently studying at York University. The British viola player Timothy Ridout won the 2014 Cecil Aronowitz Prize. Oliver Zeffmann currently studies at the Royal Academy of Music, and for the 2013-14 academic year he lived in St Petersburg and studied conducting at the St Petersburg State Conservatory.

Tickets are available from the Barbican box office.

A little magic - Benjamin Appl and Jonathan Ware in Schubert

Benjamin Appl - photo: David Jerusalem

Schubert songs; Benjamin Appl, Jonathan Ware; the Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Jan 11 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Benjamin Appl's enchants in a last-minute programme all-Schubert programme

Young German baritone Benjamin Appl and American pianist Jonathan Ware stepped in at very short notice for the indisposed Luca Pisaroni and Wolfram Rieger, to present an all-Schubert programme, including Erlkönig and Viola, at the Wigmore Hall on Monday 11 January 2016 in keeping with Schubert: The Complete Songs series.

As Appl walked on stage we could see he is no stranger to the Wigmore; in fact this was his third appearance here in a week. He has an easy, friendly manner and sings to all of us. He was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s last private pupil and the mentoring really shows. He knows how to construct a programme that suits his voice and tells us a story; he knows how to exploit every word of the text, and he has a really lovely way with rubato and there were lots of those telepathic moments with Ware.

Jonathan Ware - photo Kaupo Kikkas

Appl clearly loves this repertoire and he knows it very well; the whole programme was sung from memory. He started with a breezy ‘Seligkeit’, followed by two more Hölty settings, ‘An die Afpelbäume, wo ich Julien erblickte’ (To the apple trees where I spotted Julia) and An den Mond (To the moon), coincidentally performed a few days earlier by Christopher Maltman (see our review), and here totally in keeping with Appl’s youth and stage persona – very charming. He captured us straight away. The voice is dark but not prematurely ponderous, as we sometimes hear with younger baritones. It really is the kind of voice you can listen to all day.

The remainder of the first half was given to Goethe settings, including a wonderfully characterised, rollicking ‘Musensohn’, effortless ‘Ganymed’ and a muscular ‘Rastlose Liebe’. These are Schubert pops, but he made them all sound fresh. A couple of these songs in this set felt to me as though they should have been sung in a higher key: ‘Nähe des Geliebten’ and ‘Meeres stille’ sounded a bit too lugubrious. His ‘Erlkönig’ was the campest thing I have heard on the Wigmore platform for a long time: the pompous father patronising as he tells the frantic boy it’s just a … ‘Nebelstreif’ (mist), and the pervy Erlkönig clearly differentiated in the voice and the piano as they raced to the melodramatic end. Marvellous stuff. If that was anyone’s first ‘Erlkönig’ they’ll never forget it.

A new Medea in Sweden

Daniel Börtz is a distinguished Swedish composer (born 1943), there is an interesting biography of him on his publisher Gehrman's website. His first opera Backanterna (The Bacchae) was premiered in 1991 and his latest opera is also based on a Greek drama. Medea, based on the drama by Euripedes, has its premiere at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm on 23 January 2016. The libretto is in Swedish, based on a new modern poetic version Agneta Pleijel and Jan Stolpe. The title role will be sung by Swedish soprano Emma Vetter, a singer whose roles encompass Sieglinde, Elsa (Lohengrin) and Chrysothemis (Elektra). Swedish actor and director Stefan Larsson directs and Patrick Ringborg, the Swedish conductor who is music director of Staatstheater Kassel, conducts.

The opera deals with the grimmer of the Medea stories, the one where she murders her children and Börtz said that 'I cannot understand her deed. I can try to ilustrate it. I am enthralled by the story. What Medea is subjected to and the madness she then unleashes, also happens to people in our world.'

Further information from the Royal Swedish Opera website.

War Work: Eight Song with Film

Michael Nyman War Work: Eight Songs with Film; Hilary Summers, Michael Nyman Band; MN Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 4 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Intriguing synthesis of old and new in music which transcends its film sound-track origins

Michael Nyman's War Work: Eight Songs with Film was originally produced to go with film; edited by Max Pugh the film uses found footage from the First World War without narration thus providing a synthesis of visual image and music. This disc, from Nyman's own label MN Records, provides us with the music on its own played by the Michael Nyman Band with mezzo-soprano Hilary Summers.

There are eight songs, presented in two groups separated by instrumental music. The poets Nyman has chosen are mainly poets from World War One who died in the conflict, except for David Bomberg. The poets set come from both sides of the conflict with texts by August Stramm (1874-1915), David Bomberg (1890-1957), Ernst Stadler (1883-1914), Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), Geza Gyoni (1884-1917), Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) and Alfred Lichenstein (1889-1914).

Liederabend with Sarah-Jane Brandon and Gary Matthewman

Sarah-Jane Brandon

Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, Strauss; Sarah-Jane Brandon, Gary Matthewman; Lied in London
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 10 2016
Delightfully engaging evening of lieder from young soprano

On Sunday 10 January 2016 there was one of pianist Gary Matthewman's Lied in London evenings. For this evening, it had been intended to perform Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch complete, but illness meant that the concert had to given without a baritone. So soprano Sarah-Jane Brandon sang a selection from Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch along with songs by Schubert (including Viola), Brahms' Zigeunerlieder Op.103 and a group of songs by Richard Strauss. Singing from memory throughout, Sarah-Jane Brandon gave no sense that this had been a hastily assembled recital and throughout the evening gave a consummate and highly engaging performance.

Gary Matthewman
© Johan Persson

Brandon and Matthewman opened with Schubert, starting with Herrn Josef Spaun, Assessor in Linz a comic jeux d'esprit written to his friend Spaun who had got a job in Linz and wasn't corresponding with Schubert and his friends back in Vienna. It is written as a recitative and aria, in highly dramatic form as if from a woman scorned, delivered by Brandon and Matthewman with brilliant dead-pan drama. Perhaps the best known of the group was the beautiful Im Abendrot but the concluding song of the group, though not so well known, was extremely striking. Viola is a very long song, almost a scena, in which the travails of a poor flower are given emotional weight by anthropomorphic means. Brandon's performance was thoroughly engaging, bringing out the lighter delight of the song without it ever outstaying its welcome.

The selection from Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch enabled Sarah-Jane Brandon to show the lighter side of her personality. She brought a lovely humour to Auch keline Dinge konnen uns entzucken and Mein Liebster ist so klein, and continued giving each song a nicely engaging feeling of humour and personality, through to the sly wit of Ich hab'in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen.

Lalo - complete songs

Edouard Lalo complete songs; Tassis Christoyannis, Jeff Cohen; Aparté
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Dec 15 2015
Star rating: 4.0
Survey of Lalo's songs showing there was more to him than his well known hit.

Edouard Lalo is best known for his Symphonie Espagnole but the rest of his output remains largely unexplored apart from very occasional sightings of his opera Le Roi d'Ys. Now baritone Tassis Christoyannis and pianist Jeff Cohen have enabled us to explore Lalo's contribution to the development of the French mélodie with a recording of Lalo's complete songs on the Aparté label (distributed by Harmonia Mundi) with the support of Palazzetto Bru Zane.

The songs on the two discs span Lalo's career from Adieu au désert and L'Ombre de Dieu written in 1848 (when he was 25) to Le Rouge-gorge written in 1887 five years before his death. This was a period when the French mélodie was developing (Faure's earliest songs date from the 1860's), moving from the salon to the concert hall with the romantic ballad giving way to the art song.

Ilona Domnich says thank-you with Gilda, Mimi and Tatyana

Alexander James Edwards, Ilona Domnich
& James McOran-Campbell
image from Ilona Domnich's Facebook page

The soprano Ilona Domnich has had a busy year, not only a series of roles including Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme, the four heroines in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann and the title role in Lehar's The Merry Widow, but the release of her solo CD, Surrender: Voices of Persephone, a disc of opera arias with Leo Nucci, the Southbank Sinfonia and Simon Over.

As a way of thanking all those involved in her journey, and to celebrate, she gave a private 'Thank you' concert on Saturday January 9, 2016. She was joined by the tenor Alexander James Edwards and baritone James McOran-Campbell with Simon Over accompanying on the piano. They performed selections from Verdi's Rigoletto, Puccini's La Boheme and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin plus music by Rachmaninov As a lyric coloratura soprano, the roles of Gilda, Mimi and Tatyana have proved important so far in Ilona Domnich's career.

The Evening Watch

Reverie

There seems to have been something in the air in Europe in the early 1920's, making three very different composers turn to unaccompanied mass settings. RVW wrote his Mass in G minor, Ildebrando Pizzetti wrote his Requiem and Frank Martin wrote his Mass (though Martin would put it into a draw and it would not be performed for some time).

Conductor Robbie Jacobs and his choir, Reverie, are bringing together RVW's mass and Pizzetti's requiem and linking them with a common thread of plainchant in a concert entitled The Evening Watch which is on Thursday 21 January 2016 at the Church of St Mary-le-Bow. Another plainchant component will be Maurice Durufle's Quatre Motets sur des Themes Gregoriens along with some of Hildegard of Bingen's magical chant. Also in the programme will be music by Erics Esenvalds and a brand new piece by Ben Rowarth, The Evening Watch.

Full details from the Reverie website.