A rich sophistication of thought running through this programme that seems worlds away from the typical debut recital: Awakenings from Laurence Kilsby & Ella O'Neill

Awakenings: Brahms, Saint-Saens, Wolf, Schoenberg, Stenhamer, Rebecca Clarke, Prokofiev, Hugh Wood, Jake Heggie, Weill, Britten: Laurence Kilsby, Ella O'Neill; AVI Music
Reviewed 15 July 2024

An intriguing & eclectic programme full of disturbing elements complemented by performances of remarkable maturity enlightened with the dark, burnished tones of Kilsby's voice

On this disc from tenor Laurence Kilsby and pianist Ella O'Neill on AVI Music (in co-production with SWR Kultur), under the title Awakenings we are presented with a programme that moves from Brahms to Saint-Saens, to Wolf, to Schoenberg, to Stenhamer, to Rebecca Clarke, to Wolf, to Prokofiev, to Hugh Wood, to Jake Heggie, to Weill, to Schoenberg, to Britten, to Clarke to Heggie. It is quite an eclectic mix, yet the songs are drawn together under quite a sophisticated theme. As Kilsby explains, "There is an idea that the darkest, most lustful and impulsive versions of ourselves stem from our innocence being corrupted. This idea forms the basis of this programme through its sub-themes of inexperience, naivety and corruption."

There is a rich sophistication of thought running through this programme that seems worlds away from the typical debut recital. For a start, few of the songs are well-known and few pop up in the recitals of young singers. Also, having chosen such a surprising and questioning subject for the recital, Kilsby and O'Neill bring it off with poise, sophistication and real depth. There is a burnished darkness to Kilsby's tone, that really suits the music, and his performances have a questing thoughtfulness that real impresses. 

Appealing to an opera audience with song repertoire: Opera in Song returns to Opera Holland Park

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin - James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves - Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022

Opera in Song, curated by baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and pianist Dylan Perez, has returned to Opera Holland Park for the fourth season. Last month there was a masterclass for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and a gala concert to celebrate her 80th birthday. This week there are three recitals on 18, 20 and 21 July. An exciting programme features a mix of new faces and returning figures. New are mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, baritone Benjamin Appl, soprano Harriet Burns and pianist Ian Burnside, returning are Julien Van Mellaerts, Dylan Perez and tenor Nicky Spence, along with this years crop of Opera Holland Park Young Artists. The result does exactly what Julien Van Mellaerts and Dylan Perez intended from the beginning, pairing established artists with up and coming talent.

Thursday's recital (18 July 2024) has the title Ballads and Legends and Julien Van Mellaerts sees it very much as an exploration of opera as song. Helen Charlston and Julien Van Mellaerts with Dylan Perez will be performing music by Charles Stanford, Rebecca Clarke, Carl Loewe, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Paolo Tosti, along with Haydn's dramatic scena, Arianna a Naxos. 

The evening will feature the premiere of Oded Zehavi’s Songs of the Sea, a sequence of songs commissioned by Julien Van Mellaerts, with lyrics by the poets Bill Manhire, Laura Attridge, and Claire Simon, respectively from New Zealand, Britain and France, referencing Julien Van Mellaerts three countries of origin. Composer Oded Zehavi is from Tel Aviv, and the sea is something that runs through Julien Van Mellaerts family. The cycle tells three different stories of the seas, presenting three very different versions of the sea.

Saturday's recital (20 July 2024) is an exploration of Frauenliebe und -Leben, with Benjamin Appl, Harriet Burns and Ian Tindale. The performance of Schumann's song-cycle exploring a woman's life and love (albeit written by a male poet and a male composer) will be expanded and interleaved with songs by Franz Schubert, Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Liza Lehmann, Rebecca Clarke, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Nico Muhly and others that use the narrative to explore things from a more 21st century point of view. 

On Sunday (21 July 2024) the final recital features Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez hosting a Comedy and Cabaret recital with the Opera Holland Park Young Artists featuring music by Stephen Sondheim, Tom Lehrer, Kurt Weill, Jonathan Dove, William Bolcom, Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward, Victoria Wood and more.

With the introduction of a piano into the auditorium, bringing the singers and pianist closer to the audience, Julien Van Mellaerts finds this closeness to the audience brings a surprising immediacy and intimacy to the performances.

The Opera in Song recitals at Opera Holland Park have proved popular in the past, with their mix of established artists and young talent. Julien Van Mellaerts and Dylan Perez hope that this year's fascinating mix will continue that, appealing to an opera audience with song repertoire.

Full details from the Opera Holland Park website.

London Mozart Players in 2024/25: Resident at Fairfield Halls, performing at Smith Square Hall & on the South coast, plus a new season at St Martin-in-the-Fields

London Mozart Players is resident at Fairfield Halls, Croydon and performs at Smith Square Hall and on the South coast, but in addition the orchestra launches its 2024/25 season with six concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields. In September, violinist Ruth Rogers directs Four World Season which fuses Vivaldi and Roxanna Panufnik’s interpretation of the world’s seasons, complete with live immersive digital projections which will transform St Martin’s into a visual spectacle. In October, Jonathan Bloxham conducts the orchestra in Mendelssohn and the Schumanns with Louis Schwizgebel in Schumann's Piano Concerto, Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony and Clara Schumann's Three Romances (an orchestration of her late masterpiece for violin and piano). November sees Jonathan Bloxham returning for The Ages of Mozart with pianist Angela Hewitt in programme which moves from Mozart's Symphony No. 1 to Symphony No. 6 'Linz' plus Piano Concerto No. 9 'Jeunehomme'.

The new year sees French Connections: Music from the Parisian Stage with pianist Zee Zee in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, Flights of Fancy with programmatic music from RVW to Coleridge Taylor, and A Place in Time when the orchestra's Education Ambassador, saxophonist Jess Gillam, joins the orchestra as soloist and presenter for this folk-inspired programme.

Other events include Christmas with London Mozart Players at Smith Square Hall with the LMP Brass ensemble, Croydon SDA Gospel Choir and Trinity Boys Choir and Trinity Girls Choir. The brass ensemble will also travel to Henry Ward Hall, Hastings and St John’s, Upper Norwood for Christmas Crackers. In Croydon, Changing Seasons ;at Fairfield Halls responds to the climate emergency by interspersing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with new seasonal-themed commissions from four community groups; Queer Croydon, Club Soda, Subrang Arts and Croydon Music & Arts. The event will be preceded by a free afternoon showcase in the open spaces of Fairfield Halls, featuring local talent from over 30 music and dance groups.

The orchestra's LMP on the Move initiative will be popping up in local community venues and public places around the Borough of Croydon, bringing accessible performance formats to the local residents throughout the year. The orchestra will also take LMP on the Move to Hastings, building on their residency on the South coast. The orchestra's community residencies in Upper Norwood and on the South coast continue with Marvellous Maestros (St John’s, Upper Norwood) and Now That’s What I Call (Classical) Music: Baroque to Rock (De La Warr Pavilion), both focusing on the GCSE music set-work syllabus, helping local students to prepare for their exams.      

Full details from LMP's website.

Dynamic duo: director Adele Thomas and creative producer Sarah Crabtree to take over as WNO's General Director and CEO

Adele Thomas

Welsh National Opera has announced that opera and theatre director Adele Thomas and creative producer Sarah Crabtree will jointly take up the role of WNO's General Director and CEO in January 2025, following on from Aidan Lang who stepped down at the end of 2023.

Welsh-born Adele Thomas is directing WNO's new production of Verdi's Rigoletto (for which plans were already in place) which premieres at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff this September before touring to Llandudno, Plymouth, Oxford and Southampton. 

Thomas' opera directing has included Handel's Semele at Glyndebourne, Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Royal Opera House, a vividly theatrical production Vivaldi's Bajazet for Irish National Opera in 2022 [see my review] and a brilliant re-invention of Handel's Berenice for London Handel Festival and the Royal Opera in 2019 [see my review].

Sarah Crabtree is Creative Producer and head of Linbury Theatre (opera) at The Royal Opera House, where highlights include overseeing the world premieres of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Coraline [see our review] at the Barbican, Philip Venable’s 4.48 Psychosis [see my review], Laura Bowler's The Blue Woman and Oliver Leith’s Last Days. 

Sarah Crabtree (© 2023 ROH. Photographed by Charlie Clift)

Many will remember Sarah Crabtree from her time at Opera Holland Park where she worked from 2006 to 2015, becoming Associate Producer to James Clutton there in 2012; she commissioned Opera Holland Park’s first ever new work, Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 2012.

Full details from the WNO website.

Fine singing and vivid character in this revival of John Cox's vintage production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Garsington

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - David Ireland, Claire Lees - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro; David Ireland, Claire Lees, Rafael Fingerlos, Samantha Clarke, Bethany Horak-Hallett, director: John Cox/Bruno Ravella, Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor: Tabita Berglund; Garsington Opera
Reviewed 14 July 2024

A solidly sung revival of a production that is becoming a classic, telling the story with clarity and vivid detail, with classy singing that lifted this from an ordinary revival

John Cox's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro was created back in 2005 for a very different Garsington, when the company was in its original home. It is a classic production, one that tells the story with elegance, clarity and humour. This year, the production was revived by director Bruno Ravella. We caught the performance on 14 July 2024, when Tabita Berglund conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra with David Ireland as Figaro, Claire Lees as Susanna, Rafael Fingerlos as the Count, Samantha Clarke as the Countess, Bethany Horak-Hallett as Cherubino, Neal Davies as Dr. Bartolo, Susan Bickley as Marcellina, Stephanie Hershaw as Barbarina and Paul Nilon as Don Basilio. Designs were by Robert Perdziola, with lighting by Malcolm Rippeth.

Perdziola's set started out as an assemblage of architectural fragments, providing the corner of Figaro and Susanna's room along with necessary corridors. For the scene change to Act Two, the set was simplified and altered, and then for Act Three it was simplified again, whilst the entire set was re-dressed for the garden scene. It might have not been the most luxurious of sets, but Perdziola succeeded in capturing the right atmosphere (I loved the forbidding neo-Velázquez portrait gallery) and for the complexities of the more farcical moments in Acts One and Two, the set provided just the right engine. Even here, there were imaginative touches, so that in Act Two we could see inside the closet with first Cherubino (Bethany Horak-Hallett) and then Susanna (Claire Lees) patiently waiting.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro - Claire Lees, Samantha Clarke - Garsington Opera, 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera)

An intuitive abstract Sudoku working with sound parameters and with no single solution: Chilean composer Aníbal Vidal on writing music

The Brompton Quartet, Aníbal Vidal & Ignacio LusardiMonteverde at recording session for Cuerdas y Rugidos

Chilean composer Aníbal Vidal released his album, Cuerdas y Rugidos (Strings and Roars), on the Sello Modular label last month. Aníbal is currently on the Britten Sinfonia's Magnum Opus scheme, they premiered a work by him at Milton Court in April and will be premiering another of his works in the Autumn. 

Aníbal Vidal

The new disc features three of Aníbal's chamber works, Camanchaca - String Quartet No.1 performed by the Brompton Quartet, Unboxing a Music Box - String Quartet No.2 performed by the Alkyona Quartet and Three Chants for assembling an Oboe for oboe and string quartet performed by José Luis Urquieta and ensemble f(r)actura. Aníbal has been writing chamber music for the past three years, he finds you have a more developed exchange with the performer, whereas with orchestral music there is not such a close collaboration. So, exploring a soundscape or musical landscape is far more exciting with a chamber group, though he admits that the recording also makes economic sense.

Camanchaca, his String Quartet No.1, is based on an idea he has had for years. Chile is a seismic country, most people have experienced at least three earthquakes. He has a distinct sound memory of earthquakes, how the houses sound when shaking, and the roars beneath the ground. He experienced the tsunami of 2010 when he was living in a small coastal village and all the fishermen's boats smashed against the breakwater creating a truly memorable sound that he likened to a Titan playing with the boats. In Camanchaca he imagines a peaceful landscape alongside the sound memories of the earthquakes.

Nordic Soundscapes: Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s fourth season as principal conductor of the Philharmonia opens with a focus on music, nature and the climate crisis

Santtu-Matias Rouvali’s fourth season as principal conductor of the Philharmonia opens with a season focusing on the relationship between music, nature and the climate crisis from a Nordic perspective, Nordic Soundscapes (26 September to 10 November) with music by Sibelius, Grieg and Nielsen plus seven UK premieres from contemporary Nordic composers, plus Notes on Nature discussions that will delve to the themes of the series.

Things open with something rather special, Sibelius' Kullervo where Rouvali and the Philharmonia are joined by the choir that sang at its premiere back in 1892, the YL Male Voice Choir. There is also Grieg's Piano Concerto with Stephen Hough and the UK premiere of Icelandic composer María Sigfúsdóttir’s Oceans. Rouvali's second concert features the UK premiere of Miho Hazma's What the Wind Brings (she is the Tokyo-born chief conductor of the Danish Radio Big Band), plus Nielsen's Violin Concerto (with Bomsori Kim) and Sibelius' The Oceanides and Symphony No. 3. Sibelius' Violin Concerto features María Dueñas as soloist, with Rouvali conducting a programme that includes the UK premiere of Swedish composer Mats Larsson Gothe's Submarea and Nielsen's Symphony No. 5.

For the Music of Today series, Chloe Rooke conducts the UK premieres of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's Semafor and Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen's Two Inger Christensen Song (with soprano Ella Taylor). The Philharmonia Wind Quintet will be performing Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's Memoria and Nielsen's Wind Quintet.

Emilia Hoving conducts the UK premiere of Finnish composer Outi Tarkiainen's Mosaics plus Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 and Sibelius' Symphony No. 2, and the final concert in the series features Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting Finnish composer Lotta Wennäkoski’s Flounce, the UK premiere of Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg's Viola Concerto (with Lawrence Power) and Sibelius' Symphony No. 1.

There are also concerts outside the theme, Sir Andras Schiff directs the orchestra and is soloist in piano concertos by Haydn and Mozart, plus Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Marin Alsop conducts an all Mahler programme mixing the music of Gustav with that of Alma. Rouvali conducts Tchaikovsky and Khachaturian including his Violin Concerto with Nemanja Radulović.

Full details from the Philharmonia's website.

Our June newsletter has landed

 

Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress - Adam Temple-Smith, Michael Mofidian - The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller)

June on Planet Hugill: Holland Park, the Grange, Aldeburgh, Glyndebourne and beyond.

Our latest newsletter has landed on MadMimi and on LinkedIn.

Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Scots Opera Project team up for Scottish Gaelic & Scots Language version of 'Dido and Aeneas'

Now this is intriguing. Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Scots Opera Project are teaming up for a production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in an exciting new Scottish Gaelic and Scots Language version! David Douglas directs with a Scots translation by Dr Michael Dempster and Gaelic translation by Marcas Mac an Tuairneir. And no, I'm not clear how they plan to make the mix of languages work, but Scots Opera Project debuted this version in 2018 and in 2019, was nominated for both a Scots Language and a Scottish Gaelic Award for Dido and Aeneas.

The outdoor performances run at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 31 August to 15 September, and will feature a professional cast including Kilmarnock-based tenor David Douglas, Perthshire based soprano Coleen Nicoll, Edinburgh based Northern Irish soprano Emma Morwood, Glasgow based baritone Colin Murray and Stirling based Austrian mezzo-soprano Ulrike Wutscher, and community chorus. 

In 2022, Scots Opera Project gave the Scottish premiere of Granville Bantock and Marjory Kennedy-Fraser’s The Seal-Woman.

Further details from the Pitlochry Festival Theatre's website.

A glorious diversity: Temple Music Foundations 2024/25 season with everything from medieval French song & Arabic poetry to Benjamin Britten & James MacMillan

Temple Church

The Temple Music Foundation's 2024/25 season offers the opportunity to hear a diverse range of music in a variety of spaces in and around Temple. Things kick off with Siren Duo (Claire Wickes, flute and Tomos Xerri, harp) in the intimate confines of Middle Temple Library with an imaginative programme themed around fire and water including music by Mozart (from the flute and harp concerto), Debussy, Piazzolla (from Histoire du Tango), William Alwyn (evoking the rivers and reedbeds of Suffolk), Toru Takemitsu (inspired by Melville's Moby Dick), David Watkins, and Adina Izarra. We move to the glorious spaces of Temple Church for a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with Harry Christophers conducting the Sixteen.

One highlight of the season must be tenor James Way's recital with pianist Julius Drake and horn player Richard Watkins. Their exploration of music for tenor, horn and piano includes Schubert's wonderful, and relatively little done, Auf dem Strom, Britten's The Heart of the Matter (his expansion of his Edith Sitwell setting, Still falls the rain) and the premiere of James MacMillan's Duet for Horn and Piano, along with music by Schumann, and Poulenc.

Using the Round Church rather than the regular nave of Temple Church, Siglo de Oro, director Patrick Allies, will be collaborating with actors and readers, and scholars from the UKRI-funded Musical Lives project to bring together performance of medieval French songs, Arabic poetry and Latin charters with narration evoking the world of medieval knight, William Marshal (d.1219 and buried in Temple Church).

Thomas Allery will be direction the Temple Youth Choir which consists of young singers from across London, including choral scholars and former choristers of the Temple Church, coming together for their annual concert for Remembrance. This year they are performing Fauré's Requiem in the year of the centenary of his death.

At the beginning of December, music at Temple is devoted to the Winter Festival which features a variety of events including Mark Padmore and Julius Drake in Schubert's Winterreise, Onyx Brass in music from Monteverdi and Bach to Imogen Holst and Emily Hall, an organ recital from Danish organist Hanne Kuhlman in music from Bach and Krebs to Karg-Elert and more, the Sacconi Quartet in Ravel, Mendelssohn and Roxanna Panufnik, the choir of Merton College in carols and anthems for Advent, and Thomas Allery directing Temple Church Choir and Temple Players in Handel's Messiah with soloists Jessica Cale, Rebecca Leggett, Stuart Jackson and Christopher Purves.

Full details from the Temple Music website.

Summer in Vienna: Jesus Leon's Vienna Opera Festival returns with two Mozart stagings

Vienna Opera Festival 2023

Despite its name, the Vienna Opera Festival (Wiener Festpiele) was only founded in 2019 by tenor Jesus Leon with music director Toby Purser. The festival puts on a Summer season (mid-July to the end of August) in venues such as Mozarthaus Vienna and the Musikverein. The same team runs the Vienna Opera Academy which offers an opera programme and assistant conductor programme, and the festival takes its soloists from the academy, and has its own orchestra.

This year's festival features stagings of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, conducted by Daniel Hoyem Cavazza and Don Giovanni conducted by Toby Purser, along with opera highlights concerts featuring music by Mozart and Verdi. 

Performing whilst the Vienna State Opera and Volksoper are closed for the Summer, the festival provides an opportunity for a weekend of Summer opera in Vienna along with supporting dynamic young artists.

Full details from the festival website.

Age 15 to 18, love music and wondering what to do next? The Benedetti Foundation launches its free Youth Ambassador Programme

Benedetti Foundation workshop (Photo:  Jamie Williamson)

The Benedetti Foundation is launching a new free Youth Ambassador Programme for 15 to 18-year-olds across the UK. 

Open to singers and instrumentalists, it is aimed at anyone of this age who is passionate about music and sharing it with the world. It will offer an insight into what a career in music could look like. 

The first course takes place from Monday 9 September to Friday 13 December 2024, with a range of activities to help participants explore a future in music. 

• Explore different careers in the Arts and see what it’s like to work in the music industry from various angles
• Learn to teach and start developing your own teaching style
• Get creative and discover new ways to express yourself through performance
• Focus on wellbeing and understanding how to balance mental and physical health with musical workload
• Meet other young, passionate musicians, join mentor sessions, attend inspiring talks with leading professionals and participate in online and in-person activities
• Gain hands-on experience and make connections

There will be mentoring, talks from educators, musicians on performance skills, information about handling performing anxieties and nerves, and interactions with a range of industry professionals from different areas of the arts world, along with hands on experience including delivering workshops in primary schools and participating in mass string-playing days.

Further information from the Benedetti Foundation website, along with the application form.
 

£750,000 and counting: the Continuo Foundation opens its 8th grant round for applications

One of the many creative projects by the Continuo Foundation's grantee ensembles - This is my Body from Figure Ensemble at the Swiss Church - see my review (Photo: Nick Rutter)

Since its creation in September 2020, the Continuo Foundation has awarded £750,000 to nearly 100 period-instrument ensembles, supporting 170 creative projects, initiatives which have benefited over 1,000 freelance musicians and reached more than 180,000 audience members in 180 UK locations and online [see my 2022 interview with founder, Tina Vadaneaux].

The foundation has now opened is 8th grant round for applications. It is accepting applications for funding Early Music concerts, tours and other artistic projects taking place between November 2024 and April 2025, anywhere in the UK. As in previous rounds, the funding available in this eighth grant round amounts to £100,000.

Proposals from both established and emerging ensembles (formed since 2020) are being welcomed and will be evaluated based on artistic quality, audience reach, and long-term impact. At least 20% of the funds will be directed to support recently formed groups, underlining the foundationʼs commitment to fostering emerging talent.

While its grants are focused on period instrument ensembles, Continuo Foundation has expanded its support to all UK-based professional early music artists, including vocal ensembles, through its Continuo Connect digital platform, which offers comprehensive concert listings for over 150 artists and 50 festivals.

Full details from the Continuo Foundation's website.

Youth, experience and a warm reception: our visit to the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Tartu, Estonia

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 - Hans Christian Aavik, Neeme Järvi, Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta - Glasperlenspiel Festival at St John's Church, Tartu

Named for Hermann Hesse's last full-length novel, Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game), the Glasperlenspiel Festival in Estonia is just two year shy of its 30th birthday. Founded in 1996 by composer Peeter Vähi and producer Tiina Jokinan, the festival fills St John's Church in Tartu with music for a long weekend every July. This year the festival runs from 4 to 9 July, with eleven events spread across the six days.

St John's Church dates from the 14th century and is notable for its brick construction and the enormous number of terracotta statues that featured on the exterior; there were originally over a thousand and some 200 survive. The church was badly damaged by fire in World War Two and left semi-derelict for some 50 years before being restored in the 1990s, creating a handsome wooden-roofed interior with a very fine and sympathetic acoustic.

This year's festival line-up includes Gidon Kremer (violin) and Stathis Karapanos (flute) with Kremerata Baltica in music by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert, Grazyna Bacewicz and Sofia Guubaidulina; the Swiss ensemble Aventura Barocca with Israeli mezzo-soprano Maya Amir in a programme mixing Baroque music with that of the Middle East; the Estonian vocal ensemble, Vox Clamantis, directed by Jaan-Eik Tulve in a programme of Gregorian chant dedicated to St John the Baptist, including the Tournai Mass; the contemporary ethnic music group Zetod in a programme of  music from Setoland; Quatuor Akilone from France in Mozart, Boccherini and Arriaga; the Estonia National Male Choir in music by Estonian composer Rein Rannap; the New Baltic Sound Quartet (violin, cello, and two percussion) in contemporary programme with an Estonian cast to it including one of Peeter Vähi's pieces; the Lithuanain ensemble Musica Humana

And tucked away in the late-night slot on Friday 5 July, Ben Vonberg-Clark (tenor), Jonathan Eyers (baritone) and Nigel Foster (piano) in Out of the Shadows, the programme of my vocal music that we originally premiered in February 2023. The church's acoustic proved ideal for vocal music, and the audience, which mixed festival regulars with visitors including some from the Estonian LGBTQ community, gave the music a really warm reception.

Robert Hugill: Out of the Shadows - Nigel Foster, Ben Vonberg-Clark, Jonathan Eyers
Glasperlenspiel Festival at St John's Church, Tartu

We were lucky enough to be able to catch the festival's opening concert when a packed house heard veteran Estonian-born conductor Neeme Järvi conducting the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta in a programme of Haydn, Mozart and Albinoni including Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major with Estonian violinist Hans Christian Aavik. The evening might easily have been called youth and experience, the soloist is 26 and Maestro Järvi is 87. On this showing, Järvi's music making is as vital as ever and he seemed to have a warmly responsive relationship with the orchestra and with the soloist.

Things began with Haydn's Serenade for Strings, Op.3 No. 5 which showcased the sinfonietta's light and delicate sound, almost aetherial at times, full of elegance and style with the acoustic lending the sound a lovely clarity. In the violin concerto, Hans Christian Aavik played with lithe elegance and a graceful clarity of sound. He created a fine sense of long-breathed line and seemed to have responsively enjoyable relationship with Järvi, the pair's sheer enjoyment of the music conveying itself in the performance. After the interval, Albinoni's Adagio in G, where the sound quality had an almost suave elegance to it. We ended with Mozart's Symphony No. 29, with sprightly vivacity in the first movement, graceful transparency in the second and ending with fast finale that was full of engaging energy. There was an encore, Boccherini's Minuet.

Next year's festival runs from 10 to 15 July 2025, and will feature the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, Weiner Kammersymphonie and Kremerata Baltic, a return from Hans Christian Aavik with his piano trio, plus Estonian composer Märt-Matis Lill.

Sustainable Opera for the Future by Max Parfitt of Wild Arts

Donizetti: The Elixir of Love - James Atkinson - Wild Arts 2023 (Photo: Lucy J Toms)

We humans, alone on earth, are powerful enough to create worlds, and then to destroy them. But we have one more thing – an ability, perhaps unique among the living creatures on the planet – to imagine a future and work towards achieving it.

- David Attenborough

The arts industry is aware of the environmental threat that we are under. Any good art has to be. Art should reflect present times and issues, even while celebrating the genius of the past. Environmental and social activism (successful or otherwise) is what will define this generation in years to come.

Productions have frequently been tilted towards environmental themes – see anything from Opera North’s Masque of Might [see Robert's review], to Barry Kosky’s staging of Das Rheingold at Covent Garden – there is something inherently operatic about the grand forces (light and dark, good and evil, man and nature) that such ideas invoke. Wild Arts’ Summer Opera this year, directed by James Hurley, is Mozart's The Magic Flute – a tale of enlightenment conquering the forces of nature, order (and civilisation) asserting itself over chaos. Though our production is set in a more fantastical world than our own, there is nonetheless a lingering question for any modern-day audience: as Sarastro triumphs and the forces of nature are crushed, are our heroes on the right side? Can the powerful final chorus be quite so celebratory when we know the consequences of the society it lauds? Done well, these lines of environmental commentary can bring an extra depth to their productions without crowbarring messaging irrelevant to the original material.

What does an opera world look like which is entirely sustainable?   What are the parameters we should be striving towards?   What do we all need to consider?   How should we be shaping the future.   

As vivid and vigorous as ever: David McVicar's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare returns to Glyndebourne with a terrific young cast

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Louise Alder - Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto; Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, Louise Alder, Beth Taylor, Svetlina Stoyanova, Cameron Shahbazi, director: David McVicar, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Laurence Cummings; Glyndebourne
28 June 2024

Nearly 20 years old, McVicar's iconic production returns as vivid and vibrant as ever, with superb performances from a young cast

Amazingly, David McVicar's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne will be 20 years old next year. It debuted in 2005, with Sarah Connolly and Danielle de Niese, returning in 2006 (with David Daniels and Danielle de Niese) and in 2009 (with Sarah Connolly and Danielle de Niese). Now, after something of a gap, it is back as vivid and vigorous as ever with a young new cast.

We caught the second performance of the 2024 revival of David McVicar's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne on Friday 28 June 2024. Giulio Cesare was Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen [who was David in Handel's Saul at Komische Oper Berlin in 2023, see my review], Cleopatra was Louise Alder [who sang the title role on Arcangelo's recent recording of Handel's Theodora, see my review], Cornelia was Beth Taylor, Sesto was Svetlina Stoyanova [who was Ruggiero in Handel's Alcina at Glyndebourne in 2022, see my review], Tolomeo was Cameron Shahbazi [who was Hamor in Handel's Jephtha at Covent Garden in 2023, see my review] and Achilla was Luca Tittoto [who sang Saul at the Komische Oper], with Thomas Chenhall as Curio and Ray Chenez as Nireno. Laurence Cummings conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Sets were by Robert Jones, costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, choreography by Andrew George.

The production takes an admirably expansive view of what is actually a very long opera with a first act lasting just shy of 90 minutes and, correctly, two intervals, none of the arias is trimmed, Nireno got his aria and Achilla got both of his. The second interval is, however, placed after Cleopatra's 'Se pietà', with the scene for Tolomeo, Cornelia, Sesto and Achilla opening the third part.

Handel: Giulio Cesare - Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen - Glyndebourne, 2024 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

The production sets the action in the context of the British Raj, which gives a firm underpinning for the drama without the need for extensive back history, though Brigitte Reiffenstuel's costumes, particularly for Cleopatra are rather more playful. Robert Jones' sets might seem lavish but they are enormously responsive and scene changes happened smoothly and easily, with no awkward waits and only a couple of uses of the drop curtain. This has the admirable effect of allowing Handel's drama to flow exactly as it ought. Cleopatra's scene in Act Two where she is supposed to appear enthroned with the muses really did feature the nine musicians on stage, which is something opera companies rarely attempt nowadays, and McVicar keeps largely to the work's dramaturgy so that exit arias were largely that.

Whilst McVicar does present Handel and his librettist Nicola Haym's drama pretty much as they intended, McVicar also takes the view that opera seria as a genre is something that needs help if it is to live theatrically. He does this by leavening the drama with humour, the use of the chorus and actors has a stylised sense of the comic to it and choreographer Andrew George's movement generally had a lightening, leavening effect. Also, in the moments of unfortunate coincidence or suspension of disbelief, to which opera seria is rather prone, if the production did not actually encourage a laugh, it was rather expected. That said, within this playfulness, the characters are taken seriously and their emotions are never lightened.

Expressionism and rigour: soprano Claire Booth on recording Pierrot Lunaire and the importance of exploring Schoenberg's songs

Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire - Claire Booth & Nash Ensemble at Aldeburgh Festival, 2024 (Photo: Marcus Roth (c) Britten Pears Arts)

Soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn have previous when it comes to focusing on composers whose songs deserve to be better known. Recent forays into this repertoire have led them to deep dives into songs by Percy Grainger, Folk Music, Edvard Grieg, Lyric Music, and Modest Mussorgsky, Unorthodox Music. Now they are repeating this with Expressionist Music on Orchid Classics, a disc that explores Schoenberg's songs beyond that handful that people feel obliged to perform.

Claire Booth (Photo: Sven Arnstein)

This year is, of course, the 150th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg's birth, and Claire is devoting quite a bit of time to the composer. This is not new, she has performed Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire since taking part in a performance directed by Pierre Boulez shortly after she left college and Pierrot Lunaire features on another disc with Ensemble 360 that is being released on Onyx Classics in September, and she will be performing the work several times including at the Aldeburgh Festival [see Tony's review]. But her musical life extends beyond Schoenberg and this year she is also performing new works by Zoë Martlew and Helen Grime which Claire has commissioned.

Schoenberg's song-writing spans much of his career from the early 1890s to the 1930s, so they vary in style from his late romantic works to free atonality to twelve-tone. In Expressionist Music, Claire and Christopher Glynn perform songs from his Opus 2 (1899), Opus 3 (1899/1903), Brettl-Lieder (1901), Opus 6 (1903/1905), Opus 12 (1906), Opus 14 (1907/1908), Opus 48 (1933) as well as something from Gurrelieder (1901/1911).

As she points out, some of these songs are known and occasionally performed, but the name of the composer and his reputation seems to prevent performers and promoters from exploring further. With his 150th anniversary, it feels super-important to Claire to be performing his music and she confessed herself somewhat surprised that festivals have not been showcasing his music more.

Her and Christopher Glynn's booklet note explains their thinking, "the inescapable truth is that a century on, Schoenberg is still not box office. But for anyone who believes that Schoenberg is cold, cerebral and unapproachable, we can only say this: try the songs. Having explored every single one of them (as we did over a few intense days one summer), it’s impossible not to be struck by just how much magnificent music there is to discover, and that is what we have tried to celebrate in this recital."

The Northern Chamber Orchestra goes on tour with Mozart and much more besides in the new season in Macclesfield

Northern Chamber Orchestra (Photo: Sara Porter, 2022)

The theme of Mozart on Tour threads its way through the Northern Chamber Orchestra's 2024/25 season of concerts in Macclesfield (largely but not exclusively at The King's School). But it isn't just Mozart, with a season featuring works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, John Adams, George Walker, Schnittke, and Judith Weir

The season opens with Mozart in Paris with Ellie Slorach conducting Symphony No.13 (Paris) and the Requiem with Manchester Chamber choir. Then in December focus moves to Linz for Mozart's Symphony No. 36 (Linz) directed by Katie Stillman in a concert that also includes Raphael Wallfisch in Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations and music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir. In Vienna, we get Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 with Benedict Holland directing with soloist Jeneba-Kanneh Mason plus Symphony No. 35 (Haffner) plus music by John Adams and George Walker. And the season ends in Prague with Zoe Beyers directing Mozart's Symphony No. 38 (Prague) plus Haydn's Symphony No.45 (‘Farewell’), Schnittke's Moz-Art a la Haydn and Judith Weir's Still, Glowing.

Other concerts feature Philip Herbert's Elegy (In Memoriam Stephen Lawrence), Jennifer Pike in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, Caplet's Suite Persane, Shostakovich, Neilsen, Bruckner, Jessie Montgomery and much else besides.

Full details from the orchestra's website.

Something of a minor revelation: choral music by Giovanni Bononcini who was brought to England as Handel's operatic rival

How are the mighty fallen: Choral music by Giovanni Bononcini; Rowan Pierce, Esther Lay, Helen Charlston, Guy Cutting, Giles Underwood, Choir of Queen's College, Oxford, Academy of Ancient Music, Owen Rees; Signum Classics
25 June 2024

Known as a rival to Handel, Bononcini wrote far more than Italian opera and this disc of his choral music written in England is something of a minor revelation

Giovanni Bononcini is best known in the UK today as Handel's rival who finally retired the scene after plagiarism scandal, leaving the way open for Handel. Bononcini arrived in London in 1720 to join Handel in the Royal Academy of Music as part of a group of composers responsible for creating opera. Bononcini was around from 1720 until 1732 when, indeed, there was a plagiarism scandal. But he was already well known in the city.

His opera Camilla (based on his 1696 opera Il trionfio di Camilla) with a new English text was so popular that it had 111 or 112 performances from 1706 to 1728, making it the most popular and successful work of its period, after The Beggar's Opera.  Some of these were with adapted music but others were with Bononcini's original score. And when he finally arrived in London, his operas, including Griselda from 1722, often rivalled Handel's for popularity. Bononcini had a knack for creating graceful, elegant and appealing melodies. In the later 1720s his operatic output decreased following his appointment as director of the private concerts of the Duchess of Marlborough.

But this new disc from the Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford, the Academy of Ancient Music, conductor Owen Rees, with soloists Rowan Pierce, Esther Lay, Helen Charlston, Guy Cutting and Giles Underwood on Signum Classics invites us to explore a different side to Bononcini. Owen Rees presents a programme of the composer's sacred music, Ave maris stella, Te Deum, Laudate pueri and When Saul was King.

1-2-3 Mendelssohn: the Engegård Quartet and friends celebrate the music of Felix and Fanny at their festival in Oslo

If you fancy an Autumn weekend in Norway, then the Engegård Quartet is offering a deep dive into the chamber music and songs of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.

The Engegård Quartet [whom we heard recently at Conway Hall, see my review] has a tradition of holding single-composer mini-festivals in its home town of Oslo in Norway and this year, the festival is devoted to the Mendelssohns, Felix and Fanny. 1-2-3 Mendelssohn takes place at Nynorskens hus in Oslo from 8 to 10 November. The Engegård Quartet will be joined by an array of friends including the Elias String Quartet, mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland, pianist Ariel Lanyi, film maker Sheila Hayman, The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s Boys Choir and Nordberg String Orchestra, for a weekend of events focusing on the music of the two composers.

The opening concert features chamber music and lieder, including Fanny's masterpiece, Piano Trio in D minor and Felix's String Quintet No. 1, plus a piano duet version of the famous Wedding March. Saturday begins with a cafe concert devoted to songs without words, then in the afternoon it is the music both wrote in childhood including a performance of one of Felix's early string symphonies performed by young people and both quartets in Felix's Octet. And youth has it in the evening as the boys choir is joined by young people from Barratt Due Junior Ensemble with works including Hear my prayer and the cantata Verleih uns frieden.

Sunday morning sees music by both siblings performed by young people and woven into a story about Felix and Fanny. There is an afternoon salon concert featuring chamber music and songs, then the Norwegian premiere of Sheila Hayman's film Fanny: The Other Mendlessohn, and the festival closes with another feast of chamber music and song, including Ariel Lanyi in Felix's Fantasie in F sharp minor and the event concludes with the audience being invited to join in Hark the Herald Angels Sing! which has music adapted from Mendelssohn's Gutenberg Cantata.

Full details from the festival website.

And looking further ahead, if you fancy a December trip to Oslo, then the Engegård Quartet is collaborating with actress Gjertrud Jynge and visual artist Marianne Heske for A Shining Darkness at Norwegian Opera. This is a stage adaptation, by Gjertrud Jynge, of Jon Fosse's novel Septology which will feature chamber music ranging from old to modern and from popular to sacred, and a video painting by visual artist Marianne Heske visually accompanies the performance.

Details from Norwegian Opera's website.