25 years of the special natural setting of Exmoor & Dartmoor: the Two Moors Festival celebrates

South Molton Church

This October the Two Moors Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary with events encompassing Exmoor (1-5 October 2025) and Dartmoor (8-12 October 2025). Since 2001, the Two Moors Festival has evolved into one of the most distinctive classical music festivals in the UK. It usually welcomes over 4,000 people to its rural venues. The Festival also nurtures young artists through its Young Musicians’ Competition and assists performers through its residency programmes. This year’s line-up represents the best of chamber music and song, spanning six centuries of musical tradition, as well as talks, discussion and workshops. 

Last year, I chatted to artist director, violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen about the festival, see our interview. This year she opens things with solo and duo works by Bach performed with cellist Guy Johnston, and then Waley-Cohen and friends perform Schubert's Trout Quintet.  Waley-Cohen also joins Colin Currie and the United Strings of Europe for a concert including music by Tchaikovsky, Jessie Montgomery, Caroline Shaw and a new piece by Erkii-Sven Tuur for violin, percussion and string orchestra. Colin Currie and his quartet will also be giving a relaxed concert including music by Steve Reich and Anna Meredith

Tamsin Waley-Cohen performing at the Two Moors Festival in 2022

Vocal ensemble Apollo5 give an eclectic recital as well as presenting an all-ages singing workshop. Other events include a recital of English song by soprano Elizabeth Watts and pianist Julius Drake, the duo Intesa (Lucine Musaelian and Nathan Giorgietti) in music for viol and voice, singers from the National Opera Studio in recital, tenor Nick Pritchard joins pianists James Baillieu and Cordelia Williams for a Schubertiade,  pianist Tianxu An makes a rare UK appearance with a recital of Liszt, Chopin and Rachmaninoff and the festival draws to a close with the Chiaroscuro Quartet in late Beethoven.

Full details from the festival website.

A milestone: Steel City Choristers' first international tour to Berlin and Leipzig

Steel City Choristers performing at Berlin Cathedral

Earlier this month, Steel City Choristers went on its first international tour - a week-long trip singing in Berlin and Leipzig. The choir of 24 children and 15 adult singers, based at St Mark’s Broomhill in Sheffield, was formed following the unexpected disbanding of Sheffield Cathedral Choir in 2020, with the aim of keeping choral music alive in the city.

Members of the cathedral-style choir sang a diverse range of works for hundreds of people in six performances at Berlin Cathedral and other Berlin churches as well as at St Thomaskirche, Leipzig. They entertained crowds along the way, staging pop-up performances of The Bear Necessities outside the bear cage at Berlin Zoo and on buses and trains. They also sang Fly Me To The Moon by Frank Sinatra for fellow passengers on their flights back from Berlin.

The choir's trip to Berlin was organised through contacts made in language exchanges undertaken by the choir’s young members. The same members were also able to introduce their Berlin concerts in German.

Kate Caroe, Chair of Trustees at the charity, commented: "We sang works by German, Austrian and English composers, such as Abendfeier in Venedig by Clara Schumann, Nachtlied by Max Reger and several pieces by Anton Bruckner, as well as by Hubert Parry and Edward Bairstow."

"A really important lesson for our children to learn is that music can bring people together, even across language barriers and different cultures. The trip was also about having a lot of fun with our singing: working hard as a team, getting to know each other and drawing the children on in their love of singing that we all share.” 

The livestream of Sunday morning Eucharist from Berlin Cathedral with the Steel City Choristers is available on YouTube.

Steel City Boys

Despite much generous support from trusts, foundations and individuals, the choir had to subsidise the trip from its core funds. A fundraising campaign called Here to Stay to mark the choir’s fifth anniversary is planned for later this year. The choir will be performing their music from the tour at a fundraising concert on 20 September at St Mary’s Church, Ecclesfield, at 7pm. No need to book tickets, donations will be gratefully received on the door. 

Full details from the Steel City Chorister' website. 

 

Ravishing delight: Rebecca Meltzer tells the story of Handel's Semele with engaging clarity at Waterperry Opera with Hilary Cronin & Michael Lafferty

Handel: Semele - Hilary Cronin & ensemble - Waterperry Opera Festival (Photo: Jennifer Hawthorn)

Handel: Semele; Hilary Cronin, Michael Lafferty, Sophie Goldrrick, Nathan Mercieca, Sarah Winn, director: Rebecca Meltzer, conductor: Bertie Baigent, Waterperry Opera Festival; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 23 August 2025

A small-scale production with a big heart. Director Rebecca Meltzer tells the story with engaging clarity and benefits from Hilary Cronin charming and delighting in the title role

Having finished its summer performances in Oxfordshire, Waterperry Opera Festival made two guest appearances at Opera Holland Park bringing their new production of Handel's Semele. We caught the second, on 22 August 2025. The director was Rebecca Meltzer and conductor was Bertie Baigent with Hilary Cronin as Semele, Michael Lafferty as Jupiter, Sophie Goldrick as Juno, Nathan Mercieca as Athamas, Sarah Winn as Ino, Phil Wilcox as Cadmus, Louse Fuller as Iris, James Micklethwaite as Apollo and Masimba Ushe as Somnus and the High Priest. Designs were by Jennifer Gregory, lighting by Catja Hamilton and movement by Alexandria McCauley.

Meltzer's production took advantage of the full extent of the Opera Holland Park stage even adding a walkway across the middle of the pit. Most of the action was on the forestage with the main stage used for emphasis. Jennifer Gregory's designs were contemporary, the mortals dressed in shades of black, white and grey with clothes that might have come from Cos, whilst the immortals were in vivid colour with paint on their skin and graffiti-esque clothes.

Handel: Semele - Michael Lafferty, Hilary Cronin - Waterperry Opera Festival (Photo: Jennifer Hawthorn)

It was a tight and small cast, with many of the smaller roles being doubled with the chorus, but quick changes and clear delineation of costumes meant that there was never any confusion, and the choruses filled the space admirably. Bertie Baigent directed a small-ish band from the harpsichord, but even with a second harpsichord in the ensemble the instrument sounded undernourished and the cello was the main driver in the recitatives.

BBC Proms: A performance to treasure as Fabio Luisi & the Danish National Symphony Orchestra celebrate their centenary with Beethoven, Bent Sørensen & Anna Clyne

Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Fabio Luisi - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Bent Sørensen: Evening Land, Anna Clyne: The Years, Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’; Clara Cecilie Thomsen, Jasmin White, Issachah Savage, Adam Pałka, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Concert Choir, Fabio Luisi; BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Beethoven's choral symphony in a performance full of vivid energy and intense detail yet never straining for a sense of scale. The orchestra's principal conductor brought discipline and imagine to an oft repeated work.

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DR Symfoniorkestret) is celebrating its centenary. It was created in 1925 as part of the founding of DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), partly in emulation of the BBC where the predecessor to the BBC Philharmonic had been created in 1922. As part of the celebrations the orchestra and its chief conductor, Fabio Luisi paid a visit to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 21 August 2025 along with the Danish National Concert Choir (DR Koncertkoret) and soloists Clara Cecilie Thomsen, Jasmin White, Issachah Savage and Adam Pałka to perform Bent Sørensen's Evening Land, Anna Clyne's The Years and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, ‘Choral’.

We began with Evening Land by Danish composer Bent Sørensen who has a long relationship with the orchestra. This was only the third of Sørensen's pieces to be performed at the Proms and one of those previous performances was given by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra on a previous visit in 2008. Evening Land was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in 2017, the piece now features regularly in Danish National Symphony Orchestra programmes. It is inspired by an image Sørensen had from his childhood on the island of Zealand in Denmark which he recalled whilst in New York so that "the vision of quiet – mixed with the new vision of flashes of light and bustling activity".

Clara Cecilie Thomsen, Jasmin White, Issachah Savage, Adam Pałka - BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall (Photo: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

A final goodbye to this year's Salzburg Festival

Theatre-goers leaving the Haus für Mozart with Festung Hohensalzburg in the background.

 A final goodbye to this year's Salzburg Festival, I had an amazing five days, taking in three operas and two concerts, including hearing both Riccardo Muti and Daniel Barenboim in action, as well as Dmitri Tcherniakov's first Baroque opera production, an abstract kinetic staging of a bel canto masterpiece and a reworking of an unfinished Mozart opera.

• The performers invested so much in the music that we were carried away: Raphaël Pichon & Pygmalion rethink Mozart's Zaide - opera review
• Astonishing kinetic musical theatre: Donizetti's Maria Stuarda from Ulrich Rasche with Lisette Oropesa & Kate Lindsey - opera review  
• Travelling hopefully: defying age & ill health, Daniel Barenboim conducts his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - concert review
• Youthful tragedy & transcendental mystery: Riccardo Muti & Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Schubert & Bruckner - concert review 
• Strange & intriguing: Dmitri Tcherniakov directs his first Baroque opera with Handel's Giulio Cesare - opera review 

You can also catch my photographs from my sightseeing ventures on Instagram:

• Churches
• Dom Quartier (including the Residenz)
• Festung Hohensalzburg

My thanks again to the festival team for their help and support in organising the trip. More next year!

The sound of Carnival: in advance of this year's Notting Hill Carnival I chat to Eversely Mills the band manager of Metronomes Steel Orchestra about the sounds and traditions of steel bands

The Notting Hill Carnival this year is from Saturday 23 August to Monday 25 August and a big feature, as ever, will be the Steel Bands with the Steel Band Competition on the Saturday and the Parade on the Monday. We are all familiar with the sound of the steel band, yet as a musical ensemble it remains distinct yet distinctive. I recently chatted to Eversely Mills the band manager of Metronomes Steel Orchestra to find out more about the ensemble and the traditions behind it.

Formed in 1973, Metronomes is an innovative steelband and unique community based in Ladbroke Grove, West London. They teach and perform steelpan music, promote Caribbean heritage, and run projects to benefit local people.

The tradition of playing steel drums arose in Trinidad and Tobago where they turned 22 gallon oil drums into instruments, creating what quickly became a community tradition. Eversely explains that the steel orchestra (his preferred term rather than steel band) is made up of different types of instrument that have different functions. The bass and tenor bass provide the low notes whilst the different cello instruments play chords with further instruments playing harmony and runs with the double tenor (which is actually at soprano pitch) providing the melody. 

Playing in steel orchestras is very much a community-based thing with players in youth clubs, community centres and a lot of schools. Whilst you can have a three or five-piece band, a steel orchestra will be made up of twelve to fifteen people. An arranger has to work out the chords and melody; whilst a chord will have three to five notes in it, a single player with only two sticks can play just two notes at a time, hence they need to be allocated, splitting the chord. Whilst the arranger use music, having the arrangement written down, the vast majority of players perform from memory.

Eversely explains that the level of difficulty depends on the individual, some are natural players whilst others are able to develop the skills. You need dexterity, a good memory, and a sense of basic timing, along with being collaborative. And, of course, different players are suited to different pans.

Metronomes has three bands. There is the junior academy, the adult intermediate band and the adult stage-side band, which is their A team. Whilst some players strive to get into the stage-side band others are happpy to be where they are, finding their roles less stressful. Each band will generally have a repertoire of 12 to 15 tunes. Rehearsals are seasonal, normally a band would get together twice per week but at the moment rehearsals are full-on as they gear up for the Carnival. In addition to the arranger, bands have a drill master who rehearses with them and gets them performance ready. Often, nowadays, bands will perform with the drill master conducting out front.

When I ask about how Metronomes is funded,  Eversely laughs; they are reliant on a mix of fundraising, income from performances and grants.

Performing at the Carnival is, itself, a very full-on activity. They prepare from 8 am, get on the route at about 12 pm and finish the circuit at around 7pm, all of which is hard work. Also, as they are playing percussion instruments, it is a very physical activity.

Metronomes stageside band

Metronomes will be performing at the Carnival on Saturday and Monday, and they will be rehearsing on the streets the Thursday (today) and Friday (tomorrow) before the Carnival.
 

Offenbach's Rhine fairies get to tread the boards at Battersea Arts Centre as Gothic Opera gives the UK stage premiere of Die Rheinnixen

Offenbach wrote his four-act romantic opera, Les fées du Rhin in 1864, for the Hofoper in Vienna where it was performed in a German translation as Die Rheinnixen. The tenor Alois Ander was ill and unable to learn his part (though it should be pointed out that Ander was the tenor selected for the intended Vienna premiere of Tristan und Isolde who proved incapable of mastering the role of Tristan during rehearsals between 1862 and 1864). The end result was that Die Rheinnixen premiered in an incoherently truncated version and the result was misunderstood, also the critic Eduard Hanslick was not inclined to see Offenbach as a composer of romantic grand opera, but rather as a satirist. There were further performances in Cologne in 1865 but then Offenbach seemed to put thought of romantic opera aside.

By the 1860s, Offenbach was writing less for the Bouffes-Parisiens, and many of his new works premiered at larger theatres. He was writing works such as La Périchole (1868) which had less exuberant satire and more human romantic interest, and Les brigands (1869) that leaned towards more romantic comic opera. After the Franco-Prussian war, Offenbach relied quite heavily on revivals of his earlier hits, and none of his works from the 1870s had such success. His opera comique Fantasio, which premiered at the Opéra Comique veered far closer to romantic opera and Offenbach was heartbroken when it was taken off. All this would lead towards Les contes d'Hoffmann, whose Barcarolle is in fact a re-use of a chorus from Die Rheinnixen.

It was only in the 21st century that Offenbach editor Jean-Christophe Keck was able to create a coherent edition of the work and it premiered in Montpelier in 2002. The first fully staged performance was given in Ljubljana by the Slovenian National Opera in 2005 and there have been further performances of the work. New Sussex Opera under Neil Jenkins gave the British premiere of the piece in concert in 2009, but it has never been staged in the UK until now.

Gothic Opera continue to go where few companies fear to tread and this year the company returns to Battersea Arts Centre for a staging of Die Rheinnixen (The Nixies of the Rhine) in a production by Max Hoehn. Hoehn explains that "This production updates the opera’s setting from the Rheinland of the sixteenth-century to the postwar chaos of the short-lived Weimar Republic, with visuals inspired by the dream factory of German expressionist cinema and the political poster art of the period."

Leon Haxby has created a new chamber orchestration of the opera for seven instruments, conducted by Hannah von Wiehler and the team also includes set and costume designer Isabella Van Braeckel, animator Amber Cooper-Davies, and lighting designer Luca Panetta, whose most recent project with Gothic Opera won Outstanding Achievement at the 2025 Profile Awards. The team will also be working with a group of costume design undergraduates from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Full details from Gothic Opera's website

Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano gets into the spirit of the carnival for circus opera – Le Carnaval de Venise by Campra

Julieth Lozano in rehearsal getting ready for her aerial moves….

Vache Baroque is celebrating its fifth anniversary by returning to its home, The Vache, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, to perform André Campra's little-known opera, Le Carnaval de Venise. 

Written in 1699, the opera was premiered by the Académie royale de musique in Paris and the work was dedicated to Louis, Grand Dauphin, eldest son of King Louis XIV, who enjoyed it and had it staged again in February 1711. 

Vache Baroque is performing it in a production directed by James Hurley and conducted by Jonathan Darbourne.

Here, Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano (winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World Kiri Te Kanawa Audience Prize) writes about preparing for the production which opens on 30 August 2025.

Colombia has many wonderful carnivals, two recognised by UNESCO, Barranquilla's carnival and Pasto's carnival of black and white people. A truly exuberant, colourful showcase with wonderful artisan workmanship throughout the parades, it is this charisma and energy that is the insignia of us Colombians. The spirit is beautifully portrayed in the movie Encanto with the dances, landscapes, food, even types of hair! My country is a beautiful mix of flavours and cultures. 

When Vache Baroque approached me about this little known opera by Campra - Le Carnaval de Venise, I was thrilled especially when they revealed they would set it as a circus opera.  The production would be replete with a big top tent, aerial acrobatics, foot archery, kabuki silk wizardry and more, all masterminded by circus artist Rebecca Solomon in conjunction with director James Hurley.   

The performers invested so much in the music that we were carried away: Raphaël Pichon & Pygmalion rethink Mozart's Zaide at the Salzburg Festival

Mozart: Zaide - Lea Desandre, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Pygmalion - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borrelli)

Mozart: Zaide oder der Weg des Lichts, Sabine Devieilhe, Lea Desandre, Julian Prégardien, Daniel Behle, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Pygmalion, conductor: Raphaël Pichon; Salzburg Festival at the Felsenreitschule, Salzburg
Reviewed 17 August 2025

A new version of Mozart's Zaide with extra music from other sources including Davide Penitente to create a modern version of the story in a performance notable for its musical riches

For Raphaël Pichon's latest project at the Salzburg Festival with his ensemble Pygmalion, he turned to Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide. Written as a speculative venture in 1779, Mozart put the work to one side in favour of Idomeneo and never returned to it. When he did return to writing a singspiel, the result was Die Entführung aus dem Serail which premiered in Vienna in 1782. The surviving material from Acts 1 and 2 of Zaide was discovered amongst his papers after his death. The spoken dialogue has been lost but Mozart's music is of sufficient quality to make people attempt a completion.

On 17 August 2025, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion presented Zaide oder der Weg des Lichts at the Felsenreitschule at the Salzburg Festival. The work was a pasticcio combining music from Zaide, the incidental music from Thamos, König in Ägypten and Davide Penitente, with new spoken dialogue by Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad, director of the Theatre national de la Colline in Paris. The event was directed, designed and lit by Bertrand Couderc with choreography by Evelin Facchini. Sabine Devieilhe was Zaide, Lea Desandre was Persada, Julian Prégardien was Gomatz, Daniel Behle was Soliman and Johannes Martin Kränzle was Allazim, plus dancers Tommy Cattin and Sabrina Rocha.

It was billed as a semi-staging but there was nothing half-hearted about the production. Raphaël Pichon and his large instrumental ensemble were one side of the Felsenreitschule's large stage whilst the other was an acting area. The production was modern dress and very definitely off the book.

Mozart: Zaide - Sabine Devieilhe, Julien Prégardien, Pygmalion - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borrelli)

An astonishing piece of kinetic musical theatre: Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at Salzburg Festival, directed by Ulrich Rasche with Lisette Oropesa & Kate Lindsey

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda - Bekhzod Davronov, Thomas Lehmann, Kate Lindsey - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Monika Rittershaus)

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda; Lisette Oropesa, Kate Lindsey, Bekhzod Davronov, director: Ulrich Rasche, Vienna Philharmonic, conductor: Antonello Manacorda; Salzburg Festival at the Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg
Reviewed 16 August 2025

Donizetti's bel canto opera as an abstract combination of music and movement, with intensely committed and commanding performances from the two protagonists

Donizetti's Maria Stuarda without any monarchical iconography or 17th century political background? Why not? After all, when Joan Sutherland sang the role at Covent Garden with Huguette Tourangeau as Elisabetta (in 1977, using English National Opera's classic John Copley production) reviewers commented that it was less about Mary, Queen of Scots and more about two operatic divas facing off.

For theatre director Ulrich Rasche, his production of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda at the Salzburg Festival was only his third music theatre staging and his first bel canto opera. The result was an astonishing piece of kinetic musical theatre

I caught the performance of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda on 16 August 2025 at the Grosses Festspielhaus as part of the Salzburg Festival. Ulrich Rasche directed and designed the sets with costumes by Sara Schwartz, video by Florian Hetz, lighting by Marco Giusti and choreography by Paul Blackman. Kate Lindsey was Elisabetta and Lisette Oropesa was Maria, with Bekhzod Davronov as Leicester, Aleksei Kulagin as Talbot, Thomas Lehman as Cecil and Nino Gotoshia as Anna. Antonella Manacorda conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and Angelika Prokopp Summer Academy of the Vienna Philharmonic, with the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus and dancers from SEAD — Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance.

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda final scene - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Monika Rittershaus)

Travelling hopefully: defying age & ill health, Daniel Barenboim conducts his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Wagner, Mendelssohn & Beethoven at the Salzburg Festival

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll - Daniel Barenboim, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borelli)

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 'Eroica'; Lang Lang, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim; Salzburg Festival at Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg
Reviewed 15 August 2025

Daniel Barenboim defies age and illness to conduct his orchestra in a programme full of prescient hints of today and in performance that reflected a lifetime of experience.

In February of this year, Daniel Barenboim announced that he was suffering from Parkinson's Disease and as such his appearance with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival on 15 August must seem something of a miracle. His progress across the platform of the Grosses Festspielhaus towards the podium was slow yet steady and inexorable, his eyes bright at the warm audience response. His West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has never felt so important and so pertinent. 

There were few concessions to age or ill health in the evening. Barenboim conducted a substantial programme, Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1, with soloist Lang Lang, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 'Eroica'. It was an intriguing and surprisingly current programme that encapsulated the 19th century struggles with antisemitism and with overweening authority figures. It did not preach but it made you think.

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Lang Lang, Daniel Barenboim, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borelli)

Youthful tragedy and transcendental mystery: Riccardo Muti & Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Schubert & Bruckner at Salzburg Festival

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Muti - Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borelli)

Schubert: Symphony No. 4 'Tragic', Bruckner: Mass in F minor; Ying Fang, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Pavol Breslik, William Thomas, Konzertvereinignung Wiener Staatopenchor, Wiener Philharmoniker, Riccardo Muti; Salzburg Festival at Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg
Reviewed 15 August 2025

Under veteran conductor Riccardo Muti's deft direction the Vienna Philharmonic were on form in large scale symphonic accounts of a youthful Schubert symphony and one of Bruckner's great masses

For the Vienna Philharmonic's concert at the Salzburg Festival on the morning of 15 August (the Feast of the Assumption) they were conducted by the apparently ageless (he is 84) Riccardo Muti in Schubert's Symphony No. 4 in C minor 'Tragic' and Bruckner's Mass in F minor with soloists Ying Fang, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Pavol Breslik, William Thomas, and the Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus.

There is some 50 years between the two works. Schubert's symphony was written in 1816 (the composer was a mere 19) for a good amateur orchestra yet not highly regarded by the composer and apparently unperformed until ten years after his death. Bruckner's mass was written in 1867/68 for Linz but the conductor found the mass too long and unsingable and it had to wait until 1872 for its premiere. Both are works probably written for relatively compact forces yet both have what we might term symphonic aspirations and Riccardo Muti's large-scale approach in both reaped dividends.

Bruckner: Mass in F minor - Ying Fang, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Pavol Breslik, William Thomas, Concert association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Muti - Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borelli)

Strange & intriguing: Dmitri Tcherniakov directs his first Baroque opera with Handel's Giulio Cesare in Salzburg

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto - Robert Raso (Curio), Lucile Richardot (Cornelia), Yuriy Mynenko (Tolomeo), Andrey Zhilikhovsky (Achilla) - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Monika Rittershaus)

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto: Christophe Dumaux, Olga Kulchynska, Lucile Richardot, Federico Fiorio, Yuriy Mynenko, Andrey Zhilikhovsky, director: Dmitri Tcherniakov, Le Concert d'Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm; Salzburg Festival at Haus für Mozart
Reviewed 14 August 2025

Despite Dmitri Tcherniakov's updating of the drama, there was something weirdly compelling about the performance. The cast really convinced you that these people mattered, that we needed to watch their drama.

Asking Dmitri Tcherniakov to direct Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto, the director's first Baroque opera, was never going to produce a straightforward piece of music theatre. But that is what festivals are for, to push boundaries and to create events not possible in the regular theatrical mill. Salzburg Festival did just that, and Tcherniakov's take on Handelian Opera Seria is a big feature of this year's festival.

I caught the penultimate performance of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto on 14 August 2025 at the Haus für Mozart as part of the Salzburg Festival. Dmitri Tcherniakov directed and designed the sets, with costumes by Elena Zaytseva, and Emmanuelle Haïm conducted Le Concert d'Astrée. Christophe Dumaux was Cesare with Olga Kulchynska as Cleopatra, Lucile Richardot as Cornelia, Federico Fiorio as Sesti, Yuriy Mynenko as Tolomeo, and Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Achilla.

In an interview in the programme book Tcherniakov commented that 'At first, it [Baroque Opera] left me baffled', going on to add, 'how to make the characters feel alive when all I have were about forty exquisite arias - and little else'.

His solution was to place the action in the present, after an apocalyptic event. The evening began with warning sirens and the events unfolded in a nuclear bunker. The chorus (sung by Bachchor Salzburg) was an invisible presence, singing from the balcony and playing no part in the stage action, leading you to wonder, did they even exist in Tcherniakov's revised scenario.

His fixed set presented three areas, one colonised by Cesare and Curio, another by Cornelia and Sesto and a third by the Egyptians. For much of Act One, the entire cast was present all the time, gone was the concept of the Exit Aria. At times it felt like Tcherniakov had been watching too many Katie Mitchell productions; he gave us two other visual contexts to compete with the main aria. For instance, towards the end of Act One, this meant Lucile Richardot's Cornelia and Federico Fiorio's Sesto having to compete with Christophe Dumaux (Cesare) stripping down to his underpants before retiring to bed!

Handel: Giulio Cesare in Egitto - Christophe Dumaux (Giulio Cesare), Federico Fiorio (Sesto), Lucile Richardot (Cornelia), Andrey Zhilikhovsky (Achilla), Olga Kulchynska (Cleopatra), plus Rene Keller as Pompeo - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Monika Rittershaus)

What this did was enable Tcherniakov to recontextualise arias by having different characters present and reacting to the singer, thus creating a more complex web of inference and influence. When Olga Kulchynska's Cleopatra told Yuriy Mynenko's Tolomeo about the Roman's reception of Pompeo's head (here his full body), Tolomeo already knew this but Tcherniakov made it clear this was all part of the siblings' games with each other. Two lesser-known arias for Cesare and Cleopatra in Act One acted as an extension of their wooing. This recontextualisation got more problematic in Act Two when Yuriy Mynenko's Tolomeo ordered the arrest of Cornelia and Sesto, with Cornelia to be put into the harem, though by this point in the opera we had come to suspect that Yuriy Mynenko's Tolomeo may have been somewhat delusional.

The perspicacious amongst you will have realised that with this scenario Dmitri Tcherniakov rather dug himself into a hold when it came to Act Three.

Award-winning Michael Morpurgo-based animated film, Kensuke’s Kingdom with score by Stuart Hancock now on BBC iPlayer

The animated feature film Kensuke’s Kingdom had its British network TV premiere earlier this month on Sunday, 3 August on BBC One, which means that it is now available on BBC iPlayer until next year!

Adapted from the Michael Morpurgo novel of the same name the film was part of the BBC’s programming to mark the 80th anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the latter featuring in the backstory of the old Japanese soldier Kensuke (voiced by Ken Watanabe).  

It is a stunning hand-drawn animated adventure from Lupus Films, directed by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry, also starring the voice talents of Sally Hawkins, Cillian Murphy, Raffey Cassidy and Aaron Macgregor.

Most notably, the film features a terrific symphonic score by Stuart Hancock, and the score picked up 15 awards , including at last year’s British Animation Awards and International Music+Sound Awards.  And the IMFCA (International Film Music Critics Association) voted it one of the Top 5 Scores of the Year across all new film and television productions in 2024. 

Looking ahead, Hancock is composing the music scores for two contrasting new feature films: the sci-fi adventure Stargazers for director Jonathan Brooks, and the action film Bad Day at the Office, starring John Hannah and Radha Mitchell, for director Chee Keong Cheung.  The short films Largo and A Friend of Dorothy, featuring his scores, are now playing festivals so keep your eye out for them.

Kensuke's Kingdom is available on BBC iPlayer.

Violinist Zoë Beyers to replace Jacqueline Shave and Thomas Gould as Leader of Britten Sinfonia

Zoë Beyers leads Britten Sinfonia at Westminster Abbey (Photo: Shoël Stadlen)

Britten Sinfonia has announced that violinist Zoë Beyers is to become the orchestra’s new Leader. She will replace Jacqueline Shave and Thomas Gould, who shared this role for over a decade. Beyers’ association with Britten Sinfonia began over 20 years ago, when she was a frequent guest in then-leader Jacqueline Shave’s first violin section. In the past year, she has worked regularly with the orchestra as Leader and Director notably in a Westminster Abbey concert that featured her as soloist in Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.

Her first concerts as Leader take place this August at the BBC Proms in Bristol Beacon (23 August) and Snape Maltings Concert Hall (27 August), where she will direct and lead Britten Sinfonia in music by Sibelius, Arvo Pärt, Gavin Higgins and Mozart. She then returns for several further performances in early 2026, before taking on the role fully for the 2026/7 season. In addition to her new post with Britten Sinfonia, she will continue to serve as Leader of the BBC Philharmonic.

Britten Sinfonia will also continue to collaborate with a range of guest directors, including Jacqueline Shave, who returns for a project with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason  this September, and Max Baillie with his ZRI Quintet next April. After 20 distinguished years with Britten Sinfonia, Thomas Gould will step down following concerts in October 2025.

Zoë Beyers commented: "I’m absolutely delighted to be joining Britten Sinfonia as Leader. I’ve felt a special affinity with this brilliant group of players since Jackie first introduced me to them when I was fresh out of music college. The orchestra’s adventurous spirit, dedication to new music and deep chamber music sensibility make it a very inspiring place to work. I’m really looking forward to this next chapter together."

Full details from Britten Sinfonia's website. 

 

Pianist Cyrill Ibrahim joins World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens as artist in residence

Cyrill Ibrahim

From September 2025, pianist Cyrill Ibrahim will be the new artist in residence at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens. A firm believer in bringing classical music into the mainstream, Ibrahim will support World Heart Beat’s mission to make music accessible to all, enriching lives. He will be taking part in series of immersive performances in both the auditorium and communal café at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens. He will also be taking part in masterclasses, mentoring and other engagement opportunities over the course of the year. Ibrahim will be joining existing artist in residence and patron, Julian Joseph, virtuoso pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, broadcaster. 

On 26 September 2025, Ibrahim will be joining soprano Simona Mihai for Harmonie du Soir a recital in World Heart Beat’s Season of the Song concert series. The concert is inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poem, Harmonie du Soir, published in his 1857 collection Les Fleurs du mal. The recital interweaves solo piano works by Liszt, Debussy, Philip Glass and two new commissions alongside Simona Mihai performing Liszt’s Tre sonetti di Petrarca.

World Heart Beat's Season of the Song runs from September until the end of December, and will be an inspiring and immersive concert season celebrating the human voice in all its expressive beauty—across opera, jazz, folk, world, and contemporary music.

Wandsworth-based World Heart Beat Music Academy was founded in 2009 to meet the need for affordable music education, from grassroots to professional level, for South Londoners, no matter what their age, background or skills, and known for its inclusive global music programmes, youth-led approach, and contribution to a more diverse and representative  music sector. In 2023, World Heart Beat opened World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens, a state-of-the-art digital music education and concert venue in Nine Elms, featuring a 200-capacity auditorium and industry-standard recording studio. 

Full details from World Heart Beat's website.

Celebrating Barbara Hepworth: a new violin concerto by Nick Martin with Tamsin Waley-Cohen & Manchester Camerata

Barbara Hepworth: Sphere with Inner Form, 1963, at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands

50 years after her death, a new violin concerto will be celebrating the life and legacy of sculptor Barbara Hepworth. Commissioned by Manchester Camerata, Nick Martin's Violin Concerto will be premiered at Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen as soloist on 4 September, with  further performances at The Hepworth, Wakefield on 5 September and at Kings Place, London on 18 September. The programme also features music by Mozart, Britten and the South African-British composer, Priaulx Rainier which celebrate themes of youth or have a connection to Hepworth herself.

Nick Martin is a composer based in Copenhagen. The concerto was inspired by Hepworth’s sculptures and addresses themes of tenderness, birth, heartache, family and friendship. Composed whilst staying in St Ives, Martin says, "A particular point of inspiration has been Barbara Hepworth’s Landscape Sculpture—a carved torso-sized, cradle-like form in elm with nine strings of fishing line. I found the number nine resonant, suggestive of the nine months of pregnancy".

Martin has a lifelong love of Hepworth’s work, having visited The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives as a child. The orchestra has a strong relationship with Nick Martin’s music. In 2023, it performed a version for strings of his Kolysanka written for Camerata and violinist Daniel Pioro. And last year, it performed an expanded version of Falling with another of its artistic partners, Kantos Chamber Choir.

Full details from the Manchester Camerata's website.

Glasgow Cathedral Festival: celebrating the city's 850th anniversary with a poetic imagining of the story of St. Enoch, mother of the city's founder

Evening concert at Glasgow Cathedral Festival 

Glasgow Cathedral Festival returns from 18–21 September 2025, for its ninth edition bringing life to Glasgow’s medieval cathedral with site-specific live music, film, theatre, art, talks and tours, and this year also celebrating the city's 850th anniversary.

This year’s festival draws together cultural and scientific influences across a range of art forms: from established classical music favourites to cutting-edge contemporary sounds, and intimate theatre to immersive, cult cinema.

Maiden Mother Mage brings a poetic reimagining of the legend of St Enoch to the imposing surroundings of the quire. St. Enoch is in fact a corruption of St. Teneu, a legendary Christian saint who was venerated in medieval Glasgow. Traditionally she was a sixth-century Brittonic princess the mother of Saint Mungo, apostle to the Britons of Strathclyde and founder of the city of Glas Ghu (Glasgow). She and her son are regarded as the city's co-patrons, and Glasgow's St Enoch Square allegedly marks the site of a medieval chapel dedicated to her, built on or near her grave. 

Created and directed by Rebecca Sharp, Maiden Mother Mage is the tale the exiled Brittonic princess which weaves dramatic verse performed by three Scottish actors with a live score by composer Alex South. The performance is supported with new iconography by artist Frances Law—presented as part of a multi-sensory exhibition crafted by Scottish community groups that will be displayed throughout the festival.

The festival's silent film series continues with Fritz Lang’s genre-defining Metropolis (1927) paired with the UK premiere of a live score for percussion by sisters Linda and Irene Buckley—presented in association with Cork International Film Festival. There will be opportunities to catch the film at both early evening and late-night screenings.  

Another film link sees organist Roger Sayer performing his arrangement of Hans Zimmer's score for the film Interstellar 10 on the cathedral's 140-year-old pipe organ. And the festival will feature the first complete performance of Roxanna Panufnik’s Cum Jubilo Organ Mass, performed as part of a vibrant and eclectic programme by organist Katelyn Emerson.

The Twilight in the Crypt programme offers moments of quiet listening and personal contemplation, as violinist Emma Lloyd presents a programme of new music exploring the expressive depths of her instrument, and artistic duo Ollie Hawker and Zoe Markle create atmospheric soundscapes with double bass and electronics.

There are free, daytime events. Joining forces once again with partners across the precinct, a free Thursday lunchtime performance by the acclaimed Resol Quartet is given in collaboration with the Friends of Glasgow Royal Infirmary Museum—featuring new works inspired by the hospital’s cultural and historic context. Free talks and tours also return in 2025, continuing the Glasgow 850 celebrations in collaboration with Glasgow Life, Historic Environment Scotland and St Mungo Museum.

Full details from the festival website.

Hearing Colour: classical music at the Royal Pavilion with a piano made for King George IV

A detail of A C Pugin’s drawing of the Entrance Hall, Brighton Pavilion c1821

English piano maker Thomas Tomkison (c1764-1853) made a succession of instruments for the Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent and then King George IV) from 1807. In 1821 he made a piano for the Brighton Pavilion. When the Pavilion was sold to Brighton in 1850, Queen Victoria stripped it of its contents which were taken to other royal palaces. Tomkison's piano seems to have been taken to Windsor, but was evidently sold. In 2017, Royal Pavilion & Museums bought the instrument back so that it could be displayed again in the Brighton Pavilion.

It is a handsome instrument, but not just something to look at. It has been restored and is played. On 26 September and 3 October there is a chance to hear the instrument in concert. In Hearing Colour – An Evening of Classical Music at the Royal Pavilion, the instrument will be played by Maggie Cole and she will be joined by cellist Sebastian Comberti performing on a fine 19th-century instrument. Together they will transport you to the elegance of the Regency era with works by Beethoven, Hummel, Schubert, Rossini, Diabelli and Eley. The evening will begin with Dr Alexandra Loske, who will explore the Pavilion’s remarkable connections between colour and music, revealing the creative spirit and tastes of the early nineteenth century.

Tomkison's 1821 piano in Royal Pavilion Music Room (Photo: Royal Pavilion & Museums)

Whilst the piano is normally displayed in the Entrance Hall, for the concert there is a chance to hear it in the gorgeous splendour of the Music Room. 

Full details from the Brighton Pavilion's website.

Going where no other company has dared: Green Opera gives the stage premiere of Joubert's Jane Eyre in a full-blooded performance at Grimeborn Festival

Joubert: Jane Eyre - Laura Mekhail (Jane) - Green Opera at Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre - (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)

John Joubert: Jane Eyre; Laura Mekhail, Hector Bloggs, Lawrence Thackeray, Alexander Semple, director Eleanor Burke, conductor Kenneth Woods, Green Opera; Grimeborn Festival at Arcola Theatre
Reviewed 8 August 2025

Amazingly, the stage premiere of Joubert's final opera, a work which has tantalised for decades. Here receiving an admirably full-blooded performance

Composer John Joubert wrote eight works for the stage and if you had asked him, evidently he would evidently have said his best opera was Under Western Eyes from 1968. But his final opera, Jane Eyre, written without commission from 1987 to 1997, remained a tantalising possibility. Never fully staged in the composer's lifetime, for his 90th birthday, Kenneth Woods conducted a concert performance with the English Symphony Orchestra and this was issued on disc by SOMM in 2017 [see my review]. Now Woods has had the chance to conduct a full staging.

Green Opera in collaboration with the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre presented a new staging of John Joubert's Jane Eyre at the Arcola Theatre. We caught the performance on Friday 8 August 2026 with Laura Mekhail as Jane, Hector Bloggs as Rochester, Lawrence Thackeray as Richard Mason and St John Rivers, plus Anna Sideris, Emily Hodkinson, Alexander Semple, Chris Murphy and Steffi Fashokun. The production was directed by Eleanor Burke with designs by Emeline Beroud and movement by Alex Gotch. Kenneth Woods conducted an instrumental ensemble of eight playing an arrangement of the score by Thomas Ang.

Joubert: Jane Eyre - In the Rivers' household: Anna Sideris (Diana), Laura Mekhail (Jane), Emily Hodkinson (Mary), Lawrence Thackeray (St John) - Green Opera at Grimeborn Festival, Arcola Theatre - (Photo: Camilla Greenwell)

The libretto is by the Richard Strauss scholar, Kenneth Birkin who was a PhD student of John Joubert at the University of Birmingham. Originally the opera was in three acts, but with the prospect of the 2016 performance which would lead to the recording, Joubert revised the opera. He removed secondary scenes and orchestral interludes, material from which would find its way into his third symphony. The resulting opera has just two hours of music, and a great deal of plot to get through.