Sir Andrzej Panufnik Centenary

Panufnik stands beneath
his beloved Chopin in
Lazienki Park, Warsaw,
during his final and triumphant
return to Poland, 1990.
Photo by Jem Panufnik

2014 is the centenary of the birth of Sir Andrzey Panufnik (1914 - 1991), the Polish composer who lived through the Nazi occupation of Poland and the Warsaw Uprising, before making a dramatic escape to the West in 1954. Half his life was spend working in England and he was knighted for services to music. 

For the centenary there are a number of major celebrations planned for the UK and for Poland. The London Symphony Orchestra will be giving two Panufnik concerts in London as well as one in Poland. In London they perform the Sinfonia Sacra and Lullaby (5/2), and Symphony No. 10 (19/10) and this latter concert is repeated in Katowice, Poland to inaugurate a new concert hall.

Birmingham will be celebrating the fact that Panufnik was the Chief Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1957 to 1959. And the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko will perform the Violin Concerto with Vadim Repin (27/2)

In the summer a major festival is planned. Then in November, there will be Panufnik 100: A Family Celebration at Kings Place a day of celebrations with the Brodsky Quartet and friends, which will include concerts, films, a 1930's cabaret evening.

Panufnik's autobiography, Composing Myself, is being re-published with a new postscript by his wife covering the last years of his life. A number of recordings are planned including the completion of CPO's symphony and concerto survey and the complete piano works on BIS.

Things kick off this month with the Tippett Quartet performing Panufnik's Third String Quartet at King's Palce (26/1) and the Melos Sinfonia conducted by Oliver Zeffman performing the Cello Concerto with Bartholemew Lafollette at LSO St Lukes (31/1)

There is full information on the composer and his centenary at the dedicated website.

La Quinta essentia

Masses by Lassus, Palestrina & Ashewell: Huelgas Ensemble/Paul Van Nevel
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 18 2014
Rating: 4.0 stars
Fascinating contrasts in three different masses

This disc, a reissue of a Harmonia Mundi recording originally made in 2005, places three renaissance masses by rather different composers in close proximity.  Paul van Nevel and the Huelgas Ensemble perform Roland de Lassus's Missa 'Tous les regretz', Thomas Ashewell's Missa 'Ave Maria' and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Missa Ut re mi fa sol la.  Made in the Museum of Water in Lisbon, the disc's title comes from the legendary fifth essence, from whence we get quintessence.

Both Lassus and Palestrina flourished at the same period during the 16th century but temperament and circumstance mean that their music is far more contrasting than one might expect. Palestrina trained and worked his entire life in Rome, holding a series of appointments within the Roman Catholic Church producing polyphony of rich subtlety. Lassus's background and training were more varied . He spent most of his working life at the court of the Duke of Bavaria in Munich combining sophistication and magnificence in his music.

The third composer in the trilogy on this disc is something of a sport. Rather than Palestrina and Lassus's great contemporary Victoria, Paul Van Nevel has turned to he Englishman Thomas Ashewell. Ashewell belongs to the generation preceding Palestrina and Lassus, but his music belongs to a very different world. That of English flamboyant polyphony, a time when England remained musically isolated from mainland Europe. Ashewell worked at Tattershall College, Lincoln Cathedral and Durham Cathedral. Only two complete works by him are known, one of which is this Missa 'Ave Maria' for six voices.

Toy stories in contemporary music in Birmingham

On Sunday 26 January, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) are giving a pair of Family Concerts at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham themed on toys. Toys, dreams and games all feature in the concerts with Thomas Ades' early masterpiece Living Toys receiving pride of place in an imaginative concert which pulls no punches when it comes to repertoire, but features quirky use of orchestral resources which should appeal to children of all ages. 

Richard Baker

The underground cult group Modified Toy Orchestra provides the inspiration for some sonic invention bringing abandoned electronic toys to a new life, with a pair of works by Richard Baker and Brian Duffy (from the Modified Toy Orchestra). And Colin Matthews' To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music, a contemporary take on a Mozartian musical dice game, features a musical box and two melodicas. There will also be a new work by BCMG's new Composer in Residence, Arne Gieshoff. The new work is written for the intriguing combination of trombone trio and two melodicas. Gieshoff says he wants the piece to sound like 'a broken, mechanical toy that is unwinding'. Gieshoff is currently studying with Jonathan Cole, Simon Holt and Dai Fujikura at the Royal College of Music completing a Master's degree in composition.

The concerts are conducted by the young Swedish conductor Christian Karlsen and are created in collaboration with Stan's Cafe, the Birmingham-based theatre company. There are two concerts on 26 January, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

Into the Ravine

Into the Ravine: Nicholas Daniel and the Carducci String Quartet; Signum
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 17 2014
Star rating: 3.0
Well wrought new music for oboe and string quartet, originally premiered at the Presteigne Festival.

This new disc on Signum Classics from the Carducci String Quartet and Nicholas Daniel puts Michael Berkeley's new work for oboe and string quartet, Oboe Quintet (Into the Ravine), with quartets by John McCabe and Adrian Williams. McCabe's String Quartet No. 7 (Summer Eves) and Williams' String Quartet No.4. All three works are linked by having been premiered at the Presteigne Festival.

Berkeley's Into the Ravine was commissioned specifically for Nicholas Daniel and the Carducci String Quartet. Berkeley's inspiration came from paintings by John Craxton and Mark Rothko. The quintet's subtitle Into the Ravine refers to a picture by John Craxton which was given to Berkeley's father, Lennox Berkeley, in return for the composition of a new oboe sonatina for Janet Craxton. Michael Berkeley's work, in a single movement, was a co-commission from the 2012 Presteigne Festival.

Menuhin Competition returns to London

Kenneth Renshaw, Senior 1st prize winner in the 2012 Competition

It was announced this week that the Menuhin Competition will return to London in 2016 to celebrate the centenary of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin for whom the competition is named. The competition was founded by Menuhin in 1983 and takes place every two years in a different international city. This year's competition is in the USA for the first time, from 21 February to 2 March 2014 in Austin, Texas, USA.

The event is more of a festival of music and cultural exchange than simply a competition and in 2016 there will be a 10 day programme of concerts, masterclasses, talks and participatory activities with performances from candidates and jury members. Competition rounds will take place the Royal Academy of Music, with concerts at the South Bank Centre. The 2016 jury includes previous winners who have become world class soloists, Tasmin Little, Julia Fischer and Ray Chen

The 2014 festival can be followed via live-stream at the Menuhin Competition website and the winners will be performing at the opening concert of the 2016 competition in London.

Classical Coffee Mornings at the Royal Albert Hall

Abby Bowen

The Royal Albert Hall is presenting a series of Sunday Classical Coffee Mornings starting on 26 January 2014 as part of their More at the Hall strand. Taking place in the Hall's Elgar Room, tickets are £11 and include a hot drink and a pastry, with music for an hour 11am. The performers all come from the Royal College of Music and give you a chance to hear some striking young talent. The first recital (26/1) is being given by 17 year old Abby Bowen who performs viola music by Bloch and Rebecca Clarke, which is definitely worth getting out of bed for.Future concerts include a BBC Young Musician finalist, as well as music by Poulenc, Piazzolla, Richard Rodney Bennett, Krommer and Arvo Pärt.

The full list: clarinettist Elaine Ruby in Brahms and Rachmaninoff (2/2), BBC Young Musician of the Year finalist Kausikan Rajeshkumar in piano music by Scarlatti, Chopin and Schumann (9/2), Trio Icendia and Son Quartet in music by Tchaikovsky and Schubert (16/2), the Laefer Quartet perform saxophone quartet works by Poulenc, Mendelssohn, Piazzolla, and RR Bennett (16/3), the RCM Junior Department Wind Octet in Krommer and Mozart (23/3), the Walmsley String Quartet in Haydn, Schumann and Part (30/3), violinist Brigid Coleridge in Bartok and Beethoven (6/4), the Cataley Wind Quintet in music by Rossini and Poulenc (20/4) and Yuki Ito playing Strauss's Cello Sonata in commemoration of the Strauss anniversary (27/4).

Die Winterreise at the Wigmore Hall

Gerald Finley
Photo Sim Canetty-Clarke

Die Winterreise: Gerald Finley and Julius Drake at the Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 15 2014
Star rating: 5.0
Sombre grave beauty and a sense of bleak inner calm in the face of adversity.

Bass-baritone Gerald Finley and pianist Julius Drake performed Schubert's Die Winterreise at the Wigmore Hall last night (16 January 2014) at the start of a 10 date tour (to Spain, Canada and the USA). Their recording of the work is being released on Hyperion in March 2014. Finley's Die Winterreise is sombre with a grave beauty, and a sense of a bleak inner calm in the face of adversity. 
 

Singing the Schubert's cycle in lower keys inevitably brings a greater gravity and darkness to the cycle and Finley and Drake's steady speeds emphasised this. But Finley sang with a superb sense of line, which combined with fine diction and attention to the words, plus the beauty of his voice to make the performance very particular and very moving. Throughout the performance I kept coming back to the way Finley made the words of prime importance, without ever compromising the sense of an ever unfolding musical line.

First Time Live - Youth: more music to more towns

First Time Live - Youth, Orchestras Live's orchestral touring initiative, will be bringing more orchestral music to hard to reach areas, both in terms of geography and in terms of access to orchestral concerts. Working with local partners, Orchestra Live will present the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia a series of concerts and workshops during Spring 2014 at schools in March (Cambridgeshire), Peterborough, Thurrock, Doncaster, Grimsby and Mansfield.

One of the distinctive features of First Time Live – Youth is that is puts young people at the centre of the project and gives them responsibility for creating a major orchestral concert for their peers. This includes selecting concert repertoire, scriptwriting, sound and lighting design, video projection, stage management, writing press releases, blogging, photography, concert presentation and even conducting. The result generates high levels of engagement and enthusiasm amongst participants, both in the audience and on stage, including the professional musicians.

London A Cappella Festival

The London A Cappella Festival is back at King's Place from 22 to 25 January 2014, with a varied range of a cappella music. Curated by Ikon Arts and the Swingle Singers (who have just celebrated their 50th anniversary), the event is in its fifth year. This year's events open with a treat, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Eesti Filharmoonia Kammerkoor) presents An Eastern Vigil with music from Estonia and from Russia (22/1, at LSO St Lukes) They will be joined by saxophonist Gilad Atzmo in a programme which includes music by Arvo Part (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), Alfred Schnittke (Three Sacred Hymns), Cyrillus Kreek, Vasyl Barvinskyi, Nikolai Kedrov and excerpts from Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil Op.39

The remaining events are all at King's Place, and other groups include the American 'rock band without instruments' The House Jacks, the British close-harmony group The Song Men, the Swedish super-group The Real Group, The Time Ensemble and the festival is brought to a close with a concert by The Swingle Singers.

Throughout the day on Saturday 25 January at King's Place there are workshops covering such diverse topics as Brazilian Body Percussion, improvising with members of The House Jacks, vocal skills with Bob Chilcott, jazz with The Real Group and a workshop with choral director Dominic Peckham.

Further information from the London A Cappella Festival website.

Jephtha - The Sixteen at the Barbican

James Gilchrist

Handel - Jephtha: The Sixteen, Harry Christophers, James Gilchrist: Barbican Centre, London
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 14 2014
Star rating: 5.0
Intensely compelling performance of Handel's remarkable final oratorio.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen brought Handel's final oratorio, Jephtha, to the Barbican (14 January 2014) preparatory to recording the work. The cast of experienced Handelians included James Gilchrist in the title role, with Susan Bickley as his wife Storge, Sophie Bevan as his daughter Iphis, Robin Blaze as her fiancee Hamor and Matthew Brook as Jephtha's brother Zebul. The result was a finely dramatic performance which bodes well for the recording, to be released later this year on the Coro label.

Handel's oratorio, with a libretto by Revd Thomas Morrell, was written not for the stage but for concert performance, and the intention was to point a moral via uplifting music. Morrell's libretto might not be the best literary creation, but it gave Handel the opportunity to create some powerful music. Morrell used a heavy admixture of Euripides with the biblical plot and an important key to his libretto is Jephtha's family's reaction to the events. For this to work, they must be established as characters and so the first three scenes give us a sequence of arias, one for each of the five main characters, ending with a duet for the lovers Hamor and Iphis. It is not the most dramatic of sequences, and can be tricky to make work on stage.

El Sistema comes to Northern Ireland

Rafael Payare - photo credit Luis Cobelo

The Ulster Orchestra has announced that the young Venezuelan conductor, Rafael Payare, will be its next chief conductor from 2014-15 initially on a 3-year contract. Payare is a former member of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with Jose Antonio Abreu, the founder of the Venezuelan El Sistema. Abreu remains Payare's principal conducting mentor. Payare went on to work with Gustavo Dudamel, notably on a co-production of Carmen with the Teatro alla Scala, and for the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra’s 2010 European tour.

It has been announced that Payare will be leading the Ulster Orchestra's outreach programme as well, with 'an ambitious new programme of community engagement, including plans to introduce the celebrated "El Sistema" programme of social musical education to Northern Ireland’s children in 2014-15.'

Rough for Opera

Rough for Opera, Second Movement's scratch night for opera returns to the Cockpit Theatre on 21 January 2014. Three young composers, Edward Henderson, Alex Groves and David Merriman, will be trying out new opera and music theatre. After each performance there is a Q and A with Professor Paul Barker of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, so there is a lovely chance to talk about the opera and opera making process. The three pieces are rather varied and promise some quite strong stuff, challenging both in content and in what the idea of opera is.

Edward Henderson's Manspangled with a libretto by Lavinia Murray is a dissection of masculinity using spoken opera for male voice, cello, tenor saxophone and chorus. Henderson's first collaboration with Murray, I Dust Skinheads With Icing Sugar, is being performed in January at King's Place. Henderson is studying for an MMus in composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. His writing includes aleatoric music, found sound and improvisation alongside the more traditional notation, and he runs two inclusive community choirs. The piece is presented by Bastard Assignments, a cross-arts collective based in London.

Eclectic celebration

On Saturday 18 January the Crouch End Festival Chorus (CEFC) is presenting a programme which celebrates its 30th anniversary with a typically eclectic selection of contemporary music. Conducted by David Temple, they are performing music by TV & film composer Murray Gold (best known for his work on Dr Who) Robert Fripp (who was guitarist with King Crimson in the 1970's) and David Bedford, a composer whose work embraced both popular and more complex contemporary classical.

CEFC have performed on a number of TV soundtracks for Gold, and for their first commission of 2014 the choir will be performing Gold's when my brother fell into the river... described as a highly personal exploration of loss. Composer Andrew Keeling has arranged Robert Fripp's Soundscapes (originally written for the group King Crimson), recreating Fripp's ethereal looping effects using live singers and orchestra. The programme is completed with David Bedford's Twelve Hours of Sunset, a piece which uses involves some stunning vocal techniques which combine to create a dream-like meditation on time and space.

The concert takes place at the Barbican Centre on Saturday 18 January, David Temple conducts the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the London Orchestra da Camera, further information from the choir's website.

Che puro ciel - the rise of classical opera

Che puro ciel - the rise of classical opera: Bejun Mehta, Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin, Rene Jacobs: Harmonia Mundi
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 13 2014
Star rating: 5.0
Fascinating and brilliantly performed: the rise of reform opera

We tend to think of Gluck's reform operas being a unique development between baroque opera and classical opera but of course it was never so simple. This new recital disc on Harmonia Mundi from counter-tenor Bejun Mehta with the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin conducted by Rene Jacobs, explores the world of opera at the time of Gluck. Taking in operas by Gluck, Traetta, Hasse and Mozart, the recital looks at the world of opera as composers explored the new theatrical developments and bravura virtuoso gave way to the search for a new kind of theatrical truth.

The recital opens with Che puro ciel from Gluck's Orfeo, the archetype of the classical reform opera, written for a new type of virtuoso Gaetano Guadagni. Guadagni was a castrato who had been trained to sing Handelian oratorio by the ageing Handel and who had had lessons from the actor David Garrick. When Guadagni first performed Orfeo Gluck wanted him to achieve a new kind of dramatic naturalism. (Guadagni also sang the role of Oreste in Traetta's Ifgenia in Tauride in 1763)

Still time to get discount on tomorrow's Jephtha

There is still time to take advantage of our Reader Offer to get 50% off tickets for the performance of Handel's Jephtha at the Barbican, with The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers and James Gilchrist in the title role. 

See our special offer page for details.

Rameau 250

A new ensemble, the International Rameau Ensemble, are appealing for funds via Kickstarter to help them launch their Rameau 250 Spring Project: a UK concert tour of Rameau's rarely performed sacred choral works, which as far as they know will be the works' premiere performances in the UK. The ensemble was founded by artistic director Lawrence Olsworth-Peter to celebrate Rameau's 250th anniversary this year. The company launched last year with a concert scenes from Rameau's operas. 

In addition to their spring tour they plan a tour of a double bill of Rameau's Pygmaleon and Anacreon in the autumn.

Olsworth-Peter trained as a tenor at the Royal Academy of Music and made his debut at Pesaro Opera Festival as Don Luigino in Il Viaggio a Reims under the direction of Alberto Zedda in 2010. He was a finalist in the 2012 Les Azuriales Young Artist Competition in Nice

You can support them via their Kickstarter page. A video of them in action follows after the break:

Scelsi, Vivier, Scott Walker and Radiohead

Filthy Lucre 3: Cults - The Bussey Building/CLA Arts Cafe Peckham
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 11 2014
Star rating: 3.0
Scelsi, Vivier, Scott Walker and Radiohead in a new type of club night

It has become popular for established ensembles to promote 'club night' style concerts in the hope of attracting a younger audience by performing music outside of the standard classical concert concept. Last night (11 January 2014) in Peckham we attended an event in this style, but one which had been created by young musicians themselves. Joe Bates and Anthony Friend started their Filthy Lucre events in Cambridge in 2010, last night's Filthy Lucre 3: Cults was the fourth such, and the first in London. They describe Filth Lucre as creating 'immersive musical experiences with carefully crafted programmes built around artistic concepts and cohesive musical ideas'. The event took place in the Bussey Building (The CLA Art Cafe) in Peckham, a re-purposed Victorian warehouse space just behind Peckham high street.
 

Filthy Lucre 3: Cults took over two floors of the building (there was a separate event, a Hawaiian Bop, upstairs on the third floor). On entry you passed bouncers and had your hand stamped just like any other club. Doors opened at 8pm and people were encouraged to arrive to have a drink before hand, and the bar did indeed have an impressive selection of wines and bottled beers (not your usual club venue this!). One whole wall was covered in atmospheric projections: Georgia Hicks is credited with design and animation, Paul Vernon with trailer and filming and Justinas Brikys with photography. A few chairs were laid out for the audience, but most were expected to stand, or sit on the floor. The orchestra had individual stand lights, so that the overall lighting level was low.

The Filthy Lucre Orchestra consisted of 23 musicians, including eight strings, conducted by Will Cole. The programme started late, but on the sound of the bass drum being banged they instrumentalists walked in, dressed in black and all wearing white face make-up with random coloured streaks (earlier I had heard two of the orchestral musicians talking back-stage with one lamenting that he'd forgotten his make-up). This matched the make-up of the dancers who mingled with the audience (more of them later).

Oxford Lieder's Schubert Project

This year's Oxford Lieder Festival is planned to be something special. Between 10 October and 1 November 2014 they will be performing every single song which Schubert wrote, that is over 650 songs. Names already confirmed for recitals include Sir Thomas Allen, Sarah Connolly, Sophie Daneman, William Dazelely, James Gilchrist, Robert Holl, Wolfgang Holzmair, Sophie Karthäuser, Angelika Kirchschlager, Stephan Loges, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore, Christoph Prégardien, Birgid Steinberger, Roderick Williams and pianists Eugene Asti, Julius Drake, Graham Johnson and Roger Vignoles amongst others.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Doric String Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble will be among the partners for chamber and orchestral music. Pianist Imogen Cooper will perform Schubert’s great final sonata in B flat, D960.

To help support the festival you can sponsor a song for as little as £25.

Concordia Foundation and Satoko Fukuda go ‘Beyond the Horizon’

Sakato Fukuda - Credit Andy Newcombe

Beyond the Horizon: Concordia Foundation & Satoko Fukuda: St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Jan 7 2014
Star rating: 3.0
'Beyond the Horizon' a meeting of new and old English, Japanese and South American music

The Concordia Foundation started their 2014 season with 'Beyond the Horizon' a meeting of new and old English, Japanese and South American music at St Martin in the Fields. Imagined by violinist Satoko Fukuda this concert was a showcase for her playing and her passion, dancing.

The concert began with the beautiful ‘Zen Love Song’ by Roxanne Panufnik (1968 - ) sung by Voces8, with Clive Bell playing the shakuhachi. Taken from a poem by the 15^th century Zen master Ikkyū Sōjun, this song tells the story of the loss of a little boy’s nursemaid. A fusion of renaissance part song and Japanese lullaby, the main feature is a cushion of sound from which voices and Japanese flute appear and fall back. This is followed by a section which separates out the two sounds – firstly the voices sung in English, with a more traditionally English ambience, followed by a flute solo providing the Japanese feel, before they join back together for the ending.

Llandaff Cathedral Choir - one last chance

Having been made redundant, members of Llandaff Cathedral Choir have decided to appeal against the Chapter’s decision. The ISM, who have been very active during the campaign, are supporting them through this process. 

Thanks to the campaigning in support of the choir, the Cathedral has had direct offers of funding from Wales, the UK and across the globe (pledges can be made by email to llandaff@ism.org), and funding for choirs such as Llandaff Cathedral Choir is available from charitable trusts. 

There is still a small chance that the cathedral authorities minds can be changed and the ISM is suggesting people email the Cathedral Authorities

Spring at the Guildhall School of Music

The spring term at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama includes a recital by Tasmin Little, masterclasses from a range of distinguished practitioners, the launch of Rolf Hind's new CD, a conference on audience engagement, performances of Shakespeare's Henry V and Hamlet and a staging of Jonathan Dove's opera Pinocchio

Musicians from the Guildhall School will be joining the BBC for their two Total Immersion days, devoted to Thea Musgrave (15 February) and Villa-Lobos (8 March). The Guildhall New Music Ensemble is conducted by James Weeks in a programme of music by Aldo Clementi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Edmund Finnis (a recent DMus graduate) and Thomas Fournil (a current BMus composer) (3 April).

Singing for Dürer - the Courtauld Community Choir

In connection with the Courtauld Gallery's Young Dürer Exhibition, I joined the Courtauld Community Choir to perform at last night's late opening (9 January 2014). The music for the evening was all themed around music of Dürer's time, such as a group playing recorder consort music from the period. The choir, under the direction of Joseph Timmons, sang music by Heinrich Isaac and JS Bach along with some pieces to celebrate Epiphany and to get the audience singing as well.

We met to rehearse a couple of hours before, always a strange experience being led through the maze that is the Courtauld Institute (the door opposite that of the gallery, leading into the other half of Somerset House). Rehearsing in a seminar room is not ideal, but at least it meant that we had nice surprise when we moved to the more gracious acoustic of the Courtauld Gallery.

Aurora's Road Trip

Road Trip: The Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon at King's Place
Reviewed by Hilary Glover on Jan 4 2014
Star rating: 3.5
A Road Trip across America to investigate what makes America music unique

From a modern take on traditional folk songs to Ives, Copland and Carter, the Aurora Orchestra went on a ‘Road Trip’ across America, at the Kings Place in London, to investigate what makes American music unique. With programme notes in the style of Jack Kerouac and images of an open top American car they were all set.

Aurora Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon are a group of talented musicians able it seems to turn their hand to any style of music and supply virtuosic soloists from within their ranks.

Spring at the Handel House museum

Spring at the Handel House Museum includes Handel's birthday and the Stanley Sadie Memorial Lecture along with a variety of recitals many of which pair Handel's music up with that of his contemporaries and rivals. There is still chance to see the exhibition devoted to Handel's music for a series of musical clocks, as well as the new exhibition on Susannah Cibber.

Duo Dorado (Hazel Brooks, violin, and David Pollock, harpsichord) are revisiting the 1701 opera contest which saw Eccles, Weldon, Finger and Daniel Purcell all setting Congreve's The Judgement of Paris, and the duo perform music by all four composers (9 January).

The complete songs of Poulenc - volume 4

Poulenc Complete Songs vol 4: Malcolm Martineau: Signum Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 9 2014
Star rating: 3.0
Not all masterpieces, but worth investigation.

This new disc of songs by Francis Poulenc is the fourth disc in a five disc set from Malcolm Martineau on Signum Classics, covering all of the composer's songs. The discs use a variety of singers and here Martineau is joined by John Mark Ainsley, William Dazeley, Sarah Fox, Magdalena Molendowska (winner of the Guildhall School's Gold Medal in 2013), Ann Murray and Thomas Oliemans. The repertoire ranges widely from Poulenc's early Le Bestiaire to the late La dame de Montecarlo, and includes his Polish songs.

In fact, one of the puzzling things about the disc is the selection of songs. There is no rationale given for the selection. But if you simply sit back and relax, there is much to enjoy in the selection. Poulenc wrote over 150 songs and it would be foolish to expect them all to be masterpieces but many are well worth investigating.

Arts Council confirms strategic funding for In Harmony

In a document outlining their funding strategy for 2015-2018, the Arts Council has confirmed that they will continue funding In Harmony. Though part of the budget is still subject to negotiations with the government, the council did make specific funding commitments: 'Strategic funding for In Harmony, a national programme that aims to inspire and transform the lives of children in deprived communities using the power and disciplines of community-based orchestral music-making, will continue'.

Of course such groups require support in all sorts of ways in addition to basic funding. Sistema England is currently appealing for unwanted musical instruments, which will be used for children in the programmes. If you have an instrument gathering dust on the shelf, then Sistema England wants to hear about it. Each instrument donated is another child able to learn. See their website for further information and contact details.

Matthias Goerne and Leif Ove Andsnes

Matthias Goerne and Leif Ove Andsnes recital: The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 7 2014
Star rating: 5.0
 

The recital by baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes at the Wigmore Hall last night (7 January 2014) was notable for the mesmerising intensity of the performances and the thoroughgoing way which the performers examined their chosen subject, death. The recital interleaved six of Shostakovich's songs from his Michelangelo Suite with ten of Gustav Mahler's lieder taken from the Ruckert Lieder, Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Kindertotenlieder. The entire seriousness of the enterprise was underlined at the end of the recital when, as an encore, the pair performed a long intense Beethoven song.

The results could have been maudlin and self-indulgent, but in the hands of Goerne and Andsnes the songs illuminated each other and Goerne's technically assured but highly interventionist performances made for ravishing listening. Both performers made you hang onto every word and note, no matter how slow the tempi sometimes got. Having heard a number of recent performances of Des Knaben Wunderhorn which brought the folk-influences to the fore, it was a welcome change to hear Goerne returning to a more darkly romantic, highly interventionist style of performance. He sang with a consistently fine sense of line and legato, but made every detail count, with highly wrought lines.

Rameau 250th anniversary with Les Talens Lyriques

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques will be celebrating Rameau's 250th anniversary in 2014 with a pair of appearances at the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican. Laura Scozzi's production of Rameau's Les Indes Galantes will not be transferring to London (you have to travel to Bordeaux to see it), but Rousset, Les Talens Lyriques and a cast including Carolyn Sampson will be giving a concert performance at the Barbican (6/3/2014). At the Wigmore Hall, Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques will be performing Rameau's Pices de clavecin en concerts and his cantata Orphee (30/3).

Further ahead, the group returns to the Wigmore Hall for a programme of Lecons de Tenebre by Charpentier and Couperin (16/4) and are joined by Ann Hallenberg in a programme of spectacular opera arias written for the castrato Farinelli (28/4)

The Sixteen special ticket offer - Handel’s Jephtha, 14 January 2014, Barbican Hall

We are delighted to be able to offer readers 50% off all £45 and £35 tickets for The Sixteen’s performance of Handel’s Jephtha at the Barbican, conducted by Harry Christophers.

Handel’s electrifying final oratorio is a dramatic story of passion, redemption, sacrifice and honour. In Christophers’ opinion it is in many ways his most profound, specifically for its incredible use of the chorus and also for its insight into the characters involved. Those characters are performed by some of today’s finest Handelian soloists including Sophie Bevan, Susan Bickley and James Gilchrist in the title role.

Luis Gomes lunchtime recital

Luis Gomes

Luis Gomes & David Gowland recital: Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 7 2014
Star Rating: 4.0

Portuguese tenor Luis Gomes is now one of Covent Garden's Jette Parker Young Artists and as part of the young artist programme gave a lunchtime recital at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre on Monday 6 January 2014, accompanied by David Gowland who is Artistic Director of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. Gomes' programme included the Richard Strauss 3 Lieder, Op. 29 and 4 Lieder, op. 27 as well as Federico Mompou's Combat del Somni and four of Sergei Rachmaninov's romances. Before the recital started Gomes dedicated it to the memory of the young soprano Eva Ganizate who died recently.

London Concord Singers starting 2014 with a bang

The choir in which I sing, London Concord Singers, is starting 2014 with a bang. They have commissioned a new piece from Judith Bingham; the new work, which sets words from Alice in Wonderland and from the novels of Charles Dickens, will be premiered by them in July 2014. And in April 2014 The choir will also be giving the European premiere of the Missa Charles Darwin by American composer Gregory W Brown (brother of the author Dan Brown).

Chamber Classics Unwrapped at Kings Place

Kings Place has run a series of year long themes in which a single composer is Unwrapped (we have just finished 2013's Bach Unwrapped). For 2014 they have decided to go for something different, Chamber Classics Unwrapped, a series of concerts presenting the top 50 chamber works. The works were chosen with the help of an online vote at BBC Music Magazine, but the results include all the works that you might expect.  The advantage of the series is that artists have been given carte-blanche in the programming so that Beethoven is paired with John Adams or Bernard Hermann, Elgar with Falla and Brahms, Ravel with Birtwistle, with composers like Ligeti, Panufnik, Turina, Berio, Reicha, and Webern also cropping up. The range of artists is impressive, with old faces like the Dante Quartet, Endymion and the Schubert Ensemble, plus resident ensembles like the Brodsky Quartet, the Aurora Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and the OAE. Individual artists will include James Ehnes, Jack Liebeck and Sarah Connolly.

Competition

Our latest competition, to win an evening with Divas and Scholars: History of Opera is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who entered. The correct answer was that Nelly Miricioiu made her UK debut in the role of Violetta in La Traviata with Scottish Opera.

Benjamin Britten - Peace and Conflict

Tony Britten's Benjamin Britten - Peace and Conflict is a new film which takes a somewhat sidelong-view of Britten's life. Comprised of scenes re-enacted by actors, sections narrated by John Hurt, talking heads and performances of Britten's music, Tony Britten takes as his starting point Britten's schooldays at Gresham's. It was here, in a highly liberal atmosphere, that the origin of many of his adult attitudes can be detected. A most potent symbol of this is the fact that a fellow school-mate of Britten's was Donald Maclean, the communist spy.

The backbone of the film is a series of re-enactments of Britten's school days at Gresham's, with young actors including Alex Lawther as the young Britten. These are presumably speculative, but informed not only by Britten's letters but also by the school magazine to which the boys contributed. The school had a very liberal atmosphere in which the boys were encouraged to think for themselves. Britten developed a number of relationships which had strong influences on his later attitudes. Whilst a number of contemporaries such as Maclean became communists, these attitudes came out in Britten in his strong commitment to the peace movement.

Candide at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Leonard Bernstein's Candide is hardly a small scale musical, for a start its plot careers all over the globe and takes in such little gems as an auto-da-fe and an earthquake. But the Menier Chocolate Factory has never been daunted by size and has produced a remarkable series of musicals in their small-ish studio theatre. Matthew White's new production uses a cast of 15 hard working singers and a small band. Paul Farnsworth's set is the auditorium itself, the production takes place in the round with a walk-way behind the audience and the entire room is kitted out in distressed Spanish colonial style. The cast is led by James Dreyfus as Pangloss (Cacambo and Martin), Fra Fee as Candid, Scarlett Strallen as Cunegonde and Jackie Clune as the Old Lady. We caught the show on Friday 3 January, well on through the run.

I have seen the musical a number of times in various different versions ranging from Birmingham Rep in the late 1970's/early 1980's through Bernstein's 'final' version performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with opera singers in the main roles to the National Theatre's brilliant version with Simon Russell Beale. The programme does not make it clear which version Matthew White's production uses, but it was similar to that used by the National Theatre with Hugh Wheeler's book having a plot far closer to Voltaire's original book than the original musical.

Becoming a conductor - an interview with George Jackson

George Jackson is a young English conductor who is just finishing his training in Vienna, at that interesting stage of his career when he takes the first steps at being freelance and sees how his career develops. During our interview George talked about how that smallest things, such as a phone call, can make a big difference at this stage. George already has a number of interesting projects line up for 2014 including performances of rare Beethoven in Romania, his debut with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and time as a conducting fellow at this year's Aspen Festival.

George did his first degree at Trinity College Dublin, before going to study conducting in Vienna at the University for Music under Mark Stringer. The move to Austria was deliberate as George wanted to learn conducting within the Austro-German kapellmeister tradition. The course at the university was extensive, lasting five years and including singing, piano and flute lessons; George himself was originally a violinist and singer. He is currently coming to the end of his course, and his training concludes with his public concert in May with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. For this concert he will be performing the Brahms' Haydn Variations and talks about how he likes the idea of having the two Viennese composers in one single piece.

Still a few hours to go

You still have chance to enter our competition to win an evening with Masterclass and Company to one of their new evenings, Divas & Scholars - THE HISTORY OF OPERA; six evenings on the history of opera with a variety of expert lecturers and fabulous singers (with a glass of champagne!). The final evening will be a lecture/recital from Nelly Miricioiu.


See our competition page for further details

BBC Young Musician finalist performs with Northern Chamber Orchestra

Callum Smart
photo by Benjamin Harte

Callum Smart, still only a teenage and studying at Chetham's School of Music, will make his debut with the Northern Chamber Orchestra on 11 January 2014 in their concert Turkish & Other Delights at Macclesfield Heritage Centre. Smart will be playing Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 5 'Turkish' and Chausson's Poeme, the latter a work Smart has recently recorded in the version with piano accompaniment.

Smart won the string category of the 2010 BBC Young Musician Competition performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Vasily Petrenko. Smart was 13 at the time! Also in 2010 he was the top European prize winner in the Menuhin Competition in Oslo. Smart plays on a 1698 Antonio Stradivari violin loaned by J & A Beare Ltd. His first recital disc is being released on the Orchid Classics label in early 2014.

The concert also includes Mendelssohn's String Symphony no. 1 and Haydn's Symphony no. 49 La Passione. The programme is very much about youth, Mozart was only 18 when he composed his violin concerto and Mendelssohn only 12 when he wrote the string symphony. Further information from the Northern Chamber Orchestra website.

Rutland Boughton - centenary of the Glastonbury festivals

2014 is the centenary of the founding of the original festival at Glastonbury by the composer Rutland Boughton. At his Glastonbury festivals Boughton had mounted over 350 staged works; 100 chamber concerts, a number of exhibitions and series of lectures and recitals. The Rutland Boughton Music Trust plans to celebrate this. 

There will be a festival at the Assembly Rooms in Glastonbury in August 2014 and, if funds are found, a new recording of Boughton's music including Reunion Variations, the overture to The Queen of Cornwall and/or the overture to the Cycle of Arthurian Music Dramas. The Rutland Boughton Music Trust is appealing for funds to help support these activities, further information from their webpages.

January on the South Bank

January on the South Bank includes the premiere of James MacMillan's Viola Concerto, a visit to an 18th century Italian conversazione with Sounds Baroque, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment celebrating CPE Bach and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui collaborating with an all-male Coriscan vocal ensemble.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski are giving the world premiere of James MacMillan's Viola Concerto with soloist Lawrence Power (15 January), along with Mahler's Symphony no. 6. Jurowski also conducts the orchestra in Hartmann's Concerto funebre with music by Bach and Beethoven (22 January)

Sounds Baroque directed by Julian Perkins, with soprano Anna Dennis and counter-tenor Andrew Radley present a programme entitled Duelling Cantatas which conjures up one of the 18th century Italian conversazione with music by Gasparini, Handel, Corelli, both Scarlattis and Caldara (27 January). The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment present a programme of music by CPE Bach, with Mahan Esfahani on harpsichord, Danny Driver on forte piano, conducted by Rebecca Miller including CPE Bach's Concerto in E flat for harpsichord and fortepiano. (30 January)

Turn of the Screw

Britten's Turn of the Screw is in some ways a reaction against the large scale operas he wrote in the early 1950's (Billy Budd and Gloriana). Working with a congenial new collaborator as librettist, Myfanwy Piper, Britten created a work which exists in balance. It balances tight formal structure with extremes of emotion, the physical reality of the governess and Bly with the seductive nebulousness of the ghosts, the innocence, (sexual) knowingness and cunning in Miles. Written for the English Opera Group using small forces (17 instrumentalists and 6 singers), the work is strong enough to expand to fill a large theatre like the London Coliseum.

This new set on the LSO Live label captures the concert performances given by the London Symphony Orchestra in April 2013 at London's Barbican Centre. Members of the LSO are conducted by Richard Farnes (musical director of Opera North) with Andrew Kennedy as the prologue and Peter Quint, Sally Mathews at the Governess, Michael Clayton-Joly as Miles, Lucy Hall as Flora, Catherine Wyn-Roger as Mrs Grose and Katherine Broderick as Miss Jessel.


Listening to the opera on CD is very different to seeing it in the theatre. Without any visual stimulus, the CD performance brings the music of the instrumental variations into closer focus. Britten follows each scene with an orchestral variation, 15 in all. In these instrumental variations he explores the opera musically and underpins the drama of the piece. Though the sheer presence of the ghosts on stage is a step away from Henry James, Britten's musical commentary and development places them in a separate space. The orchestra becomes another character, like a narrator, and after each scene we eagerly await the orchestral variation to hear what the commentator thinks.

Planet Hugill list for 2013

It is the time of year when people produce lists of the best and worst of the preceding year, so that we though we at Planet Hugill would do something similar, here are our selections from 2013.

Robert's list:

• Recording artist of the year: treble Inigo Jones who appeared as soloist on New College Oxford's recordings of sacred music Mozart, Marc-Antoine Charpentier and Britten.
• Opera of the year: Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites in two very different but striking productions at the Chatelet Theatre, Paris and Grange Park Opera. 
• Special mention: ETO's children's opera Laika the Space Dog, with music by Russell Hepplewhite
• Best frock: Joyce DiDonato's amazing Vivienne Westwood number at her Drama Queens recital (and the music wasn't bad either)
• A pair of inspiring evenings: Two memorable farewells, Sarah Walker's 70th birthday and Felicity Lott's final solo recital, both at Wigmore Hall
• Best contemporary opera: George Benjamin's Written on Skin at Covent Garden, showing what contemporary opera can be