Philip Venables' 4.48 Psychosis lauded in UK Theatre Awards

Susanna Hurrell, Emily Edmonds, Gweneth-Ann Rand , Lucy Schaufer
in 4.48 Psychosis © ROH 2016. Photograph by Stephen Cummiskey

Philip Venables' opera 4.48 Psychosis, a co-commission between the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and The Royal Opera, was announced as the winner of the Achievement in Opera award at the 2016 UK Theatre Awards. The opera, based on the final work by the playwright Sarah Kane, represented the culmination of Venables' period as Doctoral Composer-in-Residence at the Guildhall School and The Royal Opera.

4.48 Psychosis was premiered by The Royal Opera at the Lyric Hammersmith in May 2016, with sopranos Gweneth-Ann Rand, Jennifer Davis and Susanna Hurrell, mezzo-sopranos Clare Presland, Lucy Schaufer, and Emily Edmonds, and chamber ensemble CHROMA, conducted by Richard Baker, Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School. The production was directed by Ted Huffman, who made his Royal Opera debut, and designed Hannah Clark, who also made her Royal Opera debut, and lighting designer D.M. Wood.

Venables was the first Doctoral Composer-in-Residence; this is a Composer-in-Residence studentship which leads to a doctoral research degree. Fully funded by the Guildhall School and supported by The Royal Oper, the studentship offers one composer every two years the opportunity to be Doctoral Composer-in-Residence over a three-year period, during which time the composers researches and writes a major work, which is staged by The Royal Opera. The position is supervised by Head of Composition at the Guildhall School Julian Philips and Associate Director of Opera at The Royal Opera John Fulljames. This collaboration between the Guildhall School and The Royal Opera which was launched in 2013 and is one of the first examples of a conservatoire and an opera company joining forces.

In September 2015 Na’ama Zisser joined the programme as the second Doctoral Composer-in-Residence. Her new opera is due to be staged by The Royal Opera in 2018.

All change - email contact details

My email is changing/has changed. From 13 October 2016 the hugill@hugill.demon.co.uk email address will no longer work. My new email address is:

robert (a) planethugill (dot) com

Radical Dido

Dido and Aeneas - Roman fresco,
Pompeian Third Style (10 BC - 45 AD),
Pompeii, Italy

As part of PLAY, the 2016 Arts & Humanities Festival at King’s College London, the Helios Collective is presenting Dido & ..., a re-imagining of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in the Great Hall at King's College, London from 12 to 14 October 2016. The Helios Collective with director Ella Marchment and conductor/composer Leo Geyer are asking the question why shouldn't performances of old musical texts by as innovative performances of plays. 

It is routine for actors to bring new meaning (sometimes radically) to old texts, but in music the score is sacrosanct. With singers Camilla Bull, Isolde Roxby, Sam Pantcheff, Lily Papaioannou and an instrumental ensemble, the company will present a version of Dido and Aeneas where choruses have been re-harmonised, songs re-ordered and orchestration and musical style adjusted. Each evening a workshop, chaired by Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Professor of Music at King’s College London, will explore the processes involved in creating the performance.

Further information from the King's College London website.

Voices of London: Songs of the Big Smoke

Voices of London, Yiu, Lark, Ross, Atkins, Purcell, Holst, Corp, Walton, Sherwin; Jennifer Witton, Elizabeth Lynch, Nick Allen, Piran Legge;
Reviewed by Robert Hugill
Star rating: 4.5
A new song cycle inspired by the City of London

Song in the City, artistic director Gavin Roberts, commissioned a new song cycle in 2012. The cycle, Voices of London, was written by four different young contemporary composers to be performed by four singers and piano. The songs set poetry inspired by the City of London, where Song in the City is based (they give regular lunchtime recitals along with many other activities). On this disc, soprano Jennifer Witton, mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Lynch, tenor Nick Allen and baritone Piran Legg come together with Gavin Roberts to perform Voices of London written by composers Raymond Yiu, James Lark, Graham Ross & Joseph Atkins, along with other songs inspired by London by Henry Purcell, Gustav Holst, Ronald Corp, William Walton and Manning Sherwin.

Voices of London consists of nine songs, two each for the soloists and the final one for all four. The cycle opens with Raymond Yiu's Praeludium setting text by the medieval writer Richard of Devises, 'I do not at all like that city'. A short arioso with a rather music-theatre style, both tenor Nick Allen and composer demonstrate a great way with words. James Lark's London (sung by Nick Allen) sets a poem by William Blake in a complex yet lyrical style, with a great use of melisma, which reminded me of Michael Tippett. Graham Ross's setting of Carole Anne Duffy's Translating the English 1989 (sung by Jennifer Wilton), is jazz/blues in style with a strong feel of musical theatre in the use of words.  Raymond Liu's The Telephone combines edgy yet lyrical vocals, sung by Piran Legge with a very spiky piano accompaniment.

A feast of pianism: Two-piano gala at the London Piano Festival

Two-piano gala - Busoni, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Nico Muhly, Milhaud, Piazzolla, Grainger; Katya Apekisheva, Charles Owen, Ronan O'Hora, Martin Roscoe, Stephen Kovacevich, Kathryn Stott, Ashley Wass; London Piano Festival at Kings Place
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 8 2016
Star rating: 4.5
Terrific evening of spectacular pianism as 20th century rarities for two pianos explored

The centre-piece of the first London Piano Festival at Kings Place, on Saturday 8 October 2016, was the Two-Piano Gala, a stupendous evening of music for two pianos played by a fine relay of pianists, with the artistic directors of the festival Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva joined by Ronan O'Hora, Martin Roscoe, Stephen Kovacevich, Kathryn Stott and Ashley Wass. The programme gave us a survey of music for two pianos from the first half of the 20th century ranging from the high seriousness of Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica, through the seductive textures of Debussy's Lindaraja and Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun, the sheer beauty of Rachmaninov's relatively unknown Suite No. 1, and the intoxication of Ravel's La Valse, to the sparkling rhythms of Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit, and tangos by Astor Piazzolla re-invented for two pianos, culminating in the serious fun of Percy Grainger's Fantasy on Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. There was also a world premiere, Nico Muhly's Fast Patterns which had been commissioned by the festival.

It was a long evening, three and a half hours including two intervals, but the quality of the pianism and inventiveness of the programming ensured that interest never flagged, quite the opposite. The pianists played in a kind of relay, almost with each work being given by a different combination of pianists. What came over, from the very beginning of the evening, was the sense of sheer joy and engagement as the solo pianists (very much a solitary species) enjoyed and evening of communal music making.

Art changes the world: Kristjan Järvi on music, society, nature and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic

Kristjan Järvi, Gidon Kremer and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic rehearsing in Gdansk
photo Baltic Sea Philharmonic / Peter Adamik

You don't necessarily expect to talk about politics with a conductor who is publicising his latest records, but Kristjan Järvi is not an ordinary sort of conductor. Everything he does is shot through with concern for the problems in society and the need to connect to the natural environment. I recently met up with him to talk about his recent projects with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, his latest disc with them, and his new disc of music by Steve Reich with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. Yet one of the things he came back to in our conversations was his bewilderment at the world right now with the development of a number of dictators in the 21st century.

My conversation with Kristjan never quite took on a regular structure, instead it flowed according to flow of Kristjan's thoughts; metaphors cropped up regularly, regarding his passion for the way of music, nature and society are all linked. By the end of our talk I began to understand the underlying connection between his varied projects. And I have never had someone quote Bruce Lee in an interview before.

Everything is connected

On tour: Zuz A Ana and Adrien Le Gall from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic
Photo: Baltic Sea Philharmonic / Peter Adamik

Kristjan has just returned from the Baltic Sea Discovery tour with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, an ensemble which he founded and which he calls one of his favourites. The orchestra combines young players from all ten of the Baltic nations and arises out of Kristjan's Baltic Sea Youth Orchestra. Their ethos combines music, with concerns for nature and society. For Kristjan, the connection to the natural world is an essential building block. This has been lost in society, and problems arise out of a concern with 'things which are not real'. We are all part of the natural environment, and everything we do affects the society around us, so Kristjan concentrates on what he sees as the important things, creativity and music.

This can sound a bit airy-fairy, but Kristjan combines passion with a real practicality when putting ideas into practice. For the rehearsals for the recent tour, he took them to a very rugged wild place on the coast where the wild-life included swans. They thought he was nuts, and calling it the Baltic jungle but for Kristjan it was the best place for the young players to connect with nature; nature which inspired all the music they were performing. The swans were important too, not only as the emblematic bird of the area but because the birds inspired the music in the programme, Arvo Pärt's Swansong, Sibelius's Swan of Tuonela and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Sisters are doin' it for themselves

A new all-women choir debuts tomorrow, 8 October 2016. Gloriana, conducted by Deborah Miles Johnson, brings together forty female singers from chamber choirs and choruses across London and the south east. Their concert at St George's Church, Bloomsbury will combine established favourites such as Holst's Ave Maria for female double chorus, with new repertoire including a commission from Andrew Parnell. There will also be music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Luzzasco Luzzaschi (who wrote music for the famous all-women vocal ensemble Concerto delle donne in Ferrara in the 16th century), Vivaldi (who wrote for the all-female choir at the Pieta in Venice) and contemporary Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds.

Girls choirs and all-female youth choirs are relatively common, but an all women choir made up of mature voices is more unusual and it will be interesting to hear how Andrew Parnell approaches the challenge of this sonority in his new work for the choir.

Semiramide 'La Signora Regale' - Anna Bonitatibus at the Wigmore Hall

Anna Bonitatibus - photo Frank Bonitatibus

Semiramide 'La Signora Regale'; Anna Bonitatibus, Collegium 1704, Vaclav Luks; The Wigmore Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 05 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Anna Bonitatibus on terrific form in a programme spanning a century of music about Semiramide

The semi-mythical character of Semiramis (Semiramide), Queen of Assyria, seems to have fascinated opera composers for over 100 years. For her recital at the Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 5 October 2016, Italian mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus gave us a selection of different takes on the character, with the composers ranging from the well-known (Handel, Gluck and Rossini) through the moderately known (Caldara, Vinci, Jommelli and Paisiello) to the unknown (Bertoni, Bianchi, Nasolini, Catel and Garcia). For her journey, Bonitatibus was accompanied by the Czech ensemble, Collegium 1704 conducted by their founder Vaclav Luks.

In fact there were a series of different Semiramides as different librettos concentrated on different aspects of her story, or invented new ones. It wasn't so much the fascination with the historical character as the seductive charm of the mythical Middle East, combined of course with Semiramide's mythical murderous instincts. It could have been a dutiful trawl through some forgotten and rather worthily dull operas, after all not every 18th century opera was really worth reviving. But Bonitatibus brought a vivid sense of theatricality and engagement to each aria, combining a vivid technique with a striking physicality; she certainly is not a singer to just stand and deliver. Though she did use music, she was strikingly engaged with the audience and we had a degree of visual stimulus too. Not just Bonitatibus's highly mobile platform manner, but her four different outfits ensured a striking visual side to the programme.

The programme was played in historical order, so we started with Antonio Caldara (from 1725) and ended with Manuel Garcia (from 1826). Caldara's Semiramide in Ascalona premiered in 1725 and we heard the Introduzione (overture) and Povera navicella. The overture was an attractive Vivaldi-esque piece, followed by a vigorous simile aria with some robust passage-work, to which Bonitatibus added some brilliant ornaments in the Da Capo.

Scottish International Piano Competition

Jonathan Fournel - Winner of the
2014  Scottish International
Piano Competition

This weekend is the London Piano Festival (7-9 October 2016 at Kings Place), co-artistic directors  Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen. Both pianists are prize winners of the Scottish International Piano Competition (Charles took 2nd prize in 1995 and Katya took equal 2nd prize in 1998), so it seems rather apt to announce that the next Scottish International Piano Competition will take place from 1 to 10 September 2017 in Glasgow.

The competition runs every three years; the previous competition was in 2014 and was won by the young French pianist Jonathan Fournel (who was only 21 at the time of the competition). 

Frederic Lamond

The competition was founded in 1986 and the 2017 edition will be the 11th festival. Thirty competitors, aged 18-30, will take part before an international jury of musicians and pianists chaired by Professor Aaron Shorr, Head of Keyboard and Collaborative Piano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The competitors perform a series of recital programmes culminating in a concerto final at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, where the three finalists will be accompanied by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

The semi-finalists will perform a newly commissioned work by Gordon McPherson, Head of Composition at the conservatoire. Each round of the Competition will be played on a different piano: a Bosendorfer, a Fazioli and a Steinway, which is intended to create a variety of experience for the competitors and the audience.

The competition was founded in memory of the great Scottish pianist Frederic Lamond (1868-1948), who was one of Liszt's last pupils and who, after a career based in Germany returned to Scotland to teach at the Scottish National Academy (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). You can hear Lamond talking about his lessons with Liszt on YouTube.

Launch of composer Tamara Konstanin's debut disc

To the august portals of the Reform Club in St James's on Wednesday 5 October, 2016 for the launch of composer Tamara Konstantin's debut disc on Stone Records. Born in Georgia, where she attended the Tiblisi School for Gifted Musicians, she had a career in the media and business before devoting herself to music when she came to the UK. In style, her music is highly accessible and universal, often inspired by past masters. At the launch she played a short recital, which opened with a fantasy based upon Beethoven Moonlight Sonata with a new counter-melody played on the cello Jiaxin Lloyd Webber. Tamara's music has already been heard on Classic FM, as David Mellor has played some of it on his programme.

This first disc, Inflections, is entirely of piano music, played by Tamara Konstantin and Duncan Honeybourne, but we are promised a follow-up disc which will include some chamber music and we heard a number of teasers including movements from her Dorset Suite for piano trio.

Inflections was released on 5 October 2016 and is available via Amazon.

Little Venice Music Festival

Little Venice - Charlesdrakew at English Wikipedia

The Little Venice Music Festival opens tomorrow (7 October) and runs all weekend, a celebration of chamber music and song with the Berkeley Ensemble and friends, including the premieres of works by Michael Berkeley, Toby Young and Peter Maxwell Davies. The festival opens in fine style with the Berkeley Ensemble performing Beethoven's Septet, Howard Ferguson's Octet and a new work by Toby Young, preceded by a pre-concert talk from Petroc Trelawney. The ensemble is joined by pianist Christopher Glynn and cellist Adrian Brendel for the closing concert which mixes music from Vienna with the premiere of Michael Berkeley's At a solemn wake, which is dedicated to the memory of his late wife. And in the best tradition, the closing concert is followed by a party!

Other events include Ensemble Perpetuo performing in counterpoint to an exhibition from the London Photo Festival, mezzo-soprano Anna Huntley, baritone Nicholas Merryweather and pianist Libby Burgess in songs and duos by Brahms, Schumann, Poulenc and Britten, a family concert and violinist Fennella Humphreys in a late night concert including the premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies Sonata for violin alone, one of his last works.

Most of the concerts take place at St Saviour's Church, Warwick Avenue, Little Venice, London W9 2PT

A voice from Heaven: The Kings Consort in 20th century British choral music

A Voice from Heaven - Howells, Harris, MacMillan, Tavener, Stanford, Leighton, Parry, Berkeley, Murrill, Jones; Choir of the King's Consort, Robert King; Vivat
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 04 2016
Star rating: 5.0
An attractive and intriguing programme, very finely sung

At first sight this new disc from Robert King and the Choir of the King's Consort, on Vivat, has all the hall-marks of a 'greatest hits' disc for late 19th and 20th century British choral music; Harris's Faire is the Heaven, Herbert Howells' Take him, earth, for cherishing and something from Howells' Requiem, Tavener's Song for Athene. All works which have a strong 'tingle-factor' for both singers and audience, all that is lacking is Stanford's Beati quorum via but the disc does include Stanford's Justorum animae from the same set. But look closer at the disc's contents and the results are rather more intriguing.

Robert King has programmed a series of pairings so that Harris's Bring us, O Lord God is paired with James MacMillan's setting of the same words. This goes through the whole disc, Both Howells and Tavener's take on Take him, earth, for cherishing, Stanford and Howells' I heard a voice from heaven, Kenneth Leighton and Thomas Hewitt Jones' Drop, drop, slow tears, Stanford and Berkeley's Justorum animae plus Herbert Murrill's setting of the English version of the text. There are a few singletons, Harris's Faire is the Heaven, Parry's Lord, let me know mine end and Tavener's Song for Athene; works which it would be difficult to imagine a composer approaching the words independently, but then again I would have said that about Herbert Howell's Take him, earth, for cherishing yet John Tavener came up with a very striking alternative setting.

Different Trains Every Time: celebrating 25 years of Parr Street Studios

Steve Reich

You might not have heard of Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, but you almost certainly have heard music recorded there. The largest recording studio outside of London, it was once owned by Genesis and has seen everyone grace its doors from Echo & the Bunnymen, and The Lightning Seeds, to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The studio is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and to celebrate is producing a series of 25 short documentaries. The first relates to Steve Reich's Different Trains, and is Rob Godfrey and Andrew Ellis's documentary (produced for Parr Street Studios) about making a recording for a performance of the work.

Filmaker Bill Morrison was commissioned to make a film to use at an open air performance of Different trains (the first time the work has had video accompaniment) which was presented by Metal Culture, and which took place at Edge Hill railway station (the UK's oldest functioning station), when the work was performed by members of the London Contemporary Orchestra. Different Trains uses a live string quartet alongside pre-recorded ones, so Parr Street Studios' documentary Different Trains Every Time looks at the making of the soundtrack needed for the performance, talking to those involved both performers (Robert Ames and other members of the London Contemporary Orchestra) and recording engineers.

The film Different Trains Every Time is available on YouTube and provides fascinating insight into Different Trains. There is also a discussion with Reich himself, which can be seen on the Boiler Room website.

Miles Cooper Seaton Kammer Klang at Cafe Oto

Miles Cooper Seaton
Photography by Dimitri Djuric for Kammer Klang

Kammer Klang; Martyna Poznańska, Distractfold, Miles Cooper Seaton; Cafe Oto
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 4 2016
Star rating: 3.5
Three highly contrasting sets in this exploration of contemporary classical, experimental and electronic

I have long wanted to visit Cafe Oto in Dalston, and the opening of Kammer Klang's 2016/17 season provided a perfect reason. Kammer Klang present a series of curated programmes of contemporary classical, experimental, improvised and electronic music and for last night's event (Tuesday 4 October 2016) we heard sets by Martyna Poznańska, Distractfold (Rocío Bolaños, clarinets; Linda Jankowska, violin; Emma Richards, viola; Alice Purton, cello; Daniel Brew, electric guitar; Mauricio Pauly, artistic co-director; Sam Salem, artistic co-director; Constantin Popp, technical director) and Miles Cooper Seaton & ensemble (Maïa Barouh, Ross Blake, Katie Buckett, Amelinda Burich, Alessandro Cau, Oliver Coates, Cathy Lucas, Tobia Poltronieri and Laetitia Sadier).

The result was an evening of impressively contrasted performances, played to a packed house. Cafe Oto presents experimental music in a casual, cafe atmosphere, but thankfully there was nothing casual about the audience's attention. Though they were both standing and sitting, the listeners paid eager attention to the music of the three sets, showing a discerning ability to focus. The music was highly contrasted, with Poznańska providing a video and soundtrack based on found sound, Distractfold performing at the cross section between live performance and electronics, whilst Miles Cooper Seaston's Transient Music #2, on the cusp of ambient and minimalism, was almost a communal meditative experience.

Martyna Poznańska
Photography by Dimitri Djuric for Kammer Klang

Martyna Poznańska is a cross-disciplinary artist based in Berlin, and her opening set had a video projection which combined with sound track of found sounds to evoke a train journey through city life. The video, with three different strips, presented different aspects of journeying; I was unclear whether projecting it across the stage setup for Distractfold ensemble was a deliberate ploy to partially obscure the imagery or simply a necessity. But the result was striking nonetheless.

The Manchester-born Distractfold performed three works, each for a different set-up which gave us a fine sampling of the performers range but seemed a little extravagant for a single set. First we heard the UK premiere of Untitled Valley of Fear by Sam Salem, co-artistic director of the ensemble,  his 2016 work for three object operators, tape and video. The objects were a fascinating mix of practical and electronics, involving a snare drum, a violin bow and much else besides. So fascinating was the process of watching the three women performing with their array of objects, that the accompanying video of a varied city scape felt rather redundant. The performers played from parts, whatever element of improvisation was in the piece was written in. The piece was a carefully planned array of textures and sounds, mainly an exploration of the quiet, the rough and the scratchy. Though there were noisy moments, it was the complex web of quiet sounds which impressed.

The Knife of Dawn

Hannah Kendall

The Knife of Dawn, an opera based on the life of the Guyanese poet and political activist Martin Carter, is being premiered a the Roundhouse on 6 October 2016. With music by Hannah Kendall, and libretto by Tessa McWatt, the opera features American baritone Eric Greene with Juice Vocals as the chorus and an ensemble of harp, violin, viola and cello. The performance will be conducted by Rebecca Miller with John Walton directing.

The opera is being presented on National Poetry Day, as part of Black History Month, and McWatt's libretto features five of Carter's poems, 'In a Great Silence', 'Listening to the Land', 'This is the Dark Time My Love', 'The Knife of Dawn', and 'Not Hands Like Mine' which come from his collection Poems of Resistance from British Guiana, published shortly after his being released from prison for the first time whilst fighting for independence for British Guyana.

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance will be running workshops for secondary school students in Lambeth and Lewisham to address the cultural, political and social issues that the opera raises and which Kendall hopes will encourage young people to challenge the concept of opera. Participants will see the opera in a free performance especially for young people, also on 6 October, before composing and performing their own collaborative musical response.

Further information from the Roundhouse website. Note that the website lists the performance as sold out, so we will have to hope that further performances are going to be scheduled.

September on Planet Hugill: Semiramide, Norma, Demetrio and Maria de Buenos Aires

Kieran Rayner as Lord Rokeby with William Thomas & Steven Swindells in British Youth Opera's production of Malcolm Williamson's English Eccentrics
Photo: Clive Barda/ArenaPAL

Welcome to September on Planet Hugill, when the new season really got started and operatic rarities seemed to be something of a theme.

At the Grimeborn Festival we caught Astor Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires in a production which was completely wonderful, but we hadn't the slightest idea what was going on. And at the Peacock Theatre, British Youth Opera rose to the challenge of Benjamin Britten's problem child, Owen Wingrave.

A clutch of rarities

Rossini's mammoth Semiramide came to the BBC Proms courtesy of Opera Rara, and the minutes simply sped by. Whilst British Youth Opera gave us the more compact, very rare and delightfully eccentric English Eccentrics by Malcolm Williamson.

It shouldn't be so, but Bellini's Norma was making a very rare appearance at Covent Garden in a production full of religious fervour. And Opera Settecento gave us the chance to experience Johann Adolph Hasse's Demetrio.

Various Venues

Ilona Domnich appeared at Rhinegold Live, in a recital which explored Persephone, mysteries of her heart. At the BBC Proms, youth certainly had it for Verdi's Requiem performed on the penultimate night with the BBC Youth Chorus. Rachel Podger & Marcin Swiatkiewicz gave us baroque pearls at Kings Place and there were two Don Quixotes from the English Concert, who performed Purcell and Telemann at the Wigmore Hall.

Kings Place Festival

Characterful and moving: Tavener's late Missa Wellensis from Wells Cathedral

John Tavener Missa Wellensis, Preces and Responses, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis 'Collegium Regale'
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sep 28 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Tavener's music for the Anglican liturgy with his late Missa Wellensis performed by the choir for whom it was written

John Tavener's name is perhaps most associated with works inspired by the Orthodox liturgy and, more recently, by other religions but this new disc from Matthew Owens and Wells Cathedral Choir, on Signum, presents Tavener in Anglican mode with a group of remarkable late works written specifically for the Anglican liturgy. Central to the disc is Tavener's Missa Wellensis which is performed with his Preces and Responses, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis 'Collegium Regale', plus a number of smaller works including The Lord's Prayer, Love bade me welcome, Psalm 121: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, Song for Athene, Prayer for the healing of the sick, and They are all gone into the world of light.

The Missa Wellensis, which was written for Wells Cathedral in 2013, opens the disc and then Owens and his choir weave the remaining works into a sequence resembling Evensong in order to give the Preces and Responses the right sense of structure. Wells has both a choir of trebles and a girls choir, and on this disc they use both and for the large scale works (the mass, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and the Preces and Responses) the lower parts are supplemented with five extra singers to create a choir of 43.

Tavener's Missa Wellensis is the longest and most substantial of his late works, written for double choir, and intended as a tribute to the music of Victoria. It lasts around 17 minutes with the 'Kyrie' being the longest of the movements. The length of the 'Kyrie' and the work's sheer complexity suggest that it is very much a special occasion piece. Tavener uses complex textures to create bold blocks of sound, with contrasts of extremes of dynamics. There is very much a sense of striving and strain, I suspect deliberately so particularly in the 'Kyrie'. But the final 'Agnus Dei' opens austerely with a single line (shared between voices) which is in fact a 12-tone melody.

Cello Unwrapped: truly madly deeply

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

For its annual year long Unwrapped festivals, Kings Place has explored Brahms, Mozart, Baroque music and Minimalism; this latter was recognised at the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, winning the Concert Series and Festivals category. And so next year it is the turn of the cello. 

For 2017, Kings Place will be celebrating Cello Unwrapped: truly madly deeply with concerts between 7 January and 16 December 2017. Curated by Helen Wallace (music journalist and cellist) in collaboration with Kings Place, the festival explores the many aspects of the cello from baroque to contemporary, from solo to various combinations of cello amongst a wide variety of friends. So as well as Bach solo cello suites, we can expect the UK premiere of Arthur Russell's Tower of Meaning, John Tavener's Svyati for cello and choir, Matthew Barley exploring Indian music, concertos by Haydn, Schumann, CPE Bach and many more.

The festival opens on Saturday 7 January 2017, with Alban Gerhardt and the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon in Britten, Vivaldi's Cello Concerto in B minor, RV 424 and Tchaikovsky's Roccoco Variations. Later the same evening Gerhardt will be performing Kodaly's Sonata for solo cello.

Bach's music for solo cello features strongly in a strand called Bach through time in which three different cellists (Christophe Coin, Natalie Clein and Peter Wispelwey) perform Bach's solo cello suites alongside music from different eras from the earliest music for solo cello to Ligeti and Kurtag. David Watkin will be also exploring the suites in a lecture recital, Unlocking the Bach Solo Suites. By contrast Zoe Keating will combine her cello with her laptop for a concert called One Cello x 16.Another theme is The Art of the Continuo where Watkin will be exploring Baroque music from a bass perspective with performers from the OAE Experience scheme. Richard Boothby and Richard Tunnicliffe will explore the similarities, differences and rivalries between the viola da gamba and the cello in Parallel Lives

Sheku Kanneh-Mason made quite a stir when he won the BBC Young Musician in 2016, and there is a chance to hear him in recital when, accompanied by his sister Isata Kanneh-Mason, he performs music by Cassado, Beethoven, and Shostakovich.

Cello and voice makes a lovely combination and there are chances to explore this. Kian Soltani and Voces8 perform Tavener's Svyati and are joined by Hugo Ticciati for Peteris Vasks Plainscapes for violin, cello and mixed choir. Soprano Joan Rodgers will join cellist Guy Johnson, with pianist Sholto Kynoch for a Russian themed programme which combines voice and cello. Soprano Ailish Tynan and cellist Christoph Coin, accompanied by Maggie Cole, will explore music written by Italians in 18th and 19th century London. Cellist Natalie Clein, soprano Ruby Hughes and pianist Julius Drake will be performing a programme which ranges from Bach and Schubert, through Cage and Janacek, to Tavener, Turnage and Berkely. And cellist Oliver Coates joins Tenebrae for a concert of music for Advent and Christmas.

Moving away from strictly classical, Adrian Brendel will be bringing his tango band, and Californian cellist Natalie Haas and Scottish fiddle player Alasdair Fraser explore a folk-based programme.

Full details from the Kings Place website.

Stylish and compact: Ann Murray in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

Ann Murray - ©Sian Trenberth

Purcell Dido and Aeneas; Ann Murray, George Humphreys, Sophie Junker, Rupert Enticknap, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Ruth Hansford on Sep 29 2016
Star rating: 4.5
A thoughtful and thought-provoking performance of Purcell's only opera

When an opera that usually lasts less than an hour is billed for two 40-minute ‘halves’ plus 20-minute interval, the last thing to expect is that it would be ‘compact’. Yet compact is exactly what this stylish performance was. David Bates and La Nuova Music performed Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, on 29 September 2016 at St John's Smith Square with Ann Murray and George Humphreys in the title roles, plus Sophie Junker and Rupert Enticknap.

David Peter Bates had prepared an edition that included dance interpolations from other contemporary entertainments by Purcell and Blow. He used his forces economically and used the St John’s space wisely. The band, led by Catherine Martin, consisted of ten players (strings, harp, theorbos, percussion) plus Bates conducting and playing continuo. They were positioned over to stage right, which required some rather expert pivoting on the conductor’s part. At one point the two lutenists came on to the stage and circled slowly around the singers.

Everything was of a piece, with no joins between the singing, dancing and instrumental numbers, or (to my ear) between the ‘native’ and interpolated numbers.

The end of time in Clapham: Messiaen at Omnibus

Michael Foyle, Maksim Štšura - photo Alastair Merrill

Messiaen Quatuor pour le fin du temps 
Maksim Štšura, Michael Foyle, Joseph Shiner, Yelian He 
Omnibus, Clapham
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Oct 2 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Young artists bring Messiaen's intense masterpiece to Clapham arts centre

Omnibus is an arts centre created in the former library in Clapham. Close to the common, Clapham Old Town and Clapham Common tube, it has developed into a lively arts venue which runs a monthly classical music series alongside theatre, family, jazz, spoken word and other events. We went along on Sunday 2 October 2016 to hear Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fin du temps performed by Maksim Štšura (piano) and Michael Foyle (violin), who form the Foyleštšura Duo, plus Joseph Shiner (clarinet) and Yelian He (cello). All four performers were selected as City Music Foundation artists in 2014.

Joseph Shiner

Messiaen's quartet is quite tricky to programme, there is not much standard repertoire for the combination of violin, clarinet, cello and piano, and the intensity of Messiaen's work makes it rather sui generis. The performers chose to present it alone, preceded by a 30 minute illustrated talk by pianist Maksim Štšura. Štšura was an engaging speaker (though he could perhaps modulate the speed of his delivery somewhat), presenting much information in a lively and often amusing manner. His talk covered the history of the work, addressing the way the premiere, in the prisoner of war camp in 1941, has been somewhat mythologised. He also brought out Messiaen's own notes on the various movements, and these were again projected during the performance to give those unfamiliar with the work a clear guidance.

Rising star: Tamsin Waley-Cohen begins ECHO tour

Tamsin Waley-Cohen - photo Patrick Allen

Tamsin Waley-Cohen's recital tonight (3 October 2016) at Birmingham Town Hall represents the start of the violinist's tour as one of the European Concert Hall Organisation's (ECHO) Rising Stars for 2016/17. Accompanied by pianist Huw Watkins, Waley-Cohen will be performing violin sonatas by Beethoven, Elgar, and Ravel alongside Heifetz's arrangements of pieces from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

ECHO is an active network of concert halls across Europe, and each year the organisation nominates a group of Rising Stars, The young artists are able to present a programme of their own choosing across a range of venues in the ECHO network. Tamsin Waley-Cohen was the only British nominee this season and as she was nominated by Birmingham Town Hall, it is apt that she begins her tour there. She will then be performing in some major venues across Europe, including Brussels (Bozar), Amsterdam (Het Concertgebouw), Luxembourg (Philharmonie), Baden-Baden (Festspielhaus), Vienna (Musikverein), Budapest (Mupa), Paris (Philharmonie), Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie), Lisbon (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation), Dortmund (Konzerthaus), Stockholm (Konserthus), Cologne (Philharmonie), L'Auditori Barcelona, Porto (Casa da Musica).

Each ECHO Rising Star has a new work commissioned for them as part of the series, and during the tours the artists also engage with and deliver a broad variety of Education, Learning and Participation work with diverse communities in cities and regions across the ECHO network.

Further information about Tamsin Waley-Cohen's tour from the ECHO website, further information about tonight's concert in Birmingham from the Town Hall website.

The celebrations continue: Spitalfields Music's Winter Festival

Melvyn Tan

This year is Spitalfields Music's 40th anniversary and celebrations continue with the Winter Festival which runs from 4 to 11 December 2016. Highlights include a concert by pianist Melvyn Tan which marks both Tan's 60th birthday and the festival's 40th with Tam performing works by former artistic directors Jonathan Dove and Judith Weir, and a new piece by Rolf Hind.

The English Concert, directed by Harry Bicket, is also in birthday mode as the group celebrates Shakespeare in Love with Mary Bevan and Tim Mead performing music by Purcell and Handel. Solomon's Knot is returning to the festival to perform Bach's Mass in B Minor from memory, and without a conductor, an event not to be missed. Other groups at the festival include Gothic Voices, whose programme mixes medieval and renaissance settings of Marian text with contemporary music by Joanne Metcalf and Andrew Smith, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen, and Siglo de Oro.

The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments, director Clare Salaman, will be performing music by Telemann and Vivaldi linked to new pieces by Jon Nichols, using unusual instruments such as the tromba marina, the bray harp and the viola bastarda!

Beyond the classical world, the festival will be exploring the combination of live literature and music
in The Dead Poets Social Club, the dance company Protein in May Contain Food an immersive and irreverant dance and music theatre show created by choreographer Luca Silverstrini and composer Orlando Gough, and a violinist from the South Indian Classical tradition Jyotsna Srikanth. There are events for young people including TROUPE Collective in The Empty Chair, and there is jazz from talented young East London musicians in Platform: Jazz Generation. There are also a number of pre- and post-concert events to help audiences explore the music further.

A variety of venues are being used for the festival, with most events taking place at Shoreditch Church and Shoreditch Town Hall. Christ Church, Spitalfields, the venue where the festival started, does not however seem to be being used this year.

Full information from the Spitalfields Music website.

Michael Nyman and 'The Tempest' - two major scores revisited

Michael Nyman Prospero's Books, Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs; Catherine Bott, Hilary Summers, Ian Bostridge, Sarah Leonard, Marie Angel, Ute Lemper, Deborah Conway, Ensemble Instrumental de Basse Normandie, David Roach, Andrew Findon, Michael Nyman Band, Domique Debart, Michael Nyman; MN Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sep 27 2016
Star rating: 3.5
A chance to re-visit two of Michael Nyman's major Tempest-themed scores from the 1990s

This set represents a re-packaging, on MN Records, of two of Michael Nyman's full length scores from the 1990s, both scores relate to Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Sarah Leonard, Marie Angel, Ute Lemper and Deborah Conway, with Michael Nyman and the Michael Nyman Band, perform Prospero's Books the music to Peter Greenaway's film, whilst Catherine Bott, Hilary Summers and Ian Bostridge, the Ensemble Instrumental de Basse-Normandie, David Roach and Andrew Findon (saxophones) under musical director Dominique Debart perform Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs a setting of text from Shakespeare's play which dates from 1995.

Michael Nyman's most iconic early film score remains The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway's 1982 film). That for Prospero's Books (the 1991 film directed by Peter Greenaway starring John Gielgud) seems to have been his last for Greenaway as Nyman says in his CD booklet that he was dissatisfied with the way Greenaway used the soundtrack. In fact the score is a blend of existing music from Nyman's La Traversee de Paris,selected by Greenaway, new music and re-workings of existing. The score is mainly instrumental with songs for Ariel (Sarah Leonard) and then Marie Angel, Ute Lemper and Deborah Conway perform in the masque at the end.

By contrast, Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs started out life as a ballet, La Princesse de Milan, for choreographer Karine Saporta in 1991, and Nyman subsequently re-worked it using the original Shakespeare words in 1995. This uses three voices, soprano Catherine Bott, alto Hilary Summers and tenor Ian Bostridge (his first commercial recording!), but the singers swap roles and portray no particular character. Here the music is much more about the voices, and the fascinating way Nyman uses Bostridge's high tenor compared to Summer's androgynous low alto voice.

Mozartian Hollywood noir: Don Giovanni at English National Opera

English National Opera - Don Giovanni - Christopher Purves (c) Robert Workman

Mozart Don Giovanni; Christopher Purves, Clive Bayley, James Crewell, Caitlin Lynch, Christine Rice, Allan Clayton, Mary Bevan, Nicholas Crawley, dir: Richard Jones, cond: Mark Wigglesworth
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Sep 30 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Richard Jones' dystopic vision opens ENO's new season

Allan Clayton (background), Christine Rice (c) Robert Workman

English National Opera's 2016/17 season opened on Friday 30 September 2016 with a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, directed by Richard Jones, with sets by Paul Steinberg, costumes by Nicky Gillibrand, lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin and movement by Sarah Fahie. Christopher Purves was Don Giovanni, with James Creswell as the Commendatore, Caitlin Lynch as Donna Anna, Allan Clayton as Don Ottavio, Christine Rice as Donna Elvira, Clive Bayley as Leporello, Nicholas Crawley as Masetto and Mary Bevan as Zerlina.

This was never going to be a straightforward production of Mozart's opera, what with the combination of Richard Jones, Christopher Purves and Clive Bayley. There has been a tendency recently for performers in the opera to be on the young side, but here we had two mature singers providing a fascinatingly different response to the opera. Jones's view of the piece seems to be rather dystopic over all with more than a hint of Hollywood noir about the production. There wasn't a lack of humour in the production, but Jones certainly did not bring out the buffo elements that are implicit in Mozart's treatment of the story.

Clive Bayley, Christopher Purves  (c) Robert Workman

At the centre of the production was the remarkable double act of Christopher Purves and Clive Bayley. Purves providing a brilliant depiction of the sheer sexiness of power, this wasn't a suave Don Giovanni nor a sleazy one, but a bullish man whose revelling in his sheer power created an aura. He was aided and abetted by Clive Bayley's red haired Leporello the badinage between them taking on a sarcastic edge rather than buffo dialogue, with a strong sense that Leporello wanted to be Giovanni. And of course, he does get to do this in Act Two, in a striking gesture Purves removed the red wig from Bayley's head revealing a bald pate the equal of Purves own. A gesture which was both funny and rather disturbing, saying much for the awkward intimacy of the two men.

Purves wasn't the most suave of Don Giovannis, I have heard the role better sung so that the champagne aria did rather go for nothing. But he invested the dialogue with a great sense of intense power. The recitatives were taken at a furious lick (and not surtitled so you had to concentrate hard), reflecting the sheer intensity and pell-mell nature of the production. Bayley's Leporello was a remarkable and rather unnerving creation. He turned in a fine account of the catalogue aria, brilliantly sung yet still with the same unnerving, rather mocking sense that imbued his whole performance. I am not sure why, but the the actor and comedian Peter Sellers kept coming to mind.

Vibrant young theatre: Opera for All's Eugene Onegin project with school children in Grimsby

Opera for All's Eugene Onegin project in Grimsby Central Hall

60 children from NE Lincolnshire singing and dancing, performing their own interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, mixing the opera with their own take on the plot and some distinctive twists, alongside two professional singers. This was the latest of Opera for All's projects, bringing opera and a sense of cultural community to coastal areas.

Opera for All is a collaboration between Garsington Opera, Coastal Communities Alliance and Magna Vitae which aims to bring opera and a sense of cultural engagement to communities where cultural provision is relatively limited. (You can read more about their work in my interview with Hannah Elder from Opera for All). One of their projects involved taking a film of this year's production of Eugene Onegin to Grimsby, NE Lincs, year two of a three year project supported by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund, following a similar project in the town last year. A free screening of the film was given at Grimsby Central Hall, and around this a series of workshops were held with local school children culminating in performances. I went along to see the results.

Returning to Grimsby Central Hall was something of a trip in a time machine for me, as I was brought up in the area and played a number of concerts there with the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Youth Orchestra. Whilst superficially little had changed, Freeman Street Market was still in the next block, and the Dock Tower still rose proudly over the docks, in fact there are large differences between then and now. The fish docks are no longer the centre of commercial activity in the town, and the level of unemployment is high.