Looking Ahead: BBC Symphony Orchestra 2017-18 season at the Barbican

Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra - photo BBC

The 2017-18 season is Sakari Oramo's fifth season as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and they will be celebrating with a complete series of Sibelius symphonies performed at the orchestra's Barbican concert series. Another highlight will be Oramo conducting Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with Alice Coote, Stuart Skelton and Alan Ewing.

Operatic outings for the orchestra include a double bill, conducted by Josep Pons, of Falla's El amor brujo and Granados' Goyescas. And Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking finally gets its UK premiere when Mark Wigglesworth conducts the opera in a semi-staged performance with Joyce DiDonato and Michael Mayes.

In addition to Elgar's oratorio, British music in the season smaller includes scale Elgar choral works, RVW's Sea Symphony, and Finzi's Cello Concerto. Other lesser-known Romantic repertoire will include Bruch's Concerto for Two Pianos, Florent Schmitt's Symphony No. 2 and Barber's Symphony No. 1.

Sir Andrew Davis will be conducting Raymond Yiu's The World Was Once All Miracle, and Gergely Madars makes his Barbican debut with the UK premiere of Ross Harris's Face. The season includes 11 UK premieres all told including Thomas Larcher's Red and Green, Betsy Jolas's Histoires Braies (conducted by Jon Storgards) and Aare Merikanto's Ekho as well as performances of recent works by Harrison Birtwistle, Alasdair Nicolson and Poul Ruders.

Total Immersion days continue with days devoted to Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Bernstein and Julian Anderson. The Julian Anderson day will include his Bell Mass and orchestral works, conducted by Edward Gardner including Im Liebliche Blaue with Carolin Widmann. Esa-Pekka Salonen's works to be performed include the UK remire of Karawane, plus pieces such as Gambit and Wing on Wing.

Full details from the BBC Symphony Orchestra website.

Taking them seriouly: Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at the London Coliseum.

Andrew Shore, Soraya Mafi, David Webb and company - ENO - The Pirate of Penzance - photo Tom Bowles

Gilbert and Sullivan The Pirates of Penzance; David Webb, Soraya Mafi, Andrew Shore, Ashley Riches, John Tomlinson, Lucy Schaufer, Katie Coventry, Angharad Lyddon, Johnny Herford, dir: Mike Leigh/Sarah Tipple, cond: Gareth Jones; English National Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 9 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Musical and dramatic delights in this strongly cast revival

David Webb, Ashley Riches, Johnny Herford and ENO Chorus
photo Tom Bowles

'Nobody does Gilbert and Sullivan any more', this was the comment from many of my friends when I mentioned the revival of Mike Leigh's 2015 production of The Pirates of Penzance at English National Opera (ENO). Whilst not completely true (English Touring Opera is doing Patience next month), this reflects the way performances of G&S have rather dropped out of the mainstream. That Leigh's production takes the opera on its own terms and does not try to send it up made it doubly welcome.

ENO had put together a strong cast, at the London Coliseum 9 February 2017, which combined youth and experience. Frederic and Mabel were played by ENO Harewood Artists David Webb and Soraya Mafi with Ashley Riches, a former member of the Royal Opera's Jette Parker Programme, as the Pirate King, plus Johnny Herford as Samuel, Katie Coventry as Edith, Angharad Lyddon as Kate and Lydia Marchione as Isabel. Experience was represented by Andrew Shore and Lucy Schaufer returning to the roles of the Major General and Ruth, and Sir John Tomlinson who sang the role of the Sergeant of the Police. The revival director was Sarah Tipple, with designs by Alison Chitty, lighting by Paul Pyant revived by Andrew Cutbush and choreography by Francesca Jaynes. Gareth Jones conducted the orchestra of English National Opera.

Leigh's production had the virtue that it had no particular axe to grind, and there was no re-writing or updating. It was not presented straight, evidently when Gilbert directed the piece he wanted the pirates to be serious in the intent and the comedy came from the unlikely combination of events; Gilbert's plots work from such unlikely juxtapositions. Leigh's pirates had a distinctly theatrical element to them, certainly larger than life and Chitty's designs, with the areas of plain flat colours in the sets and cutouts, rather emphasised the cartoon nature of the piece.

Beauty without the drama? Kaufmann sings Wagner at the Barbican

Jonas Kaufmann - © Julian Hargreaves / Sony Classical

Richard Wagner Tristan und Isolde prelude, Wesendonck Lieder, Die Walkure Act One; Jonas Kaufmann, Karita Mattila, Eric Halfvarson, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano; Barbican Hall
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 08 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Kaufmann provided some of the most beautiful Wagner singing I have heard in a long time, but the music-drama failed to catch fire

The second of Jonas Kaufmann's concerts as part of his Barbican Residency, was a much-anticipated evening of Wagner. Accompanied by Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall on Wednesday 8 February 2017, Kaufmann sang Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder and was then joined by Karita Mattila and Eric Halfvarson for Act One of Wagner's Die Walkure.

The evening started with a performance of the prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. Emerging from a thread of sound, Pappano drew a slowly unfolding line from the orchestra. Luxurious in terms of orchestra numbers, Pappano seemed to revel in this and used a very leisurely tempo indeed.

There is no reason why a man should not sing the Wesendonck Lieder, the texts do not really identify the singer. But it should be born in mind that Wagner wrote the songs with piano accompaniment and that the versions we know were orchestrated by Felix Mottl, under the express assumption that the singer would be a soprano with a voice capable of soaring over the orchestra. Kaufmann's voice baritone-tinged voice did not soar and there were moments when, lower in the register, the results were muddy and you could not help wishing someone had created a new orchestration specially.

Der Engel opened with Kaufmann singing intensely and quietly. His attention to the words and the detail of phrasing was miraculous, but the balance certainly favoured the orchestra. This was true of almost all the songs, Kaufmann stuck almost rigidly to his quietly intense, shaped line and allowed the orchestra to wash over him. Only in Schmerzen did we get something more demonstrative. Throughout the songs his control was superb and he sang daringly quietly, creating a sort of magic. Though I have to confess that I found his performance a little too undemonstrative, and that combined with the orchestral balance meant that the songs did not register as well as they should.

Southbank Sinfonia in 2017

Simon Over and the Southbank Sinfonia

The Southbank Sinfonia is 15 this year and to celebrate the orchestra is throwing party at the Royal Festival Hall on 17 May when Benjamin Grosvenor will be the soloist in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and the orchestra will be joined by Parliament Choir and Barts Choral Society for Walton's Rhapsody in Blue conducted by Simon Over. The orchestra provides graduate musicians with a springboard into the profession; each year 33 young players come together for nine-months to gain important experience.

The orchestra is busy this year with performances of Peter Schaffer's Amadeus at the National Theatre, but you can also catch them performing at the free rush-hour concert series on Thursdays at St John's Church, Waterloo. There are 15 rush-hour concerts this year, starting tonight with Salieri's Overture from ‘Il mondo alla rovescia’, Mozart's Symphony No.31 ‘Paris’ and Schubert's Symphony No. 2 conducted by Simon Over.

Other delights include Korngold's Violin Concerto with violinist Georgia Hannant and conductor Rebecca Miller, Brahms' Symphony No. 4 conducted by David Corkhill, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (without a conductor), music by Alex Roth, Caroline Shaw, David Bruce, David Heath, Pierre Jalbert, Michael Nyman, and even a couple of Baroque programmes.

Full listings from the Southbank Sinfonia website.

Rebecca Miller and the Salomon Orchestra takes us on an Hungarian excursion

Rebecca Miller
Photo Credit: Richard Haughton

Liszt Les Preludes, Kodaly Peacock Variations, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra; Salomon Orchestra, Rebecca Miller; St John's Smith Square
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 7 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Hungarian showpieces full of impressive energy and commitment

The Salomon Orchestra's first concert of 2017, at St John's Smith Square on Tuesday 7 February was something of an excursion to Hungary. Rebecca Miller conducted the orchestra conducted the orchestra in Liszt's Les Preludes, Kodaly's Peacock Variations and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

The orchestra, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013, is non-professional and is fearless in its choice of repertoire, with both the Kodaly and Bartok being celebrated as orchestral showpieces. In her spoken introduction, conductor Rebecca Miller celebrated the orchestra's very particular skills, enthusiasm and dedication.

Though born in Hungary, Liszt was from a German speaking family and his music very much partook of the standard Austro-German musical climate. Les Preludes is one of a group of tone poems which Liszt wrote, a genre which he virtually invented. The atmospheric opening did rather expose the string section of the orchestra, but as soon as Liszt ramped up the tension the players created their familiar strong, very present sound, despite some fearsome passagework require of the first violins. Miller got a terrific sense of energy from the players, reaching a really noisy climax.

2017 is the 50th anniversary of Kodaly's death. His Peacock Variations, based on a Hungarian folk-song which speaks of nationalism and liberation, were in fact written for the 50th anniversary of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, where the work was premiered in 1959.

After a darkly intriguing statement of the melody on cellos and basses, Kodaly gives us 16 variations and an extended finale. Quite a few of the variations are short, and though Kodaly does group them in larger structures, part of the trick of the work is to give each variation a distinct character. And there was much to enjoy, the musicians really committing to the music, so that even the quieter passages were very present. This is, of course, Hungarian music so rhythm is important, and Miller drew playing of vivid energy from the players, She is a very visual conductor, at one point almost dancing on the podium to encourage the players.

O Sing unto the Lord

O Sing unto the Lord; Andrew Gant; Profile Books
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 9 2017
Star rating: 4.5
An engaging and engrossing history of the music in the English Church

O Sing unto the Lord by Andrew Gant, on Profile Books, is described on the cover as a history of English Church music, and it is just that. Gant takes the story from the very beginnings, when we know very little, through the medieval period, the glory days of Tudor polyphony, the Reformation and the founding of the Church of England right through to the present day. Gant is well placed to write the book, he is has directed the choirs of The Guards' Chapel, Worcester College, Oxford, and Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, as well as lecturing in music at St Peter's College, Oxford and finding time to compose.

Gant takes a roughly historical approach to the subject, starting at the beginning and finishing off with the present day. In his Preface he talks about the way that church music is embedded in the British psyche, with football fans singing chants to the music of hymns. But the subject is too huge to be comprehensive, and within each time period, Gant concentrates and certain key individuals and events, to create an image of the whole.

The big advantage of the book is that is is certainly not simply a brisk canter across the great names of British church music. Gant has a real interest in what everyone was doing. Up to the events of the Reformation this is relatively straightforward as the smaller abbeys and priories emulated the larger ones. But after the Reformation there is a fracturing, and here Gant reflects this. For each era he looks at the Chapel Royal and the great names, but then casts his eye over the cathedrals and then the parish churches.

Concerts at the Foundling Museum

The Picture Gallery at the Foundling Museum - photo Dan Weill

The Foundling Museum houses a sequence of elaborate interiors originally from the 18th century Foundling Hospital. As well as being able to admire these with the fine contemporary collection of paintings as part of the tour of the museum, there is a concert series there (including regular Sunday afternoon concerts), with the emphasis on the music of Handel and the era of the Foundling Hospital. 

On Sunday 19 February 2017 students from the Royal Northern College of Music perform arias and duets from Handel's Theodora, and on 23 February the Amade Players give a Handel birthday concert including Handel's Concerto Grosso Op.6 No. 5, then on Sunday 26 February there is a change of mood as three UK folk artists Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann perform 18th century Broadside Ballads, the cheaply printed popular songs from the 18th century.

Further ahead, Musicke in the Ayre perform on 5 March, Richard Allan presents a programme of music for solo harp on 9 March, with Duo Asteria on 19 March. And there is a Finalists Showcase for the 2017 Handel Singing Competition on 29 March.

Further information from the Foundling Museum website.

Looking Ahead: The music series at Buxton Festival

Buxton Opera House

This year's Buxton Festival will include stagings of Verdi's original version of Macbeth, Britten's Albert Herring, and Mozart's Lucio Silla, plus a visit from Music Theatre Wales' productions of Guto Puw's new Welsh-language opera Y Twr. But the festival's music programme also includes a wide variety of concerts and recitals to complement these.

The music series opens with a recital from soprano Alwyn Mellor and pianist Michael Pollock, and closes with a recital from mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and pianist Joseph Middleton.

Other recitals include Raphael Wallfisch (cello) and John York (piano), Paul Nilon (tenor) and Nancy Cooley (piano), BBC New Generation Artists Ashley Riches (bass baritone) and Ilker Arcayurek (tenor) accompanied by Simon Lepper (piano), Roderick Williams (baritone) and Iain Burnside (piano), Heather Shipp (mezzo-soprano) and Stephen Barlow (piano), and there will be piano recitals from Paul Lewis, Melvyn Tam, Christian Blackshaw, and Imogen Cooper. Visiting ensembles include the English Concert, the Brodsky Quartet, the Fibonacci Sequence, the Norther Chamber Orchestra, the Fitzwilliam Quartet, Quatuor Mosaiques, Helios Collective and the Endellion Quartet. And Counterpoise will be premiering a new work by John Casken with Sir John Tomlinson.

Full details from the Buxton Festival website.

Sui-generis: Karmana from Simon Thacker and Justyna Jablonska

Simon Thacker Karmana; Simon Thacker, Justyna Jablonska, Karine Polwart, Masha Natanson, Sarvar Sabri; Slap the Moon Records
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 3 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Cross-cultural collaborations with guitar at the centre

Simon Thacker is an Edinburgh-based classical guitarist whose collaborations have taken him well and truly cross-cultural. His previous disc Rakasha (see my review) was with Simon Thacker's Svara-Kanti an Indo-Western collective.

On this new disc Karmana he collaborates with Polish-born classical cellist Justyna Jablonska. In addition to the title track, which Thacker and Jablonska play as a duo, they are joined by guest artists Karine Polwart (Scottish traditional song), Masha Natanson (Roma song) and Sarvar Sabri (tabla).

Karmana is a Sanskri word meaning 'performing anything by means of magic'. Thacker sees the music as a natural extension of his exploration of ragas with Svara-Kanti. For Karmana, Thacker uses a different guitar tuning which allows him to develop the sonorities he wanted.

There are six movements with evocative names, Initiation, Albedo (an alchemical term), Half Moon Dreaming (a quote from the Egyptian Book of the Dead), Ourobouros (symbol of a snake biting its tail), The Chariot of the Mind and Finale. But there is a fluidity to Thacker's writing, perhaps arising out of his improvisation, so the movements flow into each other and create a satisfying whole.

What was noticeable on first listening was the sheer texture or rather textures of the piece.

Orchestral version of Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park to be premiered at the Grange Festival

Engraving of The Grange, c.1835

Jonathan Dove's opera Mansfield Park, based on the novel by Jane Austen, was originally written for ten singers accompanied by piano four-hands. With 2017 being the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, Dove is producing a new version of the opera orchestrated for 13 musicians. The new version has been commissioned by the Grange Festival and is being premiered not as part of the festival's regular June/July season but in an extension to the season in September 2017. 

Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park with a libretto by Alasdair Middleton was commissioned by Heritage Opera and premiered by them in 2011. Subsequent performances have included the Royal Academy of Music and Hampstead Garden Opera.

Mansfield Park will be performed at the Grange Festival on 16 & 17 September 2017 in a new production directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and conducted by David Parry, with Martha Jones, Sarah Pring, Grant Doyle, Angharad Lyddon, Henry Neil, Jeni Bern, Daisy Brown, Nick Pritchard and Oliver Johnston.

Full information from the Grange Festival website.

Rediscovering a forgotten Romantic: the music of Étienne-Nicolas Méhul

Étienne Méhul
attributed to Antoine Gros

The French composer Étienne-Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817) is not particularly well-known nowadays. He was a friend (and rival) to Cherubini and took Gluck's operatic reforms and applied them to Opera Comique. Popular and important during the Revolutionary period, Méhul's early death seems to have hindered his popular reputation. But perhaps that is about to change thanks to Palazzetto Bru Zane.

Méhul's opera Uthal is being released on 24 February by Palazzetto Bru Zane. And on Friday 10 February at St John's Smith Square, Palazzetto Bru Zane and Orchestra of the Enlightenment are presenting a gala concert entitled Méhul: the first Romantic. Jonathan Cohen conducts the Orchestra of the Enlightenment with tenor Michael Spyres in arias and overtures from Méhul's operas plus his Symphony No. 5, alongside music by Gluck, Beethoven, Mozart and Salieri.

Full details from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment website.

Looking Ahead: Aldeburgh Festival

Britten, Pears & friends on Thorpeness Meare
photo Aldeburgh Festival/Ford Jenkins

This year's Aldeburgh Festival runs from 9 to 25 June 2017 and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Snape Maltings concert hall. The festival features a new production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Iestyn Davies as Oberon, and the first ever performances of Britten's Billy Budd at Snape Maltings as Opera North brings its production of the opera to the festival. Featured composers this year are Bill Fontana, Olga Neuwirth and Jörg Widmann.

The 1967 Aldeburgh Festival celebrated the newly opened Snape Maltings concert hall with a production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, premiered seven years earlier. This year the festival opens with Netia Jones new production at Snape Maltings on 9 June 2017, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth with Iestyn Davies and Sophie Bevan as Oberon and Tytania, and Matthew Rose as Bottom. The festival closes with a pair of performances of Britten's Billy Budd, amazingly the opera has never been performed at Snape. Opera North will be bringing a semi-staged version of its recent production, with Alan Oke as Captain Vere, Roderick Williams as Billy Budd and Brindley Sherratt as Claggart, conducted by Gary Walker.

The celebrations at Snape Maltings also continue with performances of five of Britten's works which were premiered in the hall, String quartet no. 3, The Golden Vanity, The Building of the House, Third Suite for Cello and Sacred and Profane. This latter is performed by the choir Vox Luminis which is in residence at the festival.

Featured composers include pioneering sound artist Bill Fontana who will be creating a new sound installation at Snape Maltings. The London Sinfonietta will be giving a pair of concerts featuring Olga Neuwirth's music including the UK premiere of Requiem, Andrew Watts and Ian Burnside include the UK premiere of Neuwirth's 'tintarella di luna' in a recital which includes songs by Colin Matthews, Tippett, Neville Bower, Joseph Cutler, Tansy Davies, Michael Finnissy, Torsten Rasch and Raymond Yiu. Trio Fruhstuck will give the UK premiere of Olga Neuwirth's quasare/pulsare alongside Charlotte Bray's That Crazed Smile.

Piotr Anderszewski gives the UK premiere of Jörg Widmann's Three Shadow Dances for clarinet whilst the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla gives the premiere of Widmann's viola concerto with Antoine Tamesitt

Matthew Rose and the Albion Quartet will be performing Barber's Dover Beach alongside new pieces by Kate Whitley and Dominic Wills. A remarkable concert by oboist Nicholas Daniel will include a performance on Thorpeness Meare, with music by Helen Grime, Huw Watkins, Mark Simpson, Joanna Lee, Huan Ro and Sean Shepherd. Birmingham Contemporary Music Group perform Harrison Birtistle, Jo Kondo and Oliver Knussen alongside Stravinsky.

Also in residence will be the sitar player Nishat Khan and his performances will include a collaboration with one of Europe's finest male voice choirs, the Saint Ephraim Choir.

Full details from the Snape Maltings website.

Improving orchestral diversity: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Trinity Laban collaborate

Tom Beer of BSO mentors student Ana Stahlmann of Trinity Laban.
Credit JK-Photography

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance have announced a long term partnership aimed at improving the diversity of the UK orchestral profession, and increasing professional development for young musicians in the South West of England. The two organisations will collaborate to identify talented and committed instrumentalists and composers from communities currently under-represented in the profession include Black & Minority Ethnic, disable musicians and those from certain socio-economic backgrounds, the young musicians will then receive mentoring, support, advice and professional insight to help them in their careers.

The collaboration builds on the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's Change Makers project to create a training programme involving disabled conductor James Rose, and on Trinity Laban's Side by Side series where professional orchestral players perform alongside Trinity Laban students.

Debut recital disc from Russian soprano Aida Garifullina

Gounod, Delibes, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, traditional, Soloviev-Sedoy; Aida Garifullina, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Cornelius Meister; DECCA
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 31 2017
Star rating: 3.5
Stunning technique allied to generic characterisation in the debut recital disc from the Russian lyric coloratura soprano

We heard the Russian soprano Aida Garifullina at Rosenblatt Recitals in 2014 (see my review) and her debut disc on Decca is a similar mix of French and Italian standards, with some Russian rarities and songs. Accompanied by the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, conductor Cornelius Meister, Garifullina sings arias from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Delibes' Lakme, Rimsky-Korsakov's Song of India, The Snow Maiden and The Golden Cockerel, and Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa, plus songs by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, and traditional songs.

Garifullina has a fine lyric coloratura voice with a surprising strength and vibrancy to it, so that the more coloratura items have a very particular quality to them which makes her performances very appealing. She also has a lovely secure technique and a nice evenness of tone from top to bottom. Simply listening to the opening item of the disc, Juliette's Je veux vivre from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette gives you the idea, with shapely phrases, technical security and great charm. But the timbre is a long way from a traditional French lyric coloratura, and there is little sense of Juliette the young naif.

Chamber Music in Chelsea

Founders' Hall, Hill House School - photo LeLay Architects

Chamber Music in Chelsea returns with a pair of events in the Founders' Hall, 2 Radnor Walk, Chelsea, SW3 4BN. On Friday 10 February 2017 tenor James Way is accompanied by Natalie Burch in a programme of song by Britten, Schubert and Eugene Asti (see Cadogan Hall website for tickets). James Way will be appearing in Roxanna Panufnik's new opera Silver Birch at Garsington this summer.

Then on 17 February 2017 cellist Hüseyin Gündoğdu is accompanied by Giulia Sereni in music by Mendelssohn, Boccherini, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss and Elgar. (see Cadogan Hall website for tickets).

Founders' Hall is a former Welsh Congregational Chapel in Chelsea which is now part of Hill House School.

Contemporary wind orchestra: Rhapsody of Winds from Estonia

Rein Rannap, Peeter Vähi, Ott Vask, Aalo Veevo music for wind orchestra; Orchestra of the Estonian Defence Forces
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 01 2017
Star rating: 3.5
A disc of contemporary Estonian music for wind ensemble that is worth seeking out

This disc Rhapsody of Winds presents music for wind orchestra by three contemporary Estonian composers. Performed by the Orchestra of the Estonian Defence Forces (Eest Kaitseväe Orkester) conducted by Peeter Saan and Sirli Illak Oluvere, the programme consists of Rein Rannap's Rhapsody of Winds (Tuulte Rapsoodia), Peeter Vähi's Between Heaven and Earth (Maa ja taeva vahel), Ott Kask's The Suite for Wind Orchestra (Süit Puhkpiliorkestrile), Aalo Veevo's Puppeteer (Nukunäitleja) and Rein Rannap's Three Pieces for Winds (Kolm Pala Puhkpiliorkestrile). The disc, which is produced by the Estonian Defence Forces, is an interesting overview of contemporary Estonian wind orchestra music.

Rein Rannap's Rhapsody of Winds was written in 2014, it is structured like a series of variations. Opening with quietly intimate music, a fanfare-like section interrupts before the more intimate music continues and develops. Tonal and quite romantic in style, Rannap has a nice ear for variations of style and texture to keep the piece inventive.

Peeter Vähi's Between Heaven and Earth was premiered in 2010 in Tartu Town Hall Square with the composer suspended in mid-air playing the bells of the town hall. The disc uses the composer's revised version, with the bells played in the orchestra though I have to confess that experiencing the original version live would be fun.  The piece opens with a dark rumbling in the bass of the orchestra, wind machine and bells, alternating with a chorale like theme, and as it develops the work feels like Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra re-invented. After the opening section an oriental melody develops (Vähi is interested in Eastern philosophy and music, and a thread of this runs through his music), and is combined with catchy rhythms and striking textures to create something rather engaging. After this climaxes, the bells and chorale return for a brief coda. This is certainly a work worth investigating.

Looking Ahead: Brook Street Band's love:Handel Festival

The Brook Street Band

The Brook Street Band, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016, is launching its own festival. Entitled love: Handel the festival two day event, 22-23 April 2017 in Norwich, an area currently lacking an Early Music festival. There is also an extensive education programme in association with the Norfolk Music Service. The ensemble intend the festival to be biennial, growing to a four-day event.

Over the two days there are a variety of events on offer, with three concerts, a dance session, a Q&A session, a vocal workshop, a children's participatory concert and talks. The core members of the Brook Street Band (Rachel Harris, Farran Scott, Tatty Theo, Carolyn Gibley) are joined by soprano Nicki Kennedy, and flautist/recorder player Lisete da Silva Bull, who is also an experience baroque dance tutor. Author Louis de Bernieres will be reading, and musicologist Julie-Anne Sadie will join the band in discussion.

The festival is intended to be family friendly, with free tickets for the under 18s. The events take place at The Chapel, Park Lane, Norwich, NR2 3EF

Further information from the festival website.

Birthday celebrations: I chat to composer Nicola Lefanu about her forthcoming premieres

Nicola LeFanu - © MichaelLynch

The composer Nicola LeFanu is 70 this year, and the musical celebrations include the first performance of her new piece for soprano and orchestra, The Crimson Bird. In fact this is her first symphonic scale orchestral work for 30 years, and the work will be  premiered by Rachel Nicholls, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ilan Volkov, at the Barbican on 17 February 2017. There is also a new CD of her music from the Gemini Ensemble on Metier label, and a number of other celebratory first performances. I met up with Nicola to find out more.

Nicola was born in England to Irish parents, and her mother was the composer Elizabeth Maconchy. She studied at Oxford and at Harvard, and was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship. She was Professor of Music at York University from 1994 to 2008, when she retired. Her compositions include eight operas.

'Addicted to opera'

Tomoko Komura in Nicola Lefanu's Tokaido Road
photo Greg Trezise

I was curious whether the omission of large scale orchestral pieces from Nicola's recent catalogue was deliberate. She explains that orchestra is not omitted entirely, her short orchestral piece Threnody was premiered by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in in Dublin in 2015, and she has written works for string orchestra, but that much of her work was been devoted to opera. A couple of times during our conversation she refers to herself as 'addicted to opera', Indeed she has written eight, and has had a wonderful time with her operatic opportunities. She also explained that she is not the type of composer who writes pieces for the bottom drawer, instead she reacts to invitations and likes responding to people, though sometimes she presents performers with ideas of her own.

So it is, to a certain extent, happenstance that we have not had a Nicola LeFanu symphonic scale orchestral work recently, but she also points out that most repeat performances of her earlier orchestral works have been outside the UK so that she seems to have fallen off the radar of the commissioners of orchestra music in the UK (certainly not the first major composer to do so).

Bursary for a mature composer to support the creation of a new work

The Crimson Bird came about because Nicola was awarded the Elgar Bursary by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2014. The bursary is for a mature composer to support the creation of a new work which 'may push back musical boundaries, but not at the expense of accessibility and integrity'. The bursary is not something that you apply for, it is awarded and the recipient is chosen by a committee made up of composers, people from the Royal Philharmonic Society and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The money for the bursary is provided from the royalties from Anthony Payne's completion of Elgar's Symphony No. 3, a generous idea of Payne and the Elgar family.

Wintery magic: Rimsky-Korsakov's Snow Maiden gets a rare outing at Opera North

Rimsky Korsakov - The Snow Maiden - Opera North - James Creswell, Aoife Miskelly, Yvonne Howard
photo Richard Hubert Smith

Rimsky-Korsakov The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka); Daisy Brown, Yvonne Howard, James Creswell, Heather Lowe, Elin Pritchard, Phillip Rhodes, James Sharpe, dir: John Fulljames, cond: Leo McFall; Opera North at Grand Theatre, Leeds
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 3 2017
Star rating: 4.0
A welcome outing for Rimsky-Korsakov's rarely performed opera in an engaging performance

Heather Lowe, Elin Pritchard - photo Richard Hubert Smith

Friday 3 February 2017's performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) by Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds began with an announcement. Both Aoife Miskelly, who was to sing the title role, and Bonaventure Bottone, who was to sing the role of Tsar Berendey, were ill. Instead the roles were sung by their covers, Daisy Brown and Ivan Sharpe (a member of the Opera North Chorus), both of whom had sung the roles earlier in the run. The production was directed by John Fulljames with sets by Giles Cadle, part of Opera North's Spring tour of fairy-tale operas (see my my review of Hansel and Gretel) all sharing the same adaptable set. Costumes were by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Matthew Haskins, video by Will Duke and choreography by Lucy Hind. Yvonne Howard was Spring Beauty, James Creswell was Father Frost, Daisy Brown was the Snow Maiden, Joseph Shovelton was Bobyl Bakula, Claire Pascoe was Bobylikha, Heather Lowe was Lel, Elin Pritchard was Kupava, Phillip Rhodes was Mizgir, James Sharpe was Tsar Berendey and Dean Robinson was Bermyata. Leo McFall conducted the orchestra of Opera North. The opera was sung in a new English version by Alasdair Middleton.

Aoife Miskelly, Phillip Rhodes, Elin Pritchard , chorus of Opera North
- photo Richard Hubert Smith

The Snow Maiden was Rimsky-Korsakov's third opera, premiered in 1882, and represents his first really mature work for the stage. All of the ideas which the composer was to use later in his operatic career are present, particularly a fascination with the ritual of the Old Russia and its associated songs (The Snow Maiden uses a lot of calendar songs designed to go at a particular point in the year), and the combination of Old Russian, Oriental and Western music. But also a discursiveness and a lack of dramatic impetus. Rimsky-Korsakov's operas are largely leisurely affairs, taking their time.

The use of rituals for welcoming Spring, a wedding and other such moments in The Snow Maiden mean that the piece is slow to catch fire. In fact, in terms of structure (though not in terms of musical style or dramatic content) the work reminded me very much of Rossini's Guillaume Tell, with the same long-breathed act structure and the use of choral/dance divertissements to help depict a community. And the sense that the drama builds slowly out of this. As such it is a structure which you meddle with at your peril, though Opera North did indeed cut the work. David Nice in his review on The Arts Desk lamented the cuts, but at three hours including a single interval the piece was certainly long enough for a company that is taking the work on tour.

John Fulljames first directed the opera at Wexford in 2008 and it would be interesting to know how his ideas have changed. He was clearly concerned to reflect the sense of time passing and ritual, whilst steering clear of a fully traditional production. There was also a vein of gentle humour in the production, not making fun of it but including quirky details to help enliven the texture. I think without a detailed knowledge and love of Russian folk-lore, the opera might indeed come over as a bit 'pudding-y' without something extra.

Ealing Music and Film Festival

The Ealing Music and Film Festival returns on 8- 12 February 2017 for its fifth year, with a range of music and other activities, many from organisations based in Ealing. 

Nigel Short conducts Tenebrae and the English Chamber Orchestra for a programme which includes Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (with Anna Hashimoto) and the Requiem. Then members of the English Chamber Orchestra join with the Ealing Youth Orchestra to perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Martin James Bartlett) and Mahler's Symphony No. 1. 

Ealing Symphony Orchestra, conductor John Gibbins, is giving an all English programme with music written for films by Walton, RVW, Ireland and Rawsthorne, and the festival closes with the Tippett Quartet in Haydn, Dvorak and Brahms.

Films include David Cronenberg's Spider, and there is also a film location tour.

Full details from the festival website.

Disturbing video games: Hansel and Gretel at Opera North

Hansel and Gretel (Act 2) - Opera North - Katie Bray as Hansel and Fflur Wyn as Gretel - Photo Credit: Robert Workman

Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel, Katie Bray, Fflur Wyn, Susan Bullock, Stephen Gadd, dir: Edward Dick, cond: Christop Altstaedt; Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 2 2017
Star rating: 4.5
Imaginative use of video and strong performances make this new production a delight

Katie Bray, Susan Bullock, Fflur Wyn
Photo Credit: Robert Workman

Opera North's Spring season includes three operas, each on a fairy-tale theme, performed in the same adaptable set designed by Giles Cadle. Englebert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel opened at the Grand Theatre, Leeds on 2 February 2017, directed by Edward Dick, with sets by Giles Cadle, costumes by Christina Cunningham, lighting by Matthew Haskins, video by Ian William Galloway and choreography by Gary Clarke. Christoph Altstaedt conducted the orchestra of Opera North, with Katie Bray as Hansel, Fflur Wyn as Gretel, Stephen Gadd as Peter, Susan Bullock as Gertrud and the witch, Rachel J Mosley as the Sandman, and Amy Freston as the Dew Fairy.

Edward Dick's production imaginatively solved the problems of sharing the same basic set (and presumably a need for economy) by using video to create the effects. In Act 1, Hansel (Katie Bray) and Fllur Wyn (Gretel) spent a lot of time larking around with a video camera, the results being projected on the back wall of the rather grim kitchen where they lived (the time period was roughly modern). The result was startling and intriguing, with huge close-ups of the singers as they sang. When Gertrud (Susan Bullock), threw them out they ran and hid, which meant they heard Peter (Stephen Gadd) narrate the story of the witch. In Act Two they used the detritus from their father's failed business ventures (boxes of brushes, miniature Christmas trees) to create a magical projection of the forest, quite a remarkable video feat and a highly atmospheric design, though I was unsure what was live feed and what was video film. Gradually the acting-out of the story becomes 'real'.

The Sandman (Rachel J Mosley) was their grandmother, with a large teddy-bear, and the dream was of a wonderful trip to the seaside (again a video projection) full of running on the beach and food (a delightful close-up of the young actor Paolo Fialdini eating chips with a grin on his face), the other actors in the film being Melina Shillito and Val Tagger. The Dew Fairy (Amy Freston), proved to be the landlady from the film. Food was clearly the key, and in Act Three the fridge magically filled with food, mainly sweets and a close up from the video camera turned the whole kitchen into the magical house. Susan Bullock, as the witch, was a glamorous version of her previous incarnation, big hair, sun glasses and fur coat (certainly her first appearance made me think of the phrase 'All fur coat and no knickers').

Vivid theatricality and stunning singing: Suzi Digby and Ora at the Cutty Sark

Suzi Digby and Ora at the Cutty Sark

Tallis, Clemens non Papa, Esquivel, Victoria, Harry Escott, Richard Allain, Frank Ferko, Kerry Andrew, Ken Burton, John Barber, Frances Grier, Jonathan Dove, Gabriel Jackson, Alec Roth; Ora, Suzi Digby; Cutty Sark, Greenwich
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Feb 1 2017
Star rating: 4.0
Stunning singing in an evening of new pieces and the old which inspired them, in the atmospheric if tricky surrounds of the Cutty Sark.

For their latest concert, Suzi Digby and her choir Ora presented the latest in the ensemble's ambitious commissioning project aimed at creating 100 new works of choral music. As before, the new pieces were all themed around reflections of older composers, with Thomas Tallis being the main focus. Perhaps picking up on the Tallis connection, the concert on Wednesday 1 February 2017 took place at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. We heard six of Tallis's psalms from Archbishop Parker's Psalter, plus If you love me, O nata lux, Videte miraculum and Loquebantur, alongside works directly inspired by the Tallis by Harry Escott, Richard Allain, Frank Ferko, Kerry Andrew and Ken Burton. There was also music by Clemens non Papa, Juan Esquivel and Tomas Luis de Victoria alongside new pieces by John Barber, Frances Grier, Jonathan Dove, Gabriel Jackson and Alec Roth.

The performance took place in the hall beneath the suspended hull of the Cutty Sark, a rather surreal and slightly intractable space. Long and narrow, it had attractively resonant acoustic but poor sight-lines, so the choir performed in three different areas thus enabling everyone to have some moments close to the performers, but this entailed a great deal of walking around though extra pieces of chant were inserted to cover most of it. The presence of a designer in the project, Anna Bonomelli, a costume designer, Annina Pfuel, and lighting designer, Petr Vocka, mean that the event had a very theatrical feel to it.

Lighting levels were generally low and atmospheric creating some stunning theatrical settings for the music, but entirely preventing you reading the programme (some people had recourse to lights from their phones), so that you had to sit and absorb the music passively with little foreknowledge of the composers intentions. Frankly, if I hadn't been scribbling notes (writing in the dark being an essential skill of any classical critic), the works in the programme would have merged into one.

The Tallis was all performed in the first half, and the vision of Thomas Tallis presented was as the writer of relatively straightforward but perfect gems, and his more complex textures were largely absent.

Looking ahead: London Philharmonic Orchestra's 2017/18 season

Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra - photo Benjamin Ealovega 

The London Philharmonic Orchestra's 2017/18 season has some extremely exciting programming including the start of Wagner's Ring Cycle, a performance of Enescu's Oedipe, a year long Stravinsky celebration, and premieres from Gerald Barry, Anders Hillborg, Bryce Dessner and Joseph Marx (the UK premiere of  peice from 1922). The season also the 10th anniversary of Vladimir Jurowski's becoming chief conductor.

Highlights include Vladimir Jurowski conducting a performance of Enescu's Oedipe which will open the 2017/18 season and is part of the Belief and Beyond Belief series running throughout 2017. 2018 will be well and truly launched with a semi-staged performance of Wagner's Das Rheingold, the first instalment of a planned Ring Cycle.

Premieres will include the London premiere of Gerald Barry’s Organ Concerto with Thomas Trotter, the world premieres or Anders Hillborg’s Homage to Stravinsky and Bryce Dessner’s Concerto for Two Pianos (for the Labèque sisters) as well as the UK premiere of Joseph Marx’s 1922 work An Autumn Symphony.

Starting in 2018, Changing Faces: Stravinsky's Journey is a 22-concert, year-long exploration of the music of Stravinsky, from the famous ballet scores for Diaghilev to the final atonal works, alongside works of his predecessors and contemporaries from Rimsky Korsakov to Ravel. Jurowski will be conducting nine concerts in the series.

Belief and Beyond Belief continues through 2017 with a variety of works including Britten's Cello Symphony, Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, the lay vicars of Westminster Abbey performing plainchant and Peteris Vasks Dona nobis pacem, and Vladimir Jurowski's father, the conductor Mikhail Jurowski will be conducing a programme including Bridge's Summer.

The LPO's education and community work celebrates 30 years and 2017/18 sees a new three-year partnership with Leonard Cheshire Disability and Drake Music, using ground-breaking assistive technology. Also 2017/18 is the first year of LPO Junior Artists, an orchestral experience programme for talented young musicians (age 15-19) from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in professional orchestra. And 2017/18 will be 14th year of LPO's Foyle Future Firsts, the programme which bridges the transition from college to professional life for 16 young players.

During last season the LPO gave 145 performances to 325,000 people, and engaged with 30,000 people in education and community projects. And nearly 1,700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Mesmeric sounds of the hive: Heloise Tunstall-Behrens' The Swarm at the Vault Festival

Composer (and bee-keeper) Heloise Tunstall-Behrens piece The Swarm explores the euphoric and mesmeric sounds of the hive, combining choral music, sound and movement into a boundary-pushing piece. 

The piece was first performed at the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe, and now is being performed by The Quorum at the Vault Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN from 8-12 February 2017. Using a solo voice (the queen bee) and nine-piece choir, Tunstall-Behrens uses the forms and patterns created by the bees' social organisation to create complex poly-rhythms and an immersive experience combining live performance with a soundscape comprising field recordings and composition evoking the urban landscape.

Explore and Create study day at St John's Smith Square

Christina McMaster - photo Carlos Lumiere

Pianist Christina McMaster, who is Young Artists in Residence at St John's Smith Square, is coordinating an Explore and Create study day at St John's on Saturday 4 February 2017, when a variety of events and classes will stretch the mind and get us in the mood for McMaster's next concert at St John's Smith Square on 2 March. 

The sessions at the study day are all led by prominent female role models, there is meditation and a song-writing class with cellist/singer-songwriter Ayanna Witter-Johnson, film-maker Sheila Hayman on the music of Fanny Mendelssohn, an explore and create session with harpist Olivia Jaguers, a workshop on extended piano techniques with Christina McMaster, and yoga with opera director Daisy Evans.

Looking ahead, McMaster's concert at St John's Smith Square on 2 March, will feature a new work by Ayanna Witter-Johnson alongside works by Britten, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Charles Ives, Meredith Monk, John Adams and Harrison Birtwistle, and McMaster will be joined by Ayanna Witter-Johnson, the Ligeti Quartet, Len Napradean and young performers from London Schools.

Full information about the Explore and Create study day and Christina McMaster's concert from the St John's Smith Square website.

Hungarian folk: chamber music by Kodaly and Dohnanyi

Kodaly Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.7, Serenade for two violins, and viola, Op.12, Dohnanyi Serenade for String Trio Op. 10.; Simon Smith (violin), Clare Hayes (violin), Paul Silverthorne (viola), Katherine Jenkinson; Resonus Classics
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Jan 29 2017
Star rating: 4.5
Powerful chamber music from Kodaly in unusual instrumental compositions

This disc is something of a follow up to violinist Simon Smith's previous Resonus disc, solo violin music by Bartok and Kurtag (see my review). On this new disc, Smith is joined by Clare Hayes (violin), Paul Silverthorne (viola) and Katherine Jenkinson (cello) in a programme of duos and trios, Kodaly's Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.7 and Serenade for two violins, and viola, Op.12, and Dohnanyi's Serenade for String Trio Op. 10.

Between 1909 and 1920, Zoltan Kodaly composed two string quartets, the sonata for solo cello, the sonata for cello and piano, the duo for violin and cello, and the serenade for two violins and viola. And in the subsequent four decades, he wrote no further chamber music. The works written between 1909 and 1920 however are of great importance in Kodaky's output and it is in this chamber music that Kodaly really found his creative voice. The sonata for solo cello is well known, and on this disc Simon Smith allows us to hear two powerful companion works where Kodaly integrates folk-influence into his own distinctive voice.

The Duo for Violin and Cello is a big work, three movements lasting just under 27 minutes. From the opening of the lively Allegro serioso, non troppo we notice Kodaly's inventive texture, with one instrument taking the lead and the other commenting, but the two changing roles constantly thus bringing great variety, and deceiving the ear about how many players there are. The main material is lyrical, folk-inflected but in Kodaly's hands it becomes quite strong and certainly not lazily folkloric. The Adagio begins quietly concentrated, and rather melancholy. It is an intense and rather spare movement, but then the passion ramps up and the players really make the music bite. The end is quieter, but certainly not easier. The finale starts with a rhapsodic violin cadenza, before the vibrantly busy movement proper starts. Here moods are changeable as are emotions, leading to a vivid ending.

This is a terrific piece and Simon Smith and Katherine Jenkinson bring out the complexity of the work, emphasising the strength.

Classic FM 25th birthday commissions

Classic FM will be 25 in September. To help celebrate the station, in collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Society, is commissioning six pieces from composers who are younger than the station. So composers born on or after 7 September 1992 are invited to apply, and works will be reviewed by a panel of judges including Classic FM's composer in residence, Debbie Wiseman. Applications are not open yet, and the station's website says to listen on air for further information.

The six winning composers will be paired with one of the station's birthday events, such as Classic FM Live at the Royal Albert Hall, and the birthday celebration concert with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where their work will be premiered and broadcast live on Classic FM.

Further information from the Classic FM website.